Squaw Peak Drive

Today was still cold, but I made a goal to get out to see the fall mountains, so I did. I went for a drive. A long drive. Corey and I left at 1:00 to sign tax papers. He filed for an extension, so the bad news is finally in - we have no personal taxes to pay, but we got hit with a BIG "self employed" tax, yikes. I won't tell you the bad news, but we don't know how we'll pay it, so I'll put that on the prayer list. The kids were asleep as we drove home, so I figured I'd go for a drive. I left at 2, thought I'd drive over Traverse Ridge. I thought this was a pretty cool angle of the Draper Temple!

If I make it bigger it almost does it justice. After I crossed the ridge, I heard back from Mel about if she wanted to join us on our drive. She took us up on it. Y mountain (though you can't see the Y in this picture.) You can hardly see the Y from the Provo temple anyway.

A pretty tree along University Avenue -

And some of her friends -

Those trees were so bright that I had to turn around to get a picture after we passed them. I didn't want to keep Mel from her studies for too long, so we just went up Provo Canyon to Squaw Peak overlook -

Ok now turn to look at me!!

Owen and Daniel in their Buzz PJs, silly boys. Daniel wanted to go on a walk...

Ok, just cause you smiled so cute. He wanted me to hold him, but then he stopped and very carefully opened his jacket pockets, then when they were ready, he put his hands in. With his hands properly warmed, we proceeded to hike.

Peter reaching out for the leaves -

After a short walk, Owen declared that he needed to go #2. so we went back. There were no bathrooms, so I said we could go to Mel's apartment for him. But he said we should go home. So we headed back down.

I love Cascade Mountain!

A few more pretty trees...

Not that I've done anything with the pictures I took on this drive two years ago, or the 100s of fall photos I've taken over the years anyway....

A beautiful valley mountain valley, full of fall colors.

We stopped for another picture -

We were glad that Mel was able to come with us!!

She was glad too that she got to love on her baby brother

The traffic was bad, so we weren't able to turn left down Provo Canyon after we were done, so we went right. I was thinking "I guess maybe we will go on the Alpine loop..." But we turned into Vivian Park for Owen to use the bathroom. He didn't want to, so I guess the bathroom emergency had passed. They saw the playground and wanted to go down the slide. It was sooo windy and cold though, they lasted like 2 minutes. then we took Mel back and did go home. So I was in the car from like 1:00 when we signed our taxes until 7:00. That was a long drive for the little kids, but a few bananas got us through, and Mel brought some Chex cereal and a slice of bread. My next goal for an outing is hiking the Y next Tuesday for the lighting of the Y!! I don't think Corey cares to come, and if he stays he'll probably need to get work done, thus would appreciate not having the little boys here... I'm not sure I'll be able to rough it with the toddlers... even with Mel's help (cause she's coming too). We'll see what happens.