The Joys of Camping

Those of you who have read my previous posts know that our camping trips this summer haven't exactly unfolded very smoothly. We have experienced robberies, four-wheeler accidents, rain, lack of supplies, and a variety of other mishaps that have caused our camping experiences to be less than ideal...but we have always embraced our fiascos as adventures and laughed away our worries.

I must admit that I did not experience the same kind of positivity on our recent Labor Day camping escapade. We decided to head up to the Uinta Mountains to celebrate Labor Day weekend, but we began our drive without any specific destination in mind. After hours of driving we settled into a beautiful and isolated area out in the middle of nowhere. Once we picked out the perfect spot to begin our fun, we had just enough time to set up our tent, start a fire, and appreciate the scenery for a few minutes before we were hit by one of the most evil rainstorms I have ever encountered. Our cabana was blown to smithereens and we spent the majority of the evening hiding in the car. The tent held up extremely well considering the downpour it was forced to endure, but I still experienced a steady drip of water on my face all night long.

The only silver lining to our camping trip was the discovery of a little cafe and campground a few miles from the campsite where we had almost drowned during the night. We stumbled into the cafe for breakfast the next morning and ended up laughing enough to almost make up for the hurricane from the night before. Defa's Cafe was straight out of an old movie, offering an abundance of banjo music, funny old men with beards, and paintings of cowboys galore. We all ordered hot chocolate and each of us got our own special mug. I was given the Irish mug because apparently I look like I'm from Ireland, and Easton got a Valentine's Day mug because I think our server had taken a liking to him (wink wink).

This picture was taken during our attempt to flee the area as quickly as possible. Yes, that's SNOW.

This may seem like a reasonable time for our story to end. However, we are all gluttons for punishment and decided to try another camping trip the following weekend.

We went to the same area in the Uintas and discovered a spot that was beyond perfect...except for a few minor details. There were articles of clothing strewn around the campsite and we even found shoes and socks scattered in a couple of places. Creepy, you say? The campsite was a veritable scene from The Blair Witch Project!

To make matters worse, we discovered this pillow hanging from a tree in the center of the site:

In case you can't see the pillow clearly, there is an angry stick figure drawn on the pillow with slash marks across the head and neck. This kind of thing would probably send most people screaming in the other direction...but since we're a bunch of crazy, danger-seeking kids...this is where we camped for two nights. That pillow was staring at me the whole time.

Even though we were staying in such a spooky campsite, we had perfectly ideal weather for the entire trip. We went four-wheeling and did a lot of exploring, and as usual we ate enough food for a whole army.

The only downside to the weather situation was the unbelievably FRIGID temperature that rolled in at night.

Can you tell how cold I am in this picture? I think it is quite possible that I was actually frozen to that chair.

In an attempt to battle the arctic temperatures, we built two fires so that we could try and keep our fronts and backs warm simultaneously. We abandoned the fires for a while to play capture the flag, which was SO fun (although I may have been on the verge of frostbite while I was out hiding in the bushes with the Blair Witch).

I must say that our final camping trip of the summer was a huge success, even taking into account the freezing nights and the scary pillow. I had so much fun! I hope our good luck lasts until next summer so we can do it all over again.

Motownphilly Back Again...

I'm not a huge R&B fan (in fact, I usually compare R&B music to the sound of nails on a chalkboard), but when Boys II Men rolled through Utah we were simply obligated to go. The cheap price and close proximity were the major selling points of the concert, and I must admit that I attended the concert without any real expectations. My lukewarm attitude was immediately blasted out of the water when Boys II Men walked onto the stage and started dancing in perfectly choreographed unison, while simultaneously singing ALL of their old classics along with a bunch of Motown hits. I surprised even myself by knowing all the words to every single song and I ended up having SO much fun!

We all crammed onto a couple of blankets in the grassy area of the stadium because the concert was completely sold out and incredibly crowded.

Kristen and I joined an outreach program and volunteered to take these mentally handicapped boys out on dates:
We are hoping to get some kind of tax deduction for our charitable works.

Lake Powellooza

I know it has been a really long time since my last post...but hey, I never claimed to be a good blogger. I'll do my best to make up for the monumental time gap, so prepare yourself for picture overload.

A couple weeks ago we went on an incredible trip to Lake Powell! Easton planned the whole thing and I am fairly certain that he missed his calling as a party planner or travel agent, because the house boat was SO nice and I ate enough delicious food to make myself gain five pounds.

These boys spent most of their time posing for the camera...

