What an Adventure Today Turned Out To Be

Today started out like any normal day. Slept in a little too late and had to run to Costco. As we were getting ready for Costco Farren was teasing me and I squirted him with a spray bottle I was using on hair. That meant war and soon it was 4 vs. 1 (all of them against me) I ran and locked myself in the bathroom and they got in anyways. Lots of water later, I ended up getting the shower turned on me and my bathroom was under water. I grabbed Kyson and tossed him in the tub and soaked him, teaching him NEVER team up against Mom!! LOTS of fun, but a huge mess!!!!!

On the way home from Costco I decided I wanted to go on a "scenic" drive through the Alpine Loop. For those unfamiliar with this, it is a long drive through a steep and winding canyon where you end up no where near where you started. BEAUTIFUL drive.

RING RING Kyson's friend Jace calling to play, so we checked him off of the list of attendees for the day. Husband needs to sleep; check him off too. It is just the girls and myself. Off we go. About 10 minutes from home (and nowhere near the Alpine Loop) I chicken out at the thought of doing that drive alone, though I don't know why since even if there were another adult, I'd still be the one driving.

Hmmm... where to go, where to go.... I decide to go up Emmigration Canyon and connect to I-80 and go into Park City for an Ice Cream Cone from Rocky Mountain Chocolate. I jump on the freeway and head toward Emmigration Canyon. The kids are just sure we are heading to the zoo, and they were not very excited about it. (We use to do the zoo weekly when they were smaller, and our zoo, well, it just sucks) We pass the zoo and the girls are now very curious as to where we are heading. I tell them Park City for Ice Cream and all is good in the world.

We have a game we play, where we point out houses and see who would like to live there. Sometimes they are giant houses nestled in the trees, other times they are tiny little cottages, and sometimes a tin box. Sometimes we would all like to live there, and sometimes none of us would. Sometimes we are split half and half on the decision and we decide even though it isn't wonderful or even well built, living in our house, all together is the best place to be.

I have never driven all the way up this particular canyon before, so I purposely miss our turn-off and continue up. Higher and higher we climb, I had no idea there were homes up so high back there. We get to the dead end and turn back around, this time making sure to take this turn off that I have HEARD leads toward Park City, but I really don't know this for certain. After a few minutes we see a "Scenic Turnoff" and pull into it. A beautiful view of a small reservoir. We get out and take a few pictures. Aspen mugs for the camera and we are off again, this time winding downhill.

We come to a T in the road and this water is right in front of us. Left or right?? Well, I know Park City is left, so let's head left. Very quickly I knew I should have gone right, but I figured why not? Lets keep going. So we did. We kept going, and going and going. Climbing up a winding road. I see a pull off, and we turn into it. The view is beautiful. I see a sign for a trail head, and we were at "Mormon Pioneer Trail" The girls wanted to hike, but I was in sandals, we had no water, it was hot out, and we have been having some big storms over the last few days so we made it a very short hike.

On our way back to the van there were some other people who had turned in. I asked them if they knew where the road lead if I were to keep following it. They said we were almost to the town of Morgan and then the freeway was right there. We thanked them and continued on in the same direction we had been going. (almost to Morgan my butt) We drove and drove and drove and started a decline. I passed my camera back to the girls and they had a blast taking pictures of all sorts of things. These are some of their shots.

We were all thirsty and I saw a sign saying "Old Country Store" so we kept an eye out for a store. It wasn't just a store, there is a whole resort up there that I had no idea existed. East Canyon Resort. It looks like SO much fun. I grabbed a pamphlet and unfortunately it appears to be a timeshare property, but I would LOVE to take the kids up and spend a week there. We grabbed our drinks from the store (yes, I gave in and let the girls have a drink in the car, but it had to be Sprite so it would clean up easily if there was a spill) Off we go again.

Up ahead was a huge reservoir, East Canyon Reservoir. The girls asked if we could go there next time, but it looked like their beach area was all rock and it is more for boating then sand castles and swimming. Shortly after passing the reservoir we came upon this house. Or, what use to be a house. I think it is beautiful, but we all voted NO, we would not like to live in it.

WELCOME TO HENEFER UTAH-POPULATION 702

Henefer? I had NO clue where we were, and I certainly hadn't seen Morgan which we had been assured was super close (that was LONG ago) We continue up this road, passing the Rodeo Stands and some houses. This road comes to a T as well. It is a GOOD thing the van has a navigation system in it. At this point I had no idea if I was facing North, East, South, or West. After checking it, I see we are facing North. I figured we were pretty far East so we turned left, careful not to run over all the ATVs driving around town. I don't think we passed an actual car, but we passed plenty of people on ATVs.

Quickly I saw a sign for the Interstate and we hopped on that. Soon we started seeing signs for Morgan (ya know, that town we were "super close to" ) We passed Morgan (or maybe it was before Morgan) and I saw another sign for a "scenic view pullout" This pull out was only about 100 feet long and narrow, so I was nervous pulling into it from the highway, but we did. Just as I tell the girls I have NO clue what we are looking for I see it. It is called Devil's something. We hop out of the car to take a quick look (there is a sidewalk) Just as I am thinking this would make a really cool waterfall, Aspen says that exact same thing. Another car is pulling in, so back into the van we go. We are OFF.

Just Moments later I hear from the back seat, "Mom, that sign says Rest Stop 1 mile. Can we stop?" It is Aspen (Sage was abnormally quiet today) I ask if she REALLY has to go because rest stops just gross me out. She says she does so I pull into it and we all go in together. That girl locked her stall door and couldn't get it undone. I would explain how to undo the lock (they are hard to move and tricky also) and she just couldn't get it. We do this a few times and she gets the lock free. After LOTS of soap and water we are on our way. Again.

Now it is starting to look familiar. I see the turn off we take when we go to Pineview and I know exactly where I am. The girls recognize it too, so our "adventure" is now just the same road they have taken too many times to count. They ask to pop in a movie, and they turn on Pooh's Heffalump Adventure (a Winnie the Pooh Halloween movie) They are content and I know it is definitely smooth sailing from here.

We arrive home at about 715 pm. We left our house about 245. We have a quick dinner and I go to pick up Kyson. We come home and the four of us go for a walk in the neighborhood. We stopped and chatted with neighbors, and a quick jaunt through the neighborhood took an hour. The kids got ready for bed and after a loud reading of Where The Wild Things Are (we always ROAR with the Wild Things) and a sweet reading of Love You Forever the kids were tucked into bed. It was a long day.

And I loved every minute of it.