Christmas Break Anyone!?

Wow! Could this semester have gone by any quicker? It seems like just yesterday that classes were just barley starting and I was worried about finding the right buildings on campus. Now that that I have one final test to go, one final walk up the hill, and have mastered my way around campus I can say that I am officially excited for Christmas break! It has been a hard week of studying and tomorrow by 1pm I will be a free bird! Christmas Break here I come!

Logan Canyon

A few weeks ago Deb, Jordan, and I took a trip up Logan Canyon so I could take some Photograph's. Its been a while since my last photo adventure, it was super chilly but way fun. Here are a few pic's from the adventure.

Vixen!

Halloween was a blast! The roommates and I had a blast carving pumpkins and getting ready for Halloween night. We decided to be Vixen for Halloween. They are an all girls 80's rock band and since there are four of them and there are four of us. Not to mention that our favorite thing to do all together is play rock band it just seemed to fit. Kim had a blast doing our hair and ratting and hair spraying is so it would stay. If I do say so my self my hair looked amazing! I loved it! But man did it feel high! We got all ready and played a few rock band songs to get us in character and then we headed to the Howl. It was not a fun as I thought it would be, we danced a little but there were so many people and it was just way to crowded so we left. We went back to our apartment played around and watched The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Over all it was a pretty fun night. I think our look would give the real band Vixen a run for their money! Its probably a good thing that we don't have much musical talent in our apartment.

Go Aggies!!

Well the first four weeks of school have come and gone. In the mean time my new roommates and I have had a blast! I was nervous about living with people I didn't know but my new roomies, Jordan and Kim are simply awesome! We hit it off from the beginning and have become really good friends. We all love to laugh so there is always laughter coming from our apartment. Jordan loves to try her hardest to get me out of the habit of going to bed early (and by early I mean 10:30) and I must say it is working. It is just a good thing that I don't have class early in the morning so that I can still sleep in once in a while. Last weekend Deb,Jordan, and I went to the first home football game of the season. Utah State vs. Utah. Yes we lost, horribly but it was still fun to go and watch Deb freak out every time the Aggies fumbled the ball. We left a little before the fourth quarter started because I had to get to work. Which was fine, not really a sacrifice at all. So even though the Aggies lost it was still fun to put on our game day shirts and join the crowd. Even if your team sucks you can never have too much team spirit! We took a few pictures of us at the game. Kim didn't come cause she decided to go on a date that night so she missed out on the Kodak moments.... But I am sure there will be plenty more to come.

Its been a while...

Well Since it has been almost a month since I last updated I will try my best to catch up. At the beginning of the month my family went to lake Powell for a week. Which was a total blast! There is nothing in the world like lake Powell! Not much happened after that up until yesterday! I moved up to my apartment in Logan! Not knowing what to expect when I walked into apartment number 61 was half the fun. Our apartment is not very big and I am sharing it with 3 other girls. Two of which I don't know yet. Hopefully they will be fun roommates and we will all get along. I can take about seven steps from our front door to my bedroom which is at the back of the apartment just to give you an idea of how small it is. Granted I have long legs so my steps are pretty big. Our Kitchen is bigger then I thought it would be and it is pretty nice. It came equipped with everything but a microwave. So I guess I need to hunt one of those down. We only have one bathroom to share between 4 girls Luckily there is two sinks and the shower and toilet are separate from the sinks and the mirror or it would be difficult to get ready everyday. Our living room is really quite small. There wont be much room for company. But all in all I am excited to start school... kind of.... :D It will be an adventure that is for certain.

Family Fun!!

There is nothing like a family BBQ to celebrate a holiday. The family got together at my brothers house and the kids and I had a blast playing with Lys's bunny Oreo and swimming in the watering trough. We ate lots of food and I had fun goofing off with my nieces and nephews. The kids loved the fireworks and running around the yard with the sparklers, and apparently so did me and my sisters... It as good to get a break from work and have a chance to goof off and be a kid again.

