Saturday Adventure

Much to his disappointment, J did not get to climb The Grand Teton (13,770ft) as scheduled this weekend, so when he got home we piled into the van and went for a hike up Battle Creek Canyon.

My intrepid explorers


A wild animal!


We're all in this picture somewhere, can you find us?


S wanted to take this little guy home with us. Thankfully J said no.


Forging ahead

This cave is right next to the trail. J asked O and H, "What do you think lives in there?"

And away they went! They were not going to stick around to find out!

H stopped J and said, "Go down there. Take my picture, Daddy."

Click on this one and look at O's face. What is he doing? He cracks me up!

Well worth the hike

My happy boys

We've decided that we are going to become A Hiking Family. We stopped by Out-N-Back to pick up a water bottle each for the boys and a Camelback for me (J already has one). Whenever I go in that store I just want to buy everything and go camping every weekend. Is that bad?

I really want my boys to develop love and appreciation for the Great Outdoors. They seem to have this attitude that everything is there for them to experiment with and, if necessary, destroy. The last time we went for a walk by the Provo River I had to impose a "no throwing rocks into the river" rule. It may sound harsh, but whereas other kids will plop a rock or two into the water, mine will single-handedly erode a foot off the shoreline. I'm not sure why. This time when J told the kids we were going to go hike by a waterfall, O moaned that he didn't want to because they couldn't throw rocks into the water. J shot me a look that clearly said, "Party Pooper" and told them that it was ok where we were going today. Well, we found the river, the rock-throwing commenced, and after 10 minutes of watching S and O clear their immediate space of any and all throwable rocks, J decided he needed to intervene. No more rock-throwing. Okay, they could live with that. Hike on. Then S gets the idea to pick up some of the rocks from the trail and chip away at them, like an Indian making an arrowhead. Problem is, chips are flying, chunks of rock are being discarded in all directions, including down the trail and that's a big no-no -- never know when you'll hit somebody coming up the trail. Veto the rock-chipping. On the way down we stopped by where the snake went slithering away into the grass so J could show the boys Snake Grass. Which promptly got pulled up. Why oh why? Can we just leave nature alone? Leave the grass hopper be. Don't poke the snake with a stick. The plants are happiest firmly rooted in the ground! These are the lessons we will teach our young offspring on our hiking adventures.