Christmas Wishes

Hey all!

Christmas was wonderful. We did all the traditional things our family requires: Christmas Eve at Mom's complete with dinner and Jill's yummy Cranberry cake with a double-yummy sauce on it, opening one gift--always the one from mom, and the white elephant gift exchange. Christmas day followed with more traditions of going to Jill's house for lunch and dinner, working feverishly on a puzzle, touring the kids' stash of presents from Santa, visiting and enjoying one another's company.

Couple of funnies:

1. My mom gave Chandler (my 7-year-old nephew) the wrong present to open Christmas Eve. She bought a bubble gum dispenser for him and everyone knew he would love it! Everyone watched with anticipation as he opened his "fabulous" gift. We laughed heartily when he opened it and it was dish towels--to be given to his mom, Jill. I caught it on movie mode on my camera--Check it out below!! Mom's reaction was classic--first the exclamation and then the speedy removal of the erroneous gift from Chandler's lap. He actually really loved his real gift--the bubble gum dispenser.



2. I am officially kicked out the house. With the move of my mom to a new and quite small home, my stuff got the boot and I had the joy of doing it. That is not supposed to happen until I get married!! My sister, Teri, and I went through all of my stuffed animals, dolls, high school paraphernalia, baby clothes and baby blankets, kindergarten and elementary school pictures--basically we did what we could to give as much as possible to the DI and then condensed what was left. At first, I was pretty liberal with what I gave to the DI, but as time passed I became more attached to all the stuff. So I filled up my trunk, my backseat, and the entire back portion of Teri's Tahoe (well, you could still see out the back windows in the Tahoe and my car--so it wasn't that horrible). That is one more chapter of my life closed--the mobility chapter. I found joy in the security of being able to pack up my car and move to another place whenever I felt like it. C'mon! The past four years of living in the same place is an anomaly-- when I was still in college I moved every 8 months. Of course, I have accrued some stuff here and so that has increased my number of car loads, but now this finishes it. Especially now that my mom sent her old kitchen table down with me. I probably wouldn't move too far away from Provo now that I have this awesome new job, but what if I get bored of my ward? Or the boys in my ward? Or my roommates?

3. Everyone kept asking me why I was wearing my glasses. "Are you trying to look smart?" While several people have accused me of that--including one of the interviewers for my new job--that is not the case. This is another big announcement: I am getting Lasik this coming Wednesday, January 3rd. Yes. I will be able to see the stars as I fall asleep when camping out under the stars. I will be able to see the alarm clock when I wake up at the crack of dawn to go to the gym. I will be able to go scuba diving and clear my mask without freaking out. I will be able to race down the slopes without my eyes watering. And that is exactly what I focus on to actually go through with it--that and I am counting on the Valium to do the magic that everyone says it will: wipe out my anxiety about the actual procedure. The thought of the procedure grosses me out and makes me nervous. So, I focus on the results and the incredibly low probability that anything will go wrong. If my sister Robyn, who is the "Nervous Nelly" of the family, can do it and come out with perfect results, I can do it--because we have nearly the same genes! My mom and Teri are going to come down and baby me while I heal. Yeah for family!

Other than the couple of funnies, Christmas was wonderful. It is always my favorite to get together with my family. My mom, dad, sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews and all of my extended family are the joy of my life. My Christmas wish for everyone of you is that you have family to surround you, love you, cherish you, tease you, give you hugs and kisses, and be there for you.

8 Inches of New Snow & a Hole in My New Skis

Yeah! I got to go skiing a second time and in 8 inches of new snow that Snowbird received over night. I also tried out my new skis. They are so awesome! I absolutely float in the powder and can power through the tracked out stuff. Soooooo awesome! So awesome that I was a little adventurous in looking for untouched powder. I figured out why the powder there was untouched---because there were rocks underneath and one of them took a bite out of the bottom of my new skis. My poor babies. I think it is fixable though, at least that is what the guys told me--the ones I went skiing with.


Starting on the left is Nate (one of the twins), Lindsey, Jon (the other twin),me and Dan. Lindsey and Dan spent the day on the bunny hill as they are still learning. I am bound and determined to get Lindsey trained and ready to play in the chutes and trees with me and the twins. Nate and Jon are good----really good. They invited two other guys to come and so I spent the day skiing with 4 guys. It was not the first time doing so, but last time I knew the guys better. I was a little apprehensive since I didn't know them very well and I felt like the little sister that begged to come along. But I kept up with them. I was super tired in the morning. I think it was because I took some Dayquil to try and get rid of the symptoms of my cold. When it began to wear off in the afternoon I got a boost in my energy--just as Nate and Jon were getting tired. Jon had been skiing 3 times that week already and Nate went running the day before. I was pretty shy with all 4 of them there, but when the two I knew the least took off early and left me with just Nate and Jon, I came out of my shell. Super fun. I liked skiing with Nate and Jon alone better because we actually skied--we didn't just go around looking for jumps like we had when the other two were with us.

