Ward Moab Trip

We went down Friday for the 2nd Annual Ward Moab Trip, "camped" in Bryan's yard, then hit some hikes the next morning. First we hit Cable Arch. It's a short, simple hike with a fun have-to-use-the-cable section to get on top. We had a group of about 20 people with us. We could have entertained ourselves anywhere. After working up a good sweat, we hiked up a river to a popular swimming hole for some cliff jumping. The water was surprising not too cold.

Bryan, Amy, and Jamie

The jumping picture.

I'm working on my Sasha. Pretty good extension, huh?

This is where the cliff jumping magic happened. You can jump from all three sides of this bowl.

This is a butterfly.

Amy and I moved in to our new place on Saturday. I love moving. It's so fun to organize your stuff in a new space. Sorry, I only have a few pictures. Our living room is just an empty room right now, so I didn't bother taking a picture of that one yet. I think we'll get the couch in tonight. We found out after we moved in that the Gas was not turned on. Perfect timing for a long weekend. We had cold fridged cold showers for the next five days and finally got it turned on last night. Wahoo! I took an extra long hot shower this morning.

This is my room with the goldish brown paint. Not my favorite, but I do get my own bathroom with a massive bathtub!

Amy gets the sweet yellow room with the walk in closet and cool view. She didn't have her bed for a few days, but as you can see, she's mapped out exactly where it's going to go.

...and yes, we have real hardwood floors through the whole condo, which look cool, but we're definitely going to have to get some rugs.

Getting the shot

No you're not hardcore, unless you live hardcore...

Just wanted to post a few pictures from this week. Dave is way hardcore!

I couldn't help myself. I know I said I wasn't going to go climbing yesterday, but it just happened. We climbed the Green Monster which is one of my favorite rock canyon climbs. It's a 100 ft crack climb. I'm going to go ahead and toot my own horn for a second and say, I was the only one to make it to the top! Yep. I felt like a rock star last night... get it? Rock Star? I didn't even plan that one. Anyway. After I got down we decided to have me climb a neighboring wall and clip in about 35 ft up so I could take pictures of the next three climbers. So I dangled there for a long time just shooting some sweet climbing photos. It was so fun!

Weekend Update

On Friday I went on a rockclimbing date. I have to give the boys props for excellent preparation. We hiked up Rock Canyon to a wall I've never climbed. There wasn't much room for belaying and cooking, but we managed to get a little BBQ going and climbed while the burgers and chicken cooked. We lost light fairly quickly, so we did a little climbing in the dark and then headed down the mountain. Shane had a portable ipod stereo with him which I carried like a ghettoblaster on my shoulder. We felt a little bit like Hansel from Zoolander and strutted to our personal soundtrack all the way down the trail.

Six-thirty is pretty early for a Saturday morning, but we got up and headed up to Salt Lake to work on the Temple Square gardens. This marks a year since I met Brian, Amy, and Megan. This is always such a fun activity. We worked until 11, ate lunch and headed back to Provo to hit the Lake.

Dave is teaching Amy to drive the boat.

The boys do what they call Chest Surfing (more recently renamed Man Surfing as an attempt manipulate the female pride to get the women to try it. I will not be manipulated.) Basically, it's just being dragged behind the boat on your life jacket. They dive under the water and boat takes off pulling them like a torpedo. Eventually, they surface and if they are going fast, the spray goes behind them enough for them to breath. Sounds fun, huh! I'll just take pictures, though.

After wakeboarding we took the party to Macaroni Grill and then finished off the evening with some Prison Break.

Today we gathered for Korean Night at Amy and Megan's house. We spent hours preparing Korean cuisine for 17 guests, and then we all sat down and ate bean sprout soup and lettuce wraps with sesame seed cookies and strawberries for dessert. All the while Amy and Megan taught us Korean etiquette like "never discuss smelly things at the table such as boils or diarrhea."

What a great weekend. Tomorrow should follow suit too with wakeboarding FHE followed by the 24 Season Finale!

Over the river and up the cliff to the abandoned restaurant we go...

Last summer the abandoned restaurant on the cliffs above Bridal Veil Falls burned down. Since then, I have been anxious to return and check out the damage. I took my friend Nick with me and we made the hike this afternoon. It's a shame there's no longer a deck to sit on and enjoy the stunning view, and the place where Mark, Jared, Travis and I carved our names into the counter is obviously gone too, but the skeleton structure and twisted metal left an interesting new destination to explore. Most of all, it was just a great day to get outside and go hiking.

Just pondering.