High Adventure

We weren't a high adventure family.  See this picture?  That's my brother Jon in the back, my brother Andy in the front, me in the middle and my mom surely nine months pregnant with my brother, James.  You can't see my left hand because my mom surely has it in a DEATH GRIP for fear I would fall into the water.  That's the kind of stock I come from!  ha, ha.  

Since our little hike up to Albion Basin, we've seemed to have made it a weekly Saturday activity to go on a little day hike somewhere with the kids. It's been nice to let them get out of the house and climb around and explore the great outdoors! Josh makes it really special for them by letting them choose their own bottled drink and piece of fruit at the store. Then they spend part of the trip trying to find the perfect spot for snack time.

We walked around Silver Lake at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a great one for me, since it was all nice easy trails and boardwalks filled with ponds of fish and fat overfed chipmunks...oh, and restrooms! 

The kids have taken a special interest in climbing around on rocks, and they found a good one they wanted to climb. 

I stayed on the ground, nervously snapping pictures and chewing on my lip while Josh helped them navigate up and down.  I just love Boo's shoes in this picture!  Slip-ons with a heel to go rock climbing!  

Once the kids were down and my blood pressure returned to normal, wouldn't you know Yaks tripped on the dusty trail and skinned his knee ("blood ouchie" around these parts). It was right at the end of our trip and he declared that he "did not wan tuh do any...more...hikes" (vein popping from his neck as he shook his pointer finger back and forth). 

My sister-in-law, Abby is a camp counselor up at Brighton Girls' camp and we went up there on the 24th to find some more rocks to hike. He bought a kids' harness and dusted off his climbing gear to try the kids out on repelling. RE-PEL-LING!  

Oh, it was tough for me. I'm not high adventure AT ALL.  Visions of slipping harnesses and my babies plummeting to their deaths flashed through my mind. I could see the headline:  Pregnant Mother Looks on as Children, Husband Perish in Climbing Accident.  I was a wreck and all I could do was entertain the child who wasn't repelling and pray that we would all be safe. 

Yaks is looking for "Duh Cave of Wonders".  No joke, he really thought he found it!

I was so nervous I couldn't even take pictures of Yaks repelling.  After a bit of hesitation and some declarations of "No Dad, I'll fall!" Josh helped them down and back up safely. Whew.

"You did so great, Yaks!  I'm proud of you!"

Josh took the kids up to Donut Falls with Nana this past weekend, but I was feeling my to-do-before-baby-arrives list was burying me. I got the house cleaned and grocery shopped while they were gone. They didn't grab any pictures, but it sounded like a lot of fun, and it was chilly up there! Wish I would have gone along to cool off!