In for the long haul

It is officially hiking season!
Although Andy and I are not experienced hikers, we decided to hold our church session in the beauty and quiet of the great outdoors. Last year we hiked to "Hidden Springs" and noticed another trail head nearby. As we weren't prepared for a longer hike that day we vowed to go back and tackle the Mill B North trail.

We packed a lunch, donned comfy clothes and started our way to Big Cottonwood canyon. We didn't do our homework and had no idea how long or difficult this hike would be. More confident than we probably should have been, we began our way up the stairs leading to the first of the switchbacks.
We walked for about 45 seconds and were winded...a bad start. We laughed at ourselves and pressed on. Thankfully, the first few minutes were more challenging than the mile to follow. We soon found ourseleves in a forest reminiscent of ET. The creek was high, the air was cool; this was a very nice nature walk in comparison to our vigorous start.


About an hour and a half later, Andy and I were wondering where exactly we were headed. We tackled switchback after switchback and steadily climbed the mountain. The Salt Lake valley was increasing in size as we gained altitude. Half way through every switchback we oohed and ahhed over the breathtaking sight.
We decided to sit and have a sip of water while we re-grouped and decide our plan of action. I consulted my pedometer which told me that we had walked over 6000 steps. We discussed calling it good and going home as we had no idea if we had 1 mile left or 30. Andy looked up and had a revelation! "I bet this trail ends at the top of those rocks," said Andy with a new found ambition! Hence, we decided to keep going.
We followed the trail up and up, past the aforementioned rocks and around a ridge. We continued through more lovely switchbacks and more steep climbing. The switchbacks grew shorter but much steeper. 45 minutes later, we concluded that we simply could not go any further.



We stood, torn by what we should do. We had come so far. Soon, a jovial British man happened along our path.
"Excuse me," said Andy. "Where does this path go?"
"Well," said the jovial British man, "this path goes to Mt. Raymond, but in another ten minutes of walking you will run into snow. And I wouldn't go any further unless you have mountaineering equipment!" He chuckled gaily to himself and continued on his way.

Andy and I looked at each other and decided that another 10 minutes wouldn't hurt. We thanked the man and continued on our way. We reached another ridge that overlooked a lovely valley with a beautiful waterfall. It was here that we decided to eat our lunch and call it a day.
We devoured our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and decended the mountain. It took half the time to get down than get up. What an accomplishment it was to clip along the switchbacks and feel sorry for the people who were just beginning the hike!
When all was said and done, it took us 2 1/2 hours to hike up the mountain and one hour to hike down. We took over 16000 steps and travelled almost 14 kilometers. We looked up the hike on the computer and found out we were about 1/4 mile to the end of the trail...even though we couldn't get there, anyway. We decided to wait a month and try this hike again.

The Little Ducky That Could

The sun is out, the flowers are in bloom, and the ducks are quacking.
This can only mean one thing:
SPRING IS HERE!!

My apartment complex is the home of twenty-somethings who are not yet at the stage of 'home buying', newly divorced mid-life crisis victims, and a plethora of ducks, geese, and various birds native to northern Utah.

I take it upon my self to feed and protect the less fortunate looking ducks. These ducks wait for me every morning because they know I will bring a piece of bread on my way to work. When I get home from work, they greet me, running at full sprint quacking and flapping their wings.
I understand they just want more bread, but it sure does make me happy to be greeted by that everyday.

Yesterday I noticed that one of my ducks was missing when I was on my way to work. I looked around hoping that I wouldn't find the pretty white duck dead somewhere. I looked behind the building, down by the creek, under the stair case...
the duck was nowhere to be found. Sadly, I gave up, realizing that I had to leave for work.
As I walked toward my car I heard a familiar quacking. I stopped and followed the quacking to a near by bush. I called the duck out and saw a little white head with a yellow bill emerge from the bush. Her mouth was wide open and she was quacking louder than I had ever heard her quack. I started throwing her small pieces of bread (which she devoured very gratefully). As she started edging toward me, I caught a glimpse of her three beautiful baby chicks keeping close to her. Here are some pictures of my sweet ducks and the darling babies. Enjoy!

Bee's wishes and Karaoke dreams!

I celebrated my 23rd birthday this weekend. We had a great time at a Bee's game, going to the zoo, and finishing up the celebrations with a little karaoke. I have pictures of the first two excursions, but sadly, I forgot my camera when we went to karaoke. First thing is first: the Bee's game.
Andy found a Chicago dog and feasted with great gusto.

We were so happy to have Levi (Andy's brother) in town for the weekend. As you can see, he was excited too!


Poor Portland #29 (Brian, as we learned)...he had an error in the first inning and we didn't let him live it down for the rest of the game. It's just not worth it unless you can mock relentlessly.

I took this picture to prove I was there too. That's pretty much the extent of it. :)

The boys being boys. They kept me entertained through the entire game between the mocking of #29/Brian and the competition of 'who can be more irritating' with another guy in the stands.
Then it was off to the zoo!





The zoo was great fun! We saw lots of cute animals (including a baby giraffe that was having a lot of fun with a branch) and we only got rained on a little bit.

