Washin'ton -n- Dave

Well, this is old news by now but I just recently got pictures of the road trip I took to Washington with my dear friend Allison Mumford and some of her friends who are now also some of my friends too. We drove to Washington and camped at Moses Lake for to see the Dave matthews concert at "The Gorge". Im not a big concert man but I really liked this concert. No one blocked my view, the nature was breathtaking (look left and theres a sunset, look right and theres a rainbow, look down and there is a pretty gorge, look straight and someone is blowing your mind with some tunage) and the company was pleasant to say the least. Highlights: road trippin' through OREGON. getting rained on for 4 hours before the concert. going to a random church alone and teaching a guy about the true gospel restored on the earth today. wind storm that ripped through one of our tents. catching crawdads by myself when everyone else went to the second concert. pudding. riding with the top down in the convertible. seeing some of the band members close up before the show. um.... thats all i can think of right now. It was good. Oh, there has been a lot more camping and splunking lately too. I could probably just live in the woods and sleep in caves my whole life... if it ever had to come to that..

This Week

This week was set aside for moving into my new apartment. Its smaller, more expensive, and further from campus and thus the social atmosphere. BUT they have a pool and hot tub... sooo... take that. Anyways, I had to move all my stuff and clean my old apartment before monday. Unfortunately half my stuff is still all over my bedroom floor - sorry Spencer. The week that was supposed to stay open for moving after work went like this - Monday I had FHE at 7 then I ended up dealing with girl drama till midnight.. tuesday I went to the temple, then to a Troll 2 party.. then up till 3am watching the meteor shower... Wednesday I did a big dutch oven dinner for a big group of friends which took all night... thursday night my friend jessica wanted me to take a group of people up to providence cave... so we tried to do that just to find a pack of wild dogs ready to tear us apart where we were supposed to park to hike to the cave so we had to turn around and drive 1.5 hours back... and now its today and I got asked on a date for tonight... so I guess all in all it was a super fun week of summer... but I CANT get moved! :-) Aw well...

Yellowstone was a really great time! I wish more people could have come along but us 5 made the most of it. We crammed WAYYYY too much into a day and a half, but it was worth it. My favorite part was standing on top of lower falls. Its a really great place and if I was a hermit I think id have just as good a life as those squirrels. We never did get to see a bull moose which I was pretty dissapointed about, but we saw a lot of elk and bison and deer and also a bear so that was all cool. We probably hiked a total of 15 miles in those 2 days we were there. So... yeah. Yellowstone, I suggest it!

Cave.hike.

wait... was I supposed to stop doing this after I broke my wirst???
This hike was with these people. I liked that dog. Made me want to get one. Id have a major crush on her master if she was mormon and wasnt moving to california.



Well, after waiting in the airport for 13 hours last friday I had to face the truth that I was not going to get to go to Oregon and I also had to face the ironic fact that if Id started driving to Oregon when Id left for the airport Id have allready been there for a couple of hours.

So... I quickly started making some phone calls... I might not go to Oregon, but i Couldnt lose a precious weekend over it so Devin came through for me and hooked me up with a great hike to Naomis peak saturday morning. Actually what sould have taken a couple of house took all day because of such slow travel speeds. It was a great day though. First time I'd done this hike and I was very pleased.

Tuesday night we planned a trip to Providence cave and it was an amazing trip. I love going to providence cave, its a great adventure. I took a bunch of friends from my ward - the only people who had beene before were Devin and I. I think they were a little shocked at how dirty you got and how tight some of the squeezes were. But I think everyone had a good time. I enjoyed the hike back to the car because it was dark and I LOVE pine tree sillhouettes with a dark blue starry sky above. It was just beautiful. The best part for me, though, was the ride back in the back of Tobys truck laughing with everybody and lying on my back staring up at the stars as we cruised over the bumpy dirt road.

Summer time = HERMIT time

Well, I kept waiting to see if more pics would get posted of my adventures on facebook that I could post up on here.. but this will do. Ive been working hard to get my share of outdoorness joy this summer and I think its paying off. I have been camping lots and still have a LOT more I want to do before the summers end when everyone else has to go to school! This last weekend I went on a fishing trip with tony, cory, and devin up at a lake called smith and morehouse by kamas. It was BEAUTIFUL and the lake was nice and we actually caught fish! We had a lot of fun.. wish I could have stayed longer. Last tuesday, I went up by Tonys Grove here in Logan canyon and went camping with 2 mississippi girls, 2 guys from my ward, 2 british girls, and my cousin, Andrew. That was also a very successful campin trip. You can see andrew and I eating the dutch oven we made above. Good thing andrew had his super sharp knife to cut thsoe potatoes. Then you can also see me fishing on a rock bright and early the next morning. We didnt pay for parking and andrew didnt have his fishing liscense... so we had to cut fishing a little short. The only fish I "caught" got away right as I was about to pull him out of the water. The weekend before that we had our family reunion at fish lake where I learned "I have never..." is NOT the game to play at a family reunion. Or it is, depends. This weekend im going to OREGON and im super excited. I got a postcard on my mission from there and ever since its been my dream to go! So stay tuned for that adventure!
On another note, I went to a play with my friend jessica last night and her aunt is all into the theatre stuff up here in Logan so she had me talk to some people and im going to try out for a play sometime soon and im also going to take singing lessons ("finally", right? haha) Im very excited about all this.

I just wanted to say that Im pretty much in love with nature
more than almost anything. I drove to grantsville last night
for Kims graduation and back to logan this morning for work
and was blessed to behold the wonders of nature as I drove,
the highlight being as I passed the great salt lake. The sky was
scattered with patches of rain clouds and sharp rays of light burst
through all over wherever they could and arrayed the clouds
with a large variety of color. Where the light escaped it illuminated
the landscape freshly soaked with spring showers. This combination
saturated the fresh new vegetation of the season bringing their colors into
full potential. This whole glorious presentation was reflected in the slightly
wavy lake which was covered with a soft blanket of steam. I envied the
silhouetted birds which swam through the fresh cool air and danced in the
sunlight. The air treated me to the fresh salted smell of the nature that
surrounded me as it gushed into my car through the windows slightly
cracked open and cooled my skin. Its times like these that I feel like I
know what is love and I say a silent prayer to Heavenly Father to thank
him for life and all the beauties in it. Amen.

Bull Ridin' aint fer kids

Well, heres the story. I had to become an ultimate aggie before i finished college. This entails riding this bull.... naked. Sunday night at 10:30 i thought it was a good time for a practice run. As i climbed up i saw a cop pass so i got nervous and wanted to do it quick. I used the tail to get up and slid myself quickly into the center of the back, emmediately discovering it was very slick. When i started to tumble over sideways it was too late and i had nothing to grab onto. Trusting in the strength off my arm to catch me i put it out, landed and jumped up on my feet. It didnt hurt but could tell that something wasnt quite lined up... I didnt dare look so kept it covered with the sleeve of my coat. I got in the back seat of my car, trying to stay calm and called Stephanie to come pick me up then i called dad to tell him i was headed to the hospital. The rest can be seen in the photos. I have surgery friday morning to get a plate put in. No more handstands for a while :(. I get a scribe to take my final though! Also, im going to miss graduation. Moral of the story - ROLL if your falling off something high! Dont put your arm out! What a silly boy...