Last Hurrah

So I've had my last hurrah before school. That's right, school started yesterday, so it's back to the old grindstone. I'm sure I'll still have some fun, at least I'll certainly try!

Geez Jared, you couldn't even get me a diamond? Oh well, I look pretty happy anyway.


Sorry Dan, I just couldn't help myself!



Holding on for dear life!

Africa Revisited

So I just finished reading "Out of Africa" to commemorate my trip to Africa last summer. I also figured that since I have been to Karen Blixen's home in Kenya, that I ought to at least read her book! I guess I can't really say it made me homesick for Africa, but it made me miss it all the same. I hope someday I can return. I also finished a little video of our safari in Kenya and although putting the slideshow to the song "The Circle of Life" might seem a bit cliche, I just couldn't help myself :).

Bambi Meets Old Blue

Tough Stuff

I like to pretend I'm tough stuff. I like to think that just because I grew up in Oakley and was outside more than I was inside, that I could survive in the wild if I needed. My mom did drag me on long and strenuous hikes in the Uintahs when I was just a kid and I think I picked up some survival skills there out of necessity. After falling off a cliff and hanging on literally by my fingernails to a projecting rock, weathering raging thunderstorms in a light backpacking tent, and even getting lost once or twice I feel that I might know better than some how to survive in the rockies. I also did a lot of camping and hiking in southern Utah and would hope I know a little bit about surviving in the desert. Just to prove to myself that I am not a complete idiot in the wilderness I took a couple quizzes and was pretty darn proud of my results. I scored 10/10 on the rocky mountain survival quiz and 9/10 on the Moab desert quiz. Let's see how you fare! (You'll have to copy and paste the links, sorry)
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/quiz/rocky-mountains/rocky-mountains.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/quiz/moab/moab.html
and here are some pics of my adventures both in the Rockies and in southern Utah.

Ding Dong the Bells are Gonna Chime

Janie got married on Aug. 1st. There goes one more of my best friends. They seem to be getting a little scarce these days, at least single ones. That aside, it was a beautiful day and it was great to see how happy Janie and Grady were.





Kalai came to sing at the wedding, which was totally awesome. We got to hang out with him a bit afterwards and he is a pretty funny guy.

Showers, Tennis, and Lakes

My good friend Janie Rydalch is soon to be Janie Pace. I love weddings, drinks all around! No, but really, I do like weddings because it gives us all an excuse to get together for showers and stuff. It is always so fun to get together with all the girls again. I wish everyone could have made it to the shower, but here at least are the fabulous five who lived for one incredible semester in AG6. I'm so glad I have such wonderful friends!

Although my tennis skills are near pathetic, I still like to go play whenever I get a chance (Mark, we still need to have that lesson, I have improved in ping pong under your tutelage, let's see what you can do with tennis). Kati, Abby, Annie, Todd, and I all went last week to play some rousing games. I think the other more serious tennis players thought we were pretty crazy when we started playing "around the world" but come on, with skills like mine you just can't take it too seriously.



And summer is never complete without our regular trips to rockport, and even finding a little dead fish down my swimming suit when I returned home after this particular trip will not deter me from going back to cool off from the summer heat.

All the Pretty Horses

I can't remember a time when I did not love horses. I grew up around horses so when I wasn't actually riding them I was pretending that I was, and if I wasn't pretending that I was riding I was pretending I was the horse itself. I loved horses of every color, black, chestnut, white, grey, buckskin. Horses galloped through both my waking and sleeping dreams, and I found horses doodled across all my notebooks from school. When we sold our last three horses before my parents moved to Mexico I was devestated. I was in school when one of my teachers (we all know each other well since it is such a small community)pulled me out of class and handed me a check for the three horses. He assured me they would not come to get them until the evening, but when I returned from school the fields were empty. I thought the grass looked lonely as it swayed in the breeze. All I could think of was that I did not have a chance to say goodbye. Not to Sundowner the clever and often naughty little pony, or May who despite her lazy and cold manner I had come to love, or even to Shaker with his crooked feet and homely face who loved his ears to be scratched. It has now been five years since a horse of my own as been in these fields and earlier this summer I convinced my mom to buy a cheap horse that I had discovered. He has turned out to be more of a project than I bargained for. Despite the fact that he is nearly unrideable and has been christened "Bucky" as a result, it still feels good to have a horse of my own. Here are a few pictures of my years with horses.