the leavitts.

while matt's parents were here, matt and i got to go on a couple dates.

for our first date, we took our new bikes out for their debut ride.

my parents gave us the bikes as my birthday/matt's graduation presents.

i can't remember the last time i owned a bike.

matt and i used to steal my parents bikes when we up in calgary, but it has been a while.

it was hot that day, and the area we live in is quite hilly, so i wasn't feeling like the most attractive date by the end!

we have gone out on lots of family bike rides since then.

chet likes to ride his own bike most of the time.

and when he gets tired we pop him in the bike trailer with holden.

[yes, that is our dog in the trailer too!]

we use the bike trailer as a stroller a lot too.
i'm convinced it is magical.

holden is constantly falling asleep in it.

see!

our second date was a hike, on the los liones trail.

the scenery was amazing - especially the view from the top.

we could see forever!

we hadn't done something like that in a long time, just the 2 of us.

every time i think about hiking with matt though, i always remember this one terrible hike idea we had back when we were dating.

matt had been home from his mission for a couple months and we thought it would be fun to make a road trip to salt lake for conference weekend.

on the way back home, we were already sick of the car by the time we got to butte.

so, as we passed the 'lady on the mountain', we had this ridiculous idea to quickly hike up to her.
you know, stretch our legs.

matt estimated it would take about 45 minutes.

so we parked the car at a lookout point and started hiking up the mountain.

with nothing but a camera.

and i was wearing little ballet flats, no socks, and capris.

well...

THREE HOURS LATER we reach the statue.

we had jumped fences, crossed 'no trespassing' signs, and hiked through a good foot of snow for the last half hour.

i thought i was going to loose my toes.

but matt was really determined to get to the top, and i didn't want to be the loser girlfriend who made him turn back before we did.

so i hid the fact that i was literally in tears!

the statue is actually pretty neat. it is way bigger then we thought.

but, the most depressing part [other then having to hike back down] was that there is a road on the back side of the mountain that you can drive up in a fraction of the time!

that hike was a terrible idea. but it sure is a funny memory.

now every time we drive through butte we have something to laugh about.

here are the pictures from our date..