a fabulous week at the lake

right after our camping weekend, i headed straight to murray to meet up with my family and 2 other families for a week long trip to lake powell. i had never been before and i must say, the lake did not disappoint. we had a fabulous time and i thought i'd jot down a few highlights:

- our location was awesome. we traveled out about 2 hours outside of the bullfrog marina and found this little canyon with the perfect cove in it. because of the concave rock overhead, we had constant shade the entire time. i soon realized why this was such a luxury! it gets hot down there!

- the houseboat we stayed on was awesome. there were 16 of us and we didn't feel cramped or in each other's way at all.

- the upperdeck was fabulous for lounging around and reading books. in fact, i finally finished breaking dawn. what an accomplishment!

- the slide was awesome. you'll see why a bit later.
- lazy days on the boats. the family that owns this houseboat owns a boat shop and are die hard skiiers/wakeboarders/footsurfers/wave surfers, etc. so we had a few boats to take out depending on what we wanted to do.

- hiking to the ruins. even though it was in the middle of the day and over 100 degrees outside, we decided to make the tedious hike to the top of a rock wall to see some ruins. had i not been so dehydrated, i may have enjoyed it more.



- lots and lots of wake surfing. i think we spent at least 5 hours each day doing this. it was was fun and even though i was nervous, i got up on my first try!

- mitch was able to show us some of his sweet butt-surfing skills
- slide competition. i don't have all the pictures, but this was definitely a highlight of the trip. everyone had to come up with names of their slides and then we were rated on execution and creativity. this was me and my dad doing the "he-she". the next one was initially called the toe touch, but was later renamed as "the wedgie"

other highlights:

- lots and lots of laughing

- lots and lots of delicious food

- getting up at 6 am to watch the professionals ski on untouched water

- using steak to catch catfish

- laughing at darlene's inappropriate comments

- participating in the funniest game of curses ever

- watching the second funniest game of curses ever

- floating in the sun on a floatie. those things were amazing.

- star gazing at night

- hanging out with my family

- no sunburns!

- no cell phones

only lowlight:

- no josh. hopefully if we get invited again next year, he can get off work and join in on all of the fun.

oh a camping we will go

one weekend in august, josh and i decided to go camping with his parents and spencer. in the past josh had camped at a place called causey reservoir (just past pineview up weber canyon) and suggested we go there. we went up there the week before and realized that if we wanted to camp out there, we'd either half to backpack in or canoe in. my vote was to canoe and that is what we did.

after loading up a canoe and paddling for what felt like forever, we finally made it to the tip of one of the little canyon fingers where the river flowed into the lake. this would be home for the next 3 days. the scenery was awesome and i was so glad that there weren't tons of people everywhere.

after getting everything out of the canoe, josh and i paddled all the way back to the parking lot to get dave, kristi, and spencer. then we paddled all the way back again. i thought my arms were going to fall off.

we finally made it, set up camp, and headed out to do some fishing and canoeing. that's pretty much all we did the entire weekend.


that first night we ate food, played games, and then hit the sack. dave and kristi were in a tent, josh and i were in a tent (a teeny tiny one) and spencer opted to leave his tent at home and sleep under the stars. well, at about 2 am that morning he realized that was a terrible idea when he started getting pelted with rain and hail. josh and i woke up, felt bad for spencer out in the rain, and yelled at him to come into our tent. i don't know how on earth we all fit in 1 tent, but it sure was tight and cozy. it rained and rained and thundered and lighteninged (is that a word?!) and rained and rained some more. the next morning, everything was completely soaked- including dave, kristi, and spencer's bags with their clothes in them. we had to set up a makeshift clothesline to dry everything out. what a bunch of hillbillies!

i pretty much froze to death the whole next day. it was cold and rainy and i didn't bring quite enough warm clothes to keep me comfortable. so, while everyone spent the day fishing and walking around, i spent a good amount of time bundled up in my sleeping bag reading a book. that night, we cooked up all of the fish that the gang caught during the day. we also made s'mores (a personal fav) and i found out that dave had never eaten one! so i made him one that was cooked to perfection. don't let this face fool you... he loved it!
so, earlier in the trip, the gang came across a rattlesnake slithering across one of the walking trails. it freaked us all out a bit, but we didn't think too much of it. however, a bit later, everyone was out fishing and i was walking through camp alone... minding my own business... and all of the sudden i hear a "ssssssss" sound. i looked down and saw a yellow and black rattlesnake about 3 inches away from my shoes and his rattler was shaking like crazy! i freaked out, tried to scream but couldn't, and ran away as fast as i could. my heard was pounding a million miles a minute and my tears started watering up. i went and found everyone and told them what happened (it was a different snake that i had seen) and we all decided that if we saw another snake (especially one in our camp!) that we'd pack up and leave. luckily, no more snakes were spotted for the rest of the trip. that last night, however, dave and kristi found this "snake" while walking around and brought it to me so i could remember that awesome experience.