I have decided I definitely have ADD when it comes to skiing--I don't like to go to the same resort and therefore never get a season pass because I get bored with one resort when I have 8 all within an hour drive of my house. Secondly, I get bored with one run, one type of run (groomers, bumps, powder, trees, chutes, etc) and definitely with just looking for jumps. I suppose if I ever live where there is only one resort then I will learn to put up with it, but until then I can be picky. :o)

Thanksgiving Summary-Just a Bit Tardy

Hello all dear friends. Yes, so writing about Thanksgiving has taken me a long time to get around to it. Well, this is why: Work has been super busy between training myself for my new job and training my replacement for my old job and therefore allowed absolutely no time at work to blog. And then at home...well internet connection has been off and on here until tonight. So there you have it! My excuse.

Thanksgiving was lovely. I went to my sister, Teri's, house in Logan and enjoyed myself immensely. Maybe too much. Check out the pic of me. Yes, that is me in my pajamas at 5 o'clock in the evening on Thanksgiving Day. My brother-in-law made the mistake renting the entire first season of the television series "24". So he, my nephew, and I were glued to the TV for literally 24 hours watching the entire first season over the course of the weekend. The premise is that each episode accounts for 1 hour of a 24 hour period in this man's life. He works for the government as some sort of spy and therefore is involved in a whole bunch of action, of course. Now I am hooked. I will need to rent the second season and start watching it. I haven't yet, but I think that is because the cliff-hanger wasn't very good.

Then of course my mom, sister, and I enjoyed our traditional day of shopping--two days actually. I picked out my Christmas for my mom to give me this year and she bought it. Funny thing about that is not that I know what I am getting--I always know what I get for Christmas from my mom--but the fact that she told me to go ahead and take it home with me and then that way she wouldn't have to worry about wrapping it. Well, I know my mom and I know that she will feel bad when I don't have very much to unwrap on Christmas Day....so I wrapped my own Christmas gifts and took them home to Idaho two weekends ago when I helped my mom move into her new house.

The other picture is of some pilgrim figurines I bought at the bookstore before Thanksgiving. Aren't they so cute! I have never found any Thanksgiving decorations that I like until these figurines. So darling. So that is about it for Thanksgiving.

Extra- Extra- Some Big Announcements!!

Greetings all!! You probably wonder, "What in the world is Jessika still doing at work at 12:30 am?" Well, actually I am not at work any more, phew!! And I am not intruding on my roommates generous hospitality of allowing me to use their computers.... no, no, no. This is big. BIG. Are you ready for this? I....bought....a....computer.... Did you get that? Yes!! I actually bought a COMPUTER for my HOME!!! I never thought I would because I didn't want to put up with a finicky computer that breaks down, freezes, catches viruses (like the cold that is beginning to take residence in my nose), lose my documents...etc, etc. But my roommates are big Mac users and lovers. They convinced me. Linda is the biggest user of the two and she assures me that a Mac will not give me the trouble that a PC will so.... I did it. I bought a iMac computer. I also bought a Canon printer and an iPod Nano--the red one. The cool thing about the red one is that when I bought it, Apple will donate $10 to Bono's (of U2) charity to help those afflicted by AIDS in Africa. So not only do I get to enjoy my iPod in my favorite color, but I also helped to save the world!! Well, okay, not technically, but every little bit helps.

