Canyon Picnic

When we're in Utah we enjoy going up a canyon and having a picnic.  I wish we could do it more often, but with 4 kids in tow it's a much bigger project than one would think.  This time Grandpa took us to the perfect place: Big Springs Park at the top of the South Fork of Provo Canyon.

As expected, the boys were drawn like moths to a flame to the little creek that ran through the park.

They quickly learned that the water was icy cold, but that didn't stop them!

Spencer got pretty brave, tromping around to find big rocks to throw.

Cole LOVED throwing rocks into the water.  As expected of a three year old, he didn't pay too much attention to how close he was to actually falling in the water as he threw the rocks.  Fortunately, Grandma Susie was always in the background to keep him safe!

Grandpa ElRay decided to wade the waters in one of his infamous pairs of "mudders". (Mudders are shoe that have no laces, no tongues, and are work while doing dirty work.  Or wading in mountain streams.)

We all decided to get in.  Except the water was a bit too cold for Mr. Cole.

This isn't have great of a picture, I just think Cole looks funny the way I'm holding him.

More throwing of rocks.

By this point, Tess was still not too keen about anyone other than Momma and Daddy.  She was so mean!  Every time Grandma Susie picked her up she would fuss and cry big alligator tears!  (Because, you know, Grandma is totally scary.)

Tess escaped Grandma's clutches and decided to sample some of the local flora.

Apparently, some of the local flora was gross.

The boys played some football and frisbee.  Isn't it scenic?

Handsome husband.

Aaaannnddd... more rock throwing.

Instead of heading strait home I thought it would be fun to stop by the Squaw Peak outlook, just to see if the boys really understood how high up we were.  (I still don't know that they did.)

Tess was just a tad sleepy by this point.

Lucky for us, there were a bunch of paragliders taking off while we were up there.  It was really cool to see them just jump off the side of the mountain and fly away.  When we asked where they were going, they said basically wherever the wind took them - but they could go as far as Salt Lake if they wanted.  (That's far!)

Here's a short clip of one of them taking off.  It was pretty impressive, although I think I'll stick to earth for now.