Party

Yesterday I ran my first 5K. It was cute. I don't know what my time was yet, but hopefully one day I will be able to find out, and on that day I will post it on here so all you running types can laugh at me. :) I just found out that I took 28 minutes and 56 seconds. Go ahead, laugh, I thought it was aight. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it though. And it was a party.

Yes, afterward I was mildly tired, but it was nowhere near the physical exhaustion that I would face next. I spent the rest of the morning physically and mentally preparing myself for the incredible looming challenge of the incredible... PIZZA PIE CAFE PARTY!!! 

BUT, this was not just a normal pizza pie party, it was a men only pizza pie party. You know, the kind of thing where the minimum expectation for slices eaten is in the double digits. Now, for someone like me, this is quite a difficult task! I'm not normally the type of person to attempt to eat an entire herd of buffalo, so my stomach hadn't received the same training as the other men. I'm pretty sure that I didn't quite meet the quota, but I probably got a new record. I also retained enough sanity not to stuff myself to the point of despising pizza, so I'd say overall it was a success.

Oh yeah, then later that day...

DRUMLINE PARTY!!!

And after that...

AUBREY'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

I'm pretty sure that I've never partied so much in one day in my entire life. It was a strange sensation. I kinda like partying; it feels almost like being semi-productive only you don't have to do anything. I think I'd die if I had to do it everyday, but it's a memorable day to look back on. The passage of time has not dimmed the details much, but that's prolly just because it was only yesterday.

P.S. BYU also won their game on this eventful day. More cause for party.


There is a remote possibility that my brains have been addled. If this is the case, do not worry, I will return to normal within the month.


 Sort of.

Party With Germans #1

Today was a good day. Want to know why? Well if you do, you are going to have to keep reading.

Today was a Friday. It was also an odd day. Normally on Friday odd days I must do the following:

Go to percussion, work hard and play music. That part is awesome, but after that I must go to drama, listen to Brower talk for fifty minutes, and watch a couple monologues performed by those who are new to the drama class. Not so great. Oh, it gets worse. After that I have to go to world civ and listen to an appalling amount of words being thrust at me. Then I have lunch, in which I either have a meeting or a wander aimlessly for approximately forty-five minutes. When that ends I walk to German where we party and talk in German, which is great. After school, I have a sectional in the baking sun where I use up the very last of my energy trying to make my music better, after which I proceed to walk home all alone.

But wait. Today was not a normal Friday odd day. It was a special Friday odd day. It went something like this:

I woke up and came to school at the normal time, but I did not enter the band room. Instead, I boarded the bus that was parked in front of the band room and it whisked me away to a magical land, along with the many others that had also decided to come. We exited the bus and were filled with excitement. Stefan called us together and told us to follow him to the beautyous vertical river known as Stewart Falls. I waltzed down the pathway while I chatted with my fantastic friends Grace, Karli, Anna, Franzii, and Nina. When we got to the falling water, we were able to observe the magic of it for a lovely length of time. I sadly forgot to bring my photographing device on the expedition, but I was able to get this pretty picture on my cellular transmitter.

You can see Stefan in the bottom left corner if you look carefully.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the Germans took some excellent pictures, so hopefully I will be able to gain access to those and post them at a later date. Eventually, after enjoying the beauty of nature in this magical land, we departed, walking again down the dirt path that had led us into this oasis of magic among the mountains. When we arrived back down to Sundance, we were able to look around and give the Germans a chance to be tourists. We all ate our sack lunches and just had a jolly time chatting with one another. Finally, noon came and the scenic ski lift opened up for use. I rode up in the lift with Karli and we had a great time observing the delightful colors of autumn and talking to each other. After we descended we got back on the buses and headed back to Timpview, where I discovered that I did not have to have a sectional today. Overall, I got to relax, enjoy nature, party, get to know some of the German exchange students, and get to know some of my American friends a little better.

That, my friends, is why today was a fantastic day.

Homecoming

Ah, Homecoming. I glad I went since I wasn't old enough to go last year, but it was very tiring day due to nine hours of band followed by a date.


Basically I have decided that being in a group with Benny is purely fantastic. Not only do we get to go to a super fancy restaurant for free because of his awesome connections, we also don't have to talk very much because Benny has so many fabulous things to say! Double bonus! Anyway, dinner was fantastic. We ate at a restaurant called Communal, and it's a really fancy place. We got some pretty yummy foods. They actually had some tasty spinach and I really liked their gnocchi. My favorite part was the peach cobbler though. Wow, that was delicious. The dance was kinda fun too, so it was great! It was also fun to combine with Rye's group for the after party.


I don't really have much else to say, so I'll just put up the pictures, which are the important part. I only really got pictures of the after party though, and most of them are kinda random.

 Benny and Jane. Presh.

 Me and my awesome date. :)

 So typical.

 Jessica's beautiful!

