Sunday, August 1, 2010

A Trip to Paradise...

Last week while visiting my family, Jon sent me an e-mail of some photo's he'd taken. He'd used his opportunity as a temporary "bachelor" to go explore a trail he vaguely remembered from 20+ years ago.  I was excited to go back with him, and it was even my idea to camp- in an actual tent- in the actual mountains- this weekend.  We had so much fun!  We didn't get up to Paradise Park until after 7pm on Saturday, but we had enough time to set up our tent, have a good wienie roast and make a few S'mores before the kids were ready to hit the sack.  I think Jon and I have only been camping in our tent once since we got married before last night, cause we didn't remember it was as small as it is!  Ali and I ended up sleeping in the car (ugh!) and Jon and Gage stayed in the tent.  Needless to say it was a long night, but some great memories were made for sure!
The only time I could get him to pose for a picture, and his mouth is full of food...

Ali, eating "pana-cakes" for breakfast!
 We got up this morning and started hiking at about 8am.  It didn't take long to get where Jon had been the week before, and it was amazing!  The whole pond is covered in Lily Pads.  My mom commented last weekend that it was too bad we didn't know when they would bloom, because they have such pretty flowers.  Guess what Mom!!!  They were blooming today!  It was so pretty!  We decided to go a ways further up the trail and ended up turning around again, it was a little too hard for the kids to keep going, but before we did we had run into some Forest Service workers who were clearing the trails, we didn't have to go back over the logs we'd gone over on the way up!  They'd cut them up for us and cleared the trail- they did have horses though, and with horses comes.... so instead of logs, we had other "things" to deal with on the way down!  It was nice to have some family time.  Those guys cutting up logs on the trial made me think of the time I spent in the mountains as a kid with my family.  We'd always go get a load of wood for the stove for winter, and the smells and sounds brought back a lot of memories!  I hope my kids are reminded someday of our time together.

On our way home we took a little drive up to Ice Peak.  Neither of us had been there before and we figured it was a quick little off-road adventure.  It was fun!  It ended up at this huge rock that looked over the entire canyon, Jon and I were both a little leery of  how high we were and how far down it was!
Our weekend was definitely worth the smell of camp smoke and the back-ache- and one we'd highly recommend!


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6 comments :

Melissa said...

Looks like so much fun. But, I miss you when you don't call me when you are down here!!!!

J, K, E & C Hadley said...

Beautiful pictures. I am looking forward to taking Ethan camping, we always had such fun times when we were kids camping at Fish Lake. Oh to be a kid again!!

Cambria said...

wow!!!!!!!!! beautiful Steph!

Joey said...

I am so glad you caught the Lily Pads in bloom! They are so pretty! Looks like you had a great weekend. The kids are so cute! You and Jon are so good to take them somewhere every week. Don't worry they WILL remember!

Michele and Wyatt said...

That looks like a lot of fun, and beautiful! So, is the only other time you have used your tent when we went camping at flaming gorge a long time ago? That was a fun trip.

Unknown said...

Hey we were there on sunday riding four wheelers. Ice Cave Peak is awesome...it takes your breathe away!!!