Canyon Fun

I was recently lucky enough to go on a week long camping trip in the Canyonlands of Utah with my fiancé and parents. I hadn't been there since was was a twelve year old girl and it was amazing to go back! I had forgotten just how beautiful it was. The marbled slick rock provided such a contrast to the deep blue cloudless sky that it was enough to take my breath away.

Amid long slick rock hikes, smoky campfires, S'mores, and a bee down the shirt (which resulted in my dinner flying from my lap to the dirt in a matter of light speed), I bathed in the fun of being with my family. I couldn't seem to get enough. I guess that's one thing that I have learned after being out of the house and on my own for awhile--being with the people you love is the most important thing you can do. What does it matter if you have money and success if you have no one to share them with? It's amazing what kind of things you contemplate while in canyon country. I think its because in places like canyon country you are removed from the hussle, the bussle, and overall insanity of modern western life and can actually appreciate the more spiritual (and more important in my opinion) aspects of life. So here is my final thought for this blog: We're done! We accomplished another successful semester! Take a break. Relax and enjoy life.

Stain of Doom!!! Or is it?

PROLOGUE

When I was seventeen I found a beautiful white dress that I decided I would buy for my senior homecoming dance. It was on the sales rack at the mall for $7 and fit perfectly. My date for that dance, ironically, is my now fiancé who I am marrying in about a month!

PART ONE: DECISION and STAIN!

I have been a procrastinator concerning the planning of our wedding. In fact, we both have. I fully admit that I was never the girl who was planning her wedding from age 12. After two years of engagement, much moving around the country and wedding plans that have never solidified, my fiancé and I have decided to get married during a previously planned vacation to Las Vegas next month! We are so excited!

Now that our plans have actually been decided on, I decided that it really was time for me to find a dress. I looked through my closet and found that same white dress from my homecoming so long ago. It was still perfect except for one little problem...there was a huge yellow stain splayed out on the front! I had no idea how that had gotten there and was mortified. My perfect $7 dress was on the verge of becoming obsolete! I took the dress down to the dry cleaners and the woman barely glanced at it before saying curtly, "That's never going to come out. Forget wearing that dress. Just go get a new one." My heart dropped. So much for finding the perfect wedding dress in the back of my closet.

PART THREE: HAPPY ENDING

Once I returned home I decided that I wasn't giving up yet! I could home remedy with the best of 'em! I brought out my stain remover and filled a tub full of hot soapy water and got to work. Within 10 minutes the stain was completely out and the dress looked brand new. Take that dry cleaner woman!! Hah! I am thrilled. How many other women get to say that they got their beautiful wedding dresses for $7 and wore it to there senior homecoming and are marrying the man that took them to that dance? Sounds like the perfect wedding dress to me!

Snake-O-Genic

<<------- This has to be one of the most adrenaline provoking pictures I have taken. I wish I could tell you what kind of snake it is but I can't. For now let us simply refer to it as Hugo.

The year was 1902 and I was hiking the jungles of Malaysia when my heel broke and I fell into a pit of vipers....

Hold on! Sorry, that was the more exciting version of the story that I have since fabricated in my head in order to avoid the pointed groans and tapping fingernails of my audience. However, you won't mind if I tell the real thing will you? Well, okay...as long as I don't have to pillow my underside from the vibration of your snores or ask Billy Mays to sell me some Drool Bam then I shall proceed.

The year was 2006 and I was on a tourist beach in Costa Rica (yeah I know...not quite so exciting). After laying on the beach and proceeding to turn the vibrant fusia color that is so popular among sunbathers, my friend and I heard the warning: Do not walk up the path along the beach; a large snake has been sighted. Naturally we got up and started for the path, my camera swinging happily from around my neck.
All of a sudden we saw him. He was wrapped contentedly around a branch about 10ft off to the side of the path. His multitude of colors glinted in the sun--greens, yellows, browns, grays, and whites--they seemed endless and dizzying. It took me awhile to find his head. My eyes followed around the never ending twists and curves of its body, searching for an end to that thick, beautiful and living rope. Finally I found it--it was looking right at me--studying me in the exact same manner I was studying it. What a beautiful creature. I thought to myself. How magnificent. Slowly I raised my camera and snapped a picture. The snake, Hugo, posed like a king (I think he knew he was).

