Father's Day 2012

Father's Day morning I awoke to Bill coming home from the grocery store.  He had spent the day before on a 50 mile bike ride with a couple of other guys, so he had missed the weekly shopping trip.  I had done the shopping without a list, and as a result, I had forgotten several items for his lunches for the week.  When I got up, I found him getting ready to build a big family breakfast.  While fixing it, he said he wanted to take the family up into the mountains for the day.

So, after a fabulous breakfast, we went!

It was quite a drive up into the mountains, but we spent it in high spirits, laughing and rocking out to music with the windows down and sunroof open.  It is funny, I live right next to the mountains and tend to forget that there are even more mountains to explore than the ones I can see from my house.  And lots of different canyons and side valleys on every side.  We don't have to settle for the closest canyon if we are willing to adventure a bit farther up and farther in!

Bill took us to the Provo River Falls, in the high Uintahs.  I had no idea they existed!  It is a shame I have lived so close to this beautiful place for the past 20 years and never knew it!  There is no rough hike to get to them; there is a parking lot right off the road that is literally right next to one of the falls.  You just have to know they exist and how far up into the mountain roads to go to get there. 

 The water cascades down these amazing stairsteping rocks.  Honestly, it looks like some Hollywood set, or something.  The rocks are smooth and easy on your feet, the water is cold, but not too cold for playing in.  There were lots of people right around the parking lot area, but if you were willing to get your feet wet and climb a bit, you could quickly leave most of the people behind and explore all of the many waterfalls stacked one on top of the other.

 I will confess something right here.  There is a reason I am usually not in any of the photos.  I have always hated how I looked in photos because I have always (and by always, I mean for the past 17 years or so) hated my body.  I live in a family of super skinny people.  My husband is a muscular and no-fat athlete.  My kids both have extremely low body fat, too.  I think they inherited their dad's body type... thank goodness!  But I have been on the plump side for a long while, now.  I was overweight, pushing the envelope of obesity.

Until now.  For the first time in a lot of years, I am starting to like what I see when a photo is taken of me!

I have been working hard at creating a more active lifestyle for myself.  I am still working on trying to reduce the sugars in my diet.  I can now tell you that as hard as it was (and is) to get my muscles back in shape and lose inches (and hopefully pounds), correcting a faulty diet is MUCH harder.

Anyways, back to our adventure!

 While the kids and I messed around with the first waterfall, Bill wandered off across the river and found a great sunning rock.  These great slabs of rock were everywhere and made exploring barefoot possible, though in the end we all ended up tromping through the water with our shoes on, because the rocks in the riverbed could be sharp and unpredictable under the surface.

 Family photos in the sun!

One particular waterfall cascaded down two sides of a rock formation that looked like stairs, leaving an opening in the middle.  Will was the first to climb up it, but before long we all climbed up and played on it.  I think the picture below is pretty fantastic!  I know we ended up in several other people's photos, too, because this one was in sight of the parking lot view area.

 I really enjoyed the deep and rich colors created by the rocks and water.

 Helena was trying to figure out how deep this pool was.  It was deepest right below Will, between them there.  He was offering to help pull her up onto the rock, but she suspected his motive and was certain he was going to let go at the opportune moment and let her fall backward into the pool.

 This was a quadruple fall.  There was a little sitting spot between each fall, so we spend a bit of time here getting photo after photo.

 Notice Will making fun of posing for the camera?  He did this for several shots, and yes, it was an intentional gag pose.

We explored up the river for about a quarter mile until we all admitted we were getting hungry.  I was all for trekking back down the waterfalls to our starting point, but Bill wanted a different adventure.  He suggested we just strike out into the woods to find the road and walk back down it to our car.  That turned out to be the right move.  The woods were open and shady and it didn't take long at all to find the road.  We got slightly bug eaten, but it was worth it to get back to the car so easily.

 Bill drove us to another parking lot, where he wanted us to go on a short hike to the top of one of the peaks called Mt. Baldy (there are several of them in the state), but we were all too hungry and disinclined to get more bug eaten, so Bill drove us, instead, to Mirror Lake.

 This beautiful little lake resides at about the 10,000 foot elevation!  We were wishing we had canoes, kayaks, and swim suits with us.

After Mirror Lake, Bill drove us to the summit at 10,700 feet, and mentioned that we were only about 30 miles from the Wyoming border.  The kids were keen on crossing the state line for the additional adventure.  They had never been in Wyoming... at least not in their memory.

So, we did!

We came out of the mountains into the high, grassy plains of Wyoming.  A while after crossing the state line, Helena wanted to know why we were still headed east.  I pointed out to her that Evanston, WY was only about 20 miles away and was certainly the closest food opportunity around.

So, we went to Evanston, Wyoming.

First stop?  A fireworks stand!  Utah has the most restrictive fireworks regulations in the mountain west.  Most towns right across the border have fireworks stands to take advantage of the Utah residents who make a dash across the border for their pyro needs.  Fireworks at these stands are a GREAT price!  You can get 3 times the fun for the same amount of dough.

After picking up a little something, something (I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of pyrotechnics on our return trip), we started our hunt for lunch/dinner.

Evanston is a small town and very spread out.  We found the obligatory McD's, Wendy's, and Arby's... but none of those seemed worthy of our adventure or of Father's Day.  So I googled eateries in town and we decided to find a little spot known as Don Pedro's.

To say it was a dive is putting it mildly.  The place looked sketchy at best.  Helena later admitted she was not thrilled to be going in.  Run down with old everything inside and out.  However, there were a fair amount of cars outside, so we wanted to check it out.

 I am so glad we did!  It was delicious!  I wasn't sure of what to order, and when I asked the waiter's opinion on two entrees, I could tell he wasn't that enthusiastic about either one.  He said something along the lines of "look at me, I have brown skin!  Most Americans like both of those entrees, this one is most popular with Americans."  

Oh ho!

So, I asked him HIS favorite items on the menu and ordered his first choice.  It was bacon wrapped grilled shrimp smothered in cheese on a bed of grilled onions and peppers and served fajita style.

It was sinfully delicious!  Ahhhhh!

After dinner, we decided to linger in Evanston for about 30 minutes before starting our journey back home again.  We went to the Bear River Walk, a long paved trail next to the river that was designed for runners and cyclists to enjoy.  We had fun just walking and talking for a little bit on the trail before finally heading home.  

It was one of those sunshiny, happy days full of laughter and love.

I hope we can do it again, soon!