White Pine

White Pine is a lake at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. There is a 4 mile hike up to the lake. I remember hiking this when I was young and over the last few years, I've begun to hike it again. Last year I hiked this with my brother Brent at least 4 or 5 times. This is my first time hiking this trail this year and I hiked it with my brother Shawn. He is my youngest brother and is soon to be 19. Good lookin kid isn't he?! I had so much fun hanging with him as you can tell by our ridiculous faces and goofy pictures. This a beautiful hike. It's not like Timp where you get city views but the lake is pretty and early in the summer there is snow at the top and the lake is ice. It's fun sliding down the snow, but at this time of year the snow had pretty much melted.

This picture is of me and Shawn at the top....lol

This Stream runs from the top all the way down to about a mile into the trail. We cross it several times while hiking.

The last part of this hike has switchbacks and they are tough so Shawn thought he'd take a shortcut...LOL...he climbed up the face of the mountain and found himself having to climb through all this brush to reach the lake and trail, where I was.
The Lake...its so pretty!
The other side of the lake..these peaks are visible from the Salt Lake Valley.
LOLOLOL....this face of mine! Don't you hate taking pictures of yourself? I do, but I do it only for memories...so here's one to remember...ugh
This is a picture we took at the beginning of the trail.

About 1 1/2 miles in, there is a pretty view. It's hard to capture on camera.

Mt. Timpanogos...oh yeah!

Anyone been on this nightmarishly long hike before? I love it, but it was my first hike of the year and it about did me in! 7 1/2 miles up! I could barely walk after the hike Saturday night, lol. My brothers Matt, Brent, Shawn, my Mom, Grandma June, my girls, Hailey, Abby and Matt's Daughter Sammantha started out on this hike together. Mom, Grandma and the kids hiked slower together and made it about 2 miles up before turning back. Matt and Brent made it up to the top in about 2 hours, which is insane! Shawn and I made it up in 4 hours. I had so much fun hiking with Shawn! He makes me laugh and it was serious good times, of which I will remember forever! This hike was really tough toward the end because of all the snow. It required a lot of concentration, slow moving and deliberate, careful footwork. I had hiked it last year when the snow had melted and though it was tough, it wasn't as tough as trying to get up in this snow! Shawn and I slid down the glacier and that was so scary! It was straight down and I dug my feet in for all I was worth and still flew down the mountain and have burns all over my legs from it. I am so proud of us for making it up! Here a a billion silly and kool pix :) Yeah it's kinda hard taking pictures of yourself...lol



(Below) The top! Well, the shack is the very top and Shawn and I couldn't fathom walking on the ridge to get to it, so we made it to this part of the top...haha, if that makes sense.

The first of the ridges of snow to cross. If you fell you fell straight down in rocks, it was very dangerous.

Below....k see the slide? Up at the top is where you start and you just sit down and slide...ouch!

The the shack? Probably not...but its way up there and if you look closely you can see the fools who walked along the ridge to get to it :)

Healthy Snacks

So a cousin of mine asked us bloggers for some healthy snack ideas and I thought I would post mine on my blog, so it might be useful to all of you :)

Apple-Raisin Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon orange peel
1/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1/4 cup organic sugar or honey (I have used 100% apple juice concentrate to eliminate sugar)
1 cup skim milk or soy milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 apple, cored and cut into fourths (1/2 cup)
1/3 cup raisins

Mix flour, oats, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, orange peel, nuts, and sugar. In blender combine milk, egg, oil, apple, and raisins. Pulse to mix and finely chop apple and raisins. Add to dry ingredients, and stir until moistened. Fill nonstick muffins 2/3 full. Bake @ 400 for 12 to 14 minutes.

I like to use the mini muffin tins for bite size muffins and these freeze well, so I will double it and pull out in a pinch :)

Banana Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup bran cereal (I've used oats, all bran, even raisin bran in a pinch)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons honey, organic sugar or fruit juice concentrate
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil
1/3 cup milk
2 or 3 large bananas

Mix dry ingredients. In blender combine egg, oil, milk, and bananas. Blend on low speed until banana is pureed. Pour into dry ingredients, and stir only until combine. Fill nonstick muffin pans and bake at 400 for 12 to 14 minutes. (

Popovers

1 cup flour (white or wheat)
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil

Pul all ingredients in a blender. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Pour into nonstick muffin pans. A few minutes before removing from oven, prick popovers with a fork to allow steam to escape. For crispy popovers, turn off oven and leave popovers in oven with door ajar for 30 minutes. Serve hot. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes reduce heat to 350 and bake 20-25 minutes until firm and brown.

I took these recipes from the book Set for Life. I love this book and use most of the recipes in it. I have adapted and changed some of the ingredients to fit our eating habits, like substituting soy milk for regular milk and juice for sugar in the muffins but this book has some other great muffin and bread recipes as well as main dishes, salads and desserts. It's uber healthy and not to expensive. Enjoy :)

More Vacation Pix

Here are a few pics from the beach. I have more that I will add later. Dave, my BIL has a bunch that I need to get from him...so more to come :) We had so much fun relaxing in Lincoln City at a beach out for part of the week. The kids had a ball!

Visiting My Second Home

Dan's parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary June 27th, 2008 and we had the priviledge of visiting them during this week. We had a lot of fun. Below are some pix from our trip this past week.


Hailey, Abby, and Kiki playing in the water fountains at a local library. Kiki is Hailey's best friend from when we lived in Portland :) We miss her!

Kiki's parents Ta Fong and Chi Wen are also great friends of Dan and I and after the park we went to a local Chinese food restaraunt. I love going to places like that with Chi Wen because she explains new foods and has me try them. She also made "hot pot" for us another night during out trip. That is one of our most favorite meals that Chi Wen used to make for us when we lived in Portland. It consists of a small bowl filled with chopped green onions, cilantro and chinese bbq sauce (not sweet like american bbq sauce). Then in a great big wok in the center of the table you put in very thinly sliced beef, various veggies, tofu, thin chinese rice noodles and many other things, boiling them in beef or chicken broth and when done you put them in your bowl of veggies and bbq sauce. She also makes pot stickers and eggs and shrimp. It's really yummy! We miss them so much!

Tree Farm, I love passing these tree's on our drive to Portland. There are literally miles of tree's!
Family pictures taken after our visit to the temple

The cake :) The same temple that was on the wedding cake mom and dad had 40 years ago...awww

Mom pulled out her wedding dress and it was close to fitting Annie and Hailey, so they took turns trying it on. The girls had a ball.
The Spaghetti Factory after the temple. The food was yummy and it was so much fun to all be together!