Sunday Almost Adventures

It began long ago in 2007 with "Thursday Night Adventures." Then they became "Adventure Thursdays." (Brandon thought that sounded better) Later in 2009, they changed to "Adventure Thursdays on Wednesdays." And now, we are proud to present "Sunday Almost Adventures." During Brandon's DAT study days, he doesn't have much time to do anything but...well study. But Sunday is a day of rest. So every week after dinner, we try and do a little something together-an Almost Adventure. Usually it is a little walk somewhere other than around our block. Tonight we went to Jake and Ellisha's family cabin at Sundance to celebrate Jake's birthday. (We took a little walk on the trails around the cabin.) We made pasta and had strawberry cake. They are leaving for Seattle in a couple of weeks and we will miss them!

Last week's Almost Adventure


This week-cookin' pasta


Love this picture from our walk today:

Lu's Bridal Shower #1

Yesterday was the Lindsay Lady bridal shower for Laura, complete with the "Price is Right" and Grandma's delicious chicken salad croissants.


Surprisingly, Laura rocked the Price is Right and ended up with a lot of great new stuff to stock her kitchen! I guess I was surprised because I did so terribly at that game at my shower. Her new sister in law also gave her the cutest apron I have ever seen from Anthropologie. I didn't get a picture of it though.





All of the ladies were talking about their latest cooking successes. Is it bad that I feel out of place and like I don't belong in these conversations even though I really love to cook? And then the aunts ask me if Brandon likes what I make. They must have noticed him looking skinny.

Summer begins!

Summer is finally here, even though the weather hasn't figured that out yet. Brandon and I are really enjoying the fact that we can sort of have our evenings together now. I am working full time in the lab and he is studying full time for the DAT, but at least there is no homework! To celebrate the end of finals, we had originally planned to go canyoneering in Zion, but the canyons we wanted to do were closed for high water levels. So we decided to go to Moab. The first day, we wanted to go back to Cameltoe Canyon, where we had hiked before but had missed the rappel at the end. Well, we missed it again and hauled all of our rappelling gear up for nothing.


It was ok because we had an adventure that night. We had wanted to camp, but the temperatures were supposed to drop to the 20s, so we decided to stay in a little hostel instead. It was....nice, and 28 dollars a night. At least the rooms seemed clean and smelled ok. The walls were so thin that we felt the breeze and the curtains blowing from the wind the entire night. I was woken up by a giant bee crawling on my leg. The people in the room next to us were crazy. And, to top it off, the next morning, the hostel manager walked around the place carrying a Gatorade bottle full of his own urine. Not exactly five star material, but it was still fun.

We rode Slickrock the next day, and Brandon rekindled his love for cross country mountain biking. (Not exactly, he really wished he was on a dirt bike or downhilling) I don't know what is wrong with him. He rocks the uphill. People actually stopped to watch him make it up some crazy hills. Then we were off to the beautiful Shafer Trail and Canyonlands to take the truck for a little drive. It was a great weekend!




Tonight was my first mountain bike race of the season at Soldier Hollow. Brandon was so nice and came to watch and even take pictures! I took second place......of the beginner category. Yeah! I was beaten by none other than my twelve year old boy nemesis from last year.(He has earrings all up one ear, and rides a bike worth three times as much as mine, so you know he is hard core) But I won a nice little odometer in the raffle. It was so much fun!


After the race Brandon had me cross the finish line again looking victorious instead of haggard and exhausted.

The Easter Bunny came!

Easter Sunday finally came. I don't think I ever remember it being this late in April! Church was wonderful today, as it usually is on Easter. After church we came home and I got ready to go to my parents'. Brandon has his organic chemistry final tomorrow and felt like he should stay home and study his brains out all day today. Who schedules a huge final the morning after a holiday??! How rude. I really missed him. We had a delicious dinner and our traditional Easter egg hunt at home. I lost, as usual. I didn't even push anyone this time. But it was ok because when I came back to Provo the Easter Bunny had come again. He knew I felt bad for myself. He was waiting for me at home with a note to follow him and find the surprises he left. (If you look in the background you can see that the Bunny has taken out the Easter Duck and left him for dead.)

Here is his signature so I would know it was legit. Looks more like a bear paw to me. Brandon has informed me that the Easter Bunny does, in fact, have large claws.

