What can I say? This weekend was an emotional one for me. It started out with a humongus fight between Karina the Russian and myself. This year has been a hard one for us. We have gone through more ups and downs than ever. It was less than two months ago when I wrote about our last fight, or rather, our last make up. This fight has been particularly hard on me, a lot of harsh things were said–on both of our parts–and I have had no way to get a hold of her due to her cell phone going AWOL.  We are both stubborn individuals and we are both hurting. I’ve blubbered about it to my sister and I’ve lashed out at ED when he didn’t deserve it. The only thing I could think of to make me feel better is shopping… and boy did I shop!

I am moving next weekend (insert happy dance) to my new place! To catch you up, I have been temporarily living with my parents for the past month until my new place is ready. IT’S FINALLY READY!!! And since I sold a lot of my old decorations to rid myself of bad juju, I needed to get new stuff. Retail therapy–I don’t care what anybody says–is great. Although I can’t say it helped me forget that I was fighting with my best friend. In fact, it made me miss her more.

Sunday I decided to abuse my body and rejuvenate my soul by going for a four mile downhill hike. My knees hate me right now, but look how totally beautiful it was!

The view from the top of Snowbird Resort

It was a little Chilly right after getting off the tram

But the hike is oh so worth it

The leaves are starting to change!

making mountain sides look on fire with bright oranges, reds and yellows

The wild flowers are still in bloom towards the bottom of the trail

But this has to be my favorite picture from the hike!

You’d think with the shopping and nature therapy I did this weekend I would be quite content – but I am not. I miss my best friend and I need to find a way to get over myself and get things back to the way they used to be. Life is too short to spend it upset and good friends are hard to come by. I just hope she’s come to the same conclusion!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Hiking, K to the R stories, Moving Blows

Sometimes a girl needs a break, even when it is not the smartest thing to do.

I spent most of Sunday studying for my math final, but truthfully, there is only so much studying I can take so I decided to take a break and go for a hike instead.

One of the perks of living in Salt Lake City is you can be to most of the major hiking trails in 20 to 30 minutes. So I filled my hiking pack with some water, grabbed a granola bar and was off!

I ended up going up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Mill B North Fork trail.

Balancing on jagged rocks near the edge of a cliff to take a picture of myself. Smart. Very smart.

View from the top. I think...

I can’t say I fully recommend this hike. Well, unless you enjoy hiking up vertical patches of lose slate gravel, in which case you would LOVE this hike! I swear I’ve never butt scooted and monkey climbed so much while hiking. So I’ll just say, hike it at your own risk.

Utah has so many hiking trails to offer and while I’ll not be returning to this particular one any time soon, it was the perfect way to put off studying for a few more hours and I’m glad I did.

Math final is Monday afternoon then I am out on summer break for three weeks! Freedom is nearly mine!

YAY!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Back to School, Hiking

A weekend full of surprises, that’s what I had!

Surprise #1. Finding out that we would not be traveling to St. George (Utah, not the island) the night before we were supposed to leave due to some issues with accommodations. I was absolutely crushed because I had really been looking forward to getting away, but after killing myself on the treadmill I decided to suck it up and make the best of my weekend vacation time no matter what we did.

Surprise #2. Discovering that my 50 SPF spray sunscreen was not as effective as I would have liked. We went boating on Friday and Sunday at Utah lake and who goes home looking like a lobster? Me, that’s who. Of course it helps that my sister is already tan and my parents keep almost all of their clothes on except when entering the water. Regardless, I got burned and it hurts.

Surprise #3. Crashing on the wake board and jacking up my sunburned neck. I fell 4 or 5 times so it’s hard to be sure which one caused the damage. I think it was number two…but at this point what does it matter?

Surprise #4. Getting to meet a group of ED’s best friends that he has been keeping hidden. Actually I’m not sure if it was me he was keeping hidden or them… The best part of this surprise is that they were all amazing. I loved getting to know them, and in the end they seemed to “approve” of me, and I them. I’m looking forward to spending more time getting to know them in the future.

Surprise #5. Learning how to hula hoop. Also known as making a complete jack ass out of yourself and being caught on video while doing it. FOR THE RECORD: I had no idea my future brother-in-law was recording us!
The blond closest to the camera is my older sister who brought the hula hoops and is very good, the other blond is my younger sister who has a day more practice than me and I’m (obviously) the uncoordinated brunette. I will say though, this is after practicing for about 2 hours. I’m not sure if that makes this video impressive or pathetic…

Surprise #5. Remembering how great it is to just lay on the lawn while the neighbors light illegal fireworks that they bought and paid for. No parks. No crowds. Just family, friends and a dozen or so neighbor kids running around shooting bottle rockets at each other.

Just the way our fore fathers would have wanted us to celebrate.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Hiking, Loved One(s), Vacations

A few weeks ago I went hiking with my group up Parleys Canyon. We took 3 shuttle cars to the top of Parleys summit, drove down a dirt road and hiked the Alexander Spring Trail – a leisurely 5.3 mile which is mainly downhill.

The hike was beautiful, but then again, there are not many hikes in Utah that are NOT beautiful. We saw a lot of moose tracks and enjoyed each others company.

Here I am in my typical “Happy Hiker” pose.

When you are in the middle of such a beautiful valley, what can you possibly have to NOT smile about…?

We get to the bottom of the trail where 2 other cars had been dropped off. The first car loads up the shuttle car drivers and heads back up to the top. A few minutes later we get a call from one of the drivers saying that someone had driven their backhoe onto the middle of the dirt road so that it is blocking the trail. Going around it is not an option because on one side there is a steep cliff and the other side there is thick vegetation. There is no company name on the tractor or phone number.

