Battle Creek Water Falls

Memorial Day was a treat.
1st: I hadn't noticed it was coming up
2nd: I had the day off at work
3rd: Doug had the day off from school
4th: My brother, David, was in town for the weekend
5th: My friend Alicia from high school came to Salt Lake just before the weekend, so if felt like a really long great weekend spending time with her.
6th: Tiffany and her family were at my parent's house for the weekend
7th: We found a great hike to do in the afternoon on a beautiful sunny day



Doug called his sister and her kids came along with us for this cool hike to Battle Creek waterfall. The trail was just over 1/2 mile each way and the kids found a cool cave on the way up.

The waterfall was pretty cool. The coolest part though--there were kids repelling in between the two ribbons of the falls. It was pretty sweet.

The wind was blowing the mist onto us and the day was just hot enough for it.

Doug's neice, Nikki (red head), Dallin, and Erika. They made the hike especially fun.

I decided to make things more interesting by daring (double-dog) Erika and Dallin to go jump in the waterfall. Keep in mind this was mountain spring water...it was freezing. They did it!

And they were freezing...they voted to go back to the car to warm up and end our hike.

It was a fun short hike. I think Doug loved this especially because it was my idea. He is usually asking me to go for a hike...this time I was asking him. I scored points, so I will remember to do this again.

Gardening

There is something so fun about digging in the ground and watching little green buds break through the soil. This last Saturday, I offered to watch my sister, Tiffany's kids, while her and Tyler did some shopping. Tyler has been doing an internship in St. George while Tiff and the kids are in Salt Lake. He is coming home every-other weekend.



This is Isaac. He is two and adorable. He just stood next to me while we watched Doug work--go Doug!

Cameron was loving hiding in the very tall grass.

We planted spinach, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, zucchini (only 1 plant this year--we did 4 a few years ago, that was nuts!), spaghetti squash, asparagus (which my grandparents told me won't produce for 3 years...we'll be moved away from our apartment by then), green peppers, strawberries, and herbs. I love eating from the garden.

Michael Jackson look alike contest

Doug has observed that I am a little more emotional and irritated with him studying, well all the time! Last Saturday, Doug studied all day long and I just wanted to be outside playing. I gardened alone (shoveled and got a blister), washed both our cars, did the laundry...and hoped he would be done in the evening so I could have a little "Doug time". At the end of the evening, I convinced him to do a facial mask with me. He later told me that he felt like he had to since I was so sad about him studying.



I didn't tell him (on purpose) that the mask would begin to harden and his face would start to itch. It was hillarious. He was at his laptop doing homework typing away and then would stop and say how stiff his face was. Somehow, laughter is the best medicine.


It took over 1/2 hour to dry and I even used a hairdryer on my face to speed the process.

Then I realized, I look like Michael Jackson! It must be the nose, white face, and the weird stiff smile.

It was memorable. For a moment, I was glad to be a little moody so Doug would do this with me.

Down on the Bayou

I think I finally figured out what presents to buy for Doug's birthday. He hasn't been wild about the clothes I've bought him for either Christmas or for his birthday. This year, I emailed his sister, Natalie, who lives in Louisiana and asked if he could come stay with her in between Fall and Spring semesters and the dates worked well. So, I gave Doug a nose hair trimmer, Seinfeld season I, and a trip to see his sister for a whole week. He was so excited. I knew I had done well. Natalie was kind enough to pay for my trip and I joined Doug for a few days. It was a blast.

Natalie's husband Dave was deloyed to Iraq about one month before we arrived. Their youngest, Spencer, attached to Doug right away. He would call for "Dougie" (which sounded exactly like doggie) after every nap and liked to have him in his sight at all times.

These are Natalie's kids--Amanda (8), Maren (5), and Spencer (2). They are really fun kids with lots of imagination.

We found an aligator farm closeby that included a feeding show. It was about a 90 minute drive and we passed through Natchitoches (Nack-a-dish believe it or not) where they filmed Steel Magnolias. This is a photo before the live feeding show--the best part was that the staff doing the feeding was a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and not really trying hard to be entertaining at all. It was hillarious.

Doug and I riding the aligator. I have about a 20 inch waist.

Maren looked adorable in this photo--so I had to include it.

Spencer REALLY loved the canoeing and would have taken a spin in the kyack alone if we let him.

Us and the kids in a canoe at Toledo Bend. It's a huge reservoir where the military has a dock area. They rent boats and canoes very cheap to those in the military. I gained a great appreciation for our military and their families while we stayed on base. When we went to Natalie's ward, there were a few women who were single mothers while their husbands have been deployed, some of them for over 18 months! I didn't appreciate that as much as I do now.

Spencer wanted to sit in the kyack with Dougie.

This was one of the coolest things I saw--we couldn't see the end of this long line of military vehicles.

I don't know if Dave would appreciate a photo of his only son with his head in an aligator's mouth while he is miles and miles away, but we thought it was hillarious.

