Bye Bye Blakie

Well, Blake made it on the plane yesterday. It was kind of strange not hear loogies being spat and heavy footsteps running around the house tryin not to be late for school this morning... but welcome at the same time.

We all wanted one last hoorah before Blake headed to Spokane for the summer and decided to head up American Fork Canyon for the afternoon on Sunday, family day! Our intention was to go up to Cascade Springs where they have built boardwalks over the water and you can walk around and see the life that's in the water. We got half way up there and the road was still closed... through May 31... it was June 1st, a Sunday and I am assuming government work would be required to open it up, so its probably open now, but not Sunday. Oh well. The canyon is huge (this is the same Canyon with Mt. Timpanogas) so we turned around and took the other fork in the road. But first we snapped a few pictures. It was beautiful ...


So we headed back and found a beautiful lake reservoir and kept heading up the mountain and found another lake, Silver Flat Lake. We found one of the State Park displays that said there was another Silver Lake, but you had to hike to it. So we started our hike up the mountain, Canyon in full sprint, Kailey without socks, yet again, with another blister in 5 minutes. We hiked for about an hour and a half, and the kids seriously loving every second (Kailey was being carried most of the way, whats not to love), Canyon finally walked and loved maneuvering over the giant rocks that were in our path! But we thought maybe it was time to go back down. Blake and CJ couldn't live with the possibility that the lake was "just over the ridge" so I stayed back with the kids and they went ahead. After just a few minutes they were off the trail, in the middle of the hill... shortcut. Then a few minutes later they were at the top of the ridge, of course talking with some other hikers. With CJ this could mean they'll be a while, so I started down with the kids. We heard a couple howls from the hills... no not coyotes or anything more wild than CJ and Blake, and within about 10 minutes they were back! They found out from the other hikers that the other Silver Lake was still about an hour hike away, so it was a good thing we were on our way down. We made it down in record speed... Kailey was absolutely finished with this mountain by now and was keeping the pace for the rest of us, totally ignoring her blister. Once we got in our car it started getting windy and we headed back down to the reservoir lake where Blake took Ashlyn and Kailey to rinse the dirt off while Canyon slept and CJ and I rested (I was actually sick when we started but decided to take one for the team). It was a great day... and Blake... if you're a good boy this summer maybe we'll let you come back! :0)

anyone missing... Kandis perhaps????? Not for long though... she's a comin' home!!!!!!!!