Date of the Month: Hiking & KFC

It's no secret that Josh and I love to be outside, so when I was planning the year of dates, OBVIOUSLY hiking (with just us) would be one of them.

But you might not already know that Josh has a secret love affair with eating fried chicken in the mountains. Specifically up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

I'm not even kidding.

So on Friday we dropped off our boys, picked up some chicken and headed for the hills.

We thought we'd go to donut falls (one of our favorites) and to be honest I was sortof wishing that the rules (the ones I invented) of these dates didn't always exclude the boys. But the rules are the rules, so we left without them. And I'm glad we did. Family time is fun, I like hiking with the kids, I like spending time with all of us. But Josh and I dating is different. And this is often the only time during the month we are without them. So it's an important rule to follow. Even if it sounds like a fun thing to do with the kids too.


The gate leading in to donut falls was closed, and we could have walked around it, but we were feeling (a little) pressed for time and (a lot) lazy and wanted to get straight to the hiking.

So we found a new (to us) trail across the street and hiked it instead.

It was beautiful. I remind Josh on a regular basis that this canyon is where we fell in love. We used to take long drives in the canyon, and since he drove a stick and not holding hands wasn't an option, I'd shift for him while he drove. I hope that when we're old and wrinkly we drive up that canyon and he lets me shift for him.  He did this time.

The view was beautiful. And since it had been raining all morning, the air was cool (freezing!) and clean and soggy. There aren't many things I love more than soggy air.

It was seriously cold. Let the record show that our May date probably could have included snow had we driven 10 more minutes up the canyon.

Then I discovered that my camera has a panoramic function - and it was even MORE beautiful.

But then we had this great idea where Josh would run around while the camera was doing it's panoramic magic.  We may or may not have 13 pictures just like this, with various body parts missing.

When we got to the top (aka the place where we decided to turn around) one of us noticed that one of us seriously needed a bathroom FAST because one of us has given birth and one of us now has a basically useless bladder. So both of us jogged down the hill praying for a close restroom the whole way. 

As it turned out Josh's siblings were probably glad that we jogged because John was apparently a weepy whiny mess the entire time we were gone. Poor siblings. I'm glad they survived.

When we got back we looked at the sign, and now I'm hoping we make time this summer to go up to Desolation Lake - 3.5 miles is all. 

(Do you think we could carry the kids the distance they don't want to walk of that?)