Labor Day 2012

On Labor day we called our cousins to go swimming. When we called Emily she had a different suggestion. I was in a good mood and went with it. We packed some snacks and went up to Snowbasin. We took 10 Ballard cousins and Jake's friend Kasen.

We used the Happenings Book coupons and rode the gondola to the top. It was beautiful.

We had to split our group into two gondolas. Emily said these

boys spent most of the ride discussing where you could jump and land without dying.

These girls pointed out which runs they had skied and were giddy with excitement for the upcoming ski season. Gracie was beside herself when Emily and her kids got their season passes.

 And Ethan did his best to scare the little boys into thinking we were going to get stuck. 

I need a better camera, but a poor picture is better than no picture:

Leslie & I took our best "Facebook" picture

The view was crazy. I was amazed at how far we could see.

This view just made me so happy. Utah is a beautiful state with so much variety.

The boys took off running ahead of us:

We had planned to only walk the short loop but then a man overheard us and said it was only ten minutes to the top. I didn't have a watch, but I am pretty sure he was wrong. I huffed along and pretended to be courteous while letting people pass when in actuallity I was gasping for air. Emily was amazing. She hiked the entire thing with Kaleigh on her shoulders.

And when we made it, it was worth it.

Ethan, King of the Mountain:

Emily took these amazing pictures. She climed that hill with a 35lb baby on her shoulders and a giant camera. I could barley make it with my skin.

 

The trail was steep and we were lucky that none of us fell on the way down.

If Gracie hadn't have been holding onto Adam, he would have fallen at least five times.

And then we rode back down the on gondolaTurns out climbing the side of the lodge is not acceptable, but very tempting and actually, 

what would it hurt?

We ended the day with with a snowcone and it turns out that

Pineapple~Colada is a real flavor, a good one with a dumb name.