2011 Grand Canyon season!

Oh..... Grand Canyon. I just love you so much. It was a great summer down there! If I was good about blogging I'd probably have updated this after each trip, but that's not the way my life is, so you get it all in one blah blah blog. So here goes....

Usually I like to carpool but I had to drive down a lot by myself this summer, but get me a good book on tape and some sweetarts and I'm set. And with this view, I can't really complain.

 

I did the 2 high water Cat trips then 9 trips down in the Canyon and I got to run with a bunch of fun different people. My old roomie Erika got to do a trip and she's always so fun to do trips with! "Celebrity guides" always have such a great attitude because they only do one trip a year so they're all fresh and chipper.

And all the regulars which were always fun.

 

Another celebrity was Newty who, during the trip invited me on the best trip of my life, the private trip down the canyon later in the fall (which will be updated soon)

 

I learned a lot this summer and I kinda love geeking out about geology and talking their ears off about the rocks and they all the history of the canyon and the whole area. 

 

The water was huge this year and I got to drive my own boat 3 times and it was good and scary but really fun. I'm pretty scared about next year because the snow has been so slow in coming this year, but I'm still hoping we'll have a good spring so I'm not bringing home broken motors every trip.

It was mostly really great weather but we did have a good storm or two. Here we are all huddled under the umbrella trying to cook dinner.

 

We were able to see some great scenery go on some great hikes and it's beautiful as always!

  

There's a bunch of cool waterfalls in the canyon and here's Travertine, it's one of my favs.

And, yea, like I said, great scenery....

I've been able to bring both my parents on the Grand and Eric has been able to come twice. He is a super big help and its great to have him around.

And yes, he is wearing shorts.... if I had legs like that I'd probably wear those shorts too. 

We had a great time hiking up Havasu a ways, it was great to be just with Eric. He has to shave to come on a Western trip and my mom was more than happy to let him have her spot so she could get to see his cute, clean face.

Eric's toga style is a favorite. 

Lee's Ferry is one of my favorite places to watch the sunrise. 

My mom gave me this shirt and it's got to make an appearance ever trip, depending on who is the most awesome.

Over all it was a great summer! I had great trips and it was do a couple in Moab and the rest in the canyon. It was a really great summer and it makes me stoked for next summer!

Bachelorette Party!!

I've had some great times with my friend, Jess over the years. Spring break, Yosemite and a bunch of other fun trips, so I was stoked to be able to go on her bachelorette party.

We went to Moab with a bunch of her other friends and it was great. I love hanging out with a bunch of cool girls that like to do rad stuff. I drove down early and got us a really cool spot with a great view of the Fisher Towers and Onion Creek. We did the Daily, did some awesome bike rides and fun hikes.

 We did the Klondike Bluffs trail and it's such a great view from the top! 

 

It was really great to be with my awesome girl friends! 

A couple weeks later we met up in the San Rafael Swell and did Muddy Creek. It was a really big contrast going from Cataract Canyon running at almost 90,000 CFS to Muddy Creek that was barely more than a gutter. I kayaked it and it was really fun. I was really stoked to get to see a part of the swell I had never really thought of before and I'm so glad that Jake and Jess put it together.

Thanks guys for inviting me on this trip! I hope there will be a lot more!

 Thinking about trying to catch up from being such a slacker is super overwhelming, so rather than have a really long blog covering like 8 months and what I've been up to (which I still have aspirations to do someday) I'm just going to start now with shorter entries just to stay caught up.

Long story short, it was an awesome summer working on the river, then I went to Italy for a week then Kenya for 3 weeks then I was home for 3 days and went on a Grand Canyon trip just for fun which was probably the most amazing trip I'll ever do in my life.  I can't tell you how much different it was from working and I will never be the same after that trip, and I really do plan to tell you more about it. Since I've been home, I've had tons of time to blog and sew and paint, but have I done any of it? When I have a lot of stuff to do it is amazing what I can get done! But when I don't it is flabbergasting how much time I can waste! I may just continue to enjoy not having a job, but sometime soon here, I'll have to start being more productive. I bought this  amazing house coat kinda as a joke, but really I think my roommates are getting pretty sick of it because I wear it for real lot just hanging around the house in the mornings.

This has been the first year I've actually paid full price for a season pass and it just so happens to be the worst snow year in forever, which sucks. But I've decided that there is a ton of other things to do so I've been trying to take advantage of them. I've been out to Antelope Island a couple times. The first time my hard core friends ran 12 miles and I did a hike to the saddle of the southern part of the island, and it was a little cold, but it was cool to go out there. 

