24th of July - Traversing the state

In the past, the 24th of July is spend with our family at Bear Lake. We just go for the day, leave early and get home late, but this year we decided to do more. The 24th was spent at Bear Lake as the past, but the following two days were spent in St. George and Zions. We essentially went from one end of the state to the other.

 

Bear lake was nice, we got some snorkeling in, played volleyball, and tried to jump on the floating Trampoline. We just had a general good time.

 



 

 

 

 

 

We arrived home late on the 24th, and early the next day headed down to St. George. We made a stop before in a little town called Kanarraville to hike Kanarra Creek. I think this was the highlight of the trip for most. It is a short slot canyon that leads to three cool waterfalls. Crowded, but not overly.

 

 

Climbing the ladder is not near as bad as it looks, we all made it up with no problem.

 

This slide is fun and popular, we all went down.



 

Day two in St. George we headed into Zions. There all but Mom and Hannah (who was not feeling well) made it out to the top of Angels landing. We followed that by a hike in the Narrows.

 

 

Scout look out, deciding who is going up.

 

 

Josh at the top, I wouldn't let the youngest do this.

 

 

Angel Landing! We all made it, any were surprised how young the kids were. Especially when our youngest at only 7 was passing much older people on the trail telling them how fun it was while they held tenaciously to the chain or tree.

 

After that we headed into the Narrows, people were tired but once in the water loved it.

 

 

They wanted to keep going while others turned back. It was overcast so not as warm as it normally is, some were having more fun than others at this point.

 

Going back, shivering and all, they kids were obsessed with floating in the water as much as possible. Dad may have sparked this interest. The camelbaks act as life jackets and blowing air into the reservoir only made them float better.

 

Before heading home, we stopped at the pioneer town of Grafton (and the ending of a killer bike trail). We enjoyed perusing the cemetery and the old log cabins. Makes you thankful for what we have now. Those settlers were beyond tough.

 

We arrived home early Sunday morning (1 AM ), everyone was tired but loved the trip. I have not doubt this will be on everyones list to do again.

 

 

Summerfest 2013

Kids: "Dad, Dad we HAVE to go on the the Gravitron", 

Me:"No, it makes me feel terrible"

Kids: "Can we?"

Me: "If you want and you are Tall enough"

They loved it!

He did not.

Following the Gravitron ride the other kids had a great time while C stayed put. 

Even Mom got in on the fun. I do not like these rides...motion sickness. 

After the Gravitron, this was about all C could handle and with a recently broken arm this is all B could do (carnivals restrictions, not hers, she was ready to go).

She was doing a great job steering that bike. C, was bored. 

The day was full of face painting, balloon making, snack eating, line waiting, ride riding and finally firework watching. (Luckily no Parade - They get too bored)

I still think this is the best summer carnival around for kids. 

Nice Job Orem. 

South Fork Snowshoe

We own 10 pairs of snowshoes, four adult pairs and 6 children's. My children love getting out in the wild and had been begging to go snowshoeing all week. With nostril freezing temperatures for weeks, it had been too cold. last Saturday seemed perfect so with the three youngest in tow I headed up south fork in Provo canyon, a great place for snowshoeing with kids. 

Properly suited, snowshoes on, and ready to go. I like the kids MSR for children over 7 and the tubbs bear paws for kids under 7. The can walk in them with little tripping.

We headed up the trail for about 5 minutes, but much like their father, they became bored as it was "too easy". So we headed up a drainage. 

After ascending the drainage, imaging survival situations (they love Bear Grylls, survivorman, etc.) My ten year old pointed to a small chute and asked if they could climb it, always the adventurer lovers, we started our way up.

It was S's birthday (in Red) and he proclaimed this the best celebration ever.

Our six year old thought we were going too slow, so she passed us and paved the trail. She is the most energetic, fearless and fun loving girl I know. 

After climbing to near the top, where the rocks began, we slid down. They wanted to slide down first, then me, so the snow would cover them like an avalanche.

After about an hour we headed back to the car, drank capri suns, then headed home, exhausted, they all fell asleep. Upon arriving home they re-counted to their mom all their adventures. I was all smiles as they helped me put the snowshoes away, you would have thought they just climbed everest.

Some tips for snowshoeing with little children.

1. Buy snowshoes that work for them.

2.  Go where they want to go. We wandered through the trees near the parking lot for quite some time. It has to be fun for them.

3. Bring snacks and drinks. We snowshoed for about an hour.  We had caprisuns after 20 minutes, then little treats then another caprisun at the car.

4. Keep it short. When they are done, head back.

5. Remember it's their trip, not yours. 

Utah Lake Festival

Saturday June 2 was free fish day, as such, the Provo Utah lake Boat Harbor hosted the Utah lake festival. 

