I find myself these days compelled to sing "Sunrise, Sunset"

We took a hike to the G. Not everyone was happy about it.

Not naming any names, of course, but there may have been some members of the family who complained. Perhaps some members of the family complained the entire way.

But just look at the view (north) . . .

and this view (south) . . . We could even see the windmills in Spanish Fork.

Jennefer D. may be glad to know that this year's hike was much, MUCH better than that one on July 24th a few years ago, when I laid down in the dirt at the base of the G feeling like I just might die. Yes, this hike was pure joy. I think I may be slightly stronger and have a slightly larger lung capacity than I had then.

Lane left his sunglasses up there. He didn't remember until we were more than halfway down, and somehow didn't feel like going back up to fetch them. So I guess I owe him new sunglasses. He was a good sport to go; he's never been there before. I told him he is truly a Viking now. He only grunted at me.

We are now the somewhat-proud-mostly-bewildered parents of a dating daughter. That's weird. Really weird. She hasn't got her drivers license yet, but she is driving pretty well and is now just working on hours. She has even got a job to start next week. Am I freaking out? Why, yes. Thanks for asking.

There was NO sign saying "Only 1 per person"

In an effort to control any potential flooding this spring, Pleasant Grove City ran a huge pipe from the retention basin at the top of Grove Creek Drive, down the middle of the road, and emptying into the Murdock Canal. Although it was an inconvenience to me to have to drive all the way down to 500 East and over to 1100 North to backtrack to my parents house, which is located about 1 block north of where this pipe was, it did made a nice little attraction for us. We would walk down to check out the water several times each week, which is a little over a mile walk in each direction. It was pretty cool to see the water shooting out of this pipe. Seriously - Shooting - it was moving with a lot of force.



The pipe is still going down the middle of the road, but it is no longer moving water, and they have opened up the portions at the intersections so I don't have to take the scenic route to my parents house anymore. But we do miss seeing that water shooting out. And kudos to PG City - if there was any flooding, I never saw it. And I survived the minor inconveniece.

This is the pipe, looking up from the canal towards the mountains. The city built a few little walk ways over the pipes so people could cross from one side of the road to the other.

Our walks on the canal also provide us with occassional little treasures, like this giant puff. I guess it doesn't look so gian in a photograph, but it is WAY HUGER than a regular dandylion puff. The stems are thick and it makes them hard to pick without disturbing the puff, so it's just easier to have Addie blow it directly off the stem in the ground. They are so big it takes several blows to get the job done.

A few Saturdays ago, we took a family hike along a section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail over in Orem. It was a fun little hike, I don't know how far we went, or even how long we were there. It is apparently quite a popular trail - the parking lot was full, and we saw other hikers, bikers and even joggers while we were out.

I don't know why Jack is smiling like that.

Looking back towards the north from somewhere along the trail . . .

I neglected to take any photos of the Steel Days 5k I participated in with my old and dear friend Jennifer. We entered ourselves in the walkers division (which my kids thought was quite amazing, that there was a division just for Walkers, with a capital W, and how did Jennifer qualify for it?) figuring we could walk pretty fast. Especially for the Over 40 crowd.

Well, I guess we don't walk so fast, or maybe the walkers didn't confine themselves to walking only . . . I don't know how it all worked out, but we didn't finish quite as quickly as I had hoped. We came in just over 50 minutes, and the ladies at the scoring table just wrote down our numbers, and didn't scan the bar codes on our bibs. We thought that was weird, but figured that maybe we were so slow there was just no longer a point in scanning. We had our fresh fruit and water and left.

Later Jennifer found the standings on the AF website, and it listed names and times for everyone, except us. Even people who came in after us had times listed. I know we didn't win, but it would still be nice to have some evidence that we participated.

Jennifer says we didn't get counted because I ate two bananas.

I think we didn't get counted because I made a few snarky comments.

In any event, we were really there. And if I should do it again next year, I'm willing to bet that I will still eat two bananas and still make snarky comments. It's just who I am. :)