Donut Falls, June 1st approx.

I took the kiddos to Donut Falls right about the time school got out for summer and it was the first time I had driven in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  We had fun as we stopped at Guardsman Pass and took some pictures and played a little in the snow that was still hanging around.

Then we drove past Brighton and Solitude Ski resorts and found the tiny parking lot for Donut Falls.  What was not clear was what way to go on the hike, at least to me, particularly because it looked way too steep in the beginning and I had heard from a few sources that it was a good, family-friendly hike.  So after meandering some, we got on the trail and wouldn't you know, Cliffton and Violet were really good little hikers.  Azure, eh, not so much.  I carried her nearly the whole time and thank goodness my wrists didn't ache and give out.  Sometimes my wrists, my left one mostly, will just hurt and I can barely use my hands.

When we got close to the river, you have to climb down some rocks, and go across water or rocks if you can manage it, to get to see the Falls.

Family and Mudders

We took the kids to Bridal Veil Falls yesterday and even though they kinda dragged their feet about it leading up to it, once we got in the canyon they were pretty excited.  The had fun showing off Bitner to other kids around too.  Violet would walk up to people and say, "This is my dog.  We have a little dog.  Who wants to pet our cute dog?" and cute stuff like that.  She is such a friendly girl.  They enjoyed seeing the waterfall and is was just short enough of a walk that they had a great time but long enough to feel like we had a nice break outside.  :)





Violet and Azure both say some fun things in family prayer like, "Please bless everything that is alive and that's not alive...."  "Please bless me to walk on water"  (Violet).   I love my little ladies!



I just completed my 2nd Tough Mudder and you can bet I'm doing several over the years.  I got my green headband!  It says 2X mudder.  I'm now a part of Mudder Legion.  I have such a blast at TM, I gotta admit, I like playing dirty.  ;)  Well, the ice in Arctic Enema REALLY sucks, but otherwise, its not as bad as you might think.  I met up with my team of 3 people just before 11am and we went in the 11:40 wave.  There was a husband and wife who had never done this before and they both loved it.  The wife is my height, so she's awesome.  :)  Their friend Marcus, like me, had done one other Tough Mudder and was pumped to get his green headband too.  There was one section, Legionnaire's Loop, that's for multi-mudders which we completed together.  I highly recommend doing one.  They are a blast and the pledge you make at the beginning is great - it really brings home what their mission is about - to help each other overcome fears/obstacles.  We do that by encouraging each other in obstacles that you have to do alone (like the monkey bars in Funky Monkey) and by physically assisting in obstacles that, at least for most of us, have NO way of going at it solo (those 10ft. walls are HARD to get over, even with help!).  This is from Joe Perry, a participant in the last two World's Toughest Mudder (WTM), a Hall of Fame Mudder:  "Shortly after I got home from WTM, I received word that I was to be inducted in my town's Sports Hall of Fame for my Tough Mudder achievements. Yes, it's quite an honour to have that plaque, but it's nothing compared to the endless joy Tough Mudder gives me. I love the challenge. I love the environment. I love the people. I love the camaraderie. When I show up at a Tough Mudder, I get high fives and hugs from some of the greatest people on this planet. We aren't trying to defeat each other. We are all Tough Mudders. We help each other.  Earning an orange headband makes us special. It makes us better people."
So, I hope I've encouraged some of you to register or pre-register for an event.  You'll love it - maybe not every moment, I know! - but the feeling of accomplishment and the team spirit is powerful!   
#ToughMudder  #MudderLegion #overcomeyourfears  #Ibleedorange #TMUtah2014

Tri County Peak

I've been doing more running/hiking in the canyons as I prepare to do the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase on Aug. 2 and today I parked near Guardsman Pass and jogged along the pass until I came near a peak and thought, hey why not?  So after a few false starts ( had to keep changing my route due to snow), I finally got up on the Southwestern side of the peak and made it to the top.  I was pretty sure it was Tri County Peak (Summit, Salt Lake and Wasatch Counties) but had never been on that part of the road before.  It was so cool!  I got up early about 5 am (eh, not so cool) and got out running just after 6am.  Well, to be honest, its not really running, its part jog part hike as I go uphill.  It was fun to be up high in the mountains.  The peak is around 10,027 ft.  It took about 50 minutes to get from the intersection of guardsman pass and pine canyon rd to the summit.  Without snow, I"m sure it will be much faster!  So, I get to check off one more route on my "Must Do Before Snow" list.

Enjoy some pictures

This is looking East.  Jordanelle Reservoir (not visible) is apprx. in the left, and Heber City is towards the right.

