WTF?!?!

The jewelry store where Ross got my wedding ring set has a policy that if you bring your rings in every 6 months for a cleaning and inspection they will replace any stones that fall out. Mine was due this month and we took it in yesterday. I had an engraving in my engagement ring and when I got them sautered together they buffed out the engraving so when we went in yesterday Ross asked them about it and they said they can put it back on for free. The lady at the counter asked what was engraved and I told her it was Y. T. F, for some reason she started to laugh. So we went to run some other errands while she worked on my ring. When we came back, I picked up the ring and looked at the engraving and the light wasn't good enough to read it well. When we got out to the car I was looking closer and had to laugh. I handed the ring to Ross to see what he saw, she engraved WTF instead of YTF. Kind of explains her laughing about it. We are debating whether we are going to get it fixed or not, cause it kind of fits still.

Last Weekend

Last weekend my niece, Celeste, was baptised. Ross wasn't able to go and Mel was sick so I rode down with Jeff and Nathan on Friday. I always forget how long of a drive it is to get to Bluff and I think that's because there really isn't a lot to look at. When Jeff picked me up he dropped off his camping gear, Ross was going to meet us for camping Saturday. Right off the bat Nathan was showing me that he lost a tooth. He was very proud of that and periodically through out the weekend would ask Jeff to look and see if his new tooth was any bigger. We had hotel rooms for Friday night. Originally we would only have a place to stay for Friday night so we had decided to go to Goblin Valley to camp on Saturday night. Then at the beginning of the week we found out that we had rooms for both nights but decided to camp anyways, the others stayed the weekend in Bluff. Nathan, Jeff and I were put in one room since we were staying just one night. The rooms were actually nicer than I expected for Bluff. The beds were actually comfy, but very small. They were smaller than a double bed and very short, Jeff is shorter than Ross and his feet were hanging off the bed, so if Ross had been there a large chunk of his legs would hang off. It reminded me of the scene in "Fred Claus" where Vince Vaughn is sleeping in the elf bed. The baptism was at 11 on Sat so we had some time to just play around that morning before getting ready, Brandon had brought his Wii so it was fun to watch the little boys and my parents play. I was back in our room brushing my teeth and Jeff told me he had to show me something. He said in the night he felt like he got bit by something and on the edge of his and Nathan's bed, coming out of the blankets, was a big black spider, it was the size of a cough drop. Nasty. It really made me nervous to pull the blankets from my bed out. Later when we were taking stuff to the car I pulled out a grocery bag with bags of chips and inside was another big black spider, not as big but still creepy. I can understand spiders but not in a hotel room. I expect my hotel rooms to be bug and rodent free.

The baptism was kind of interesting. I haven't been to a baptism since my mission and those were usually for adults in stake centers. In Bluff they just have a branch so I thought the baptism would be in Blanding in a stake center but they did have a baptismal font in the branch building. The floor to the kitchen comes up and there is a font under there. Very small but it does the job. It was a pretty short service since Celeste was the only one getting baptized, which I was very much ok with. After the service there was a lunch. After the lunch we were getting ready to go, I was outside talking to Ross making sure he had everything we needed him to bring and letting him know we would probably be leaving sooner than expected. Most of the time I was talking to him I was walking around outside and Nathan was following me. Every step I took he would follow and give me a flat tire. I would turn around to chase him away and he would run behind me again and step on my heels. He is def my brother's son. Funny kid.

On the way to meet Ross we stopped in Moab to get food for breakfast then met Ross in Green River and then went on the Goblin Valley. We didn't actually camp in the camp ground, cost too much, we just went out by Little Crazy Horse and found an open spot where someone had already made a fire pit and set up camp. Its a nice place to camp but the wind was horrendous. I am so not a fan of the wind. I had just put on some chap stick and then got out of the car to set up the tent and with the wind and all of the sand my lips were caked with sand. After setting camp and weighing the tent down we went over to the park. Goblin Valley is a very unique place. Its down in this little valley and there are a lot of clusters of red rock and sandstone. When the sun starts to set and you are sitting up on the rim the shadows and formations look like goblins. Its a lot of fun to hike and climb on the rocks.

The sunset was amazing but the pictures don't do it justice.

On Sunday after we got camp cleaned up we decided to do Little Crazy Horse, some slot canyons that were right there. I did them years ago and they were pretty cool. Again the wind was horrible, it was whipping up the canyons pretty hard and all the sand was in the air again. We hiked together for a little while then Jeff and Nathan slowed down. We waited for them to catch up and when they finally did it was the funniest site. Nathan had been collecting rocks the whole way up and his pockets were so full of rocks his pants were falling down so he had to hike with one hand holding his pants up and he showed me another rock he was carrying in his other hand because it wouldn't fit in his pants. When the wind and sand got painful we decided it was time to turn around and head back.

On the way down when Ross and I got ahead of them we would wait a little for them to catch up. The last time we were waiting for them Nathan told me we could just go ahead and wait in the car that way we didn't get sand in our eyes and mouths, which was ok with me.

When we got out we headed to lunch and then home, the ride home was pretty uneventful, which was a good thing. We got a little rain and lots of wind but my parents who were actually about an hour behind us got pretty bad snow.

Weekend Warrior!!

