I absolutely love the fall, it is by far my favorite season. I love waking up to the cold crisp mornings with frost on the ground (we don't see that very often in Utah). I love the warm afternoons. I love the beautiful colors of the leaves on the trees around me and the crunchy sound they make under my feet.
Winter is fast approaching and that thought makes me sad. I secretly wish that winter would only come to the mountains this year. I am relishing every fall day that I get.
November 21, 2013
November 19, 2013
Hiking Stewart Falls
Andy and I decided to hike up to Stewart Falls on September 28th. Neither one of us had hiked Stewart Falls before, so we weren't sure what to expect. The weather was great that day and the trail was easy to navigate. I really enjoyed walking through groves of trees that we turning colors. The colors and scenery were so beautiful. We had a lot of fun.
We enjoyed exploring the area around the falls. We enjoyed exploring so much that we decided to try and take a shortcut on the way back. Little did we know that the shortcut did not exist. We got kind of lost and ended up making our way through some heavily forested area. It was really hard to get your footing in this particular area, the ground was sloped and wet leaves were all over the ground. During this adventure I managed to get whipped in the face with tree branches a few times, it really hurt.
Overall though we really enjoyed ourselves and being out in nature. Would we hike Stewart Falls again? I think so. If you have never hiked it before, I recommend it. Would we do anything differently next time? We would stay on the trail. Getting whipped in the face is never fun.
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| Me on the trail. |
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| The trail and a snow covered mountain in the background. |
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| Andy and I. |
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| Andy and I at the base of the falls. |
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| I did it! |
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| Me sitting at the top of the falls. |
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| Andy at the top of the falls. |
We enjoyed exploring the area around the falls. We enjoyed exploring so much that we decided to try and take a shortcut on the way back. Little did we know that the shortcut did not exist. We got kind of lost and ended up making our way through some heavily forested area. It was really hard to get your footing in this particular area, the ground was sloped and wet leaves were all over the ground. During this adventure I managed to get whipped in the face with tree branches a few times, it really hurt.
Overall though we really enjoyed ourselves and being out in nature. Would we hike Stewart Falls again? I think so. If you have never hiked it before, I recommend it. Would we do anything differently next time? We would stay on the trail. Getting whipped in the face is never fun.
November 18, 2013
The Circus Is Coming To Town!
When Andy was a small child he had the opportunity to go to the circus. He has frequently talked to me about his memories of the circus. Being a boy, naturally his favorite part was the guys who ride motorcycles inside a cage (cage riding as he calls it). After talking about the circus he would say, "Someday I'm going to take you to the cirucs."
On September 27th Andy took me on a date to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Salt Lake City. Having never been to a circus before I was not sure what to expect. Andy thought we might see some of the things he saw as a child: lions jumping through a ring of fire, cage riding, trapeze artists fly through the air, etc. Little did we know, we would not see any of these things.
To be honest we were both kind of disappointed by the circus. Instead of people and animals performing all kinds of crazy tricks and stunts it felt like we were watching High School Musical. A majority of the circus consisted of cheerleaders who would sing and dance, this was a big surprise for us and what we expected to see.
They did have some elephants that came out and performed. When the elephants first came out, I felt kind of bad for them because they live on the road and aren't able to just roam around. Those feelings soon changed when the elephants started to perform. To me the elephants looked like they were smiling and happy to be in the spotlight. The elephants ended up being my favorite part of the entire show.
I'm glad that we went to the circus so that I could experience it for myself. Would we go to the circus again? Probably not, once was plenty for me.
On September 27th Andy took me on a date to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Salt Lake City. Having never been to a circus before I was not sure what to expect. Andy thought we might see some of the things he saw as a child: lions jumping through a ring of fire, cage riding, trapeze artists fly through the air, etc. Little did we know, we would not see any of these things.
To be honest we were both kind of disappointed by the circus. Instead of people and animals performing all kinds of crazy tricks and stunts it felt like we were watching High School Musical. A majority of the circus consisted of cheerleaders who would sing and dance, this was a big surprise for us and what we expected to see.
They did have some elephants that came out and performed. When the elephants first came out, I felt kind of bad for them because they live on the road and aren't able to just roam around. Those feelings soon changed when the elephants started to perform. To me the elephants looked like they were smiling and happy to be in the spotlight. The elephants ended up being my favorite part of the entire show.
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I'm glad that we went to the circus so that I could experience it for myself. Would we go to the circus again? Probably not, once was plenty for me.
