Capitol Reef Weekend

I haven't been much of a fan of Capitol Reef National Park. I went there once a long time ago and just  did a cheesy little hike to an arch and saw that the only paved road cuts across a narrow section of this incredibly long park (I'm talking like 100 miles long). Otherwise it just has a bunch of 4WD/dirt roads that go to other areas of the park that I could never access because I didn't have a 4WD vehicle. Apparently, Mike and his friends make an annual trip of Capitol Reef and explore somewhere new every time. So my eyes were opened to the possibility of the park! They found a series of canyons called "The Wives" that we could canyoneer through, and they decided to have us try Wife 3 and The One That Got Away.

Wife 3 began with a bang! A 200-foot rappel with 150 of it being a free rappel (which means you're just hanging on the rope without being able to touch the canyon wall). It was quite the welcome-back-to-canyoneering rappel for me. The next rap was pretty intense too: I had to chimney across a crack (that had a deep drop) out to a rock stuck in the crack in order to get on the rope to rappel down the crack. After that, the raps weren't quite so intense.

At the beginning of the day: Lane, Dave, Mike, and me

Me and Mike on the approach hike to Wife 3

Mike on the approach hike to Wife 3

Me on the approach to Wife 3 - quite the tight rope walk!

That's me! Beginning the 200-foot rappel

Me finishing the 200-foot rappel

Me hiking down from the 200-footer in the background

Me, Dave, and Lane in the canyon

Mike standing on the rock stuck in the crack with Dave in his spider hole where he helped me and Mike get on our ropes for the rappel

Mike starting another rappel in Wife 3

The One That Got Away (TOTGA) ..... well, it actually got away from us. It was supposed to be just a down-climbable canyon, meaning no ropes were necessary. We started it with a pretty crazy down-climb. But then we came up on a pretty deep and dark crack that we were supposed to chimney down - but it was deep! And the walls were all curvy and rough - not good for my limited experience of doing the chimney move. So we ended up hiking back out of it - and even getting up the down-climb we did was challenging.

Climbing back up the down climb in TOTGA

Dave and Lane exploring the bottom of TOTGA

Mike and I hanging out on the cliff-side while Dave and Lane explored the bottom of TOTGA

On Sunday, we ended up trying to hike up the west side of Burro Wash, but I think Lane (Mike's friend) said it ended up not being Burro Wash. Those guys .... they must have done so many trail hikes that they've become bored of them so their kind of hiking is off-trail, bouldering, and all that crazy stuff - so that is what we did for our "hike" on Sunday. But they were good to me, and I didn't complain. :)

And here I am bouldering and trying to keep up with the guys

This is where we stopped since I wasn't really inclined to climb that

Mike and I taking a little lunch nap

Quite a bit of this hike was on a 4WD road

I wished these "mattresses" were softer and more horizontal

Mike trying out the "mattresses"

Visiting Robyn & Doug, Traci & Greg in Portland

I finally made it out to Portland to visit Robyn and Doug and Traci and Greg! I flew in really late - at 11pm and Robyn picked me up and then terrible us - we stayed up until 12:30 talking. But I guess that's not news. :)

Friday, Robyn and I went to a little, very nice, shopping district in downtown Portland after which we had a walking tour of Portland scheduled. We had so much trouble finding parking for the shopping area, that when we realized the tour meeting point was only a mile and half away we decided to walk to it and not lose our parking spot only to fight to find another spot. After walking around the shopping area, then to our tour, then during our tour, and then back to our shopping area and car, we think we walked at least 5 miles that day. When we got home at 6:30 we were wiped out! Thankfully, Doug had picked up the famous gas station pizza for us for dinner.

Robyn and me inside one of the theaters on the tour

I loved these houses on the street that we parked in downtown Portland

Saturday, Traci and Jude joined Robyn and me for a walk through the botanical garden that is by Robyn's house. Then Traci and I picked up lunch and went back to her house to eat it since Jude had to lay down for a nap and I wanted to see Traci and Greg's cute little place! Traci also showed me her little wild land behind her house, for which I was not wearing the right kind of shoes! After that Doug, Robyn, and I went to the Portland Museum to see the Venice exhibit, and to dinner at a French bistro, and then we came back to their house to watch the movie, Catching Fire. Ha ha! Doug was so mad about the ending. Ha ha!

Sunday was packed just as much. I went to the dog park with Traci, Greg, Jude, and Henry, their dog. That's where I discovered the ingenious ball throwing tool that Traci uses to throw Henry's ball around - that way she doesn't have to touch the nasty ball after Henry has slobbered all over it! :) Then Robyn had a yummy brunch made for Doug, me and her. After which Robyn took me on a drive along the Columbia River Gorge Historic Highway. We scoped out most of the waterfalls along it and even the Vista Point. Then since we had a bit more time to kill before my flight, we stopped by some outlet shops - where both of us actually had some good luck at the Gap Outlet (I had pretty much given up hope on ever seeing anything good at the Gap!).

