June 14, 2026

A few things I noticed this week that I was thankful for:

Watching World Cup with Mason. 

The sun lighting up the top of the mountain all green and granitey. 

Cam coming with to Costco. 

Eating raspberries from the front. 

Living close enough to walk to church. 

June 12, 2026

Good times with some work friends the last couple days. Lots of chatting and playing Flip 7 and Duke. 

Seeing an osprey flying near Midway. 

Ferns coming out with their twist leashes beginning to stretch. (We walked through the entire Jurassic park section and no one mentioned how cool the ferns were or how green it was. )

The view of Timp from Midway. 

Not having to get up to pee in the night last night. I can’t remember the last time that happened. 

Seeing Timp from the Midway side reminded me of the time many, many years ago when we stopped at Deer Creek for a minute and snapped a classic Draper photo.  (June 2008)

June 10, 2026

Made a hike to Desolation happen. Lorien and Deb came with and we had a good hike. I forgot how much I like this trail. The lake is ok but the trail is great - so green and lush with aspens and bushes and grasses. 

June 8, 2026

Got on a good hike this morning that I haven’t done for a while. I call it the Tibble loop and I love it in June. (And also in the winter.) The green is awesome and some of the mountain views from this trail are awesome. When I think about that I get these views on a 4.5 mile long trail about 30 minutes from my house, I feel very thankful. I also enjoyed sitting on a log seeing green and mountains. Sigh.

June 6, 2026

Relaxing camping day. Since we had Clayton and Sandee, we decided to forgo a hike and instead hang out with them. Lots of games played and treats eaten. I love playing games (especially Hearts which we played) at a campground and eating treats so it was a good time. We did sneak over to Cascade Springs with Clayton (which is not a 15 minute drive).

I like that campground, even though there is traffic noise during the day. The river white noise was great last night as were the temps. Not too cold and a night to sleep with the rain fly off. Thinking of all the places our $100 Coleman tent we bought at Walmart has been the past two years. Whitney Portal, Kings canyon, Rocky Mountain, arches.  Wrote them on the tent.

 

June 5, 2026

It was a good AF Canyon day.  It started with one of my favorite canyon hikes - Pine Hollow Overlook.  Or pineapple overlook.  Ha ha.  I like that hike, especially the view of the mountains from the overlook plus the amount of aspens along the trail (so very many).

Now it's time to camp at Granite Flat.  Site 51 is a good double site (would stay here again).  Clayton and Sandee are staying with us, as are Rylie and Cole.  The rest of the family came to visit and hang out.

I especially enjoyed eating a delicious hot dog roasted over the fire.  That would usually seem like an oxymoron - delicious and hot dog, but it was really good.  (Thanks to Mason for roasting it for me.)  We also played games (lots of Rookish). Clayton said he once scored 715 in that game even though you only score by 10s.  I called him on it and we all laughed.  Later, Cole couldn't stop giggling after Clayton did something funny.

June 4, 2026

It’s been an awesome first bit of summer. We’ve had lots of fam time. I’ve done puzzles (with Rylie), games with some kids, Dr Mario, froyo, dinner at the Randalls, our hike and lunch, and a bit of “Do Nothing Day”. The only downside is poor Cam’s wisdom teeth recovery. It’s been rough but after a week she’s finally feeling OK. Not great, but OK.