Jackson Hole

My church ward decided to take us to Jackson Hole for some camping and river rafting. We woke up Saturday morning and we were on the road by 7 AM...okay, 7:30 AM. Who were we kidding? That's dang early!! After 3+ hours of driving and me telling Julia, "You're not allowed to read so you can keep me awake," we arrived in Jackson Hole. Before we got on the raft, Stephanie tried to keep us hydrated...because hydration is key.

And Julia had a little accident with her pen. Good thing she would fall out of the raft several times so the ink could wash off.

We tried to put on our brave faces before the "lunch counter" or "mother-in-law" could get us!

After a fairly lengthy tutorial on rafting safety, we were ready to go! "Never stop rowing!" This would come into play many times as the left side (the cool side) and the right side would try to place blame on the other for falling behind.

At one point, a couple of us stood at the top of the raft to see how good our balance was. Well, I didn't even make it to full stand up position before my foot slipped and gave Stephanie a wake up call to her crotch (am I allowed to say that?) I feel pretty bad but can't help laughing. Hence, the hand to the mouth trying to cover my laugh.

I finally made it on top of the raft. Can you see everyone looking at me and just wondering when I will fall. Notice Robert (the guy to the front left) had his legs clenched tightly together. He wasn't going to take any chances.

You can't tell very well, but at this point, everyone was rowing in a way that makes the raft turn in circles. Notice my center of gravity is slightly lower this picture.

And I'm wet because I finally fell in. Posing with Jordin and Stephanie. How's your crotch feeling, Steph?

Julia, some girl I don't remember, Hiedi, Kevin, and Todd also posed for a picture.

We survived the river rafting, with only 3/4 of our raft falling in at one point, including our guide, Kevin. That lunch counter is brutal. I wish I could post the pictures taken by the companies who take your picture over the rapids, but I'm too frugal.

The rest of the trip was good. We had a barbeque, sat around the campfire and talked. Julia and I tried to share a twin air mattress for the 2nd year in a row, this time not as successful for me. We went to Jenny lake the following morning and hiked to Inspiration point. Don't we look inspired?

Yeah, probably not! Because we never actually made it to Inspiration point. We didn't have enough time before we had to turn around and make it back to SLC. This is what "almost made it to inspiration point" looks like:

We even took the ferre back to save on time. Julia, myself, and Aubrei posing for a picture.

We made it home safely and with only minimal battle wounds. What's not to love about Jackson Hole!!

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving!

30 years old was never an age that I looked forward too. It wasn't until 3 years ago that I accepted that 30 isn't "middle aged." But the movie 13 going on 30 did make it appear more fun and glamorous. Naturally, I thought for my birthday I would do some soul searching about the person I had become, and then go find my best friend growing up and fall madly in love. His name was Jeff, and he had the most righteous mullet with a side spike all at the same time! Dreamy! Well, after hours of internet stalking...no Jeff. And the whole soul searching thing, that just takes way too much energy! So instead, I did the usual: party all week, something that included water, dancing, karaoke and music....my staples in life.

Danielle and Nate were able to come up from New Mexico with my niece and nephews. We went to the Utah Hogle Zoo on Wednesday (Day 1 of birthday bash!)

Austin DID NOT like the Dinosaurs!

Who is holding Dakota up...doesn't look safe to me??

Dakota was our navigator!

Thursday night, JD and Mom took us to Tepanyaki for my birthday dinner (Day 2 of birthday bash!) I had never been but was very pleasantly suprised! The kids loved it! Owen tried to look disinterested, but we would catch him staring our server lighting things on fire and throwing food around.

Of course the kids had to try to eat with chopsticks like the grown ups.

Friday night was the 2nd annual joint bday party for Katie and myself! (Day 3 of birthday bash)
We decided to make the night a little more special by cutting the cake and then feeding each other. Guys, if you're lucky, this could be you! Please rescue me before I turn 31 and get kicked out of the single's wards!!

Saturday commenced the usual boating adventures! I got to play captain. (Day 4 of birthday bash!)

Shantell was one of my grunt workers!

Landon and Hailee came up with me! We got in a little puppy time, while they're still young and cute!


This is pretty much the only skill I have...I can back dive! Afterward, Shantell made sure to inform me that I "shouldn't bend my legs as much." So nice of her.

Landon and I decided we were going to brave and cliff jump. Everyone else stayed in the boat, spineless, but made sure to yell at us from the boat that I should "just jump. It's not that big of a deal."
Notice how we start out with just Landon and I up there? Let's watch the progression of events.

I chicken out. Landon jumps to show me how it's done.

