On Thursday, August 14, I was talking to my sister Chelsea on the phone. We were talking about how we should get together since she had the next day off work and Thomas had the kids for the weekend, and I was thinking about how Michael and Gabe hadn't started football games yet, and that this might be the last free weekend I'd have until Fall Break, and I found a half baked idea coming out of my mouth with Chelsea on the phone and Brian standing nearby, "What if we have a girls' trip? How soon could you come tonight?" I must have had some obligation to fulfill before I could take off, so she ended up coming to me, and then we went up to Heber for a two-nights' stay, I think at the Holiday Inn Express or something.
The next morning, after breakfast, we headed to Sundance where I took Chelsea on her very first ski lift ride. The bottom parking lot was full, so we had a little downhill walk to get to where we bought our lift ticket.
After getting tickets and using the facilities, we were off. She was a little nervous, and we for sure took advantage of the safety bar, but we had a great ride up.
We did a little exploring when we changed lifts, and it was so beautiful. I was surprised to see some of the leaves on some of the bushes already starting to change colors.
We made it all the way to the top and looked over Utah Valley on one side and Heber Valley on the other. It was so beautiful!
We ate lunch at the top. We had a lovely view! Unfortunately, there were so many wasps hovering near our food that we ended up heading into the restaurant to finish eating to escape them after we took this photo.
We rode the upper lift on a loop for a few times until they were closing and had to send us back down.
Here we are at the top again with the restaurant in the background. If I were a skiier, I might remember the name of this restaurant or this lift, but I am not and I do not.
Here's Chelsea pretending to be scared. We laughed about how it's a good thing I didn't try to take Emily on this ski lift with me.
After finishing up at Sundance, we headed further up the Alpine Loop to just past Aspen Grove. It was fun showing Chelsea my BYU sophomore year stomping grounds in our little drive-by tour, and we pulled into the parking lot for hiking Timp and Stewart Falls. We found a little picnic area near the trail head, and I forced Chelsea to do a little watercoloring with me. She humored me for a bit, and then resorted to doing something on her phone while I continued with my watercolor therapy. It was so lovely--the woods, painting, and my sister. I kept hearing some rustling in the trees, and wondered when the squirrel would make an appearance.
The next thing we knew, the "squirrel" I thought I heard emerged, and we were one part in awe and ten parts panicked when this handsome fellow walked out of the bushes right in front of us. Do you see the arm of our camp chair in the foreground? He was THAT close to where we were. We weren't sure what to do, so in a panic, we slowly climbed up onto the picnic table. Looking back, we probably should have gotten under the table since he wouldn't be able to get us under there, but in all our "what do you do if you run into this animal in the woods?" training, for some reason, a bull moose wasn't one of the animals we trained on.
With hearts pounding, Chelsea quickly took some photos and I took a video. Chelsea started talking to him. He stared us down for a bit, and then took off into the nearby amphitheater.
Chelsea and I now measure our lives in before and after the moose, mostly because of something I said at dinner later that night, which we ate in Heber, and it was delicious.
The next morning, we ate breakfast, packed up, and headed back to my house. Our weekend was short and sweet, but much needed for both of us.
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