November 12, 2013
Bridal Veil Falls
My family came into town briefly at the end of September and asked us if we could watch Nathan and Russell for a few hours after church. Before the boys arrived at the house, Andy and I dinner for them. Nathan and Russell were so excited to eat spaghetti. They like the spaghetti so much they went back for seconds. They both ate about twice as much as me and Andy- we were both stunned.
After dinner we headed up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. They boys had a lot of fun running up the trails, picking berries, and trying to touch the fish.
At the base of the falls a pond was put in. When we were up there, the pond was full of fish for an upcoming event.
I love to spend to spend time with my little brothers, it is never a dull moment.
After dinner we headed up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. They boys had a lot of fun running up the trails, picking berries, and trying to touch the fish.
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| Russell |
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| Russell & Nathan |
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| Me & Andy |
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| Russell |
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| Bridal Veil Falls |
At the base of the falls a pond was put in. When we were up there, the pond was full of fish for an upcoming event.
I love to spend to spend time with my little brothers, it is never a dull moment.
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| Me and my little brothers |
November 11, 2013
Yard Sale + Dirty Dash
On September 14th we had a combined yard sale with some of our friends in the neighborhood. It felt so good to go through and get rid of things that we don't use or need anymore. Making a little extra money is always a nice perk too! Overall the yard sales was a success and I'm glad we did it.
Later in the afternoon we headed up Provo Canyon to Soldier's Hallow for the Dirty Dash. If you aren't familiar with the Dirty Dash, you can watch a video of it here. The video on YouTube is an old one but the course and obstacles are essentially the same.
We started out running almost a mile before we can to the first mud pit and it was the mother of all mud pits. It was so hard to get out of the mud, we banded together with some strangers and worked to push and pull each other out of the pits.
Some of the other obstacles included running through tires (like they do in military shows), climbing/jumping over hay bales, crawling through draining pipes, monkey bars, water slides, jumping over wooden walls, etc. The one obstacle that I did not complete was the monkey bars. I started out on the monkey bars and soon learned that dried mud on your hand rubbing against the metal of the monkey bars in really painful. Andy was a champ and did all of the monkey bars.
The weather that day wasn't too bad. There were some scatter rain showers and thunder storms in the area, but nothing hit us. When I saw the dark clouds I kind of freaked out. After our adventure on Mt. Timpanogos the week before, who wouldn't freak out?
We had so much fun running the Dirty Dash! We laughed every time we got covered in more mud. I was so proud of Andy, this was his first 10K. Would we run the Dirty Dash again? Definitely! Would we do anything differently? We would park closer to the starting line.
Since we were in last heat, we had to park far away from the starting line. After the race they have some hoses you can used to rise off, the water is cold but not too bad. If you don't like cold water you can pay for a warm spray down. As we were walking back to the car the wind picked up and we were both instantly frozen.
After our race we went to Dairy Keen in Heber to eat. I love Dairy Keen! In my opinion, Dairy Keen has the best burgers in Utah. Just talking about them, makes me hungry.
Later in the afternoon we headed up Provo Canyon to Soldier's Hallow for the Dirty Dash. If you aren't familiar with the Dirty Dash, you can watch a video of it here. The video on YouTube is an old one but the course and obstacles are essentially the same.
We started out running almost a mile before we can to the first mud pit and it was the mother of all mud pits. It was so hard to get out of the mud, we banded together with some strangers and worked to push and pull each other out of the pits.
Some of the other obstacles included running through tires (like they do in military shows), climbing/jumping over hay bales, crawling through draining pipes, monkey bars, water slides, jumping over wooden walls, etc. The one obstacle that I did not complete was the monkey bars. I started out on the monkey bars and soon learned that dried mud on your hand rubbing against the metal of the monkey bars in really painful. Andy was a champ and did all of the monkey bars.
The weather that day wasn't too bad. There were some scatter rain showers and thunder storms in the area, but nothing hit us. When I saw the dark clouds I kind of freaked out. After our adventure on Mt. Timpanogos the week before, who wouldn't freak out?
We had so much fun running the Dirty Dash! We laughed every time we got covered in more mud. I was so proud of Andy, this was his first 10K. Would we run the Dirty Dash again? Definitely! Would we do anything differently? We would park closer to the starting line.
Since we were in last heat, we had to park far away from the starting line. After the race they have some hoses you can used to rise off, the water is cold but not too bad. If you don't like cold water you can pay for a warm spray down. As we were walking back to the car the wind picked up and we were both instantly frozen.
