A lot of pictures of beautiful Fall foliage

Monday night we realized it was possibly the last warm night left of the summer and we needed to take advantage of it to go on our yearly visit in Cascade Springs.
We had a GREAT trip. The colors driving up the canyons of the Wasatch Mountains were spectacular!!
And we had a great time together - no stroller needed and everyone was very mobile and excited to be there. I think our kids are possibly the perfect ages right now. We need to capitalize on this time of our lives.
In the past, Spencer's favorite part of the trails has been the signs posted a long the way. This time David added his own love of all the signs and they enthusiastically stopped at each one.
The next day I asked David what his favorite part of our trip up to Cascade Springs had been. He answered, "The signs." I should have guessed.

After we took a family picture, I turned around just as Sister Silvia Allred walked past. Without even thinking I suddenly said, "Oh Sister Allred! I loved your talk on Saturday night!" (Sister Allred is one of the leaders of the women's organization of our Church and there had been a women's conference broadcast just two nights before.) She was SO sweet and happy to take a picture with our girls.(You can see Sister Allred and her husband ahead of us on the trail in this picture.)

I don't know when I've seen the colors look more beautiful up there. About 5 or 6 years ago there was a forest fire that consumed a lot of the trees around the upper part of the springs. You can still see a lot of dead wood in this picture, but I love the contrast of the changing colors on all the new growth coming in.

Here are some pictures of the drive up American Fork canyon.

Did I mention the spectacular colors?

Backside of Mount Timpanogos - the mountain we could see from our front yard of our Orem house. I love all of the gold aspens.

Back to Wildwood.

A few more summer pictures from way back in July. But this was one of our favorite summer memories and we took a billion pictures, so we had to share them. Last summer we were introduced to Wildwood at our cousin Norah's blessing. But we were all wearing church clothes and couldn't really partake of all the wonders to enjoy there. So we always dreamed of going back.
Well, while my sister Sarah, her husband Nathan and Norah were here this summer enroute from Manhattan to their new home in California, they invited us to spend the afternoon at Wildwood with them! Wildwood is a fabulous old cabin up Provo Canyon on a fork of the Provo River. (Just down the river a bit from Sundance Resort.) While this place is not as glamorous as Sundance, it has more personality and rustic charm. The cabin was built by Nathan's grandparents, the Paxmans, in the 1960s, right next to the 1920's cabin that Shirley Paxman lived at every summer growing up. The Paxmans have a cool old home in downtown Provo, but spend their entire summer up here every year.

The boys looking down from the tree house.

The cabin itself has a back deck that is literally on the river. The water was high and moving fast because of all the rain earlier in the summer, but the Paxmans have dammed-off a portion to create a shallow pool for the kids to play in. There is also a rope bridge to cross to the other side.

There are also lots of wood scraps, hammers and nails for building all kinds of creations.

And good places for taking naps.

It is the perfect getaway from the heat of July - and only 20 minutes from our house. The canyon is so much cooler and the breeze off the river is heavenly.

After Norah woke from her own nap, she joined us.
I love this picture with her great-grandparents in the background.
They are pretty amazing for a couple in their nineties!

We had a splendid afternoon.

And then it was time to say good-bye.

And not just to Wildwood, but to the Bowens as they headed off for their new adventures in California. We miss having the great excuse to visit Manhattan (and place to stay!) but it's nice to have them that much closer and look forward to seeing them more often. Like this past week. :)

Other Summer Pictures

Now that Labor Day weekend is here, it's hard to believe that summer is officially over! It was a busy summer and we really made the most of it - and even still didn't get to everything or everyone on our list. Such is life, I suppose. At times I felt so exhausted I didn't know how I would survive. And other times I didn't want it to end. Ah the complexities of summer.
So here are a few more of our outings. All deserve a post of their own, but since it's not going to happen, we'll just mention everything all at once. This was quick (and short - it was HOT) trip to Wheeler Farm while Sarah was in town.A summer trip to Gardner Village. Sadly, we didn't make it to This is the Place State Park this year. So we planned a quick trip to Gardner village to make up for it.
Another quick feild trip with the kids was to the Church Art and History Museum in downtown Salt Lake. Once again I got a lot of grief in the car on the way there about not wanting to go and once again (just like our trip to the Conference Center) the kids had a great time. [Will they ever learn to trust me? I suspect not.] There was a really fun hands-on exhibit for kids where they got to do and create a lot of things. I reccommend it for a fun little outing.

We found David asleep like this one night.
He was turned to his favorite story: Captain Moroni.

Another day I found the boys like this reading library books.

We spent the 24th of July (Utah's state holiday) at our favorite spot: Payson Lake with some friends, the Kapps. Unfortunately we both forgot cameras. I was kicking myself because it was such a beautiful day. But you can see pictures of last year here.

We also celebrated with some fireworks at home later that night.

Swimming lessons were another big part of our summer - like the whole month of July. We took lessons this year at the new Lindon city pool. A gorgeous setting and only 5 minutes away from our house made it perfect. Also perfect, I got to sit and enjoy the ambiance by myself for the first time ever while the kids swam.

And the kids learned a lot! They loved it so much (and so did I) that for the first time ever we also signed-up for a second round.

Catherine learning to dive.

David really loved his class and made a lot of progress. Now our biggest worry is that he's TOO comfortable in the water. Every day he'd run towards the pool yelling, "Cannon in the hole!" - a combination of "Cannon ball!" and "Fire in the hole!"

View from the pool. Felt like a resort.

Happy summer 2009! Cannon in the hole!