Thanksgiving Break

 The kids made their request weeks in advance - "Dad, can we hike the volcano again this year on Thanksgiving?"  

 How could I say no to that perfectly reasonable request.  We had some visitors with us this go around: Mom and Randy, Johnathan and Kayla,  Ky and Jaden.  The Davis family also joined us

 I forgot to tell the first-timers what the dress code was, but when The Troy saw me in jeans and leather work gloves, he knew he was under-dressed.

 It's not the ascent that requires the added protection but rather the descent.

 We go down the steepest side of the volcano and with all the loose rocks, it can sometimes be hard to even come to a stop.  In my younger days, me and my brothers would "ski down the volcano," never actually using skis, but jumping and sliding our way all the down the slope.

 With a good run and jump down that steep of a slope you can cover quite a bit of ground.  There was some blood-letting as predicted, but nothing out of the ordinary.   From there, we walked over to the White Sands of Snow Canyon.

 This is where the "pools of living youth" are normally found, but not this year.  They were all dried up.

 Then it was off to the Rimer residence for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.  

 Weather once again was very deserving of an outside meal.

 Thank you to Nikki for hosting this gathering year after year and doing it so well.  I really appreciate her hard work.

 We then chased it down with Peanut Butter Balls with the Davis fam.

 Finally, it was off to ZNP.  I had promised Seth and Laynee that we would take them to Hidden Canyon, so we made it an early start and were on the trail by 8am Friday morning (because nobody blogs about sleeping). 

 The boys taking a break at the Hidden Canyon/Observation Point fork.

 Up the staircase.

 Up the trail.

Seth may be finding his stride.  He's not been much into hiking, but wants to be included more and more.  He did well and also said he wanted to do longer hikes in the future.

I'm thankful for family and time to spend with them.