packing up and heading out. i was glad that we ate so much... our canoe was much lighter on the way back!

It's show time!

so they're saying it's food poisoning

yesterday i was making a "to-do" list of everything i had to accomplish today and tomorrow. my days were filled to a brim: run, first day of school, study for comps, run, grocery shop, buy textbooks, buy parking passes, get health insurance figured out, attend more classes, study more, run.

well, the gods must be against me because very very early this morning i woke up with a fever, abdominal cramps, and nausea. lots and lots of nausea. i tried to tell myself i was ok, but that stopped once the dry heaving started (tmi, maybe??)

everything on the list for the day was cancelled. i laid in bed and laid on the bathroom floor for hours. seriously, every muscle in my body was aching and cramping.

and then i hear from some fellow classmates that 4 other people in my department are out sick today as well. 4 other people who attended the same back-to-school bbq that i attended on saturday evening. 4 other people who are also showing signs of food poisoning.

food poisoning = death

but, supposedly the symptoms should wear off in another 24 hours. i'm praying that that is actually the case.

end of summer blues

well, the last day of summer has finally come (and it's rainy! how lame!). man, those 3 weeks went by way too fast. i have been neglecting my blog lately mostly because i've been busy, but also because i have neglected to take many pictures this summer. what good is a post without pictures??! so, for the majority of this post, i will credit google images for the pictures. i'm not very good at taking pictures anyway.

so, let's rewind back to july and hopefully i can remember what happened! on july 30th, our good friends lauren emery and dustin hughes tied the knot. it was about time.... they have been together for almost 3 years! josh, lauren, and i all went to high school together (lauren and i were even co-editors of the yearbook together) and lauren and i spent 2 years studying together in our upper division classes. we had a study group called "the wall" (named for where we sat in our classroom) and that study group turned into a great group of friends. lauren just finished up her masters degree in speech pathology and is finally making her way into the real world! lauren (and dustin) looked beautiful on her wedding day and we wish them nothing but the best!

a few months back, my friend becky asked me if i would help her with the flowers for her wedding. i was excited at the thought to do another wedding and was even more excited when she told me her colors- orange, yellow, and turquoise blue. she wanted orchids and calla lilies (two of my favs) and that got me even more pumped up to help out! the wedding party was pretty big and i ended up making her bouquet, 5 bouquets for the bridesmaids, 16 boutonnieres, 5 corsages, 2 flower girl headbands, and we had just under 50 vases to fill with flower arrangements for the centerpieces of the tables. it was a lot of work, but i think everything turned out beautifully! the wedding was on july 31st and turned out to be a beautiful day. kannika looked like a stud and becky looked like a rockstar in her custom made wedding dress, fancy hairpiece, and those shoes.... to die for. she was so classy looking and was beaming from ear to ear all day. marcel (our manager at work) also does photography and took all of her pictures. they are awesome and you can check out more of his photography goodness at imagedesignbymarcel.com.

that night, josh and i headed up with mike and michelle to our ward campout. it was held at cinnamon creek, just above porcupine reservoir, and it ended up being a great evening! we weren't able to stay the night, but we had a great time hanging out by the fire, roasting marshmallows, and laughing with friends from our ward.

spencer came up one weekend and we all decided to float the oneida narrows river. it is one of my favorite things to do during the summer and i was so happy that we were able to squeeze it in to one of our afternoons.

i was able to go to the oquirrh mountain temple open house with my family one weekend (poor josh was stuck in logan working). it was a beautiful temple (like that's a surprise) and i especially loved being able to look out over the valley and see the draper temple and the jordan river temple. we really are so blessed to have so many temples so close to where we live.

