Buckskin Gulch!

This past Friday and Saturday we hiked down Buckskin Gulch and the upper section of Paria Canyon with some of our friends. It was 20-something miles of awesome, and I took a LOT of pictures! We probably could have arrived at our campsite at least an hour earlier on Friday afternoon if I hadn't stopped every 5 feet (okay... maybe that is a slight exaggeration :P) to take a picture during the 14 miles we hiked the first day. ;) Here's just a few of my favorites.

One of my very favorites. Isn't it gorgeous in there? 

Also my favorite... ;)

Dinner at our camp!

Hiking out Paria the next morning. Isn't this formation crazy? I'm glad I wasn't around when this fell!

We made it! :)

We stopped by Horseshoe Bend on the way home. 

Be an Optimist Prime, not a Negatron

This weekend we went and did a couple of canyons. The water was cold, but it was awesome! Plus, I can now say I've done a 180 foot rappel... the highest one I have done so far. Here's a few pictures.

Yes, that is SNOW. 

Dallin pulling out some ninja moves to stay out of the water

The big 180 footer! Those are trees at the bottom, not bushes... haha

Here I go! :) 

Once I had the chance I took a couple pictures to try to capture how high I was. I was almost halfway down at this point, but the ground is still pretty dang far away! That is Dallin way down there. 

Take 2... a little better focused on the ground. It was really hard to take pictures with my left hand especially with thick gloves on... 

Here I come! :) 

I like this guy. :)

We also made pizza margherita this weekend, which is THE best pizza ever, in my opinion. It tastes so fresh and I just love it. It's my favorite for sure. The sauce is made with fresh tomatoes, salt, and a little olive oil, and it is topped with mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. SO GOOD.

My mouth is watering just looking at this...

Yesterday was such a good Sunday. We spoke in the Spanish branch (That's what I get for marrying someone who went to Spain on his mission :P) which was fun. I liked hearing Dallin speak in Spanish, even if I didn't understand all of it. ;) My primary lesson went well too, and that always makes me happy since it is hard to have a good lesson sometimes with squirmy 9-year-old boys! The rest of the day was really nice as well. Sunday is my favorite day of the week by far. :)

I also indexed for the first time yesterday. I've been meaning to do it for a really long time (like... years, unfortunately), but just never begun. If you don't know what I am talking about, you can go here to learn more and maybe start doing it yourself! Basically, you just type up family history information from scans of genealogical documents so that there is a digital, searchable copy. Right now the focus is on the 1940 census that was recently released. It is really easy to do, and I've enjoyed it quite a bit more than I was expecting, to be honest! :) It is cool to think about the people whose names and information I am indexing and wonder about what they were like and the kind of lives they lived.

Seriously though, if you have been thinking about indexing but haven't started yet, I highly recommend it! I wish I had started a long time ago. It's a very easy way to do something very worthwhile.

And... this is completely unrelated, I just think it is awesome and it makes me happy. :)

Are you an Optimist Prime, or a Negatron? :)

Have a happy day! :)

-M

Flowers, ice skating, and "jumpalines"

I've tried to grow things in the past, but always seemed to kill them off remarkably quickly. Since my schedule isn't even close to as crazy as it used to be when I was a full-time student with a part-time job, I figured maybe I'd give it another shot and plant some flowers. I'm planning on trying some more flowers, and maybe some veggies and such as well. We'll see how that goes... :)

I've always loved Bachelor's Buttons... I think my mom used to have some
when I was little. They're so whimsical and colorful. :)

Yesterday, I got to hang out with my family. We went ice skating. :) 

We had the whole place to ourselves! That never happens. 

Can you believe this kid is only 2 years old? He is huge! That
made helping him skate quite the workout... haha

Jumping on what my little siblings call the "jumpaline" ;)

My brother Isaac loves to bake and surprised me
with a homemade paradise pie! Oh, so good.

I love Arizona sunsets! 

Two months down...

...an eternity to go! :)

Time is an interesting thing. On one hand, it is crazy to think it has already been two months since we got married. On the other hand, it seems like it has been so much longer than that.

Either way, the past two months have been so good. :) I knew I was going to be really happy, and that I was getting an incredible man, but it just gets better as time goes by. I still don't know how I got so lucky.

He makes me happy. :)

In other news, we went canyoneering this past weekend with some friends. We did two canyons (Salome and Parker Creek) and were very, very tired by the time we finally got home. It took a bit longer than we anticipated. Totally worth it though! They are both incredible canyons.

These pictures are from Salome.

Can you tell we were all kind of having a hard time keeping our balance? 

We love waterslides!

That's me going down this one. :)

"Honey, where's mah supah-suit?"

Another waterslide... wahoo! 

This was one of my favorite parts. And no, not entirely because Dallin was there.  ;)

Swimming out

The rest of the pictures are from Parker Creek Canyon.

The beginning of some sweet narrows

Even more waterslides!

There were a few rappels. This one was pretty short. 

A 50-footer

Another shot of the 50-footer

The 80-footer. Can you see me? :)

Climbing (literally) out of a drainage to get to the car

The view of the canyon we were in with Roosevelt Lake in the background

This world is a pretty amazing place, isn't it? While we were doing this canyons, I kept thinking about how beautiful and varied the earth is, and how thankful I am to be physically capable to do things like this that enable me to enjoy God's creations in this way. It makes it even better to get to do it with my partner in crime. :)