Bear Lake/ Idaho part 2

I always forget to upload my photos backwards so now I'm making a separate post. Other hilights from our trip include TJ pushing and digging our car out of the sand as well as other people's. The sign said you couldn't park on the road but there was only one thin path that was firm enough to drive on. I had the genius idea of using big flat rocks behind our tires. Other highlights include meeting up with the Kempe's at the beach, sea-doo's, lots of Costco chicken sausage, yummy. The second night we camped in ID, this was my first time standing in ID and I was very impressed. Idaho is beautiful!!!!! I didn't see any of the rat-burning, bathroom trapping boys that have tainted my view of ID for so many years. However we did see a cop chasing 3 horses with his flashlight on foot past a gas station on the main road. We stayed in a beautiful canyon and the start were AMAZING!!!!!!

Bear Lake/ Idaho

This weekend Teej and I headed to Bear Lake. Our friend Ted and Marrissa invited us up and when I realized it was only 2ish hours away we packed up and headed out the door! We arrived after dark, tried one of the famous raspberry shakes, which I was disappointed in and started to look for a camp spot. We decided to head up South Eden Rd as a sign indicated camping, we drove and we drove and we found a shooting range so we drove some more and found a big open meadow. I heard a stream nearby, noted the short grass, and a cow pie, and knew we were in a cows feeding ground, but we didn't see any cows, so I assumed they must have moved them for the season. Occasionally we heard a big animal move around through the night and I just prayed it wasn't a moose. Sometime in the middle of the night a large white truck honked at us spun around and drove off, not sure what that was all about. The air was the perfect temperature for sleeping and we had a nice air mattress under the stars. I finally stopped worrying about the "moose" around sunrise, and a moment later we woke to the large animal noises again and this:
Those 2 kept coming closer looking around and then coming a little closer. Eventually after all their curiosity was filled or maybe they got scared they high tailed it out of there.

[insert name of city here]

I have the most beautiful and adventurous dreams. Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting any rest imagining everything I do in my sleep. My dreams are so life like and have taken me on many of my best trips. Sometimes reality is disappointing next to my dreams and other times I am oh so glad to wake up and see that there really isn't someone creeping around my house and I'm wondering why I can't scream. Last night I dreamed I was on a sandy beach somewhere, it had a really airy sunny feeling anyway, then the beach house I was staying in was about to get taken over by the tide and I woke up. Then I fell asleep on my couch tonight reading The Scarlet Pimpernel, which is turning out to be one of my favorite books of all time!!! TJ woke me up and it was so weird, I fell asleep in the world of my book and then started dreaming something completely different, it was like the 4th reality shift of the day for me when I woke up. I think I understand why babies and toddlers cry when they wake up all this reality shifting business. It really took me a minute to figure out that I had grown up. Which speaking of that when did I grow up? How did I end up married in Salt Lake City? I want to play without a care all summer and eat Josh & John's ice cream. So mind boggling, anyway, I am here and that's not going to change, I'm glad I'm here, I'm sure some day 10 years down the road I'll wonder why I have children and a house and why I'm in [insert name of city here].

Nolan's Cheddar - Mouse And A Mousetrap

relate this to your trials in life

the summer of my 27th year!

So TJ asked me if I could do anything this weekend what would I do, I answered watch the fireworks at Grand Lake, and he said, let's go! So we did! We phone my step-mom who happened to be visiting Denver and they let us stay in their cabin on Mt Evans, just off the I-70 in the Arapaho National Forest. It's actually the highest 14er in CO and the highest paved road in the US. In case you were wondering.





























We picked up the key Saturday night and I took TJ to down town Denver at about 11 to see real city life. Little did we know that we would not only smell like the bumbs we saw that night but by the end of the trip but also come home to find one living in the abandoned house's garage next door to us that looks into our basement apartment. Luckily we were well prepared as we had searched the cabin in the middle of the night with axes to make sure there were no hermits in the cabin upon our arrival. If you read the blue bull is says Colorado has an average of 300 days of sunshine that's more than FL or CA. If you suffer from seasonal affective disorder I highly recommend CO. It also has more parks than any other state, I love you Colorado and please don't you ever forget it. I also found it interesting that I forgot to take my allergy medicine up there and didn't wake up with my usual sneezing fit, but don't worry the minute I crossed the UT border they were back. I also photographed the classiest McDonald's I've ever seen and just might have to get those faucets for my own house one day. The Columbines were in full bloom up on Mt Evans. On Sunday Nancy and her fam came up the cabin for a BBQ and then Tee and I headed down or up North to Grand Lake my most favorite place for fireworks!!!!! The fireworks are actually launched from a barge that looks like it's on fire. The fireworks reflect over the water and right ontop of you, TJ and others even got hit by pieces of firework, he brought it home as a momento. The boomb echoes off the mountains that surround the lake, oh man I love it! A golden retriever snuggled up to me before the fireworks, her name was Bailey and I think her owner was jealous, she said this is HER dog more than any other dog she's ever had and I should consider it a compliment I didn't even have food. Anyway her daughter another golden named Anna is hopefully pregnant and I want one of her puppies!! This dog sold us on her grand baby, she had the best character, was really smart, beautiful and super soft even after swimming in the stream all day!!!! The next day we slept in and hiked/ran around the cabin and rediscovered some of my favorite childhood bridges and spots, I wish we had a week to spend up there!!! I love that place!

Girls Camp

Last week I was able to attend my church's girl camp as an activity chair person. I LOVE girls camp. Being away from the hub bub of the world and out in nature is so refreshing. It was a perfect setting, the weather was great, nice, breezy and cool at night, a few hours of heat during the middle of day which necessitated a dip in the lake! Canoe rides with sweet tinkling Beehive voices singing brought little tears to my eyes, I miss being that sweet innocent little beehive, it's one of the most beautiful things! I really felt at home at girls camp, just like when I was in girls camp as a young woman. I adored every woman up there especially my committee TJ was mopey without me so I asked him to pick me up and the missionary couple that watches over the camp told us to enjoy the property and lock it up on our way out. TJ and I had canoes, lakes, ziplines, and rope swings all to our self on this chunk of property up east of Heber, it was so peaceful and gorgeous, I wouln't be opposed to my own mountain estate! I also forgot to mention that my previous post on life was further reinstated. We were over getting speakers for the young women. The topic was over coming trials with Christ. We thought of many of my favorite women. One of the them is actually my grandmother in law, and while I love her dearly and look up to her, I thought there is no way that she can relate to this topic she has never had to work a day in her life she probably didn't even have to get a real degree from college. But I felt good about her as a speaker and thought well maybe this is what some girls need. As she spoke she talked of how her husband had been hit by a car never fully returning to himself. She had to go out and be the breadwinner and that is when it hit me that she is so amazing not because she lived a "perfect" life whatever that is, but because she has been refined and strengthened through her trials. Really you can not judge anyone, I mean it!!! Same with our happy bubbly camp leader, she worked the night shift full time while her husband had heart problems for 15 years. And another woman I look up to on our committee her husband quit his stable job to work for himself so he could have more time. These are all women I admire very much, women of great faith and I always just assumed that they must have the "perfect" life otherwise why else would they be so great and happy! Anyway, my understanding and love has grown for all men and for my trials. That's why we are here, if you don't want them you came to the wrong place, by coming to earth because this is a place where we learn and grow by our trials and by coming closer to Christ. One of the speakers showed this you tube video I will have to post, it's not only funny but relates to the topic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYMdPQ0IGnQ&feature=related