Mt. Timpanogos

Evan every summer wants to do a fairly challenging hike.  Last summer it was Mt. Olympus, which was pretty brutal, and this year he had his eye on Timp.  And no not the cave where it's paved and you have chain smokers walking up in their cut off jeans and wife beaters.  With the slight detour of breaking my foot, I have been really trying hard to get myself in condition to even attempt this hike.  It's fairly long and pretty steep and I didn't want to be the reason we didn't make it to the top.  Sunday morning rolled around, and we met my Dad at 6am to get to the trail head by 7.  It was very very early needless to say.  Once we got there, I saw our first wildlife spotting, my Dad almost literally ran smack into it too.

This was right by the trailhead, but still in the forest area.

My Dad literally didn't see the moose, and walked right past it

This was the moose standing in the middle of the parking lot.  And yes Torre wouldn't stop barking at it.

Got as close as we felt safe!

 This started the excitement of the day, and we hadn't even started hiking.  We were making incredible time considering how freaking steep it was.  And the trail really was so pretty.  Plus since we got up so early, it wasn't hot at all very comfortable for the elevation gain we were doing over the rocks and gravel.  (As a side note, this trail wasn't dirt about 75% of it was creek bed rock almost, so those little and big rocks that are extremely sharp.)

A really pretty waterfall we found near the start.

This is the gravel/rocks we were walking over.

We made it about a mile away from the top and Torre was really starting to struggle going over some pretty big rocks, so we decided to call it a day and head back down.  While we were stopped before we headed down, there were mountain goats literally about 100 yards away.  They are so amazing looking, it definitely made the hike that much more worth it.

Meanwhile Torre was having a hay day in the snow we found, she really was pretty good the whole way up.  She would play in all the water we found and snow.  Had no complaints the way up with her.

On the way down however, we started having some real problems.  We got to the parts where Torre had to walk over more gravel and she would just lay down and refuse to walk over it.  Evan would have to carry her over the fairly sharp rocks and then we were literally pushing/dragging her down because we weren't understanding why she wouldn't walk.  At every water area we found we were dumping water on her so we thought it was impossible she was that hot.  Finally it came to a point when Evan had put her down that she shouldn't even move.  That's when panic hit both of us, and Evan told me I had to go find water.  I ran literally as fast as I could down the mountain to find anything, because we had ran out of water dumping it on her.  Once I found some I sprinted back up the mountain to get it to them and he met me in the middle carrying her again.  Hands down the scariest thing ever.  After we had dumped literally 6 water bottles on her and she drank about two bowls of water she started responding again and did make it down.  I've never felt like the worst dog owner ever, I honestly didn't feel like it was that hot.  And please whoever is reading this, don't call animal control on us.  We do love our dogs.  Torre was pretty done the rest of the day.  We bathed her and put her on the couch when we got home and that is where she has stayed.  She really was having a blast before that all happened, so it's sad our day ended on that note.

Overall it was a great hike and so pretty.  And yes we are going to do it again since we were about a mile away from the top.  And this next time no Torre.  And Evan was the super hero of the day for walking 14 miles, and still finding the energy to carry our dog for 2 miles at least.  I have no clue how he did it, I tried carrying her and I literally made it 20 feet.  Thanks for being the best like always.


Also this weekend we did a demo at Jordanelle.  Alta apparently loves paddle boarding and would swim out to Evan so he could pull her on with him.  Also the Howards joined at the end of the day to try them out, it was a great end to a great day.  Minus the area around Jordanelle being on fire, that part wasn't the greatest.  And my in-laws had to evacuate since they were camping there for the night.  So they had a rather hectic end to their day.  I'm just glad everyone made it out safely, minus Oliver had a rather eventful night when they got home, poor little boy.

The huge flames from the fire!

This picture cracks me up, she was loving the water.

