Happy 4th of July

Drew miraculously had a holiday off. This has not happened in at least 3 years. It was time to put aside the house projects and enjoy the day.  

We celebrated our U.S.A. Independence by a 7 AM start to a great 2 hour bike ride with the team

after which Drew and I continued up the mountains for another 2+ hours.

Later, we went to a barbeque at the Hypios', for which I made this patriotic and delicious cheesecake dessert.

and I got to wear my hat and flag jewelry. 

It was a good party, plus, in the name of tax revenue, the Utah legislature changed our fireworks laws this year so that we can now blow up bigger stuff.  I was tickled to be able to light off some fireworks I had stored in the garage for a couple of years.  They were big and went boom!  I love this country.

Fireworks are grand, but they don't do good things to our air quality. Check out the spikes in the PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller) chart below (top chart) at about 10 PM each night surrounding the 4th.  We could almost taste it.

Later in the week Drew and I made our first accent of Thaynes Canyon up to Shadow Lake.

There is SO much runoff water high this year but the trails are now open and in great condition.  It is sweet!