Halloweenies

Our last minute costumes for the night... Luckily my husband is a handy man and had a tool belt for me and the most radical hard hat... And even Luckier that Chris inherited his dad's old Air Force get up.. I love Halloween so much but we didn't really get to celebrate much... good think it'll be back again next year.

Ecuador

Chris and I finally took advantage of our flight benefits in October and went to Ecuador.  It was pretty quick but totally awesome and definitely worth it.  Chris had been there before when he was in high school (he and his brother went to visit their dad who was down there with the Air Force for a bit).  Chris has always wanted to go back, so we did.  Thankfully Chris is fluent in Spanish, because I hardly remember anything from my high school Spanish classes... and without him I would have been one lost little girl.  We got to Quito late on a Tuesday night and woke up to this beautiful city.

We ate breakfast on the roof of our hostel overlooking the city and then left to find the middle of the world.  A couple of buses later we found ourselves at the equator.  The sun really does seem so much brighter there...

After we got our fill of the northern and southern hemisphere's border, we hopped on a couple more buses which took us to Otavalo.

Our hostel was awesome AND it welcomed us with a robot.  My dream come true. 

 

The owner of the hostel recommended a restaurant for us... he said it was "a little pricey" but really nice.. we asked how much it was and he told us $5 or $6... We told him we could handle it just this once... and they came out with this beauty of a meal.  

The next day we got on a bus and then hopped in the back of some man's truck (accompanied by a solo traveler from France that smelled lovely) and headed up to Laguna de Cuicocha.  It was probably my favorite part of the trip.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  A huge crater lake surrounded by huge volcanic mountains...

Then we headed down to a couple of little towns and walked around the market... and found this really cool church.

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Later that day we went on a little walk along some old train tracks to a waterfall just outside of Otavalo.  It was really pretty and even bigger than I had imagined.

At the top of the big waterfall was a little cave we crawled through to find another smaller waterfall. 

Later on that day we walked a little bit further to the country to check out a couple more towns... it started raining on us for a good portion of it but we were determined to get there... We ran across an LDS church on the way too.  It was brand new and probably the nicest building we'd seen in that area... out in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere.. but it's pretty cool to know that there's something familiar no matter where you go. 

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Our last day we packed up and headed back to Quito to hang out for a bit before our flight home.  It was a holiday in Ecuador so there was a lot going on.  We stopped by

By the time is was time to head to the airport we were pretty tuckered out.  I think Chris might have been born in the wrong country... because he probably wouldn't have minded too much if we stayed permanently. 

The trip was awesome though and I'm so glad we got to go.  So grateful we were able to go and enjoy a different part of the world for a few days. 

Sunset Peak

A few weeks back, before the weather started getting cold, Chris and I and some friends went on a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  We were originally just going to hike to these three lakes called Mary, Martha and Catherine... but we decided to go up a little further to Sunset Peak.  Definitely worth it...The view was incredible.

Chris and Neal found a raft

I made Chris take me out on it but I didn't last long because the water was freezing!

Chris took a little more of an adventurous way to get to the top of this rock.

Our view from the top... Utah is beautiful.

Chris' 30th and Kings Peak

Chris turned 30 at the end of August and I'm just now posting the pictures... better late than never though, right??  We had some cake the night before so that the next morning we could leave bright and early for the High Uintas.  Chris has always wanted to hike King's Peak, and his birthday weekend was the perfect opportunity. 

 

I was a little apprehensive seeing as I hadn't ever really done a real backpacking trip before.  This hike was 28 miles round trip... to the highest peak in Utah... and we were going to do it in 3 days.

I put a smile on my face though, and was actually pretty excited to spend the weekend in the beautiful outdoors with my handsome husband.

 Chris carried most of our gear but I still had to take a few breaks :)

 And about three miles into our hike, it started to rain... a lot.  It was a GOOD thing we bought those $3 ponchos the day before.  Silly me thought we wouldn't need them.  I was WRONG.

 We were super happy to finally get to dollar lake (where we had decided to camp the first night) so we could get out of the rain and finally get warm.

 

 The next morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the lake.  It looked pretty sunny too so we were optimistic about being able to make it to the top.  But as we started along the trail it started to rain again, and then it hailed.  And the giant dark cloud that loomed over the peak wasn't very inviting either.  We decided that the trip would still be a success, even if we didn't make it to the top... and we turned around to head back to the car.

 And of course, about 30 minutes after we left, the clouds parted, the sun came out, and it turned into a BEAUTIFUL day.  The mountain behind Chris in the picture below is Kings Peak.  It was BEAUTIFUL and would have been even more beautiful from the top of the peak, but we'll have to try for it again next year.  Hopefully by then I'll be a better backpacker.

 The hike back to the car was awesome... and it was really nice to be able to actually SEE how pretty it was.  When we were hiking the day before we couldn't see very much considering the crazy amount of rain that was falling from the sky. 

 We stopped by a river, hiked up to alligator lake, and I did a little dance when we got back to the car.

  It started pouring again on the drive home and I wasn't that sad about the fact that I was in a warm car and not out there hiking... or hiding in a tent.  And, I actually had a great time, despite the weather.  I can't wait for next summer when the sun decides to shine again so that Chris and I can go on some more backpacking trips. 

***

Here's to a great weekend, with my awesome husband... So glad he was born so that we could find each other... and spend his birthday in the beautiful Uintas. 

Mount Timpanogos

 A few weekends ago I FINALLY hiked Timp.  I have been wanting to do that since I started college back in 2004... (I know, I started college 8 years ago... that is CRAZY).  But Willi had been wanting to do it again so I convinced her to come with me.  Teddy and Chani came too for the first little bit but weren't feeling too hot so they went home a little early.  Kudos to them though for waking up at 5 in the morning and waiting on Willi and I to get our act together to finally get to the trail head. 

 The trail head was under construction so we had to park a ways away and then walk up... Not such a big deal at the beginning of the hike, but on the way back... afer hiking 15 miles up a mountain... an extra 3/4 of a mile is NOT that awesome.  At the very end I just didn't want to do it anymore so I stuck my thumb out and a nice dad and his sons drove us the last little bit to our car :)

Willi is just the cutest.

At the top we signed our name in the book, hung out for a bit, ate some snacks, and then headed back down... Such a good Saturday activity.