These things didn't look very scary--just lazy.

Although signs like this reminded us that they were dangerous.

March Madness

We love March.

Here are our top ten reasons:
1. We are March-ants
2. In latin, -ant would make us 'people who March'
3. We have our scheduled 10 day fiesta from March 10th-20th
4. I am 2 years older than Doug for 10 days--straight!
5. Doug buys me presents
6. I buy Doug presents
7. We do something fun for our both our birthdays in ONE MONTH
8. It's the month that Winter ends and SPRING begins
9. March Madness would normally go here, but we're mourning Utah's loss
10. You can start going outside for a bar-b-que and BACKPACKING

March 10: We celebrate my birthday minus the cake. Instead we had yummy chocolate pudding from one of my favorite books: Raw Food Real World. I had never made it before because of the young coconuts you need to buy have gone up in price. But, I remembered a secret--asian markets. So, we picked some up for about 1/2 the cost of the health food stores. It was heavenly!

2 cups young coconut meat
3/4 cup young coconut water (these 2 require 2-3 young coconuts)
1/2 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
1/3 cup agave nectar
2 tbsp vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt

Puree in blender and chill for a firmer pudding.

We put frozen raspberries on top. I think this was taken around midnight. We picked up the coconuts on the way to Hale Center Theatre to see "All Shook Up"

Even though I didn't have cake, it felt weird not to blow out a candle.

March 20: I got off work and drove down to Zions National Park with Doug for a backpacking trip. This was his birthday wish. I don't think there could have been better weather for hiking and backpacking. It was sunny with a nice cool breeze. We hiked La Verkin Creek in the Kolob area of the park. We hiked to Kolob arch after dropping our packs and setting up camp at mile 5 into our adventure. I was very, very sore.

It looks like I am falling over...

This is a view on the trail about mile 3 or so.

This is Douglas also known as Thug-las (this is what his cohort calls him in grad school).

Our campsite. I was really happy to be sitting and Doug had to take a photo. I am glad you cannot see all the sweat.

Doug thought this little tree all by itself was the greatest thing. He said it looked like a Dr. Suess tree and I said Lion King. He took about 7 photos trying to get a good shot. I love him.

This is Kolob arch after sunset about 2 miles from camp. We had to cross some fast moving streams with only a few rocks. I was thinking--"Cool arch. Let's get back to camp." It was stunning--the second largest in the world. We saw the largest a few summers ago in Arches National Park.

A kiss at the arch. This is how dark it was as we hiked back. Doug puts up with my panicking so many times. I really enjoy myself--but panic a LOT in between.

We were having some snacks in the tent and I picked up the trail mix and it spilled everywhere. I quickly started eating it off the tent floor.

The view from our campsite. It was breathtaking. This was our first successful backpacking trip together.

Island Park, ID

When in Island Park where the snow is not measured in inches, but feet...sledding is always a great time. My brother-in-law, Aaron, rented some sleds from BYU-Idaho and we took the hill next to my parent's cabin. These AIRBOARDS were a big hit! They are amazingly fast, and you can steer--they are like riding on an inflatable airbed. So, Doug had some sweet moves.

Crashes

Although I love watching sledding, I don't really enjoy sledding like I used to. When Doug and I were engaged, we went to Idaho for this very same weekend and went sledding at the sand dunes. Something you may not have known--sand dunes can be really steep. Well, I was feeling daring and went down a run with Doug and had a little, well big, accident. We went down a steep hill (after Doug convinced me to, "you can't get hurt Heather, it's just snow") and at the bottom there was a dip and it had a jump. We flew in the air and I think I blacked out--I don't remember even flying through the air. Doug landed on top of me and I had the wind knocked out of me. It was so scary and my back hurt badly. After getting home and going for an xray, I found that I had a compression in my spine--so a few discs are wedged. I tell you this so it is understood that I was adventurous with sledding at one point, just not right now.

Doug and I recently went up to Island Park for our annual President's Day weekend fun with my family. I love my family. Seriously, family is the greatest. We had a lot of fun playing, talking, and sledding. Most of all, it was fun to just see everyone. Doug and I haven't made it up to Idaho in a while and it was great to see my siblings and their families.

My brother-in-law, Chris, took these photos and sent them to us. I laughed when I noticed that I was standing at the top of the hill in every photo. I actually went snowboarding and went down with my neice, Ellie, a few times. She gave me these puppy-dog eyes and asked me to go with her. I do have weak points! She is adorable. Just thought it was hillarious that all photos of me were of me being a little tenative. I had a blast though!

This is Natalie--she is a daredevil. It's amazing to watch her balance and coordination. That's me standing behind her--at the top of the hill.

I think I started collecting sleds to bring them back to the cabin before dinner--it looks like I am Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, moping around...just hard to tell how much fun I was having apparently!

My sister Katie...we had a blast.

This is me, still at the top of the hill 'supervising' the sledding festivities.