Last fall, we discovered a little camping spot on the Nebo Loop. It isn't an official camp location, so the place isn't surrounded by dozens of other people in RVs and tents. It's a simple clearing with a fire pit and it is perfect :) Except that you have to off road through a stream and occasional piles of cow poop. Those are minor setbacks though, the place really is perfect.
Camping at our spot with the Kraus fam last year!
We went camping there a couple times last fall, and of course we had to go again! We made the plan to go camping the first weekend after school started and hike the next day. After a few people flaked out, we ended up just going with Dustan's sister Taylor and his old roommate Bryson. But it was a blast!
We made delicious hobo foil dinners (and hot dogs because Dustan loves them), ate too many s'mores, and attempted to roast licorice. And because we camped on a Sunday, we had a short devotional and musical fireside. Taylor and Bryson are both ridiculously musical (fiddle and guitar respectively) so that was one of our favorite parts of the evening. Afterward, we did some stargazing then played all ten rounds of Phase Ten until the wee hours of the night.
After waking up on Monday, we continued driving up the Loop toward Nebo Mountain. Nebo Mountain is the highest peak in the Wasatch Mountain Range and up there for highest in Utah altogether, even a little higher than the more famous Mount Timpanogos. It is 11,928 feet high. And guess what? We hiked to the very top!
One of the views on the way up. That's the peak in the top left of the picture. So far away!!
Looking at the mountain to conquer...
And we made it to the top!!
It was definitely one of the harder hikes I have been on. It was about 9 miles round trip with 3,800 feet in elevation gain. And the trail wasn't like a typical hike that just went up then back down after the peak. It was hilly up and down for a large amount of the hike, which only made the elevation gain at the end more steep. But we made it! It was a beautiful hike and the last half a mile or so was nearly like rock climbing as we scrambled over chunks of shale (this was not enjoyable on the way back down). The view at the top was stellar, we could see everything.
Getting down was a little sketchy...
Bryson and Taylor
Even though the way back down wasn't terribly enjoyable because of twisted and bad ankles, it was worth it. Thank goodness for husbands who carry all the water/food and even hold your hand through the hard parts! And looking at the silver lining on it taking me forever to get back down, we got to see a beautiful sunset!
We hope we can fit a couple more hikes in before the snow starts coming this year!!
Fall semester at BYU is officially underway. We are both in our fifth and final year of schooling, and we are proud to call ourselves super seniors! As it was our last first day of school (for me at least), of course we had to take a picture with the Y!
Also, we were cool enough to be featured on #BYUFirstDay, which was neat-o.
We'll just give you a bit of an idea into the life of Dustan and Ellen:
6:30-7:30 am - wake up and great ready for school 7:30 am - bike a couple miles to campus (or drive if the weather is bad) 8:00 am-4:00 pm - classes all day long! 4:00 pm - bike back home 4:15-6:00pm - attempt to work on homework 6:00-7:00 pm - make and eat dinner and relaxation! 7:00-10:00 pm - mixture of homework/family home evening/movies/exercising/ice cream 10:00 pm - personal and companion scripture study, then to bed!
And that is our typical school day! Combine that with job fairs, student teaching applications, church activities, sports, and more...and our semester looks like it is going to be a hectic one!
PS: If you haven't watched the first two BYU football games, you probably should. I don't know if Mangum will continue to deliver the rest of the season, but those first couple games were stellar!
And finally, here is a little picture my mom sent me. From my first day of kindergarten to my last first day of school ever :)
Our real first anniversary trip was earlier this summer, when we went to Jamaica. But when we are both done with summer work and have a few days before school starts, we just had to make the most of it and take a mini vacation! We had spent the week previous with the Kraus family in Castle Rock, Colorado, so we picked a location between there and Provo and spent a few days together. After talking to some friends and family in Colorado, we decided to go to Steamboat Springs! We spent the morning of our first anniversary packing up the car and hanging with the Kraus ladies. From there, we went out to linner (lunch/dinner) to Thai food--which has been a tradition with us, we LOVE Thai food--before heading to the little ski resort town!
Steamboat Springs, CO
Steamboat is seriously the cutest. Some of the things that drew us there for our first anniversary was the promise of stellar hot springs, hiking, and mountain biking. We got into town in the evening and the first thing we did was go in search of some supposedly free hot springs by the river. Either these didn't exist or we got lost, but anywho, instead we grabbed some of our favorite treats at the store, hot tubbed at the hotel, watched a movie, and made a plan for the next few days :)
Unfortunately, our second of four days in Steamboat was raining. Almost all day long. But we refused to let that deter us! We had a late morning, watched a few episodes of our favorite show at the moment (we love Fringe!), and headed out to brave the weather!
