Skunked and.... skunked again!

Can you find the deer?

Don't worry, neither could we!! :)

Wait...

Nope, just a doe (who got away too fast for me to get a picture)... and then later some other fellow hunters!
But otherwise we got skunked! No deer this year. But we got to go camping, ate some good food, got in some hiking, nice scenery...

and good company!
Here is our underage hunter- who wasn't allowed to carry a gun of course, but he did have a tomahawk! Which he planned to put to good use when he said:

"I'm going to kill a squirrel with my tomahawk!"

Bridal Veil Falls

The other weekend Nate and I went for a hike. We hiked near Bridal Veil Falls. It was only the two of us so our pictures were... "okay, now you go stand over there" while the other would take, pretty much, the same picture! Needless to say the pictures all turned out looking... similar!!!

But the fall colors were beautiful and it was a good hike!

California Beach Time!

This is us just before the cruise- we got to stay a night in San Diego with Nate's sister, her family and some friends of theirs because it just so happened they were vacationing at the same time! Lucky for us! They had an awesome place on the beach for an awesome deal! It was great!

We loved getting the chance to go boogie boarding!! (plus we saw something in the water- I was freaked out and so excited all at once! I have such a thing for sea creatures- its weird!)



We loved doing one of my favorite things- running from waves!

And of course we loved burying Tye in the sand!

The only thing we didn't love, or rather I didn't love was when Hans and Hansie decided to start throwing that sea weed stuff (whatever its called) on me to freak me out! :) It worked! I hate that stuff, especially when your out in the water and it touches your leg- gives me the chills!

We had a lot of fun- and I figured sense it has pretty much turned from summer to winter in one day up here in Utah I better get my summer pictures posted fast! Seriously- its freezing now! One day it was 85 to 90 degrees and the next it was 45 degrees... what is up with that. Guess we decided to just skip fall! (I should have taken a pictures of everyone bundled up at Nate's flag football game last night- everyone had broken out the winter jackets and I came home with numb feet) I'm not ready for winter- but I always start getting excited for Christmas about this time anyways, so I guess its time for the weather to change- but I'm not too excited about it.

So now I'm looking at these warm summer pictures with a cup of hot chocolate, a sweater and warm socks on!! :)

Carnival Cruisers

Back in July... we went on a cruise! Kind of a graduation gift, but really just something we've always wanted to try. It was great! Jen and Nate also came, so we got to have them as our neighbors for a few days!!

Here we are in front of the boat- it was crazy, we watched some guy get tackled and handcuffed! Then when Jen and Nate arrived they told us that they heard that someone had been murdered on our ship on the cruise just before ours. Scary- here is an article on the murder.

Some of the best parts of a trip are of course the moments when you dont have a camera! For example, when Jennifer got called up to play in the game show because she was the only one who could identify the theme song for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! And she took first... no picture, but she brought home a trophy to show off! Next would be when she volunteered to be hypnotized on stage and did a great impression of a Michael Jackson dance! It was great.. but again, no picture! And last when we saw all the whales out at sea... well ok, we didn't actually see any- but I really badly wanted to and kept a good eye out! No luck. Maybe its because I had my camera!!

Elegant night was interesting... and we didn't seem to forget the cameras this time! I was a little over dressed in a fun "prom" gown... but it was either that or way under dressed. I felt a little silly- so needless to say I wouldn't have minded forgetting the camera at this event- even though it was fun to be all dressed up and have people look at you funny! O well, what can you do... it was fun anyways!

Nate in front of "The Arch at Land's End" in Cabo San Lucas!

In Cabo we decided to go snorkeling for our excursion. It turned out to be a bad time of year to go because the waters were rough and not very clear. All we saw were some fish... that even though are not very scary, still made me scream... and a few small sting rays. But I'm so freaked out about ocean water and creatures that it was an adventure just to get me in the water swimming around... so I guess we can say the trip was a success! I was the last one in the water and the first out of the water! Well almost!

The oh so very talented staff would fold towels into sea creatures! I only took a picture of one but they were all pretty creative!

Sweet Addiction

So yeah I am addicted... my name is Emily and I'm an avid homemade cereal eater! Thats right, homemade cereal! This all started, in a sense, some time ago when Jennifer, Nate and their little family came for a visit!

But first... a side note... I have to share a picture I took of Jen and Nate during this visit... it was just after Nate had taken a PERMANENT marker and drew a MUSTACHE on Jen's face... WITHOUT waking her up! Talk about a hard sleeper! (Its just like the time when we were young and she feel off the top bunk bed and I had to wake her up and tell her to get back into bed, then the next morning she didn't remember a thing about it?!!)