Secondly: And this is bigger than the purchase of my beautiful iMac.... okay. Are you sitting down? Do you have a brown paper bag in hand to breathe into if necessary? Or maybe some non-alcoholic wine, confetti, balloons, crete paper would probably also be appropriate..... I GOT A PROMOTION!!! YES, I SAID PROMOTION!! BYU GAVE ME A PROMOTION. I had to make sure I mentioned that three times, because "they" say repetition is the best way to get something across to a group of people. I think I officially start next week and my new title is "Area HR Consultant". I am no longer part of Employment Services. I am technically part of the general division of Human Resource Services. I am super excited and so honored. Of course the promotion comes with a stunning raise and more vacation days--I am talking about 22 days of vacation per year on top of University holidays and sick days.... Isn't that awesome? Of course, they say I may not be able to take those vacation days, but it is worth it though!! I will still try to take them. No more shortening vacations because I don't have enough days... Oh it is a beautiful thing. So what does my new position entail?--you ask. Well, basically, I am the one-stop-HR-contact for 1/4th of campus. I have Athletics, Student Life, and Student Academic & Advisement Services under me. They will contact me with any questions they may have. I will post their jobs, set the salaries of their incoming employees, evaluate their jobs for appropriate exemption and pay level, do some light employee relations work, some training and basic consulting. And another really good part about this PROMOTION? I am moving up from the basement to the second floor of the ASB. I will not be a mole or miner any more!! I will see the sun in the daylight hours!! Isn't that so fabulous? This is a picture of my building. So yeah. I thought I would just share the news with y'all.

Happy Halloween!!

Greetings from Miss Idaho!! Yup. I dubbed myself Miss Idaho for the grand tri-ward Halloween party we had Saturday night. It was a good time. My roommates and I decided to relieve Deseret Industries of some of their nasty 1980s dresses and tiaras. We made our sashes ourselves! Can you believe it? Julia ironed on a black flower on to her dress and actually melted her dress! Lucky for her, I had red thread and mad skills on the sewing machine, so I quickly mended the dress so she wouldn't be flashing anyone. Happy Trick or Treating!!

First Snowfall in the Valley!

Yay!!! We received our first snowfall in the valley yesterday--during the day and again in the evening. And the snow in the grass was still there when I went to work this morning. Hip hip hooray! The ski season is just around the corner....and I am ready to try out my new skis!

The little white thing on my hip is a snowflake--not something weird with my pants.

Meet my flatmates!

Last night was my roommate, Linda's, birthday and we went to Mimi's Cafe to celebrate. And it provided the perfect opportunity to have a picture taken of the three of us! Linda is in the middle and Julia is on the right. Linda is a MBA student at the Y and she just recently moved from Boston. Julia is an elementary school teacher and just moved from Salt Lake City area. We get along great. Sometimes we are up too late talking!

The Evolution of My Skis

This fall I bought an amazing pair of skis. They are K2 Lotta Luvs. I am so excited to try them out this season. I have already developed plans how I am going to lock them up to make sure they aren't stolen by some covetous fiend--lock them in my ski rack on my car, lock them up when I am in the lodge eating lunch, etc. But they are so short! Check out the picture. The new skis are on the far left. When I first bought them, I kept them up in my room. I didn't want to take them down to the cold, lonely basement. But when I had the bindings mounted on them, I finally put them down in the basement. When I put them down in the basement next to my other, older children (skis), I had to laugh! Check out the evolution of skis just in the last 10 years! I went from 180s to 164s to finally 153s.

This weekend, however, I got a bit of a smack in the face with how much I paid for my Lotta Luvs. My roommate, Linda, and I went shopping and we visited Copeland Sports. They are going out of business so they have been having this huge sale. We found her some skis, bindings and boots all for under $200! It was such a good deal we called my two good neighbor-friends, Camille and Lindsey, and they came and bought their gear for the same price! Between all three of them, they still spent less than I did on my new babies--and that was to get fully equipped. But that is okay. I am a more dedicated skier at this point in time. I am a better skier than they are and I need skis that will take me to the next level!! And my new Lotta Luvs will do just that. Every sports-shop-guy drools when I tell him what skis I bought. I love that. :o)

Maybe I really am bitter! Ha!!

Funny story. Today I went over to the bookstore to buy a new journal. The bookstore has an entire section of journals. So awesome! I found a beautiful journal--it has a memento pouch and a little magnetic flap to close it. Check out the picture... very cute. I am excited to write in it. And boy do I have a lot to write in it tonight. You can see more of the journals on their website: www.paperblanks.com

As I was looking around to make sure this really was the journal I wanted to buy I found some little notebooks that caught my attention with the fun/vintage pictures on the front. The one in particular that reflects my mindset right now is pictured here. I got a good laugh from it and instantly bought it. As I was walking from the bookstore back to work, I flipped through the pages of the little notebook and found some outrageous sayings on each page! Check this out:
"alone at last!"
"and then she realized, they were all alike!"
"pain was too good for him"
"...and then I ripped his lungs out"
"he couldn't become a distant memory soon enough to suit her"
"what was I thinking?"
"bitter? moi?"

