It was my second night living in Chicago and a very exciting one at that. I've seen some storms but nothing quite like what I experienced on Monday night. About 6 or 7 pm the winds picked up and merciless lightening crashing down on the city and tremendous thunder shook the buildings. The people on the streets were in as much as a frenzy as the night sky. People were running back and forth taking cover as the rain pounded down. Everywhere I walked I heard sirens from police and firetrucks. The city turned on its tornado warning, debris littered the ground, tree branches snapped as the sky continued to unleash its anger on the city all night long. The thunder was so loud that it would actually startle me and the lightening was so intense that the thought of actually being struck crossed my mind several times. To add to the mayhem of the night another bizarre thing happened to me as I left a grocery store about 10:30pm I notice some people gawking at something and a fire truck on an adjacent street. Chicago is full of bars so I thought that some poor fool had drunken himself to a stupor. As I got closer I saw orange flames flickering from inside a store. That was enough to peak my interest and I joined the gawking crowd, watching the fireman break the glass windows of the store and drench the inside with water. About 3 other fire trucks pulled up to help and they quickly extinguished the fire that was supposedly started by a neon sign in the window. A news reporter saw me taking pictures and asked me to send him the pictures because it was so unexpected he didn't have his camera on him. Anyways it was a wild night in the windy city.

Exploring Utah

Sadly it was time to leave Utah and move on to the next chapter in life. When I first started school I was rather disgusted with Utah in more ways then one. However, as I've spent more time in Utah I've been able to see its natural beauty as I traveled the state in search of new adventures. In the 4 years I've lived here I feel as though I've really gotten to experience Utah and have seen a lot of the state. The following is a list of places I've been or things I've done in Utah:


Bridal Vail falls


The abandoned restaurant


Stewart falls


Provo Canyon


American Fork Canyon


Wake boarded at Deer Creek Reservoir


Wake boarded on Utah Lake


Sailed on Utah Lake


Sailed at Sand Hollow


Sundance


Snowboarding at Brighton


Snowboarding at The Canyons


Climbing in Rock Canyon


Climbing in Maple Canyon


General Conference


MOTAB Christmas concert


Lights on Temple square


Energy Solutions Center (Formally known as Delta Center)


Fort Douglas


Gobblin Valley


Zion National Park


Mystery Canyon


Narrows


Misery Canyon


Emerald Pools


Pine Creek


Arches National Park


Canyon Lands National Park


Dead Horse Point State Park


Climbing in St. George


Float the Colorado River


Climbing In Moab


Kolob Canyon


Climbing in Kolob


Kanara Creek


Strawberry Days Rodeo (Pleasant Grove)


Fiesta Days Rodeo (Spanish Fork)


Scottish Festival


Diamond Fork Canyon Hot Pots


Camping at Payson lakes


Snowshoeing/camping/snowcaves at Strawberry reservoir


Bear Lake


Escalante


Peek-a-boo canyon


Spooky canyon


Freedom Festival (Provo)


Summerfest (Orem)


Bear Lake


Lake Powell


Nutty Putty Caves


Fished the Provo River


Park City


Upper Calf Creek Falls


Mona rope swing



Yuba lake



Silver Lake



American Fork Canyon

Bonneville Salt Flats

Hiked the Y

Ringling Brothers Circus

Disney On ice

Grizzlies Hockey Game

Real Salt Lake Soccer Game

Squaw Peak

I'll miss little happy valley and the beautiful mountains that guard it. Even more though I'll miss the friends I left behind. Utah's found a niche in my heart to stay. I'll be back again to conquer the next adventure, walk the nostalgic roads and visit the friends who made it all worth it.