one night, josh and i decided to take a random drive up logan canyon to bear lake. logan canyon is such a pretty canyon and we hadn't been through it all summer. once we were in bear lake, we drove around for a bit, got a bite to eat at cafe sabor (you'd think we'd be sick of that food by now), and topped the night off with some raspberry shakes. i love how close bear lake is to us and wish we could take little evening "getaways" more often to hang out up there.

another thing that has been taking up a lot of our time (scratch that, a lot of josh's time) is fishing. he is obsessed. spencer has come up a bunch of times just to go fishing. we went fishing on our last camping trip (which i will post about later) practically the entire time, and josh and spencer are currently fishing up at first dam even though it is pouring outside. i don't have the patience to fish that often so more times that not i opt to stay home and clean.

other than that, things have been pretty low key. my half marathon is in 6 days so this last month has been full of some really long runs. josh and i decided it would be a good idea for me to run the actual course a couple of times before the race so when it was time to do my 9, 10, and 11 mile runs, we've dropped off my car off at the finish line and have driven up the actual course and had me run back down. i think it will be a big advantage for me to have run the course at few times before the race so on race day, i will mentally know that i can do it. the course actually isn't too bad (i can't believe i am saying that)- the first 7 or so miles are all in the canyon and downhill. it's nice because it's shady and the wind is at your back. the next few miles are flat and a little more tedious. the last few miles are actually uphill (which i think is mean), but they aren't too bad either. the only problem is that i took all of last week off to go to lake powell with my family and i'm hoping that it doesn't end up biting me in the butt. but this week, i hope to have a few good runs and kind of take it easy before the big day. and really, even if saturday doesn't go well and i am having a terrible running day, i will still feel like i have accomplished a huge goal of mine that i didn't think was remotely possible 2 months ago.

i have more blogging to do about chana's bachelorette party, her wedding, our camping trip with the hankins family, and my trip to lake powell, but those will all have to come later this week. even though school doesn't start until tomorrow, i have comps on wednesday morning that i am nowhere near ready to take.

so, enough of my procrastination and i'll leave you in suspense for another fabulous (haha) post later this week.

so excited

our week at lake powell has finally come and i couldn't be more excited about it. i have heard from so many people how much fun this place is and i am finally ready to experience it for myself. i'm pretty sure my last week of summer could not be spent any better than lazying around on a houseboat, soaking up sun, and enjoying some fabulous company.

so... i'll see you all in a week!

august... bring it on!

so school just got out for me and i couldn't be more excited. i'm finally on summer vacation. well, that's what i thought until i started thinking about my august "to-do" list. and then i realized that it will hardly be a vacation.

on the agenda for the month:

- working on my capstone project. this is the research project i have to complete in order to receive my doctorate. i want to work on it now so it isn't hanging over my head over the next school year, but boy oh boy i have a lot to do for it

- working on another project for a grant i'm working on. this will require a good 40 more hours of work

- my best friend chana is getting married this month. that means multiple bridal showers as well as the wedding day itself.

- a week at lake powell. this will be my first trip ever to the lake and i'm so excited i can hardly stand it. so sad that josh has to work and can't join me

- comps. in my program we have to take competency exams the first week of school to make sure we retained all the information we learned over the past year. and we literally have to be prepared for anything and everything

- cafe sabor. oh yeah, i do have a job. i serve burritos and chimichangas for extra change. i should probably put in a few extra hours there before i get fired

- josh's surgery. we found out that josh's growth between his eyes was benign, but he does need to get it removed. so he has surgery set up for the 14th at huntsman

- camping. josh missed his family's backpacking trip this past weekend because he had to work so he's trying to schedule another backpacking trip. i'm not much of a camper, but i'll do my best to go and have a great attitude about it

- running. oh yeah. that 1/2 marathon is creeping up on me quickly. we've got exactly 4 weeks to get my running up to par. josh and i have scheduled my running distances everyday from now until the race and it looks like i'll be running over 80 miles in the next few weeks. i hope i survive

i was hoping this next month would be filled with pool days, leisurely reading, time to clean my house and get some extra things done that have been neglected over the last few months. i'm positive that i'll be able to schedule a few sun days here and there, but it definitely won't be the amount of laziness and relaxation that i would like.

oh well. i guess being lazy will only bite me in the butt in the end. i'm trying to have a good attitude about everything on my plate right now.

so august... bring it on!