Oh my gosh!! I couldn't believe it. I didn't realize those sayings were in there. But they are kind of funny. Maybe I really am bitter! Ha! Too funny. My friends buy cats and dogs after a bad boy experience and I buy man-hating-notebooks.

Too Hardy of a Party

So this last Friday night I went to a party with about 10 of my friends. It was up in Salt Lake City and was supposed to be so huge and fun. Well it was huge and fun. My friends and I showed up around 9:30 pm and saw the band playing in the garage, but it was pretty cold so we decided to go inside and see what was there--and because the audience for the band was a little sparse. We went inside and found some yummy food and some more people. We talked to a few people, but the party hadn't really started yet. About an hour later a ton more people showed up and so it became hopping. In fact I met a guy that graduated from my high school two years before I did! That was kind of fun.

But the party was too hopping apparently because the police came and broke it up!! That is the first party that I have been to where the police broke it up. Actually, they didn't really break it up--they just made the band stop playing and everybody had to go inside. We left shortly after the SEVEN cop cars showed up. Yeah, seven cop cars. Can you believe that? I think it was probably best we left earlier, I think it was becoming kind of shady as we could smell some alcohol and pot. One of my friends thinks she even saw some of the partiers doing some harder, more illegal drugs there. Yikes!

Fall Colors and Dutch Oven Dessert

Last night, Lindsey, me, Camille and my new roommate Linda went to the mountains to enjoy some fall colors and some Dutch oven peach cobbler. Guess how many guys came with us...take a stab! Not the good Provo guess of 2 or 3, but ..... (drum roll please).... 8! Yes, that was 8 as in eight. We actually had 2-to-1 odds in our favor. Of course the odds were good, but... some of the goods were *** (if you know the phrase, lucky you! I can't finish it because some of the fantastic goods might read my blog).

I digress. So we piled in our cars and drove up behind Squaw Peak and on a dirt road for a while and basked in the fall colors of yellow, red and orange. I immediately got the cobbler going and then we went for a little walk further down the dirt road.

The colors were amazing! I loved the evergreen trees dotted here and there and the spray of aspen trees there were bright yellow. So beautiful. I think this should be a new tradition for myself--on conference weekend, go up to the mountains, enjoy some fall colors and a little hike and then have some Dutch oven dessert. Delightful!

Canyoneering in Zions

My dream of going canyoneering finally came true! I didn't think it would since the summer is now over and the weather is looking so cool. Lindsey and I planned on a weekend in September to go, but as the time came closer the weather was looking more and more terrible, we are talking mid-60s for the high and even the first snow to fall in higher elevations. So, Lindsey and I kind of bailed on the idea, until her friend's car broke down. Her friend was going to go down regardless of me and Lindsey and her car broke down 20 miles from Zions. So the friend called Lindsey to see if Lindsey would come down and rescue them. Lindsey called me and I said I would go! We picked up the monster truck of the friend's boyfriend's and drove that down so he could tow the friends car back to Provo. See!! It really is a monster Tonka truck! Quite the adventure.

Since we were down there we decided that we would go ahead and do Keyhole canyon. Absolutely amazing! I thought the Narrows was amazing until doing this canyon. Now you must understand what canyoneering means: it means we were repelling down into the slot canyon and most of the time it was into water--water that we had to swim through. With the low temperatures for that weekend we decided it was probably wise to rent wetsuits and I kept thanking my lucky 10 fingers and toes (which I like) that I had that wetsuit. Yes, I am carrying a 200 foot rope on my back. I felt like superwoman. Sometimes the slot canyon was as narrow as my shoulders!

The next day we hiked to Angel's Landing there in Zions National Park. Absolutely fabulously hard hike. Check it out! We had to scramble up this narrow ledge to get the top of it. I recommend it!

The First Wedding of the Next Generation

The first of my nieces and nephews got married this Labor Day weekend. I can't believe it. The wedding was a beautiful and the reception was even more so! My sister, Teri, made nearly all the food and as you can tell by the plate full it, I LOVED it! The younger nephews were all playing in the sandbox in their church pants, shirts and ties. All the family not part of the immediate wedding party sat around and chit-chatted....and ate the yummy food from the dessert buffet.

But that doesn't tell you the story from before the wedding. Holy smokes! Helping my sister put together her backyard for the reception has only convinced me further to rent a reception hall and let the hall employees do the decorating and catering. I told my sister, Jill, "If I ever start to talk about doing something else because the reception hall is too much money, please remind me how much work and stress it is to try to do it myself!" Jill promised to do just that. But the reception really was beautiful.

