Pipin' Hot Heber Creeper

 Taj and Livy tore up the backyard a little bit the day before the train ride, aren't they cute?!

 I think Brannon's mom and her friend were the only ones (besides Taj and Livy) that didn't complain about the heat.

 These two melt my heart. I really wish we lived closer because I know they would be best friends.

Cameras can never catch what the human eye really sees. The sun was a more more vibrant red. There was a forest fire off the side of the highway and the air was thick with smoke and ash.

About three weekends ago, well I guess it was precisely three weekends ago, Brannon's mom took us all on the Heber Creeper. "This will be a grand day out!" we all agreed, that is until we boarded the train and realized that there would be absolutely no A/C for the entire ride. Nope, our only hope of a breeze was jamming an old, creaky window up through the rafters and praying for a crosswind to blow the sweat off our upper lips. I wore my hair down, what was I THINKING?! I changed seats, back and forth across the isle, desperate to get some kind of breeze in the 93 degree train car. I was on the verge of a heat-crazed frenzy and was ready to ambush a family next to us and tear the lids off their ice cold drinks and dump it all over my head and down my gullet. Taj and Haivi's cheeks were blooming red, as were mine and everyone looked, dewy and hot and slightly miserable, well at least the adults looked that way! Taj and Livy quite enjoyed the two hour ride. Haivi did not enjoy it so much. I think she too was like her mama, hot, sweaty, and a little more than slightly irritable. While on board, to distract us from the heat, we were serenaded by a fiddle playing, department store cowgirl and we were ambushed by "robbers." The kids didn't mind the fiddle playing, but the robbers scared the living daylights out of them. Livy started screaming and it took us nearly 20 minutes to calm her down after they had gone. Note to Heber Valley Railroad: If you are going to have robbers ambush the train, at least tell them NOT to wear bandannas over their faces! So you can imagine we were even MORE hot and sweaty after the robbers left. I believe that I would enjoy this same train ride in October. We all agreed that next time, we would go in the fall, BUT at least the kids enjoyed it for the most part and watching them enjoy the ride helped me hang onto my last shred of humanity for that long, hot, sweaty ride on vinyl seats that tried to claim one's rear-end every time one stood up.  So if you are ever up in the area and are cold-blooded, definitely book a ride on the Heber Creeper!