Snowshoeing

Joseph spent his Christmas money on a pair of new snowshoes and we put those babies to use right away. On Dec. 26th he and I ran off for a quick snowshoeing date up Rose Canyon near our house (I used a pair we borrowed from my dad).

 

 Look at that perfectly untouched path! We loved heading into that fresh snow and making our own trail up the canyon. We saw exactly no one which was perfect. Plus the sun came out for a while too which felt so nice even though it was a pretty cold day.

 

 

 About 3 days later we were itching to get out again so we stayed really close and just drove up the street to the Herriman Hills trails right behind out house to trudge around some more. A snow storm was moving in and we hiked right up into the foggy cloud of snow but all that elevation gain was such a great workout! I was dying in my down coat -- way too hot so I unzipped it most of the way. But then coming down I was glad I had it :)

On the last day of the kids' Christmas break Joseph took the bigs on an outing too, right up Rose Canyon but they followed the trail that branches into Yellow Fork Canyon.

The Camelbak backpacks these two are wearing are Christmas gifts from my parents and the kids are so excited about them. We hope to use them tons this summer too as we hike and explore and even ride bikes. They hold a ton of water and then have some little pockets for things like lip stuff and snacks. I love that they will be able to carry their own water as we hike because with 6 of us we drink so much when we hike and always use up every last drop from our water bottles.

One more snowshoeing adventure early in January with Mary and Seth. Mare found some snowshoes at Savers for a steal and was wanting to put them to use. We headed up Rose Canyon again and wove our way up through lots of scrub oak and sage brush. It's always fun to carve out a path up in the hidden hills.

 Joseph and I were laughing at how eager we were to use his new snowshoes —we really packed in a lot of time in them but in hindsight we're so glad we did. This has been the least snowy winter we can remember since moving back to Utah 10 years ago. We're glad we hit the snow while we had it!