Beat The Heat...Head To The Mountains

After church today we decided to head up to Snowbird to get away from the blazing Utah sun.  We have been there before in the summer, but not to take advantage of all Snowbird has to offer.  Today we decided to take the tram to the top of the mountain - what a thrill that is!  The view facing up the mountain is as awesome as the view out the back!

We looked around at the summit and then decided to hike the rest of the way down instead of returning to the lodge via the tram or the flying sofa (aka chair lift).  We were prepared with the back pack for Kendall so we figured why not?

We hiked down from 11,000 feet to 7,760 to the base.

Looking over the back side of Snowbird

These beauties were growing at 11,000 feet and had a fantastic view to boot!

If you look behind the boys, you can see the Salt Lake valley in the distance.

Yes, that's snow he's standing in on August 1st!

What a beautiful view we had the entire way down!  I must admit that Andy and I are starting to feel old...his knees were aching about half way down from the steep descent and my back was killing me with Sissy in the back pack.  But we survived.  Riley hiked the whole way down with little to no complaints.  He needed to take a few breaks, but for a tired 6 year old, I was impressed.  There were lots of beautiful wildflowers that made the trip worthwhile!

My boys, hand in hand, discussing the scenery

I actually took this pic while holding my DLSR with her on my back because she was begging for her picture taken...she NEVER begs for it taken so I had to take advantage of the opportunity!

To reward ourselves, we split some "chocky cream" once we made it back to the Snowbird Center.  We also took the kids on the Alpine Slide.  Kendall decided she'd rather ride the zipline while we were waiting in line for our sleds!  That's my girl!  Unfortunately she'll have to wait a few more years before she can do that!  We both had to take them on our laps and tried to race down the slide.  I love that my boy figured out he and Dad had the best chance of winning because they weighed more than the girls!  I'm happy to report that they only won by a small margin.  As soon as we got off, Sissy said "More slide Mom?"  Both kids wanted to ride again, and we would have if it wasn't already 5:30 and we had dinner waiting at home in the crock pot!  We have tickets for another trip down the slide so maybe we'll head back up there next weekend.