Moab!

When I first moved to Utah four years ago I remember hearing about all the amazing National Parks Utah had to offer. During my stay at BYU friends would come back and tell me about the great time they had down in Moab, or Zions or in the St. George area. For some reason I chose to travel elsewhere and until this summer had yet to experience the wonder of Southern Utah. Well I made it a goal to get down there this summer and excited when Deborah agreed to join me on this adventure! The drive down was long but fun. We found out all too late that the heat in the Passat would not turn off so we had the windows down the whole time in an effort to stay cool in the 95-100 degree weather. We had tunes and plenty to keep us occupied. I only wish Deb would learn how to drive a stick so I didn't have to drive the whole way!
We finally pulled into Arches National park around 1pm on a Tuesday afternoon. We explored the visitors center and planned out attack route! There was so much to do in the park and we only had a limited amount of time. There is no way to really describe what we saw. Some of the rock formations and arches are simply amazing! Its pretty humbling to see what nature can do.

Balanced Rock
Shade!
The rock in this area is made up of several layers of different kinds of rock. In these pictures you can see it clearly. The bottom layers are composed of a sand stone while the top layers, while still sand stone are much harder. For this reason, the bottom layers ware away much faster, creating the arches and rock formations that you see today! (I sound like the informaitional video at the visitors center!)
We made the three mile hike up to the Delicate Arch and that was fun. It was SOOOO hot though! We were dying half way up this huge rock face that we had to climb. When we got near the top we found this cave/arch that was in full shade at that time! It was so nice to chill in there and cool down with the wind blowing through the arch. From there we had a straight shot view of Delicate Arch that was pretty sweet.

Here's our attempt at taking a picture with the Arch directly behind us. Oh well, we tried!
View from the shaded cave/arch.
Delicate Arch


We ran into a professional photographer up by Delicate Arch and he took our picture for us but it was on Deborah's camera so I don't have the shot. It was fun playing up there and seeing something in person that I had only seen on posters everywhere in Utah!

After Arches we headed into Moab city to gas up and check out the town. It was a cute, happening place. I was dying of thirst and a giant lemonade was the highlight of my Moab visit! :) We then headed to Horse Theives Campground located on the road to Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point State Park.
Here's our fearless car!

We made the best foil dinners in history! I had BBQ chicken and Deb did Hawaiian chicken. While they were cooking we biked down to the ridge and tried to catch the last of sunset. It was beautiful.


Dinner was filling and dessert was great too. We got to bed around 10pm because we wanted to get up early to try and do sunrise down in Canyonlands. After we got comfortable in the tent it was quickly apparent early sleep was not going to happen! It was just too hot! Then it sounded like a storm was blowing in so we put the rain flap on but then it was even more hot and when the storm did hit it turned out to just be a wind storm that almost blew our tent in! I think the storm blew down and we finally fell asleep around 12:30am. Needless to say, we did not get up in time for sunrise but enjoyed a relaxing morning in camp and then headed out.
While driving into Canyonlands we find out that there is no water in the National Park. So we detoured to Dead Horse State Park where we could replenish our water supply and do some mountain biking. We got about 5 min down the trail when my bike broke! :( It was the same problem I had just got repaired and I was not happy. I packed the bike back up the trail to the parking lot and waited til Deb did a shorter loop then I did it on her bike. Sadly that was all the biking we got to do on this trip! But we look hot in helmets. At least we had that goin' for us!
We played around Dead Horse for an hour or so more and saw some pretty amazing views down into Canyonlands.






Early afternoon we were done with hot Moab and headed home. We pulled out the map and found the biggest body of water near or route home! It turned out to be a reservoir just past Price. It was the break we needed. The water was freezing but refreshing!


The perfect end to a disastrous yet fun trip. I dropped Deb off in Provo, jumped in the pool to survive the drive home and then made the 2 hour drive up to Logan in time to stop and play some ultimate frisbee with friends. So now I can say I have been to Moab!

Game Night/Fishing/Wind Caves

Okay, I just went through my pictures for the last month and I have so much to catch up on but I didn't want to just pass up all the fun things that have been going on! While Tam was visiting we had a great game night with SimplyFun games. The games are really creative and fun to play. I need to get around to buying the really fun ones like the one pictured here. This is like Twister for your hands! It was fun playing with friends!