This picture of Corban, my great-nephew and bride's son, is my absolute favorite picture from the entire evening. You got it...he is underneath the train of his mother's wedding dress. Ha! I love it!

Hiking Timpanogos for the 1st time!

So this year I hiked Timpanogos for the first time ever! I hiked it with Jason and a few of his friends. It was amazing. "Timp" has an elevation of 11,749 feet and you feel it when you get toward the top--I was quite out of breath! We hiked to the top via the Timpooneke (pronounced timp-e-nookie, don't ask...) trailhead which is 7.5 miles one-way to the top. We gained 4,580 feet on the trail. The trail was beautiful! We even saw a moose. It was the most perfect day to hike because the high temperature forecasted for Provo that day was in the mid-60s. Soooo, perfect! And the wildflowers...I couldn't believe they were still out and really, they were in their prime. So beautiful. The view from the top was amazing (as you can see). We went to the "Glass House" shack up top. I don't know why they call it that, but basically it is just a tin shack with 4 white walls and a pointed red roof. There was a sign in book inside, but we didn't sign in. It was actually snowing when we got to the top.

Then we walked around the front of Timp and slid down the "glacier" (really it is just a snowfield) and hiked back down via Emerald Lake on the Aspen Grove trail which is 6 miles long. While hiking down Life Flight flew by several times and we wondered what was up. I called my friend Lindsey (who is on the Search and Rescue Team) to find out what was up. She didn't answer. So we kept hiking. We finally came across a lady on the trail that was in a lot of pain and had thus called for Life Flight to come pick her up. Did you know that Utah County Life Flight only bills you if they take you directly to the hospital? Good grief! She got a free ride off the mountain down to the trailhead where the not-so-free ambulance was waiting for her. (An ambulance would be a cheaper ride to the hospital than Life Flight, I imagine.) The hike down to the Aspen Grove trailhead was so steep--it hurt my knees. But I had a greeting party at the bottom!! Lindsey was there at the trailhead as part of the Life Flight rescue so she was there with the rest of the Search and Rescue team to welcome me to the bottom! (Life Flight was gone by then.)

I highly recommend it for any of you that are interested; however, I might have to wait a while to do it again. It was a hard hike!!

Kayaking in the Puget Sound

In the first part of August, I went to Seattle to visit my second-cousin, Ruth Ann. She took me to her cabin/beach house on Marrowstone Island. We immediately went to Port Townsend and had lunch by this little marina and then bought my shellfish license so we could go crabbing and clamming. Unfortunately, there was a red tide and so we couldn't go clamming, but still attempted to try crabbing. One night we went kayaking in Discovery Bay after dark so we could see the bioluminescence in the water. Bioluminescence is a micro-organism that illuminates when you the stir the water. It was unreal to see this sparkly glitter stuff in the water whenever I moved my paddle or swished my hand through the water. The conditions have to be just right in order to see them--it has to be dark and the water has to be warmer than it usually is. Fascinating!

The next day we took the crab pot (trap) out to Mystery Bay on our kayaks and dropped it down in the bay. Then we went kayaking around the bay. We came back to our pot and found that we had caught a huge sea star. So we threw the pot back in the bay in a different spot and crossed our fingers. We had to return my kayak (since it was rented) and then we came back to the bay to try to retrieve the crab pot, but we were trying to get to it in a row boat and in the dark. We decided that it was a lost cause and would come back first thing in the morning. We had to come back first thing in the morning because it is illegal to hunt for shellfish on Sundays so we were hoping we would beat the game warden to our crab pot. But alas we didn't make it in time. The crab pot was confiscated. I felt terrible. Ruth Ann had that crab pot especially made so it would be small enough to put on her kayak. But it was a wonderful weekend and I could really get into kayaking.

Soul2Soul II: The Tim McGraw & Faith Hill concert

Back in the summer of 2000 Tim McGraw and Faith Hill did their first Soul2Soul concert tour and I missed it! But I was just barely beginning to get into country music, so I didn't know how much I would like them. But I wouldn't miss it this time around!! I bought the tickets for the concert the day they went on sale.

I took Jason to the concert and he treated me to a yummy dinner at Thaifoon. The concert was fabulous. It was so fun to sing along at the top of my lungs to all the songs I now know. Tim McGraw is a bit better of a performer, but Faith Hill wasn't bad.