The evening of the 25th, we went to the Tavernacle to celebrate my birthday Karaoke style. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but I will try to do my best to describe the happenings of the evening. After a delicious bbq (courtesy of Brett and Katie...Thank you!!) we headed down to the Tavernacle around 10pm. Upon entering the bar I quickly informed the DJ that it was my birthday (it's truly amazing what flirting will get you) and asked if I could sing quickly. He assured me (with a wink) that I would be his first priority. Vomit. I smiled sweetly and joined my party. To my surprise, my name was called two singers later. I jumped on stage and wailed Pat Benetar's 'Heartbreaker." Fun. My friend, Josh, and his boyfriend, Thomas, joined our party shortly after my debut. Here are a few highlights from the evening:
1. After Brett rocked Queen's "This Thing Called Love" he quickly had a stalker/fan that needed to talk to him at various points throughout the evening. This stalker obviously thought Brett was gay and was very VERY interested in him. At one point, the stalker became very hostile toward Brett (he was quite belligerent). It kept me entertained. I was secretly hoping a fight would break out. It never did.
2. The DJ announced to the bar that it was my birthday and that he never wanted to see me without a drink in my hand. After I finished my song, a guy brought over a tequila shot. I thanked him graciously and handed the shot to someone who could handle it. The fact that someone would buy me a shot thrilled me!
3. The SHAMELESS flirting by the DJ (even after he figured out that Andy and I were engaged). He was terrible. I didn't mind, though. It meant that I got to sing again (The favorite 'Let's Hear it for the Boy').

After the bar, we went back to Brett and Katie's for my delicious birthday pie! It was a successful birthday!!!

Considerable trouble, considerable joy...

Big River closed on Saturday. After a fourteen show run we all said good-bye to Huckleberry Finn and his friend Jim. We were with them through their adventures on the river that ended successfully.
I wanted to share some pictures from the show:










Thank you, friends! I had fun and I will miss you all!

You, Madam, are an idiot.

On a day where the clinic is scheduled to see 126 patients, it is critical that people utilize their time and complete their tasks efficiently. Considering the daunting size of the clinic this fine Wednesday, we were handling the masses with grace until a woman threw a wrench into the well-oiled machine that is 'the fracture clinic.' The story unfolds:

A mother enters the clinic and signs her son in as usual. She is asked if her insurance and address are correct. She affirms the question and takes a seat. She waits 15-30 minutes patiently and with purpose. Her son's name was called and she was led back to a room. The mother was told that because her son had a certain type of fracture, repeat films would not be necessary. They could pull them up on the computer. The mother thanked the Medical assistant for the information and continued waiting for the doctor to view her son's films.

"Hello! I'm doctor Blah Blah."
"Hello Dr. Blah Blah."
"I reviewed your son's films and...(doctor looks around) did your son go to the restroom?"
"Oh he's not in the restroom. He's at school. Did he need to be here?

Moral of the story: Don't forget to bring the patient to the appointment.

A few of my favorite Vingnettes

All of these are true and have happened in the past week or so:

As Candace is trying to quiet an 11 month old with a broken tibia, the patient's 8 year-old brother stares at her.
"Are you married?" he asks.
"Yes," she replies a little annoyed that this child is attempting conversation while the baby is trying his damnedest to wriggle out of her clutch and onto the floor
"Oh" the boy continued. "Is your husband hot?"
"Excuse me?" Candace asks in disbelief.
"He must be hot. Because I think you're hot. So your husband must be hot."
Right then a Medical Assistant walks in the room and saves Candace from this strange turn of events. She passes off the baby quite willingly and leaves the child in endless wonder.

PS- The mother had magically disappeared for this...interesting.
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There is a silly idea that a bad dress rehearsal will make for a good opening night. If that was the case then our opening night was the greatest performance known to man (at least in my case).
I couldn't seem to get my energy up, remember my lines and/or lyrics, and I just seemed to be in everyone's way.
Finally, we reached the intermission and I decided that it was not too late to save this performance. I vowed to be more peppy, more focused, and just try harder all around.
I bounded onto the stage dressed in my tart attire. All of my actions were bigger than normal in a desperate attempt to get my energy up; my notes were louder and my kicks were higher. In making my kicks higher, it caused my skirt to hang lower in the back which resulted in someone stepping on it. Shortly after I realized someone was on my skirt, the snaps popped and my 10 lbs. skirt fell to the floor. Keep in mind, this is all during a high energy dance number.
The theatre gods were not smiling on me.
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While Denise waits patiently for a green tea soy latte, she is forced to stand too
close to an 'unconventional couple. Because of the close proximity to this dirty old man and his 19 year old play toy she over hears one of the worst lines ever presented in public (or in private for that matter).

Play toy: Oh! (giggle giggle) I feel like I'm drunk!
Dirty old man: You are! Drunk with love!

Denise does her best not to vomit or break into laughter. Rather, she flies to Utah and describes the nauseating story to her daughter who will give it literary immortality and make it public for all to read.

This past week in a nutshell. Take it for what it's worth.