Biking, the Spiral Jetty, and a Wedding! I love weddings!

My good friend Beckah and I discovered road biking this summer, and I LOVE it! Don't ask me why riding along the road on quarter inch tires, nearly getting smashed by speeding traffic, and being clipped into my pedals feels safer than mountain biking, but I got on a road bike and felt my confidence soar! It's ridiculously efficient and so much fun!

Our first ride was a loop around Bear Lake- that's 50 miles! Not bad for our first time on road bikes ever! (Course we were walking around like cowpokes the next day- yikes were we saddle sore.)



It was darn pretty! Especially on the far side of the lake where there was less traffic and some rolling hills that rewarded the effort it took to summit each one with some excellent coasting time.

We also did Blacksmith Fork Canyon, which was darn beautiful and afforded an opportunity to see the Fall leaves right before they started to wilt and drop. As we sped along the winding road I felt like there was nowhere else I would rather be!

Coming down I nearly died! We were racing down, as it was starting to get dark, when three dear jumped out into the road!! Two bounded out of the way, but one was jumping around like he wasn't quite sure what to do! I had a split second to decide which direction to take. I swerved left, and thankfully the confused creature swerved right and I missed him by mere inches. I was coasting at about 30mph at the time, and I hate to think what would've been left of me if I had smacked him head on!





In other news I finally made it out to the Spiral Jetty! Yes, as Utah's claim to fame in the art world, I've seen Robert Smithson's jetty in textbooks for years, and decided it was about time I experienced it for myself. So Beckah and I headed out to the internationally renowned earthwork, and it did not disappoint. What could be cooler than combining art and nature?! It was a good time to go too, because the water was low so we could walk out onto it (sometimes it's submerged) although "walk" might be the wrong word. The thing sort of demands jumping and frolicking. So here it is, sticking out into the Great Salt Lake.



And here we are jumping and frolicking...

and communing with nature...

and wondering what this alien mine-looking thing is...




AND, my brother Dave got married!! It was so much fun. They're a stellar couple!


Everything worked out ridiculously well, from the temple sealing, to the reception. Me and my "little" bro hung out together most the time. Don't we look snazzy?

Trent was every little boys hero. It was fun to see him out throwing around the football in his tux.

And I got to hang out with my niece and nephew! He thinks I'm a cool aunt cuz I can build awesome lego castles! Sigh, if only all men were so easy to please.

And here we are, at the beginning of happily ever after...

"and the point, gentlemen, is that they lived!" HAHAHAHahahahaha....

Arm and Hammer

Brent and I climbed my first multi-pitch climb on trad gear this last Friday and gosh was it a blast! Here's the climb, and what a beauty! It's called Arm and Hammer, about a 2 hour hike up Bell Canyon in Salt Lake. It's technically 6 pitches I think, though we did it in five, and those are tall pitches! We figure we summited at over 700 feet, which makes this route like 12 Logan-sized climbs stacked on top of each other! It took us 6 hours to get up, and another 2 to rappel down. There's a thin little crack that goes up that blank looking face in the middle- that's where the route goes...


Each pitch was really different! This first pitch was basically a layback all the way up, except for the end which was more like a really awkward chimney.

One pitch followed a crack, which I loved!, that was small enough for finger jams in some places, and off width in others. This next shot is at the end of a pitch which followed a crazy flake (that actually flexed when you weighted it!) and then suddenly disappeared to reveal nothing but slab to chains. Yikes! I told Brent that move was the hardest thing I've ever done! Haha. Maybe an exaggeration. I mean, he DID have me on belay, but it felt really hard!

And here we are at the summit, looking...adventurous? The view from up top was glorious! What a perfectly beautiful day. :) I was a little nervous to untie from the rope at 700 feet to scramble to the top. In the end I made Brent hold on to one end of the rope just in case cuz I'm afraid of heights (after all, it'd be a shame to roll off the edge after working so hard to get there!) And I was glad he made me summit cuz it felt like a grand achievement.




Brent looks hard core without even trying. :) He's m' hero.

Prolly the Best Trip Ever

My latest and greatest adventure in City of Rocks/ Castle Rock is also probably my worst documented. I guess I was having such a grand time that I forgot to take pictures! I have some sweet videos but they aren't loading! Arrgg...free sites! Also, day one included only two participants, and when you're belaying someone on a crazy trad climb, it's wisest prolly not to try and pull out the camera. It's too bad, cuz Brent was looking pretty hard core on those crack climbs! Despite the intermittent torrential downpour, the rats keeping us up all night, our pathetic damp and smokey fire, and one darn lousy multipitch route, we had a grand time!! All but one of the climbs we did were stellar! Any one of them would have made the trip worth it. It was mostly slab climbing (which always feels insecure but is always fun!), and we discovered some RIDICULOUSLY fun cracks that reminded me of why I love climbing!!

