Wild Flower NSL Hike

October has been the perfect month for hiking. My hiking partner, Kim Geurts, and I have enjoyed exploring different trails in Davis County every Wednesday.  The mountains are gorgeous, the crisp air refreshing, as we enjoy the great outdoors.

Today we ventured up the Wild Flower trail in NSL.  When we got to the top of the loop, we decided we needed more of a challenge and continued on.  We hiked up a fairly steep trail leading us up another mountain.  At the top were more mountains to climb.  We decided to turn around rather than continuing on and risk getting lost again which seems to be quite common with us.

What a gorgeous morning! The great company makes it extra fun!  We hardly even noticed we are exercising.

Thriller

Thriller is a Halloween spectacular! My girl's now include it as one of our Halloween Traditions.   In it, you will find Halloween characters such as Frankenstein, mummies, and chain saw massacres, just to name a few.  The Thriller production is not all fright filled.  There are times when the audience is breathless with laughter.  It is truly entertaining!

It is said that is is not recommended for the faint of heart or for children 8 and under. I have been known, on occasion, to embarrass my girls when startled by a scary looking character.  Maybe it's not for older women either:).

Most of all, I had a wonderful time with my daughters, laughing over dinner, and enjoying magnificent dancing, and outstanding entertainment.

At the Spaghetti Factory. We love Sarah's sense of style.  Who do you know who could pull off a cute hat like that? 

Kingsbury Hall

Frightening

Directly after the Thriller, we learned that Brent had fallen while hiking with his daughter Alysha.  To say, he fell is definitely an understatement.  I dropped the girl's off and went to the hospital.  I got there right before he was taken into surgery to clean out his wound, and stich it up.

These pictures are definitely not for the faint of heart or children under 8.

To sum up my night……We began with Thriller and all the fake gore, and ended with a "Thriller" of our own with real blood and guts.

I am grateful that everything turned out well, and that Brent is recovering nicely!

Snowbird

We topped off our UEA weekend with a trip to the gorgeous Snowbird ski resort. We met the Fulk's for a fun filled day.  It was customer appreciation day, so we stood in line for hours waiting for a free aerial Tram ride. Actually, Jon stood in line while we took the kids to ride the Mountain Coaster and rock climb. Thanks Jon!

The Mountain Coaster is an exhilarating ride with many twists and turns.  The kids rated it much better than the Park City Alpine Slide.  The Fulk girls are so brave the all wanted to ride by themselves.  With Emmi only being 2, she had to ride with Lizzy.

The views from the tram were stunning.  Out the windows you can see the beautiful mountain terrain.  There is a trail you can take from the top to the bottom, but with time limited, we opted to ride the tram. It is a short 10 minute ride to the top of Hidden Peak with fabulous views on top.

We love the Fulk family, and had so much fun spending the day with them. 

Red Butte Garden and Park City

Red Butte Garden is beautiful in the fall. The autumn colors surround the foothills and are found within the gardens.  We spent the morning wandering through the themed garden.  We enjoyed the plant variations, and water exhibits.  Mason's favorite activity was feeding the fish in the pond.

Once we finished up at Red Butte, we ventured on to Park City to visit the Outlet Stores.  We had a carload of shoppers.  Everyone found their perfect purchases, and had a wonderful day.

Donut Falls

Fall Break consisted of a lot of outdoor activities.  I am absolutely obsessed with the mountains, hiking, and the warm Fall weather we are having this year.  The nice weather makes outdoor activities so much more enjoyable!

Our first day of Fall Break with hiked up to Donut Falls.  Donut Falls is a trail up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  It is very popular, since it is a fairly easy hike for all ages.  It was especially crowded today since kids had a day off of school.

The trail winds through woods and meadows and has beautiful views of the mountain terrain.  A stream runs down through the trail.  There is also a charming bridge that you cross on your way up to the falls. Once we reached the falls we crossed over to the east side of the stream to get a better view of the falls and the donut which the falls are named.  Many hikers were climbing up the rock to get a better view of the "donut hole".  It was very slippery, so we chose not to.  When I found out that part of the donut had broken off, I was happy we chose not to attempt the wet, slippery rocks.

Brad and Teneal's Wedding

Brad and Teneal were married in the Ogden Temple on October 14th. It was a beautiful day, beautiful ceremony, in a beautiful new temple.  Many friends and relatives came to support this great couple.

Their luncheon was held at the Florentine Gardens located in Layton.  The venue is located at the base of the mountains near Adams Canyon.  It had a special meaning for the couple since this was the location of Brent and Angie's wedding reception years ago.

The Victorian Manor was the location of the reception.  Although it was a fall night, the weather was perfect for an outdoor reception.  Ben was honored to be asked to be a groomsman at the reception, and looked quite dapper.

We all enjoyed a lovely evening celebrating with Brad and Teneal.

Friends and family at the Ogden Temple.

The Carlings.

The wedding line.

The luncheon.

Hanging out with the boys prior to the reception.

Adams Canyon

This beautiful fall morning, Kim and I ventured out to conquer Adams Canyon. I have heard so many wonderful things about this hike, and was excited to finally get an opportunity to go.

Adams Canyon is a popular hike into the canyon, through the forest and up to a 40 foot waterfall. It is a well traveled hike, and pretty much everyone in Layton Utah has climbed Adams Canyon at least once. The hike is 3.8 miles round-trip, and is fairly steep. The hike through the canyon is beautiful. Pops of fall colors were scattered along the mountain. The river runs along the trail which you follow up crossing over on the old rickety bridge, NOT the beautiful maintained bridge.  The hike begins with a quick elevation gain of 800 feet, climbing to a 1,420 gain when the trailhead meets the waterfall at your final destination.

