Cecret Lake

"Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled." -Mohammed

Before my friend left, I took some of her advice: I decided to explore Utah a little more. Plus, I just bought a car, so I don't have as much money to travel far for long periods of time. I bought a book called 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Salt Lake City. It's the greatest little book with 60 hikes detailed out from what type of wildlife you'll encounter, how much water to bring, elevation gain/loss, etc. I'm not a good hiker. At all. Hiking really hurts my hips and I have to be careful which trails I choose to explore. I perused through the book and found a little up-and-back hike to Cecret Lake (not sure why it's not "Secret" Lake, but whatever). 

I decided to take off after work one day to do this hike. Although I was going to hike by myself, I knew I wasn't going to be alone. This is a super popular hike and there were a bunch of people on the trail: families with kids, teenagers, people with photographers, and various other solo hikers. The trail is just about 1 mile (1.6 km), with the last little bit a straight-up climb over rocks. Even though there were tons of people on the trail and up at the lake, it didn't ever seem crowded. There was plenty of space along the banks to feel secluded. 

Of course, I brought along my GoPro and took some awesome shots!

This happened to be a popular shot for family photo shoots

May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.

Even though it is later in the season, there were TONS of flowers everywhere!

Got to watch the sunset for a bit before heading back down

"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world." -Gustave Flaubert

So much of what you are is where you've been.

4th of July Weekend

I. Love. Fireworks. I've always loved them. Most people I know love them as well. I have been spoiled, working at Disney. Every night, for 3 years, I got to watch amazing firework shows. Even before then, we had awesome fireworks at BYU-Idaho. When I lived in Idaho, I loved that we could set off fireworks for the 4th and 24th of July. I would always save my money for months in order to purchase a handful of fireworks. Now that I'm living in Utah, I still save up a few months to spend way too much on them. The best part? I love that my niece is old enough to stay up and light some with me!

Last year I was on the other side of the world and wasn't able to set off my own fireworks. I wanted to make up for it this year, so I flew my "little" brother, Curtis, up for the weekend. I had most of the fireworks purchased, but let him pick out a big finale firecracker. He didn't disappoint.

We spent a lot of time in Provo with our sister's family and Curtis got to meet his nephew. It was really precious to see the 2 together. And the girls loved that he was so tall and could jump on their "horsey" whenever he was close to the ground or a couch. We also went to the Provo street fair and cooked in the sun. Awesome.

Mass photo upload in 3...


2......






1....................

Of course we got them animal balloons! Unicorns to be exact...

Wasn't too sure about Iron Man at first...

She wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel, and was okay until we got about halfway up. Poor thing!

Life is hard...

Oh, he's getting so big! He doesn't sit still any more...I put him on his back and turned around...

I guess I should explain the next few pictures. Russ's work has Nerf wars all of the time, so he's always on the lookout for blasters. He and Curtis went up to Cottonwood Heights to pick up a few monsters...

Little girlies couldn't really hold them up for very long...

E couldn't wait to get ahold of one of the sparklers!

#nofear

Big girl got to help light a few of the smaller fireworks (mainly flowers)

Curtis liked to light 6-8 flowers at a time

E with cute neighbor friend

Favorite of the night...the huge crab!

Curtis picked out a huge firework that ended up being simply AMAZING!

The end result...and a few of them had warnings to douse immediately, since they tend to relight spontaneously!

Couldn't help but give the girlies tons of glowsticks!

Curtis' final meal in Utah this trip: he treated me to Five Guys...

Bubble Run 2015

As part of my Yes Year, Jane suggested that we sign up for the Bubble Run 5k. This was the first time that it was going to be in Salt Lake City and it sounded like fun. Plus, it wasn't too pricey to sign up. At the last minute, we got Wendy to sign up too! It was so much fun to run through the bubble bogs and run past the strollers...although I usually question my choice to run a 5k about halfway through the race...

Once again, I brought my GoPro and put it to work. I love it! Get ready for picture overload!