Farm Country

I took Maren and Jonas down to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point as they had a great deal one day. We walked around and looked at and petted many of the farm animals. The most exciting thing though was the pony rides. Maren is into all things horses right now so she was thrilled to be able to ride a pony. She would have ridden all day if she could have!

First day of school

Whitney was excited and a little nervous about her first day of first grade in Mrs. King's class. We all love that we live close enough to walk to school this year. All of Whitney's nervousness quickly disappeared once we arrived at school and she saw many of the girls from her soccer team.

Campfire cooking

We picked a friend up that we met in VA at the airport this afternoon. Brian is staying with us for a few days before going to the MTC on Wednesday. He'll be serving a mission for our church for the next two years in Las Vegas, NV. For Family Home Evening we decided to take Brian up the canyon to show him some real mountains since he's always lived in the East Coast. We invited our friends the Hettingers down (that we also met in VA) to join us for a campfire dinner. The kids enjoyed climbing the rocks and playing in the stream as we got the fire going.

We enjoyed brats and hot dogs and later giant roaster s'mores for dessert (Jim has one made according to the directions on the giant roaster bag). It was a fun evening spent with friends enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

The next day we headed downtown to take Bryan to visit the Salt Lake Temple, tour temple square and the conference center, and enjoy lunch in The Garden on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Tour of Utah- America's Toughest Stage Race

While living in VA, Jim and I picked up road biking as there was little mountain biking around. We like to follow the Tour de France every year so were excited to hear that America's toughest stage race was being held in our own backyard. We headed up the canyon not far from our home to catch the last climb of the final stage. This was the third major climb of the 102 miles of the stage. We cheered Levi Leipheimer up the climb with chalk messages on the road at various points up the climb. He is in the yellow jersey with the view down Little Cottonwood. We've both ridden up Little Cottonwood and it is an intense climb with an average grade of 9.2%, you gain 3500 feet of elevation in 8 miles. I can't imagine riding it after already doing 90 miles and a few other climbs that day. Just to note that standing on the roof of the vehicle is not recommended as it dents the roof and screws up the opening of the sunroof.

Idaho and Grandparents visit

The kids and I made a quick overnight trip up to Southern Idaho to meet my parents and visit with my dads side of the family. Above the kids are with the Grandpa and Grandma Morgan their great grandparents. Many of my aunts and cousins I haven't seen for many years so it was nice to reconnect. We went and visited my uncle's calf farm and the kids enjoyed feeding the calves their bottles of milk. Something I remember doing as a kid when we'd visit Grandpa's farm. My grandpa ran a dairy but now my uncle's run a calf operation where they take the newborn bull calves from the local dairies and raise them to a certain weight before shipping them off to the next farm. They have about 30,000 calves at any one time.

Nana-san and Papa-san then came to stay for a few days. We enjoyed a nice trip down to Utah Lake until Whitney ran the boat into a gravel bar sending a huge wave over the front of the bow and thoroughly soaking those of us up front. It damaged the propeller but luckily no other damage occurred. Though we were rapidly working to bail out the boat for fear that we might sink.

The kids enjoyed playing in the yard that evening with their pink cheeks.


We also enjoyed a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium and of course a stop at ChicFilA for lunch.

Summit Day-Teewinot

Michelle and I woke up at 4am and headed to the trailhead to wake Jim. He had decided to hike down from their campsite on the Grand the night before so he could join us on the climb of the East Face of Teewinot. He slept in the Durango for the night. We hit the trail just after 5am with headlamps to light the way. As we got higher on the mountain we had some beautiful views of the sun coming up over the mountains. The meadows of wildflowers were amazing to see in the light of the early morning.

The climb up the mountain involved two sections of snow that we had to climb with our ice axes and the scrambling back and forth across ledges to work our way up the face.

Teewinot is one of the most spectacular summits in the Teton range. It is not the tallest (12,325 ft.) but definitely the most exposed and literally comes to a single point which is not like most mountain summits. It also has an amazing backdrop with the Grand Teton and Mt. Owen in the background. After some pictures and food we headed back down the mountain. The journey down was a lot more taxing on the legs because of steep slope. We got back to the car 9 hours later just as the afternoon thunder and rain storm hit with some sore feet and tired legs.

Summit Day- Grand Teton

While the rest of us were off touring Yellowstone, Jim and crew were climbing towards the summit of the Grand Teton (13,775 ft.) via the Exum Ridge. Both Jim and Jon had been up the route before but it was a first ascent for his 65 year old dad and 9 year old nephew. It was a long day of belaying 15+ pitches but luckily they had beautiful weather. After getting everyone safely back to camp at the Lower Saddle, Jim packed up his gear and hiked out that evening to the car so he could do Teewinot with us the next day.