I promised a recap of our Memorial Weekend adventures and we ended up having so many mid week adventures that I never had a chance to put this post together. We very rarely plan out our weekends other than to say we need to do this and it will fall as it may… so prepare yourselves, this post might be a bit rambly but that’s just how it goes around here.
As you already know, last Friday we decided to kick off the long weekend with a long bike ride and did about 16 miles. I can’t tell you the exact distance because my Garmin has decided to stop working and I need to get it replaced. Anyway, long bike ride. 16 miles is very long when you consider that we had the kids with us. They both love riding in our new little trailer and they smiled the entire time.
Saturday we spent a bit of our morning getting ready for our guests. We have both grandpas (my dad and Nick’s dad) staying with us now! They drove out here from Seattle so while they were driving we were busy getting their rooms ready, stocking up on groceries, etc. We still managed to have a restful Saturday and I got quite a bit of reading done in the morning. I’ll have to share with you guys, at some point, about the new book I’m reading – I am hooked!
The dads arrived pretty late Saturday night but that didn’t keep Mackenzie from staying up and counting down every last second until their arrival. He heard the car pull up and ran out to give immediate hugs. If there’s one good reason to have children it’s this: when they love you, they wear their love on their sleeve – such a wonderful thing to arrive home to.
Sunday here was rainy schmainy. Seattle readers will get a good laugh at this: we’ve had 90 degree weather for weeks, while it has poured in Seattle, come Memorial Weekend its upper 70s in Seattle and pouring down rain here. Yeah, yeah laugh it up you guys. Who’s got the sunshine now?? 
Since none of us had really planned on rain we sort of had to figure out a new plan for Sunday and in the end, we decided to go to Kennecott Copper Mine. We’ve been talking about taking Mackenzie there for a while:
Truth.
The mine is absolutely gigantic. You can see it from Salt Lake, from Parley’s Canyon, from Provo. I have known that it was huge and yet, driving up and going into the thick of it, looking down into the pit you get an even greater sense of the size.
Earlier this week, I’d hinted that we had gone to one of the only man-made creations that you can see from space – this giant hole in the earth is what I was referring to. Crazy.
After our trip to the mine, the sun came out and we decided to do a little exploring. We wanted to head up to Big Cottonwood Canyon and do a little trail hiking.
We got distracted on our way.
Both by this, the weirdest most crazy looking deer-dog-chupacabra thingamajigger I’ve ever seen. The photo is blurry because we were driving, the thing was running and I had to zoom.
Yeah, it’s not a deer so don’t ask. It’s also not an elk. I know what an elk looks like thank you very much. I’ve shown this picture to a few people in Salt Lake and they are all “oh, that’s just an elk.” Ummm… No.
After our not-a-deer sighting we ran into another odd sight. On a random backroad we saw a very old bridge over a man-made pond decorated with pretty white geese and lots of flowers along the banks. We decided to check it out and followed the yellow red brick road.
We discovered this little gem of a place
This is a restaurant with the most gorgeous grounds imaginable. Peacocks, Cinderella’s carriage, a little creek, everything was out of a fairy tale.
We definitely need to come back sometime when they are open for dinner.
Once we got home to our house, we barbecued some fillets, lobster tails and corn.
Nick was happy to enjoy his favorite beer - Men’s Room Red that was specially delivered from Seattle to Utah by his dad 
Monday we headed out early and hiked the short trail to Timpanogos Caves. We did the caves last fall and thought our dads would both really enjoy the hike and cave tour. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feel too well and even though I hiked to the top, I decided to wait outside. Something about being in a confined, wet space like a cave just didn’t help to settle my stomach. Weird
The hike was gorgeous and the guys all really enjoyed the caves.
We had a bit of a scare on the way down – Nick’s dad has Parkinsons and we had a little hiccup. I think he’s embarrased about the whole thing so I’ll just leave it at that.
That’s pretty much where our weekend ended – it was late afternoon by the time we started to head home and we were all pretty tired.
For me, being tired at the end of a weekend means we did it right Oh, weekends are for resting? Hmm. I don’t know about that.
Lucky for me, this recap is just in time for another weekend of adventures!
Now it’s your turn, what were you up to over the long weekend? What are you up to THIS weekend?
