Mt. Timpanogos

I'm blessed to have such a tough family and such strong kids.

In a moment of insanity, I decided that it would be wonderful to hike to the top of Timpanogos with my two older kids and crippled husband. For good measure we also brought my parents and threw in an old friend of mine, Melissa Allred Freeman.

I love my mom and Melissa. It's great to spend time with people you love.

We left an hour later than anticipated and got home five hours later than anticipated, but it was wonderful. The flowers were more beautiful than I have ever seen them and my kids were so strong. Gabe made it to the top like it was nothing, but Madelyn was a little overwhelmed by the distances we were covering. After we reached the peak, Madelyn made it home no problem, but Gabe was pretty worn out. Somehow we made it back to the cars mostly intact.

We saw four moose on the mountain. So awesome!

I wish my camera could do justice to the beauty of the flowers.

 We saw so many flowers and so many animals. There were a ton of mountain goats climbing around, and we even saw a baby goat fall off the cliff. Fortunately he caught himself pretty quickly and didn't look too damaged.

The view of/from the out.

 My dad decided to go down the glacier, but Mckay and I took our kids down the other way. I am so glad! They had a heck of a time going down the glacier and ended up all banged up. They also took about 45 minutes longer than we did to get to the lake, during which time we had a nice picnic and ate a watermelon that some people brought up to share with tired hikers (Thank you!).

Almost there! We made it to the saddle for lunch.

Hiking behind the waterfall on the way down.

She died. It was just too much for Madelyn.

It was a killer hike, and Mckay couldn't walk the next day, but I think it was worth it. My kids have so much confidence because they made it the full 14 miles. They aren't clambering to do it again though. I think we'll wait a few years before tackling the mountain again.