The temperature dropped 20 degrees from the day before we left so starting out it was about 65 degrees. But as the night when on it dropped to the 40s. Justin's toes almost froze because he wore his chacos.Our sleeping bags were toasty warm. Justin tried out a Big Agnes sleeping bag that he borrowed from work. Those bags are sick! They have a sleeve on the bottom that your thermarest slides into and has no padding/down on the bottom because the thermarest insulation keeps you warm instead. That way, you don't slide around at night because you're attached to your sleeping pad and it provides extra room that most mummy bags lack. I recommend them to anyone. As we were going to bed we discovered my year old thermarest had a leak in the stitching. LAME!! So although I was set on insulation, I had no cushioning and I woke up with a stiff back. He also borrowed a lightweight tent from work by Sierra Designs. The tent SUCKED it big time.
The engineer who designed it probably only read about camping because it had a weird design, it was awkward to assemble and the stupid fly didn't even stay attached. Lesson learned: Stick with Big Agnes tents and bags!Besides a few gear malfunctions, the view was gorgeous. I was obsessed with the wildflowers and I probably drove Justin nuts with how many pictures I took. At one point on the way up it actually snowed on us for 5 minutes. In August!!
Here is Red Pine Lake, where we camped.
And here is our friend the pot gut. 
And of course, a few jewels of the Rockies. 
My little "wee wee" toe had a really long nail that kept digging into the toe that didn't have roast beef. Without toenail clippers I had to improvise.
And this is us on the way back down.
I had to wait for Justin for three hours. Yay. 
Here he is crossing the finish line! 
I just love a man covered in spandex bearing his bare chest. So hot. Check out his hair in this picture. 
The sweat had plastered his hair in the shape of his helmet. This is our car, Giselle, by the way. Justin named her after the Brasilian supermodel because he thinks our black Subi with tinted windows is super sexy. I actually do too. 
And here he is, with bloodshot eyes, digging into a Cafe Rio salad after riding 6 hours straight. Good job babe!
Here is an example of bribery with sugar. I told Quinn if she was good I would take her out for a muffin and juice. So here we are at Starbucks while Grayson and Luke were sweating away at mountain biking camp. 
Another thing the kids and I love to do are little hikes. Even though Quinn is always jumping at the chance the hike, she's usually the one complaining about how hot or hard it is. The boys are awesome hikers and here we are throwing rocks into a stream on a trail between Jeremy Ranch and East Canyon. 
Sometimes we do lunch at the park. It's great for me because I can usually sit back and chill while the kids find little playmates. I just have to make sure the boys don't climb on everything because they're literally fearless.
And this week I brought over sugar cookie dough with food coloring and white frosting. They went nuts. Here is Luke with his "worm" cookie. 
Quinn of course wanted to make pink frosting for her cookies. 
Grayson thought it would be funny to make brown vanilla frosting to trick his dad into thinking it was chocolate.
My great great great-grandfather was Peter Maughan. 
His second wife, Mary Ann Weston Maughan married him and they came to Utah from England. Peter Maughan was asked by Brigham Young to settle Cache Valley, which is now where Logan and Utah State University is located. He has a statue downtown SLC on 300 W and 300 S. I'm pretty proud of this heritage. 
Zach and Brandi's college friends, Sveker and Becca were there with Justin's mom, Chris. 
I love this picture. It's totally Zach and Brandi's personality to light up roman candles as a couple. So romantic. 
Oakley didn't like the noises so she stood like this for over an hour. Haha. She's so adorable. I love my nieces. 
Here is my other niece, Rylee. She never smiles for anyone but her mom. This is the "Okay, I'll guess I'll sort of grin" look.
The Hawaiians used to hike up there to pray/bless only other people. So beautiful! 
We did a TON of snorkeling. We even fed the fish on mushed up wheat bread. It only took a day to get over my fear of fish. (I was stung by a jellyfish in North Carolina when I was 14--it actually got smooshed in my swimsuit.) 
We tried Saimin, a local Hawaiian noodle soup. Wasn't my fave, but it had a good flavor. (Pho is better.) 
I also fell in love with the lychee fruit. It's like a cross between raspberries and grapefruit. Holy crap that stuff is amazing.
Zach actually fell out of the raft on the biggest white water wave, Lunch Counter. My Dad learned that he loves the middle of the boat on the rapids. 
We all had a great time and I had a great birthday.
