Old Ephraims Grave, Hiking / Camping

If you haven't figured it out yet, John is quite the mountain man and is turning me into quite the mountain woman! We love being outdoors!  For the 24th of July we decided to do a short camping trip.  We drove up to Old Ephraim's Grave in Logan Canyon and then hiked about a mile past it until we reached a small grove of aspens that we set up camp in.  The hike was a good work out for both of us, mostly for me, I have been known to be quite the wimp in the past when it comes to hiking.  John was pretty proud of me when I made it the whole way LOL!!!  We have been camping before, but it was always in the "domesticated" campgrounds (not John's favorite)  We were out in the middle of nowhere, free to do WHATEVER we wanted!!! It was soooo nice.  The bugs were quite terrible, so we practically bathed in bug spray.  We got to do a little exploring and had some yummy tin foil dinners that we made before we started on our journey.  It was a good trip for us!  John had a lot of fun "being free" in the mountains, and he got to take the jeep up in the mountains for the first time.  We both feel so happy and peaceful up in the mountains, we are so grateful for God's beautiful creations : )

Logan Canyon is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

What a stud!!!  He packed in our chairs and an air mattress so that I would be comfortable : )

Weird beetle skin. . .

John loves fire. . . it's a guy thing for sure.

These were very yummy!

Cooking our eggs for breakfast over the fire. . .

and toast. . .

Yummy breakfast

I was LOVING the wild flowers!!!

WE LOVE THE MOUNTAINS : )

Aaaahhhh. . . . Lake Powell : )

If anyone were to ask me where my favorite place in the world was... I would have to say Lake Powell ( I haven't been to too many places in the world so....) We have vacationed there since I was 9 years old on a house boat, and it has always been the perfect definition of vacation for me.  Being lazy, swimming, laying out getting some sun, eating good food, hiking, sleeping, eating some more, boating, getting some more sun, eating some more food, more boating.... I think you get the idea....
Any who, this year our house boat sank : ( but we still got to go.  My parents rented a really nice house in Page, Arizona.  It wasn't the same, but it was so relaxing and it was a lot of fun to share that experience with John (it was the first time he had been to Lake Powell)
Here are a few pics from the trip.  My camera kind of sucks so. . . they are kinda blurry : /

I love the sunsets

Rainbow Bridge

The whole gang

I love this picture.  This thing was a lot of fun. . . unless you fall off and get knee'd in the back by your husband. . .

John caught this little guy, and his tail came off : ( Unfortunately I sat on this cool hat and ruined it forever : ( John is pretty sad about it. . .

This old boat had a pizza parlor in it.  Yummy pizza and cool environment.

Glen Canyon Dam.  I felt like a little ant looking down at this thing.

John wake boarding. . . like an old man with back problems

Just me

Couple of goooooofs!!!

This picture doesn't look as cool as it did in real life. . . dumb camera

Another good one : )

Our New Baby : )

We would like to welcome to our family this awesome 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport!!!  John has been looking for a jeep for about 6 months now and we were finally able to get this sweet deal this week!!!  He sold his favorite truck last year to buy my ring and has been driving my little Toyota Corolla (Merv) from high school ever since, so I know he is very excited to finally have this vehicle that will be able to take him into the mountains : ) 

John also got a promotion at work this week!!!  I am so proud of him, I've always known that he is a very hard worker and I am so glad that his bosses saw that in him too!!!  Heavenly Father is blessing us so much and we are sooooo grateful.  We get to go to Lake Powell for the next week!!!  So, hopefully I stay on top of things and we'll have some updates from Lake Powell up here soon.
Yay for vacation!!!!!

The Fishy Town Pictures

 John. . . deep in thought

 As you can see. . . I don't get all dolled up for the fishies

 This train was forever long, and we all agreed that the engineer on the train probably loves when he gets to go through that part of the canyon cause it was soooo pretty

 Tyler, John's buddy from work.  Such a nice kid!!!  He's available too ladies hehehe

 eeeeh they are sooo weird lookin!

 The only fish we kept

Fishing. . . another test of patience. . .

Yup, we went fishing AGAIN.  I am learning to LOVE it!!!  I've always loved fishing really, I remember goin with my dad when I was a little girl and he always got my pole ready for me and I just loved it.  Now I'm a big girl and I learned how to tie a cool knot on the hook so it doesn't fall off, and as gross as it sounds, I really enjoy putting the worm on the hook hehehehe!!!  

This trip was up at Cuttler Reservoir.  We went with one of John's buddy's, Tyler.  He has a small fishing boat that we got to use.  It was a good time.  We didn't have a ton of success as far as size goes, but John did manage to beat us both and catch at least 10 little mud cats (they were really making us mad by the end of the day, they should be called worm stillers) He also caught 3 or 4 real cat fish, one that we kept.  

If I've learned anything about fishing it has been that it is such a test of your patience!  You've gotta really want that fish and really want to wait for it.  Every time I cast I say a very childish prayer in my heart "Please Heavenly Father, I really want to catch a fish so that my Hubby will think I am the coolest little fisher woman EVER!!!" and. . . I don't usually catch many, but when I do, John gets sooooo excited for me!!!  I've also gotten to see how patient John is.  Just when I think he's gonna get annoyed or upset about me losing my line or getting stuck on his. . . he just fixes it and goes on with life. He is an amazing husband and I can't wait for the many, many, MANY fishing trips that we will have together!!!!  

YAY FOR FISHING!!! Families that FISH together, stay together : )

Oh Allergies. . . . Just go away

So, I can't remember a time in my life when allergies were a real problem for me.  Last year I got a little bugged by them, but this year. . . HOLY MOLY are they bein beastly!!!!  I was sneezing up a storm in class last night, it was quite a distraction for everyone I'm sure.  So I went to the store and bought some allergy pills and what I thought was some nasal spray.  I got home and found that reading the medicine you buy could be very beneficial. . . the nasal spray suddenly turned into nasal drops!!!  Ugh!!!  So there I sat, upside down on our couch trying my hardest to put a couple of nasal drops down my nostrils. . .and I couldn't tell if anything was going in.  John was at work, so I had to head over to our neighbors and ask them to help me (they are also our best friends, I would never be able to go over to a random neighbors house and say "can you put some nasal drops down my nostrils? It'll only take 2 seconds I swear")  So here's to having AWESOME friends!!!  You know they are true friends when they will take a little dropper and stick it down your nose so that you don't have to suffer from allergies anymore : ) We love you Kristin and Teddy!!!

The scene of the crime. . . poor Teddy : ) All he could say about it was "Well, it was quite the experience."

Our Pals!!!!!

Bow Fishing :)

The two of us bow-fishing.... and John deciding to actually catch him a fish when I'm not around to see it ;)