Escaping the Inversion for President's Day

I'm glad that Abraham Lincoln and George Washington were born.  It gives me an excuse to do something fun every year.  (They were great presidents.  I suppose I should be glad about that as well.)

This year, the number 1 thing I wanted to do was get up in the mountains and be above the inversion.  The inversion was pretty bad when we planned it, but there was a storm Sunday night that blew most of it out.  But I still wanted to get up into the crisp mountain air.

We put Jared W in charge of planning it, because he is our official adventure planner.   We got in the car and headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

We donned our winter clothing, and the adventure began.

It's customary for Robyn to complain about the cold whenever we are outside.  It's also customary for her to look precious.  Isn't she cute?

 We didn't have snowshoes.  We just had our boots on.  For the most part, the snow was frozen enough that our boots were perfect.  Although, I did fall into the snow a few times.

The beginning of the hike was pretty steep, and was further complicated by the fact that we were on snow, but it was beautiful up there and I was super happy to be out in nature.

It's important to get a couple's picture.  It's also important for Bryce to photobomb in the back.

Jared stopped to rest, so I told them both to look cute.

Do not underestimate the importance of selfies.

Sometimes Robyn just takes a belax in the snowy wilderness.  (Belax is a word coined by my niece when she was about 5 years old)

Here's the whole crew that went on the adventure.

All in all, it was a successful President's Day.  How did you celebrate?

The Day of the Presidents

Our Presidents have done some pretty cool stuff.  Abraham Lincoln emancipated slaves.  George Washington fought for our independence.  But there is one thing they've done collectively that trumps all the other great things they've done.  They got me a day off of work every February.  Now that's something worth celebrating.

Holidays are the greatest thing ever.  They're like Saturdays on steroids.  Saturdays are great, but I often spend the majority of the day doing little chores around the house, things that don't get done during the week.  Holidays are like a bonus Saturday, but they're even better because I already did all my chores on Saturday.

President's Day was an excellent example of how great holidays are.  We didn't go on a fancy trip or anything.  We were just at home, but it was great nonetheless.

We started the day by sleeping in.  Once our sleep was complete we wanted to get some exercise.

Last time we had driven to the temple we noticed there was a walking trail next to the river, so we decided to give that a try.

The river was beautiful and the company was excellent.

If you can't tell, Robyn was really cranky that I made her be in a picture.

We walked the whole length of the trail, and still wanted more.  So we climbed the hill toward the temple.  We didn't make it all the way there because at the top of the hill we decided to explore the park across the street and then do some stairs at the amphitheater.

This is how precious I look on the stairs.

Robyn descended so fast that it was like a blur.

On the way back down the hill we decided to run as fast as we can.  There was a slight problem, though.  Remember when you were a kid and you were growing so fast that your parents had to buy you new clothes every few months?  We have that problem in reverse.  We're shrinking fast enough that it's hard to have clothes that fit us.  Both of us have pants that are just little too big.  Once you get running pretty good, the pants have a tendency to jostle themselves downward.  Don't worry, there was no nudity, not like the awkward time in the front yard or the awkward time in Hawaii.  But we weren't able to run quite as fast since we were both holding up our pants.

After a morning of good exercise, we figured we had earned a good meal.  Plus, we didn't go out for Valentine's (Because we hate going out that night.  Everything is crowded and extra expensive.) so this was our belated Valentine's date.  Robyn had heard of a placed called Tsunami's in South Jordan.  We drove up there and had some serious deliciousness.

I had a seaweed salad just because I wanted to try it.  It was pretty good.

Tempura shrimp, teriyaki chicken, rice, too much goodness to handle.

After our meal we came back to the house, relaxed, and I read a book.  It was an excellent day and the best part was that I totally didn't do any work, at home or at the office.

I'd like to thank George and Abe for a great day.  Oh, and thanks for freedom from tyranny and slavery, that's pretty cool too.