Matthew and Mom Time

During the 2nd week of June, Andrew went to camp every morning and Matthew and I had 3 hours with just the two of us.  I always have a little mom guilt about Matthew not getting enough attention, so it was a lot of fun to have a few hours with him for several days in a row.  We spent some of it just hanging out at home, where Matthew seemed to really enjoy actually playing with a toy for an extended period of time without Andrew grabbing it from him (we're working on it, but these lessons take time and apparently lots and lots of practice).  I also enjoyed running a few errands with only 1 little person.  But, our grand finale day on Andrew's last day of camp, was a hike to Doughnut Falls up in Big Cottonwood Canyon!

Here's the stats for the Doughnut Falls Hike:
Length: 1.4 miles round-trip
Elevation Gain: 337 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Hiking Time: 1-2 Hours

This hike is known around here as a great hike with kids or for visiting family that's not interested in anything strenuous (I don't have any family like that, do I?).  While Matthew and I were on our way back during the hike, we saw a whole preschool class hiking it.  You get rewarded with a beautiful waterfall after less than a mile of hiking--what a win-win!

Here's the pictures from the hike:

I started with Matthew in the carrier, but then decided to see how well he could hike:

Quality bonding time at the falls!

A little bit of the view of the waterfall in the background:

"Wa Wa!" "Rock!"  What else could a 20-month-old want?

Matthew hiked the entire way back to the car!  He thought the downhills were fun and kept saying, "Wheee!" as he stumbled over rocks while I held his hand.

I'm starting to get more brave about heading up to the mountains with the kids while B is at work.  I'm looking forward to finding more family-friendly hikes to explore!

Hiking Mt Olympus

I think the most recognizable peak in SLC is Mt Olympus.  We can see it from our dining room windows and it's always in the background when I run errands.  It's the mountain in the background of this picture:

B's had a goal of hiking to the top of Mt Olympus since we moved here last summer, but we needed the year to get our endurance and skill up so we could actually conquer this thing.  We started the home search here a few months ago and the winner is actually located at the base of Mt. Olympus.  Well geez, we couldn't buy a house with a beautiful view of Mt. Olympus if we hadn't actually stood at the top, right?  (What?  Doesn't everyone think like this?)  So...we climbed it!

Here's the stats of the climb:
Length: 7 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 4,060 feet
Difficulty: Hard
Hiking Time: 5-7 Hours

Did you see that?  This hike was tough!  The trailhead is only 15 minutes from our house (5 min from future house).  We got there around 10, reached the top around 1:30, and were back at our car around 4:15.  There were a few points along the way that I didn't think I'd make it, but the great thing about hiking is that you can always sit, rest, drink some water, eat a snack, and then feel great to start again.

Here's some pictures from the hike:

A lot of our day looked like this:

 B suggests this replace Belmont Harbor (Chicago) as "our spot."

Still alive and happy with some PB&J at the top!

So, we wanted to climb this and look down off the peak into our new neighborhood.  But, where we thought we'd see our neighborhood, all we could see was another tall rocky edge.  We didn't know if this was another mountain or what, but finally figured it out.  It turns out there's a higher point BEHIND the face we can see from the new house!  I was a little bit south of the city the other day and snapped this picture:

That's the back side of Mt. Olympus.  See the tallest point?  That's where we were!  All that stuff to the left of it was blocking the view to our new neighborhood!  So frustrating! Anyway, I still think we get to look out our front window, point to Mt. Olympus and let everyone who visits know that we stood up there.  That's not obnoxious at all, right?

Oh--and for those of you who just read this to see the kids, here's a picture for you:

(Baking soda, food coloring, vinegar, and a medicine dropper makes sizzling art!  Thanks to Lindsay from Pittsburgh for this great idea!)

Historic Wheeler Farm!

This morning, the kids and I headed out to a farm about 15 minutes from home.  Wheeler farm is a real working farm that is in a beautiful setting with huge trees, mountain views, and a creek running through it.  It is free for visitors to wander through and if we ever show up around 5pm, we can pay $1 to milk a cow!

The boys had a lot of fun seeing cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, turkeys, chickens and baby chicks, and lots of geese and ducks.

Oh, and did I mention that they got to sit on a tractor?

They have several empty kid-sized houses:

Bridge over the creek (Andrew testing what happens to leaves when they land on a stream):

Bunnies!

Matthew squatted down to look at the chicks and said, "HI!!"

Mmmm...Bacon

Sorry for the lack of posts recently!  We've been busy, but definitely have a few mountain adventures to post about soon!  For now, I can still smell the bacon from dinner and thought it was really important for me to share the really easy way I make bacon.  I read this method forever ago and I can't remember the source, but I do know that the bacon cooks evenly and with very little mess--no grease spattering everywhere while the bacon cooks and none of that curling problem where it's raw in some places and crispy in others.

The perfect way to cook bacon:

1.  Preheat oven to 425.
2.  Line a cookie sheet with foil and then put a cooling rack on top.
3.  Line up the bacon in a single layer on the cooling rack.
4. Throw it in the oven for 20-35 minutes (depending on how crispy you like it and the thickness of the bacon)

That's it!  All the grease will end up on the foil and the bacon is evenly cooked.  Enjoy!