Summer: Not just for kids anymore

I am so excited that warm weather is finally here. No more having to bulk up to go outside, no more crappy driving because there’s snow/ice on the ground and no more freezing all the time. (Ok, technically, I still am cold in my house. I can’t believe it-but I’m still wearing sweaters and stuff in there) This is my favorite time of the year-summer. I can’t wait to start my summer trips, and the swimming, and the hiking and everything you can do in the warm weather. I have waited so long to bust out the summer clothes-the tank tops, flip flops, and shorts. I’m already wearing the flip flops-I need to get my feet used to them again!
To kick off the “start” of summer, PJ and I went on a hike yesterday. It started out as FHE for our singles ward (we never go to activities, this was one we’d know we’d enjoy, being hiking) but when that ended up not happening the way we wanted (the ward failed to realize that there is still snow up in the mountains. They chose to hike the Y trail, we chose to do our own thing) we had to make plains of our own. We went up Dry Canyon, and it was a good hike. I gotta tell you- I always feel like I’m in such good shape and hiking always seems like a good idea until I actually go hiking. Then, as I’m gasping for breath and a lot of my muscles are screaming at me to stop, I think, hiking is stupid. Who chose this as an activity? Why can’t we just turn around? But then, we keep going, and have an awesome time. We saw lots of deer, and a turchicken (I couldn’t tell if it was a chicken or a very small turkey, so I am inventing my own animal, a turchicken. Never has anything tasted so good) We met a lot of nice people up there-most of who had a dog. Good dogs, this lot. When we got to the top of whatever trail we were on, we looked down on the valley, and we could see so much! It was all so beautiful-but I had left my camera in my car. PJ tried to take some photos with her cell phone camera, but they didn’t turn out as one would hope they would. But that’s ok-we can always hike back up it again, to get some good ones.
I am excited for all the stuff that’ll be happening this summer. I’m hoping to learn to snorkel and I want to swim a lot more this year than last. We have some great trips “idea-ed” out. We bought an annual pass for every national park this year-and I intend to use the crap out of that sucker. I will hit up every place that is available to me. And don’t worry, folks-I’m sure you’ll hear about all that I do!

There is one bad thing about having warm weather. I got a delicious candy bar from Papa Parry-and it melted in the car while we were hiking.