In this picture she is awake but has no idea about the cute drawing on her face! She just couldn't figure out why we were taking pictures and laughing... so she asked "what, did I fart in my sleep"... yep, and we figured we could catch it on camera! :)

Anyways, back to my addiction... while they were visiting Jennifer began her creation of this wonderful homemade cereal. She started by simply taking bananas and strawberries, cutting them up and then adding milk. Simple enough, but I couldn't get over how much she raved on how good it was... well she was on this crazy diet and I figured everything is good when your on a diet!

But this was only the start, after returning home she perfected her creation! First she started by adding blueberries... yum! Then almond slivers... which is essential for a nice crunch! Then add a few craisins or chocolate chips (semi-sweet, dark chocolate when sticking to the diet) depending on your mood and WA-la! Your homemade cereal is ready just after you top it off with a little milk!

Once I started I couldn't stop! Seriously, I have it every morning and sometimes later for a snack to curve any sweet cravings! It works too, thats the beauty of it! Love it, love it!

Utah Summer Games

Volleyball is so much fun! I love this game!

This year I got onto another team for the Utah Summer Games down in Cedar City, I played last year too-- it is so much fun to play volleyball again!

This years team name: Watch Out!

Last years team name: Blockbusters!

(you've got to love the creativity of a team name)

So After a few days of constant play, soreness and complete tiredness... the end results were:

third place winners....

we wont mention that it was in the lower division! :)But that was alright with us, we got a really cool bronze medal anyways!

Its that time of year... again!

So I'm a little behind on the blogging... but better late than never! A couple weekends back we took another trip down to Zions! We got a group together, friends from here and there and headed back down to Zions to hike the Narrows just like last year. But this year was a little different for me... first, there was no way I was going to hike the Narrows again- once was good enough for me- its beautiful and a really neat hike, but really tough and an all day event. So I stayed back and played chauffeur with Ashley. We dropped the group off in the morning at the top and then waited for them at the bottom!

Here is the one picture I got of everyone after we dropped them off!

So in between drop off and pick up we had some time to kill. Guess we wanted a challenge because we decided on hiking Angles Landing! If your afraid of heights then this is not the hike for you... but I loved it!

I went out on a limb for this picture!

Ashley got a little crazy too! But the sad part is that we weren't even close to the top yet... we just didn't know that!

We still had the strip behind Ashley in this picture + whats in front of her to go!

Here is a good picture of the chain they made to hold on to. We were real careful to follow the advise of the sign that said something about "veering from path may result in death". Yikes! We stayed really close to that chain!

I liked this hike so much that I got up the next morning and did it again with Nate and some of his buddies.

Here we are at the top... I'm holding on to Nate for dear life!

Me and Ash at the top

And...

Me and Nate at the top!

(Here is Nate after the hike with Angels Landing behind him.)

When I was on my mission I would get a letter from my dad every once in a while, but when I opened it all I would find was a picture with small note on the back that said "a pictures is worth a thousand words!" All I could think was "gee, thanks dad!" Well when I was looking through the pictures of our Zions trip I thought of that saying and yeah a picture is worth a thousand words but not when it comes to Angles landing! The pictures we took I thought were so amazing but they don't even begin to describe how crazy this hike was!!! Really, its just something you have to see for yourself! And I would recommend it!

$10 unlimited ride!!!

Cord and Whit came up to visit the other weekend. They came without Avery... bummer for me, I would love to see her, but a great break for them! While they were here we decided to go to "Sliding Rock" a place up in Alpine where Nate is from that has a small waterfall you can slide down into a little pool! Here is a picture of Nate standing in front of it:The problem was that the water was still freezzzzzing and it was running way too fast... so nobody dared try it. We were afraid that might happen... but we had another plan! Not to far from this place is a pond, with a pretty good ramp.

Here is Whitney in front of the pond.
Here are the boys standing on the ramp checking it out.

Here is Ransom with his brand new... $10 bike! We needed an old beat up bike so Ransom went down to DI to see what he could find. Any bikes he found wouldn't work but when he was leaving he saw someone donating one, so he bought it off them for $10 bucks! I Bet when that family left for the DI they didn't know they were going to make a profit for their unwanted stuff!!! You've got to love the duck taped seat!

And finally, here are our three riders... Cord, Ransom and Nate.

VIEWERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED

The following videos have been rated PG-13 for some language and a very small amount of nudity!

Cord...


Nate...

Ransom's 3rd jump... with a little surprise!

The bike got a little beat up, mainly the handle bars were bent way back. But it held up pretty nice for a $10 unlimited ride!