Brooke was invited by an old friend (as old a friend as an 11 year old can be) to hike Mount Timpanogos last Saturday. While we didn’t make it to the saddle or peak, we did make it all the way to the upper meadow just below the saddle. What a great little hiker! Here are some photos and video clips.
A little stinging nettle. If you’re in the hills and feel like you
have to go potty, these leaves are a great choice to help you
eliminate that desire.
(full size)
A medely of trickles.
We made it to Scout Falls.
(full size)
The cliffs of insanity.
A well-worn stump.
Here’s the slope up to Pika Cirque that Ana and I took in 2005. It was still covered in snow at the end of September that year.
Sassy!
(full size)
Girls and dads (but me).
(full size)
Looking north to Little Cottonwood Canyon ridge.
Tiny spheres of rain trapped in the leaves (view the full size).
(full size)
Mountain Brooke.
(full size)
Scott & Brooke.
(full size)
So close and yet so far.
(full size)
Brooke, Emily, & Katherine
(full size)
posted on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 at 09:16 | permanent link | view comments
We finally made it up to the cabin this year. Between school, finishing the basement, layoffs, and scrambling for work, we haven’t set aside any time to get away until this weekend. Here are some of the highlights.
Here’s a tick I picked off of Preston’s neck (it hadn’t embedded itself yet, thankfully). The lines on the paper are a quarter inch apart to give you a sense of scale.
Some forest shots:
A little archery:
A variety of mushrooms this year:
I also spotted a small flock of wild turkeys wandering around our lot:
We also went on a hike. We were intending to go to Shingle Mill Lake, but it was just a little too far for the time we had.
We went about half way instead and visited an old hunter’s hovel on top of a glacial moraine.
Old frying pan:
But a beautiful view of the Shingle Mill drainage and beyond. Looking north.
Looking south-ish:
Me and the kids:
Brooke and Ashton on the way back:
Arches National Forest?
C. Wilde left his mark over 80 years ago in this forest. He was a rancher from the Oakley area. I wrote a Wendigo-style ghost story about him a few years ago.
I’m not normally into scatology, but this was pretty fresh cougar scat. I noticed this on the way up and took a picture on the way back.
My uncle Dave carved this about 30 years ago with his then fiancée Linnea (now my favorite aunt):
We need to do this more often! (I say that every time).
posted on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 at 11:24 | permanent link | view comments
I was minding my own business this morning when into my office bursts a bear holding a shark. The bear looked like it had outgrown its own skin a little (and perhaps eaten my daughter Brooke), but I believe this made it look even more terrifying. Here is the blurry photograpic evidence to back up my claim:
posted on Sun, 07 Jun 2009 at 23:13 | permanent link | view comments
Nuggets o’ wisdom for Mouseketeers
Still recovering from a lovely trip to Disneyland last week. Here are a few things I seem to forget for long road trips.
Ain’t no pillow like your pillow. If you’re going by car, take it.
If you’re going to be walking much, take something your feet will feel good in. I had a pair of old sandals and ran in them on the first day. My feet were bruised and achy the rest of the trip.
If you’re staying in a nearby hotel, take the shuttle to the attractions, even if self-parking costs less. Unless you get there on your Magic Morning day way ahead of everybody else, self-parking takes at least half an hour and often up to an hour to get into the park. Your hotel/ART shuttle will drop you off as close to the front gate as you can get with less waiting.
Smallish meals for a child cost $8. Get over it. We brought in food with us most days, but beef jerkey and fruit don’t give you the calories you need. We tried PB&J and had success with that one day, but most other days the sandwiches were smashed and unappetizing. Just budget extra money for meals and pack lighter.
There are some sweet beaches off Moss Cove and Pearl Street in Laguna Beach.
Fast passes can save over an hour in line, especially on popular rides on hot days like Splash Mountain. We rode this twice (and had tickets for a third go-round, but the ride was closed for maintenance) and walked past at least an hour long line both times. It felt great to pass group after group and hear them say “How are they doing that? Fast passes. Oh, we should have done that.” A little planning can help you beat the lines when it counts.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was a quick fix for our roller-coaster needs. The line was never more than 5 minutes for some reason.
posted on Thu, 14 May 2009 at 09:39 | permanent link | view comments
This title is self-referential
People who know me well understand and accept with only minor complaint my penchant for self-referential humor. I don’t know why the bootstrap problem intrigues me so much, but it does.
Well, it appears to be rubbing off onto at least one of my children. Tonight as I unpacked our new label machine, Brooke (my 10 year old) said, “Dad, make a label that says ‘label machine’ and stick it on the labeler.”
sigh
Here’s how my three youngest looked yesterday for the school costume parade. It’s an academically-oriented school, so you may only dress up as a non-fictional character from history. Here are: Will Rogers, Sacagawea, and Jane Austen. A bit somber looking if you ask me.
We’re in the new house now (I’ll try to post some photos sometime). It’s exactly .5 miles from our old house on my car’s odometer. That barely qualifies as a “move” if it weren’t for the fact that 70% of this move was “pack” and another 20% is “unpack” (with many boxes still lying around half unpacked).
But we’ve met already 4 of the 8 families in our cul-de-sac, and another 2 from the cul-de-sac behind ours. One angelic neighbor even bought and cooked a couple of Papa Murphy’s pizzas for us. Their friendliness is encouraging :)
Also thanks to the dozen or so folks from our old neighborhood who dropped by to say “bye,” or who cooked a meal for us when we were too tired to even think about that, or who helped clean our old house (one amazing woman spent two full days helping clean—I’m speechless), or who helped us create a bit of order out of chaos when we arrived, or who spent several hours helping me setup the TV so we could watch General Conference. God bless you all!
The move was exhausting:
But it’s done, and the new owner will love it as much as we did.
Good bye!
Well, at least until all our kids are fully grown and out of the house (20 years?). The adventure just drags on and on: we were supposed to close on Friday, but the seller sent their documents in by mail (not email, not fax) from California on Saturday… meaning it can’t be notarized in time to fund today. Should fund tomorrow now instead of today.
There’s more: The paint wasn’t right. Ana walked into the new house today and held up the paint swatch we were going off and told the painter, “I don’t think this is right.” He walked around the house a while and hmmm’d and hrm’d a bit and finally agreed. They’ll be re-painting the entire house for the next few days. This means we’ll be staying in a hotel for until Friday (but we’ll have a swimming pool for the kids, assuming we can find all our stuff…).
Movers are coming tomorrow (since we have to be out by tomorrow) and they’ll store all our boxes and furniture until we can move in (at a hefty $75 per diem—almost as much for a family-sized hotel room).
What a pretty place! We’re at Smith & Morehouse reservoir in the Uintahs for a family-style reunion. I’ve got my handy camera, taking a great shot of the scenery. “Hey guys, turn around.”
The cold water made my entire body go rigid and I could barely speak for about 10 seconds. That’s me going “ok….. get over to the shore…. hang on… to the…” and Ana finishing “canoe” (I didn’t hear her and eventually said “boat” myself I think). After another 5 seconds I began to speak normally again, trying to keep everybody (including myself) calm.
We actually did make it to shore a few minutes later, scissor-kicking and tugging the canoe with us. Another canoe wasn’t far from us and grabbed a paddle and flip-flop we’d abandoned. I pulled the canoe to the beach and dumped the water out of it and we paddled back to the rest of our family. I kept the camera above water the entire time and there was no ultimate damage to it (the CCD got a little wet but dried in a few hours). Ana’s cell phone is still drying out, former functionality TBD.