birthday surprise

My birthday surprise this year was that my birthday falls on National Public Land Use Day--that means a drive up the Alpine Loop on the most perfect day is totally free!

Hooray for car-trunk picnics with snow on the mountain tops, Jimmy Johns, cake from Kaye, long socks and boots, and a cutie husband!

big springs

Right now, Utah is really beautiful. Everything is green, it is often really amazing temperatures, the sun shines, and there is still some mystical snow on the mountain tops. It doesn't stay like this forever, so it is time to get out and enjoy it!

The Gandalf worthy walking stick...

The blue butterflies kept fluttering all around our path. Finally I stopped to wait for Aaron to explore something, and they came to land on my toes.

another graduation!

O rise and shout, Aaron is out

He's on the trail to fame and glory.

Rise and shout, our cheers will ring out

As he unfolds his vict'ry story.

On he goes to vanquish the foes

Who stand between him and his dreams.

As we join in song, in praise of you, our faith is strong.

We'll raise our colors high in the blue, 

for Aaron's finished at BYU!

Aaron's parents planned a picnic in lieu of the actual graduation ceremony that Aaron didn't want to attend. It was a beautiful day in the mountains, and I had tons of fun taking pictures of my cute husband. Added bonus: my parents were in town, so my momma came too!

As Aaron's first act as a graduated man, he wanted to prove himself by crossing the raging Provo River.

Something got into Aaron that day. He was more than willingly posing for extra cheesy pictures. Lucky for him, he's very photogenic.

Kaili just can't wait for her college graduation. She was already planning her Junior High graduation party.

We had a sea of cupcakes to eat after lunch...

 And tell me this isn't a JCrew model shot, or maybe American Eagle thanks to the logo:

I wasn't the only one with a camera. I got caught a few times, too.

Weird... Aaron looks so much taller than me in that last photo. No, he hasn't grown. That was just a bumpy rock we were standing on.


You may be asking yourself, what are the plans for them now?


My best answer is:

Who ever knows?

climbing the mountain

This last weekend, Aaron and I went backpacking/hiking up Mt. Timpanogos with our friends, the Peterson's. Even though as we were driving up to the canyon, it was raining and thundering, we persisted, and the scanty Utah rainstorm passed as we expected. We had only got caught in a little bit of rain on our hike up, but it was very welcome.

When we started, we were all so excited. We joked that the skip in our step wouldn't last long. And it didn't. Though we were still excited, it was a hard hike!

It soon got dark, and we had no idea how far we were from Emerald Lake, which was our camping destination. Once we were all pretty tired and cold, we lost the path in the dark to a large cap of snow and had no idea how to continue. We went back, found a nice little nook, and set up our tents in the dark.

Aaron and I are lucky to be alive, because I--trying to think of something besides carbs to bring for food--bought a package of tuna fish to eat for dinner. We scarfed it down in our tent, and then I prayed really hard that no bears would smell that tasty fish.

When we woke up in the morning, unscathed, we discovered we had camped in a field of amazingly beautiful wild flowers. We also realized that we were only about 20 minutes away from the lake, and could clearly see the path up the rocky cliffside. Oh well, we ate some Pop-Tarts for breakfast, left our camp behind, and headed to the summit!

  (If you look really close in this picture, way down by those trees in the grass, right below that little hill, you can see our tents!)

We made it to the saddle... and Utah Lake never looked so small.

And we continued on to the top...straight up the sheer mountainside.

 (Right by all that snow, that's Emerald Lake...where we wanted to camp. In the distance is Deer Creek Reservoir. When the dam breaks, that is the body of water that is someday going to flood the Valley, they say.)

Hooray!

The way back down was breathtaking. I really wanted to just live there, with the sun shining, the flowers bright and pretty, and the mountains so green. Unfortunately, we were in somewhat of a time crunch to get down and had to hustle.

I think I'll have to invest in a pine tree scented candle. Do you think there may also be a "Crisp Mountain Air" scent?