I love the mountains!

I forget how much I enjoy being in our mountains until I'm there and within minutes I become giddy. Maybe it's the fresh air or taking in the amazing scenery, but it takes me to a happy place! This past Wednesday, I went with Amanda's class field trip snowshoeing! It was in Big Cottonwood Canyon at the Spruces campground. First off, I love coming back to Salt Lake and my old stomping grounds. A lot of the people we live by are all from Davis Co. and points north. Not many grew up or even ever lived in Salt Lake. We drove our friends, Jeni & Lizzie, and had a good time showing them a few of the places that make up our story in SLC. They were good sports and humored me. (I know it's sounds like we live much further than the 30 minutes outside of Salt Lake, but it's crazy how little we head south).

Mike 'made' me drive his new truck. He really did have to encourage me to take it. Not because I don't like to drive it, but I was nervous about hurting/scratching/crashing/spilling in his new car. He knew that Amanda really wanted to take it, so he made sure I was on board. I was just grateful we didn't have to ride the bus. Not my thing....not Jeni's thing either, so we picked up she and Liz and they were great company! One reason it was so fun to be with them is because Jeni likes to dance and sing like I do and it embarrasses the girls. Jeni's family is going to the Justin Bieber movie with us on Friday and so we were practicing our moves....

Back to the snowshoeing...after meeting up with the bus people, we grabbed some snowshoes and got all strapped up! We haven't snowshoed before and so we were excited! (Here is Amanda giving me another non-smile for a picture-never gets old)...After getting divided into groups and getting a little orientation on walking with snowshoes (backward is a hard direction to go) and what to do if we encounter a moose, we followed our guide, Richard, into the trees.

Now, Richard is part of a volunteer group that takes school classes, etc. snowshoeing. But, I think we did a lot more listening to Richard tell us how to identify squirrel tracks, identify species of trees and giving a 'you are the future of this canyon...save the trees' lecture than actual snowshoeing. I'm all for saving the trees and such, but a little more walking around in the snowshoes would have been highly welcomed. A couple of dads came along who were obviously big-time into snowshoeing as evidenced by their equipment...their own shoes, poles, etc. I could see disappointment written all over their faces about 10 minutes into our walk as they realized we would be standing and listening to Richard more than exploring.

There was a little excitement when Richard was trying to explain how the animals use their energy wisely during winter months. He had the kids line up and then race while wearing their ss. Amanda did great and I love this picture of her below!

Richard was really starting to lose the kid's attention when he started talking about aspens. Amanda and Liz just took a seat....Luckily, lunch was next and we headed back to the 'car park' as Richard (from England) said.

After lunch, the kids went to this big hill (it reminded Amanda and me of the sand hill at Lake Powell) and spent the rest of the time sliding down! Even the teachers did it....we have awesome 6th grade teachers! Jeni and I spent a lot of time helping kids get their snowshoes back on (Jeni more than me-but I still did enough that I couldn't feel my fingers), and getting their hands warm again and were amazed at some of the boys who were actually crying. Below, you will see a picture of Amanda crashing after sliding down the hill and there weren't any tears from ANY of the girls involved....It was Ryan Summers' birthday and his mom, Sherry brought up a cake to share...and we got to sing again!

Amanda hiking up following Jake Bisk...

Amanda on her last time sliding down!Crash at the bottom!
She loved it! So much fun!

What? Another picture?

After we got down the canyon, we stopped at the 7-11 and grabbed some hot chocolate. We left the girls in the truck because their boots were off. They grabbed my camera and did some self-portraits and pictures of the inside of the truck....

And, a picture of Jeni and me coming out of the 7-11 on our way back to the truck! We took the old school road back to the freeway....not the fancy freeway junction. The road took us right past Mike's parent's house, so I showed Jeni where Mike grew up and then pointed out the direction I grew up. Mike had taken the afternoon off to be home with Brandon and they had a great time, too....they of course went to sushi for lunch because Brandon's says that's what they do on their boy's days/nights...