Who doesn’t love waking up on Saturday, getting a phone call about going shooting, and heading up to a quite little nook and breaking lots of clay pigeons? That is exactly what Bade, his brothers, a friend and I did this Saturday. I shot 1 of 2 hand guns, and 2 22’s. One was pretty cool with a laser sight and everything…it looked a little intense.
A great Utah state holiday is Pioneer Day, July 24. This day is akin to the Fourth Of July; there are fireworks, BBQs, fairs, and lots of celebrations in memory of our heritage. Last night Bade and I stayed at his sister’s place in the mountains, so we woke up to a gorgeous view of mountains covered in aspens. Bade got up much earlier than I and went mountain biking with the majority of the boys in his family.
At lunch time Bade and I joined a group of my friends down at Utah Lake State Park to go boating. The weather wasn’t the best for boat activities, but were able to still tube, surf behind the boat, and got a few runs of wake-boarding in.
We finished the day with a gem of a firework show. Bade and I stopped by my family’s house to crash their BBQ, then headed out to Mapleton. We had to park a ways away and thought that we would be late because we parked right at 10. After walking over to the fair grounds we became aware of how packed the field was, so we plopped ourselves down on the outskirts, in the shade of some trailers; turns out we had amazing spots. The fireworks were a good angle between in front and above us, so could see them well while laying down. We were in a strange spot as far as assessing the field goes, so we didn’t have anybody super close to us. And after the firework show, we were able to get out with very minimal traffic. For the firework show itself, Mapleton over-exceeded my expectations. The show was between 20 and 25 minutes long, without any lulls, and included some cool fireworks that I had never seen before. I need to remember the Mapleton Pioneer Day Fireworks for next year for sure!
First, camping up Hobble Creek, fishing at night, s’mores and chilly dogs, sleeping with water in the background, all ending with a noon hike up to Timpanogos Caves. This fun little outing was arranged by a friend of Bade’s and was a great way to spend the afternoon.
The Timpanogos Cave hike is not a very pleasant hike. It is all uphill at a regular incline and unfortunately it is paved the whole way. One good aspect of the hike is that it is in a beautiful canyon. Another good thing about the hike is that it is only about a mile and a half. This is a great Saturday family activity.
This weekend Bade, his sister and her family, and I went dirt bike riding up the right fork of Hobble Creek. We took a break at the top of 6th water (or something like that) where water that is piped from Strawberry reservoir makes it appearance. Bade and his bother-in-law did the dirt job of retiring some rainbow trout so that we could enjoy them for dinner that evening.
And a weekend with Bade’s sister isn’t complete without her husband making his famous crepes. This weekend was slightly different because this weekend he taught Bade and I how to make them. We weren’t all that great at it, but we’ll get better :).
Today was Bade’s birthday. This last year in his life has been a doosie! Bade has been working a newer job, he bought a house, and the once single Bade is now engaged to be married. All in all, this year has had a ton of changes.
Exciting life changes started last year will be intensified this coming year and I am so excited to be part of them. I get to be there as Bade falls into his career. I get to be there to help Bade really make his house his/our own. Last but not least, I get to be there to build a life and family with Bade. This coming year (and all those that follow) are going to be awesome!
Happy birthday Bade :) You are my 31-year-old and I love you!
Bade and I made tin foil dinners that were De-Lish! Below is the recipe that we prepared before hand, kept in a cooler, then cooked later in the day/evening.
1 lb ground beef (ripped into little pieces)
2 potatoes (cut into little cubes)
10-15 thick baby carrots (cut in half)
10-15 string beans (cut into thirds)
3/4 can cream of mushroom
1 shallot (diced)
grated cheddar cheese (add more than you think)
1/2 onion (chopped)
salt (lots)
pepper (lots)
Mix all raw ingredients together and divide into tin foil; we divided it into 3 tin foil packs. Tin foil packs shouldn’t be over packed, and should be relatively flat. Double or triple wrap your tin foil dinners. When you are ready to cook your tin foil dinner, cook on fire coals or on a camp site grill (shown above) for around 20 minutes.
Today was Bade’s birthday. I woke him up with breakfast pseudo in bed (he didn’t behave and stay in bed). At lunch, we took a motorcycle ride up the canyon and had a picnic on the side of the awesome fishing river, the Provo.
Dinner involved one of our favorite restaurants, Bombay House, followed by a homemade (you can tell by its attractive look) huckleberry ice cream cake. I hope you had a great birthday Bade!
Not every weekend is dirt bike riding or canyoneering, some weekends it is nice to just sit back and relax. The way Bade and I sit back and relax is by going on a trip, without cell service, near water. We drove to Scofield and camped at the state park there. We had the camp area almost entirely to ourselves. We pulled out some pre-made tin foil dinners (recipe to follow) and grilled them while we setup camp. Storm clouds rolled in and it started raining just before we were done with cooking. We hurried into the ten to eat our dinner. One of my favorite sounds in the whole world is rain, especially rain hitting a tent or tin roof. We enjoyed the sound of rain on our tent while seeing fireworks go off over the lake.
Saturday morning started off kayaking on the lake; Bade fished while I floated and read. It was pretty cool; there were groups of fish (likely bass) that were herding smaller fish, then would all at once attack the small fish. It was also fun to chase the birds :). After lunch we fished on the river, but the banks had so many ants, we ended up killing ants in the kayak for the next 30 minutes.
By the afternoon we had driven to Diamond Fork to camp. I setup camp, relaxed, read, and napped, while Bade fished more.
We were able to build a fire for dinner and roast some marshmallows.
After dinner, we experimented with longer exposures on my camera, by putting ourselves into pictures multiple times with a flash, or just getting a cool effect of the fire on the trees above us.
Livin' Hard 
You must be logged in to post a comment.