Mill D Basin

This is a post that has been meant for a while but I just haven't gotten around to it and so, in keeping with the proud tradition of posting nothing and then posting a bunch, here we go. My uncle Paul and I took a meeting on October 1st. Now people say that all meeting are bad. Those people have not had meetings like this:
















If you were wondering, yes, we took this picture to prove that work was going on at out meeting, and yes, I was actually talking on the phone with work while mountain biking. They say that talking while driving is dangerous... As to the meeting locale, here was the view from my cell phone spot:
















We rode up from Guardsman's Pass past the backside of 9990 lift at the Canyons, down past Desolation Lake and then dropped down Mill D North Fork. I have done this ride several times into upper Millcreek canyon and it is a blast but Mill D puts that to shame. Millcreek is beautiful but the downhill on Mill D was very interesting. As in lose it by an inch to the left side and fall about 50'. Anyway it was a lot of fun and I realized that I want to ride in the mountains more. Anyone who wants to do this ride here is a nice free trail guide.

And now, without further ado, a couple more pictures of what might be the most beautiful fall leaves that I have ever seen in Utah.


















Yes, The trail was like this the whole time. Think speeder bikes on Endor in the fall.

















A little self-indulgence. I just thought this was a cool picture.


















One of the many signs you see. For the record, we took the detour up to Dog Lake from here. let me tell you that it felt like a whole lot more than .6 miles unless that was a measurement of the vertical gained.

















And here is Dog Lake. Not a bad little reward for a brutal climb.






















I love the color in this picture but the crazy thing is that this wasn't a particularly nice spot, it was just the one we chose to stop in. The trail was like the whole way.

We're done!

Hooray, Lizzie got her cast off yesterday and everything has healed nicely. She was, as always, very good about the whole thing. This last month she got around just as easily as ever dragging the cast behind her. She didn't flinch yesterday as they sawed it off and x-rayed again. The funniest part is that she won't bend her leg. She is still crawling around like her cast is on with her one leg stretched out to the side. I'm just waiting to see how long it takes her to figure out she can walk now.

One last picture with the cast

the removal

My leg!

A little confused on the whole crawling thing now

Camping (sort of) and a Bit of a Monologue

Yesterday I came home from work to a car full of girls. One in the passenger seat and two in car seats in the back. Natalie told me to go change fast and get in the car. I had no idea where we were going. Once we started up American Fork canyon I got a clue. When we got up there we roasted hot dogs and had some other camping type of food. Natalie and Addie walked around the picnic site because Addie heard dragons and Lizzie stared fixedly at the fire (that's my girl.) After that we walked along the little nature walk in the dark. Addie thought the idea of night hiking was about the coolest thing ever. However she was not happy when we got in the car and not the tent. We didn't have the camera, hence no pictures, but the story is pretty good.

Now please excuse me while I opine for a second but sometimes I get so into doing the big things that I forget about jumping the car and going to have a picnic or similar activities. I guess I see going into the mountains as a departure from reality and not a part of it which is so funny seeing as though we are closer to the canyon than a lot of people are to a park. I am all about doing the big things but I realized that a lot of my best memories from growing up are times when we just decided to jump in the car and head outside for a couple of hours. Now, mind you, there were dishes to be done and the back lawn needs to be mowed more than my hair did freshman year, but those things are still there today and we have some memories of roasting hot dogs in the fall and fighting dragons. Alex, I do not expect you to be OK with this.

Maybe these realizations come as a result of gas prices and all of the other crap forcing us to look at staying home when we would have been out of town in a heartbeat but, whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes he stood there on Christmas Eve... oh wait, different story.

Dance class and the very mean mom

Disclaimer: the contents of this entry will probably not be nearly as funny to you as they were to me.

Addie started a dance class this month and I think we are finally getting it down. The first time she wanted to go to the bathroom the whole time. The second week she left the house while I was getting out of the shower and headed off to class by herself. This week we BOTH walked to class with me properly dressed rather then throwing random clothes on and running down the street with wet hair yelling at her. We got there and she walked in then slammed the door shut in my face. I tried to open it and she said, "good bye go away I don't need you". I guess that counts as a success.

Lately Addie has decided that whenever she doesn't want to do anything she says that she can't because she is too scared. So, yesterday I was dropping off Nick's Mom and Addie started to cry and says, "Nana don't leave I am too scared." His mom asks what are you scared of and Addie says, "I am scared of my mean mom please don't leave me with her." Great I am the mean mom with one kid afraid to be alone with me and the other in a cast. Next thing I know DCFS will be at my door.

Moving up

Yesterday Addie graduated from this:
to this:

Lizzie was not impressed I'm thinking her next one will be this:

Lizzie's Leg

Now that the impact has been made with he previous post the details...

The break was a buckle fracture which is basically a bend in the bone
It was near the bottom of either the tibia or fibia (can't remember which)
There will not be any long-term effects from the break
She will have the cast for four weeks
It has done very little to slow her down

Sure Enough

Lizzie is kind of a monkey. She likes to climb everything and I finally taught her how to go up and down the stairs about a month ago rather then fight her off. Well she fell down them on Tuesday and I would love to say that this is the first time, but I'm afraid she is one of those kids that always has a bruise somewhere. I pretty much ignored it after she stopped crying because like I said she tends to get herself beat up one way or another on a daily basis, but I did notice her favoring her leg. Nick came home and pointed it out and then Wednesday she wouldn't put any weight on it. So off to the Dr.'s we went and a couple x-rays later and some waiting (several days) and we came home with ............................











this