Independence Day

My dad has a phrase that is appropriate for my 4th of July weekend camping trip with my friend Lindsey: "Come he** or high water!" The reason? Well, we had many people bail on us, Lindsey had a search and rescue call that she bailed on, we got a flat tire on the dirt road to our camping spot and then it rained on us. And we still went! It was actually quite the adventure. We got the flat tire on this awesome dirt road, but neither of us felt it go flat--a car behind us flagged us down. So we had to change her tire on this narrow dirt road. The guy that flagged us down offered to help change the tire so he commenced to try to figure out how to get the spare tire down from underneath Lindsey's XTerra. After an hour or so, I asked to try it and I got it within 10 minutes. I was pretty proud of myself. So we got the tire changed and commenced our journey to our second choice camping ground. Lindsey had spotted a really cool one earlier in the summer, but it had a big rock in the road that we would have had to climb over in the car in order to reach it and we didn't feel comfortable taking that risk with a spare tire on the car.

We arrived at our campground and started to collect firewood, but it started to rain. After trying to wait the thunderstorm out for an hour we decided that we couldn't wait for dinner anymore--after all it was 11 o'clock at night!! So we rigged up a couple of ponchos from the back of Lindsey's car and the tent and cooked our salmon dinner on my little BBQ and then also made an Amish Pudding cake in my Dutch oven. We ate well, didn't we?!

Well, the camping trip was short lived as we left first thing in the morning so we could go buy a new tire.

The fun and rain continued on Independence Day! We went to Sugar House Park in Salt Lake and enjoyed another BBQ in the rain. Sugar House Park always has fun fireworks set to music and other fun activities. We enjoyed some illegal sparklers and some ice cream as we celebrated the nation's independence. (The sparklers were illegal because we couldn't have personal fireworks in the park.)

Catching up: Glacier National Park July 2006

Yes! I finally made it to Glacier National Park. For the past couple of years, I have been begging my sister, Teri, to take the family vacation to Glacier National Park in Montana. And we did it! And...it was worth the 12 hour drive.

This trip became the trip of 3s....we were there for 3 full days, hiked 3 hikes for a total of 30 miles and gained 3,000 feet in elevation. Do you see what I mean?

This picture is of the whole gang (me, Jeremy, Teri and Kelly) on our second hike to Grinnell Glacier. You can see the lake below and the beautiful waterfall over Kelly's left shoulder. The glacier is up over the ridge there. That was a pretty grueling hike: many switchbacks, walking through waterfalls, etc. But it was worth it. Not only did we see the glacier but we also saw some mountain sheep. My wanna-be Camelback exploded all over my backside on this hike and thus I became a believer in the value of buying something worth it's cost. But I needed to determine if I liked hydration packs...and I do! (I have since bought a Camelback.)

Here we are basking in the sun with Grinnell Glacier in the background. Teri and I tend to do this at the end of a long hike--collapse on the rock!

Before we actually arrived at the glacier, we came upon a little campground area with a sign saying it was Grinnell Glacier. But it was just a snow field. Unacceptable! I wanted to see a glacier with crevasses and blue snow. I wanted to practice my sword fighting in front of a snow cave and over a crevasse just like Christian Bale in "Batman Begins" did! Thankfully, the snow field was not the end of the hike.

We started our hiking with what we thought would be a "warm up" hike. The hike went from Logan Pass to a chalet and was going to be 15 miles round trip. The map said it was only a 200 foot elevation gain....but it wasn't! The map did not take into account the ups and downs in between the starting and finish points. But on this hike we did see a majority of the animals: mountain goats and a deer. We followed the goats for a while and the deer followed us for a while. When we got to the chalet, someone had a monocular all set up and focused on something on a ridge just beyond the trail we had just hiked. We asked someone what it was and they said it was a grizzly bear and her cub! The grizzly and her cub had been at the chalet earlier that morning and had wandered down the very trail we just hiked down to that ridge. How wild is that?We were seriously the Glacier National Park nomads because we moved campgrounds every night! Needless to say I got really good at taking down my tent and putting it up by myself. But we wanted to move each night so we could be closer to the trails we wanted to hike. This is a picture of Teri and me on the side of the famous "Going to the Sun" road (one of our many times of driving it).

Our last hike was going to Avalanche Lake. It was by far our shortest and easies hike, but we did on the perfect day. Every other day had been cooler and windy, but the day we hiked to Avalanche Lake was warmer. The trail was shady the entire way up. In fact so shady that it made me feel like I was in the Pacific Northwest. Check out the picture!!