That is a HUGE baby.

Wow! What a swell trip! You might wonder how driving 12 hours to stay in sweltering 110 degree weather, only to turn around and drive 12 hours home the next day, could be worthwhile? Well, I'll tell you. You take your favorite people in the world, throw in a little Tia Rosa's, take a trip to the temple, visit the Visitor Center with its soon-to-be marvelous Sister missionary, celebrate your favorite hairdresser's birthday, drive to Surprise to see your hero in life, see a big baby, and listen with pride (the my-son-just-earned-his-Eagle-Scout-award kind) to your good amiga's "farewell" talk in church, mix it all up real well and cook in the sun and you do have a great trip! Add for garnish, a slightly creepy hotel, Crack the Case, catching up with old friends, a healthy dose of Glee, and a microphone from your Wendy's kids meal, and, well, who could ask for anything more? I think canoeing to class might be the only thing that could've made it better. . . . and possibly another meal at Tia Rosa's.

Don't we look happy?


Jess loves to give her hair to the birds, as Angela points out here.

Sister McKenna showing off her future mish!

The Mesa temple is so awesome!


That is a huge baby!

I love us.
The drive? not so bad really. :)

Some Random Fo Toes

I came across these random pictures which I thought were fun. Here I am with my family at Conference. This last General Conference was so awesome. I got to go to the Conference Center for two sessions- beautiful sessions! Here I am with my familia. We're all squinty because we just emerged from the darkness and it was glaringly bright outside.


I love love love this pic. These are my absolute favorite people. And why do we look so happy? Most especially because we got to have dinner together and enjoy one another's company for one of the last times before everyone started moving away to the far reaches of the world!I'm quite proud of this pic. I was a little nervous that I might roll right off that thing. That was a fun ride, up Temple Fork.
Another great shot of us in our biking head gear. I can't imagine why I didn't post this before. Maybe I felt like this wasn't my most photogenic moment...

Castle Climbing and City

What's better than climbing? Nothing.

Except maybe climbing with people as stellar in character and ability as Emma and Brent. And what's even better than climbing with stellar Emma and Brent??

Answer: climbing with stellar Emma and Brent at Castle! that's what!

The photos you have before you are meager evidence of a truly stupendous week of Climbing in Idaho. It was a week of firsts for me. My first time ever climbing trad (yikes!), my first time on a multi-pitch climb (and I seriously doubt I'll ever convince Emma to go with me again :) ) AND, it was my first time reaching into a hand hold and latching onto a bat!! Unsure how to move past that part of the climb without using the aforementioned hold, I clung to the rock, and stared at that dark little hole until the mammal emerged. He sat there at the mouth of his miniature cave, looking at me and shaking all over. I didn't know whether to interpret the direct eye contact and shaking as fear, or rage. I was contemplating my options, when after nearly two minutes of the two of us gridlocked in a staring contest, he flew suddenly at my head and frantically flapped around in front of my face before flying off. No doubt as the third human to stuff their hand into his home, I was the last straw for the little guy. I'm a little proud that I didn't fall off the climb.


Here are me and Brent on a trad climb.
One of the cams was stuck purty darn good. I had to take a picture as a memento when I finally pulled it out!

I like this picture of Brent. I think he looks stoic. Brent is pretty much my hero. Not only is he an incredible climber, but he's extremely patient with posers like me. We get to climb harder stuff when Brent's around to set all of our climbs for us! :)

There were wildflowers everywhere and it was SO green. It was ridiculously pretty.Me and Emma smiling on top of Big Time. Emma may disagree, but I thought this climb was a blast. The polished limestone we have in Logan can start to get kinda old after a while. But this was true friction climbing for 5 pitches! A VERY different deal, and totally worthwhile.
Haha! Do I look hard core?
Brent taking on a roof.
Emma climbing like a champ. Here she is, climbing with a confidence and finesse well beyond my abilites.
Brent climbing.
Emma on a crazy hard, crazy fun route! This was probably our favorite discovery of the entire trip! A short way up this climb all the features disappear and all you've got to work with besides very vertical very smooth rock face are some tiny flakes, about as deep as halve a finger width. With concentrated effort you can inch up to said flakes and do some pullups, smearing your feet, to more tiny flakes above. If you ever go to Castle, check out the Gully.

We also found some fun climbing in City of Rocks, got to relax in the hot springs, and cooked gourmet burgers over the campfire, and spotted weasel! (I've never seen a weasel in the wild before.) Who could ask for anything more?