After our race we went to Dairy Keen in Heber to eat. I love Dairy Keen! In my opinion, Dairy Keen has the best burgers in Utah. Just talking about them, makes me hungry.
November 6, 2013
Hiking the "Y"
After our adventure on Mt. Timpanogos, Andy and I decided that it was a good idea to stay away from tall mountains for a little while. One night after work we decided to hike the Y. The last time we hiked the Y, we found it to be strenuous. This time around, we found the hike to be quite easy.
When we reached the Y, we sat there for awhile looking out over the valley. I have always enjoyed hiking the Y at night and looking out at the lights below. For me, the Y is a place I like to go to think about life.
On our way home, we stopped at Dairy Queen to get Dilly Bars. Back in August I learned that Andy had never had a Dilly Bar, since then he has been hooked on them. Don't worry though, our rule is that he has to exercise if he wants to have one.
When we reached the Y, we sat there for awhile looking out over the valley. I have always enjoyed hiking the Y at night and looking out at the lights below. For me, the Y is a place I like to go to think about life.
On our way home, we stopped at Dairy Queen to get Dilly Bars. Back in August I learned that Andy had never had a Dilly Bar, since then he has been hooked on them. Don't worry though, our rule is that he has to exercise if he wants to have one.
November 4, 2013
The Aftermath Part 5 of 5
On our way home, we called our families to tell them we were okay. We also stopped to grab some food as it had been awhile since we had eaten.
We got home only to find that our power was out, so much for taking a hot shower. We grabbed our food and drove to our neighbors house (they had power). Unfortunately, they were not home so we waited for them. It was so nice to be able to go somewhere warm.
Later that night we went home, the power was still out and we crawled in bed. The power came back on around 4:00 am. We later learned that a tree in our yard had been hit by lightening during the storm and it caused our power to go out, talk about bad luck.
We woke up the next morning and got ready for church. I looked in the mirror for the first time since our hike to discover that my face and legs were covered in mud. My face was wind burnt and my legs had all kinds of red dots on them, they looked like small sunburns.The red dots were where I had been hit by the hail. The dots later turned into the pretty nasty purple and blue bruises.
My lesson that day for church was titled "Faith In Every Footstep." As you can imagine I shared part of my story with my class.
While we were at church we learned that the wind speeds in the valley when there storm hit were 70 miles an hours. Some parts of town were under 5-7 feet of water and many basements in our neighborhood flooded.
I achieved my goal and feel accomplished. I don't have a desire to climb that mountain again but I know I will have to at some point to overcome my new fear of it. I will never be able to look at the mountain the same again. Every time I drive past the mountain I still look up at it in wonder, but this time I think to myself "I can't believe we were up there and that we survived the 16-18 mile journey."
We feel incredibly blessed to be here today. We are so glad that the Lord spared our lives. We were truly guided every step of the way down that mountain.We learned a lot of lessons on the mountain that day, but the most important lesson we learned that day was how precious and fragile life really is.
We got home only to find that our power was out, so much for taking a hot shower. We grabbed our food and drove to our neighbors house (they had power). Unfortunately, they were not home so we waited for them. It was so nice to be able to go somewhere warm.
Later that night we went home, the power was still out and we crawled in bed. The power came back on around 4:00 am. We later learned that a tree in our yard had been hit by lightening during the storm and it caused our power to go out, talk about bad luck.
We woke up the next morning and got ready for church. I looked in the mirror for the first time since our hike to discover that my face and legs were covered in mud. My face was wind burnt and my legs had all kinds of red dots on them, they looked like small sunburns.The red dots were where I had been hit by the hail. The dots later turned into the pretty nasty purple and blue bruises.
My lesson that day for church was titled "Faith In Every Footstep." As you can imagine I shared part of my story with my class.
While we were at church we learned that the wind speeds in the valley when there storm hit were 70 miles an hours. Some parts of town were under 5-7 feet of water and many basements in our neighborhood flooded.
I achieved my goal and feel accomplished. I don't have a desire to climb that mountain again but I know I will have to at some point to overcome my new fear of it. I will never be able to look at the mountain the same again. Every time I drive past the mountain I still look up at it in wonder, but this time I think to myself "I can't believe we were up there and that we survived the 16-18 mile journey."
We feel incredibly blessed to be here today. We are so glad that the Lord spared our lives. We were truly guided every step of the way down that mountain.We learned a lot of lessons on the mountain that day, but the most important lesson we learned that day was how precious and fragile life really is.
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