Hugo has since stuck with me. His image forever burned into my brain as well as my computer. I find him humbling to look at. His beauty, his magnificence, his strength so much greater than mine. He truly is one of the great kings of not only the jungle but the world.

Mandy

<<------- Riding Mandy in the Colorado mountains

I fell in love when I was just a child. No, it wasn't the paperboy or the busboy. Hell, it wasn't even Brad Pitt. My first love had four legs and the incredible beauty of the Middle East. She was colored a deep chestnut and had a pure white blaze down her perfectly shaped face--she was Arabian--she was my best friend.

Mandy was just a filly when I made a deal with my stable-owner friend to buy her using the stall cleaning credit I had built up over the years. I was in heaven. All of my short life I had wished and dreamed for a horse of my own and the moment her lead line was passed to my hand, I found that dream a reality. I spent all of my free time with her. I brushed her fine coat, I cleaned her perfectly oval hooves, I polished her tack until I could see my face in the gleaming leather, I rode her everyday. She was the friend I could tell all of my secrets and desires to
Never once did she laugh at me or eye me with that judgmental look that says so clearly, "What in the world do you think you're doing with your life?" Unconditional love shined from her like the sun that radiated down and bounced off her chestnut coat. I believe everyone needs a friend like that--no matter how small, different looking, foreign speaking, furry, smooth, white, black, chestnut or purple.

Mandy taught me the gifts of friendship, tolerance, patience and love. She will always be my girl--my friend--my Arabian beauty.

Spider Fright

Ever wonder what it feels like to have a bucket of ice poured over your unsuspecting body? To those of you who do not hold the title of football coach, I'm thinking perhaps not. This is the feeling I got when I turned around and saw this HUGE spider sitting behind me!

I had just recently moved into my first and very own apartment. I was attending school at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL at the time and was super excited because I could attend school and not have to live in the crowded dorms. This was the first time I had lived completely on my own and I was still getting a handle on the tricks of the trade! One night during finals, I had just gotten home from work and felt the slow haze of sleep washing over me, I hadn't slept in 2 nights. Yawning, I decided to make up a quick dinner in the kitchen before heading in to crash on my bed. I had just finished warming up the spaghetti when I turned around and saw the fury, eight-legged monstrosity behind me. I thought it was going to eat me. Never in all my years had I witnessed a spider so big--except for maybe on TV.

I froze, that bucket of ice I been poured over me and I sat there like an icicle, a warm drip of Prego running down the fork that was raised halfway to my mouth. Three thoughts tonged like bells in my mind, 1. Kill! 2. Cute! 3. Alone! I could see the eyes of the spider looking at me--following my every move. It felt as though I was being hunted, and yet--could it be that I was not the only one who was lonely in this apartment? Was the spider looking for a friend like I was? My utter love for animals and fear of spiders had conflicted me into a motionless, zombie-like state. Finally, I moved just enough to grab my camera which was sitting across the counter--my ever present need for story material had jerked me out of my frozen haze. I snapped the picture wondering if that was going to be the last move I made in my short life. The spider continued to stand still---watching me--and then, it took one step--and then one more. It was coming towards me and I decided that there was NO way I could live peacefully in my new apartment if I knew this thing was crawling around the place.

I always wish I could've found a way to take the spider outside, back to its natural habitat where it could live a long and happy spider life. However, there was no way I could bring myself to come any closer to it, my heart was already pounding itself to an early death. As the spider came toward me I grabbed the nearest thing to my hand---a frying pan (no old hag, rolling pin or broom jokes please) and I dropped it straight down on top of my unfortunate house guest. An eyeball popped out. I screamed. The horrors of my dreams had awakened and were advancing upon me! I was not prepared! I was in pink pajamas that now sported a new Prego stain! What could I do?

