After years of being told we'd never live here again (and years trying to convince myself that that was true), I am SO happy to be back!
I knew I love it here! Mountains! They are amazing and beautiful! They offer skiing, tubing, snowshoeing, and beauty in the winter and hiking, camping, fishing, beautiful waterfalls, lakes, and views in the summer. I LOVE to look at them! I LOVE to be in them! I love the way they smell (except when there's a rotting carcass nearby), I love the way they sound, I love the animals they shelter and provide for, I love their rocky edges and their quaking aspens, fresh pine, wild roses and mint! I wish I could bottle it up and bring it home but then I wouldn't have as nice legs! lol
I LOVE the cool nights in the summertime! I LOVE it when we're camping and it's chilly enough to have to snuggle close to my hubby for warmth! I LOVE that my nose is cold and the rest of me is warm! I LOVE roasting hot dogs over the fire and smelling the camp smoke on my clothes. I love the delicious goo called S'mores (because who doesn't want s'more?). I LOVE trying to roast a marshmallow to perfection (even though we know Eric is THE master at this art). I love throwing paper plates in the fire and calling the dishes "done" (I know the kids do, too)! I love that when we're camping and we wake up things aren't wet! (Or at least they dry fast). Unlike camping in the humid south where everything is wet and you HAVE to use a towel so your tent doesn't get moldy. I love camping here.
I LOVE the tug on the line when a fish takes the bait! I LOVE the excitement of wondering what the catch is! It's like a present every time! (Gutting it and cooking it are another story).
I LOVE the lizards that we catch, and the ones we don't. I LOVE to see snakes and I'm grateful to have never run in to one that rattles! I LOVE seeing, moose, deer, elk, mountain sheep (whatever they're called), coyotes, rabbits and even the bajillion squirrels that I occasionally call raccoons for some ODD reason (I really don't know why). I would LOVE to see a mountain lion! It would be even better if it's not hunting but even if it is I would love to see one, in the wild!
I don't want to claim that I "LOVE" this, but it is something that I do to identify what wildlife may be near. I look at poop. There I said it. I look closely at poop to see what the animal has eaten. I get sticks to poke at poop to see what's inside. I saw some moose poop (I'm pretty sure because I lived in Alaska twice and I saw it a lot there. On the store shelves, no less!). Anyway, I saw moose poop and right next to it was another poop that I would like to think was mountain lion poop. It had a piece of vertebrae in its poop!!!! I know, right? That is CRAZY!!!! That thing ate bones!!! MAYBE it was a coyote, but I'm hoping for a mountain lion (because that would mean that it comes where I go and maybe someday I could see it)!
I LOVE MY FAMILY! My little Emily rocks! She takes on the huge hikes and still wants to ride her bike "when we get home" (at least that's what she says when we're at the top). We have good times.
Thank you, Utah, for being SO awesome! (And I haven't even mentioned Southern Utah)
