Promises I've Made

Kurt and I hiked up to (the actual) Squaw Peak on Saturday. We loaded up our packs once more and attempted again to reach our destination from last week. The caterpillars were cooperating this week and so our trip was successful and very satisfying. It took us about 3.5 hours (we didn't run down since Kurt still had some weight left in his pack; I only took water weight and emptied it out at the top). My asthma has really improved (at least, in the hiking part of my life; trying to fall asleep is another matter) and we didn't have to stop much to let ol' wheezy catch her breath! An exciting day. There were quite a few hikers on Saturday morning, including one family reunion. We encountered the patriarch of the family on the way up, who chatted with us and shared his gummy treats with us. He told us they did it every year as a family. He has 10 daughters and didn't say how many grand kids, but there were at least 20 kids ranging in age from 5 to 15 in the group (who we met at the top and gave our extra water to). I thought that was pretty cool and it made me think to the future when Kurt and I have grand-rugrats running around... until then, we'll enjoy just being ourselves for the time being! But still, marriage is pretty cool.

The hike was really pretty and I stopped to take a picture of some quaking aspens when ... the battery died. So all of these pictures were taken with Kurt's camera phone, hence not very great quality. And I should work on not being a goofy dork in pictures. It's my new goal.

Meadows! Yes!

A meadow full of flowers! We encountered a few of these--it was very cool!

The top. I always take pictures on Kurt's left side and I really shouldn't do that when the sun's to the right of him...

The way down, another flower-filled meadow. The mountains in the distance look cool, and the lake was blue-green and gorgeous that day (makes you forget that it's basically a dead sea, doesn't it??). After that backpack-training adventure I'm feeling optimistic and excited for our Timp adventure this Friday!

(The title of this post comes from a funny story our friend Greg Winder told us. One of the trail heads to Squaw Peak (the easier, shorter one) has a parking lot that's high up on the mountain. During the winter the road up there is closed, but in the warm months it's a heavily-trafficked local make out spot. If you tell people you're going up to Squaw Peak around Provo they assume you're going to get hot and heavy in a car with some hottie. Well, Greg told us one night he drove up with some friends and blasted an EFY song called "Promises I've Made" (or something like that, I never went to EFY and certainly don't know any songs) out his open windows. The song is apparently about keeping your virtue, if you know what I mean.)