::hiking the Y::

One of the things I thought would be really fun to do while we were on our football visit was to hike the Y.  It'd been quite a long time since I had done it and Kris too.  In fact I can't even remember if we ever did it together or not.

Mom was very skeptical because the last time she had hiked the Y she didn't make it.  But that was a long stinking time ago, so it seemed like it might be a different experience now.  And it was.



Leave it to Max to be hanging on the other side of the gate like a monkey in a cage.  Everybody is all dressed up in their football shirts because it was game day!



Sandy is way too big for that backpack, but it was nice to have him in there so we didn't have to worry about him walking the whole way.

Everybody was pretty enthusiastic when we started out.  I had the baby in the front carrier and I was doing just fine for about the first 20 feet, and then as the path went straight up I started to get really tired.  And honestly, the path goes straight up the whole dang way.

So Grandpa took the baby and he sure seemed to enjoy having her snuggled in.  As he said when he saw this picture it looks like he's wearing some sort of strange baby holding overalls.  Pretty awesome.  Lucy slept about half the way up and the whole way down.  It was probably the best nap she had for the entire trip.



The views from that high up were pretty spectacular.  I'm always surprised at how huge the lake is.



Poor Max struggled with the steep steep grade and he got really tired.  Lucky Sandy got to ride in the backpack for most of the way up and then wakl himself up to the top.








What was really funny was this.  Max, tired as he was got slower and slower as we got higher.  My mom went to help him out and she pushed and pulled him up higher and higher.  In fact, they got ahead of us because Max got a second wind when we got to a point where we could see the bottom of the Y.



Anyway, Kris and I had decided we'd just go to the bottom of the Y and be happy with it, but by the time we got there, Mom and Max were so far ahead that they had already passed the path to the bottom and were on their way up to the top!  So we went to the top.



It was tough to get in position for a good photo and the sun was sooooo bright.



Mostly it's just tough to get everybody even looking in the same direction.



I loved the view of the rocky cliffs from where we were, and all the fall leaves changing were gorgeous too.  Those Provo mountains are pretty magnificent.





A nice lady offered to get us all in a photo, so there you go.



I think we'll hike that Y lots more times in the next few years as we visit.  We need to build up some stamina.

We went down the trail slowly but carefully.  On the way down Sandy discovered he could make a Chewbacca sound and that made him happier than anything in the world.

Our reward for our hard work and fun was lunch at Burger's Supreme.  And from the table we were sitting at we could see the Y high up on the moutain.  We all felt pretty amazed that we had just been up there.