Summer

This summer has been crazy busy.  Which is just how we like it at our house.  Last weekend, it was my Grandma's birthday the big 75.  So I called my sister and asked if she could manage to squeeze in a trip.  It's only been a year and a half since I saw her last, so I was crossing my fingers and toes that she could.  Luckily she managed to swing it, even though she had worked a 15 hour night shift Friday night, ended Saturday morning at 9:45 and then her flight was at 11:30 Saturday afternoon.  The poor girl got no sleep.  And she knows the second she gets here, I'm a little energizer bunny that loves hanging out with her.  My Dad was in on the whole surprise, but we didn't tell my Mom or my grandparents so it could be special for them.  Needless to say I tried to avoid my Mom that last week because I'm absolutely terrible with keeping secrets.  Saturday afternoon while Evan was working, my Dad and I took Alta on a hike to Dog Lake.  I know most people say their dogs are so good and blah blah blah.  But honestly Alta is so good off leash and on.  It really paid off disciplining her young because now it's actually fun to hike with her because she doesn't run off, she literally stays right by you.  There were mountain bikes going up and down that day and I would tell her to get to the side and sit and she would.  It was so great to have her be so obedient.  Here is an adorable picture of her swimming.

She is such a funny little dog.  Unfortunately I don't bring Torre with me anywhere unless Evan is coming.  She is just so strong and doesn't listen to me, it normally ends up with me just getting upset at the end of the day.  So I've learned to just avoid that situation.  We had friends come over that night to watch RSL and the Olympics and I was off to pick up Court.  She was peppy and didn't even seem like it had been 24 hours without sleep.  She is seriously the greatest.  We managed to surprise my Grandma at church the next morning, my Mom was busy snooping through my Dad's phone and saw a text from me saying I had picked her up.  So fail Mother, you and snooping self.  We did surprise my Grandpa at brunch, overall the whole trip was a huge success.  And I got to have my sister to myself for most of the day, I was very selfish with her.  Before we knew it the 24 hours had gone so quickly and I was dropping her off again.

Here is the whole family, minus my sister's husband.  He wasn't able to make it.

It's so cool to talk to Court about being a doctor.  She has accomplished so much.  And by the end of all of this she will be in school for 12 years.  I can't even wrap my mind around it.  And the things she has learned is literally mind boggling.  She didn't talk too much about doctor stuff when she was here, but just hearing about a typical night or day at the hospital sounds completely nuts.  I'm so proud of her for all her hard work and for Brandons.  They both work these crazy shifts and try to make time for family without complaining.  I remember ever since Courtney and I were little, like 3 or 4 she has ALWAYS wanted to be a doctor.  So it's really neat to see her dreams come true.

On another note, I never blogged about Evan running a half marathon!  Huge news that I skipped.  I wasn't running this one, because originally I was going to be out of town, then I broke my foot so overall it was meant to be that I didn't run this one.  When I'm not training, I've noticed that Evan doesn't train at all for things.  And he ate beyond terrible the day before the race.  He had Five Guys for lunch, with a huge fry, a Drumstick sundae cone, and then a footlong chili cheese dog for dinner.  Let me tell you, if I would've eaten that before I think my insides would've died.  I got up to drive everyone at 3:15am and we were off.  It was so nice to not have that nervous flip flop of the stomach the entire way there for once.  I could tell everyone else was because it was a bit quiet in the car.  After dropping everyone off I was just going to sleep in the parking lot, but it literally only took 20 min to get down there so I figured why not drive home and sleep really well.  I managed to make it back right in time to see Kerry and Evan pass, but failed to put a memory card in my camera.  I seriously suck with technology sometimes.  Kerry and Evan looked great, they both smiled and waved and acted like they weren't even tired...oh and did I mention they got 2:01???!!!  I love them both, but that is a crazy, fast time.  So proud of both of them, the new Howard record.  Jeramie got a huge PR too.  Everyone did so good on the race.  I love doing family things like this, plus it makes us closer too then we already were, which is hard to even imagine.

The boys, they are ridiculous together

Cute little love birds.

The group, they don't even look tired!

It's been a great summer so far, and we still have trips coming up that will make it even better!