My Dad's House

A little over a week ago now, we headed south for a great roadtrip to a dear friend's wedding in Sante Fe. On the way we stopped by my dad's house. My dad lives in Glendale, UT just outside of Zion, on the east side with his wife Peggy and all of their animals. They've lived there for about 5 years now, ever since my pops retired. They have a cute little fixer-up on a small piece of property. They have rabits and chickens and 3 gardens... great little spot for them. Peggy works for Best Friends Animal Rescue/Shelter. What a gig! Best Friends has like 300,000 acres dedicated to all sorts of animals. She brings home animals all the time... ducks, tons of miniature dogs, birds, etc. My dad still drives life-sized tonka trucks to keep himself busy during the week.

It was a great time. I haven't seen my dad in over 3 years... before I went to Germany... a sad truth. Daniel only remembers my dad from the days of our high school love hiatus, and since I didn't live with my dad back then, it was a lot of fun for them to actually meet and hang out as "men." We got there SUPER late on Day 1 of our trip... around 12:30am. Stayed up til about 2:30am having some beers and shooting the breeze while watching one amazing lightening storm.

Day 2- we had a hearty breakfast (that's what you do when you're at my dad's, you eat A LOT) then packed up the cooler, grabbed some guns, and loaded the dogs up. Peggy and my dad took the dogs in the LandCruiser, while Daniel and I followed on the 4-wheelers. We were out in the sparse (and HOT) southern Utah wilderness for most of the day looking for arrowheads, shooting guns, and having beers. On the way back, the good ol' LandCruiser had a little trouble with the heat so Daniel had to pull with his wheeler while I pushed with mine...

Pics- we came across some horses on the open range... then Daniel trying to teach Timber to ride on the back of his 4-wheeler... then I had to take a break to get the towing picture...

After we finally made it back, Will & Jess showed up shortly thereafter. Quite the family reunion, since I haven't seen them for about 4 years... They live in Fargo (yup, Fargo...). They're both in the final stretch of their PhD's (nerds!). Willy in Zoology and Jess in History.

Day 3- again, we ate a ton of food to start the day, then we headed into Zion NP. I haven't hiked in the park since I was in 8th grade, so it was so fun to see it all again up close. Daniel had never been to Zion, and since I'm a National Park NERD, I was so excited for him to see Zion. It's one of my favorites. We didn't do the hike that I really wanted to do (Angels Landing), which was probably a good thing since it was 100+ degrees out. We did an easy hike that we were able to just enjoy and take a lot of pics on. After the park, we spent some time with the extended family... grandma, uncles, cousins, etc. Again, none of us ever see each other and do a VERY POOR job at staying in touch, so it was fun to catch up. Exhausting day... so headed back for some shut eye before packing up and getting out early for Sante Fe... a 9+ hour drive southeast...

Pics- Will is a nerd with a big camera... Daniel and I with some beautiful red cliffs in the background (can't wait to go back and EXPLORE more)... the canyon sections were so beautiful, and everything was so green, very unusual for southern Utah... and the gang...

To Be Continued...

I'll be back with details and pics from our recent road trip to a home-town friend's, Amy Uberuaga, wedding. Great trip with great stops along the way.

Until then... Loves! L&D

Backpacking to Hell Roaring Lake

After the backcountry run we headed up north and went backpacking for one night. After 45 minutes of driving on the most rugged jeep trail I have ever experienced it was just a short 2-mile jaunt out to Hell Roaring Lake. 2 miles is all I could do after the race :)













It was GORGEOUS out there! We ended up bushwacking around the entire lake with Timber in the lead... literally, too. We followed Timber to find our way around the lake with all of the tributary crossings.



















The view from our camp site.
(Though beautiful, we did get eaten alive by bugs!)

The sun came up on the mountains and it looked it was on fire.









The sunrise was our cue, so we trekked back to the truck in the best morning sunlight.




...Great trip. Felt awesome to cruise around with everything we needed on our backs for the first time all summer. We took some books and read. Took naps. Ate salami and crackers for snacks and had a fabulous dinner of Top Ramen. I think everyone needs to get away entirely for at least 24 hours every few weeks.

Back Country Run

A few weekends back Daniel was off doing some manual labor for someone and I decided to jump in the Back Country Run. I had been wanting to actually train for the race so my body would feel good afterwards and during, but I just never got around to training for the run. A local shop in town puts this race on each year. There is a 10 mile option and a 16.5 mile option. Of course I'm not crazy enough to run 16.5 miles for fun (just yet at least!) so I opted for the 10 mile run. I've started to enjoy running trails since I moved here and I had never experienced and organized backcountry event, so I decided Why Not? So... the night before as Daniel ordered up some pizza, I fully comitted and made some spaghetti.

I won't lie... it wasn't easy... but it was fun! The first bit was OK, but when we started to climb up Griffin's Butte at the 5 mile mark, I was thinking "why the hell did I decide to do this???!" I made buds with this chick named Erin and we just powered through the climb of it together. Once we summited, I let 'er rip and cruised downhill. And, much to my surprise with the rough conditions of the trail, I didn't fall once! I had a close one, but managed to save myself. I feel good about finishing in 1:34. I was 9th for my age group. Great experience.

Ritter

Josh Ritter came to town a few weeks back to open for G Love. It was Daniel's first Ritter experience and I was SOOOO excited for that!

It was a great show and I think that Daniel fell in love with Ritter too :)