Bells Canyon Hike

Well I did a good thing today - I got my girls up bright and early and we went on a hike.

I had given them fair warning a few days before and the night before that we were getting up as soon as it was light. I woke them up at 5:20 and they only dragged their feet a little bit. We decided to do Bells and I guess I haven't done it in a while, cause I didn't remember how long it was, or it might have been cause they were asking to be done. Lily was having a hard time breathing, feeling like something was stuck in her throat, so I kept saying a little more, let's just go a little farther, but then she turned around to go back. She was either going to wait in the car or maybe she'd walk home. Abi Sophi and Natalie walked a bit further. It was pretty cold, like low 40s, so our hands were very cold. ASN kept going, but they were anxious to bail out as soon as possible. Abi was continuing to follow us and hike, but wanted to make something clear aa she said "I want to go home, and I do hate this, but..." then said she didn't want to bail like Lily. She didn't want to be that kind of person. I kept looking at my strava to see how far we were from where I wanted to go, I thought we were almost there, so we went a little more. Natalie was the most ready to stop. I said they could go back and Abi could drive them home and I'd keep going alone, but they'd feel bad if they left me to hike alone. Another strategy - I said "Let's run! And see how quickly we can go!" I followed it with "...but don't twist and sprain your ankle..." Natalie did good during that brief part of our hike game. So we kept going, and when we got to a place that the map said was "lower falls" which meant that the place I actually did want to go was quite a bit further up the mountain. Ok, I guess it would take us another 40 minutes to get there, so, we will stop here. We took a photo and started to walk back. 

That was good enough. Plus I was worried that Lily might be in the car watching a movie and thus sucking up all the battery power. So we started to hustle back down, and 5-10 minutes into our descent and guess who we met upon the trail, it was Lily!!! She was hiking back up! But now Abi Sophi and Natalie were all done and ready to go home, so we talked and made a new plan: A would drive home with S&N, L and I would go up to the waterfall. So we did, and it did take us another hour, but we made it up. It was like going up a stone rock stair master. Lots of lunges. But the waterfall was worth it. Lily was impressed with how big it was. 

Despite how large the waterfall looked, Lily decided it wasn't really that big in quantity of water, but  because the water was hitting and spraying off of rocks underneath it, making is spray out and look bigger. It was all misty and cold - some branches of a tree down near the water had ice on it, and the tree trunks near where the mist was landing were all coated with black ice too. 

I brought along two hiking sticks which I made from some branches in our yard that I cut down. they doubled as sticks to stretch out my shoulders on the way down. Stopping by the small lower falls where Abi Sophi and Natalie turned around...

So it was fun and a good way to start the day. Then I admired our flowers after we got home... 

...and mowed the lawn, finished cutting down the wild tree that I cut the hiking sticks from, and I was sad to see some berries at the top, I think I chopped down a mulberry tree, darn. I ate one of them, it was sweet and good, so that's too bad. I didn't know what it was, I figured it was just some big fast growing out of control tree, like lots of the other plants in our yard. 

Other things that went on today - 

little kids playing trains - 

And I took another few steps to getting the catering for the wedding lunch figured out. I think we're going with 120 people and so we're going to split different entrees, salads, sides, and desserts:

• 60 Lemon Chicken 
• 60 Artichoke Pesto Pasta
• 60 servings GF Spinach Avocado Bacon
• 60 servings GF Strawberry Gouda
• 60 rice (adds $180)
• 60 rolls
• 60 brownies
• 60 cookies

Plus they include a fruit tray. Estimate $1680, pretty reasonable. Corey and I went to the temple for a session (he was having a bit of a hope crisis - not faith in God, just in business: "I don't think I can/want to go on like this" "why is it that I always tend to go deep on good faith and then feel taken advantage of" "like I'm way patient and then that good faith turns into resentment - must be a problem with me" "I think I'm too much of a push-over and not clear enough about my expectations and what I need." "but I've also found when I push back on investor-types who have all the leverage, it almost never goes well. They are offended and hit back hard" - so that was some of the thoughts on his mind and what he was wrestling with, and so the temple was great, but as soon as we got out, we got a phone call and there was drama related to us about people who were or were not properly invited to Joseph's wedding, so we called J to tell him he had to fix that. I was a little irritated but Corey handled it well, I went on a walk and decided to call Nicole to vent about it, not about J. Joseph is doing great, it's a lot to try and keep everyone happy with all their different expectations. He went to pick up his wedding suit at Mr. Mac, and guess what he saw that is coming soon there in the Fort Union shopping center? A new Momentum climbing gym! Awesome! He sent a picture, that will be fun! We only cancelled our membership last week, but I'm already looking forward to December when we climb again!