Union Falls and Scout Pool

See how happy we look half way there? That was before we went all the way down that canyon and over another mountain range. Totally worth the hike though, no?

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is like Disneyland on steroids....minus the larger than life cartoon characters that don't speak. I had never been to Yellowstone, so Kelly and I decided to go there for the long 24th weekend. After waiting in a ridiculously long line of cars just to get into the park, we had to wait at least 30 minutes more through the construction zone, before we FINALLY got the last camping spot in the whole place...literally, the last. Of course, we camped next to THE most obnoxious people in the whole civilized world. *boo* and you finally realize that you must be the only person on earth who can drive.

I found it quite hilarious that about every 50 feet along the road, there were groups of Japanese people posing for pictures with thumbs up with an elk or buffalo in the background. Even more funny were the people parked along the road near a sign that read, "Elk Flats", disappointed by the fact that elk were not magically planted in the open field for their photo ops.

Happily, we saw numerous interesting things, all the geysers, hot pots, mountains, and caravans of tourists looking at animals. It was really quite beautiful though. On Saturday, we went on the most excruciating hike. Kelly wanted to return to some of the sights that he remembered going to as a young boy scout. We decided to take an adventure and hike from Grassy Lake to Union Falls and Scout Pool. About 17 miles round trip!! Union Falls was amazingly beautiful and Scout Pool was unique, in that, there is a hot spring that feeds into the river, thus making the river warm. Better yet, was putting a picture with the stories of Kelly and all his friends jumping off the waterfall butt nekked. Even though we were fully clothed, it was a welcome retreat from the miles of hiking. Neither of us really wanted to leave.

It was a great vaca!

Fireworks!

Because backpacking obviously got cut short, we went to the Layton park for fireworks. I made Alaina go on the big bouncy slide. As you can see, she was only mildly impressed with it. They ate cotton candy and ran around until every ounce of energy was drained out of their little bones. I love the 4th of July.

Backpacking

"We're going come hell or high water" is the response I gave when asked about the possible weather for backpacking this weekend. Well, hell was definitely accompanied by high water when we set off first thing Thursday morning for the much anticipated 4 day backpacking trip we were going to take at Hoop Lake. It rained no less than 15 hours straight. Not just regular uintas rain, sideways incapacitating rain. Luckily Kathy and Dennis brought their air mattresses, because by this morning, they were floating on a small swimming pool inside their tent. Needless to say, covered up to our knees in mud and filth, the trip was cut short as reports of more of the same dampened our spirits. However, there were brief moments where the sun shone through the clouds and it was very beautiful. You just can't go wrong in the uintas, even if you spend hours slogging through the bog and listening to the rain and hail pelt the tent and eventually trickle its way down to your face and feet as you attempt to sleep. The hike was still gorgeous and we were able to fish for about 15 minutes before it started pouring again. Happy anniversary Kathy and Dennis!! We'll try again in about a month when things dry up a little. In the meantime, here are some pix of our somewhat miserable little overnighter. Don't be fooled by the seemingly dry and sometimes sunny pictures. Very deceiving they are.

Rainbow Road Car Show

Kelly's uncle, Larry, has a sweet 1961 Corvette that he recently restored. For a long time, it was just a heap sitting in the storage shed. Couple years later and now it's cherry. He entered it in the car show in Wendover this year and we drove out to have a look. The weather of course was rainy, so we looked briefly at some pretty neat cars.

All others, of course, pale in comparison to the little 61 Corvette. :)

Camping with the Kids

We went camping up to Echo Reservoir with Leslie and Fraser and our children...ahem...dogs. They left the next day, but Kelly and I stuck around and took long naps in the trailer and did some fishing. We caught quite a few fish, given the weather was pretty poopy. We got them home and threw them in the Fry Daddy with some beer batter and they were mmmm mmmm delicious!

Viva Salt Lake City

I'm quite behind on some of the activites we've been doing this summer, so the next few will be random activity posts. The weekend after we got back from Mexico, we went to Viva Salt Lake City at the Gallivan Center. We've been previous years and they've been okay, but this year was really quite good. I can't remember all the bands that played, but some of our favorites were, Veer Union, Pop Evil, 10 Years and Royal Bliss...to name a few. Here are just some pix of the show. In spite of having giant speakers in our way, we really had a pretty good view of the stage and the bands. Good show this year.