Because it was still raining, we took a stroll around the city's botanical gardens and ate at a nice breakfast and lunch cafe.
By then, the rain had died down so we went on a short hike. We hadn't originally wanted to do this hike because there were others in the area that looked more impressive, but with severe thunderstorms in the forecast, we decided to play it safe with a shorter hike. We hiked up to the Emerald Mountain Quarry--and it didn't even rain on the way up! We also learned that this hike had a lot of mountain biking trails, so it was good to scout it out for the future. The view from this hike ended up being beautiful! We were glad we went.
That's Steamboat in the background!
We didn't escape the rain for long, and we got pretty soaked and muddy on the hike back down to the car. We didn't mind though, because the weather stayed fairly warm.
After heading back to our hotel and getting cleaned up, we went on to the next adventure for the rainy day: the Strawberry Park Natural Hot Springs! It was a long drive up a muddy mountain road to get there, but it was so worth it. These hot springs ended up being one of our favorite activities of the trip. The area they were in was absolutely beautiful, and there were at least 5 different pools with different temperatures of water--some were even deep enough to swim in!
We went in the early evening because these hot springs were clothing optional once the sun went down... We wanted to stay long enough just to see the stars come out before we bolted, but then we had some other interference.
The thunderstorm we had been dreading all day finally arrived! And we were swimming around in hot springs at the top of a mountain. How safe, haha. Soon enough, we could see lightning flashes in the sky every 3 seconds NO JOKE. And I don't think I've ever heard thunder so loud! We gave it a few minutes to see if the storm was going to pass (it wasn't even raining yet) but eventually decided we didn't want to drive down the mountain in deep mud. As we were running to the car, lightning struck the ground not even 30 feet from us. It was wild! Then right as we slipped into the car, it started hailing. We got there just in time!
Friday was our last real day in Steamboat Springs! We got an early start and went on a hike up to Fishcreek Falls. The hike and view at the end were spectacular. The falls were impressive (there were some at the beginning of the hike and the very end) and we got our feet wet in the freezing water while we ate our lunch. It was perfect.
On the way back down, we ran into a couple who had creeped some pictures of us under the waterfall, and they turned out to be LDS and from Utah! So fun. As we finished the hike, we went off the path a bit and did some bouldering up to another waterfall.
We took a short break after hiking, but went right back at it. We went back to Emerald Quarry and did some mountain biking. The weather was perfect, the trails were pretty (and bumpy and terrifying) and each of us only crashed once! Not too shabby.
Then our mini vacay came to an end :( We took one last look around town before heading out to Provo to start our final year at BYU! Super senior power!
After our summer adventure in Iowa ended, we packed up our stuff and headed to Colorado to spend some time with the Kraus family!
The drive from Iowa to Colorado was largely uneventful except for one awesome experience. We stopped at a gas station to fill up the car and use the restroom. But when I headed to the restroom, I was confused by the toilet.... It was a Bidet! A Bidet is one of those fancy toilets that does everything from washing you to drying you, all the while with heated seats. It was a great experience. Unfortunately, there were no Bidets in the men's room, but I was able to convince Dustan to use the ladies just for the experience and to say he has used a Bidet ;)
Now, one of the main reasons we went to Colorado between Iowa and school was to see Dustan's sister Taylor, who had been serving a mission in Las Vegas. We made some neat posters, cleaned up the house, and greeted her at the airport! I had only spent time with Taylor a few times while Dustan and I dated, so it was great to get to know her a little bit better.
Taylor's welcome home signs!
After Taylor's homecoming talk at church. Me, Mama Kraus, Taylor, and Erin
One day while we were in Colorado, we spent the day down by Manitou Springs. We hiked the Incline first, which is a mile straight up, 2,000 feet of elevation gain, and 2,744 steps. This was probably one of the hardest physical activities I've done in my life. The first half of the hike up, I couldn't breathe. The second half, my legs had lost all strength. But we made it to the top and took a leisurely trail back down! After our hike, we dipped our feet in a creek and drove through cute downtown Manitou Springs and looked at a couple shops. Afterward we drove through Garden of the Gods before heading back to Castle Rock. It was a great and exhausting day.
Doesn't the Incline look wild?!
The ladies of the family.
The boys of the family.
Garden of the Gods/Land Before Time
Also, here is a fun picture of me and my cute freshman year roommates at Garden of the Gods years ago :)
A few other fun activities we did while there was mountain biking, an endowment session at the Denver temple, roasted s'mores, THREE cross country races for the kids, chilled in the hot tub, played card games, and went to many parks.
We loved our time with the Kraus family and are excited to be back this year for Christmas! Coming up soon on the blog: our first anniversary mini vacation and back to school at BYU!
