another quick note

i'm excited that community and the office are coming back tonight. it's been a long wait, but i'm sure it'll be worth it.

a trip to the mountains

last weekend we had the chance to go up into the canyon to attend a weekend-long retreat at a lodge. we weren't sure what exactly would happen, but as soon as we saw the beautiful fall colors on the trees on our drive up, we realized it couldn't be all bad to get away for a few days.

the trees were beautiful, the air was crisper (which felt good), and we got to do some fun activites. personally, my favorite, was going for a saturday morning run on the mountain road. my throat was burning and i kept fluxuating between cold and too warm, but the scenery was beautiful. it felt really good to be out without a lot of people around. it was peaceful and envigorating.

william most enjoyed hanging out by the river. he spotted some red-breasted nuthatches (a bird i've never even seen before), several trout, a bat, and several squirrels. william also really loved an old west playground at the lodge. it was pretty cool with lots of little buildings that reflected the wild west theme.

i'm not really sure what brian most enjoyed. he did find a juneberry tree, but it had the more unsavory berries on it (some have delicious berries, some don't). he also got to get a little extra sleep and read from his book about a guy walking around in borneo. so, he was able to relax, and that's never a bad thing.

w in front of the lodge.

me and w in the dining hall.

the haps

over the past couple weeks, we've had a chance to do some fun things. below is the recap.

a few saturdays ago, b and i woke up and decided to go hiking in rock canyon. that turned into going all the way up to squaw peak. that wasn't the original plan--so we weren't super prepared--but we did have some food and water. and there's a lovely, beautiful spring along the way where we drank lots and lots of good mountain water. it's a pretty strenuous hike, but the view from the top is great.

w at the top

another one from the top.

on the way back down, we found some juneberries (aka saskatoons and serviceberries). we all enjoyed eating some, although brian enjoyed them the most. i started getting too thirsty.

b and the berries.

on the 24th of august, william started school again. he's now in 2nd grade. on the first day, we took him to the creamery so he could have a special donut breakfast.

me and william before heading out. notice w's grey t-shirt. he likes wearing plain grey shirts because b often wears plain grey shirts. he likes looking like this dad!

w and b at the creamery.

recently, we decided it was time to say good-bye to the garter snake that w caught awhile ago. he caught it because he thought leche would eat it, but leche didn't eat it. they actually seemed to become friends.

w just moments before he let the garter snake go.

last weekend we went up to the high uintas to explore some new lakes. we ended up getting in a pretty good hike still (about 7 miles i think), although it was a lot flatter than other parts of the uintas. brian had pretty good luck fishing (he caught 7 trout), but william and i never had a bite. it doesn't make a lot of sense, but so it goes with fishing. on the outing we saw some neat animals (including a frog, several deer, some nice birds, etc), and we also found out that if you turn hiking into a game of hide and seek, it can be more fun for an 8-year-old kid.

b and w with the best fish of the day: a fine cutthroat.

a nice nature shot.

last sunday we noticed that our peach tree's peaches were ripe! we each picked 4 peaches, and then came in to eat them. they were really good. it's so exciting to have our own fruit tree!