Update on my poor feetsies...

Well my feetsies are still in pain. I miscounted on the trail, and there are acutally 13 open sores on my feet, two of which are about the size of a quarter (gross, I know). Anyway, slowly but surly they are starting to feel a little better. It still hurts to submerge them in water, and they hurt like mad and are swollen by day end, however, after a lot of ice and a lot of ibuprofen, they are starting to feel a bit better. I sure hope the fully heal soon, it's no fun limping around.

Another update, E and I are going to an Italian cooking class tonight! E got me a pass to the cooking class for Valentines 2006, and we have yet to use it. The one we signed up for was canceled, then there weren't any for awhile, then schedules didn't work, then nothing looked interesting, and so on. So 1.5 years later, I am finally going to celebrate Valentines with my hubby. I'm quite excited, we are going to be learning all about pasta.

A story of the very sore backpacker

I’m home after an incredible weekend with my best friends. I’m sore. I can't walk. My socks have some spots of blood, I am bug bitten, and my camera is dead, really dead.

How did it all start you ask? Saturday morning E and I got up early to meet Ben, Logan and David at the door. We loaded our backpacks into the car and took off towards Escalate Utah. Our goal was to hike the Escalate Canyon and make it up to the swimming holes in Death Hollow. The sky threatened rain, and after our Moab trip about a month ago, we weren’t really set on hiking in the rain. (Ben was so worried he got the new nickname “Withering Pansy”).

Ben, David, Logan and E all ready to rock the trail.

Well after a long drive and a not so quick lunch (all the guys I was with needed to spend a long time in the bathroom before heading out to the backcountry), we got to our location. We found a parking place, did a few stretches, and loaded the heavy packs onto our back.

I was optimistic (as I usually am). The air was nice, and the sky was partially cloudy, perfect for walking in the dessert. All too soon we found out that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. There were river crossings on this trail, and lots of them. We all changed into our sandals and hiked and hiked.

It was absolutely breathtaking. The mountains were deep deep red, and the entire dessert was in bloom. I took more photos of cactus flowers then of myself. Soon we saw an arch, and then another arch and some Anazasi ruins. The river was crystal clear, and cool. The stream bead was sand in most places, as was the trail. It was a hard hike, but it was fantastic.

After a few hours of hiking, we decided to make camp. We all agreed on a sandy beach shaded by large cottonwoods. We set up camp, filtered water, told way to many dirty jokes, and cooked awesome fish tacos. We all agreed that nothing had ever tasted so good.

The next morning, after a surprisingly good night of sleep in the backcountry, we made a quick breakfast and decided to head to Death Hollow with our daypacks, and use our camp as a base camp. We packed our swimsuits and sunscreen, and lunch and headed out. The day was glorious. The red rocks smiled down on me, and the desert flowers smiled up at me. I hiked and hiked.

Soon we came upon Death Hollow. I had never seen anything so perfect. The river was clear, and the cliffs on each side were high. The water was shin deep, and the sandstone riverbed wove beautiful intricate patters of mini canyons and streams. The rocks held tiny ecosystems of ferns and flowers, almost like a mini jungle. Higher up on the cliffs cactus hung on to their dry cracks in the rocks.

I lead the way, I felt energized and happy. The canyon grew narrow and wide again and again. The river was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. It went from ankle deep to well above my knees. Every so often there were large holes in the sandstone where water would fill, and make a swimming hole! Pretty soon I changed into my suit behind a rock and jumped into the river, in a deep spot. Clear crispness covered my body.

Logan, David, Ethan and I swim in the pools in Death Hollow.

Farther up the canyon we found even bigger swimming holes. We all decided to swim, and slide, and explore. We laughed and basked in the Utah sun in the most beautiful canyon in the world. Ben asked me if I’d like to explore a little higher up the canyon, and as I was following him, with my camera in tow, I stepped into one of these deep-water pockets. Down I went into 6 feet of water, with my camera.

Well shit.

My camera was dead, my wonderful camera. I pulled out the memory card after getting on dry ground again, and hope against all odds that the photos aren’t lost. (Update, the photos survived! Yea!)

Well even the death of my camera didn’t dampen my spirits. After we explored and swam, and washed our ‘undercarriages’ we decided that we better head back to camp.

We hiked and hiked through the river once again. We chatted and looked for fish, frogs and snakes. The hike back was about four miles, and it was late afternoon. Pretty soon our feet started to feel sore. And then more sore. Hiking nine miles in sandals, in the water, is hard on anybody’s feet. Finally we stopped to nurse our wounds, and I counted nine open sores on my feet. We didn’t have any other choice than to keep hiking. We were all in pain.

