8 Years!

Due to an "unfortunate" misunderstanding as to when my big-o Davis family reunion (more about that later) would start (for some reason, I thought it was starting on Wed when it started on Thurs), Rob ended up taking work off of every day during the 2nd week of July. So we planned an impromptu Anniversary excursion...and did something that Rob didn't think I could do. We drove up to Utah on Monday (do you see a pattern here? can you go on too many vacations?) and had 2 full days to kill before we needed to head up to Island Park, ID, for the family reunion. Luckily, my mom was willing to rearrange her schedule and watch our kids so we could go on our first-ever-since-we've-had-kids anniversary get-away! We were so excited!

I talked Rob into hiking Mt. Timpanogos. Well, I didn't have to talk him into hiking it, I just had to talk him into believing that I could do it (and that I wouldn't complain about my pain afterwards)! It was an amazing hike and a wonderful experience. It is personally empowering to do something physically difficult...and, oddly, it helps me tackle other difficult things in life with more optimism. Anyway, enough philosophy. Check out these beautiful pictures!

Yes, that is Rob cooling off in a lake fed by glacier run-off. (He brought a pair of swimming trunks for this...the lake he was intending to swim in still had a glacier in it!)

On top of the world!

We hiked through multiple streams, over snow, through mountain meadows, over rock slides, and constantly up, up, up.

At this point, the summit actually seems close and attainable!

We definitely hiked it during the best time of the year. The meadows were covered with wild flowers. This is one of a dozen beautiful flower pictures Rob took on the hike.

In 5 1/2 hours, we reached the summit of Mt. Timpanogos. Rob was quite amazed at that. And then he thought we would get down in 1/2 that time...since it's always easier to go down than up! But I was afraid of injuring my joints (knees or ankles), so I went down slowly...and by then I was exhausted. So the last two miles were probably excruciatingly slow for Rob (at least he didn't complain!). We finally drove into Heber City about 6:30 pm...hungry and tired. We luckily were able to book a stay at a really nice bed and breakfast. That jacuzzi hot tub did wonders for my sore legs! And it was so nice to stay in a nice place, just the two of us.