A Very Merry Christmas

We started our Christmas festivities on December 20th with a Saluone family party. We all went to church together, had a nice meal afterward and then went to temple square together. It was really fun, and really cold.

The Grotto - Again

We did another hike this summer, to The Grotto in Payson canyon. We've taken the dogs on this hike before, mainly because it's a really easy hike and gives them a chance to get out in nature. Unfortunately there were other groups of people on the hike this day so we didn't get a chance to take pictures at the end of the hike where the actual grotto is. But it was still a fun hike and the dogs enjoyed it.

Timp Cave

This summer we hiked up to Timp Cave. It was really fun.

Here we are at the beginning of the hike.

It started to get pretty hard and we had to climb part of the way.

Not really, but it's fun to pretend. The hike is pretty strenuous so we needed something to do while we rested.

It took a little while, but we finally made it to the entrance of the cave.

We took the cave tour and it was awesome, but none of the pictures turned out great so I didn't post any of them. This is the view from the top - the exit of the cave. Our camera doesn't do it justice.

We're actually lucky we made it back down. Right as we were starting to hike back down the trail there was a rock slide. We had to run back up the trail out of the red zone and watched as several rocks and at least one very large boulder came falling from the cliffs above. We waited until it was safe and then made our way back down.

J had done the hike when he was younger, but I had never done it and it was really fun. It's not for small children, but it would be a fun family hike. The hike is paved the whole way and it's free, but it costs money to tour the cave. I highly recommend it.