What We've Been Up To...

On Labor Day weekend, we had our first measurable rain since early June (yes, that's about 3 months! Don't you wish you lived here?!?!). This was such a novelty that the kids played outside in it for quite a while and had a blast. They were soaked but typical kids, they didn't care at all.
Quinn's favorite thing to do was put a stick or something in the gutter and follow it downstream until he couldn't see it anymore.
And here's a picture of Keely so you can see just how wet she got. And if you're wondering, she has a rain jacket over a bathing suit, which is her favorite summer attire and she was wearing it that day even though there was no chance of a trip to the pool. Imagine wanting to be in a bathing suit, it's been years for me!
Since that rain, the weather has been cooler but still summer like. There's a chill in the air in the mornings and evenings and the days are warm but there is a hint of fall. I love this time of year. On Saturday, we went to a park up near the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and took a little walk along the paved trail. Here's Keely posing as usual for the camera :)
And here are Quinn and Keely, posing nicely on a bench sheltered in the trees along the path.
I like this picture because it looks like Keely is deep in thought while looking out across the valley.
After we took our walk, we went to another park that is closer to our house. The kids really enjoy this park and we can bike there too, which we do sometimes. I like this picture of Quinn, he's always been a good "monkey" and his face is so funny as he concentrates to get to the next bar.
Now if you know Keely at all, this is one of her typical faces. Perhaps she gets it from me, I think a lot of the faces she makes are actually things she sees me do.
The next day on Sunday, Quinn announced that he wanted to go hiking. I love that he chooses that as an activity -- especially since it's something James and I enjoy doing. We decided to go up into Big Cottownwood Canyon and try a new hike that James tried back in April with Lois and Ryan. It's a hike called Mule Hollow, and it's not a beaten path. Supposedly, if you took it all the way, you would get to an old mine. Anyways, here's Quinn on the way uphill posing on some rocks. It amazes me that he's quite the ham now, and loves his picture taken. It wasn't always that way with him.
The trail became pretty hard to find at points and Quinn decided to make a rock cairn (not sure if I am spelling that right but it's a pile of rocks that shows you where to continue on the trail). Here he is posing in front of it.
We walked for about an hour until we really couldn't go any further because we would have needed machetes. Truly the forest was so dense and the branches were smacking us. So we turned around and headed back down. Here are the kids sitting on a down tree.
And then here's Mom joining them. Lucky James is always taking the pictures and not in many of them :)
So it was a good hike, about 2 hours total of walking. I initially was disappointed that we didn't "get" anywhere but along the way I realized that just being in the outdoors is actually "being" somewhere and the journey can be just as much fun as the destination. The little lizards, and seeing waterbugs in the trickle of water, and listening for wildlife in the forest...all those things make it an adventure and it was a good one.

Oh, and also I wanted to point out that Keely is wearing the same outfit in all of the pictures. Here's a quirk that makes her unique -- she loves this outfit, and the cardigan is actually one of her baby clothes that she wore when she was about 3 months old. I saved a number of her baby clothes and once she found out that they were up in her closet, she had to have them down. Initially she would use them to dress babydolls but it migrated to trying to squeeze her 4 year old body into as many as she could. And this shirt is one that actually fits her, and looks pretty cute since it's now about half sleeves and a cute cardigan. No one would ever guess that's it a 6 month size shirt! Funny Keely, she cracks me up :)