When my sister built a house in a new neighborhood, there was nothing but adventure around us. At the tail end of a party at her place, the remaining guests, myself included, went on a walk to discover what was past her neck of the woods. About a mile or so later, we reached the park designed specifically for her neighborhood. Little did we know that it would contain the most delightsome experience.

Riding "The Green Dinosaur" is now a St. George tradition. Any time I go home, especially when I bring friends home with me, we ride The Green Dinosaur.

This trip, The Green Dinosaur was so fierce, it immediately bucked my friend, Rachael, and I right off, hence the wood chips on my back.

Three months in review

I can't even remember the last time I clicked on my Blogger bookmark. My last post was in mid-August. I miss blogging. I miss writing in my journal. So many things have happened, but I haven't taken the time to stop to record them. I'll have to refer back to my facebook status updates to try and remember the noteworthy things that have happened in my life recently to begin recording them. Until then, I'll generate a list of some important points. I can't promise that they'll be chronological, nor will I promise that they will make sense to everyone.

I stayed home sick today from work. I have a cold, although part of me wishes it was swine flu. I still don't believe that disease exists (despite the number of confirmed cases in Tooele County).
Speaking of Tooele County, I'm officially a resident.

I didn't vote this year which makes me very sad. It's the first election I've ever missed in all my voting years. I never took the time to familiarize myself with the candidates and proposals for this county. I didn't want to go to the polls uneducated and pick the name that sounded the best. I was ashamed that I neglected my patriotic duty to be informed and to share my voice.

I really like Tooele. Or at least I did until it started to snow.

My car broke. The transmission gave out. That wasn't the only thing wrong with it. It would've cost more to fix than it's worth. It was a blessing in disguise. Well, actually it wasn't even disguised all that well. I was certain to die in the car I used to drive if I were to have driven it in the snow.

That means I bought a new (to me) car. It's number one selling point for me was traction control. I told myself if I ever lived in the snow again then I wanted a car with traction control. I was sold on that feature years ago when I lived in Provo and dated a boy who drove a car with traction control. I was never scared when I drove his car, but I was always scared when I drove my car.

So far, I love my car.

Second only to traction control is my other favorite feature. It has a tape deck. That's right. I can listen to cassette tapes any time I want in my car. The only problem is, I don't have any cassette tapes. So I'm adding that to my Christmas List. As a matter of fact, it's the only thing on my Christmas List (since the last item was satisfied a little over a month ago). I want a mix tape from each and every one of you. PLEASE. And make this wish come true faster than my wish for a Snuggie.

Speaking of Snuggies, I got one! YAY! My life is complete now. My younger sister, Casey, got one for me. I'm using it right now. To show my appreciation for her wonderful gift, I created this photo album of me enjoying my Snuggie. View the album here. You'll be ever so grateful you did. (Of course, I have to thank Casey again for taking the pictures for this gratitude photo album.)

I'm the in the Relief Society Presidency of my ward. I was a little, make that a lot, intimidated by the calling. I've never felt like I was the woman that I imagined all members of Relief Society Presidencies to be. As always, the Lord has helped me to grow into my calling. This calling has been the source of great happiness and countless blessings these past couple months. I look forward with great anticipation to the tremendous blessings that will continue to occur in my life as I serve diligently.

I really like my ward. It's smaller than I would like, but there are new people and visitors every week. We'll be busting at the seams before you know it.

I've made some really great friends in my ward as well. I have something to do every night of the week. We go on amazing adventures. Click here, here, here, here, and here for some photos of the great things we do.

I like teaching. Teaching is fun. The rest of my job isn't as fun. Well, I take the back. The social part of my job is fun. I have made some really good friends in my colleagues. One of the other fifth grade teachers has become one of my favorite friends. We went to St. George together during UEA and hiked in Zion and caught a couple shows. We went to The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and to Aida at Tuacahn.
Gosh, I miss St. George. I almost drove there last night. I just didn't want to drive back today. Oh, well. Thanksgiving will be here in a week-ish. I can hardly wait.