Donut Falls

The Adventures of Donut Falls

This past weekend, Alli, Deborah and I hiked up to Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I went crazy with my new camera and took tons of pictures but I only selected my favorites to put in the slide show. The trail to Donut falls is quite an easy hike but once you get to the falls you can choose to hike in the water, scaling rocks as you go to get to the very top of the Falls. I chose to not do this but rather to set up my camera and tri-pod and take pictures, Deb however jumped into adventure mode and was climbing up the side of the mountain and saw a girl slip and fall that was climbing up the Falls.(for full account of the story check out Deborah's blog.) Lost in my camera I did not see this happen but once I was made aware of what was going on we tried to think of ways to help her. so Deb hiked to where the girl was and was signing to me what needed to be done. I am grateful that the American Sign Language skills that Deb and I have actually came into use. Since the water was very loud we were able to communicate with out much problem, other then it was hard for me to see Deb but once I put my zoom lens on my camera It was just like signing to her from across the room. Luckily we had Alli with us who is a CNA and an RN showed up as well and we were able to get a hold of the paramedics and get the girl some help. We didn't stay to see if they got her down cause it was getting pretty cold and once they did get her down we would only be in the way. We don't know how things turned out but I am positive it ended as happily as that situation could have.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

As you may know, my Grandpa passed away two months ago. Well today is his 84Th birthday and even though he is not here to share it with the ones he loves I bet it is one of the best birthdays he has ever had. Thanks grandpa for all you taught me, all the support you have given me and for the countless peanut M&M's you have shared. I will always love and miss you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!

Parades, Rodeo's, Fireworks and More!

I love the Fourth of July! Better yet I love not having to work on the fourth of July, despite the fact that it was a holiday I woke up early and with the lack of anything better to do I watched a movie until it was time to go to the Parade. It wasn't too hot, thanks to the cloud cover and the slight breeze that made the parade bearable. After the Parade mom and I went shopping. Later that night I went to the West Jordan Memorial Park where a "celebration" as they call it was going on. I was disappointed in the number of activities that the park had provided and the number of booths that had shown up to the fair. Later Deb, Alli and I went to the Rodeo, which has been a tradition of ours for a few years now. It was so much fun, even though it was hot, and there was no leg room to speak of for someone of my height it was still lots of fun. After the rodeo we watched the firework show that the park puts on ever year. Thanks to all the Military men and women past, present, and future, who enable us to enjoy the freedoms that we do and to celebrate such a wonderful holiday!

Arches!

Arches National Park!

