..but close enough! Ric and I went backpacking last Friday and Saturday to Notch Lake in the High Uintas with my sister (Karina) and her new husband (Devin), two of my brothers (Jacob and Daniel), and Jacob's girlfriend (Brittany). We left the boys with Ric's brother and wife (Dave and Makell). I was really anxious about this because I've been so sick, but I was determined to do it because it's what Ric really wanted to do for his birthday (July 4th) and we've been planning it for over a month. (Plus, we'll be taking about 8 girls up there in August so we had to scope it out.) So with lots of prayers and lots of moral support from my wonderful husband and family, I did it! And I only threw up once on the whole trip.

It's a two mile hike down in, with a 500 foot elevation change. Notch Lake was absolutely gorgeous, but dang cold. I'll admit, it was handy to have the snowbanks around to stick the food in, but it made for a cold night and a difficult time finding a good dry spot to pitch our tents. The boys were crazy and had to jump in the lake after we got all set up - just to prove their manliness, I suppose - while us girls laughed at their idiocy. We all relaxed or took walks, exploring the area. Then we did dinner and s'mores (a camping must), and turned in for the night. It was a long, cold night, despite the fact that my and Ric's sleeping bags zip together! After breakfast we cleaned up camp and hiked back out. And it only took an hour to hike out, compared to our 2 1/2 to hike in... probably just as much due to the fact that we knew the trail better as to me trying to suck it up and just push until we got there so that I wasn't slowing everyone down (and Ric carrying most of our gear in his pack!).

After we got back home, we all decided we wanted to go see a movie, so in order to get to and earlier showing we just dropped the gear off at our house and went to see "The Proposal"... yes, all smelly! Cute movie, minus some language and a few other things. All in all, it was a fun weekend! Love my hubby and family!!!