Yuba

On Saturday the branch got up and left early. We all slept in the church in Fayette. I went back up the the house with plans to go back to sleep. However, Mom made me help pick peas - one of my least favorite jobs in the world.
Sheri invited me to go out to Yuba with her and go wave running at 10:00am. I was super tired, but I really wanted to go. So I did. It was awesome. I got FRIED though. I even had sunscreen on. We stayed out there for about 5 hours.
I felt really stupid though because the first time I took the wave runner out, the lid flew off the front and sank into the lake. Sheri forgot to tell me that it was broken. I was so scared. She called her dad and told him what happened. He came out with a piece of plexi glass and a roll of duct tape. Fortunately the lid was covered by their insurance, so that helped ease my fears a little. I was going to take a picture of the duct taped wave runner, but I forgot. It would have looked great at the white trash party.

Me and Sheri
me
Me

Manti Pageant

After our hike on Friday, we drove to Fayette, met up with the rest of our branch (they came down on a bus), had a BBQ at the house then drove up to Manti to see the pageant. CC and Liz came down from Provo and met me there as well. It was fun. I haven't been to the pageant in probably 8 years. I was pretty tired during this too!!

Zion National Park

This weeks adventure started in Zion National Park. We went down late Wed. night. stayed with LaCee in Cedar. We arrived there about 2:00 am. Then we got up at 6:00 am and went down to the park to hike the Narrows. It was an awesome hike. The weather was perfect the river was the perfect temperature.

Lisa told us all that a walking stick was mandatory for this hike. I was already in Fayette so I couldn't just run out and buy one. I asked dad for one. He said I could take his as long as I brought it back, but it's too big for me, so I went out in the back yard to find my own. I found one. When dad saw it he told me that it was not a walking stick, and that it was going to break. My friends said the same thing when they saw it. It turned out however to be the best walking stick ever!!! It outlasted a couple of the "real" walking sticks purchased at WalMart.

Gina was pretty tired when we stopped for lunch.
The boys: Jeff, Jason, Cameron
Lisa
Gina and Jeff swimming in a deep part of the river. They got caught in the current - hence the look on Gina's face and her tight grip on Jeff's arm.


That night we went to St. George to the Tuachan Theater and saw "My Fair Lady". It was a good show, but even after dark it was close to 100 degrees , and we were all really tired from the four hours of sleep the night before and our long hike that day so I don't think we enjoyed it as much as we would have otherwise.

The next day we got up after 5 hours of sleep and hiked Angel's Landing in Zion. It was an incredible hike. It is only 5 miles round trip, but it's pretty much straight up and down. With lots of switch backs. It is very worth it though. The view from up top was amazing. Lisa, Gina, Jeff, Janell, Brooke, and in the background way up top - Jason. This picture is good for showing how steep the hike was.

A view from up top. We started down there where the river is.
Tracie, Janell, Jeff, Brooke, Lisa, Gina, Jason - stopping for a picture at a flat spot on the hike.
Jason was our photographer. He took tons of pictures. I didn't take very many because it was a big pain to take out my camera every few min. And everyone agreed to share pictures later.
Me standing up top with my stick. Not only was it great for the Narrows, it survived Angel's Landing as well.
Because so many people had such little faith in my stick, I decided to leave it as a monument at the top of Angel's Landing because it worked so well. I carved the date in it and several of us carved our initials in it.Then Jeff stuck it in this bush. So if you go to the top of Angel's Landing, look for it, but don't remove it.
Brooke, Jason, Janell, Lisa, Jeff - on the shuttle after the hike and ready to go home.
Gina and Cameron - Also tired and ready to go home.

Lunch Date

Every Tuesday and Thursday my friend Gina also has to drive to Rexburg to work. Her office is just on the other side of my parking lot and we have the same lunch hour, so we pull out a blanket and have a picnic lunch together. On Thursday Gina had a little problem with her yogurt. She opened it up and it exploded all over her. It's just funny of all the places to land it landed like big juicy buggers under her nose. We laughed for a long time, and fortunately she has given me permission to post this picture.