And another time we went to the top of Frary Peak.

 It's almost 7,000 feet at the top and it was good to get above the smog.

I did get to go skiing with my family just before Christmas and it was great. My brothers are all so good and my mom has lost a little confidence from tearing her ACL skiing, but she still has great form and it's so fun to ski with the fam! I really love it that we all like to ski together. We usually try to do it once a year at least, and Coulson and my dad weren't able to make it but it was pretty fun.

 We had a great Christmas time and it's been good because Jesse got home from his mission this summer and so we're all home and my mom is LOVING Sunday dinners when we all come home.

Eric has been playing the piano a ton lately and he really is amazing! I'm super proud of him and what he puts together. He did a concert this fall that was really great. He really is so inspirational and it boggles my mind that it all is in his head!

So, since it hasn't been snowing I decided to get my bike back out. I bought a super sweet mountain bike this fall and LOVE it and I thought it was done for the season, but I took it back out and although it was super nice and sunny in the valley I didn't realize that the bottom of Milcreek would still be in the shade and snowy. I left from my house and went up until I could hook into the pipeline trail and there was some snow on it the trail, but most of it was great, and although my brain complains sooo much on the uphill, the down hill always makes it worth it.

 I do have a little problem with circulation though, and by the time I got home the sun was down and it was pretty cold and this is what my feel looked like when I took off my shoes! Sheesh! Not so great on the cap refill there.

 Again, since there's no snow, might as well get out of here and enjoy the nice weather so I rallied Jess and Kristina to head down to St. George. 

Jess and I rode Corner Canyon the day before and ended going through the golf course and got tons of goat heads in our tires which lead to 5, that's right, 5 flat tires! in the first 20 minutes of what was supposed to be a 22 mile ride, so we bailed and went climbing.

 The Chuckawala Wall is always a great place to be, although I'm still not in a great head space to be leading routes and climbing hard but I'm working on it. I just bought a pass to Momentum so I hope to be getting myself back in the game.

We found some great new rides that are probably my new favorite. I really love mountain biking and yea, I kinda suck at going up hill and really I do complain so much in my head, but I really love going down and my new bike is so great for it, so I really loved it. 

I am so lucky to have friends that can get away with me and that want to go on adventures! We had a great time driving and watching movies on the way. We watched Country Strong on the drive and listened to the soundtrack about 10,000 times and had a great time all in all. 

I love having bad ass girl friends that I can play with! Thanks ladies for coming with me!

My friend Bri updates her blog everyday and I think it really would be almost easier to do that so I wouldn't feel like I had so much to catch up on, but let's be honest, that's just not going to happen. So, now I've got three major things to catch up on. The summer on the river, my trip to Italy and Kenya and my 18 day private trip in Grand Canyon. So here goes....

I had a great summer working in Grand Canyon. I did 9 Grand trips and I got to do 2 high water Cataract Canyon trips and they were awesome! I worked in Moab on Cat for 5 years and the highest I'd ever seen it was 35,000 CFS (cubic feet per second) and I'd only driven it at 27,000 but a lot of the boatmen from Moab weren't coming back, and I'm a pretty big deal so they asked me to come back and do it and I was stoked for the chance to see it. Moab is a little bit of a shit show, and it makes me really glad to be down in the Grand.

The water was so high that the ramp we usually rig at was under water so we put in about 40 miles upstream from where we normally do and we got to do the Daily in our J-rigs.

It was pretty awesome idea, but it was really windy and the upstream white caps blowing water in our faces made the novelty wear off pretty quick.

So after picking our peeps up by the bridge we headed off. I really like the relaxing first day of a Cat trip and we did a lot of floating and swimming because the water was so moving so fast. The next day was rapid day .... du du du.... I hadn't really been too nervous about it until we saw Big Drop 2.

 It was pretty big and scary looking but it was awesome! Here's Newty running straight through Little Niagara. The second time through the next week I got washed out of the boat in "The Claw" and the park service was there filming but they have yet to put any of the footage online. They were both really great trips, but I was ready to get out of there.

I'm totally going to be one of those people for the rest of my life talking about how I got to see Cat at high water. It was awesome.

Long-time friends, new friends, gotta love them all!

Ok, so I started this blog, oh, maybe 3 months ago, and have put a line in here or there and I can't believe it's taken forever! But here it is. I want some more pics for it, but whatever, if I wait any longer there will just be too much to say and I'll never get it done, so here it is.... Thank you if you actually check back on my blog to see if I have anything and you haven't totally given up on me!

