Jackson Hill Climb

This past weekend Andy, Hillary, and I traveled over to Jackson for the snowmobile Hill Climb.  Andy's sister and brother-in-law, Amy and Frank, were going and already had a room so we tagged along with them for the weekend.  We left Friday evening about 6:00 and were ready for a fun-filled weekend of hicks, snow, country music, and snowmobiles.  Saturday we got up and headed over the mountain, which was only about 2 minutes away.  At the bottom of the hill were a bunch of vendors, booths, and spectators watching the hill climb.  We walked around for a little bit then Andy, Hill, and I decided to take the ski lift up the mountain so we could watch it on the way up and also find a spot on the mountain to watch.

It was pretty cool riding the lift up and watching the snowmobilers ride underneath you trying to climb up the steep mountain.  Once we got to the top we tried to find a good spot along the fence so that we could watch them as they got to the top of the hill.  There were a lot of people up there and the only way you could see anything was if you were right along the fence.  Since we were on the top of a mountain, it was pretty steep and covered in snow, so the only way to move down to another spot was to slide.  This was the funnest part of the whole day, I think!  We would slide down a little ways and try to watch for a bit, then slide a little farther.  Amy and Frank eventually made their way up the mountain so we met up with them.  We found a good spot a little farther down the mountain and watched the climb for a while.

The crowd at the bottom of the mountain

Me and Andy riding the lift 

Jackson, WY

Hill found a cozy spot to rest and eat some snacks

One of the hill climbers on his way up

Andy and Hill watching the Hill Climb

The next part was the funnest thing! We had to slide all the way down the mountain, and I mean MOUNTAIN!  It was like a big snowy waterslide because there were grooves that had been formed from other people sliding down and they took you through the trees and down these little drop-offs.  I really wish that I had been able to video us going down the mountain because it was so much fun.  We got to a flat spot and had to walk over to where one of the ski runs was to finish sliding down.  There was a group of people getting ready to race down so we joined them.  It was pure craziness!  It started out fun and then we picked up a lot of speed.  As we tried to slow down, the snow would just spray up into our faces making it impossible to see and freezing our faces.  I was trying to slow down because I was flying down the hill, but I couldn't breathe because of the snow and ice flying at my face.  At one point I had turned completely sideways and was afraid I could just start tumbling down the hill.  Eventually we all stopped and just busted up laughing because our faces were covered in ice and snow!! It was so hilarious and I really wish we had videoed it.

This video was from one tiny little hill that we went down.  Sliding down the whole mountain was way more fun and bigger than this!

After that adventure, Andy, Hill, and I went back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub then got ready to go out to dinner.  We met up with Amy and Frank for dinner at The Merry Piglets.  It's a mexican restaurant and it is so yummy! Sunday we got up and had breakfast then walked around downtown and checked out the shops.  It had snowed that night so it was pretty cold which made walking around outside not too fun.  We headed back to Logan after that and I think we all had a super fun and relaxing weekend in Wyoming!  It is always fun to go to Wyo...even if my friends make fun of it! :)

Moving Time!!

March has been a pretty fun and exciting month so far!  To start is off, Jill and Christian found out that they would be moving back to Wyoming from Nebraska...YAY!!! I immediately made plans to go out there to help them move back.  But before that happened I got to celebrate my birthday a little bit.  My wonderful friends Andy and Hillary surprised me on Saturday with tickets to the Jazz game down in Salt Lake.  Well, they didn't actually have the tickets, but that was part of the fun!  Our friends Channy and Brianna also joined us for a great girl's night out!  We headed to The Pie in SLC for super delicious pizza before the game.  It was at the point that I found out that my camera was no longer working...BUMMER!  I need to get pictures from Channy so that I can post them.  After dinner, we headed to the Energy Solutions Arena to find some tickets.  We had been checking KSL for any deals, but didn't find any that were good enough, so we resorted to buying tickets from a scalper.  That was an experience! We bought upper bowl tickets for cheap and headed to our seats.

