Stewart Falls, SLC Arts Festival, and LOST Marathons

So the events from this post are 2 weeks old, but my life is too crazy to be able to blog more often. So I'm writing this as if it were still the weekend of June 28. We caught up with the Raymond family to hike to Stewart Falls near Sundance. It was a beautiful hike but totally crowded. Of course, Chase plunged himself into the waterfall at the end but it was so hot he was probably dry by the time we got back to the car.

We had a picnic first






Beautiful scenery on the hike. Some parts of it looked almost tropical, they were all green and covered with ferns...then of course there were the mountains and the waterfall.


Chase and his dad considering getting under the waterfall after his dad taunted him, "Come on, aren't you going to get wet with me?"


Chase actually getting wet while his dad decided not to get in


Both of them running away from the FREEZING waterfall - notice how Mike is still dry :)

Moving on to later that evening...we got free tickets to the SLC Arts Festival from Chase's work. So we rode our bikes on over to the library to check it out. We saw some cool performers and lots of awesome paintings, photography, etc. in the artists' booths. It's nice to go to something like that and see that our downtown isn't always dead with no people walking around...I hope this is a sign of how our city will be in a few years when they finish all the downtown projects.




Cool Brazilian fire dancers

So, each night of the weekend after we'd tired ourselves out all day, we settled in to watch LOST on DVD, which Adam & Kim were nice enough to lend us. Now, I realize I'm about 4 years behind everyone else, but we're still on the first season, and I'm hooked. They really do a good job of making you want to know what happens next. I don't know how people watched it on TV, once a week, with commercials and stuff. I do, however, have a few comments to make/questions to raise about LOST:

Okay. I'm sorry, but the whole Jack/Kate connection isn't that convincing to me. I know there's supposed to be all this tension/desire, etc. between them, but it's just not quite working for me. I don't feel like it'd been developed enough to make me root for them just yet.

Also - I like Sawyer. I think you're kind of supposed to hate Sawyer, but I like him.

There are a few too many close calls, I think. I know, I know, it's a TV show and you're supposed to suspend your belief, and if all the characters died off there wouldn't be a show. But seriously...

Finally, how do all these people stay so clean shaven on this island? Did someone bring along a waxing kit that they're all using? I think after a month on an island with no razor I'd be embarrassed to strip down to my bikini.

But, after watching the show, it leaves me with a strange desire to be stranded on a tropical island...

Anyway, we had a great, relaxing weekend!

The new ride

Yeah, we like it...

Cooking...

So, now that we have a new place and a kitchen that can actually fit two people in it at once, I've been trying my hand at cooking a little more. We have our favorite 6 or so dinners that we rotate through, but here's some things I've tried lately...


Crepes with apples, cheese, and honey




My first pizza...this has become one of our favorites. (Okay, it's really because Pillsbury makes the dough and sells it in those rolls...)

More hiking

Here's some pictures of our hike in Centerville Canyon. To see photos of our hike in Adams' canyon, check out Allison's blog at http://adambombandlittlefrenchie.blogspot.com/2008/06/ash-and-chase-weekend.html

Emigration Canyon

Chase and I have tried to get out hiking as much as we can this summer. So far we've been to Centerville Canyon, Millcreek Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Adams Canyon, and most recently, Emigration Canyon, which has been our favorite. I had been there a few times, but apparently not enough to appreciate the wonderful beauty and uniqueness of this little canyon. It's unique in that people live in it year-round all the way up to the top. There are a few little restaurants (Ruth's Diner and the Sun & the Moon diner), but other than that it's not very commercialized. You have beautiful views of the mountains in Park City, as Parley's Canyon is just over the mountain. We must have happened upon it at the best time of year, as everything was still very green, and there were tons of wildflowers in all different colors.







We loved this view from our summit. It reminded me of a little European village in the mountains. We also saw a baby deer crest a hill across from us, and we ended up at this bridge.




Beautiful place! I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a great hike with lots of natual beauty.

Gardening

We started our (okay, my) very first garden last night. I know it's a little late in the year (we realized this when all our seed pacakges indicated the need to plant six weeks before the last frost - oops) but, we're giving it a try anyway. We planted sunflowers, tomatoes, red peppers, onions, squash, cucumbers, and carrots. Hopefully we'll have a great little harvest sometime before the next frost...

Deviled?

While enjoying some deviled eggs for dinner last night, Chase and I pondered the meaning of this term. This led me to wonder...when, exactly, did "deviled" become a verb? I know it's something you can do to eggs, or crab, or probably many other foods, but what IS it? How does one "devil" something?