The pole marks the summit.  Park city behind the peak.  Jupiter Hill is to the right.  (That's what I"m going to summit on the Steeplechase in 10 weeks!).  Facing Northeast.

Looking West, towards Salt Lake County (Big Cottonwood Canyon).

Birthday Bash

With Cliffton and Violet's birthdays only about 3 weeks apart, we've decided to do a combined party for them (which we did once in New York) and it was a smash!  I had a dino theme for it which showed up in the cake - a Volcano cake complete with fire (candles), smoke (dry ice), and lava (colored ganache), dino-shaped sugar cookies and some dinosaur themed games like knock the spikes down on the Stegosaurus, and feed the T-Rex, each of which were amazingly and awesomely constructed and designed by my Richard!
We rented a bouncehouse for the first time!  It was a good deal and a great party tool!  I think it was $80 or so and since we couldn't turn it in Sunday, we played with it on Sunday too and are turning it in today (Monday).  We used Plan-It Rentals to get it.  My sister Jess, my friend Hannah, and Richard were some of the adults who helped out with the food and games and then my Mother in Law was so cool to help out by bringing some snacks and then doing dishes pretty much the whole time she was here.  It was such a blessing to NOT have to turn around and spend 100 minutes or so doing dishes after the party was over.  Bryana came over at the end and we had some fun shopping together that evening for ourselves and for Richard's birthday, April 27.  He's got an expansion for Talisman, a board game.
 
So, Violet is already 5 (April 17) and Cliffton will be 7 on May 10.  I love my cuties.  They had so much fun!  Cliffton did some magic tricks for his friends and it was great to see him more confident.  He had 3 schoolmates come, neighbors and cousins.  Violet had some neighbors, cousins and friends from church.  We had 17 kids or so in addition to our own.  :)  Crazy fun, let me tell you.  

The last couple of days

I don't understand why the pictures from Violet's birthday aren't showing up.  Grrr.  It was a pain trying to get them on the blog and yet it had seemed fine when I uploaded everything.  guess I'll have to play magician later and make them "magically" appear.  :/  I wanted to post that I accomplished one of my hikes/rides on my 2014 list - the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  It was so 'dumb' getting there, though, for lack of a better word.  I parked near Bridal Veil Falls and found a trail for the Great Western Trail, which was fine, but then a way up from it which was dumb.  It was sooo steep in areas, I could barely hike, let alone trail run (my goal).  Finally, I got to what was the old shoreline and then it was good.  Coming back I thought, Heck no am I going to do that same trail, so using my phone's google maps service, I found a way down to the Western trail and at first it was steep but then it was fine.  I nearly fell on the steep part and rolled my ankle and hurt a tendon (or something) near my left hip a little but nothing bad.  See what you get for trying to be all healthy, Janelle?  Yeah, boo!  :)
Looking forward to the kids party this Saturday.....anyone know how stressed out I get when I do a party?  Well, my super de duper awesome husband is doing a lot of it.  He's amazin', let me tell you.  It should be groovy!  I better go bake a cake, or something....

When you gotta go

Susie and I saw this silly episode of Bear in the Big Blue house years ago, maybe 15 years ago.  Susie found it recently and I had to post it.  For all of you parents out there, this should be at least slightly hilarious.  :)  Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKaobXtm6xo

What's it time for?

Violet's 5th Birthday was a great day for her.  She got to go shopping the day before her birthday for treats and such with the family and some friends.  Richard and I wrapped up presents that night and set up the table with decorations (Violet color, of course) and presents.  I had to work that morning but at least it was just half the day.  I took her and Cliffton to Chuck E Cheese in the afternoon.  

We had a family dinner that evening with some of Richard's family and my brother Dave.

She liked her "relight" candles.  :)  ha ha ha.  I think she did.  She wore a Birthday Girl shirt from her grandparents which was super cute and just happened to have 5 candles on the cake.  

We love our super UltraViolet!  She is so loving and energetic and brave.  She is one tough cookie!  Our first daughter, our Violet Ann Stacey.  

Discovery Park in P.G.

We went to Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove yesterday and had a blast.  It really is just as cool as people say it its.  It looks like a large wooden castle and has a lot of little scientific facts, diagrams, and other things in the playground.

The structure consists of a lot of rather narrow, twist, turny, stairs and platforms and bridges and has a dozen or so "towers."  You've got swings, slides, tables, restrooms, and ball fields around it too.  The smaller kids area is fenced so they can't run out except from one entrance and on a platform, however, its such a large structure that it is really hard to keep track of your kids so I ran around with Azure for awhile.  Good times!  Cliffton loved the space ship, Violet the swings and Azure the slides.