Has anyone seen Rudolph? No, not my brother...the reindeer

In an attempt to try absolutely everything Utah has to offer Nate took the girls and I to Hardware Ranch this morning to meet up with his cousin Summer, her boyfriend and their kids.
Hardware Ranch is a giant area up in the mountains where, during the winter, elk gather and eat while you watch them from a sleigh.

Now for those who know me, I am the complete opposite of Nate as far as animal trivia.  I was describing where we were going to Charly and told her that perhaps she could spot Rudolph in the pack.

Rudolph is a reindeer....Thankfully Charly didn't catch my mistake.

Don't judge me.

She seemed just jolly regardless of the missing sighting, besides there were bear hides, telescopes and stuffed cats in the waiting area.

 

With the smell of horse poop in the air we were ready for our journey into Nate's dream job location Cache Valley to get our fill of  all the elk we can eat...err I mean see.

 

We saw a whole lot of elk eating, and lots and lots of elk butts and elk raisins, AKA poop. Charly called out to me in the middle of the ride that they looked like grapes, so funny!

Piper got cold and hopped up in Summer's lap midway through the ride.

Smart choice.

She had a blanket.

We saw so many beautiful sights on our drive up there and kept discussing dreams of coming back here someday for a Forest Service job in a 'real' forest.

Charly entertained herself by making up songs (she is always singing) the whole drive out of the canyon while Piper kept suggesting, in not so friendly tones,  to 'stop singing'.

I wanted to stop so many times and play with my different lenses to capture what beauty my eyes were seeing...the snow on the shoulders limited when we could do that. We certainly didn't want to get stuck in the middle of paradise, that would just be awful.

 

While we were out we also thought we would check off 'walking on a frozen lake' from our bucket list, although Nate has already done that.

He is very seasoned, what can I say.

Lucky for me, we now have proof that we walked on water...frozen water at least.

Too bad I forgot my fishing pole, ice drill, and ice house. It would have been nice to actually perch on the ice for hours waiting for a bite on the line and then to eat the scrumptious fish....wait a minute, I don't eat fish.

Eh, there is always Sweedish fish, I love those!

A little penguin buddy was waiting for us on the ice. Some sweet little child must have known we would need an ice creature to cheer us on while we risked our lives walking on 12" thick ice...whew!

Check out how deep the snow on the shore was....

We also drove by the Logan temple and while I was photographing the beauty Nate was teaching Piper how to throw snowballs barefoot with no jacket(per her request). Yup, she is officially a Utain(sp).

Days like today and every other day we have been here make Honey Grove feel like a speckle in our imagination, like the past year has all been a dream....a good dream, but a dream none the less.

I can't believe we are leaving in only four days. Three weeks has not been enough time to show our appreciation to all the people and things here.