I am getting very excited for this summer. Its already filling up, but that is normal, my summers are always full and they fill up early, in fact, the summer of 2010 is already starting to get things planned for it.

Ross and I had been talking about making a trip to Jackson Hole, he broke something I got from there and promised to replace it. We figured we will only be like an hour and a half from Yellowstone and Ross has wanted to see Old Faithful so we may as well go. Ross has been to Yellowstone when we were snowmobiling but didn't get to go in and see the sites. I think it will be fun. We are also in charge of my family's family reunion this year so we get to plan and do that in June. I think it will be a lot of fun. We are going to a camp ground we have never been to before and judging by the map all the camp sites are on the beach.

I also started today, due to my boredom at work and my desire to get out, planning another road trip. This time to Mount Rushmore. I have always wanted to go and I figured, why not take a weekend. It would take 10 hours to drive there, take off after work, take a tent and things to camp along the way. I have never been to South Dakota. Then we can drive down through part of Nebraska on the way home (never been to Nebraska either). Luckily Ross is all for it. I love to travel and sometimes he isn't as excited.

Along with everything else this summer there has been a lot of talk of doing a lot of hiking around here and in Salt Lake and multiple back packing trips, nothing as far as Havasupai but things we can just do over the weekend. Man, I am so ready for summer to be here and I wish it could last longer, it always goes by very fast.

6.5 Miles of Hell

To start off on thursday my brother and sister-in-law dropped my nephews off at our place for us to watch for a little bit while they went to an appointment, thats not the hell part. We don't really have a lot for a 5 and 2 1/2 year old to do so we put them on the wii. They had a lot of fun bowling and after each turn Zach, the 2 1/2 year old would yell "strike" and get excited. When they were done with bowling they decided to box and that was so funny. Between watching them and laughing I got some video.

Then on Friday Jeff, Ross and I were going to go to Bryce canyon to camp and hike. We have been wanting to do a winter camp out and we were hoping to be able to combine it with snowshoeing but that didn't work. They didn't have enough snow and wasn't supposed to get snow for a couple of days. On our way out of town I decided to stop and get Ross some hiking boots for his safety. Last year we did some camping and then went hiking in Arches and there was some snow and all Ross had was his skater shoes with no traction and, well, that was intersting. Oh wait. . . . . I have a picture of it.So, to keep my husband alive I got him some boots with good traction on the bottom.

It was about 8:30 when we got into the camp ground at Bryce and it was pretty cold. We did hit some hairy weather on I-70 on the way down but when we got to the camp ground the sky was pretty clear and there was a really cool halo around the moon. We just set up camp, the guys had some hot dogs and then we went to bed, we didn't have wood to make a fire and it was too cold to just stand around with out a fire. Last year we discovered the best thing for winter camping. You take like 2 or 3 of the hand warmers, heat those up and put them in your sleeping bag, one at the foot, one between the knees and one up top. With those I stay warm, and usually I get cold easy. It makes winter camping possible.

This is camp before bed. And below is camp after we woke up.

You can't see it but its snowing still. We were told it wouldn't snow. It was so cold when we finally got up. We went in search of a pavillion to cook breakfast under cause it was so cold, windy and snowy. We couldn't find one so just ended up on a picknick table at the trailhead of where we were going to hike. When we were cleaning up breakfast Ross was taking a bag to the dumpster and slipped on some ice and ended up on his back. It was like in the cartoons when someone slips and end up in the air verticle before landing on their back. Luckily he didn't hit his head and when he got his wind back was ok. Jeff and I had been playing on the ice before and thought Ross knew it was there, a big sheet of thick ice with a layer of snow on it.

After breakfast was cleaned up we headed out for a hike. I was feeling ambitious because my workouts had been pretty good so I figured ok, lets do the whole thing, 6.5 miles. What I didn't factor in was the 10 pounds of clothing I was wearing. It was so cold. I had long johns, ski pants, sweatshirt, coat and boots on, at the gym its some thin pants and shirt and light running shoes. And the fact that half the trail was covered in snow didn't help either, made it very difficult and slippery. I was dead after 2 miles and just wanted to be done. The bad part was we hadn't done this part of the trail before and it was hard to follow the trail so we had no idea how far we had yet to go. The scenery however was beautiful, I love the red rock with the white snow.

I have never been so excited to get to the parking lot as I was after this hike. I think I just need to get into much better shape.

Yoga

I have a friend at work that has introduced me to the interesting world of yoga. I thought it was a bunch of hodge podge. Her and Ross, back in the day, would sit and discuss yoga and moves and things when Ross was really into it and I thought it was boring and a waste of time. Time has passed and now my friend is a certified yoga instructor and she just started offering classes. Part of the classes is a discussion on different aspects of yoga and things to improve our lives and most of the actual yoga part is for relaxation and stress relief as opposed to toning. At first I went just to support my friend but I have come to really enjoy it. I have definitely lost a lot of my flexibility as I have gotten older and so its great to get limber again and to work on my stretching, but it has also affected how I think about things. I have found I want to eat healthier and it makes my other work outs much easier mentally. Last night Ross, Bre and I went to the rec center and took a class. I did much better than I thought I would. It was all the toning and the more strenuous moves and it felt really good, I was actually able to hold the warrior pose much longer than I thought I would have. Then we got to stand on our heads. I am more excited to keep this up and continue yoga with my other work outs.