Trails 2 Travel

Monday morning/ afternoon Jenna and I also finally got our girls day in! I met my mom at Mcdonalds for breakfast and picked her up. Then we watched Cinderella at my house and thought we should go on a nice sisterly run and swim at the pond! Well it HAD been a lovely morning but the wind had picked up and there was a ton of dust in the air and honestly it was bit gross... Well we chanced it anyways and headed down to the pond and it WAS windy.. but empty! We practically had the place to ourselves and hey the wind wasn't blowing dust around down here at least! So we ran prob 2ish miles around the pond and neighborhoods and then we were all ready for a swim even Ollie! Or so we thought... Ollie plunges right into the water to cool off. Lays down in it even and walks around but for some reason he CANNOT swim. Like it's the saddest struggle I've ever seen. Luckily I got Jenna to snap a few photos. Essentially even in 3 feet water where he could practically stand his ...

 Monday night I went to an old friend from Kneaders wedding up just East of SLC on the road to Park City. Braden had to work unfortunately but luckily my other Kneader friend was going so I hitched a ride and we had a spledid time!  The location was GORGEOUS. It's called Loulound Falls. As you pull up it's on a pretty steep hill but they had free valet parking so once you made it up the rest of the hill you faced stunning mini falls. Then if you continued up past the main reception area and up the stone stairs you end up at the most stunning water fall area. Plus it give you a chance to escape some of the standard reception awkwardness and explore for a bit!  This is the view looking out with your back to the falls! So gorgeous and it's I-80 that runs along through that canyon. It's a peaceful quiet retreat while barely being outside the city and civilization!  Unfortunately I missed the actual wedding ceremony but isn't the backdrop amazing! Talk abou...

 And we topped off my weekend with perhaps my new favorite "Close to home" hangout spot. We grabbed Subway lunches for a picnic and headed to Glen Park in Highland to catch some rays and swim! There's a natural fed Spring pond right behind Lone Peak High school that is just the perfect temperature and great size! There were kids kayaking (or other small boats and things like stand up paddle boards) They have lots of nice trails and paths around the area (pretty sure it connects to the Murdock Canal biking trail), 3-4 docks for standing and fishing off of, and there's a great little swimming area. Dogs are even allowed (but must stay on leashed.. i think they're pretty strict about this) Water feels great! All in all its a pretty nice stop for being close to my house. I can't wait to take the boys for a run around the pond and then hop in to cool off!

 On Monday we did the annual trek to SLC via the Front runner! Glad I got to attend this year! It's a steal to take the front runner in large groups and get the group pass, we paid $10 for 4 people to ride anywhere ALL. DAY. LONG. One person may pay up to like $7 for a one way ticket.. ridiculous the group pass is the way to go! BUT disclaimer.. it only becomes available after 10 AM... so morning commuters you're out of luck... sorry. We rode it up and our first stop was.... The Clark Planetarium!  I'd never actually been here but we stopped in to use their toilets and spent about an hour just exploring all the free exhibits! Like this one... We all hopped on the Moon! My other favorite involved a heat sensor. You'd put your hand down on a hot or cold plate and then down on hot or cold shapes then hold them up to the sensor and you'd have a shape in the middle of your hand! (favorites were a paw print and an eye!!! )  We also made the madatory tour abou...

 So Sunday was my dad's last day in town before heading back to Texas and we really only had till about 2 since his flight was leaving around then. We decided to spend the morning up in SLC waiting for it so after eating a nice breakfast at McDonalds we settled on visiting Heritage Park/ "This is the Place."  We enjoyed walking around/ sitting on/ climbing on some of the larger monuments for a while and in an attempt to kill time, we walked around the gift shop just long enough to not make it worth it to actually pay the entrance fees to the park itself... so we spent another hour walking around/ sitting on/ climbing on the monuments. lol  My personal favorite turned out to be this giant horse as part of the Pony Express Memorial. The metal was insanely hot on the top and I watched a couple people climb up the first enjoying a few laughs. Finally I worked up the courage to hoist up my skirt as far as modestly possible before climbing up myself. I must say I w...

So this past Monday I turned 23! WHAT! Suddenly I'm starting to feel very old! Anyways I forgo my typical camping tradition in order to spend the day with my family and they sure made it great! First off in the day was a delicious lunch at Chuckarama where we stuffed ourselves to the brim! Then onto Kevin and Koris to just hang out and digest for a bit. My sweet friend from work Stacey was out shopping and found these adorable wood buoy things you can hang and bought them for my deck! First present I've received from a friend in a longggg time! Then since I forgo camping, we went on a hike up Battle Creek Falls. I brought the boys to run and the kids all wore swimming suits so we could play in the water! Jenna, Haley, and Logan wasted no time getting right under the falls! lol We spent a while at the base of the falls and then hiked up to follow the creek for some more good spots. I love the views down the canyon once you get high above the falls. This really is on...