My students are amazing. They are adorable. They are smart. They work really hard. They make me giggle all the time. I had a student say to me the other day, "You laugh more than anyone I know." I took that as the highest compliment. I like them, and they like me. They like me so much, that they want me to have the finer things in life...including a dreamy boyfriend. They invented a boyfriend for me a couple weeks ago named Chad Hotpants. He has been the source of many a conversation since then. I even had a student bring in a picture from a magazine of Chad Hotpants. He clipped out the cartoon of a man climbing a ladder with the seat of his pants on fire. Hahahaha! They had a heyday the one time I ever let them write on the white board. Enjoy these photos of their graffiti.

Well, this post is entirely too long. I'll have to save some other random information for another day, but I wanted to get these posts under way so that I could post a few days worth of "I'm thankful for..." posts. I really enjoyed that last year.

An adventure at Bear Lake

What does an alfalfa field have to do with my adventure to Bear Lake?
Everything.

My adventure started with this status update.
Having scored an invite, I was set to go. I didn't bother with finding out any more details than what time my sister, Casey, and I should meet them.
It turns out this was a singles stake activity. Our link to the stake was Karl, but he didn't even know what ward he was in or the names of his Bishopric. (He's new to the ward.)
Having waited for Nic to get off work, we didn't get to Bear Lake until after dinner had been scheduled to be served, so we stopped at a pizza joint.
We arrived at the stake campsite just in time for the rest of a concert.

Wanting to leave the crowded campsite behind to enjoy a peaceful night under the stars, we went in search of a place to camp on the shore. Karl told us that a former Bishop of his owned some property up on the Idaho side that had beach access. He assured us that it would be okay for us to stay there.
We trusted him.
We pulled off the road onto an alfalfa farm. He promised us that a short hike would lead to the beach.
We trusted him.
We piled all our stuff on our backs and started walking through the field. Before we knew it, we hit muddy, marshy patches. We kept going, because Karl insisted that the beach was just ahead.
We trusted him.
At one dry point, we set our stuff down and sent Karl through the next wet patch. Our trust in him was fading. He soon reached a barbed wire fence.
We decided to set up camp right there.
Nic brought a tent which he shared with Michelle. Casey and I didn't have a tent, but had planned to sleep under the stars anyway. Karl brought a tent but didn't want to use it.
Michelle had borrowed a tarp which turned out to be ginormous. How big was it? Large enough for three tacos and a tent. (You had to be there, although I will attempt to explain in just a bit.)




The forecast had stated a chance of rain showers in the area. Those of us who were sleeping under the stars staged our sleeping quarters so that we could roll the tarp over us if it started to rain. Sometime, someone called this tarp covering a taco. From then on, we referred to covering ourselves with the tarp tacoing in.
Less than an hour after falling asleep, I awoke, because I was certain that someone was walking on our tarp. It turns out I was crazy, but it still proved beneficial.
The stars were no longer visible and the air was moist. It was ready to rain. My sister woke up to me making some noise. She asked me what I was doing. I casually stated that I was going to taco in, because I suspected it would rain any minute. Nic and Michelle hadn't yet fallen asleep and erupted in laughter at the use of the new phrase. Karl awoke to their laughter; he tacoed in as well.
The rain did come. Although never a heavy rain, it was a consistent rain. The tarp amplified the drips of the small raindrops keeping me from falling into a deep sleep.
Morning soon came to our excitement. We all desperately wanted to see where we had spent the night.
(This photo was not staged. These were the real expressions on their faces shortly after waking up and looking around.)

We packed in a hurry, because we didn't want confrontation with a farmer. (I still can't believe it. We camped in the middle of a recently harvested alfalfa field. Ahhh hahahahaha!)
Below is one of the wet, marshy areas we trudged through because we trusted Karl.

The rain continued throughout the morning. Finally, we decided to pack up and head home. We didn't want to wait to see if the rain would stop so that we could go out on the lake.

Since neither Michelle, Casey, nor I had ever been to Bear Lake, we were determined to make it to the shore. We stopped near the stake campsite to view the lake. Not knowing that we could've accessed the beach much easier down the road, we three girls started trudging through the mud and river reeds to get to the water. Nic hollered at us after we had already gone halfway to tell us there was an easier way. However, we were committed (and no longer foreign to getting our pants soaked and muddy). We enjoyed the little bit of the lake we got to experience.


Although different than I ever would've imagined, my adventure at Bear Lake was wonderful...wonderfully memorable. I can't wait until next time when I can enjoy it like any normal person would.