Mt. Timpanogos

So far, out of our four years of marriage, Chris and I have gone on a hike up to the Mt. Timpanogos caves (in American Fork, Utah) for three out of the four years. It is usually a hike filled with both pain (the hike is really, really steep) and awe (the caves themselves are worth the painful hike to visit). This year we were joined by my brother Brett and it was a blast!! We hiked up to the caves faster than I ever have in my life! We took almost no stops and it seemed like Brett was almost running up the steep incline. Once we endured to the end or top of the hike, we were so early that we had to wait over an hour for our appointed time to take our cave tour. I was really surprised to see how many families with very young children were attempting this hike, especially due to the steepness that is the climb up. The caves themselves are spectacular! I can't describe in words how beautiful the cave formations are, but I am always awed by them even though I have seen them many times. The hike down was fairly quick and we grabbed a bite to eat once we made it down to the bottom. Thanks for coming with us this year Brett! You made this trip really special!

P.S. If you ever go on this hike, here are some words of advice:

Go early in the morning

Try to go on an overcast day

Bring LOTS of water

Bring a sweatshirt for the caves, they get pretty cold

Denver Roadtrip

So, a couple of months ago, my best friend and cousin Amanda and I decided that it would be awesome to have a girl's weekend out. We decided that it would be fun to go to Denver since it was close, we couldn't take too much time off of work, and neither of us had visited much of downtown Denver. To show that we were serious, we booked our hotel. That was a big step. So, now it's several months later and our epic road trip is over. We arrived in Denver on Friday and we walked around for a while before going out to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. It was really good and we both left with souvenir glasses. While we were walking back to our hotel, a man stopped us and wondered if he could have our leftovers from our dinner (we were carrying a bag from the Hard Rock Cafe which had our souvenir glasses, not food) and we had to gently let him know that sorry, but we have no food. It was really weird. On Saturday, we toured Molly Brown's House (as in the Unsinkable Molly Brown) which was a really neat experience. We then went to the Denver Downtown Aquarium where we saw otters eat, a weird mermaid show, and a statue of Sponge Bob. That's right, Sponge Bob. After we left the Aquarium, we visited our Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Kevin, and Cousins Megan and Alex. When we went back to our hotel, we got a huge shock. We were waiting for an elevator and when one arrived out stepped about 5 Drag Queens in their full regalia. It was quite shocking! We were so stunned that all we could think to do was just say hi. It was awesome. On Sunday, we went to the Denver Art Museum where we saw a King Tut exhibit which was phenomenal. It was probably my favorite activity this whole weekend. When we were done, we went to a Butterfly Pavilion where we took many pictures of butterfly's and we got to hold a tarantula! It was really cool!! Afterwards, we had lunch and headed over to our cousin's Matt and Mindy's house where we visited for several hours (as well as playing the wii and watching some of Top Gear). Today, we had to face the reality that we would have to go back to work. Bummer. Our ride home was pretty uneventful accept for the two tornadoes that we saw and the piece of tire that bounced off the car and scared us pretty bad. Overall, this was an awesome road trip!! Thanks Amanda!!

Doughnut Falls

This morning, Chris and I got up nice and early-ish for a hike up to Doughnut Falls (located in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah). We started the hike with the thought that it would take about 2 hours, yeah, it took us 20 minutes. We were a little started that we got to the falls so quickly, but we had fun climbing up around the falls and taking pictures when we got there. We also managed to get slightly lost on our way down and found an alternate path to get back down to the parking lot. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun (even if we got home far sooner than anticipated).

Desolation Trail

Since Chris and I both had school and work off today, thanks to Independence Day, we decided that a hike was in order. We decided to hike up Mill Creek Canyon near Salt Lake City so that we could take Gir with us (due to the watershed in the canyons closer to our house, dogs aren't allowed up those canyons). It was a beautiful day for a hike, the weather was warm, not too hot, and had a nice breeze to cool us down. The trail is 4 miles long round trip, with a view of the Salt Lake valley at the end. Gir was such a good Adventure dog. We were able to take him off of his leash the entire hike and he stayed right by our side. In fact, he liked to hike in between Chris and I, and if I got too far behind (due to taking pictures and my slower pace) he would sit and wait for me to make sure that I was still behind him. Needless to say, it was super cute. It felt so good to be able to be outside and enjoying nature today and we were glad that hiking is something that we both enjoy and can do with Gir. All of us are now pretty tired from our adventure (even Gir was wiped out which does not happen very often). Hopefully, we will be able to go on some more hikes soon.

Independence Day

This year we had an awesome Independence Day. We had a BBQ with family and friends and after the meal, many of the young-ins went downstairs and had a Wii-a-thon. It was a blast!! We really got into each of the games that we were playing and the hours flew by. At the end of the night, Chris and I got to light a sparkler which truly made it Independence Day. Thank you to everyone who made it such a wonderful night! I had a blast!