Yellowstone!

So it's taken me about a million years to post these because our computer wouldn't upload the pictures. But here it is, our wonderful weekend trip to Yellowstone!


We made it!














The front of the cute cabin we stayed in





























It doesn't really get more outdoorsy than staying in a cabin with woodsy decor right?



















The beautiful view from our front porch, minus the road














We ate pancakes for breakfast














And then headed off for our first day of hiking in Yellowstone!














This is the first scenery we saw....not very inviting














Then we saw this beautiful water, and wanted to take a swim. But it's about a thousand degrees-you can't really see the steam coming off the top of it.














We hiked off the beaten trail, or boardwalks in this case, and went up to "Solitary Geyser"



















We even saw this on the way up! Would our dream of seeing real bears come true?!














It certainly was a solitary geyser. It also did not erupt like the sign said it would.














This geyser was pretty sweet. It would explode every few minutes














Later that night we went for a drive up a HUGE mountain. I got car sick and really scared on the windy gravel road. But the views were totally worth it.















































The city girl's version of hiking boots














I do not know what is going on with my hair














There was even a glacier, and Austin made a snowball. In the middle of July.














The next day we went on a much more ambitious hike along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It's 6 miles round trip, but 11 if you hike down at each viewing point. Most people drive to each scenic spot, but we walked it all!

Things didn't start out so great though. Here's the trail we hiked on for a mile before we realized we were going the wrong way. We're ambitious hikers, just not too good with the maps.



















Here's where we were supposed to start














I'm so excited that we're back on track














Our first view of the beautiful canyon



















The view from the hike down to Brink of the Upper Falls



















The view up the canyon from hiking down a mile and a half of switchbacks to Brink of the Lower Falls














And the view down



















Next stop, Lookout Point














That's how far we had hiked from the Brink of the Lower Falls. We were started to dread the hike back, seeing how far away it was.

































Then I made Austin do this side hike. The trek down to those boardwalks is the second hardest hike down into the canyon. The first hardest is a set of over 500 stairs.















I was cheerful on the way down... but we were very sorry that we veered off the regular trail once we were hiking back up that monstrosity














The last leg of the hike was through some very secluded and kind of scary woods.



















This part looks like a Christmas tree lot.














It seemed like we would never make it, and it was about a hundred degrees outside. But then there it was....




























Do you feel inspired?



















When we hiked all the way back, we got lost on the last mile. But Austin said it was worth it because we saw this huge buck.















After about five straight hours of hiking in the hot July sun, we were glad to get back in the car.














And I drank about eight of those water bottles.

















THE END.

Dear Thief

To whoever stole my mint green beach cruiser with the bell and the wicker basket:

Instead of being mad at you, I'm going to pretend that you took her because you really need her.

Maybe it's your daughter's birthday and you lost your job and can't buy her a present.

In that case, consider her a gift. You obviously need her more than I do.

But please be good to her.

Her name is Mary, she really doesn't like to ride up hills, and sometimes spiders live inside her bell, so you have to clean it out every couple of months.

She really likes to have stuff in her basket, so try and put some flowers or even your keys in there each time you ride her.

The front wheel is a little loose because someone tried to steal her a few months ago by taking the bolts off instead of cutting the lock, so be careful.

Just try and be grateful for her, and make sure she's happy.

And maybe ride by our house and wave once in a while.


Bye, Mary. I will miss you.



Love,
Shanna

Called to Serve

We see quite a few missionaries in our office sent over from the MTC. Typically it's for broken noses, acquired on those sports fields during activity time. Anything from a basketball collision to a softball in the face. Today a missionary came in, and on his new patient paperwork this is what he wrote:

Employer: God
Employer's Address: Heaven

The Fountain of Youth

One of the not as advertised abilities of our doctors at my work is that they do "Facial Plastic Surgery". This includes rhinoplasty, eye lifts, etc. and...Botox. So Sara and I asked today if the doctor would order some in and inject us.

He said "Where do you need botox?!"

I smiled and pointed to the huge crevice that shows up on my left side whenever I do so, and said, "you can see this in all my pictures."

And he said, "That's a dimple. I'm not giving you botox."



I'll try again in a couple years.

