A Not-Exactly-As-Planned Weekend

Friday evening started out with the springs on our garage door breaking when Nate got home. After finding someone to come fix them, we continued with our usual evening activities and waited for my brothers Allan and Ben to arrive. They were spending the night with us so that they could hike Mt. Ogden with us the following morning.

Unfortunately, we ended up taking a trip to the emergency room soon after they arrived. Instead of playing some games with my brothers that evening, we ended up spending about 3 hours at the hospital and went to bed much later than we had intended.

Saturday we hiked Mount Ogden. After our late night the previous evening, we got a later start than planned Saturday morning. Our plan was to hike up the west face of the mountain along the Beus Canyon Trail and ride the Snowbasin tram down on the other side. So, first we drove to Snowbasin to park one of our vehicles there. We lost some time when we went up "Old Snowbasin Road" (which turned out to be closed even though it should have been opened based on the time of year) instead of "Snowbasin Road."

After leaving one vehicle at Snowbasin, we drove back around the mountain to the trail head at the other side. We didn't start up the trail until sometime around 10:00 that morning. Then we made a wrong turn and went along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail for awhile before realizing our mistake and getting back on track.

From there it was a pretty steady and steep climb to the top. Parts of the trail were a bit overgrown by the brush, but the trail was easy to follow all the way to the top. There was a super steep road and then a bit of a scramble over some rocks to get to the peak, and on top there was a helicopter pad and transmitter cables that somewhat obscured the view.

View of the valley and Antelope Island from the trail

Looking back along the trail and up towards De Moisy Peak

Wildflowers on the slopes

Looking up toward Ogden Peak

Helicopter landing pad at the peak

View of The Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island from peak

View of Pineview Reservoir from the peak

Near the peak we met a couple of hikers who informed us that the tram was closing early that day; the last tram would leave at 4:15 due to a concert being held at Snowbasin that evening. We weren't too worried about making it at that point, but we did start to worry when we finally reached the top and realized the tram was much further away than we had anticipated. 

Road in the bottom right corner is what we followed down to find tram

Consequently, our time at the peak was cut short. We scrambled back down the steep incline and hiked/ran in the direction of the tram. A couple miles later, we arrived at the tram station at about 4:00. We jumped on a tram feeling pretty exhausted and also relieved at making it just in time.

Riding the tram down the mountain

Looking up at Mount Ogden from the tram

Nate and I grabbed Orange Creme Milkshakes at an Arby's on our way back. I don't think I have ever had a milkshake that has tasted so good to me; it just really hit the spot after that hike.

I am really glad we got to do the hike since I have been wanting to go for awhile. It was fun to hike with Nate and my brothers, and there were so many beautiful views along the way. And I am especially glad we caught the tram before it stopped that day.

Our Week Long Trip

A week ago on Monday we headed out to Cedar City for the Shakespeare Festival. We were able to see The Merry Wives of Windsor Monday evening and Les Miserables Tuesday afternoon with my parents and my brother Allan. We really enjoyed the productions! Nate's cousin Jared generously allowed us to stay at his house with his family and watched Austin for us while we were at the plays.

After eating dinner Tuesday evening, we headed out for Las Vegas where we spent the night with our good friends Amy and Ryan (thanks again!). It was so fun to visit them, especially since we don't see them often.

On Wednesday we finished our drive to California where we stayed with Nate's sister Melissa and her family. Most of our time there was spent hanging out at their house. We did do a few fun things while we were there though. Wednesday evening we watched some fireworks. However, we weren't very close to the shows we were watching. From our vantage point, the fireworks weren't all that spectacular, especially in comparison to the excellent seats we normally have a Murray's firework show.

Thursday evening (after the worst heat of the day was fading), we headed to the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. This place's claim to fame is that the rocks there are a popular spot for the filming scenes in a number of movies such as Star Trek, Holes, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and many more. We hiked a loop around the famous rocks and enjoyed climbing up some of them with some of our nephews.

Max climbing up one of the rocks

Simon, Nate, Austin, and Scott on the rocks

Max, Simon, Rebecca, and Scott on some of the rocks

Friday was particularly fun because we went out to the beach. It was a bit cool there that day, but fortunately it warmed up a bit as the afternoon went on. After eating our picnic lunch there, we all had fun playing in the sand and water. Austin absolutely loved the sand. He loved sifting it through his fingers and piling it on himself. (Unfortunately, I don't know if this new concept was a great one for him to learn. Yesterday while working in our yard that had been neglected during our trip, he decided he no longer wanted to just sit and play in the grass as he normally does. While I had my back turned briefly, he made a beeline for a nice muddy patch in our flower bed and set about piling the dirt on himself and mushing it between his fingers. After all, that is what the stuff is for, right?)

Austin was a lot less enthusiastic about the water at the beach. He seemed somewhat interested in watching it come in and out as we held him, but mostly he didn't like it.

His cousins had fun in the water though. And playing in the sand. Their efforts to protect their work with their "water protection bucket" just made us laugh.

Zach playing in the sand

The youngest of the nephews, Zach, was also happy to play in the sand, but was a lot less sure about the water. So, he used his sand sieve as a protection against the waves.

On the other hand, I loved the waves. It was almost mesmerizing to watch them come rolling and crashing in.

 

So, despite the cooler weather, Nate and I had some fun playing in the cold water.

Friday evening we went out on a double date with Melissa and Seth to dinner. Then Saturday we started our drive back home. We spent the night in Cedar City with another one of Nate's cousins Cathy and her husband Bryce. They had a little playground in their backyard, so we tried introducing Austin to the swing and the slide. He didn't like the swing much, but he had a lot of fun on the slide.

After church Sunday morning we headed out on the final leg of the trip. After reaching Utah Valley we stopped by for a wonderful but short visit to our good friend Lori before stopping at my parent's to eat dinner and pick up Zipper. We finally got home later that evening feeling pretty exhausted.

It was a good trip to take, but I am really glad we are back home. Austin didn't seem to enjoy our travels much. He especially had a hard time in the car, and he seemed pretty overwhelmed amid his rambunctious cousins in California. He woke us up early every morning and never really seemed to get as much sleep as he needed during our trip.