Last month we had an exceptional amount of rain in Cache Valley! When it wasn't raining I got to go fishing with my friend Nathan. Once I remembered how to cast it was quite relaxing and I could understand why so many find this sport so alluring. Nate had caught two and I was just practicing my casting when the moment came. I felt a bite and yanked on my pole, I had a fish! In my excitement I yelled accross the river where Nate was fishing "I've got a fish! Nate I got a fish!" I was pretty excited to reel it in. Turns out my fish was bigger than the two Nate had caught! Pretty fun to out-fish a pro! It was a beautiful 12 inch brown trout. I even remembered how to gut my own fish! We took it home and ate it for dinner! Yum! Since this first adventure I have been fishing one more time. I want to go more. It is a great way to finish a day and relax!

Mom loves to go hiking but we never have the same schedule to go together. Finally one Friday I decided not to go horseback riding and instead to go hiking with Mom. Neither of us had done the infamous Wind Caves hike so that became our goal. It was a beautiful, easy hike with great views! We got a chance to talk and enjoy the scenery. The caves themselves were pretty amazing at the top. Over hundreds of years, the wind has carved out these caves high on the mountain side.



You can't see it very well from the picture but there were arches and stone bridges. It was fun to climb around. Ryker was pretty nimble as well but he refused to go out on the rock bridges. Smart dog. I was glad the rain had stopped I that I got a chance to get out and do some hiking. There are 17-18 big, popular trails up Logan Canyon and my goal is to hit them all. I'd better sit down and write up a game plan so I can't get them done before the cold weather comes again! The summer is going fast and there is still so much to do!

Kiss the Rain

Okay, so its been a few weeks and I'm determined to get back into this. I'm going to try and actually post the pictures around the day I actually take them! I uploaded the pictures backward into blogger and I'm too tired to fix them so we are going to do things from most recent back. This weekend the family went up to Rexburg for my neice's baptism. Joseph drove home with me through the rain and we had way too much fun with the rain in an effort to stay away on the drive. It got funny when we heard a song on the radio "Kiss the Rain." So that became the theme of our drive and the name of the game. The rules were you had to keep your hand (and in Joseph's case, face or leg) out the window for the longest before the stinging rain started to feel like needles. Sounds silly, I know, but it kept me awake!

Tam and her girls came into town last week and it has been so much fun to have these girls around! I miss having children around the house and I've enjoyed every minute so far, even the ones full of high pitched screams and crying. These girls are precious!
Rachel's baptism was great! It amazes me how simple the gospel is to an 8 year old. I want to have the faith that Rachel does to keep baptismal covenants. I'm so proud of her for her choice!
Last week I went riding twice. I'm trying to ride bareback more in an effort to get my riding seat back. I rode Jack this day and he spooked at a back hoe but I stayed on so that must mean I'm getting some of those old muscles back!
More horses! I'll try and take more pictures next time. 
My brother William has been working on his Eagle Scout project and last Saturday we helped him assemble and oil these wooden cars. It was quite the fun activity in the end. I'm thinking of repeating it for my ward's Relief Society. I think we would have lots of fun doing it. We simply added the wheels and then dipped the cars in mineral oil. The oil brings out the beautiful natural color of the wood and isn't dangerous in any way if it happen to find it's way to a child's mouth. The toys all go to children in less-privileged countries.
Memorial Day I was part of a huge concert with the American Festival Chorus and Donny Osmond! It cut into my three day weekend but the show in the end was pretty amazing. I love celebrating and honoring the fallen through music. Of all the great works we have done in choir so far, the patriotic songs remain some of my favorites. Donny brought up his band and four of his dancers from he Las Vegas show and it was a pleasure to share the stage with this performer! In July the American Festival Chorus will be touring in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming with Maureen McGovern. Another amazing opportunity with a great performer. I'm excited.
And finally, I've been trying to get out hiking again. Mom and I went up the first part of the Old Juniper trail in Logan Canyon. We didn't have much time and I'm excited to get back and get all the way up to the century-old tree. Maybe I'll mountain bike it next time.
So that's the color from Cache Valley. Sorry I'm not more consistent. I'm getting back into taking pictures again so you should be seeing more!