 Karli's beautiful too, but she wasn't my Homecoming date.

 Jane's fantastic. Really.

 This is the only known picture of Kristen, since apparently she hates pictures for some reason.

 What a great group.

 We're cute.

 I guess he doesn't like pictures either.

Happiness

There are many things in this world that make me happy. Some of them come in the form of food; some in the form of music; some in the form of adventure; some in the form of people. Today, I was fortunate enough to enjoy an absolute amazing mix of all of those. Except food, but we can pretend that was there too. Anyway, it was simply a marching band rehearsal. Except it was much better, for it was raining. I'm not sure why, but marching Ice Dance in the rain is one of the most pleasant experiences that I've ever gone through. Now I just need to cuddle up on the couch with a book and a milkshake and my day is perfect! Really. Basically every good thing that I could've possibly dreamed could happen happily happened, from playing band all day to having awesome seminary parties to just laughing with awesome friends. So today is a good day. Celebrate.

Take a Hike

Subway. No, not the sandwich, I'm not very fond of Subway sandwiches, seeing as they probably contain food poisoning. When I say Subway, I am referring to that glorious slot canyon in Zions National Park that I want to hike again ever so badly. Where else can you feel the fantastic rush of cooling off by swimming through ice cold water while simultaneously warming up in the high noon sun that's reflecting off the magnificent stone walls surrounding you on all sides? It's one of the most perfect hikes I've ever had the fortune to be able to hike. A beautiful mix of climbing, swimming, descending, playing, and marveling at the beautiful scenery that is the constant companion of this hike. Little natural swimming pools and water slides that adorn the trail provide refreshing breaks along the way, and it's always fun to try to catch some cute little froggies off to the side of the river.  Here's a couple pictures from this amazing experience.

 I love this part. It's like something from a movie.

 Beautiful

 All the natural tunnels are amazing!

 Going down that = party!

 Nature is so cool.

 Dinosaur tracks! This hike has everything!

 Nice cold swimming pools.

 Ruby spotted skimmer. So cool.

I think it should rain like this sometimes.

While we're kind of on the subject of waterfalls, this one was amazing to rappel down. Battle creek falls. Only 40 or 50 feet, but really slippery and cold. Quite the adventure. Much more intense than it looks.

Now, back to the subject of slot canyons. More that I love a ton: 

Ding Dang Dome. Mostly just super fun, jumping over boulders and logs, and then walking along a 2 inch ledge above a 40 foot drop right at the very end. You really get a false sense of security with that one.

Escalante. This one is just fun and easy going the whole way. A bit of a hike in to get to the slot canyon, but really beautiful when you get there. Escalante river is always a great place to relax, unless of course you step on a tiny pebble and it goes in your foot so you have to hike with it in your foot the 14 miles back out of the place. Yeah, that was fun.

Hidden Canyon. This is a great story to tell. Okay, during the Bryce and Zions trip with the Germans, our little group decided to hike hidden canyon in Zions National Park. Well, for some reason we all failed to see the signs indicating that the trip is only around 2 miles, or the big sign that says "TRAIL ENDS HERE!!!" So, naturally, we kept going. We scaled some pretty impressive obstacles, and pushed through some dense foresty areas and climbed and climbed and climbed. Well, we finally made it to the top, which was never intended to be reached. It was a wonderful moment, except that there wasn't really anything special at the top at all, and it kinda looked just like everything else in the canyon, but it was satisfying none the less. Then we started to go back down. At first it was fairly easy, we just followed the same path that we took on the way up. And then we ran into a spot that we had climbed up with relative ease. Unfortunately, it was not possible to climb down the same way we had come up, due to the way gravity works, and nobody could really see the ground over the edge. We were trapped. Whenever you're climbing, always remember that going up is easier than going down unless you intend to rappel or fall. We contemplated a bit, wondering what to do, and then came up with a decision. So, of course I was stupid enough to just go and jump off the edge, and I was lucky enough to not die or break anything. I found a log and put it in place so that the others could get down. It may have been a really stupid idea, but it saved our group from perishing in that dismal little canyon. I also now pay attention to signs. Usually.

Hmm. It's late and I need to sleep now, but I want to talk about one more thing while I'm on this subject. Arches National Park. I love the arches. They are super amazing and they inspire me. There's one really cool arch that hidden down a short little sandy slot canyon, and that one is extremely easy to get to and fun once you get there. But what I really want to talk about is delicate arch. This is the one that everybody  has seen at one time or another because it's so immensely popular, but that is because it really is absolutely amazing. Think about it, a random arch in the middle of nowhere, just happily sitting on top of the world. It's amazing.

 Yes, that's delicate arch reflected in my sun glasses. 

And that's delicate arch. Absolutely gorgeous.

In conclusion, I love hikes. Who wants to go on an awesome hike with me?

I'm not sure a picture is quite worth a thousand words, but maybe a bunch of pictures could be.