Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Hiking Lake Blanche

On Saturday we decided to head up the canyon and hike the Lake Blanche trail. I was glad that Jeremy made this suggestion because we haven't been hiking at all this year and it was good to get out and enjoy the mountains. Plus, we will be hiking the Subway again this year in about a month and I needed to be reminded of how hard hiking can be. This hike kicked my trash!!! I was SO sore on Sunday. Jeremy wore huge blisters into his heals and didn't complain about it once on the hike. If that had been me I would have sat on the trail and cried and demanded to be carried down the hill. Luckily he didn't do that!

We started hiking around 8 and I was glad we got up early to beat the heat because on the way down the mountain it was pretty hot and I was glad we weren't hiking uphill. The lake was beautiful, as were the mountain views. We had lunch at the top and then hiked down. It was really nice because we were done around 1 and still had the rest of the day to relax. It was a great Saturday activity.

Here are the pics:








A1A - Beachfront Avenue!!!

We recently returned from a fun getaway to Sunny Florida. We decided we needed to use up all of our free flights before Jer goes back to school so we decided to go visit family and the first trip was to Florida to visit my sister Janene and her cute family. We had a blast but were very happy to return to Utah and be out of the humidity. It was HOT in Florida. We decided that we were not built to live in that kind of heat and humidity. It was ridiculous. It is not natural to sweat that much. Just not natural.

We arrived late on a Thursday night, and because we used free flights we had to fly separately. By the time Jer arrived at our hotel in Orlando we were both famished but it was almost midnight. Luckily the front desk had a menu for a late night pizza place that would deliver and so we ordered some pizza. I don't know if it was because we were so hungry or what, but it tasted like some of the best pizza we had ever had. I ate like four pieces in about four minutes and then promptly fell asleep. Later that night I was not enjoying the pizza as much....HAHAA!

Janene and her family drove to Orlando on Friday morning and picked us up (in their swagger wagon) at our hotel to head to Disney's Blizzard Beach. We had a great time. I am so glad we decided to do a water park and not a regular park because I think I would have died of heat exhaustion. Oh course, because it was a vacation for me we had about an hour-long downpour of rain but it didn't really effect us because it was still HOT! I can't go on vacation without at least one rain storm. We had an absolute blast hanging out with Leah, Corban and Bricey at the park.



It was so much more fun having kids to play with. And those kids are little water rats, they are way more brave than I ever was or even am when it comes to those water rides.

Here are some pics from Blizzard Beach (had to steal nearly all photos from my sister)







After our fun day in Orlando we drove back to Gainesville to stay with my sister. On Saturday we headed to Crescent Beach for a fun beach day.





Jer was a great sport and let us bury him. He was even a good sport when I dropped a completely full bucket of heavy wet sand on his leg while he was trapped.

On Sunday we just spent the day relaxing in Gainesville and then on Monday we headed back to Orlando to do some outlet shopping before we were nearly cooked to death and had to go to the hotel pool to cool off. The highlight of the Orlando shopping trip was that I really wanted to eat lunch at Margarittaville because they have the most amazing nachos. I had them when I went to Hawaii and I love them and have wanted to go back ever since. Little did we know you had to park at Universal in order to get to the restaurant and before we knew it we were in the line of cars entering the park and had to pay $14 to park! So yes, we paid $14 to eat nachos plus the price of the actual nachos...pathetic I know.

Funny phrases from the trip:
1. Me to Jeremy on the drive home from the beach after Corban had a bit of a melt down: "Does this trip make you want to have kids more or less?" Jer: "Based on this car ride...less."
2. Corban to Jeremy, "Hey, Jared!"
3. We were all racing on a toboggan ride at the water park but Leah and Corban always finished last because they don't weigh as much and couldn't go as fast so we told them to pull up on the mat so they wouldn't slow down. As soon as the race finished I jumped up and ran back to where Leah and Corban had finished and Leah was so mad she said, "I pulled up just like you told me! Maybe this is as far as kids are supposed to go?" Me: "Yep that's as far as kids are supposed to go!"
4. Corban to Jeremy, "Hey Josh!"
5. Corban after Jer and I just got out of bed for the morning, "I heard Aunt Denae do a stinky in the room."
6. Corban to Jeremy, "Hey Jared!"
7. Leah talking about her upcoming school year and having to wear school uniforms, "they look like boy shirts! I can't have any sparkles or anything! I hate them."
8. Corban to his Primary class: "The best thing that happened all week was having Aunt Denae and Uncle Jeremy (got the name right) come to visit."

All in all we had a great time and realized once again that my niece and nephews are by far the cutest kids in the world!