King's Peak

Rob and I climbed King's Peak on July 29-31st. It was sort of an anniversary trip since our 31st anniversary was August 1st. The weather was fantastic (meaning dry!) and we had a wonderful time. This is the second time we've done this hike. Last time it was with Rachel and McKay and Steve Hobbs. Bad weather that time!

Here we are at the trailhead. We have 8 miles to go to our campsite at Dollar Lake.

This is on the trail going in. On the left is our lunch stop. On the first day we had fresh food--bagels and cream cheese and sliced apples. Yum. In the middle you see me as we're closing in on Dollar Lake. You can see King's Peak in the background. It's in the very center--the little, sharp peak. On the right is Rob on the trail.

This now is day two. From Dollar Lake to the summit is 8 miles, so it's a long 16 mile day. This is just a couple of miles from camp at Gunsight Pass. We met up with a Dad and son who we hiked with all day. They took this photo for us.

Here we are getting close to the summit. Almost all the way is regular trail, but the last part is bouldering.

Here we are at the top. Yea!!!

Here we are still at the top. Last time we did this hike we had about 60 seconds on top to quickly snap a photo before a storm moved in. This time we reveled in being able to stay as long as we wanted. We spent about an hour up top. It was pretty chilly except when the sun came out. Then there was glorious warmth!

These three are just beautiful views from the top.

Here we are at camp. On the left is Rob sipping hot chocolate. I'm setting my stuff up in the center pic. I'm blowing up my super-duper Big Agnes pad, which is part of a integrated bag/pad system. It's the goods! We spent a ton of time reading. Rob was reading a book called "The Emperors of Chocolate." I was reading "The Devil in White City"--on my Kindle of course. :)

Here I am hanging our food, and Rob is showing off our gravity water filter. I used it in Dark Canyon earlier this summer, but this is the first time Rob had used it. He's a believer!

Now we're heading home. In the center, back you can barely see King's Peak.

On the way out--The foot bridge at Elkridge Crossing, me eating lunch at Elkridge, and Rob on the trail.

And, finally, here we are back at the parking lot. We had a really fabulous time! We left camp at 1:00 pm, and even with a 45 minute lunch break we were at the parking lot by 5:00. Going out is a lot faster than going in because it was gentle down hill! We stopped at Wally's Burgers for burgers, fries and malts, in Evanston, on the way home and were home by 9:00.

Spudman!

Rob and I both participated in the "Spudman" in Burley, Idaho. It was my first triathalon--Rob's third, but longest. I thought I'd like it, but I wasn't sure. I was especially worried about the biking part because I don't bike! It happened on July 25, 2009. Exciting, scary, and a ton of fun! We started off with a mile swim in the Snake River, then we biked 24 miles and then ran 6 miles. Cath was our official photographer, and my brother Dave came too (as a spectator!).

This is a fun picture of the swim. With 2000 participants, it was broken into 7 waves of about 300 people per wave. Rob was assigned wave 4, starting at 7:30 am, and I was in wave 6 which started at 7:50 am. Swimming in open water sure is harder than swimming in a pool! The good news is that this triathalon is touted as "Home of the World's Fastest Swim Course." The Snake River was actually running even faster than usual--4 1/2 miles an hour. A mile in a pool takes me 40 minutes. I did this one in 22 minutes and Rob did it in 25 minutes.

Here we are finishing the bike course. The pic on the left is Rob (he's in navy blue), then I'm the middle biker (tiny image) in the center photo, with my back in the right photo. This was almost at the finish line. My biking time was 1 hour and 35 minutes, Rob's time was 1 hour and 32 minutes.

Here's Rob running across the finish line after the running leg (last leg). The final hundred or so feet was downhill on grass, so it was easy to sprint to the end. Part of the run was on the road and part was on canal banks. It was a 6 mile run--the strong point for both Rob and me. Rob's running time was 1:06 and mine was 59 minutes.

And here I am at the finish. It was pretty exciting to finish! Rob and I both felt like real winners. I'm pretty sure we'll do the Spudman again (if we can get in--it's a tough one to get in because it's super popular and they do a drawing).

Here we are with the Snake River in the background. My total time was 3:08 and Rob's was 3:19. A good time was had by all!!!

My Birthday

Happy 53rd!

To paraphrase a 1963 pop song sung by Lesley Gore, "It's my party and I'll climb if I want to . . ." For my birthday I climbed Mt. Olympus! Wonderful time had by all (all being me!). I left home at about 8:00 am, was climbing by 8:30, summited at about 11:30, spent a half hour enjoying the view, and was back at my car just after 2:30 pm. I really had a wonderful climb.


On the left is Mt. Olympus from the valley, and on the right is a pic of the top of Mt. Olympus, as well as a view of the valley. It's absolutely a gorgeous view! It's a pretty hard hike, but well worth it!
Rob took this pic for me at the end of the day--back at our house (and also the first pic on the blog). Since no one was with me, I couldn't get a pic of me on the mountain. Rob had me take off my glasses because "I look more prettier that way." :)


That evening the fam met in Lehi at Tepanyaki. So so food, fabulous company. The above 2 pics show the fam--Wendy, Kimball, me, Rach, Karen, McKay and Steph. Rob was the official photographer. The pics below show 1) the restaurant and 2) our cook. It's kind-of like Beni Hana where the cook puts on a show as he cooks the dinner. Good show. I didn't think much of the food. Mostly, though, it's just not my "kind" of food. Kimball loves the place. So does Karen's Sam.

And finally we finished off the evening at Kimball's with Rob's version of Aunt Timme's famous cheesecake. It was a great day.

McKay/Steph Open House

This is what the photos should have looked like--beautiful couple in beautiful yard. But the truth of the matter is that it was raining cats and dogs! An hour before the open house we decided to "call it" and we quickly set up the Relief Society room at the church and held the reception there instead of outside in our lovely yard. It actually looked quite nice--considering--and we had a great reception.

We put up a sign in our driveway telling our guests to go to the church, and then we had these sandwich boards set up along the route, guiding people who didn't know where our church was.

Here's the beautiful couple.

A couple of views of the line. The one on the left shows Kiera, who was a helper, and guests Jody Barney & son and Annie Gamez, as well as McKay, Steph, Ramona & Ken. The one on the right shows the same people, adding in Randy & Ken Jr. (Payne), the back of Mikela Ouimette (also a helper) and Rob.

This is a cute view of Kiera, with Wendy and Emma and Megan Greenwood in the background, Rachel (fairly hidden), Kimball and Rob. On the right is Delene Leonard (who helped with refreshments), Wade Greenwood and Ken Payne. This one also has a nice view of one of their engagement photos.

Photos of some of our favorite people. On the left is the Allgoods, who surprised us by coming. Jared & Kim live here, but Dave & Stephanie live in Redmond, Washington. In the center is Rachel and her dear friends, Peter Hyatt and Andrew Palmer (brother and best friend of Greg). Peter and Andrew stayed and helped us clean up. It was so helpful!!!! Finally, the background of the right picture shows Uncle Bob, Matthew Bailey (big surprise!), Grandma Smith, Katie & Conner McKeown. Matt and Charlotte coming was a big surprise, too. They live in Oregon.