New Bike!

I haven't gotten a new bike since I was very little, so that might explain my 7-year-old-like excitement over my recent purchase. I want to ride it every day! We have been able to try some fun trails near our house and I'm slowly catching up to Alan and getting into biking shape. This picture is on the Big Springs Trail. We went for a ride on Saturday to check out the beautiful fall colors. Love Utah!

Zion National Park

Further evidence that we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We spent Labor Day weekend camping and hiking in Zion National Park with Kyle & Krista (Kara's siblings) and Jake & Linsdey Hiller. We had a fantastic time hiking the river in The Narrows and cheating death on the precarious cliffs of Angel's Landing. And, of course, the highlight of any camping trip is sitting around the fire enjoying great conversation with friends and family.

The Narrows. Hiking in the water was a really fun experience, even if we all got blisters. =-)

Zion Canyon - from the top of Angel's Landing.

The whole group at the top of Angel's Landing. Lindsey (in the blue) hiked the whole thing 5 months pregnant! Go Lindsey!!

NFLDS

In celebration of the start of another Fantasy Football season, Alan made a cake to accompany the Live Fantasy Draft for his league - "NFLDS." I helped a little, but he was very proud of his handiwork. Yay Alan!

Work in progress. This is harder than it looks, it takes lots of concentration.

Finished product.

Well done, Alan!

Our First Cake!

Alan and I just started a weekly cake decorating class, offered by Wilton - the industry leader in cake decorating. Oh yeah, it's official. This is fulfilling a long-time dream of Alan's and helping me learn the skills that I hope will eventually contribute to our livelihood. This week, after only 2 classes, we completed our first cake! It's actually a lot harder than it looks. We gave it to our friends, Becky and Tom, who just had a baby boy last week, and it actually tasted pretty good! In case you can't tell, it's a teddy bear.

I can't figure out how to rotate this, so you'll have to just turn your head. =-)

On Top of the World!

Last weekend, we decided to abandon previous oaths to 'never do it again' and hike to the top of Mount Timpanogos. We hiked the Aspen Grove trail, a different trail than we used 3 years ago, and reached the 11,749 foot summit in about 5 hours, just in time for the sunrise! We went with our good friends, Steve and Crystal, and had a grand time laughing, snacking and enjoying unbeatable scenery. I can't get over what a beautiful place Utah is and how lucky we are to have places like this so close to home! And thanks to our regular Y mountain hikes and being in better general health than 3 years ago, this year's hike wasn't nearly as excruciating. We will definitely do this again. Enjoy the pictures!

Kara, Crystal & Steve - ready for the hike! (We set out at about 2:30 a.m.)

Those are mountain goats... and yes, Steve is 15 feet away from them!

Aw...

Sunrise at the summit.

From the top of the 'glacier' we slid down. So fun!

Unbelievable scenery.

The Aspen Grove Timpanogos Trail.

Supporting the Music Industry

This has been a week of fabulous Live music for the Bankheads. It's not very often that we get to see 3 concerts in 6 days! All at Usana Amphitheater, we got to see Steve Miller Band on Wednesday (lots of dancing hippies), Martina McBride on Friday (Kara's favorite - she got in free for passing out beer bands), and James Taylor on Monday (We had great seats with Byron and Heather and ran into old friends from Kansas - the Coopers and the Schulties!). All three put on a great show and we had an absolute BLAST! Will definitely go see Martina and JT again if they return.

James Taylor! That's actually him! (He was soooooo good!)

Kara and Korbie (a friend from work) passing out Beer Bands at Martina McBride.

Lawn seats with Jake & Sinikka Lee at Steve Miller Band.

Happy Birthday, Camry!

Congratulations! The 'Gaza Strip' (Alan's trusty '94 Camry) turned 200,000 this month. That's really old in car years! A series of unfortunate events led to the lack of a video here, but the pictures are pretty cool, too! Here's to another 100,000 miles!