...which meant that we spent most of our time like this:

This is a shot of Easton showing off his phenomenal wakeboarding skills:

Now...I know what you're thinking. You're wondering if Easton's shorts are really as small as they appear to be. Well don't worry...they're even smaller than they look. As a matter of fact, we were lucky enough to witness an abundance of teeny tiny shorts on our Lake Powell trip, and I'm not referring to the girls!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Needless to say, we had a really fun group on the houseboat. It has been a really long time since I laughed so much...and after the many hours Easton spent teaching me to wakeboard, it has also been a really long time since my body hurt so badly.

Getting ready to jump off the houseboat...

...you can probably guess what happened next.

I was so sad when we were forced to vacate the houseboat and head back to reality...especially because we encountered a pretty harsh reality immediately after stepping off the boat. When we got back to our truck we discovered that the boat trailer had a flat tire, and Easton and Natalie had to run all over town to track down a new one. All of the other cars took off, and three hours later we finally hit the road.

Our drive began fairly peacefully, and we were lucky enough to have two whole hours of smooth, uninterrupted travel…and then another tire blew on the trailer.

We were out in the middle of nowhere and we were completely stranded. Natalie called her Allstate emergency roadside service and the conversation went something like this:

Natalie: Hi, one of the tires on my boat trailer just blew and we need a replacement.

Roadside service lady: What kind of car needs the tire?

Natalie: No no, we need a tire for the trailer carrying our boat.

Roadside service lady: You're driving a BOAT?! And you need a new tire?

No wonder it was taking so long for us to get home! We're such idiots...boats aren't supposed to drive on the road!

In a nutshell, we ran out of options because you can't tow a trailer with a flat tire. We prepared ourselves for a long, uncomfortable night in the truck until Ashlee remembered that she knew someone who lived in a bordering town. After a very late wake-up call at around one o'clock in the morning, a sweet 75-year-old man came to rescue us. He was nice enough to let us stay in a rental house that he owns and which happened to be vacant, and we were pleased to discover an uber creepy basement that looked remarkably similar to the one in Silence of the Lambs. We even found a big meat hook on the wall to complete the effect.

We did eventually make it home the next day, although I don't think I have ever been so tired in all of my 27 years of living. I won't deny that the drive home was one of the more miserable experiences of my life, but the Lake Powell trip was absolutely worth it!

I'm going going, back back...

to Cali Cali! I finally got a chance to head home for a much-needed break. I haven't been down to San Diego in FAR too long, so it was really excellent to get back where I belong. I spent my trip hanging out with my family, going to the beach, visiting friends, EATING (I always go way overboard with this one), shopping...and the highlight of my trip was a Stone Temple Pilots concert with Courtney at the Hollywood Bowl!

I almost fainted from excitement when I heard that STP was going on a reunion tour, and I just couldn't pass up a chance to see them at the amazing Hollywood Bowl. The concert was beyond incredible. They played all their big hits and Scott Weiland totally hammed it up for the crowd. Court and I had really great seats and we were close enough to feel the ground vibrating beneath our feet. I'm still on a high from the show...and not just because we were surrounded by some very suspicious smelling smoke the whole time we were there.

This is a picture of us on the shuttle we took to the concert. I was so excited that I was practically bouncing in my seat the whole ride. The only camera we had was my phone camera, so you'll have to excuse the grainy picture.

This is a shot of Scott Weiland singing "Crackerman" with a megaphone.
So rad! The whole band put on such a fantastic show.

Here are a couple pictures with some of my high school friends down in SD. Jack loves posing for the camera.

Murphy, on the other hand, whines like a little girl when you try to take his picture. Here we are trying to get him to stop sulking and give us a smile.

To sum up, I had SO much fun on my visit home. I got a chance to spend some time with my mom, which I really appreciated because I don't get to see her nearly often enough. I think it's safe to say that I am just meant to be in San Diego. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely beginning to learn that Utah does have its positive sides...but I'll always belong in California.

Little Sahara...Round Two

Last weekend we decided to venture out to Little Sahara for our second camping trip of the summer. Our last visit to Little Sahara was SO fun...even though we forgot almost every important camping necessity and were forced to improvise. Keeping in mind our previous camping blunders, we double checked everything before we left and made sure we were fully prepared. Well...apparently we are the butt of a really bad joke, because little issues like forgetting flashlights and firewood seemed insignificant compared to the events of our latest camping adventure.

The evening began ordinarily enough...we arrived at Little Sahara and went out on the four wheelers before the sun went down. We saw the most amazing sunset out on the dunes! This picture can't possibly do it justice.

