Last of the Nice Weather

Is anybody else feeling this sense of urgency I am?

The nice days are running out - this might be the last weekend it gets in the 60's - get out while you can!

Go biking or running or hiking, anything you can think of, just get out of your house before you are stuck there!

 You can bike from Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon to Utah Lake in just over an hour. Go on, it's a really fun trail!

You can hike the Grotto Trail up Payson Canyon in less time than that. You can rent kayaks and paddle around Deer Creek Reservoir, you can go shooting up Hobble Creek Canyon, you can hike the Wind Caves in Logan Canyon, Snow Canyon is really nice in October, though they are supposed to be getting rain later today so hurry! You won't regret it if you do and you might regret it if you don't.

Road Trip - Oklahoma

Utah, Meet Oklahoma!

My mom pointed this out to me while passing through Shidler, OK. Apparently the star of the act is related. I'm pretty sure half of north-eastern Oklahoma is related to me.

This is the part I love, rolling hills covered in prairie and tree-lined creeks.

Some of the only original Tallgrass Prairie left in the United States.

Road Trip - The Rest of the Story

Utah, Meet Kansas!

I have this vague ambition of getting to the tallest point of all 50 states. I climbed King's Peak several years ago, which is Utah's highest point, so I thought I'd knock off another one this trip and get to the top of Kansas. It's not hard. Just north of Weskan, Kansas, east of the Colorado border, and west of no-where is Mount Sunflower.

We arrived in the pouring rain, splashed around in the mud a little, then climbed back in our car on the way to Augusta, Kansas.

Where my cousin owns the coolest barbecue place in Kansas.

Road Trip

It's road trip time!

Utah, Meet Colorado

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

The hooligans were getting a little crazy a few weekends ago, so we took them to the Planes, Trains, and Automobiles show at the Spanish Fork airport.

There are a huge variety of planes (and even a few helicopters) at this little municipal airport. 

The WWII bomber was the coolest.

I have no idea what this is.

There was an air show, and vendors, and even free airplane rides for kids over 8 (ours were all too scared to do it alone).

The emergency response people made a showing.

We hurried through the cars repeating "don't touch that, or that, or that either," so I didn't see much of the cars.

I was wondering where the trains part of the show was, but on our way out, we happened to pass an open hangar with tables full of these set up. Loved it. Seriously, this was the coolest part. 

A New Experience - Utah Cyclocross

Hello Utah, we've been a little busy getting this

 Up and Running

But we haven't been doing nothing.

Just last weekend, we went to a cyclocross race. Mark thinks it might be his new obsession. I am not a bicyclist, but I have to admit, it looks pretty cool.

It's a little like a cross between mountain biking and road racing with a little bit of steeplechase thrown in.

They love throwing obstacles around the course, see how many people they can get to endo (I've done this before).

Check out that flying remount!

What was really fun was watching all the kids race. You could tell they were having a blast. If my kids ever want to try that, I will totally support them - that was so much funner than watching a soccer game.

   

Happy July 24th (Pioneer Day to You Non-Utahns)!

I love Pioneer Day. Not the parades and traffic and fireworks, but playing the old games with your family, remembering the sacrifices made by those who colonized the west, and just generally enjoying your family. 

On your mark...get set...

We had all the cousins over so we could make a mess with homemade root beer and homemade ice cream.

...and GO!

Then we had potato sack races.

We played tug-of-war, everybody against Mark.

We kept adding grown-ups, but Mark always won.

And we made covered wagons. My kids were really impressed, they didn't know I have a crafty side.

Well, a little bit of a crafty side. They got less impressed when I broke half the wagon axles and the covered wagons had to be turned into ox-carts. That's authentic too - right?