The Atherton Family: Hiking Bald Mountain

Last Monday we took Jared to the doctor. He wanted to go in the morning so I scheduled an appointment, but by the time we were there he didn't want to be there. I thought he was getting better, but it is a good thing we went. Jared's lips had swollen up and were huge on the Saturday before. By Sunday they had gone back down and just looked dry and chapped. By Monday they were starting to look a little funny. At the doctor they tested for strep throat, but that was negative. He had little white bumps in the back of his throat and these crazy lips. The diagnosed what he had as impetigo...an strep or staph infection on the lips. He has been talking some medicine all week...and his lips are looking a lot better!!!!

Here are our plants...We got our first little cherry tomato last week and there are several other that will be ready soon.

Tomato and pumpkin

Zinnias and carrots

various flowers

hanging baskets...

Jared really wanted me to add this picture...It's pretty gross! Alan calls them zombie lips.

Last Tuesday we went to the library for the craft and storytime. They made cute little jars to look like fire flies...or just bugs...were in the jar. Then we took Connor for his 4 month shots. We were only there for 30 min....That is a miracle. I think we had perfect timing...we were getting there right after their lunch break. We hadn't been home too long when Jeff called and asked if we wanted to go to Veteran's Memorial Pool with them and part of Elizabeth's family (Sister Smith, Spencer, Stephanie, and Jessica) that was here visiting. We all went and had a super fun time. Thanks to Sister Smith for sitting with Connor for a few minutes. They both got in after a little while. It was a little cooler of a day, so it wasn't too crowded.

Wednesday we went to ready to learn. Then in the afternoon we went on a walk with some friends to the 'great valley'. This time we went past where we went before and then just around Wymount...checking out the apricots and noticing they put some new sprinklers in by the grapes.

Thursday Brad and Lauren went to play at a friend's house for a little bit. Then we went to the library again. I had a book that had come in on hold, so I figured we might as well go to story time again....This time we sat under the tent and we could see better. In the afternoon we just played outside. That evening was the bell tower concert. We took macaroni salad and had a picnic dinner. We saw Jeff and Elizabeth and the Smiths there. Some of my favorite pieces they played were the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, Beauty and the Beast, Somewhere Out There, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, and When You Wish Upon A Star. They also played some hymns and classical pieces. We walked through the Bean Museum (mostly for the bathrooms) for just a few minutes on the way home.

Friday we didn't have any plans, but it turned into a super fun day. We walked down to campus with some friends and visited their dad at work (also a PhD student, but electrical engineering) then we had a little snack. We were headed over to visit Alan then, but stopped to run through some sprinklers...It was a super hot day and they felt really nice. Then we said hi to Alan and even got to help him test some of the tracking stuff for the robot that he is working on right now. Then we walked up to the Bean Museum again. (We have to get our visits in...just 1 more week until it closes for renovations.) We didn't get home until a little after 5. It was a super fun afternoon just going down to campus. We barbecued that night and tried to get to bed kind of early.

Saturday our ward (4 families...including us...plus the Bishop) went on a hike to Bald Mountain. It is about 30 minutes away from Kamas in the Uinta Mountains. It was a fun hike. There were several things that could have been better, but it all worked out. Jared left his shoes outside the night before (first time all Summer) and they got soaked by the sprinklers. He waited to put them on until we got there, but they were still wet. Lauren ate a nice big oatmeal breakfast, then stuffed herself with a few more grapes the Bishop had brought. She got car sick on the windy mountain road and threw up 3 times. (She was super cheerful about it though) I put sunscreen on, but then took off my coat...and forgot to do my arms...Alan did similarly. It was really gusty strong wind and Connor didn't really like that. But we hiked to the top of the mountain!!! It was 4 miles round trip, Jared and Lauren hiked the whole way by themselves (and Jared even went with Alan up a steeper part right at the end) Brad hiked 1/2 to 3/4 of the way on his own with the occasional shoulder ride from Alan. Connor got to ride in the front carrier that I wore. It took us almost 2 hours to get to the top. Then we spent about 30 minutes there. We had planned to eat lunch at the top, but it was too windy. So we ended up hiking back down for about 40 min to a spot where the wind was a little calmer to eat. Then it was about another 40 min from there to the bottom. On the way down the boys were a little faster than Lauren and I. But that's because Lauren was giving me a hip shaking air guitar concert every 5 to 10 feet. (She was rocking to go with the rocky terrain) We also had a good discussion about nature and the creation and how Jesus is the Light of the World on the way down. It was a super fun, exhausting hike!!! We stopped at Winco on the way home and on the way there we saw a super cool old race car...it looked just like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The rest of the night we just relaxed...well actually they went out and played on the playground and had so much energy you never would have guessed they had gone hiking earlier. We did watch part of Gus right before bed.

We had to cross a little snowy patch...you can see how windy it is in all the pictures...Our hair is flying.

This is about half way up

Jared at the top

Lauren at the top

Connor and me looking off the other side at the top...looking west (you can see Mt. Timpanogos if you know where to look)

Jared after they went up another 50 feet...check out his hair!

We made it back to the bottom...

We only got this super up close shot of the mountain...

Today was a good day. Classes at church went well. We went for a little walk after church. I don't think it ever got as hot as they were saying it would...but that is just fine...it was plenty warm. Today Brad was eating a Kit Kat and excitedly ran up to me and said I'm having a kitty Kat. I'm having a Kitty Kat. Bradley has also been singing (with actions) Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose (but he sings shoe) nonstop ever since the library this week.

Alan dressed Connor up for some silly pictures this afternoon