My family visit - The Great Outdoors

Hello readers!! Long time no see! I do have a great excuse for this lack of communication however, my family was visiting. For those who may not know me well, I live in Utah and my family lives in Wisconsin. So visits are few and far between and quite an event when they do happen.

This was no exception! We had the entire week chock full of awesome plans. I love when they visit me, because Utah is truly an exceptional state in regards to it's natural beauty, and I get to show it off. When I first moved here in 2009, everything was so beautiful and exciting, I was like a tourist. Now I feel like I've become a local and this is just "the norm" so getting to see Utah again through their eyes was certainly special to me.

Our first day of traveling was spent at the Spiral Jetty. It's on the northern end the Great Salt Lake, past the Golden Spike national historic site. My sister was super excited because she was an art major in college and had actually studied about the Spiral Jetty in school. Once we got to the Spiral Jetty, I was surprised by 2 things. One, they re-did the road out to there so now a car can even make the trip. And two, the water level was so outrageously high so you could barely make out the spiral. The trip wasn't a waste though, we hiked up the hill to get a higher vantage point and took some pictures. It was a fun little outing.

Spiral Jetty during 2009 visit

Spiral Jetty during this recent visit

Up close view of it under water

My *AWESOME* Family (minus my Dad taking the pic)

Me trying to walk across without falling in :)

Our second day of travels took us up to The City of Rocks in Idaho. If you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you know that "The City" is my favorite place on Earth. So naturally, I had to take my family there to show them the place that means so much to me. We chose the absolutely, most perfect day to go up there, the weather was 54 degrees!!! In January!!! This was my first trip up there where I didn't climb, but it was just as fun scrambling around and seeing the looks of amazement on my family's faces as they took in this place. Before we left I made sure I took my sister on a climb. On the back side of Bath Rock there is an easy climb to the top via the "Rebar Route". It has 4 rebar handles added and is otherwise an easy scramble to the top. It was great watching my sister come up something that scared her and conquer her fears.

My Dad and Lil Guy on top of a group of rocks.

Steinfells Dome and Jacksons Thumb (that I climbed this summer) in the background.

My little Man (He says he's a climber "like Mom")

Me and the Kiddos

My sister throwing a snowball at my Dad (who's totally oblivious).

My sisters in front of the Breadloaves formation.

My sister's first climb (The "Rebar Route")

On our third day, we ventured off to Antelope Island, a Utah State Park. It was another absolutely gorgeous day and we spent the afternoon driving across the island and hiking around. My family loved seeing the antelope and bison that inhabit the island, while my little man loved checking out the rocks (the geologic history of the place is pretty neat).

My sister

Yoga Break!

Just one spectacular view of many

A few of the buffalo that roam the island.

And of course, we had to finish the night with sushi!

And on our final day out, we went down to The Homestead Crater in Midway, UT (south of Park City). Ok, have you seen the movie 127 Hours? If you have, I'm sure you remember the scene where James Franco's character and the 2 girls slide down the canyon into the underground pool of water, right? Homestead Crater is where they filmed that part of the movie. And yes, it is as blue and gorgeous as the movie portrays it to be, the only thing that would make it better is if they actually allowed you to jump in from the top. We spent about an hour there swimming around and soaking in hot water before heading to Park City to eat and window shop.

My family and I swimming (Yes they make you wear floaties)

The hole at the top of the dome

What you see when you walk in

The outside of the dome

So that, my friends, is what has kept me from blogging. Excusable right?

How are your family visits?

Do you like to get out and adventure with them or lay low and catch up?