Roughin' It

After Trek, we were ready for a chill Girl's Camp. We had an intense 24 hour girl's camp at a cabin in Fairview, Utah. Everyone was up all night...except the leaders who had to be alert enough for the 1.5 hour drive home the next morning. I went to bed at 3am and woke up at 4am to "lay down the law" on the herd of buffalo I thought were running through the cabin. Those of you that know me well, know that I have never dyed my hair or done anything outrageous to it. I have always had a soft head and would cry when my mom tugged too hard to do those french braids I loved. Well, this me getting my hair ratted (is that how it is spelled) for the first time in my life and everyone called me a "cute little puppy dog". I think they thought that was a compliment.

The Young Women thought it would be so deck us out on Friday night. We were feeling ready to go out on the town and that our husbands would want to take us out! Yikes!

Is this not the craziest come-over on Dena? Those are some serious bangs she has going on!

Backpacking Adventure

Doug took me on my second ever backpacking adventure last weekend over the Fourth of July weekend to Capitol Reef National Park. He had checked the weather and made all the arrangements--mostly because I refused. I had been on Trek, and to Girl's Camp two weeks in a row. The idea of a sleeping in a sleeping bag again didn't get me excited. So, we packed up and headed south.

I have an odd-shaped head and have never found a baseball hat that fit. Well, I THOUGHT that this one fit me perfectly until I downloaded these photos to look at them. HELLO! Look at that crooked hat! Doug said he never noticed. So, every photo of me with this hat on is completely crooked...embarassing.

We set up camp only 1/2 mile in Friday night because there were some clouds threatening rain and we were about go to through a slot canyon. We made dinner and woke up the next morning to more rain clouds. We tried to wait it out with a game of uno, but by 10:30 am, we said, "forget it" to the slot canyon and hiked out to our car to try a different hike.

So, we took this hike. This was on the way to Navajo Nobbs. This was an arch in the background. The sun peaked through the clouds on this hike for about 2 hours. We loved that part!

At the top of Navajo Nobbs, we took a few photos and headed down as fast as we could--running most of the way. There were more rain clouds again and we were in some lightening and flood danger. It was a little intense, but my Doug is a mountain man. I never was really nervous because he knew what to do...my boy scout.


Us on the top of Navajo Nobbs with those clouds looming in the background.



We decided to give it another go (after spending our second night of the "backpacking" trip in a hotel outside the Park). We backpacked in 1.5 miles and set up camp. This is Doug making our dinner looking like he is doing yoga. I had been so excited to try this meal--a powdered mix with really healthy ingredients for veggie burgers. Well, I didn't get to eat them at this time. See the clouds in the distance behind Doug? About 3 minutes after I took this photo--we almost blew away with our tent and everything inside it. There were some intense gusts of wind. Mostly, we laughed our way through it. Every once in a while Doug would say, "the forecast said clear skies the whole weekend!" He was pretty bummed.

This is me trying to cheer him up as we packed up our tent and our dinner had sand all in it, so we through it in a garbage bag and headed to the campground.

We cleaned up camp the next morning and headed home...after our 2 miles of backpacking and 9 miles of hiking to Navajo Nobbs (instead of the 20 or so miles we had planned on).

Doug did like going to church, however, in this really cool OLD chapel. It was the last Sunday the people were meeting in it because they were tearing it down to build a new one. I think it was built in the 1920's.

I included this photo because I learned on this trip that Doug doesn't like it when I take photos in the car of him driving. Like his half smile? That's why.

Landscaping With a Tractor

My sister, Katie and her husband Jared are doing some amazing landscaping in the front yard and Jared has purchased some beautiful rocks. When we arrived he was pretty frustrated because one rock and slid out of the "bucket" of the tractor and bent his edging. He was not a happy camper. It was pretty amazing to watch him at work.

One of the rocks in their front yard looks JUST like a dinosaur egg. We sat on it to take this sisters photo--Me, Christine, Michelle, and Katie--just before we left for home.


Landon had been really fussy until we got him behind the wheel of Doug's car--he looks completely content.

Tennis Lessons

We went to the park with some of the cutest kids in the world and played tennis. It was so fun. Taylor was quite the hitter--check out that form!

Landon was so excited that there were tennis balls everywhere that he could collect--he was out little ball boy. The grin on his face was great. He had the most curious way of crawling under the net. At one point he stopped and enjoyed a rest in the middle of the court near the net.


Kylee played for a few short minutes.

But Jacob, he was pretty insistant on "getting" this thing. It was so adorable. He would say, "Dad, I'm not good at this!" But then, he would pick up the racket and keep trying.

Here he is looking back at the ball he just missed.

Look at that effort!


Uncle Doug pitched in to help. He is one of the best teachers I have seen with little kids. He would take a lot of time to teach even though I know he would love to be playing Jacob's dad, Aaron, in a game of tennis. Only occaisionally can you see it on his face...

Steve's Wedding

Steve and Megan were married on Friday, May 3rd in the Rexburg temple and Doug and I had been invited to the sealing. It was a beautiful temple and we had a great time with them as well as Steve's family & friends.



David leading the way to the luncheon.

My mom and her girls. She is an amazing lady.


Steve, Tiffany, Andrew & I used to spend many hours together in high school back in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Andrew flew out for the wedding. I hadn't seen him in almost a decade! It was so fun to catch up.


David single-handedly took home the leftovers from the luncheon.

This is David's girlfriend, Chelsea. We had a lot of fun with her.

Hey Baby Let's Go To Vegas

We had a great time soaking up the sun. We left Utah on Thursday morning and packed up the car while it was hailing and snowing. After driving a few hours south, we had sunshine and went camping at "Valley of Fire" State Park in Nevada.


Some anciant characters engraved in rock.

We took a late afternoon hike climbing around some red rock--it was beautiful.




We pulled into Vegas and stayed at the Meridian Resort. I felt like a movie star. Doug is excellent at finding deals on the internet and he got 10 points for this one. We hung out by the pool and played a bit of tennis.


Doug had never seen the Bellagio fountains so he was pretty fascinated.




We went through the MGM Grand on our LONG walk back to our resort from the Tropicana (where the Bodies exhibit was) and saw these real, live lions that we could walk under them in their habitat. They were gorgeous.


We were glad to be off the strip for a moment, even if it was still smoke-filled inside the MGM. It was a wake-up call to both Doug and I. I didn't think one city could have so much evil in it and they flaunt it as "Sin City". It was pretty awful and quite sad. After having countless people try to hand us pronography as we walked, I felt so frustrated. Here Doug and I are holding hands, and we are still having photos of naked women shoved at us. There was a lot of cigarette smoke and a lot of alcohol. It took my lungs a few days to recover. It was a reality check and next time, I would rather pay for a taxi then walk along the strip.

Paying to Look at Dead Bodies

Doug was out of school for 4 days and we planned a trip for me to see "Bodies The Exhibition" as part of my birthday present. Doug found a great resort with NO CASINOS! It was amazing and so fun. I loved the exhibit. I just finished my anatomy and physiology course through Clayton College and this was my "Anatomy Lab". I highly recommend it--Doug didn't even pass out, so it's Doug proof.