I have been really lucky to have great friends my whole life and I realize that this is not the case with everyone which makes me even more grateful to have such great girls in my life (And I say girls because I still feel weird saying "women" and I usually say "I went on a date with this boy" even if they're like 35 (which let's be honest, usually the boys I date are more boy than man and usually younger than me, but that's a whole different topic) but I like thinking that my girlfriends and I will always be "girls" together). I think it's sad that it sometimes takes something tragic event (Garrett's death) to motivate people to really do things to express their love for the people in their lives that really mean the most.

So, upon that thought I decided to do an east coast high school reunion extravaganza! My first stop was to Boston to see my friend, Bri. She and her husband just moved there last Dec. She'd only been in Utah for about a year and a half after living in CA for several years and I was pretty bummed when she left again. But it's good to see her life out there. She and Lee live in a great apartment close to trains to get everywhere. I really think that's something great about east coast life is being able to get everywhere walking or on public transport. I wish SL was more laid out for that anywhere else besides just downtown.

 The first full day I was there we drove up to Cape Cod. It was kinda dreary day and little cold, but it was really cool to see the Atlantic and just to see that place. There are so many cute little houses and I love the colored doors! They're awesome.

 Then back in Boston Bri and I did a bunch of walking around. We walked through these huge parks right by downtown and through the Beacon Hill neighborhood which is so cute, and I know there are honest good people living there, all of them! I had a little bar wallet type thing that just had a credit card, my driver's license and about $40. It was in the back pocket of my jeans and it had worked it's way up and out and had fallen out somewhere. By the time I realized it we had walked a walk at least an mile and a half or so and we retraced our steps but didn't find it. But sure enough, my parents got a packet from the Boston Police Dept with everything (minus the $40 which is fine! Take the cash, consider that a reward!) in it! I was so stoked! Luckily I had brought my passport so I could play squash with Annie in the Pentagon (you need two IDs, so that didn't get to happen which was a bummer) but at least I wasn't stuck out there forever! And my faith in the world has been revived!

I also got to be in Boston for the Marathon which was awesome. I am not a runner really, but it's really inspiring to see people that are that amazing and on top of their game. Here is the top American women, Kara Goucher. She took fifth over all I think. The whole city was out for it and it was really cool.

We ate out at a bunch of really nice restaurants and Bri made a great dinner and Lee made some eggs Benedict that were great and it was awesome to see their downtown city life, couple life style. Boston is a cool place to be. If I'd have to live in a city that would be the place to be.

So, from there I took an overnight bus through New York and ended up in DC at 9 in the morning. It was a little sketchy being in some random terminal at 3 AM in NY, but it was fine. I do like the bus. Internet the whole way, pretty comfy seats and it was about $43. So, I took the Metro and walked a bit to get to Annie's place. She and Justin were at work and I didn't sleep that well on the bus so it was perfect. Their doorman let me in to their apartment that from the balcony you can see all the way to the mall. The George Washington Monument is right there, it's awesome.

We just hung out and made dinner at home that day. Then Annie and I checked out bikes from these awesome kiosk things.

 We checked them out at one place by her house then rode into the mall then checked them in at a different station walked around then checked some out at a different place. It's pretty awesome. I've been to DC before and I would love to be able to live close to all those great museums. I'd love to go to one a week and get so smart! I went to the Natural History Museum and I geeked out over all the rocks. Then we went to the Air and Space Museum. 

There was so many more places I wanted to go.

It was the PERFECT time to go to DC because there were sooo many great flowers! it was amazing!

The Vietnam War Monument was really amazing and the Korean War one is really cool.

And the FDR Monument is really cool. I'd never seen it before and there was tons of quotes all over that were super relevant to what's going on today, it was really cool.

So, after hanging with Annie and her husband, Justin, Annie and I headed to the zoo to meet Anne. Traffic was CRAZY! It really took us 45 minutes to go like half a mile and I ended up getting out of my car and walking into the zoo with all my bags and everything. The zoo is free and it was soooo crowded! I couldn't believe it. It was a cool zoo though. Here's the lions that were all really awake and playing around and really cool.

So Anne and Evan and her two kids live an hour (in normal traffic, 2 1/2 on the day we went) away from DC. It rained a lot of the time I was there. We went to a sweet yard sale and I scored on several things, one of which was this amazing onsie!