You can't tell very well in this picture, but about 10 people had accumulated behind me waiting for me to jump. And this is after I had already let most of them go past me once, they jumped, and then came back up. "Hi guys. I'm still here." At one point, some snot-nosed little boy said, "just jump. It's not even that high." To which I responded, "You! Jump! Now!" Caught a little off guard, he jumped ahead of me. After about 45 minutes of me walking to the edge determined to jump, then backing up, and then being yelled at by everyone, and me yelling back at everyone, I finally jumped. Landon then proceeded to dive off the cliff...no biggie. I was back in the boat at this point, but I heard some little girl say, "oh wow" in a little girl crush kinda way. I also heard Hailee respond, "You better watch out little girl cuz you know I don't know how to swim but I be jumping in after you." Luckily, the little girl didn't hear the psycho jealous wife.

Saturday Night we went to the Sugarland concert. (Continuation of Day 4 birthday bash). Will, Sara, Laura, Julia and I

Sunday we went to the Adele Concert with Lydia, Cassie, and Julia. (Day 5 of birthday bash!)

Thus ending my birthday celebrations! Not as glamorous as 13 going on 30, but not as depressing as I always thought "middle aged" would be!

The Search for the Subaru

This entry was written by my BFF Abby:

Around the middle of May Holly started saying that she wanted to go to Las Vegas for my birthday again and see another cirque de soleil show. So we pulled out our calendars and decided the 10th and 11th would work best. Holly's friend Julia also joined us. So we loaded up in Julia’s Jetta and headed south. We were almost to Fillmore when I look up at the passenger seat and Holly is chugging this 2 liter bottle of lemonade:

Then we tried to compare the enormity of all our drinks:

When we were about to Cedar City we started talking about cars and Holly mentioned that she was going to buy a Camry for her next car. Mostly because she thought they were great. Well, a Camry or a Subaru. Subaru? Really? So we began the search for the Subaru. We finally made it to Newcastle and crashed out. Saturday morning we headed to Vegas. We got there around lunchtime so we decided to grab a bite at Serendipity by Caesar's Palace.




It was pretty packed and we had to wait for a little bit, but we managed to pass the time:



Then we finally got seated out on the deck.

The frozen hot chocolate was soooo good it was halfway gone before I could get a picture:

Then we checked in to our hotel and hit the pool for a few hours. After dinner we headed over to the MGM. We were driving around the parking and I pointed out to Holly that there were absolutely no Subaru’s in the parking lot because Subaru’s are lame. So we had a little wager and Holly came out the loser:

She couldn’t even make the “L” right. Then we asked a guy that was so wasted he couldn’t even walk straight to take our picture. He didn’t do a bad job:

We made it to the theatre:

I snapped a picture as we rounded the corner toward the stage:

Julia snapped a picture of me and Holly right before the lady yelled at us for no pictures:

The show was visually spectacular. I found some cool pictures online. Here is the stage:

That rectangle stage moved all over the place. It was awesome. These guys were my favorite. The guy on the top was jump roping as they are spinning around.

The ship scene was pretty cool too:

However, I thought the scenes on the sandy beach were long and drawn out. They probably could have shortened these a bit:

This is right before the fight scene. The set was amazing:

All in all it was a good show, thanks BFF for such a great idea.
After the show we kept with tradition and grabbed some ice cream at Häagen-Dazs:

Then we headed to my absolute favorite place in Vegas – The Bellagio!! On the way, we looked and looked and couldn’t find any Subaru’s – Sorry Holly.
It was a patriotic theme at the garden area:

I love this place. This is my Vegas:


We took our traditional photo in the center gazebo:

They had a painting made completely out of flowers:

and a merry-go-round:

Ahhh. I could stay in there for hours, but we headed outside to catch a few water shows. We made it halfway down and then the show started so I took pictures of the back side of the show with the Eiffel tower in the background:


Then we headed to the front and that is where I discovered that my precious Bellagio was allowing street vendors on the sidewalk. It was very annoying. But the shows were just as spectacular.
Julia ran and got a bottle of water from a vendor and Holly and I snapped some pictures while we waited:



It was here that we decided that once we struck it rich, I would buy the Bellagio and Holly would be Caesar's Palace and we would build an underground tunnel connecting the two so we could have secret parties and sleepovers and whatever else you do in secret underground bunkers. Hey, if you’re gonna dream, dream big right? Anyway, I took the liberty of creating a picture to show you just how our dream will be:

Then we caught a few more shows:


They were amazing as usual. After a few shows, we headed back to the hotel. The next morning we were up early and on our way home, but not before Holly finalized a few wedding details:

We made it home just in time for me to go to my meeting. Thanks ladies for a fun-filled weekend full of sun, cirque, and unfortunately, no Subaru’s.