Last week Deborah and I decided to take some days off work and head to the Red Rock of Utah. We left very early Thursday morning, stopped in Price, the town of my birth and childhood and then continued on our way. We got there at about 11:00am and set up camp and then took off for the first hike of the day. We hiked first to Landscape Arch, It wasn't a bad hike a little steep in places but for the most part it was pretty easy, despite the desert and never ending red rock you would be amazed to see how green it still was there. I was grateful for the the shade that we found along the trail under the random trees that decided to split the rock and grow. The hike was really pretty. That day we also hiked to Navajo Arch which was really cool. and the shade we found under that Arch gave us some reprieve from the heat as well. My best advice to anyone who goes to Arches especially in the summer is, take lots of water. We had plenty of water but it still never felt like enough. After Navajo Arch we had some Lunch and then headed into Moab to do a little souvenir shopping and buy another ice block for the cooler, and some coals to cook our dinner that night. To our demise we bought the wrong kind of coals. We wanted the kind that just light when you put the match on them but we we got normal coals instead. We did not realize this until we were back at camp and trying to start them to cook our tin foil dinners. Luckily we had some wood from the previous campers so we took the hammer (because of coarse we did not have a hatchet) and started splintering the wood for kindling with the back side of the hammer. Deb worked on this for a bit while I got some news paper stuck in between the coals and then I took over with the hammer. After a few pieces of wood had come off I slammed the hammer into the wood and then dropped the wood so the hammer would wedge down in it and then break off. well the wood broke off easier then I thought and as a result the hammer rammed right into my knee and gave me a pretty deep cut, not to mention some pain because it hit square on top of my knee cap. Soon the blood started trickling and Deb took the hammer from me and got the first aid kit and I cleaned it out and bandaged up the wound. Needless to say despite the injury we eventually got enough wood chips and pieces to get the coals going and our tin foil dinners turned out wonderful. who cares if we at at 9:30 at night it was still good. :D After dinner clean up I got out my camera and tri-pod and started taking some pics of the stars. Some of them turned out really good and I had fun experimenting with my shutter speed and aperture. The next morning we woke up early and went to hike the famous Delicate Arch (the one on the license plate) It was a nice cool morning and it didn't get too hot on the way up. we reached the Arch at about 8:30 and stayed up there for roughly a half hour, taking pictures and resting from the hike which was a mile and a half up hill. The hike down was much easier and quicker then the hike up and good thing too cause it was starting to get warm. On the way to to the car I saw some tadpoles swimming in some stagnant water and then Deb spotted two frogs. So I whipped out my camera and took a few pictures. We saw on of them swim away and it was so funny to see his legs stretch out behind him. Who knew such a small a frog could have such long legs! After Delicate Arch we headed up to the Window Arches and Double Arch. The heat was starting to set in and there was no shade to be found except for under Double Arch, so we packed our lunch in our backpacks and hiked up to double arch, which really is like a ten minute walk. So we sat under the arch and ate lunch and I took more pictures and then we went back to the car. By now the heat had really settled in and it was HOT!! Deb and I were too tired and too hot to want to hike anymore so we went back to camp and sat in what little shade we had there trying to ignore it by reading our books and attempting to play cards. Finally we had had enough so we drove back into town and went to City Market, I don't think I have ever been so grateful for AC in my life! We walked around the store for a bit and had a cookie sample and then decided that we should get back to camp so we could start dinner. So we bought yet another ice block for the cooler and headed back to camp. We roasted hot dogs and had baked beans, macaroni salad and potato salad. Thanks to our neighbors who had left early that morning and left a pile of wood behind which we "borrowed" we were able to get a fire going pretty quickly and there was still plenty of day light to eat by. :) After dinner we went down to the Delicate Arch view point so I could get some sunset pictures, to my disappointment the sunset was not very pretty and so I didn't get many pictures that I really liked. Once we got back to camp we started another fire and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. I attempted to take more night time pics but they didn't turn out as good as the first night. The next morning we woke up early and did a sunrise hike to Skyline Arch, it was very very pretty and very peaceful seeing how we were the only ones on the trail that early in the morning. After that hike which wasn't long at all we decided to go back to camp and go back to bed. so after another two hours of sleep we got up ate breakfast and packed up camp. On our way out of the park we did the very last hike before you exit the park which is called Park Avenue. It was pretty cool cause you hiked down into a little valley and you had rock walls on both sides of you that looked like buildings. I took tons more pictures and had a great time, we planned on staying for most of the day on Saturday but the heat was so intense that we decided to go home early. So we went to the visitors center, washed off our feet in the water spigots and headed out. We stopped in price to get some gas and ate lunch on a bridge that spans the canal that I grew up by. It was a fantastic trip and quite the adventure. I think the over 500 pictures that were taken are proof enough. :D

Just Call Me Four Eyes!

So for the past 7-8 months I have been having chronic headaches, which obviously isn't a good thing. So I finally went to the eye doctor and was told that I am farsighted and need glasses to read and work on the computer, or basically anything close up. I just got my glasses today and I feel like a total nerd. I am not used to them and they are driving me a little bit insane but i suppose if they help with the headaches then they will be useful. Everything looks so weird through them. Kind of like every thing around me has grown a few inches. its is quite random and when i look through them at things far away everything is blurry, because they aren't meant for things that are far away. So in order to look at things far away with out getting sick to my stomach i have to take them off or slide them down my nose like an old lady. I am not going to say that i like them cause at the moment i don't. I guess they will just take some getting used too.

Concerts, Concerts, Concerts

Last Wednesday I attended my very first concert. I went to Secondhand Serenade, which is one of my favorite alternative rock bands. It was so much fun. It was an out door concert so my friends and I sat on the grass while the other two opening artists played, then once Secondhand Serenade came out we stood up because everyone else stood up and we could no longer see. It was a little cold, that night even though it was June but as we all know the weather this summer hasn't really been summer worthy. Later in the week on Saturday I attended my second concert. This was a local guy that is becoming more well known,he goes by the name of Allred. He is really good and has some really great songs, He was also one of the opening artists at the Secondhand Serenade Concert. The Allred concert was also outside at a place called W-Talent up in sandy, and even though it was warm during the day on Saturday once night fell and the sun had been down for about an hour I started to get cold and by the end of the concert which was about 11:30 I was frozen. So even though I froze at both concerts I still had tons of fun. Now I can no longer say that I haven't been to a concert, and people can stop acting like it is a total atrocity.

