The brother's backpacking trip

This week Dani was scheduled on a 4 day Desolation Canyon river trip, but the morning she was supposed to leave she got pretty sick and didn't want to risk being 100 miles away from civilization still feeling crappy, so she stayed home. Unfortunately, I had already made plans to keep me busy while she was away with double EMS shifts, a long day at work on Friday, and a campout with my brothers. The time Dani had off was good for her to rest and recuperate.

Because I was going up to Springville to work for my dad this week (a 20 hour day), I took Wednesday off and left Tuesday evening to take my younger brothers on their first backpacking trip. We drove to the Gold Basin trailhead in the La Sal mountains, where we were bombarded with mosquitoes as soon as we stepped out of the truck. We're all Boy Scouts and none of us brought bug repellent. As we hiked the mile to our camp the buggers were relentless, and we finally donned our full rain gear just to keep them off of us. We enjoyed appetizers like cherries, carrots, and jerky while we waited for the cheese and broccoli soup to cook (Dani kindly packed all our food, thanks darlin'). When we settled down for the night in my two-person tent, I was surprised by how comfortably it fit the three of us.

A forested area that had been cleared by an avalanche last winter.

The peaceful tarn at the bottom of the basin.

In the morning we left our sleeping gear in the tent and took off through the woods in an attempt to summit Mt. Peale, the tallest peak in the La Sals. As we tromped through the underbrush we woke thousands of mosquitoes, and if we stood still for more than 10 seconds they would swarm our bodies. We kept thinking, "It will be better as soon as we're on the rocks above the treeline," but as we began our climb high above the forest the insects got worse! Finally we called it quits, we had had enough.

On our way back to our basecamp we stumbled across an old decayed cabin site, without any apparent roads or trails.

When we had packed up and come back home, we concluded that our trip was a success despite the annoying mosquitoes that plagued us constantly.

After work on Friday Dani came from Moab to pick me up on our way to Layton to check out an apartment for the fall. We stayed the night at Grandpa and Grandpa Hall's and enjoyed their company until we left in the morning to go look at a promising basement apartment. We arrived a bit early, so we drove around the neighborhood and noticed the nice balance of older classic homes and newer ones in the area. When we toured the apartment, we both were pleased with everything: a tiled bathroom, gas-burning fireplace, well-lit rooms, and lots of storage (heaven knows we have a lot of outdoor gear). The only downside to it is the small kitchen space, but for just the two of us it'll be just fine. We love that it includes all utilities (wifi too!) and is more than $200 cheaper than we budgeted for! We're pretty excited to move in, and everything is coming together for us this fall.

Matthew's Birthday and Ordination

This week was pretty laid-back with lots of work and some play. I had a backcountry call out to a mountain biker that fell and broke his arm near his wrist. He was fine otherwise, so we gave him pain meds, packaged him up, and drove him out on the SAR rhino to our ambulance. It was a pretty uneventful call, but I really enjoy using 4WD to get out to a patient and treating them in the wilderness. I'm so lucky to get these cool opportunities.

For Matthew's birthday, Dani gave him a trip down the river with a buddy, so we took some duckies after work and floated the rapids. Matthew and his friend Everett had a blast exploring side-streams and swimming and they had some great hits. At the take-out they had fun playing in the water while I hitch-hiked back to get our truck from the put-in.

Everett and Matthew after a successful run of Cloudburst.

While exploring they found some tiny reptiles!

It was his 12th birthday, so he was ordained a deacon today after church. Bishop Garrett remarked that he remembers when Matthew was born, and now he's the last of the Andrew boys to receive the priesthood!