Russ and Marci Simons Random Family Happenings: 4th of July hike to Donut Falls

I can't believe it's the 4th of July already. June was such a rainy and cold month it did not feel like summer. Plus Maili didn't get out of school until this last Thursday. So our summer is just starting - literally.

We started the day off just as we have every year since we've lived in Utah by going to an annual 4th of July breakfast at the home of the Jorgensen's. They've hosted this breakfast for around 30 years or so. We found out that this year was going to be their last year hosting a breakfast. Maybe next year we'll have to start our own 30 year tradition in our Herriman neighborhood.

After breakfast we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon - for those of you not in Utah this is the same canyon you take to get to Brighton and Solitude ski resorts. There were so many cyclists out I almost wished I was on my bike too. But it was fun to spend the day with the kids. Russ had been snowshoeing with the scouts to Donut Falls this winter so we decided to try it out with Maili, Bryton and Thyse this summer. It was only about 1 mile each way. Everything was so lush and green because of all the rain.

I'm not sure Thyse was too excited to be walking so far. He always wants to be carried. We had promised him a Slurpee though if he walked the whole way so he was really trying at first. He had the cutest little walk!

Why are boys always touching themselves? (Thyse).....or doing such weird things for the camera? (Bryton)

All of our pictures make it look as if we were totally alone...but this is Utah......on a hike easy enough for little kids.......on the 4th of July. There were actually people every where. We couldn't even make it very close to the base of the falls.

This was as close as we made it to the falls.....

Which apparently wasn't close enough for Russ. So we took off hiking cross country trying to find a trail to take us up above the falls so we could look down and see the circular rock formation that the water falls through - - hence Donut Falls.

The kids had done pretty good until we decided to blaze our own trail. After that Thyse needed to be carried. And yes - we still broke down and bought him a Slurpee anyway, but only after we forced him to walk the last 100 yards to the car........he screamed the whole way. It would have been worse if we had bought everyone a Slurpee except for him though.