We were grateful that others love this hike, so that when we had our first possible wrong turn, (at the first bridge) we could rely on a phone call to Jerry (Kim's husband), and those traveling on the trail, to keep us moving in the right direction.

The 40 foot, cascading waterfall at the end of the trail is definitely worth the hike.  It is stunning, and made me feel as if I was back in Hawaii hiking.  Ok, maybe not that spectacular, but it was beautiful!

On the way down the trail we decided to take a short cut over the boulders, rather than following the trail behind them.  Slippery feet from the waterfall, and difficult terrain made that a not-so-good choice. I was grateful that when I slipped and fell it was a very short distance before I landed on a small ledge.

We met some fellow youngster hikers on our way back.  We talked with them for awhile, and followed them down the trail.  We were surprised when we talking and laughing and saw them across the river waving at us.  We had missed crossing over bridge, and had to hike back up to get back on the trail.  Most people consider this trail fairly straight forward hike, but I think not much is straight forward when we hike together:).

This was definitely one of my favorite hikes of the season!

Bridge number one.

Bridge number two.

Mase for snakes, wild animals, and DOGS!

First small waterfall.

Arriving at our destination!

Ensign Peak

This fall, Kim Geurts and I have been hiking every Wednesday. We enjoy getting out in nature, taking in the beautiful sights, and enjoying one another's company. This week's hike was to Ensign Peak. There are several ways to hike Ensign Peak. Earlier in the season, the kids and I hiked to Ensign Peak starting in Salt Lake. Kim and I began this hike in North Salt Lake, coming from the North rather than the South.

It was such a beautiful day with crystal clear blue skies framing the fall colors on the mountain side.  The beautiful sights of mother nature were breathtaking.

This is a well traveled trail with several avid bikers, as well as hikers.  Neither one of us had hiked Ensign Peak from NSL, but we were confident that we would have no trouble finding the way.

As we got to the top of the mountain, we started to descend into Salt Lake.  Hours into our hike we realized that we had missed the turn off to Ensign Peak.  My plan was to finish the trail leading into SL and call someone to give us a ride home.  Kim, being a much better hiker than I, said, "No, we've got this." As we were making our way back, we happened upon the turn off for Ensign Peak.  Our hike would have been so much easier and faster if we would have read the sign for the turn off.

We laughed and laughed as we realized maybe we do more talking than observing trail signs.

Vanuatu Port Villa Mission

Recently, I found a post on the Missionary Mom's internet sight, that explains a little of what Kate is experiencing.  She served on Tanna with this Elder, and is now currently serving in Santo.  This is written by Ryan Jones, Elder Jesse Colten Jones' Father.  Sister Brown served with Brother Jones in Tanna, and is now in Santo where Elder Jones served as well.

"One year ago today, we dropped off our oldest kid, Elder Jesse Colten Jones at the MTC, where he only spent 1 ½ weeks before being sent to the Vanuatu, Port Villa Mission. Vanuatu is located in the South Pacific, just west of Fiji. In the past 12 months, he has served on three separate islands: Tanna, Espiritu Santo, and currently on Gaua. He has lived near active volcanoes, survived 2 hurricanes, and several earthquakes. He has eaten dog, cat, sea turtle, and flying fox (fruit bat). He has lived in native built huts, cooked his meals over an open fire, and bathed in waterfalls, rivers, and the ocean, and he has loved every minute of it. 

He is currently the branch president of Gaua Island and part of the only missionary companionship on that island. Gaua has no email or post mail service, so we can only hear from him if someone from the mission office goes to the island and picks up and delivers the mail. We won’t hear from him again until late November. He lives in a very primitive village with no modern conveniences. The only fresh water they have access to comes from what they can catch in a large rain barrel. There is a very small food shop on the island that only sells rice and a few vegetables. They buy most of their food from the villagers where they live. When they buy meat, they buy the animal alive and have to do everything else on their own. 

Colten has had great success, having a baptism about every other week on average. He has experienced so much in his first year, I can’t imagine what could be left that he hasn’t already gone through. I can’t wait to find out. My wife and I have survived this past year on his weekly emails and letters, but now that he is on an island with no mail or email access, it will be a tough part of the next year for us. Having a missionary out has been an odd combination of opposites. I can’t imagine him doing anything else that could make us so sad for missing him, and yet so proud of what he is doing, or so excited for him to come home and yet so excited for him to spend the next year in a place we never even knew existed a year ago."

Pictures from Kate's mission:

Tanna

P-Day on Tanna. Volcanic Ash

Santo

Sleep over at Nana's

Meagan and Quinn left for Hawaii for 10 days and we got to tend little Mason. Sarah and Jordan took the weekends and we took the weekdays.  We had so much fun with this cute little boy!  Ben was his favorite.  Every morning he would cry when Ben would go off to school. Mason would get a backpack and try to go to school with Ben. When we wouldn't let him go he would cry and cry.

Brent and I took Mason to the Ogden Tree house Museum.  He was mostly interested in the trains, but we got him to check out some of the other fun things.  After the Museum we took him for a bike ride along the Ogden River.  He loved riding in the bike trailer.

His mom left us with a few rules such as, "No Binky, except in his bed."  I may or may not have forgotten that rule a couple of times.

We lost Hoo-hoo, his stuffed dog, on our walk one morning.  He loves his little pup and doesn't sleep well without it.  We were so happy to finally find Hoo-hoo!  It was a little stressful for a moment.

We love this cute little nugget, and had such a fun week with him!

Playing at Nana's.

Ogden Treehouse Museum.

Bike riding along the Ogden River.

Ben and Mase.

Nana's bed.

Emillio and Mason.