The Yurt

Blake and I did a super crazy thing. We left our kids with their grandparents for 19 hours while we hiked to a yurt and spent the night. wow, did we really do that? My sister Anne put in a bid in the lottery for the Millcreek yurt and happened to get it while we were in town. We gathered up what gear we could that was laying around our parents' houses. Blake got stuck with some pretty old/heavy/not very pretty gear. But he was a good sport. It was so much fun! I would definitely do it again. Although there's nothing that will make you feel out of shape quite like hiking 4.5 miles uphill in snowboots carrying 20 lbs up a canyon in Utah.

And the kids even did fine overnight! They slept perfectly all night long, or so we're told.

Blake's awesome bibs

Let's get another shot, just for fun. Andrew was making fun of Blake with me and then I noticed what hat HE was wearing.

Ready to go. Come on, people, it's cold!

Ready to go. We should have had Andrew (instead of Blake) take the picture since he turned around halfway. Something about school.

The trip planner.

So beautiful!

Yes, that is her hair freezing.

We made it! Hooray!

Waiting for it to warm up. Did you know that yurts are made of canvas and dismantled at the end of the season? It actually got pretty warm in there considering there was one stove and some canvas separating us from the coldest night of our trip.

And what did we do in the yurt? Nothing really. Ate. Ate some more. Played Five Crowns. Can we go anywhere with my family and not play Five Crowns? Went to bed. Made Kevin tend the fire. Got up, ate again. Left.

Wow, this is a bad picture but it shows the layout more.

This is in the morning getting ready to leave. Inside I am freaking out: "Get me out of this cylinder to a place where at least there is cell phone service so I can find out how my poor abandoned kids are doing!"

Going home. A lot easier.

It was a true adventure!