There were various booths set up; kite making, casting practice, hat making, free food, photography contest. Every member of the family was given a "passport" that needed to be stamped at each event. When the passport was full, they could redeem it for a free Utah lake Festival t-shirt. Above they are digging for shells in the sand, they found some pretty cool ones. 

Even the oldest got into the casting practice.  A few of onlookers may or may not have been hit in the head...a few times...until they moved. 

Making sand paintings with oolitic sand from the great salt lake. 

They released two hawks during the festival, it was very impressive, the kids loved it.

Cross marine projects, who do work all over the lake, offered free rides on their barges. It was pretty cool and informational...apparently the lake has an average depth of 9.5 feet which holds true just about everywhere. 

The littlest was pretty excited about this picture. 

This was a fun event with free food and plenty of activities for the family. 

We are looking forward to Orem Summerfest next weekend, one of the kids favorite city fairs.

Aaronic Priesthood Ordination

This Sunday Joshua was ordained a Priest and Joseph a Teacher. To began their service, Joshua blessed the sacrament and Joseph went home teaching for the first time, he  tught the lesson and did great. I figured the best way to learn is by doing.

All the Children, Oldest to youngest.

If you are reading this and have no idea what I am talking about, We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, you can learn more about what I am talking about here at Mormon.org or LDS.org.

Spring Break Moab 2012

Spring break in Moab Utah has been a tradition in our family for years.  Sometimes it involves all the brothers and sisters with their children other years just a few. This year, Gavin brought down his two children and my father came along. We left Orem at 6:20 AM (we were on schedule for 6 but a light left on in the Van derailed that), arriving in Moab around 9:30.

The first thing the children wanted to do was hike Cable arch (or funnel as some know it). It is a short hike, with a very steep section, that leads to a neat arch including an opportunity to climb a steep pitch with a cable hand line to the top of the arch.

This is what the climb to the top of the arch looks like from the bottom. I was very surprised when the entire family, including the youngest and mom wanted to go to the top.

For safety purposes I roped the two youngest to me and we ascended and descended together.

Climbing to the top, as seen from above. This is our 8 year old daughter climbing. After reaching the top we explored the area a little then returned to the car.

By the time we got back to camp Gavin and Grandpa had arrived so we decided to climb in the back of the truck and drive up Kane Creek road past Hurrah pass to the Moab wind caves. The caves are located in a cool rock formation that stands separately from the surrounding area. We spent hours exploring the caves, climbing over rocks and trying to link caves together.

After exploring in the caves, we climbed to the top of the formation which provided great views of the surrounding area. It is always a little unnerving being close to cliff edges with children who fear nothing, but they love it.

Friday we woke up and decided to explore a new area in arches which is upstream of courthouse wash. We searched for a place called the tunnel, which is a natural tunnel that goes 53 feet through the mountain, but could not find it, so we found ring arch instead.

The kids of course wanted to get as close as they could so we created a hand line enabling them to get closer to the arch. I love this picture of our 8 year old climbing and our 7 year old waiting his turn. After hiking about 9 miles exploring and finding these new places, we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in 50 degree weather (kids idea). We all swam, minus mom who sat in the hot tub.

That night, around 8:30 the kids decided they wanted to hike delicate arch. So off we went, in windy, semi-cold weather we reached the top in 45 minutes. They were a little nervous at first, especially after passing the "creepy" cabin, but relaxed as we hiked on. All of them hiked the entire way. 

It was pitch black with no moon or stars. We were the only ones on the trail and just stayed long enough to see the arch (via flashlight) snap a few pictures and head back down. We made it down in 30 minutes, not bad for kids that young, in the dark and wind. They loved it and those who went said it was thier favorite part of the trip.

Saturday morning we headed into the Onion Creek area, which is near fisher towers, to do some exploring. The canyon was beautiful and provided hours of fun for the children to explore, climb, jump and just mess around, and for the adults because it is a gorgeous area. We stopped  briefly for a quick  family photo, no pre-fab photos for us.

It is as steep as it looks, we have good insurance...

Waiting thier turn to climb an obstacle.

We ended our weekend of hiking with a traditional trip to corona arch, one of our favorites. It is pretty, short at 3 miles round trip, and the kids love it.

Saturday night we hit up the Moab Diner and spent the evening perusing the shops where the kids spent some of their well earned and saved money.

It was a fantastic trip and on the way home the kids were talking about what they loved the most, and what they want to do next year.

You may be thinking, what no biking???

Well that is correct...my brother and I are going next Saturday, to Moab, on a biking trip. That's right two weeks in a row...I could get used to that.

It's funny, while in Moab  we ran into a family from Australia - yes, that was Australia -  who were there for their second trip because they loved it so much and a few weeks before that my brother and I ran into a husband and wife from back east who visited once and decided to retire there.  It is an amazing little town that was essentially created by Uranium mining and has now become the adventure capital of the world.

We will never tire of it...