Waterfall Canyon

This was a hike I have wanted to do for awhile now.  It just didn't work out our last trip.  So we made sure to make time for it this trip.

This hike is in Ogden which is only like a half hour away from Mike's parents house.

Mikes sister, our niece McKenzie and Mike's Dad came along with Mike, myself and Hayden. Hayden hikes much better when other kids are with him

It is 3 miles round trip but a pretty steep hike.  It was extremely rocky.  You had to rock hop the entire way.  But what was nice...it was mostly shady.  So it wasn't really too hard at all.

(see the rocks, that is the trail)

Here is a nice view that we had near the top.



Isn't McKenzie so cute.  You could just squeeze her.

Everyone stopped to play and look at this teeny tiny falls. 

I was laughing because all they had to do was look up and there was a huge waterfall right behind them.

I mean it was huge.  The tallest one we have seen out here in all of our trips.  It was like the huge Hawaii waterfalls you see in pictures.  It was hard to get a good picture with the whole waterfall in it.

The water was really cold and made it a little chillier at the top.


The hike down was a little hard on the knees due to all of the rocks.

This was a great hike that I am so glad we finally did.

Afterwards we were all hungry so we stopped at the Burger bar for a "Big Ben" burger and a strawberry shake.  This place was on diners drive in and dives on the food network and it did not disappoint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Cottonwood Canyon

We did the easy drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon to look for waterfalls. 


Our first stop was Blanche lake outlet falls.

It was a short 5 minute walk up a paved trail. 

Our second stop was hidden falls.  It was just across the road.  and short walk also.  We saw this in the winter a few years ago. 

This time we got in the water


I love this picture of Amelia.  ha ha


we also saw the abandoned mine.

Then we drove to the mineral springs area and hiked up the mountain for about a mile. 

We saw two waterfalls here.

The first was coming down the mountain beside us and crossed the trail and fed into the big waterfall coming down the main mountain side.

Hayden and Amelia loved playing in the rocks in this waterfall and rerouting the smaller run offs.


Look at that face!

Here is the larger falls

We drove some more and then saw a roadside waterfall.  It was actually a natural spring.

It was a nice little day trip for us.  There were several more things we could have seen but figured the kids did enough today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

utah trip

we took a two week trip to Utah to visit mikes family.

The morning didn't start off great.  Amelia threw up several times. I guess she had all of the mucous drain down her throat at night.  So most of the morning she would gag and choke and throw it up.  By afternoon she was fine.  It didn't make a fun first flight. 

The rest of the flights were uneventful and the kids did great.

Apparently they are perfect size for the overhead bin :)


we did lots of hikes, eating, and other stuff.  the kids loved playing outside with their cousins. They had lots of water balloon fights and jumping on trampolines.

The kids loved riding the wiggle cars in the driveway

Our first day there we had free tickets for an amusement/water park called Lagoon. 

Hayden loved it.  Amelia was happy but she is such a chicken.  She loved the merry go round best.  We took Hayden on all of the rollercoasters.  He liked some and hated others.  He rode the big one wicked and cried.  Oops.  His favorite was the bat.

We also visited the water park. 


The small slides and the lazy river were favorites.

We stayed from 11 am to almost 10 pm so it was a long day after our flights.  We paid for it the next day with a cranky boy.  Oh well.

We did lots of eating.  We went to our favorite steak and cheese place one day.  Mexican a few times.

cookies and donuts, bakeries and old fashioned donut shops. 

The kids enjoyed sleeping in tents inside.



Fathers day was on our trip.  We took some pictures.  Hayden was not a happy camper and wouldn't really smile. 



And this one looked good until I saw Hayden's eyes were crossed. 



We spent the day at seasons.  We grilled steaks and had lots of dessert.  The kids climbed the mountains behind her house and jumped on the trampoline.

we attempted to go to park city and ride the zip line down the mountain.  A light rain started and they closed it before our turn.  It never did stop raining so we didn't get to go.

The only thing that was open was this lame ride so we did that and had some lunch.

We tried to get some pictures of all of the cousins together.

It was hard.


We went swimming at someones pool.  It was extremely nice.

And played in the hot tub.

Went to a trampoline park.  Hayden loved playing dodge ball.

Played video games at Boondocks.

 

And rode the go carts.


Had a fire in the back yard.

The kids went to the childrens museum while we were on a hike one day. 

They loved it.

We visited with several old friends

Mike did a ton of golfing.

We did lots of hikes (more on that later).

It was a nice trip.

On the way home I was stopped by security. Apparently I had traces of something explosive like on my hands.  I had to be pulled aside.  All of my stuff was individually checked.  And I had to go to a private room to be patted down.  Eventually I was free to go.  And we had 2 good flights.


When we got home Mike had golf and I had soccer that night.  Dedication!

I have tons more pictures from our trip to post.