Softball

Last time I was home, I said something about my softball team. And I think it was Susan that said "You're on a softball team? Why isn't it on your blog?" So Susan, here it is. Here is a picture of Brooke, Gina and I after one of our softball games. They weren't very happy to be posing for a picture because we lost the game and they were in a hurry to get home. But here it is anyway! It is a lot of fun. I miss playing softball all the time.

A day at the zoo

Friday night I got a call from Lisa (My Personal Travel Agent) giving me the schedule for Saturday. This weekend she planned a trip to the zoo for our nephews. So I called Susan and asked her if she would be willing to let me borrow her kids for a few hours on Saturday so I could take them to the zoo. Amazingly enough she agreed. :) I offered to let her come with but she chose to enjoy her freedom. I think she just stayed at my place for a while, updated her blog, and then went shopping. A tough day for her.....she deserved it after running her 10 k.

We had lots of fun at the zoo. It was probably one of the best trips I've had because the weather was perfect and the animals were out and about instead of just lying around like they usually are. Here are some pictures of the day.

Here's the whole crew. (back) Me, Ethan, Brooke, Lisa, Nathan, (Front) Jacob, Easton, Kevin
Checking out the Otters. This is the first time I have seen them swimming around. They are usually just sun bathing. It was fun because they came right up to the window.
We made Ethan and Easton hold hands so they wouldn't keep running off. That was Brooke's idea. Worked like a charm too! (most of the time)
All the boys checking out the tigers. We got a really good look at the tigers. Jacob was afraid to get up and look at them he would only look at them like you see here in the picture. And there's a funny story that happened here too....
We were talking about how if they went in the pen, the tigers might eat them. Ethan said "I want the tiger to bite me in the neck. Brooke: Then you wouldn't have a head anymore. Tracie: Yeah, and there wouldn't be anymore Ethan. Ethan: (turning sharply and looking very seriously) Uh huh....TONS of them!!! Kevin: Well he would live for about 10 more seconds.

I guess it's one of those stories when you just had to be there, but it was really funny. There are tons of Ethans out there.


Kevin and Ethan putting their heads in the lions mouth

Kevin being attacked by the lion

Jacob, Easton (Brooke's Nephew), Kevin, Ethan checking out the flamingos
JacobEaston
Ethan
Kevin
Jacob and Ethan Feeding the birds.
I wish I would have had video on this shot. Brooke (standing in the background) gave each of the boys a quarter and let them throw food to the birds. Jacob LOVED that! He would throw a handful and the get really excited and start shaking his hands everywhere. It was funny.


After the zoo Lisa took us to her dads work and let the kids play with Igor - her dad's giant Iguana. Kevin was brave enough to feed it a few rose petals. Ethan wanted to feed it but he chose to stand back and try and throw the rose petals. I think this might have been their favorite part of the day.

Guess Who?

Can you guess who this crack belongs to??

Family

You all know what happened this weekend, so I just thought I would post some of my random shots

Mary Ann, Ami, Susan
Jake and Luke playing in the bird bath while everyone else is playing with the barrels
Dave and Darren with the snake
Ethan's head, Susan and Baby Jenna
Jake, Heather, Ethan
Grandma and Grandpa B.
Jake
Ethan's pit stop (Susan's pic)
Kaitlin and Kevin
Benny chowing at our yummy BBQ

Friends

I've had a lot of really cool adventures the last little while with my cool friends here in Idaho Falls, so I thought I would post a few pictures of them so you can see just how cool they are


Cameron - Mesa FallsCallie - Fall Creek Waterfall
Jason - Mesa Falls
Gina, Tracie, Jeff - Union Falls (a15 mile hike)

Lisa - Mesa Falls (She's our travel agent - the one who plans all our adventures)
Gina - After our hike to Fall Creek
Jeff - I think this was during lunch at Mesa Falls
Brooke - Mesa Falls