Snowboarding!

This last weekend I went snowboarding for the first time with my family. My brother Joe had tried it a couple weeks ago and just loved it! So my dad decided to take us snowboarding at Copper Mountain and have us all try it out. It was me, my dad, Sarah, Joe, Jordan and Joe's friends that went. We started on a short green with all the ski school people. We were one of the first ones up so it was nice and fresh with a small layer of powder on our 1st run down. The 1st run was soooo funny! I laughed the whole way watching all of us slip and fall and try again. We all had our share of crashes landing on our tail bones, hips, wrists, shoulders, and backs. There's just something funny about falling that makes you laugh. :)

Well after the 1st run, my toes were FROZEN! I have never experienced pain like I did when I went to the lodge to let them defrost! It hurt sooooo bad! Sarah went with me and should've taken a picture of all the funny facial expressions I was making. It was horrible! So I stuck some hand warmers down my socks and went on with the day. I was fine after that if any of you were wondering. :)

The rest of the day was really good. We all got to the point where we could stay up and slow down on one side of the board but all had problems with the other side, if you know what I mean. Like for me, since I'm goofy foot, I was fine carving on the heal side, but toe side I just couldn't get down. And by the end of the day my legs were burning so bad that I couldn't get anywhere very fast. Definitely need to get into shape!

Overall, the day was really good, even with all the bumps and bruises. I had a lot of fun laughing and talking with my dad and siblings on the lifts. Maybe I'll try it again one of these days.

4wheelin and Coyote Callin

Thanksgiving is traditionally the lazy holiday for me. It's the break from all the hard work during the semester and the calm before the storm of cramming for finals. So although this year I did not spend all my time lounging around my house with my family, I went to Las Vegas (as usual) to spend Thanksgiving with Travis and his family and had another adventure: 4wheeling!

We decided to try and find the back way into Red Rocks. It's suppose to be a pretty fun 4wheeling trail and definitely was until we reached the road washout. The road was completely gone! There were huge rock bed boulders blocking our way and we noticed that there were many jeeps who had tried to go through and had bottomed-out all over the place. So we decided that the Tacoma probably couldn't handle it and went on our way to go call in some coyotes.

Continuing on with my hunting experiences, Travis decided we had to call in some coyotes. So I LET him dress me up in his hunting garb and we staked out in the bushes trying to bring the coyotes to us. Now I would NEVER TRY to bring any sort of wild animal my way and was glad to know that Travis is a pretty good shot, especially after watching him the last time we went hunting. So we sat there just waiting and watching for coyotes. Now I wish I could tell you that all these scary coyotes came running our way and that it was such a rush and wild experience, but I decided that they must already be dormant for the winter or something because we saw nothin! Supposedly we did hear some call back to us, but I thought it was another caller but I could be wrong.

So since we had the guns, I got to practice my target shooting with the 22. :) That's always fun and I'm hoping to take my brothers and sisters out over Christmas. Yeah!

Horseback Riding

Two weekends ago I went horseback riding with Lisa, Travis, and Ryan-our home teacher. He invited my roommates and I to go, but Lisa and I were the only ones who ended up going. Travis came into town Friday night on a surprise visit so of course he came with us too.

We went to Ryan's aunt's house in Wallsburg near Deer Creek Reservior. It was really nice and peaceful out there and would've been a lot prettier a few weeks earlier, but the leaves had already fallen and it was a little chilly. Besides the change of season, it was really beautiful and so nice to get outside and do something fun. I got to ride a horse (obviously) named Rusty. A lot of the time he did whatever he wanted and basically had a mind of his own. My friends said he suited me. :) He was also a very smelly horse and I think he might of had some stomach/bowel problems that day. But that is definitely NOT why my friends said he suited me well.

Travis's horse, Midnight was in love with Rusty. She followed Rusty wherever he went which was great because then I got to ride with Travis the whole time. We had fun with our lovey horses. :)

Hunting

Last weekend I went down to Las Vegas to visit Travis and was able to experience my first hunting trip! I really didn't know what to expect and really don't like the idea of dead animals, but I went open minded and decided to see what it's all about.

We headed down to the secret spot and took a turn off to find these watering spots for birds; I think they're called guzlers. Up the canyon a ways we'd stop and call for Chucker (I have no idea how to spell that) and found a spot to start hunting. Travis was on his own for this one because Chucker hunting involves a lot of fast hiking and I didn't want to slow him down. So I hung out and played on the rocks, my favorite, while he shot a couple Chuckers.

Afterwards we decided to go 4-wheeling out in the shrubs and down in the wash and back out again on the other side-Now THAT was a rush! I pretty much felt like we were going to flip over and wondered at times how we were going to get out! But of course Travis had everything under control since he's got amazing 4-wheeling skills and we found another spot to go hunting.

This time it was quail hunting. This takes place on the flats; I think is what he called it. So I got to drive the truck around, which I loved, and also accompanied him while we walked around trying to scare out the birds. Well, like I said we were the ones who are supposed to be scaring the birds, but they got the best of me and scared the crap out of me flying out of a bush right in front of my face. That was quite the adrenalin rush since I knew Travis was going to shoot at it and thought, 'What if he misses and shoots me?' I thought it was a legitimate concern, but he just smiled and reassured me that he would never shoot me. I guess that doesn't happen very often when you're hunting with people who know what they're doing.

So overall it was really fun and it was great seeing Travis do what he loves. I loved being outside doing new things. The dead birds still weren't my favorite thing, but I think I could get use to it. We'll see...

MOAB!

About a month ago my friends and I went to Moab for our big trip of the semester. We camped at the usual spot I go to - Moon Flower Campground. It is located in a canyon along the river across from WallStreet. While we were there we did an 120ft. repel off of Corona Arch. This time we did double repels off both sides while Travis video taped us in mid air. Tenley and Dave were a little more adventurous and got Kara and Lisa to help them by pulling on their ropes for them so that they could kiss in mid-air. It was a blast! Later we hiked to Delicate Arch and ended our day back at the campsite exhausted and ready for bed. We had pretty funny jokes from that trip that are probably a little inappropriate to write about. Let's just say that our theme picture is one of Tenley's hair caught in the carabiner after her big repel. :) Yeah MOAB~!

Blogging? What's that?

So what is blogging anyways? Blogging is a way to share your ideas with the rest of the world. It is a web-based self-publishing journal of your opinions, incites, and personality. It is a form of self-advertising and a way to connect with others who also have the same interests and opinions as you do. Anyone can read your blog and comment on the things that you have written. Blogging is a great way to gain the trust of others and to come to know the thoughts and intentions of others through reading their blogs.
I am just an amateur at this so if you want to know more, check out what wikipedia has to say about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog (By the way, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that is written by internet users and is edited by internet users, therefore it is kept accurate by those of us who read it.)
Now I bet a lot of you are thinking, how can I have my own blog? Well that's easy. Simply go to http://www.blogger.com/start and they will walk you through it. If you have any questions or comments, click on the comments button below and let me know what you think!