Hiking the Y

While Jan was here with the whole family she really wanted to hike the Y - it's a bucket list item and this was perfect timing.  So for her birthday we headed up the mountain.  The kids were great as long as we stopped at every switchback for them to drink and have a candy.  Sophie walked the entire way up and back - she's getting way too big for me!  She was also hilarious and kept telling me she had to stretch her legs and she would just put one foot in front of her then change.  Classic Soph.    

Most of the kids at the base of the hike.  Don't they look excited?

Off we go

The whole group at the start of the hike

Taking a quick break

Here we are on the Y - we all made it!!

The girls

Hooray!!  Check it off the list!

The boys at the top of the Y

Stuart Falls

This week has been a blast with Sherry and her kids here. We have gone on fun outings everyday. We went to Thanksgiving point to the Farm, to the pool yesterday and decided to hike to Stuart Falls today. The last time I did that hike was probably about 10 years ago with a BYU ward. Boy was I mistaken when I described it as a short and very easy hike.

Sherry, my mom, my dad and I took the following kids Sophie (4 weeks), Roman (3 months), Claire (2), Luke (almost 4), Audrey (almost 5), Tayson (almost 6), Bruce (8) and Emma (10). As you can see the adults were very outnumbered. We started out with Sherry carrying Roman in a front wrap and Emma carried Sophie up to the top in the front wrap. I had Claire on my back in a hiking pack and the other kids were walking. It's 2 miles each way and the path wasn't very wide and was covered with lots of rocks and tree stumps. Needless to say, Audrey and Luke took several falls and were covered in dirt and not happy campers. Sherry ended up carrying Audrey and Roman most of the way down. I forced Luke to walk down since I had Sophie in the wrap on the way down and my awesome dad carried Claire on his shoulders part of the way up and all the way down.

I guess I was in better shape 10 years ago and had no idea how hard it is for little kids to hike! Good thing Sherry and my parents are patient and extremly tough!


Emma and Sophie


Sherry and Roman


Audrey - look at her dirty little face


Most of the hikers taking a quick break at the top.