Some Summer Highlights

First noteworthy event, a trip to Arches National Park! We spent 3 days there and did every single trail except for one that needed reservations and was completely booked 2 weeks in advance. We'll hit the fiery furnace next time :) Some of you may remember my trip to Arches last year. I assure you that this trip was much more successful. Plus it was me and Matt's first trip together since we've been married! (Not counting our honeymoon). We were so excited to use all of our new camping stuff and have our own little adventure. Plus it was awesome to find such a cool place only 3 hours away from our home.

Our poor, smoky little fire. At one point we smoked out the people next to us! I apologized profusely...we felt so bad, but what are you going to do??

 Even though it never really got to be the kind of fire we wanted it to be (we blame the wood) we had plenty of fun with lighter fluid, poking sticks, and cardboard. Our fire on the second night was a success though so we still feel sort of hard core. 

Here's Matt near the beginning of our big, 10 mile hike. We took the "primitive trail" which basically means that in a lot of sections there is no trail. We were scrambling over giant rocks, sitting down and sliding down slippery rock faces, and weaving through these amazing canyons. This hike was definitely the highlight of our trip even though we had trouble walking the next day.

 I promise I didn't wear the backpack this way the entire time. But this little hydration pack deal is one of my new favorite things! Sucking water out of a little hose is just so much more exciting than drinking out of a boring old bottle.

Now that we know how much we enjoy the whole camping, hiking, national park thing we have a nice long list of all the places we want to visit this summer! Up next weekend is Bryce Canyon, end of July is Zion National Park, and we are hoping to squeeze in Canyonlands or Goblin Valley somewhere.

Here's what else we've been up to:

Our flowers are growing beautifully. These orange dahlias are my favorite. I've been trying to upload this pic horizontally for about 20 min and I can't so just tilt your head a little bit :)

 This is the cute little flower box that Matt built for me. Love those "little purple pansies!"



Matt and Janet drove all day long out to Arizona and back to pick up this dining room table from Matt's great aunt. This table belonged to his great grandmother and it is gorgeous. It's in perfect condition and it fits perfectly in our dining room. We're so lucky to have such generous family.

Last but not least, I thought I'd share my newest "most embarrassing moment" with you. A couple of weeks ago, Matt and I hiked up to Timpanogos Caves with Rick and Brittany (his dad and sister). Since they can only take 12-15 people through the cave at a time you have to sign up for a ranger led tour and can only go through in your designated time slot. We got up to the top an hour early and a nice ranger girl gave us all junior ranger workbooks to keep us occupied while we were waiting. I was the only one to completely finish the workbook, and I did a perfect job on everything except for the "interview a real ranger" part which I was too embarrassed to do. I amused myself making up stupid answers about what a ranger does all day--play bungalow, eat bananas, and sing to yourself--and put it out of my mind. I carried the thing all the way through the cave and all the way down the mountain thinking it would be funny to get the little patch or badge thing.

So, I go into the visitors center and take my workbook to a nice looking ranger lady at the desk, thinking that she would glance over it, laugh at me a little bit, then give me a patch and I could go. Oh no. This woman was insane. First I had to raise my right hand and make the junior ranger pledge (inside the visitors center that is full of people). Then she went through every single page and checked every single answer. I was doing ok until she got to my forged interview...this is where I learn the importance of being 100% honest. She was visibly upset at my answered and started interrogating me about who I had interviewed. Unbeknownst to me, there are certain answers that the ranger's have to give for this interview and whoever had given me my answers had just incurred her wrath. I was too scared to tell her that I had totally made it up so I just said it was the guy with the beard (they all had beards). She speculated with another ranger lady and when they had both decided who it had to have been, she marched over to the copy machine to scan my workbook! Like she was going to use it as incriminating evidence against this poor kid! I finally admitted that I had just been observing the "guy with the beard" and that he hadn't actually given me those answers, but now all of her wrath was directed towards me (does this woman need a life or what??) After berating me for not conducting a real interview, she made me interview her which took about 10 minutes. Finally that was over, she wrote my name on the certificate in careful calligraphy and then grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the center of the room. I had been hoping to make a quick getaway, but no. In her loudest, most official ranger voice, and still gripping my arm so that I couldn't leave, she announced "Everybody! This is Sarah, our newest JUNIOR RANGER!!!" Matt, Rick, and Brittany were hysterical with laughter, I was near tears from trying to hold my laughter in for so long, and I don't think I have ever been that red in my entire life. She even perched a little ranger hat on my head asked if anyone had a camera...I honestly thought I would die.

Was it worth it? No. But it's a good story to tell, and the patch does look pretty cool.