I was in pain, and my camera was gone, but I was having the single most wonderful day of hiking I had ever had. The sun started to set and Escalate Canyon turned gold, then orange. If I didn’t think about my feet I could enjoy myself. So that’s just what I did. I watched the flowers as the sun turned them gold. I watched the canyon walls as the sun turned them gold. And I didn’t think about my feet.


Once back at camp we all sat down and joked that we had forgotten how good it felt to sit. We cooked a quick dinner (another fantastic backcountry meal of pasta with olive oil, pine nuts, fresh basil, and fresh parmesan) and went right to bed.

Yesterday we woke up. We all were sore, and I was walking around camp like Quasimodo, but we couldn’t stop talking about how awesome Death Hollow was. We ate breakfast, packed up camp, and hiked out of the beautiful canyon.

Now we are all talking about how soon we can go back. Death Hollow captured our hearts, and a good portion of the skin on our feet.

I'm an empty nester!

It is true, three very healthy robin babies left the nest today. Last night I watched them as the streched their wings and fought for space in the now tiny nest. The three of them barley fit in the nest that was easily big enough for them about a week ago.

Well today they took flight. I don't know if they will return, they are all grown up. I'm a little sad, I liked having the three youngsters outside our upstairs window.

Here is a photo of the last baby to leave the nest, soon after this photo was taken, this little guy left too.

Simple pleasures of pretending I'm a kid

I mentioned in my previous post that I had a great time down at the farmhouse last weekend. The weather was warm and dry. We sat on the front porch and relaxed and enjoyed the seemingly hundreds of birds that live down there.

I also was working on a new doll photo story. These are albums I post on my doll board. I have a lot of fun putting them together, and reading the comments. Because I do a new album about once a month, I updated my links to the left to include my photo stories. Check this link often to see new happenings in my doll's lives (yes, I am a dork, yes, I fully embrace this fact).

This one was extra fun because E makes a cameo appearance. He's such a great hubby.

Here is the newest album: Mystery at the farmhouse

Here is a photo of the leading roles, Larson and Kit. Enjoy!

Life is frail

After a fantastic weekend at the farmhouse, and some great time spent outside I came home to get back in the daily grind.

Today on the drive home for lunch I encountered a horrific site, a car and pedestrian accident that apparently had happened only moments before. A little girl lie in the middle of the road motionless, and the father was motionless about two lanes from her. Both looked dead.

I don't know why I stopped, and ran over to help. I'm not medically trained, and can't stand the site of blood. When I was about a dozen feet away from the victims, I turned around, I didn't want to see the child, or her father who both were bleeding. One man was crying and screaming that the child was dead.

Instead of get any closer, I turned and called 911. I told them I didn't witness the accident, but to please send help. I waited around until an ambulance, two police cars, and a fire truck arrived, but I kept my eyes away from the horrific site.

I went home for lunch wanting to hug my husband and tell him how much he means to me. Life is too short not to tell those you love what you feel. I hope those two innocent people knew they were loved, and I hope the ones they left behind knew that too.

Here is a link to the news story: Father and daughter killed in Murray

A little Mouse

I mentioned a couple weeks ago I wanted to "inspire me to take better photos, cherish things I make, and enjoy junk". So this falls into the take better photos category (I only wish I could make something as sweet as this mouse).

This little girl is only about an inch high. All her joints are movable, even her head. Her tail has wire in it, so you can position it any way you wish. Her fur is as soft as a pussy willow bloom in spring. As a kid I would always pick the pussy willows and pretend they were little mice. Twenty years later I have a little mouse that fits the bill.

And another bird post

Our backyard is quite a little aviary, with the ducks and all. Well the robin's nest that I mentioned a few weeks ago is quite active. Over the weekend the chicks hatched, and the Mommy and Daddy robin have been quite busy keeping three little months full. It's fun to see both parents helping out.

Anyway, unlike the ducks, the cats LOVE the baby birds. Rumpus and Mabel don't take their eyes of the birds, I think they must be hungry!

Here are a few photos that we snapped:




And the Mommy keeping the little ones warm while they nap.

Duckies at 6:00 am

I am quite tired today, and I'm not really sure why. I slept well last night, and went to bed really early. However, my eyes keep trying to close...

It might be partially due to the duck visit we had at 6:00 am this morning. E and I woke up to a loud bang, and then we heard tons of quacking. We peeked into our backyard only to find a pair of duckies in our tiny pond!

We spent most of Saturday cleaning the pond. A winter's and springs worth of dead rotting leaving is never fun to deal with. Well the pond is clear and clean now, so I guess the ducks decided it looked perfect.