It was a lovely weekend! Despite me catching a cold the day before going. I hate that! That happened to me one time before I visited Joni and Adam one year. Equalizing your ears on a flight when you have cold is not fun, to put it lightly.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of Traci, Jude, or Greg! Ugh! So lame of me.

Saddle Sore in St. George

Mike and I took a very quick jaunt down to St. George for some mountain biking - our first for the season so we were extremely saddle sore! We left early Saturday morning, which is my best time of the day so I drove while Mike slept. Then we biked 20 miles around Bear Claw Poppy and the Green Valley Race Course and a little of Hurricane Rim. We were so tired we went back to our hotel at 8:15 and I fell asleep on my bed at 8:30 and slept soundly until 7:30 the next morning! We visited a little local ward for Sacrament Meeting and then we rode 13 miles on Gander out at Gooseberry Mesa. After that we headed home - I drove for a bit while Mike tried to sleep, but after that it was his best time of the day so he finished the drive home while I slept. It's kind of nice how that works out - to have a morning person and a night person in a relationship. :)

9th Annual Sisters Ski Weekend

Well, we did it again! We had our sisters ski weekend at Snowbird Resort again this year - thanks to Doug and Robyn! Jill drove down from Boise, picked up Teri in Tremonton, and Robyn at the airport, and then I met them at the City Creek Center in Salt Lake City for a little dinner at Blue Lemon, salted caramels from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and we topped the night off with some successful jean shopping for Teri. We also scoped out a super deep and funny couch at Restoration Hardware - hence the funny pic. And of course we stayed up way too late gabbing and catching up.

Then Saturday, that "funny girl" Kelly (as Robyn dubbed him) joined us at the Bird for our skiing! We actually skied a whole day! Robyn, Jill and I finished off the day in quiet fashion with a movie and a crock pot dinner - for which my Mike joined us. :) 

Ouray for President's Day

Mike and I and several of our friends rented a historic manor house, that was built in 1890, in Ouray, Colorado for President's Day weekend. While there, we went snowshoe in, a few of us went skiing at Telluride, we watched skijourning in Silverton, did a little sledding, and even did a little 4X4ing in Silverton where we got pretty well stuck in the snow. We hiked into Box Canyon Falls and then we hiked to a bridge above the falls where boys will still be boys and make snowballs to throw down in the gorge aiming for various objects. I finally also made the famous Deer Valley Chocolate Snowball cake! I thought it was perfect to celebrate our Valentine's Day during our winter weekend getaway. :) My 19-year-old hiking boots also kicked the bucket and so I had to buy a new pair at the REI in Grand Junction, Colorado before we did a little hike there on Monday before driving back to Utah. It was a lovely weekend, and I had a blast.

The Chocolate Snowball cake

Jenn and me at Telluride

The view from my lunch location at Telluride

My lunch location at Telluride

Looking down on Silverton, Colorado

The stuck Jeep - with Mike in black and Curtis in orange

My dead hiking boots - with Curtis, Jenn photobombing me, and Lane

Mike in Box Canyon

Mike and me at the base of the Box Canyon Falls

Lane, Jenn, and Curtis throwing snowballs into Box Canyon below

Mike making snowballs

Boys, and Jenn, will be boys

Ruby Has Her Limits

Parking on campus where I work is terrible. Terrible! The students park in all the employee lots and make finding a parking spot close to my office a nightmare - particularly if I have to leave main campus for a meeting, which I have to do frequently since my three biggest areas that I serve are all off of main campus! Tuesday, I had a meeting with a colleague of mine to which I had to drive therefore I lost my parking spot, and I knew I'd have to look for one when I came back. When I returned to my normal parking lot, I was not in a mood to drive around looking. There was one spot that I've been spying for a while and watching other vehicles - with higher clearance than my Ruby - pack down the snow bank to what I thought was a manageable size for my Ruby. And this day - the day I was not in the mood to look for a parking spot elsewhere - was the day to try it out! So I backed into it. I made it in just fine about half to two-thirds the way in and then for some reason I felt the need to gun it to finish off the job. Well, I finished it off alright - by kind of high-centering my Ruby on that snow bank! My back passenger wheel was off the ground entirely! All I could do was laugh. I wasn't embarrassed at all. I wasn't stressed about it all since there were plenty of people around to help push me out. So after devotional, three of my male coworkers gave me a single push and I was off the snow bank! That easy. It was a grand adventure discovering Ruby's limits.

Winter Fun: January Recap

Playing hooky from work to go cross-country skiing with my quadruple J crew: me, Jen, Jenn, and Janie.

Snowshoeing with Mike and friends up to Stewart's Cascade behind Mount Timpanogos. 

New Year's Eve with Mike - I finally got a New Year's kiss! Complete with sparklers (Mike's burned out just before the pic was taken) and sparkling cider. 

Ice fishing at Deer Creek Reservoir with Mike and his friends. I caught a monster 16-inch Rainbow Trout while drinking my hot cocoa! Mike caught a tiny one - 15.5 inches. Ha ha! 

And then Mike and I visited the ice castle in Midway after fishing all morning. 

And dear Janie's wedding to Ty on January 17 at the Mount Timpanogos Temple.