American Fork Camping

A bunch of us went up to American Fork to camp and do some hiking. We drove up to Silver lake flatts and looked for a campsite. We couldn't find any without a considerable hike to regardless of the signs telling us that we can't camp within a half mile of the lake we pitched our tents in a little clearing nearby the lake. I discovered a few natural poles and decided to make myself a teepee to sleep in. I've always wanted to make and sleep in a teepee so I was really excited to do it. The teepee wasn't quite big enough enough but I managed to sleep the night. The next morning we were greeted by a disgruntled ranger saying, "didn't you know you couldn't camp here," in his stern ranger voice. Unfortantely that slapped us with a fine that taught us to get up and pack up before the rangers come :) . After Breakfest we hiked to silver lake which was beautiful. I was shocked when we got there and there was still snow at the banks of the river. I had brought tubes to play in the water with but they quickly became our down hill sledding machines. Who would have thought we would be going sledding in the middle of june when it was 80 plus degrees?? The whole trip was fun despite the ranger.

Tour de Donut Training

I entered to race in the Tour de Donut coming up this weekend. It is a bike race held in American Fork. Here's the skinny on the race....

"It's simple. Race 21 miles and see who is the king donut! In circuit style, ride 7 miles, then eat as many donuts as you would like. No limit. Then, ride 7 more miles, eat more donuts, then ride the last 7 mile lap. Glory and adulation are waiting for you at the Finish Line. Proceeds benefit the Utah Amber Alert ID project."

I've always loved donuts and i think this is my time to shine. Practicing for it has been hard work...

to be continued......

My attempt to be a Photographer

Here are a few pictures from my latest adventure (in American Fork Canyon at Silver Lake) that I took with my new camera. I'm still trying to play around with the different features and settings so that the pictures turn out good. Most of the pictures I took were duds but I got a few that I was pleased with. I apologize to the rest of the people with me if they got annoyed with me stopping at every bend to take a dozen pictures. I'm sorry I'm sure this will wear off in time but I'm a little obsessed right now. I'll do a posting on the adventure later. Enjoy.

My camera has a cool macro setting that I like to use.

Playing with the ISO

This is the moon coming up captured by having the shutter open for a longer time

The credit for this picture actually goes to Liz. I really like the symmetry in it.

New Camera!!

A week ago I decided I wanted to buy a digital camera. So I began the quest to find the right camera. That quest consumed my life and for a week I was a slave to learning about cameras. Finally, after hours and HOURS of reading reviews, 4 trips to Best Buy, 2 trips to Circuit City, talking with 6 sales employees, and Shonda twice, I bought one. I decided on the Canon powershot sd 870 IS digital elph. You know with a name like that it's gotta be good. So far I'm loving it. I've read over 100 pages in the manual and have learned way more then I'll ever remember. I just want to take pictures now.

The Return to Moab

I had so much fun the last time I was in Moab I was anxious to take some more friends down and show them the good things Moab has to offer. Sadly this kind of marked the last campout or big activity that some of us would have together as some of my friends we're moving on (Jared and Ann moving to Denver, Brett to Chicago). Our cozy little camp site.

There was 9 of us that went down to Moab. We started our days adventure with the hike to morning glory. This is the hike I had previously done with Michelle about a month ago.

Our modern Moses leading the way...

Teaching them the ropes at the first repel...


We did the second repel over morning glory arch a little differently this time. We did what is known as a simul repel. That is where two people go off the arch at the same time on opposite sides using each others weight as the counter balance. Brett, weighing 30 lbs more, and I were the first ones to go. I got a little nervous after we started walking backwards and I started to get tugged back up the arch a step. Visions of me flying over the side flashed through my mind. However we made it down alright and anchored the bottom for the everyone else. It was sweet repelling down together! We were greeted by what seemed like the paparazzi as a bunch of onlookers were taking pictures from the bottom.


This is probably one of my favorite pictures. I think everyone was a little nervous and needed a little assurance that things would be ok.


The second arch on our list was Corona Arch. This one was new to me and so I was really excited to repel it. The hike to the top of the arch followed these footprints that were worn into the rock and ran up this really steep (almost vertical) sketchy slope. We managed to get to the top and as the sun was starting to set we repelled off the 140 ft arch.





The scenery was gorgeous. And we all got your glamour shots taken...

Jared

Brett

Devin
Me

The theme of the trip was to be "Hard Core" and we we're all proud that we had become so.