Angels Landing

I had the opportunity to go on a once in a lifetime trip October 12-19th. It was amazing. My uncle Lou planned the trip and when I saw that it fell on my fall break (Thursday and Friday off of school) I invited myself along. It meant I took three personal days, which costs me some money, but it was worth it. Lou had just read about Walters Wiggles on Angels Landing in Backpacker Magazine and so he asked if that was a doable stop. Heck yes! I love Angels Landing. On Monday the 13th we entered Zion's National Park for the beginning of a week long adventure.

Before the hike. So excited to be out of the car. Me, My uncle Lou, and cousin Cody ready some fun.

The hike is 5.4 miles. There is a little more than  2 miles of relatively steep in the sun uphill switchbacks and then around a 1/2 mile of hiking on crazy cliffs over looking 3,000 to 4,000 foot drop offs. Like straight down drop offs. It is pretty crazy.

 Cody took a ton of pictures. I can't wait to see his. Here he is before the last 1/2 mile taking in the view.

This picture below is what you climb up to get to the top. It really does not show how far you would fall if you slipped off the edge.

 In my head the top of the rock was more flat. I was surprised when I got to the top. It was very different than I remembered. The views were just as amazing though!

Of course I had to take some selfie's on top. (Some day I will have kids and will hopefully never post a selfie again:)

I love the reflection in my glasses.

This next one is actually before the top.  I love my job but man you can't complain when this is your view on a Monday!

 The three of us on the top. I was really proud of Cody. He does not like heights. He was very cautious and not loving life on the way up or down, but he did it.

We could not have asked for better weather. It was a gorgeous day, very few people, and amazing views. It really is a long way down. Lou said it was one of the best hikes he has ever done, that is coming from a 67 year old man who has done a lot of hiking.

This was a great start to our week long trip. Unfortunately we did not have time to do anything else in Zion's. After Angel's Landing we headed to Flagstaff where we were staying for the night.

Pondering and life

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted on my blog. I have been having a great fall but have obviously failed to document it. I am going to try and catch up here before posting the pictures from my trip last week.

I have been pondering over a talk from General Conference the past two weeks. Before my fall break I listened to the Priesthood session of conference while cleaning my house. I loved Elder Quentin L. Cooks talk. He talked about a lot of different stuff. One paragraph from his talk has left me thinking a lot the past two weeks. It is this one:

Elder David A. Bednar recently cautioned members to be authentic in the use of social media.¹¹ A prominent thought leader, Arthur C. Brooks, has emphasized this point. He observes that when using social media, we tend to broadcast the smiling details of our lives but not the hard times at school or work. We portray an incomplete life—sometimes in a self-aggrandizing or fake way. We share this life, and then we consume the “almost exclusively … fake lives of [our] social media ‘friends.’” Brooks asserts, “How could it not make you feel worse to spend part of your time pretending to be happier than you are, and the other part of your time seeing how much happier others seem to be than you?”<sup>12

I realize that I am very good at broadcasting the smiling details of my life. Often I don't talk much about the things that disturb me, or make me sad, or cause me to lose sleep at night. I hope that too my very few readers my life does not seem fake. I love to share my adventures. Usually my posts are motivated by pictures. Pictures I want printed in my blog book, it seems to be the only pictures I print right now:( So I thought I should fill in some of the holes. My life is pretty mundane usually. I wake up and run 3-4 miles 5 days a week, I am very consistent with this. My dog needs exercise. I work. I like my job. I love my co-workers. I have bad days. I have days when parents are hard, students are hard, and sometimes co-workers are hard. Most days are great at work but it isn't a fairy tale. It is still work. Outside of work I love to read, I love to hike, bike and rollerblade. I clean my house at least once a week. I do laundry. I cook. I try to make healthy decisions with food, I fail at this often. I try to read my scriptures and pray everyday, I am far from perfect on this one too. I go to bed before 11 on school nights...so boring!  I am more aware of my weaknesses than I ever have been. I keep a thankful journal and I will say it is usually pretty easy to find three things to be thankful for each day. Occasionally I have a really bad day and I have to rely on the generic responses: job, house, family. Those are all really important but usually I can find three other things.

I have desires and hopes for the future. There are things I want so bad it hurts. But the truth is as much as I want these things I realize how blessed my life is. I usually do not focus on what I don't have. The older I get the more grateful I am for my specific blessings. The more I realize the Lord knows LaNell Brown and He knows what she needs.

I lose sleep over trials in the lives of friends and family. Trials in the lives of my neighbors. The hard lives that some of my students face and knowing I have no way to really help them. I lose sleep every time someone I know gets a divorce. I believe in Families!!!!! I just want everyone to be happy. The truth is life is hard and messy and most of us are just doing our best to get by. So that is what I have been pondering the past two weeks.

Now that I cleared the air here are a few pictures of what I have been doing the past month.

Biking in a massive rain storm. Then realizing we were already drenched so just continuing on.</sup>

 I let these two come over.

 Hiking the Y with Moki. She is practicing her sit stay. The leash was on the ground. She is getting better.

 Andrew loves to play in Moki's crate.

I put together some fall decorations. I like how they turned out!

 Moki on the Y trail on a different day. The first signs of fall.

  ^{I ran in the Make A Wish run that our school organizes. Moki loves 5K's!}

 ^{And one teaser from last weeks trip. Man it was amazing but my body is still so tired and trying to recover.}

^{Obviously there will be more pictures to come along with way too many details.}