McAlister Matters

We played with Kahlan in the snow on Saturday in our backyard. She had a blast throwing the snow and sledding on our little hill. We even made two snowmen!

We completed our California adventure today after a long drive across a cold desert. We had a great time visiting family at McAlister-fest in Fresno. We enjoyed a quick visit to Richmond and relished some delicious Cheeseboard pizza! It was fun to finally meet Milo and join in the birthday fun! Our drive was a success so we anticipate future drives out.   

It was too perfect a day to pass up another bike ride. Sarah, Kahlan and I set out on the Legacy trail again. It was sunny and cool out. Kahlan sported her pink shades.

After four years, Sarah and I decided it was time to conquer Mt. Timpanogos again. It was a tough hike but I think we did pretty good. The weather was perfect and we had most of the trail to ourselves with the exception of some mountain goats.

We headed out to Vernal Utah this weekend with Sarah's family. It's about a 3.5 hour drive to the south east of us through some pretty country. We enjoyed a visit to the Dinosaur National Monument to see a fossil quarry. We went on a hike and enjoyed a couple picnics. The kids had fun swimming at the hotel. On Saturday we went to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum . We saw one of these on our trip and Kahlan quickly identified it as a lion. :)

We finally made it to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. We'd been delayed by a very rainy spring. It was a hot time of year to go but we still enjoyed visiting this park for the first time.  Capitol Reef is located in between Arches and Zion National Parks. It took us about 4 hours to drive there through some pretty country. We called it a 'mini Zions park' because it was a lot less crowded. There were probably 10 times less people there than at Zions or Arches. So we liked that and enjoyed hiking on practically empty trails. One unique thing about the park is that they grow fruit trees in the middle of it. You can pick the fruit for free to eat and they have a shop that sells fresh fruit pies. So we enjoyed a few pies!

After a cold and snowy winter in northern Utah, Sarah and I decided to enjoy a few days of sun and warmth in Saint George.  We went to explore Snow Canyon, a beautiful desert state park about 10 miles outside the city.  We biked a little and spent two days exploring petrified dunes, ancient lava flows, arches, narrow canyons and a volcano cone.

We had a fun family outing with Sarah's family last weekend and spent a day at the Hogle Zoo.  The new sea shores exhibit is pretty amazing and the polar bear was amazingly cool.  We also went to the bird show which was really impressive and unique.

Sarah and I enjoyed a small campfire last night.  We went up to Mueller Canyon just up the road in Bountiful and made some tinfoil dinners and smores.  Tinfoil dinners are so easy and so good!  

Sarah and I hiked Mt. Timpanogos two weeks ago on the 16th.  We decided to go on a Monday when it wouldn't be too crowded.  Despite a few clouds at the beginning it was really nice weather.  Only a few other people were on the mountain so we had most of the trail to ourselves which was nice.  It was late enough in the season to do the hike but just barely.  There were still huge ice and snow patches that we had to climb over and around.  That made the whole thing a bit more adventurous though.  And I've never seen so many full waterfalls back there!  Absolutely Gorgeous.