We hung out and it's a total eye opener to be around families for whole days at a time when these kids are looking at you like, OK, what's next, what are we going to do next? And you have to entertain them every minute of the day. It kinda boggles my mind that moms can do it. It reinstalled my respect and awe for parents going to Anne and Kristine's houses. We played games with the kids and rode bikes int he street with Cam. It was also a great time to be there. 

 

All the trees on her street were amazing! I especially love this one with the one broken down house in the whole neighborhood and this sweet tree outside.

From there I flew to Indianapolis to see Kristine. I should have visited her when she was living in Grenada, but Indiana was pretty cool I guess. The first night we rollerbladed around this canal that went right through downtown and it was really cool. The next day was Easter. When I talked to her about being here at that time she apologized about having to be there over the holiday, and I was like "are you kidding me! Spending a holiday like that with kids is great." and it was. I helped Kristine pack Easter eggs and set out their Easter outfits. And went to church with them (I'm pretty sure parents don't really ever get to listen to a sacrament meeting ever) and Dave made a great dinner for us. It was really great to be there and to see her kids and get to know them better. It always makes me sad when me friend's kids don't really know me. Of course Kristine and I stayed up talking until like 2 in the morning and got out old year books and reminisced and stalked people on facebook. 

Crepes for Easter breakfast, it was quite a spread!

The trees were amazing everywhere! Here's Kristine, pregnant with her 4th, a little girl on the way

Maddie and Tyler were great to pose for pictures with me.

Maddie could have posed all day!

It was so awesome to get to spend that time with all my good old friends. I sure am lucky to still have them in my life even though we are all leading such different lives now. 

That being said, since they all are so different and in different places I'm really lucky to have met some great people along the way in the last few years. The friends I have made on the river will be some of the best friends I'll ever have. Spending days and nights on end and all the really good times and really salty (salty is our word for grumpy and pissed) times together really makes for a good friendship. My friend Jess was getting married (since I started this forever ago she has gotten married since then) and we did a bachelorette trip for her down to Moab. It was such a fun trip.

Harriett and I went down a day early to get a camp spot. I sure love packing her up for an adventure

Then they all came the next day. I love the desert because it's not humid. I love being able to just set your bags out on the ground (on top of my 3" Princess Pad paco of course!) and leave books out and things don't get ruined! 

 

 This is one of my favorite campsites ever! The LaSals in the back ground with snow on them and Fisher Towers, it's great. The first day we did the Daily, and it was great. Jos brought her boat down and we all loaded up and did a bunch of floating and chillin. 

Jess and Kristina and Jos and I all have been guides, not all together but it feels like it. That's how I met all these girls and I love the bond that that gives our friendship. 

We were missing our friend Molly, though. Our moms are friends and I've known who she is but we really got to know each other when she worked as a guide. She's got 4 older siblings that are closer to my age, but she's my favorite and only sometimes when I make a comment about Jem and the Holograms or my puffy painted rollerskates do I remember that yes, I am in fact at least 5 years older than most of these friends. But doesn't matter to me, really. But Molly decided that it would be hard for her to be there and she didn't want to take away from the fun of it, so she didn't come but we were really thinking about her and Garrett while we were down there. We missed her! 

 

Jess's little sister and her other friends Katie and Megan came and it was really great. We went into town and heard Stonefed and ate Sushi at our friends restaurant (if you go to Moab go to the new sushi place! It's really good and they have some really cool, unusual rolls and it was started by a river guide turned business owner, I know, right? it can actually happen)

The next day we went biking. Long story short I had to rent a bike while I was down there and I LOVED it! It spoiled me sooo bad! We did the Baby Steps trail and it was a really cool trail. Katie hadn't biked very much and it was a little tough, but she did great. My brain usually complains a lot on the uphill but I usually put up with it so that I can do the down but this trail was fun enough and I was working hard to keep up with Jos and Kristina so it was really fun. I didn't have my camera so I'll try to round up some pics and put them on here.

Over all it was a really great weekend. I really love those girls. We have so much fun together and I love having girls that I can play outside with that will push me to be motivated to get outside and I know these will be friends I will have forever! 

Here's some pictures from Jess's wedding.

This is Jos, Jess, me and Kristina. I've now known Jos for 8 years and the others pretty close to that. I really hope we'll always keep each other young!

Here's Joselyn and her boyfriend, Dustin.

Kristina did in fact catch the bouquet, so she's officially on the prowl. She did however loose it before we left so I don't know what that means.

Bottom line: I LOVE MY FRIENDS!!! THANKS FOR BEING A PART OF MY LIFE!!!