Today we went withe the McGriff's up to Deer Valley where Nancy's sister works. We planned to leave at 10 am, but trying to get lunches together it ended up being 11 am before we headed up the canyon. We drove together in McGriff's car and talked about our favorite PBS shows on the way up. Riley and Sara watch a movie in the back. We arrived at Deer Valley around noon and then headed up the first lift to main lifts. It was so nice and sunny and a little bit of a breeze. It was a beautiful day. We meet Nancy's sister at the bottom of the lift and then left our coolers and headed up to the next lift. Riley and Sara rode together and Erika and Heather rode together and Nancy and I rode together. It was so peaceful and the smells of the mountain and pine were amazing. We arrived at the top and then noticed that there was a rain cloud just behind us. We didn't worry to much about it, so we went to the top of the mountain to look over the top. Nancy's sister called and told to find shelter, because it was hailing down at the bottom. We rush down the mountain to the small cabin where 20 other people were surrounding. It then rained and hailed for about 30 mintues. They closed the lift and we were stuck up on top of the mountain. They brought up trucks to take people down 3 or 4 at a time, but we were in no hurry, so we waited for it to stop raining and then started hiking around the other part of the mountain. The kids decided to try and find Deer Valley Diamonds, which are quartz rocks that have been in the sun and looked like clear glass. Erika found quite a few of them. Riley found the little bit of snow that was on top of the mountain and made a snow ball, but it didn't last. We were up there for about an hour, before they decided to start running the lift again. We rode it down and found our coolers and had a nice relaxing lunch, which ended up being about 3 pm. We were so hungry. We then decided it was time to head home, so we rode the last lift to our car and arrived at home at 4:30 pm. This was an all day field trip. We had alot of fun and hope to do it again soon. The last time we went with them it was about 6 or 7 years ago. Hopefully, we won't wait that long to go again. Thanks to the McGriff's for inviting us to come along.