We had our usual bonfire with marshmallows and hot dogs, and the boys had really outdone themselves with all the amazing food they brought. Jeremy whipped up some of his delicious scalloped potatoes and we ate enough food to make ourselves sick. Ben entertained us with his "Wilbur the Worm" performance (you should definitely ask to hear this one if you haven't been fortunate enough), and even though it was unbelievably freezing I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

By the time we went to bed the weather was looking a little questionable, so Easton and TR put their cabana over the trailer as a last minute precaution.

It turned out that Easton and TR were even more clever than we realized, because a storm rolled in sometime during the night and we were all forced to huddle underneath the leaky cabana all night. It was SO cold, and I was just waiting for the crazy wind to blow over our measly little sanctuary and leave us to be soaked by the buckets of frigid water that were being dumped on us. The rain finally stopped sometime the next morning, but I felt like I would never be warm again. Do we look happy to you?

When we ultimately emerged to inspect the damage from the storm, we discovered that we had been robbed during the night! Yep, some sleazy buggers had snuck into our camp in the pouring rain and made off with our coolers. Jeremy tracked down the coolers somewhere along the road but most of our food was gone. The dirty thieves even stole TR's wind-up lantern, but ended up dumping it once they discovered that it doesn't really work very well and is basically worthless. Have you ever heard of such picky bandits? Fortunately Easton still managed to make his famous breakfast for us. Camping wouldn't be the same without it!

Here's a picture of Ben taking out his anger about the robbery on a big piece of wood. He probably chopped at that thing for thirty minutes straight. Yep, he was pretty mad. Remind me to never steal from Ben.

Summer Camping!

Summer finally seems to be showing its face! I am definitely a person who experiences the winter blues, so I have been anxiously awaiting the warm weather. As a reward for surviving the very VERY long winter, we decided to drive down to Little Sahara for our first camping trip of the summer. We had SO much fun, but I'm frankly surprised that we were still conscious by the time we arrived at our campsite because Jeremy turned the car into a deadly gas chamber.

It has clearly been way too long since our last camping trip because we forgot to bring a few vital pieces of equipment, including flashlights, firewood, an air pump for our air mattresses, and condiments for our hot dogs. Dry hot dogs (or turkey dogs in my case) are not as appealing as they sound, and going to the bathroom with nothing but the light from my phone to guide me was far from enjoyable. However, we are all resourceful people and we came up with some impressive solutions. Easton and Jeremy rounded up some tree branches on the four-wheelers, I enticed some intoxicated neighbors into letting us borrow their air pump, and Jeremy convinced another fellow camper to fill up a ziploc bag with ketchup. We still had to use the potty via phonelight though.

The four-wheelers were definitely the best part of our trip, although I was a little nervous about driving by myself on the sand dunes. The sand was deep and slippery which made it a little difficult to maneuver the ATVs.

Easton fancies himself an expert four-wheeler and was proud to pose with his machine.

Kristen couldn't handle TR's crazy driving and decided to abandon ship before he killed them both...

...which was a very smart choice, because I managed to roll this bad boy down an embankment.

Fortunately the four-wheeler and I both came out in one piece. For a little while I was kinda embarrassed about being the only one to cause trouble with the four-wheelers, but this sentiment didn't last long because my little blunder was FAR from the worst thing that happened. We headed back to camp...the next group took off on the four-wheelers...

...and Ben got stuck in a tree.

To top everything off, Jeremy slammed his chin into the handlebars of his ATV and we had to cut our trip short to take him to the emergency room.

What a RAD camping trip! Can't wait to do it again soon.

Here Comes the Sun...

Just like the Beatles said, it's been a long, cold, lonely winter. Well, maybe it hasn't exactly been lonely, but it has definitely been LONG and COLD! Let's hope that the sun decides to stick around this time. I have had enough freezing weather to last me a lifetime!

I finally finished the misery of last semester and I feel like I can breathe again. It's nice to actually have time for trivial things like sleeping and eating. This summer won't exactly be easy -- I'm working on a research project and taking a prep course for the GRE -- but I'm sure the next few months will be a vast improvement from last semester.

My family came out to Utah for my graduation, which I know was long overdue. It was so nice to spend some time with my parents and Courtney, although it wasn't the same without Shannon with us. As always, we spent a lot of time eating and shopping...two of my favorite things to do!

I must admit that I'm going through beach withdrawals, especially now that summertime is just over the horizon. San Diego is calling my name!

Finally!

I took my last final today! I think I'll do a dance of joy like Balki from "Perfect Strangers."