A short, but steep 2.8 mile out and back hike into Waterfall Canyon didn’t disappoint. A bit chilly when we got to the waterfall as the sun wasn’t up quite yet. I was joined by the wife of one of Joel’s shooting buddies so that was fun to introduce her to the group.

There was a lot of water running down the creek which splashed up on the bushes and branches and froze – very pretty!

Joel started his birthday with all his purple kohlrabi seeds up.

Then went to his favorite Mexican restaurant (Red Iguana.)

And for the Grande Finale, Alison went to a Stamp club meeting with him. No photo! Thanks for all the well wishes!

Although it is called a 25K, it is actually a bit longer at 16.4 miles. Started out in a down jacket for the pre-race meeting as it was a bit chilly. By the end of the run/race it was sunny and in the 40’s.

Was trying to finish in less than 4 hours and made it in 3:45 so was happy with that! I think my least favorite part was the two mile climb starting at mile #4. A bit of walking on the uphills! At least I finished and got a mug! Joel did a great job as photographer, videographer and driver!

I have been pulling together photos and documents to write this post for quite some time and finally took the time to sit down and work on it.

It seems that my work in the food industry had some really weird connections to Dad in his climbing career. I started working at Interbake Foods at 8500 Southwest Durango Street in Tacoma, WA soon after graduating from college. Among other things, the commercial bakery produced an item called Sailor Boy Pilot Crackers and also a somewhat sweeter version called Royal Kreems. The name may have changed on both the company and the product in 20+ years but here is a communication from Dad in the early 1960’s to the American Biscuit Company as he was the food procurement manager for the Century 21 Mt. McKinley expedition. Of course, Mom kept everything well documented and probably did most of the formal communication!

Once the expedition was underway, Safeway was able to get their name out there as here is a photo of Dad enjoying his Jersey Creams with Safeway’s Empress Berry Jam. This was from the January 1963 edition of Safeway News.

On the 1972 Pioneer Traverse Expedition, he also purchased the Jersey Cream Biscuits – here is a copy of a sample menu from that trip.

Then, when I left Interbake Foods and headed to Keebler/Kellogg’s, I found out that Dad seemed fascinated by Pop-Tarts that were introduced in the 60’s after his first Mt. McKinley expedition. Here is a scan of an ad that he saved from the newspaper.

I never found any actual purchase reference in his climbing documents but Pop-Tarts are actually a preferred climbing food for breakfast if one is on the go and doesn’t want to heat up oatmeal. They are pretty heavy to carry around but they are full of fat and sugar and calories! In fact, when I got the recommended food list for my upcoming Canyonlands Backpacking trip, look at what is the VERY first item on the list!

So, the biggest question is, “Frosted or Unfrosted?” I think growing up that the unfrosted brown sugar cinnamon was a family favorite!

And just today I see that there is a new Netflix movie about the breakfast wars between Post and Kellogg and the eventual launch and success of the Pop-Tart. Who knew there was so much family history involved.

From a card table in the back bedroom,

to this behemoth in the family room just waiting to be filled up,

Joel’s seed starting venture seems to have hit the big time. Time will tell on how robust, and catproof the unit is!

With hiking partners dropping off left and right, I was intrigued by a hiking club I just discovered.

Pretty much self explanatory … You sign up for various types of hikes, get an email about recommended gear and adult beverage and away you go … Well, a few more steps but I did join the club ( free) and went on my first hike a couple days ago.

The hike was on Antelope Island, which I am becoming very familiar with due to my 25K training. We did the Lakeview Trail in beautiful (close to 60degree) weather. The group was about 17 women of all ages. They do have over 50 hikes so I will have to see what that is all about.

At the end of the hike the leader treated us to ” boozy” cupcakes she made as well as a bit of Bailey’s for our coffee. Joel is just shaking his head – where do you find a group of women that hike on Sundays and drink coffee and booze in Utah? Turns out most of the women are transplants!

After a hard day of mousin’

Ready for a little”me” time.

What is your problem human? After 16 years of yoga you still can’t do this?

After a few nice snowfalls in December, we sort of lost interest in snowshoeing January when we started to get a lot of rain and not much snow. But what is great is that Ogden Nordic installed a lot of new webcams and there is one specifically that shows the temp and snowfall amount in the last day. So instead of loading up the Jeep and heading over to sloppy conditions, we can just view the webcam and decide if it is a snowshoe day or a SnapFitness Day! We took advantage of the latest snowfall and on Thursday ended up being the only ones on the trails for the two hours that we were there.

Beautiful morning! A bit foggy to start out but then the sun came out.

Again, circa the 1950’s and 1960’s – a few more photos I found from Mom and Dad’s trips.

In celebration of a great trip to the ocean last week and the first anniversary of Dad’s passing, I rustled up some photos from ocean trips that Mom and Dad took in the 50’s and 60’s. As well as a few from our childhood and our last Family Reunion in 2019. Enjoy!

The ones below are from a trip to the ocean in 1961 that Mom and Dad took with family friends Ron and Peg.

These are a collection of family photos from the 70’s. Dad was the designated photographer so didn’t get in many of the shots!

And these last ones are from the 2019 Family Reunion on the Olympic Peninsula.