Our spoils!


Brandon digging in.

I love the Easter Bunny!


So this week Brandon has finals and I will just start working full time in the lab. Yay mice. But we are looking forward to the weekend and Zions!

Rocks and Hard Places

So, my reading days and first half of finals week have been quite...productive. And by productive I mean I have spent at least an hour each day curled up in a corner of the BYU bookstore with a root beer and peach rings reading "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," the story of Aron Ralston, the Colorado man who amputated his own arm after he became pinned in Blue John Canyon. Today I finished it, and, as usually happens after I read a good book, I have been thinking about it all day. I read an article online called "Should we bestow sainthood on the reckless?" In it, the author calls Ralston little more than a fool for not telling people his plans and making the rescue almost impossible. I agreed with some of what the author was saying; perhaps others, such as search and rescue or medical researchers or firefighters deserve the term "hero" more than Ralston. But I don't know if I would go so far as to call him a fool. Sure, he should have told people his plans. But he was an experienced mountaineer, and this trip was supposed to be an easy little day trip; what happened was a freak accident.

It got me thinking about times I or others I know, (especially Brandon) have almost gotten into trouble while playing outdoors, although none of them come close to Aron Ralston's experience. One time Brandon and his friends had to outrun a flash flood in the Zion narrows, where waterfalls were pouring in on top of them from the canyon walls while muddy water rose all around them. (not what's happening in this picture-they're enjoying it way too much)



While canyoneering in Heaps, one of the longest and most technical canyons in Utah, we got very lucky on a number of occasions. One rappel was off of an old dead log; the webbing was tied around it like a noose, and it was there we tied our ropes. When it was my turn, I scooted out onto the log, and accidentally dislodged the noose without realizing it. Right before I was about to let go of the log, for some reason I happened to glance down at the webbing and saw that I was about to let go and fall about thirty feet to the canyon floor. I froze for a second, then hurried and climbed back to the top of the log to reattach the webbing. If I had fallen, I probably wouldn't have died, but I would have broken something for sure. We might have had to spend a night in the forty degree canyon in our soaking wetsuits waiting for help. As it turned out, we pretty much did spend the night at the end of the canyon; on a tiny little bird perch three hundred feet above the valley floor. Yeah, still haven't told my parents about that one.



Anyways, I really enjoyed reading the book; in it Ralston talked about all sorts of adventures he has had. It got me excited for the summer, and especially for our canyoneering trip next weekend to Zions. It also reminded me how careful we need to be!

Last adventure of the '10-11 ski season. Probably.

Today we used the Snowbird passes we have been saving since Christmas. It was an awesome powder day and Brandon's last free Saturday for at least a month or three. Deep!


Best pic of the day award goes to...Brandon's somersault. I didn't know he bent this way.


Now I'll post a picture so he can redeem himself:



So deep:





So fun.....and tasty. MMMmm El Chubasco and the rainbow of salsa.



Brandon's super stylin apres ski getup

Why I don't bake

Sometimes people make fun of me for not being a good homemaker; my husband, friends, even the professor I work for. Dr. Christensen commented on the cinnamon rolls I made for lab meeting a few years ago...I barely remembered making them, and certainly haven't made cinnamon rolls since. Pretty sure he remembered them because they turned out more like cinnamon bricks. When I told him that, he looked at me with a worried expression. I'm sure he was thinking....."her poor husband." But there is a reason for this, I swear. Two reasons actually.

#1: I'm lazy
#2: This is what always happens. I am alone at night waiting for Brandon to come home. I think, "I know, I'll surprise Brandon with some baked goodies!" I set off to work, feeling happy and home-makery....until........
I eat five of these and all of the leftover frosting...even if it's not good. (I made these for Annie's birthday tomorrow. She made such yummy cupcakes for my birthday, but these will have to do for her.)



No self control whatsoever. Now I feel sick. Brandon's friend Jonathan just came over to drop something off. He saw me and asked if I had just woken up. "No, thanks I have actually been awake since six forty five this morning. But thanks for asking."



Brandon came home and had one. I asked how it was and he said, "eh."

Also, I burned my finger...maybe I'll have just one more.
This is why I don't bake.