We immediately started scoping out some empty seats in the lower bowl that we could move into.  Andy's parents had seats in the 12th row behind the basket with a couple empty seats beside and behind them.  As soon as half time hit we headed right down there and got much better seats! We ended up staying in those seats for the whole rest of the game which ended up being way intense.  It went into overtime and the Jazz finally won! It turns out that those seats originally sell for about $115 and we only paid $15. Booyah! After the game, we went down the court and watched them interview Harris, saw CJ Miles, and I even gave Harris a high-five! Pretty much the best Jazz game!!

That next Wednesday I flew out of SLC to Nebraska to help Jill and Christian move.  My parents had been in Mexico the previous week without cellphone reception, so they had no idea that I was flying to NE.  My mom was also flying out that same day and I knew that we were going to be in the same flight from Denver to McCook, so I decided to surprise her in the airport.  It was so funny to see her reaction when I found her! Priceless!  We made it to McCook (For the last time ever!!) and got right into packing and cleaning.  They had started packing up their stuff already, but we still had our work cut out!  My birthday was on Thursday and after a long day of cleaning and packing, we went over to their friend's, the Blomstedts, for dinner.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and then some cake and ice cream.  Friday was the big moving day.  We finished packing everything up and then most of the people from their Branch came over around 5 to help load up the Uhaul.  We had about 40-45 people there helping and it seriously made a difference! They loaded that truck up in no time.

Saturday we made the looooong trek back to Wyoming.  After about 14 hours, we finally made it back to my parent's house in Powell.  That was one of the longest trips I have ever experienced and I was very glad to home.  Sunday we headed over to Lovell to start unloading the Uhaul.  They are going to be renting Christian's grandma's house for now.  Christian's family was all there to help with the heavy lifting and unloading.  Monday I went to Basin to see Mallory before she had her baby and then headed to Lovell to help out with the cleaning and moving.  Tuesday we started to paint the bedrooms. Tuesday night we all went out to dinner for my late birthday dinner.  I was originally supposed to fly out of Cody on Wednesday afternoon, but I ended up getting to stay another day.  The plane was overweight so they were looking for volunteers to not go on that flight and take the first flight on Thursday morning.  I was so excited that I could finally actually do this so I volunteered and ended up getting a $400 flight voucher for Delta.

Mom and I cleaning away

Yes, the cake says Happy Birthday Butts.  Should have seen the girl's face when Jill asked her to write that!

The boys wrestling

Taking a break in Casper and giving Opie a little lovin

Letting them run!

Boxen!

Carson helping out!

So we had this packing tape that was not sticky AT ALL so what does my dad do with it?? Use it to wrap me up, of course!

Using a knife to cut the tape off...little scared if you can't tell!

What a cute little dork :)

Oh how I love cleaning!

Since my camera has decided to die on me, I had to steal pictures from my mom and sister...thanks! I am so glad that Jill and Christian decided to move back to Wyo.  It will be great to get to see them every time I go home and will get to spend more time with them and the boys.  It was a lot of fun getting to spend the whole week with them.

Up, Up, and Away!

On Monday I finally got to go flying with Jabin!  He is now a flight instructor at the airport here in Logan and he took me, his friend Chet and his wife Morgan on an amazing sunset flight.  It was so cool to see Cache Valley, the mountains and Bear Lake from 10,000 feet.  It is such a pretty area and is great to see it from a different perspective.  I had never been in a small plane like this before (even tho I have been on some pretty tiny ones flying to Nebraska or Wyo!) so I was a little nervous but mostly excited.  I can't believe he gets paid money to fly airplanes all day...how cool is that?!?

So, for our flight we headed south then turned east and headed over the mountains.  We came around and flew over the top of Bear Lake and then headed back to Logan by flying over Logan Canyon.  The weather was perfect and it only got a little bumpy as we came out of the canyon at the end.  We couldn't have asked for a better sunset either! It was beautiful anyways, but to see it from the air was spectacular!  I even got to fly the plane for a little while! I thought he was joking when he said I had control and was flying it, but then I took a hold of the controls and I sure was flying! He even pulled some maneuver so we could experience zero gravity...wow!! That was a crazy feeling! This is definitely a memorable day and hopefully something I can do again!

Me and Jabin before our flight

This is one of their "biggest" planes!

Logan Temple

I'm flying!! AH!

Bear Lake

I love flying :)

Beaver Mountain...where I went snowboarding that morning

seriously the best sunset ever!

Old Main on the USU Campus

Back on the ground