Powder Mountain

Every year since we graduated from high school, our group of friends has gotten together for a weekend camping trip. Our friends have continued to go, but Matt and I have missed the last two trips because we had Kalianna and we didn't want to slow our friends down. (We are the only ones who are married out of our group of friends. And our trips usually consisted of some pretty intense hikes) Anyway, this year we decided to get a condo up in the mountains so Matt and I and the girls could go again. Our friend, Steve, has a timeshare up Powder Mountain, which is past Ogden Canyon near Huntsville and Eden.

Everyone met up at our house Friday after work. We picked up a pizza for dinner and after eating we loaded up our car and took off. Kalianna was so excited to drive through the pretty canyon. She kept exclaiming, "Mountains!" The condo we stayed in was a 2-bedroom. Our friends were nice and let us have the master bedroom with a queen bed. While Breezy, Suzy, and Jacque (Steve's girlfriend) each slept on a twin in the other bedroom. Then Steve slept on the couch in the living room. Our friend Greg couldn't join us since he is in the airforce and is stationed in Wyoming right now. We set up the pack n' play for Magdalyn to sleep in and started to set up Kalianna's bed when we realized there wasn't a good place to put it. The room was pretty cramped already. So Matt had the genius idea of setting up Kalianna's bed in the closet. Now before you call child protective services on us, we did not shut the closet door and lock her in and she loved it! She loved having her own little cave/bed.

We had lots of fun with our friends, and the girls did awesome! They really seemed to enjoy it too. We watched movies, played games, went swimming, went for a hike, and ate and ate and ate. This was our first time meeting Jacque and by the end of the trip, we all gave Steve our approval. She is a speech therapist who works specifically with children ages 2-3 on their language development. She was super impressed with Kalianna's vocabulary and ability to put sentences together. We knew Kalianna was smart, but it was nice hearing it from an expert!

Matt had to teach the lesson on Sunday, so our original plan was to just stay one night and then head home Saturday evening for church the next morning. But we were having so much fun, our friends convinced us to stay. Matt drove home late Saturday night (or really early Sunday morning) and taught his lesson the next morning and then drove back up. We left the condo last night and got home just in time to get Kalianna to bed. It was such a fun, relaxing weekend with good friends.

Enjoying the pool. Kalianna is such a fish! After 2 hours of swimming and very purple lips, we finally made her come in. Magdalyn didn't mind the water, but she got cold pretty quickly so she spent the rest of the time sleeping in a big towel.

Going on a hike to the top of the mountain. The view was absolutely gorgeous! Kalianna would have kept hiking but we needed to get Magdalyn out of the sun and wind.

This "baby" deer was in the lodge. Kalianna was fascinated with it, but very concerned of where its mommy was.

Just love this picture!

Happy as a clam in her own special bed.