More Wind Cave Pictures!

Kayla emailed me some of the pictures she took. Her landscape picture looks a little more vibrant than mine did.



This is Kayla & I by the wind cave just after climbing to the very top.



Me on top of the mountain!!!!!!



Now that it is a few days later I am SO sore, thankfully I can walk, but going down the stairs hurts. This week I am going snowboarding up in Utah, so hopefully I get healed up fast because I need to be in working order by Wednesday!

The Wind Cave Hike/Climb

My Friend Kayla & I went hiking Saturday morning to the wind cave at Usery Pass. This is the picture of the wind cave, or the area by the wind cave, it really was a super windy day.



When you hike with Kayla you don't just stop once you reach the wind cave, you go to the top, so this picture shows the none trail ahead which we took.



A picture of me by the sign that warns that the next "trail" isn't a trail and you proceed at your own risk. Thankfully there were these two boys that had the same idea but they found a different route than the once Kayla takes that didn't involve me scaling rocks :)



And the view . . .
It was SO beautiful up there, clear blue skies, still a steady wind but the sun was shining and it felt nice to get the top!



My friend Kayla enjoying the view too. She was great, she is very into the outdoors and has gotten me excited about rock climbing (Kayla is who I went rock climbing with before), and archery - so hopefully this spring and summer I get to try them out with her.






Me trying to get a picture of myself, it looks a little silly but I think you can see the sense of accomplishment.

Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve we had Kyle & Tara with baby McKenna come visit along with Aunt Jolene, Chris & Brooke with their kids and MaryJo & Eric with their kids. Busy house!


Everybody was very excited for the food to be ready, we had Honey Ham, Mormon Potatoes, Butterhorn Rolls, my awesome Deviled Eggs with a relish dish.



Abigail & Aunt Jolene all smiles :)



Everyone together to exchange gifts between the families. This has become a recent family tradition.



Christmas Day!
Brian woke everyone up about 7:30 a.m. for Christmas Presents. It is Sunday today so we all have church meetings so I guess it is good we started early



Brian at the end with all his goodies, he got a laptop, lots of Legos along with candy and giftcards.



Me on Christmas Day, I got a laptop too.



Plus a camera.



We had a great Christmas together. Mom got an Ipod & a Kitchen set. Dad didn't get anything specific but said he is sure he got something this year. We got to skype with Kylene and her kids in the morning before I left for church which was awesome. All our church meetings were just Sacrament so we got to come home and just chill the rest of the day.

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!