Freaking-fabulous, right?

Fortunately we still had one other car with us at the bottom. Unfortunately we had around 12 people show up for this hike so 3 of us had to wait while the car ran a load of passengers to their cars a the mouth of the canyon.

As confused and annoyed as we were for our fellow hikers who were going to have to leave their cars for the night, and even though we were having to huddle together to avoid freezing to death (that may be a slight exaggeration), we still found reasons to smile.

Maybe it was the trail mix… but more likely it was knowing an ice cold beer (or two… or three) was waiting to reward our patience when we got to the bottom.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Hiking, Story Time

I’ve decided I am either crazy or dedicated to be taking summer semester classes. Either way, I knew I needed to make the most of the 2 week break ED and I shared in between semesters. We discussed lots of options on where to go. My only criteria was that it be someplace mountainey that I could hike and that wherever we stayed had a shower.

How’s this for mountainey?

And how’s this for a happy hiker?

What’s that? You want a picture of a happy hiking couple? How about three?

In case you skipped over the title of this blog, we went to Zion National Park. It was absolutely amazing! We had perfect weather, we didn’t kill each other on the drive to and from, and most importantly, I resisted the urge to push him off the mountain after he made me climb our hardest hike much faster than I am used to (that’s putting it nicely). Why in the world my boyfriend feels the need to hike a 5 mile strenuous hike, which they say should take 4 hours, in under 3 (thank you very much), is beyond me!

I present to you, Angels Landing:



Honestly, that doesn’t begin to do it justice.

We hiked several other hikes, we ate at amazing restaurants (highly recommend the Spotted Dog), and as for the room with a shower, we stayed at the Novel House; a cozy bed and breakfast where all of the rooms were themed around famous authors. We stayed in the Rudyard Kipling room, not because I had any idea who he was (author of Jungle Book), but because I liked the way the room looked best with it’s India/Jungle feel to it.

Lastly, Karina sent me with her version of a “to do” list, as she is often prone to do. I can’t share the majority of the list… but I will share item number one because it was one of the first things I did, much to ED’s embarrassment.

1. Scream at the top of your lungs from the highest mountain “I’M THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD!”

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Hiking, Vacations

Me: “So you know that bruise I thought I got from sitting on the rock at Emerald Pool in Zion? The one on the side of my knee? Well, turns out it really is a bug bite of some sort cause it is all swollen and itches like a son-of-bitch.”

ED: “Oh, you mean the one I said was a bug bite all along? Man, I really hate being right ALL the time.”

Me: “Yes. That is the one. I debated telling you for that very reason. Consider my ‘you were right’ as an early birthday present.”

ED: “Aw. Thanks baby.”

Relationships are all about the give and take. Lucky for ED I’m such a giver in this one.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Dating debating, Hiking

Hiking

Yeah, I know, I have been a blogging slacker. I have a lot of catching up to do starting with finishing writing about my amazing trip to moab!

The great thing about going to Moab with a group who has been there a million times is that they were all very concerned with making sure I was able to experience as much of Moab as possible. Truthfully, I felt like a kid visiting Disneyland for the first time. “Look at that rock! OH! No look at that one! Holy cow look how amazing this place is!” and the group would laugh at me and feel proud that they were the ones to introduce it to me. Like their little mountain child had finally found her way home.

We started out the last hiking day of our vacation with a 1 mile hike called “Park Avenue”. A far stretch from the real Park Avenue not that I have ever been there, but even if I had, I’m sure I would have like this better.


Next we mad a quick stop by “Balancing Rock” we only had 5 minutes before we were supposed to be at our next location but I had to see the rock from every angle. Julie came with. When we rounded the corner to head back to the car we saw a few of them were taking off so Julie and I did some trail running back to the car. It sounds funny, but all of sudden I had this image that we were two 10 year old best friends giggling and laughing as we jumped from rock to red rock.


Next stop was “The Firey Furnace”. In order to enter the laberinth that is the furnace you must have a ranger, a certified guide or take a class due to the complex maze of canyones you wander through. I was excited to have a ranger as our guide and let me tell you he did not dissapoint. He was incredibly knowlegeable, but I guess if you had done the same hike over 1,500 times, you would be too.
The funace was by far one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I tried my hardest to stay in the front of the group so that I could hear all that Ranger Lee was saying…I really am such a nerd.





After spending 3 hours weaving in and out of the furnace we finally emerged, ate a quick lunch and headed over to “The Delicate Arch”. Those of you from or familiar with Utahs license plate with the red rock arch, that is what I got to see.


The hike up is a gruling 1.5 miles strait up on slickrock. So Julie, Mariah, Chris and I figured the quickest way down was to RUN IT! Wind in my hair, sweat on my back, and smile on my face, that’s exactly what I did.

Lastly, I promised you “Indian Dicks.”
Ranger Lee informed me that is not the technical name for them. I guess in mixed company you should call them spires, but…look at them!



Mother Nature has a kick ass sense of humor is all I’m sayin’!

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Hiking, Vacations

Hiking, Vacations

My hiking trip to Moab was absolutely amazing and I fully plan on blogging about hiking 8.5 miles, running down the mile and a half rocky trail to delicate arch, stiff muscles, seeing Canyon Land, Indian Dicks and park rangers. But for now, I have been studying for a math test and writing a research paper for english so I’ll just leave you with these pictures of Mesa Arch in Canyon Lands.


Blogfully yours,
Summer

Hiking, Vacations