I walked into the kitchen at 6:00 am this morning trying to figure out what the loud bang was, and there was Moose, our cat, totally freaked out about the site outside. I tried to pet him and calm him down, but he almost jumped out of his skin. Who knew a bird could scare a cat so easily.

Silly animals.

Picnic lunch and evening hikes

Oh, the joys of summer.

It has really started to feel like summer here in Utah for the past few days. It has been warmer than average (high 80s most days), however I am loving it. The evenings are light and the afternoons are warm.

Wednesday night E, David, and I went on a little night hike. We decided to go up Ferguson Canyon as the sun set. It was beautiful. The river was rushing, the air was pleasant, and it felt so good to be out of the house.

Then just today E and I decided to have a picnic at a park near my office. I ran over to Quiznos and he picked me up with some homemade iced tea, and we headed up to the park with a blanket, my camera, and our lunch.

I just wish I could stay this temperature all summer. I love the mid 80s, but by the time it is in the upper 90s, I want to die.

Just an Illistration I like

A little gnome carrying blueberries back to his house in the woods.

24 hours

Last weekend was supposed to be one of those weekends you never forgot. We have been planning it since January, and I guess I can just say it didn't go quite as planned. Jo had been looking forward to our Moab trip for months, and flew in to visit Ben, but also to join us on the Slickrock Trail for some biking!

So, let's get started - 24 hours of hell:
Friday at 3:45 pm- I was trying to leave work a little early. We were headed out to Moab! I was so excited, Jo was coming into town, and I couldn't wait to see her and to hang out with all my best friends. Well invoices were giving me trouble. The afternoon was ticking away, and as I was trying to leave, the printer decided it hated me. Finally I got out of there forty minutes after I had planned, and I felt quite frustrated.

Friday at 5:00 pm- E and I finally left the house. The pouring rain made it harder to pack the car. We hoped that the rain would stop, because camping in Southern Utah in the rain is horrid. E said as we left "I hope we are not making a huge mistake..." (notice the foreshadowing...)

Friday at 10:00 pm- E and I arrive in Moab and meet up with our friends. They are just finishing dinner, and have decided that the rain is too cold and strong, they would rather stay in a hotel. We agree, and head out to look for a hotel. No Vacancy is all we see and hear for the next hour, I guess everybody was thinking what we were thinking.

Friday at 11:30 pm- We decide we better look for a campsite. After driving around for another hour without any luck, and a close encounter with a black widow we decide to sleep in the car. As I was falling asleep, I thought, "I can't believe we are doing this." The rain outside failed to stop.

Saturday at 7:00 am- Ben knocks on our window. We roll it down to find more cold rain and a very angry Ben. He says he and Jo are leaving, neither of them slept, and her vacation to Utah is too short to be miserable. We agreed and convinced him and the others to join us for breakfast before they left for home.

Saturday at 9:00 am- I guess the rain made everyone in Moab think what we were thinking, a hot breakfast in a dry restaurant sounded good. So after checking two places with hour long waits, we found a funny Chinese restaurant that served breakfast. Then we sat there for 25 minutes without anybody coming by, so we left and ended up at Denny's. Forty five minutes later we finally had a hot meal. But the rain didn't look like it was going to stop.

Saturday at 11:00 am- We finally are done with breakfast and all agree that we should just turn around and go home. I am really bummed out, I really wanted to bike the Slickrock trail (see this post), I really wanted to go camping, and I really wanted to enjoy the Southern Utah sun. I guess none of the above would happen.

Saturday at 2:00 pm- It was amazing how tired I was. I guess sleeping in the car didn't work so well, so while E drove home, I took a nap, in the car! Then at 2:00, when we were about an hour away from home the storm kicked up again. After driving through snow and rain we hit a horrible bout of wind. David was the last car in the group, and all of a sudden he slowed down and radioed us that Logan's bike had flown off the bike rack! Logan has a beautiful, new bike with some kick ass parts. It was worth well over a grand, and he had yet to ride it with his new seat, derailers, and handlebar. Well you can imagine what kind of swear words we all said. E pulled over, and he and I jumped out of the car to run three blocks up the mountain back to David's car. Logan's bike was a wreck, luckily it wasn't a total loss. A nice driver was able to slow down and grab it, before any other drivers drove over the $1000 wreckage. I didn't know what to do but laugh. God hated us. I gave Logan a hug and we all somberly climbed back into our cars after attaching the bike corpse back to the rack.

Saturday at 3:45 pm- E and I rolled into our driveway tired and crabby. We were finally home. The last 24 hours was something we could have lived without. Damn it.

I get to keep my office!

Well, at least for now. There have been changes in the plans since we first started planning, and now they are saying I'll stay where I am.

Yippee for me!!! Now, back to looking out my windows at the most beautiful mountains the world has to offer....