Catching Up

I know it's been a few weeks since I've updated, oops.  I went camping a few weeks ago in Spanish Fork Canyon.  We hiked to these natural hot springs and hung out all night.  I love finding places like that, especially here in Utah.  The next morning we just hung out and ate lunch/breakfast.  Jake brought his guitar with him so we had fun singing along with him.  I've been waiting to post because I've been wanted to post pictures but I forgot my camera so Jewel has all the pictures on her camera and I still haven't gotten them from her yet.  Anyway, it was BEAUTIFUL!!!  The hike to the springs was about an hour and was along a stream/river.  This made the trail gorgeous and so green and so shady and so not Utah looking.  The whole hike was completely shaded and there was so much green ground covering and so many trees.  We loved it.  

Then that evening my roommate Julie was competing in an Iron Chef competition with this guy who used to be in our ward (Jeff) and I was Julie's Sous-Chef.  It was really fun.  We even had a gong to start the competition out right.  Julie and I made 6 courses, including dessert, and we won.  By one point.  It was a lot of fun and there was so much delicious food to eat.  a

Then... the next week I went with my friend Leslie to her ward's Relief Society Retreat.  Apparently the church recently purchased/built/something this camp in the mountains up above Heber.  So we stayed in cabins there for just Friday night.  It was really cold that night so Leslie and I zipped our sleeping bags together and shared a single bunk.  We were probably the only ones who never got cold during the night.  The next morning their Elders Quorum came up and cooked us breakfast and then we went canoeing and peddle boating.  It was fun.

Then... that following week nothing too exciting happened to me.  I didn't really do anything exciting that weekend.  Wait a second, oh here's some thing interesting that happened to me.  The air conditioning went out in the bus I was driving on Tuesday and Wednesday.  And those were also pretty hot days here in Salt Lake.  On Tuesday at one point the bus got up to 106* inside the bus!  But, in the defense of the bus, it only got that hot at the end of the day when I closed all the windows for the night.  But while I was driving people in the bus, it did get up to 104*.  Needless to say, I came straight home from work and took a shower and changed my clothes.  The next day wasn't quite as hot.  The inside the bus temp never got above 100*.  I don't really know why I'm complaining, I've done Egypt on buses with no air conditioning.  Some of my funniest Egypt stories come from the times spent on the buses.  I've got a handful of bus/bathroom stories, a cockroach on bus story, the movies they play on buses story, bus breaking down (multiple times) story, inconsiderate passengers story, and an extremely considerate passengers story.  That's all just from Egypt.  If you count into consideration my last summer working in Alaska as a tour giving bus driver and my current job driving buses, I think I could ride a book.  In fact... my friend says I should write a book and title it "Diaries of a Bus Driver: How to Attain Enlightenment by Driving in Circles".  I'm thinking about it.

And then... Last weekend my friend Crista and I went to Moab.  We had so much fun.  We were originally going to camp but then when it turned out to be just her and me going, we (I) decided to find something else.  I found a hostel for us to stay in.  It was only $9 a night a person and it was clean and the people were nice.  Something most people probably don't know about me is that i LOVE staying in hostels.  It comes from my time spent in Egypt and Turkey.  I've always had good experiences in hostels.  And you ALWAYS meet such interesting people who are friendly and want to share their experiences and just talk.  Anyway, we stayed at the Lazy Lizard Hostel in Moab.  On Saturday we got up early and got breakfast.  We had to look around a little bit for a place since Crista is currently Vegan.  But we found a place and then we hiked up Mill Creek Canyon and lounged on some rocks in the river.  It was beautiful and I wanted to take a lot of pictures.  However, my camera wasn't working.  All the pictures were coming out white.  blah.  Then we went to Arches and drove around and went on a couple of short trails.  Crista got sun burned in Mill Creek Cyn because she didn't put on sunblock.  Silly girl.  And it was just so hot neither of us really wanted to do much hiking.  Then we got dinner and then went to a lake just out of down and swam for a little bit before turning in for the night.  The next day we went river rafting on the Colorado River.  It was a lot of fun and we took lots of pictures because we bought disposable cameras!!!  

Anyway, that's the update of my life.  Sorry so long.  I won't wait so long in between blogs next time.  Here's some pictures from our Moab trip.   

 Me in the life vest on the Colorado River
Crista and I.  Isn't the scenery too beautiful for words?
Crista with our raft
Me in the cold river
   The ever so beautiful and breath-taking desert

Survey thing

Rules first: I need to answer 6 questions. I then tag 6 people and post their names here, then go to their blog and comment to tell them that they have been tagged and to visit here to find out the rules. I must then let the person who tagged me know when I have posted my answers.



1) 5 Things on my ‘to-do’ list:


a. Send off loan information

b. Grocery shopping

c. Stop scratching my skin

d. Read The Screwtape Letters

e. Study Arabic  



2) 5 Snacks I Love:


a. Cookie dough

b. Slurpees

c. Sweedish Fish
d. Rice crispy treats
e. My mom’s homemade coffee cake

3) 5 Things I’d do if I suddenly became a millionaire:
a. Travel 
b. Pay off debts
c. Pay off my parents debts/house
d. Buy a car
e. Invest/buy property

4) 5 Places I’ve lived:
a. El Monte, CA 
b. Santa Maria, CA
c. Salt Lake City, UT
d. Skagway, AK
e. Alexandria, Egypt (sort of)

5) 5 Jobs I’ve had:
a. Campus Shuttle Bus Driver
b. Bus driving tour guide, alaska
c. Home Depot
d. Old Navy
e. Smith’s Marketplace

6) 5 Things people don’t know about me:
a. I’ve been called for jury duty 3 times in 5 years 
b. I’m addicted to a couple of webcomics
c. I have to change my bed sheets at least once a week
d. I’ve SCUBA dived in the Red Sea
e. I hate mayonaise

Anyway, I don't really know a lot of people on here, so whatever, anyone can do this who wants to.  It's just for fun.