Big Cottonwood

Today was lovely fall day. This morning Corey went to the temple at 7am with family names that I printed for him last night! That's my third time doing that! Woohoo, go me! I took Abi to a 7am drivers ed drive, and dropped Lily off with Wayne, and he took them both to GMS at 9 after Abi was done. I came home, fed the kids that were awake, then went on a walk, then it was soccer games at 10 and 11. Corey took Owen and Daniel at 10. Owen scored again so Corey got them Wendy's and joked how annoying it is to always have to get him a treat cause he keeps scoring! Owen liked that. Daniel didn't want to go to soccer, we told him he has to, and next week is the last game and then he doesn't have to sign up again. Daniel plays well and seems to have fun during the game, so I don't know why he is reluctant to go almost every week. I was going to take Natalie, but she said she felt sick. She might have been a little sick, she had mentioned feeling sick yesterday but still went to school, and so I think she could have pushed through the pain, but I took advantage of her feigned illness and we skipped it. Then I kinda wanted to go on a bike ride or a fall drive, but we weren't able to for logistical reasons, until tonight, after Corey got back from picking up Abi and Lily at GMS (they had a concert) and so after Corey got home, I loaded up the car with kids and went on a drive. Abi went with friends to a homecoming thing, and Wes got back from his jeeping trip to St. George today and he was over at Corey's dad's house, Corey came home and I took the kids, not sure where we were going, but we are going. Bells? Ferguesons? I found myself turning up Big Cottonwood Canyon again. As we drove, we listened to Mumford and Sons (Lily's request) and then I pulled over at Dogwood and got out. I didn't think the kids were up for much of a hike, and this looked simple. It was - it was a paved path along some cook out sites. I noticed a sign that said parking was for cook out people only - $10 fee for day use.  We had 30 min to pick a site and then come back to pay the fee. Kids climbed rocks.

I actually didn't want to pay a fee, so we just walked looking at all the sites, for only 30 min, and then went back to the car. It sounds fun to me to come up in the morning, pay the day fee, then I could let Peter and K play, we'd go back home when the kids get back from school, then come back up to our site for a cookout dinner. Maybe I'll do that before winter comes. 

Kids had fun exploring.

Hiking up a trail leading to the steep mountain next to us. On their way back down...

I posted to BeReal on time, so I had two extra pics I could take - so here's my BeReal from the Dogwood cookout area.

Then Peter had to go to the bathroom - perfect timing, back to the car. As we were getting in the car, Owen and Daniel started singing "Happy Birthday Grimace! What is on you Amazon wishlist?" over and over again which is something I wish they didn't sing so loudly (esp on repeat!) and so I hurried and started the car to put an end to my ears having to listen to it. I put on Nathan Pacheco and remembered my fall drive on General Conference weekend in 2018. The Paul Cardall song Gethsemane always reminds me of that lovely drive. We continued up the canyon a little further. I was thinking of driving up Guardsman Pass again, but instead we stopped at the S Curve and went to the trailhead across the street. There are three trails to take, we did the Hidden Falls cause it was the shortest. 

The kids loved walking up the rocks. It was getting dark so we headed back to the car, I took K up the overlook trail just for a minute to see the leaves up there.

Time to cross the road before it's so dark that people can't/don't see all my duckings. Yesterday was a lovely fall day too. After Sophi got home from school, I went to the temple to do initiatories, then went on a ride. I listened to music the whole time, it was just heaven. Red leaves on "Rush the Trees"

Last night we went out to Costa Vida at 8:30, after we got home from a neighborhood fall social/chili cook off outside at our neighbors cul-de-sac. Short date, Corey shared with me some voice messages Ethan sent him, I was laughing so hard I cried (regarding Ethan's secret talent). I'm glad we still went out (neither of us ate at the social so that we could go out together, we need the time together if we're going to survive!) Corey and I are watching the weather this next week to see if we can try and do Crest before it snows. There will be snow up in the mountains on Wednesday I bet...

So that just give us Tuesday to do Crest (You can only take the trail to Millcreek on Even days, so that was yesterday, tomorrow, or Tuesday if we want to beat the snow and cold that will be around next weekend...) Yeah, We gotta do our last high altitude rides on Monday and Tuesday. It's been a glorious fall so far. We're hoping it lasts for just a little bit longer!