hike to scout falls

On Saturday we went for a hike in American Fork Canyon (about a 15 minute drive from our house). Most of the canyon and mountain area are managed by the National Park Service and there are lots of hiking, mountain biking and horse riding trails. We have done several hikes here in the past, but have still not explored all the trails. From the carpark at Timpooneke campground (approx 7200ft) we hiked for about an hour up the trail to Scout Falls (approx 8200ft). I still haven't gotten used to how green everything is in the mountains in the summertime - I'm so used to seeing all in a white blanket of snow! There were dozens of wildflowers, butterflies and birds along the trail, and (being a Saturday) quite a few people too! The melting snow provides for lots of small waterfalls and streams along the trail, culminating in the "big one" at Scout Falls. From there the trail continues upward (for the more adventurous) all the way to the summit of Mt Timpanogos (11,749ft) crossing meadows, a scree slope, cirque, lake and a glacier along the way (not to mention the wreckage of an airforce B25 that crashed on the mountainside back in 1955). We're saving the hike to the summit for another day (when Heather is a bit fitter!) Never-the-less the falls and the view from 8,000ft up in the mountains still made a pretty spectacular hike.

wildflowers - american fork canyon

I've now figured out how to add a slideshow to my blog. This will allow me to put up extra pictures without taking up too much space. The slideshow below is of some of the wildflowers (and a butterfly) we saw on the trail on our hike to Scout Falls in American Fork Canyon.

friends & neighbors

It was a busy week socially this week with several of our neighbors. On Sunday my dear friend Christine invited me to go to church with her family and then to lunch at her parents afterwards. The occasion was the farewell to her younger brother Dan who is leaving to go on a two year mission for the church in Hawaii. (For those of you who don't know Utah is the world headquarters for the LDS church and a large proportion of the population here are Mormon. Serving an overseas mission is a tradition and "right of passage" for the young men in the church when they turn 19). Thank you to Christine, Jill (her Mom) and Dan for including me in this special celebration.

Our next door neighbors Shaina and Edwin own & run a deli/cafe called Maxi's in a commercial area near the airport. On Monday another neighbor Cheryl, friend Cheri and I went out for a "girls lunch" at the deli. The place was very busy we when arrived at 1pm. We had a lovely long lunch and by 2:30 it had quieted down enough that Shaina was able to come and join us. (Here's some pics of Shaina taking Cheri's order, and Cheri & Cheryl - hmm lot's of "sh" sounds in their names!)

On Thursday we had our neighbors across the street over for a BBQ. Matt & Cathy both work at IM Flash with Mark (although in different sections). They brought some lovely California wine for us to taste. We ate outside on our deck, watched the sunset on the mountains and then the twinkling lights as night set over the valley. It was a lovely evening of food, wine and good conversation.
On Friday, Christine and her husband Brad invited us over for dinner and a games night. We had some delicious Alaskan Halibut that Brad had caught himself on a recent fishing trip to Alaska with his parents & brothers. We then played a board game called "Settlers of Catan" - a new one to us involving strategy and "empire building". It was a pretty close game but Brad's superior skills err I mean superior luck won out in the end.

Thanks everyone for a week of fun and good company! (Sorry there weren't more pictures to show we were too busy having fun to remember the camera!)

twin cakes

Our neighbors Ben & Melissa have young twin daughters. When looking through my scrapbook album Melissa noticed the pictures of the fancy birthday cakes I had made for my twins Ben & Kate when they were small. I showed her my trusty Women's Weekly (Aussie magazine) "Favourite Childrens Birthday Cakes" book that I had used all those years ago and offered to help her make something from the book for Ava & Ella's next birthday. (They were turning 5 - quite a milestone for a mother of twins!) So with a "princess" theme in mind we decided to go for the "dolly varden" cake (times two of course). Basically the cake is the skirt of the doll with a Barbie look-alike inserted in the top. Unfortunately Ava is allergic to eggs, dairy and peanuts so the biggest challenge was finding a cake receipe that didn't use eggs, butter or milk! Eventually we found a vegan receipe that with some experimenting (and an extremely long cook time) turned out quite well. With a little bit of instruction on how to use the piping nozzle and bag to decorate the cake with icing rosettes Melissa soon had the girls (and herself) squealing with delight at the results. I think she did a very professional-looking job. You'd never know it was it her first attempt. For me it was a great walk down memory lane remembering the "fun" of choosing a design, having it actually turn out like the picture and seeing the delight the children had at having such a "special cake" made with love by Mom. I think the princesses had a lovely day.

jazz in the gardens

Red Butte Gardens is a local botanic garden in the foothills behind the University of Utah. There is an open air amphitheatre there and during the Summer they run a series of music concerts in the gardens. On Friday night Mark & I went to see the New York based Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Wynton is a trumpet player who has won 9 Grammy awards and is the artistic director at the Lincoln Center. He went to the same high school in New Orleans as Mark's brother & sister. We took some wine and a picnic dinner and enjoyed a very pleasant 3 hours of jazz music in the gardens in the cool of the evening as the sun went down.

4th july

I love our neighborhood! Everyone is so friendly and there is a great community spirit. For 4th July one of our neighbors organised a lunch-time BBQ and fun activities at our little neighborhood park. We started off with a 4th July street parade which involved the children (and parents) decorating their bikes, strollers, carts etc in patriotic colours and doing a lap around the neighborhood. There were some pretty ingenious decorations and the kids were so excited to be part of a procession. We then gathered at the park for fun & games like bean bag toss, water balloon throwing, face painting and 3-legged races. I don't know who had the most fun - the kids or the adults! I have to say that Christine and Melissa were outstanding at the 3-legged race (although I think they had been practicing on the sly ;-) I found it pretty hard to run and laugh at the same time. With everyone pitching in to provide shade cover, chairs, tables, gas BBQ's, entertainment and food it was a resounding success. Thanks especially to Jennifer for her hard work organising us all! In the evening Mark & I headed to Thanksgiving Point for Lehi city's fireworks display which ran for a full 30 minutes. What a wonderful end to wonderful day.