Friends, More Fishing and Climbing!

Okay, so here's some more catch up. Went out to dinner with some friends in the ward and it was really nice. I don't know very many of the girls super well so that was nice to get to know them better. This crowd I especially love.
I went down to Provo for a Saturday to hit two friends' wedding receptions. One of the weddings was two friends from Jerusalem who got married. It was great to see all the JC folk and catch up. The other was an old friend that was in the RS presidency with me. I love to see friends get married!
Sunday four of us from the ward drove up to Bear Lake. Morgan Hall, Doug Hunsaker, Stephanie Talbot and I. Stephanie is just visiting and Morgan is new in the ward so it was fun to get to know them better.
Here's my hand at cemetery shots again. I haven't been walking in there for a while and I just couldn't find a good angle this time but it was relaxing being there.
I went fishing again up Temple Fork with Nathan and Mike. These boys are crazy fishermen! We hiked pretty far up the canyon to find some Beaver Dams. I was glad in the end I caught one and then we hiked back in the dark and got home way to late. Always fun fishing though.

I got this picture while I was off fishing by myself. Look close and you'll see something cool. You don't see hummingbirds land very often. It just sat there while I took the picture and then flew off!
Here's the little fish I caught. We tried to release him but I guess the shock of being caught was just too much and he went belly-up. So we took him home!
Went climbing again with friends. I seem to take someone new each time I go but I enjoy it every time. I feel like I am getting better. So that's the run down!

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!