Erica's Little Tidbits: 2009

It is official: Summer has come to an end. At the bright and cheery hour of 7:00am this morning a attended my first class of the semester.
It has been a fabulous summer of fun! I feel grateful for all the fun trips and adventures I was able to enjoy with so many wonderful friends.
For my last weekend of freedom, I was able to attend my Park City retreat for work, volunteer at the jazz festival, and a relaxing trip up Logan Canyon and past Bear Lake.
Unfortunately the retreat and jazz festival have no photo documentation. But here are a few from the Logan trip.

We had a picnic lunch up the canyon. Here Evan, Patrick, and Cambree are playing BFLD (big fat lazy dog: usually played after a filling and satisfying meal) I took the chance to walk along a tree lined trail that ran along the river. I can't wait to revisit it in the fall.

Apparently our guy friends feel a sense of accomplishment climbing to the top of climbing structures.

We took a moment to hug the trees.

We didn't really have to use the restroom but thought it was so entertaining that this was off the main road. They had a sign on the main road advertising public restrooms. It caught both Cambree's and my attention.

There was lots of laughter.

Bear lake in the background.

I have no caption for this next one.

I started out trying to upload these pictures in a logical and chronological order, but I gave up quickly, so I apologize for the random nature of the presentation.

This first picture is from a huge adventure where I put a hole in my oil pan in the middle of the desert. I feel incredibly guilty for the environmental implications of my accident. All my oil drained out. I ended up having to have the car towed and my friends and I embarked on a 4-5 adventure to get home. (More pictures to come)

I tried to get under the car and catch the oil in a plastic bag and a water bottle. In the end, only more damage to the environment because we forgot they were under there and the tow truck guy didn't pick them up so in addition to the full supply of oil in the desert there are other non-biodegradable plastic items out there.

Before the adventures with the car we had fun exploring the spiral jetty and geo-cashing. This picture was taken when we had found the geo-cash.

The next series of pictures are thanks to Cambree's genius. She thought it would be fun to do cartwheels on the spiral jetty, and it was.:)

We also spent some time skipping rocks.

So to get home from the spiral jetty we first caught a ride in the back of someones pick up. Then spent an hour or so at the golden spike waiting for my good friend Dani to pick us up. She brought us to the front runner and that is where this picture was taken.

While we were hanging out at the golden spike a cute couple, unaware of our situation, offered us some strawberry creemies they had bought which were melting in their cooler. Moments before we had been talking about all the treats we had left in the back of my car and wouldn't it be nice to have a treat right about now. I was very grateful for that couple.

This was taken on the ride in the pick up truck. It was very windy in the back, but we were grateful for the ride. Without it we would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere. They were even nicer in that they gave us a nice cold water to share and some fresh cherries to enjoy.

A week previous I worked the Children's Academy Preschool 4th annual fundraiser. I along with my co-teacher Amanda and one of the Parents in our class joined in the karaoke fun singing Abba's, take a chance on me. Totally out of my comfort zone, but a lot of fun.

Back another week or so, I can't remember that exact date...My friend April has some tickets to the symphony. They were doing an outdoor concert. April couldn't attend, so Cambree, Jacob, and I were able to to go enjoy. It was that night I had a fabulous epiphany for a trip to Colorado (More to come on that).

One night I was feeling like I needed some personal and therapeutic time and so I decided to do some painting. These were my two creations. I had a lot of fun doing it.

This is just a random picture! I was driving to the temple on night after work and stopped at a traffic light. I looked to the side and saw this. It just made me laugh. If only I had the money to buy a covered wagon!!

So there is one thing in life that has the power to make me absolutely livid-Rock Chips! I don't know why, but they make me so incredibly angry. This one in particular, it took every ounce of self control from me to not lose my temper. After the fact I was somewhat appreciative of the beauty of the crack. I was able to get it repaired.

Fast forward to the most recent adventure. So when we were at the outdoor concert we started talking about our goal to have at least one camping adventure a month during the summer. We missed it in June and July was going to go by way too fast. So we started talking about going camping on the weekend of the 24th. Why that weekend, it is a holiday weekend in Utah. But that means that anywhere you might be inclined to camp in Utah would be crazy busy. That is when the stroke of genius hit me! We should go to Colorado! Now you might be wondering, "Why Colorado?"

For Christmas Cambree received some movie passes, however, the movie theaters they are good for don't exist in Utah. So Cambree researched them, our choices...Las Vegas or Grand Junction Colorado. Grand Junction is about 2 hours closer so we have been talking about going there for a number of months. Well, they trip finally happened and it was fabulous!!!

I deemed the trip a "grand adventure in borrowing". We borrowed a bike rack, 2 kayaks, 4 life jackets, a hatchet, a tent, a lantern, a sleeping bag, and an FM transmitter. It was all worth it.

Evan created a panoramic picture of the lakes we were camping on. Highline lake is the big one and then up above it was mesa lake. We were able to go kayaking and swimming.

There was also a lot of relaxing around the campsite.

Who can resist a good playground?

We went on a random hike.

I really like holes!!

We had some excellent ribs. But, can you tell me what it wrong with this picture?! That's right, they boys decided to eat their ribs with a fork! Who does that? Ribs be finger food!