Family...Hiking...Utah mountains at their finest...and a Rattlesnake.

I will start with the statement that I know guys are not supposed to blog. It's probably against some "guy code" somewhere that some big strong guy with a goatee and a tiger tatoo made up, but I have a good friend(the justinator) that has a blog and I would put him up in a toughness contest any day of the week against the guy that wrote the "code", so here it goes.

I took this week off of work to spend some time with my family before our busy season starts at work. In a life many moons and a few pounds ago, when I was on vacation Kristi and I would pack up and hit the road, sky, trail, water or burro (if necessary) to have a good time and get out and explore the world. This was before the injection of two little boys into our tiny part of the world. We gave a decent amount of thought into what we could do this week, and we could not come up with much. Jett has an amazing ability to stay awake all night and punish everyone within a cubic mile if he is not at home in his own bed, so that ruled out going anywhere outside of about a 50 mile radius. A quick look to the mountains gave us our answer...we will indoctrinate our children into the wonderful world of hiking.

For the 6 readers that know Kristi and I, you know that we love backpacking and have spent a good amount of time exploring the desert and mountains around here. This gave us a false sense of security that we were qualified guides for two amateurs. We had a child carrier for Cole that we used a few times last year with Jett, so with a quick trip to the local outdoor store and a couple bucks later, we had a new backpack for Jett and we were ready to begin. We hiked several days this week in a few different canyons. Although our packs were lighter than they may have been had it been only us, and the distance we covered was much shorter, our skills were still challenged heavily. Planning is a much bigger issue now. A few years ago, we did not have to plan trips around nap schedules, eating sessions, rain, or bowel movements.

Before you go and assume we are irresponsible parents, you must realize that we have crossed many streams, rivers and gorges in our past, so we were not going to shy away from a few crossings. Having said that, the person carrying Cole could not see their feet, which added an element of difficulty that almost sent Cole and I in for medical treatment.

Cole was mostly just along for the ride, but Jett had a lot of learning to do.

I let him hike when it was deemed safe, and a few times that it was marginal. I'm glad I could not get the video of his bridge crossing(and subsequent fall) to upload or my case for parenting style would take a hit. But hey, he is a boy...he can take a fall.

Somewhere about here, Cole and I were enjoying the trail when we heard a sound that to him was new, but brought back bad memories for me. I looked down and as my neck began to sweat I saw the Coiled rattlesnake sitting under the rock I was about to step over. I turned and cut the hike a bit short of our destination. As my brother pointed out, this was weak...true. I have encountered these lovely creatures several times and never have they kept me from a destination, rerouted me for sure, but not ended a good hike. I guess I'm getting old.

Jett is in the stage of life when he tries to repeat anything that you say. Luckily he was not with me when I saw the rattlesnake or he may have a more colorful vocabulary than he needs at his age, but he did learn a few new words this week. One that we thought was funny was "dangerous". He thought it was pretty fun to be somewhere(on a rock, stump or log) that we thought was "dangerous." He would point to a rock he wanted me to put him on and say "daannaaaassssss".

No matter how fun, beautiful or dangerous it was...we had a great time just relaxing(as much as possible) and being a family. Jett is my little buddy, Cole is adorable and I am married to my best friend. What a lucky guy I am to have such a great family.

I Love you Kristi.