The day before Adam got back from Alaska – I got a facebook message from my wonderful friend Katie and her husband Eks inviting us to go camping with them. Adam and I absolutely LOVE these friends and were super excited to do something with them, but we’d already planned our big 3 week trip to Canada the next day and weren’t sure how we’d work it in. “Where are you going camping?” I asked and found out that they actually were pretty flexible with their plans and were actually thinking of heading North towards Idaho or Wyoming. It also just happened to work out that they had the following week off too and were trying to figure out where to vacation. Wow!
So I mentioned our tentative plans to Katie about spending some time at our Logan cabin for Harry’s birthday, and then heading over to Idaho to see Shoshone Falls and Craters of the moon, and then going to Flathead lake and then to Canada, and wouldn’t you know it – they had been thinking of visiting several of those places too!
So Katie talked to Eks and I talked to Adam and crazy enough we were able to coordinate our plans so that we could spend some of our vacation together! It was awesome! And both Adam and I were super excited to be able to have some “friend time” mixed in with our vacation instead of 3 weeks of straight “family time.” Heaven knows that was going to be challenging!
The next day (Friday) Adam got home from Alaska, and after cleaning the house and doing some last minute packing (I’d been packing all week) we headed out with our tent trailer in tow for day one of our 3 week adventure! Our first stop? Logan Canyon.
We ended up leaving around 3 or 4 if I remember right, and then we stopped in Brigham City for pizza and Logan for groceries before heading up the canyon. Then Katie and Eks met us up at the cabin just a few hours later. It worked out perfectly.
That first night was a little crazy just trying to get kids to bed (they were all so excited to be at the cabin) but after we finally got them all down we enjoyed a few minutes of adult time and then headed to bed ourselves. Hiking was on the agenda for the next day so we all wanted a good nights rest.
We ended up having cereal for breakfast, and then after getting kids all ready and making sandwiches for lunch, we headed up to Tony Grove to do some hiking. It was actually PACKED when we arrived which caused us to have to get creative with our parking spaces, but we both lucked out and were able to actually park in the parking lot instead of along the road further away. We then thought it best to eat BEFORE we hiked so that we wouldn’t have to pack around all the food, so we found a big rock and set out all the food. Here we all are having our picnic lunch in the middle of the parking lot.
We had originally all planned to hike around the lake, (which both Katie and I had been looking forward to) but after Adam and Eks discovered another harder hike up to a peak – they came up with the idea to let Katie and I hike around the lake by ourselves while they took all the kids on the harder hike to the peak. Katie and I were ALL for that idea seeing as it would give us some kid free time – so Adam Eks and the kids went one way, while Katie and I went the other ! Below are a few pics of us before we split up.
Then Katie and I were off on our own little hike just the two of us!
We were both just in Heaven being in the mountains and couldn’t believe all the beautiful flowers everywhere. The pictures just don’t do this place justice. It is amazing!!!
We had to laugh too because after about 30 minutes we realized we were over halfway done with our hike (which happens when you don’t have a bazillion kids you are helping and waiting for) and and so we stopped for a little while to talk and catch up on each others lives. I loved just getting to have me some Katie time and really enjoyed hearing all the great things Katie is doing with her life and as a mother. She is one amazing lady! And I loved how goal orientated she was. We had some really great talks!
If I remember right we decided to meet back up with the boys after 1.5 hours – and wouldn’t you know it, we actually both arrived back in the parking lot at almost the exact same time! Sa-weet! So we had a few snacks and drinks and then headed back to the cars to drive home.
Here are some pics of the Dad’s and kids hike from Adam’s phone.
The rest of the night we spent cooking up some of Adam’s Alaskan Salmon for dinner, and enjoying the zip line Adam’s Aunt left up for us. Then that evening after we put kids to bed us adults ended up staying up until almost 2 am talking! We just were having too much fun and couldn’t pull ourselves away from such an awesome conversation! We sure do love these friends of ours! We were so glad they had been able to come!
