Tis The Season!

Surprise.  I'm WAY behind on blogging.  Good thing approximately 2.5 people read this thing (and I'm 1.5 of those people...).

Anyway, I've been meaning to write about Thanksgiving and Christmas for a while, and then hopefully I'll get on to all of the other good stuff that's been going on in life!

Thanksgiving turned out to be pretty much the BEST THANKSGIVING EVER!!!  I was planning on staying in the D.C. area for the holiday, and was fine with that.  But at the last second an opportunity came up for me to fly home and surprise my family!  The looks on their faces when I showed up were priceless.  I only wish I had a camera to capture it all.  This was the first Thanksgiving home in a while, and it was nice to be able to spend so much time with the fam.

 

 If you were wondering what Dad might look like in approximately 30 years...now you know.

 Who wouldn't want to hang out with these bums?

 Just watch out...you'll end up more wet than they are!

Possibly one of my favorite pictures ever...

Being home for Thanksgiving was really great.  I got to see Jason (a friend ever since high school) who is currently working halfway around the world and wouldn't be in Utah for Christmas.  It's always good to be able to catch up with old friends!

All in all, it really was a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Who would have thought that Christmas could possibly beat all of that?!  Well, it did, because not only were the three boys home for Christmas, but so were all of the other nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles, grandpa and grandma, and on and on!  I didn't get great pics of the family, except on my new camera that I'm still trying to figure out...So, when I finally get that all organized I might add more pics to this post.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of the little ones getting ready for the the big production of "The Christmas Story."  Needless to say, the little ones weren't really having it with the blankets and robes... 

This is the first time in a while that the whole family was together.  It was one of the best times that I can remember! (and I'm really not exaggerating that at all).  The little kids were always a hand-full, and it was fun to watch them running around, getting to know each other.  6 boys under the age of 3 is always bound to be an adventure!

For the first time, in I think ever, all of the siblings (the middle-generation if you will) took off for the night leaving grandpa and grandma and the three oldest grandkids to tend the others.  It was nice to be able to sit down with my siblings and just enjoy time with them.  We went to dinner, and then out to a movie, and it was so great to realize that even though we are all grown up, and our lives have taken us in a lot of different directions, we are all still friends and our relationships are probably even better now than they were when we were younger.  Families are the best!

The rest of the week was amazing and wonderful.  Mostly we sat around playing games, and just enjoying being with everyone.

I really couldn't have asked for a better holiday season!

This one is just for me.  Here's my reading list of 2011:

 

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
• The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
• The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck
• The Girls of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson
• The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
• The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
• Many Waters - Madeleine L'Engle
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeleine L'Engle
• Percy Jackson and the Olymians: The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan
• The Help - Kathryn Stockett
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
• The Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson
• The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
• These Three Remain - Pamela Aidan
• Duty and Desire - Pamela Aidan
• An Assembly Such As This - Pamela Aidan
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
• The Giver - Lois Lowry
• Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
• Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
• The Return of the King - JRR Tolkien
• The Two Towers - JRR Tolkien
• Beauty - Robin McKinley
• Princess Academy - Shannon Hale
• The Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien
• The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis
• Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

HAPPY 11-11-11 at 11:11:11!

Hope you are enjoying a great day!

My New Hobby: Part 2

WARNING:

LOTS OF PICTURES!

As promised, here is the second installment of Canyoneering!  There are lots of pictures because we did two canyons, so don't feel obligated to look at them all.  I just uploaded all of my pictures, and they weren't in order, so I did my best of putting them at least with the correct canyon from either day.

This year's canyoneering trip was pretty different from last year's.  Nicole was unfortunately unable to come with us because she had a bun baking in the oven. ;)  So, Tristan organized a great trip and invited some of his friends to come along.  Tali (my roommate) decided to join in on the fun and brought along a couple of other friends from the D.C. area, as well as her sister who is going to BYU right now.

We drove down on Wednesday night after everyone flew in from D.C.  The next morning we got up pretty early and headed over to meet up with the rest of the group.  Once we got everything ready it was time to head out to Zion and get going for the day!  We did Pine Creek our first day, and because of the freezing cold water, we did it in wet suits...well, most of us did it in wet suits!

(I'm going to post the pics of each canyon that I know for sure, and then I'll include all of the scenery pictures that will give you a small glimpse of what it's like being in the back country of Zion!).

This is Tristan, our fearless guide!

This is Rob, another one of our AWESOME guides!  He provided not only safety for the group, but a lot of laughs as well!

Ready to get started for the day!

Lookin' hot, Tali!

Kaylie on the first rappel!

This rappel is called the Cathedral.  It was so beautiful, and had amazing acoustics as was demonstrated by Tristan singing a Gregorian Chant.

This was the last rappel of Pine Creek.  It's a free rappel, which means that you just have to let yourself down the rope without support from a rock wall.  Just you and the rope!  It was breathtaking!

Pine Creek was a blast, and was so different from Mystery Canyon from the year before.  The slot canyons are incredible, and being in them really makes you realize how dangerous they can become with a flash flood.  Luckily we had perfect weather on both days!

Friday we did Spry Canyon, which again, has a completely different feel to it from Mystery or Pine Creek.  You have to hike up and up and up on pretty much no trail in order to drop down into the canyon.  However, the hike alone would have been worth every second.  It was so peaceful and quiet.  We didn't see another person until the last rappel of the day!

 We found Petroglyphs on the wall, which were pretty cool.

Heading down the first rappel!

Challenge: Get across without getting wet...

This was another free rappel.  You had to swing out a little in order to brace your feet against the far wall, and then just let yourself drop!

Tali's friend David came on the trip with us as well, and introduced us to the "Dart Game."  If someone calls your name and you look at them, they can blow a "dart" at you and you have to lie down wherever you are until someone comes and takes the "dart" out.  The only way to avoid being darted is by sticking your pinky finger up when they call your name and you look at them.  We had some fatalities on the way...

Rob was a good sport and played along with us!

This was the last rappel of the day.  From this point you are in the main canyon, and can see the cars driving up and down the twisty switchbacks.

Out of the canyon at last!

 The next lots of pictures are random shots from both days.  You really can't capture the beauty and majesty in these small snapshots, but you can sort of get the idea of how amazing Zion National Park really is!

On Friday night we drove back to Orem so that we would be able to go to Annie and Ben's wedding the next day!  Yay for Annie and Ben!!