Adventure

Austin and I have decided that we need to be a little more adventurous. Starting with the Yellowstone trip, which isn't all THAT exciting, but we want to do more outdoors. We're going camping this summer, and hiking in St. George, and we're going to hike the backside of Timpanogos mountain. And eventually, we want to hike the Appalachian Trail on the East coast. It's a massive trail that goes from Georgia to Maine, and people hike it all in one trip. It is 2000 miles long, and takes 7 months!! People quit their jobs and sell their houses to do the whole thing. We wouldn't be that extreme, but we want to backpack it for a month from southern Virginia, along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, and then down into Georgia. It passes through some of the most incredible scenery in the entire country. And what could be better than spending a month in nature, dirty and exhausted, and sleeping in a tent every night?! I would absolutely love it. Here are some of the beautiful things to see along the Virginia and North Carolina stretch of the trail.

And that will be me! Just kidding, I'm not blonde...

We won't be able to do it for a couple of years most likely, probably when we move to the East coast. But it will probably take us that long to get prepared for it...=)

I hope we see bears.

Our Yellowstone trip is fast approaching!! I can't believe how quickly June came and flew by. I know months always feel that way in retrospect, but seriously. I think last month was set to double time fast forward. We had a very fun, very low maintenance Fourth of July, with a bonfire, S'Mores, fireworks, and Siara and Tyler! Now we are looking forward to a road trip up to Yellowstone. We had planned to stay in a little hotel in West Yellowstone, but Austin's friend from Ashton, ID has a condo in Island Park, so he offered to let us stay there (for FREE). Which is SO generous, and SO nice. Because now we save money on a hotel AND on eating out because we can just bring anything we want and cook in the kitchen there. So our cheap weekend trip is getting even cheaper, which is rare.
In order to prepare for our 3 days of hiking, we decided we should go on some prep hikes to be ready. So on Sunday (after we attended church of course!) we hiked the trail up to Timp cave. We didn't buy tickets to go in the cave, we just tortured ourselves by hiking all the way up. It's a lot harder than most people give it credit for! But in our defense, we did the normally 2 hour hike is 1 hour 15 minutes, and at 12:30 on a very hot day. So no wonder we were sweaty, tired, and sun burned by the time we got back down. But it did get us very excited to spend a few days in nature!
Austin wants to see all the awesome tourist stuff like Old Faithful, the Artist's paintpots, etc. And we have a great hiking guide book to show us where to go!

I just want to see bears.

Cankles

Sara from my work and I had this genius idea a couple of months ago to start wearing ankle weights to work. We run around so much all day, we figured we could get a little extra workout in. So we both found some 5 lb. weights for each ankle (so 10 lb. total) and very excitedly strapped them on around 8:30 AM when we got into work. We felt like those 80's aerobics ladies, like we would get the perfect hot leg warmers bod by wearing ankle weights and jumping on a mini trampoline. Then about 1 PM rolled around. We both actually felt physically nauseous from hauling those things around on our legs for so long. Our office really is SO busy, and we had been defeated. We revamped the idea, and we just wore them for a couple hours a day. Or we'd put them on and do some leg lifts under our desk every once in a while. But it's been weeks since we've worn them at all, and today I pulled them out of my desk drawer and decided to give them another try. When I put them on I actually said the sentence, "Sara! These don't really feel that heavy anymore!" As though I've gotten so strong that maybe this time I'll be able to handle them all day.
Yeah.
Right.
It's 12:30 and they are coming off right when I go to lunch. My legs feel like Jell-O, and my now cankles are killing me.


I'd rather go to the gym every night.

Maybe I'll actually get a tan this summer...

I wrote a post a few months ago about swimsuits, and trying to decide which one to buy. I thought that because I haven't bought a swimsuit since our cruise (2006!) that I wouldn't mind spending a little more on one this year. But, alas, my frugal poor psyche got the best of me, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. And as we have already reached July 1st and I have had absolutely NO place to go in a swimsuit yet, I'm reminded of why I haven't bothered getting one in so long. I spend all my daylight hours in a doctor's office wearing horribly unflattering scrubs. I definitely still need one though, especially for the swimmin' hole at the cabin! So I was so glad when I found this adorable one on Urban Oufitters, on sale! And they were doing an extra 15% off online orders. It got great reviews from people who bought it, and I have never been disappointed in anything I've purchased from Urban. Now I just can't wait for it to come!!