Weekend Events

As usual when you are looking forward to a Friday night, Friday day seems to go by a lot slower then any other day. But once the Friday work day was over and I got home, Deborah and I did a little yoga, got dresses up and headed out on the town with Alli. We went to dinner at the Olive Garden, which was extremely good! It may be an expensive place to eat, but it sure was good. After dinner we were planning on going bowling, but we were so full that the thought of exerting any amount of energy was making us sick. So instead of bowling we went shopping. While shopping does take some energy it is a lot more low key then throwing an 11lb ball down a lane. After we got done shopping we headed back to my house and watched The Princess Bride, I haven't seen that movie in a long time and I have forgotten how funny it is. Saturday I went to work bright and early, made a bunch of cakes then headed up to Kaysville with my sister to go spend some time with our other sister and our step mom. We went shopping yet again and I got a pair of 2 dollar sunglasses! It was way sweet! Friday night I tended my niece and nephew for a little bit and later that night a big group of people went to the drive in movies. It was a blast, we saw Kung Fu Panda and Prince Caspian. It wasn't the most warmest of nights but it was still a blast. Sunday again was pretty normal except that I took my mom to the airport for a business trip she is going on. So after a relaxing and some what exciting weekend, I am back at work and wishing it was Friday already!

Nothing Much

Well since my weekend was not so unusual I will just give some highlights. Friday night I went to a wedding reception and did a little shopping. Saturday I rode my bike to and from work which round trip is about 10 miles. I have decided to do this on Saturdays because of gas prices and my lack of exercise in the past few weeks. I also went to Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian, which by the way is a really good movie! Sunday was pretty normal I went to church, came home popped in a movie and started scrapbooking. Which I did for the rest of the day besides the two hours that I took a break to eat dinner and play with my niece and nephews who came over to visit. Then I picked up my room and went to bed early. So all in all not a very exciting weekend but much much better then being stuck at work.

Memorial Day

I was looking forward to my day off of work and getting geared up to sleep in and lay around my house doing nothing all day... But as it happens plans changed and for some reason I decided to get up at 7:00am, which is early for a day off and go horse back riding through Dimple Dale Canyon in the rain, yes in the rain, with my sister her husband and my best friend. Despite the rain and the fact that my hands were so frozen by the time we got back to the house and off the horses that i couldn't even bend my fingers let alone feel them, I had a fantastic time. I haven't been riding in a very long time due to school, work, volleyball, and the demands of everyday life. Riding again reminded me of all the many times my dad took me riding during the summer when I was much younger. I took my camera with me and snapped a few random shots. After horse back riding, thawing out my fingers and warming up again I helped my mom with the party preparation for my sisters and nephews birthday party. So later that day my family gathered and as usual with all my niece's and nephew's running around and my brothers debating on who is going to build the best cardboard boat and who will win the race that they are planning later this summer the house got quite loud and rambunctious. after the party and clean up was done I settled in front of my scrapbook stuff turned on a movie and spent the next two hours scrapbooking and watching Spanglish. I went to bed early and fell asleep right away. so all in all I had a great day off, and of coarse dreaded going to work at both my jobs the next day.

Ballooning!

Last Saturday, Deborah, Alli and I woke up early and took a trip up to park city to see some hot air balloons. It was so much fun! A little chilly but I had fun snapping random pictures. :)

The Bountiful Temple

On Tuesday, I had the privilege of taking pictures of the Bountiful Temple for Deborah so she could make a picture collage for her sister who is getting her endowments out on Saturday! (YEAH!!!) I LOVE taking pictures of temples so I thought I would share some...

Summer Events

Already this summer many things have happend. I graduated from Salt Lake Community College with an associates in General Studies. I have spent the last two years playing volleyball for the SLCC Womens Volleyball team where we were ranked #1 in the Nation and went to the National Tournament, We came home ranked #3 in the nation which was a dissapointment to all of us but quite an achievement for the SLCC team. I started working a full time job and a part time job to pay for tution and housing up at Utah State. I work roughly 55 hours a week which has been tough but it will be worth it in the end. On May 10, 2008 my Grandpa Peterson passed away unexpectedly, it has been a hard last couple of weeks and many tears have been shed by my self and many of my family members. My Grandpa was a great man and taught me much about life. I am grateful that I was able to know him and learn many many things from him. I will forever miss him. Besides working I am planning a few trips over the summer. One to Arches with my two best friends where I plan to take more pictures then ever before, and the other to Lake Powell with my family including cousins, aunts, uncles and hopefully my grandma. I am looking forward to warmer weather and can't wait to take a vacation!