A spontaneous afternoon

 

After picking 3 kids up from school one day we had 3 hours until we had to get Maryn from an activity at school.  I had a few ideas in my head of what we could do to keep busy for those 3 hours but the whims of the day and warm sunshine whisked us away to one of the funnest, most spontaneous adventures we've ever had.

I love to be with my kids when we have no stresses beckoning to us,
when we are feeling carefree
 and especially when they are getting along.
Today was it!

As we drove towards Temple Square I just sort of followed the car...

We past Temple Square and kept on driving up and up... until we found the trail head to Ensign Peak...

Even though we were in our school clothes, and I in my dress from a morning at the Salt Lake Temple, we braved the muddy hike, steep incline and set out on Adventure #1. 

A bit of snow on the trail.  I, begging Ady to not get too close to the edge.

Once we reached the top we checked our shoe for mud damage.

Pretty bad...

But, who cares...

shoes are shoes

and the hike was making a memory.

It's a good thing that we only paid 10 dollars for Ady's shoes

that we bought the day before...

her first time wearing them.

My boots...lovely.

But, the view was glorious.

We could see to the Point of the Mountain in one direction

and to the western mountains in the other.

In case you don't know, cause we didn't,

this is where Brigham Young brought 8 other men to map out the city of Salt Lake and make sure all the roads were straight and square. 

It sort of became a camping stop for Indians and other people too.

Brigham Young's son built the monument that stands there now.

Driving around The Avenues we saw the hospital where I was born.

Then, we found Gravity Hill.  Which I think is just a dumb joke now-a-days.  I don't know.  But, when I was in high school it was a crazy path way that you could drive on and put the car in neutral and feel the car go UP hill by itself.  The kids weren't really thrilled with this adventure but it brought back lots of memories for me.

We stopped at the Historical Visitor's Center across the street from the State Capital.

We wished we had more time here, but since we were in the area we stopped at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.  There is a little map where you can give yourself a tour of many famous Utahns and Mormons who are buried there.  We found as many prophets as we could...

This is the Angel that is from the book, The Christmas Box.  I'd still like to know what this represents in this cemetery.  Anyone know?

After we picked up Maryn for school we ate ice cream sundaes all the way home.  We were tired but LOVED our day.  It was so fun and unexpected.  We loved our invigorating hike and feeling the Spirit in that great cemetery. 

The sunshine and 60 degree weather was the cherry on top!

We've already got our list of fun places to see when we have another chance to be spontaneous!