Winter Camping

This semester Laura and I have been in a winter camping class. It's the only fun class I can remember taking at BYU. We have been learning cross country skiing mostly but also practicing principles of Leave No Trace camping and snow shoeing.

Monday was the last day off we have for the semester so we decided to try renting some equipment and cross country ski one of the routes we learned in class. Our class primarily meets in the dark and we wanted to see this route in daylight.

We rented all the equipment which took about an hour to get through the line at BYU, then we drove up the canyon. Once we got there we spent 45 minutes trying to snap my boots onto my skis. One of the guys from my class happened to show up with his own personal skis and he confirmed what Laura and I were sure of, the boots were not made for those ski's. The kid in my class then duct taped my ski's to my boots. This might have worked except that the duct tape was wrapped around the bottom of the skis and this created drag so I was unable to slide.

We decided to give up and exchange the equipment, which would mean that we would have lost about 2 and a half hours. We got back to BYU and the guy working there gave us our money back.

Afterwords we went to Macy's so I could buy a shirt for an interview I had last week. When I went to buy the shirt I saw Elder Dallin Oaks there with his wife exchanging some shirts. It was pretty neat. He was dressed the same as the last time I saw them leaving the opera when we went to see Madame Butterfly last fall.

We also had a snow camping trip last week. Thursday we put on some snowshoes and hiked a short distance to a field. When we got there we had to start piling snow and packing it down. We had to make snow caves to sleep in.

Once we had enormous piles of snow we started to carve them out. I found out there is a certain strategy to carving them in order to make all of the cold air stay below you. The process makes you sweat a lot and also involves lots of snow dripping down your clothes and melting so you get pretty wet doing it. If you don't bring clothes to change into you can be pretty cold afterwords.

This is what happened to Laura's gloves when they were used to make a snow cave.


I was warm once I got into my sleeping bag. The next day was pretty sunny.

This is the inside of our cave with our sleeping bags. There was not a lot of head room.


This is the entrance to our cave from the inside.


Laura and I crawling out of the snow cave the next day.




Getting ready for breakfast

Scripture Power

http://broadcast.lds.org/churchmusic/Primary/PR_ScripturePower_eng.mp3

Bored at Home

Hello all. I called in sick today - I haven't been feeling very well - so I thought I'd update you on my weekend. Jared and I babysat our nephew Jackson and he is adorable! It was a lot of fun looking after him and interesting to see how much work a baby really is! Before we started watching him though, we went up to Park City for a pre-Valentine's Day celebration. Neither of us had ever been to Park City, so it was fun exploring. We went to Olympic Park and watched the World Cup for bobsledding. It was fun. It made me want to watch Cool Runnings, a classic of our youth. We also went to the outlets and I got some great shoes! It was an awesome long weekend. I'll post pictures soon.

Unhatted Picture

So far every time I have seen Brian since Megan challenged me to get a picture of him without a hat on, he has been wearing a hat. So last night I told him that I was on a mission to get a hatless picture of him and he suggested that I just swipe one from facebook in the meantime. So I'm still on a mission, but this will at least give you a view of his lovely locks. I'm betting he won't wear a hat tomorrow, so I'll make sure to have my camera in hand. Until then, lovely ladies, enjoy!

UNSHUN!

I'm not sure I should even post here, seeing as I have been shunned! I call for an "unshun" for a minute while you read this.

Really I just wanted to say hello all! Life has been SO stinkin busy, it's ridiculous. I've started seeing clients now - well client. I only have one, but we've had three sessions already. It's crazy to think that I'm someone's therapist! And despite what I always feared, I am getting used to being watched and recorded while I do therapy! So that's good. I also got a new calling - I'm now the 2nd counselor in the relief society presidency. It's kind of a biggie, but we are a small branch, so it evens out. Last week we had 5 sisters in rs at the beginning. We'd have more if we didn't have to fill all the primary and nursery callings with women too... Oh also, I have a new bf. His name is Brian and so far things are going really well. We've been dating a month-ish now. He just recently cut my hair for me (a man that can cut my hair earns A LOT of points in my book), and we're about to go running (and a man that goes running with me!!). We ran 5.5 miles earlier this week, and he kept up great, so I'm a pretty happy girl! He's great in other ways too, those are just the two I'm bragging about now. : )

So between church, school, and a boy, my time is pretty well spent. I think of you all often though, and hope you're doing well. I'm getting my current roomie hooked on Grey's Anatomy - unfortunately our schedules contradict each other, so I'm never around when she watches it. Currently she hates Meredith and Christina and loves Izzie. Wierd... All right. Here's a pic for your viewing pleasure. Love you all!
Shenanny

You can reshun me now.