My eyes searched frantically around the room for any sign of a weapon that I could use to make sure this nightmare was dead. They landed on my pair of 10 lb. dumbbells. I grabbed, I lifted, I threw down, and I felt like a murderer. This was the biggest living creature that I had ever killed and I felt completely awful. The poor spider hadn't done anything to me---not really. I sank down on the floor and prepared myself for another sleepless night. Living alone was harder than I thought.

Season of the Snow

ME ------------>>

The falling snow is quiet. It descends endless and soft on the ground, blanketing the earth like a goose feather quilt. This eerie silence however, will not last long. In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, thousands of ski and snowboard junkies will rise early to get those first precious tracks in the newly arrived powder. I grew up in this world. My parents took me skiing for the first time when I was three years old. Along with my two older brothers and our group of friends, we excitedly anticipated every weekend of which we would spend riding the mountain.

When I was fourteen, I began to teach ski and snowboard lessons at our local mountain, Monarch. It was one of the best experiences of my young life. I couldn't have asked for a cooler first job. This was a time to learn about myself, as well as learn about working and communicating with other people. It was a time I got to spend with my family and best friends. Nothing could be more fun than riding down the mountain with my legs burning and my breath frosting only to reach the bottom and collapse in a pile of my favorite people.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS -------->>

I have been away from riding for going on three years now. When I graduated high school and left for college, I needed a change. I went to the beaches of Florida. I may be coming on a time however, when I am ready to hit up the mountains again. Perhaps, maybe not to the same extent though. Looking back on my experiences as a snow riding mountain junkie, I have so much appreciation for being able to grow up in such a wonderful place. While I am living in the south right now, I will never stop being a northern, mountain girl. I am sure I will never fully get used to having Christmas without white!

The season of the snow will always be a favorite of mine. There are endless memories in my mind of countless snow experiences and laughs. I can't imagine a future without adding more!


MONARCH MOUNTAIN, CO --------->>

Slide Show of Costa Rica

Wilderness Bank Account

We just knew we would be rich. Our collection of quarters had risen to a pile well worth noticing and they were sitting beautiful and shiny across our workspace. They were our future. They were the horse I so badly wanted and the pet tiger he had been dreaming about. Real ones...not toys.

We had a plan. We would bury our precious treasure in the mountainside. We would promise not to touch it until we were grown up. They would be worth so much more by then. We had a problem though. How were we to find these little pieces of our future again after we had buried them? Not to worry! He had come up with an ingenious idea. We would scotch tape each quarter to its own rock. These rocks would be spray painted silver and gold. Of course we would be able to find them after all that work to make them noticeable! Our plan was flawless. Nodding our heads in satisfaction, we got to work.

His little orange desk became speckled in beautiful golds and silvers as we carefully painted each rock. We didn't mind the smell. We didn't mind anything. Nothing mattered anymore because all was well! We wouldn't have to grow up and dull our minds over work. No, not us. Our future was filled with unimaginable wealth and riches! The hours went by and the empty scotch tape rolls went clattering to the floor as his mom came quietly in to replace them with full ones, a quiet smile on her face. Finally, we were ready. It was time to hike the mountain and bury them.

Our calves burned climbing up the steep hills and our breaths became labored as we breathed in the thin mountain air. Our eyes sparkled happily as we toted our hall up higher and higher. Occasionally, we would find the perfect nook or cranny in the mountainside and we would stop to take out a treasure piece and bury it. Our fingernails became blackened with the dirt and sweat of our hard work. At last, we were finished! Our wilderness bank account was overflowing and already gaining interest. We grinned at each other and headed down the mountainside and toward the warmth of the house.

That was fifteen years ago and today that little boy and I are engaged...and no...while we are not rich in gold and money, we have found our future of wealth and riches...together.