Streaming With the Kids

On Sunday afternoon, Mark and I took the kids - the Quads and Nathan - to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon to play in the stream. They loved it. It was a gorgeous, sunny spring afternoon, the trees were cloaked in that special color of green that comes only in early spring, and the mountains in the distance were still topped with snow.

Of course, they wanted to climb the first big rock they came across.

The mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon is the site of the Temple Quarry Trail. It was from this area that the Mormon pioneers quarried huge blocks of granite that had tumbled off the adjacent mountain,  after which they loaded them up and hauled them to the center of Salt Lake City in order to construct the Mormon temple there. Now, it is a very picturesque area where families go on hikes and have their pictures taken - and play in the stream.

I should have worn my black sunglasses. Too gay.

Nathan doing some yoga poses on an abandoned concrete building

Even though the water was freezing, the kids had a blast carefully wending their way across boulders and rocks - while I sat on the side worrying what would happen in one of them slipped and fell backwards ... or forwards ... or sideways.

But I reminded myself that they are kids, and this is what kids do. As we walked down the trail from the parking lot toward the stream, Levi asked, "Can we go exploring?" I said yes, he said "Yay!!" and off he and Annie went, running down the trail and out of sight. 

It was a fun afternoon.