4th of July

I have been a total slacker with the blgging lately, mostly because I never take a camera with me...ever.

Well I almost forgot it once again when we decided to go on a last minute Independence Day hike yesterday too.  But I didn't!  So here I am, going overboard, with a bunch of pictures of how we celebrated our Americanism...hiking through purple mountains majesty!

We opted for a relatively short hike whose trailhead was only about 8 miles from our front door.  It's Dog Lake and is about 2.5 miles in.   It seemed pretty good for all the beginners so we went for it.

 

It was a very pretty wooded area up Millcreek Canyon in the mountains above our home.

The wildlife was plentiful, mostly in the form of bugs.  I don't remember there being so many flies in the great outdoors.  I'll have to remember insect repellant next time.

There were tons of butterflies too which seemed to not mind my girls repeatedly picking them up and carrying them around.

Then there was this adorable dog that followed us around all over the place.  Oh yeah, that's my dog Bobo.  He LOVED it!!!  He is a very good off-leash dog who follows almost any command and always comes when he's called.  He's going to be great to take down the Grand Canyon next year!!!

Here's the whole family, minus one "photographer".

Too, too, too cute!  Steve with my baby girl.

Emma was a real trooper.  She insisted on carrying the water backpack, which was not light.  She didn't complain at all about ever being tired.

Turns out she LOVES bugs.  I always knew she liked them, she always is playing with them in the yard.  But yesterday she chased down everything she could find and cried when we couldn't bring the butterflies home to be our pets. 



We brought a little snack with us and stopped at a nice little creek to re-energize.

Riley finally got a hold of the camera and took my photo.

It was a really fun time.  I forgot just how much I enjoy hiking.  I was glad that my kids had such a good time doing something I used to love.