Rounding Out Summer

For the first time in a long time, we finally maxed out our summer plans this year.  Every year I feel sort of sad as fall comes and realize that I didn't spend a whole lot of time outside.  But this year was totally different, largely due to me being home most of the time and Boy being old enough to really get out and do things.

The day after Bean's birthday we decided to go up Big Cottonwood Canyon for one more overnight camping trip.  It was a beautiful day.  We decided to take the kids up to Silver Lake.  It had been a long time since I'd been up to Brighton and a lot had changed.  

When we got back to our camp at the Spruces, it had clouded over quite a bit.  Bean was finally able to play with her new toys she had received for her birthday the night before.

By the time we were cooking dinner it had started to rain and continued to rain off and on during the night.  In fact, it got really cold--which made for great sleeping for those of us in sleeping bags and not such great sleeping for little Boy who is still in a crib.

We had wanted to hike Donut Falls the next day but were unable to so the first week of September we headed back up the canyon to do the hike.  The leaves were changing colors and it was beautiful!

Bean was fascinated by all of the squirrels, who were very tame.  Boy, however, did not like the squirrels.  He dropped the rest of his sandwich and a squirrel came and snatched it right from under him.  Poor kid.

The falls are COMPLETELY different than they were when I was a kid, which was disappointing.  In order to see the 'donut' you have to climb the boulders which just wasn't going to happen with these kids.  But they were perfectly content playing in the stream.