Hiking in 2015

I love to hike!  This past summer I went on several hikes, covering around 50 miles and over 12000 feet of elevation gain.  Some by myself, some with others, including Xander, Taylor, Parker, my brother Tyler, and Molly.  I will miss Molly this year.  She was a great hiking companion.  Here are some pics:)

First hike of the season, Xander, Molly and visited a waterfall in Salt Lake county.  Beautiful spot!

Molly and I took on the most difficult hike I think I've ever done.  It's up American Fork Canyon.  We started at around 7,200 feet at Silver Lake Flat Reservoir, hiked up to two mountain lakes, Silver Lake and Silver Glance Lake and then made it to the top of Red Baldy, about at 11,200 feet .  Nine miles round trip and 4000 feet elevation gain.  Awesome!!!

Tyler, Molly, and I made it to the top of Squaw Peak, about 3000 feet above Provo and BYU below:

Taylor and Parker joined a mission friend of mine, Mike Dorius, and his daughter Allison on a hike up Angel's Landing.  My phone was almost dead, so I just got one picture:

Taylor, Parker, Tyler, Molly and I went on a big hike with a couple of the young men leaders from our church.  We got to the top of a 10,000 foot peak in Pleasant Grove, Big Baldy.  On the way down we cooled off in Battle Creek Falls:

I did a couple more by myself.  Kanarra Creek Falls near Cedar City, UT is a gorgeous slot canyon.  I had to do some creek walking and climb some rather tenuous ladders along the way:)

Lake Blanche is up Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake.  It was the last weekend before snow, so the trees are rather bare.  I saw three moose on this hike.  Fun!

Looking forward to revisiting some of these spots and finding some new ones in 2016!  Of course we also visited Lone Peak and did our Fall Break southern Utah trip with my dad.  I'll blog those in separate posts:)

Jeremy

Guaranteed to make your day better:)...

Throwback Thursday

Preparing to slide down the stairs!

Fort-Tastic!!!

Snug as 3 bugs in a rug:

Jessica found a cozy place to read:

A long drive home from the basketball game:

This sequence of pictures of Lexi pushing Sophi on the swing was just too precious to pass up:

Growing Up

There are so many and varied emotions as you watch your kids grow up.  It is an amazing thing to see them become more and more mature, making weighty decisions, thinking about and planning for life as an adult, growing into big, strong bodies.  It is humbling and exciting and scary to watch them grow.  It's also painfully, tragically sad to look back at the pictures of them when they were so little.  When you (as parents) were their whole world.  One of the things that can vividly bring to remembrance the days when they were small is looking at things they used to wear.  Going through a box of 3-year-old clothing can really tug at the heart strings.

One particularly meaningful item of clothing in our family is a pair of flip-flops we bought for Taylor when he was two or three.  When we bought them, they had little palm trees on them, now long since worn away.  These flip flops went through Taylor, Parker, Jessica and Sophi.  Amazingly, they are still wearable and still here.  Hard to believe we never lost one of them.

Last year Christi was going through some old things and getting rid of stuff we didn't need any longer.  She called me down to look at some of the clothes for one last walk down memory lane before we discarded them.  Little striped shirts and jeans and jammies were hard to say good bye to.  But we both had the most difficult time with this pair of flip flops.  I decided to surprise Christi by framing them:).  Hard to believe these once belonged to our 6'4" basketball star!

Lookin' Good!

Christi and I were talking in the office on Sunday.  Suddenly Parker strutted by looking like this:

No wonder the girls can't resist him:)

-Dad

Ride'em Cowboy!

Every June, Herriman hosts a  PRCA rodeo.  As part of the festivities, they hold a "special needs rodeo" in the afternoon.  Local police and firefighters help the special needs children enjoy horseback riding, a mild mechanical bull, petting various farm animals and enjoying the outdoors.  It has become a tradition of ours to participate.  Here are some pictures and video from last year:)

-Jer