My First In-Door Rock Climbing Trip :)

Kayla Patridge took me on my first In-Door Rock Climbing trip, emphasis on in-door. She pushed the no-dirt factor and she had a purple harness that she promised is pretty. There are only pictures of me bouldering, you cannot really take pictures when you are on the wall because the one person is climbing and the other person is belaying so no free hands between the two of us.

This is me trying the more exciting boulder trails where it does not go just straight up but curves, you can see how awkward it looked to me at first. . .



I got up, the idea is pretty simple: follow the tape on the different holds.



I smiled for the camera :)



I tried to get up higher on the climb but my holds are wrong, my bottom right foot should be higher on the marked purple tape hold.



This hold is better, at least I think it is. I pretty much fell every time I got to this point.



On the wall I was able to complete all my trails, we did four actual marked paths after we practiced on the free wall. Also, did NOT know you repel down, I kind of figured you just climb down. Thankfully it was not the repelling I remember from as a kid so it was fine. I really enjoyed belaying, it is really fun to watch people on the wall, to see their concentration, their thought process and to be there and make sure they do not fall.

Remodeling . . .

My dad is remodeling this house & he just finished redoing the tile in the entrance hallway and stairs down to the kitchen. Just today he started ripping up the carpet in the family room & tile in the kitchen to where the counter is. Brian & I got to help jackhammer & buff the concrete. It was pretty fun.

First two are me using the buffer, Dad said that there is an actual Diamond underneath it and that is what makes it work so well.





Brian jack-hammering.



Erin jack-hammering. I was doing fine but after a while it starts to get kind of heavy and the noise gets to me. It was really cool to do though, I actually ripped up tile today & then buffered out concrete. Cannot say that everyday.

Alabama/Tennessee Trip

I went to Birmingham, AL to visit Josh Bowman. We camped & hiked in Stone Door, TN which was beautiful & toured Auburn, AL, didn't get any pictures in Auburn.
Josh took all the pictures but one, so some are little silly. . .

These were so pretty the way the sun hit the leaves, it really brought out the beautiful colors.







I really like this picture with the light by my face, especially because I am looking up. Makes me look kind of angelic.





This is Josh & I at the Stone Door, which is what the hike is named after. It was so cool, I love Rock structures and it always amazes me the beauty of nature and how lucky I am.





These next pictures are over-looking a really beautiful look out point. The colors in the trees was breath-taking. I truly could have stayed there for hours and just looked out. It was a cold day at first, but as the day went on even I got a little warm.





These two pictures are actually where we started our hike, it was a little loop that took us to this little water fall. That is why I am in my jacket & Josh's jacket, I was cold in the shade. But it was fun little loop that was literally less than 1/4 of a mile.





It was a great trip, I loved all the trees and grass & thankful for the beauty of the Earth. Autumn is my absolute favorite season and as great as Arizona is, there isn't much or any leaf color changes. So I was very sad to say goodbye to Alabama and it's beautiful season.

Trip to UT for General Conference

I went to Utah for General Conference with my friend Andy & best friend Dave. I get really restless so we had to make a few pit stops along the way. Here are the boys in front of John Wayne.



We were in some small western town & the boys were in heaven, I tried to be a good sport, but this is as far as I really took it.



There was this rock formation that looked really cool & it had been a little over 2 hours the last time we stopped so I asked that we check it out. We ended up going a mini hike up the rock formations. It was pretty cool.





Our Last big stop was to see the Manti Temple. It was so beautiful & the grounds were amazing! I loved it there.




This is me in front of the SLC Temple, just before we went into the Saturday Morning Session. It was crazy how many people were there.



We looked forever to find me pretty fall leaves, while the guys were at Priesthood Session I went with my Aunts & Grandma to the Canyons by there house in Mapleton & found Beautiful Fall Foliage!

Camping Trip Two

These happen once a month, usually the Friday & Saturday before I teach on Sunday for Relief Society. This time I got to invite two of my girlfriends to come along, Raila Hansen & Kayla Patridge - who technically works with Dave and was his friend first but I count her as my guest.

This is around the campfire that took Dave over an hour to build, it was pretty funny how mad he was getting about it. But he was stubborn and got it going in the end. And Madeleine the blanket is the one you picked out for me, I take it everywhere, thank-you!



There is usually some kind of hammock shot, we hiked to a lake and Dave took a nap for most of the afternoon while us girls played around the lake.



We went on our own exploration and found some cool paths and had fun :)



In the lake there were some pretty big crawdads, Kayla even caught a few, this was one of the smaller ones. She got cut on one she caught, she is very adventurous.



Raila & I on a rock we bravely jumped to, by-the-way the water was really cold.



Okay, this is big, I slept in a tent. I generally refuse to sleep in a tent, but Raila told me that was her condition if she came camping. She slept like the dead, I did less well.



The end of the hike back from the lake, it was so much fun, I have some seriously great friends!

My Camping Trips this Summer: One

My Best Friend Dave & I went up to Flagstaff, AZ to camp & hike at Christopher Creek.
This is me on Dave's hammock, to be honest they are not that comfortable, completely couldn't sleep on one, and I refuse to sleep in tents so I slept on a tarp with my sleeping bag.



This is during the hike, it was very pretty, and the weather was gorgeous. Sure beat the crazy hot heat in Mesa.



The end of the hike, oh my gosh I am out of shape, I was so sad how hard it was to go up the mountain. Going down was fine, a little slow because I didn't want to fall but going up sucked!!! Dave was pretty concerned which annoyed me even more but it was good to finish it, that felt good.


It had rained the night before so Dave made sure to drive through all the mud puddles to get my car good and dirty. I may never wash my car again.

SEDONA!!!!!

For my time off work in March I went to Sedona :) It is so beautiful here with the Red Rocks and blue sky, and bright stars at night.  A friend from church, Josh Bowman went with me, he is very into the out-doors and said he'd make sure I had fun out in nature.

This is me beside a rock formation, probably the only picture with me in it to prove that I did go.



This is a picture of an Eagle carved into a mountain. I never could see the eagle, I thought it looked like an ugly hippo. It is suppose to watch and protect the church that was built inside the rock. Pretty cool, but weird that a church had a gift shop on the lower level.



These pictures I thought were just amazing showing the different rock layers, geology is FUN!





This picture I also really like, not because of the colors but the depth that is in-between each mountain structure.



The creeks were maybe my favorite, the mountains were pretty but standing next to a flowing creek was so peaceful.

PALM TREES

My Dad has become something of an enthusiast of Palm Trees.

This is the view from the back deck looking down.



These are the smaller ones on the back deck, these are ones my Dad cross-pollinated himself.



These are more my Dad cross-pollinated on the other side deck.



More by the pool, I didn't get a picture of all of them, but imagine palm trees going around the entire pool, some potted, some planted. Easily 20 mid-sized queen palms around the pool deck.



The garden of Mexican Fan Palms, these are not cross-pollinated palms (that I am aware of) and they range from tiny baby Mexican Palms to the big ones you see. There is about 30+ in that fenced garden.



And these are the ones my Dad bought from Costco just the other day which was what inspired this post. 12 new Queen Palms my Dad bought and is now planting along the opposite side of the pool fence. I helped him dig today and my shoulders hurt, and I think I will get some gloves.



Anyway, I don't have a grand total but last time I counted before was like 76 so I am sure he is closer to 90 now.