Winter Shenanigans

Some wintertime 2011 shenanigans!!

Jake and I on our way to do some backcountry skiing

Jake in his new skis

We tie-dyed sheets one night, they turned out great!

Here is the best Christmas tree I've ever bought (I didn't even buy it) and we hauled it away on the back of my bike rack. Merry Christmas!

Jake is drilling wood into the trunk to make a tree stand.

I had two strands of lights sitting around and only half of each of them worked. We make homemade decorations and hung them on the tree. Very festive!

Jackson Hole

Blair and I took a quick trip up to Jackson Hole to spend time with Jake and for Blair to see the Tetons! We spent time with our friends Jen and Jon and went into the National Park.

Blair and I on our way, after we got out of the inversion, it was a beautiful winter weekend.

Jake and I at Cadillac

The usual.

Blair and I with flowers in our hair.

Being the average Jackson Hole tourists. The antler arch in the city center.

Blair and I at the arch.

Jon, Jake, me and Jen in the Teton National Park.

Jake and I

Hanging around in the park.

Thanksgiving 2011

I spent Thanksgiving with my family. The night before, I made 5 pies; Apple cinnamon, pecan, pumpkin, banana cream and coconut cream! Everyone said they turned out great. The weekend of Thanksgiving we always go cut our Christmas Trees in the National Forest above Heber, UT.

Tree cutting is always a big production. We have chili, cheeseball, and veggies. Then the whole family, boyfriends, kids and parents, get on our snowshoes and brave the snow to find the perfect tree. I would venture to say that the tree we found this year is the best of all. We take our saw, cut it down and drag it back to the truck where we all pile back into the cars, come back to the Hill house and eat pizza and play games. This is one of my favorite holiday traditions!

We each take our turn cutting the tree.

Jake with the saw. Danger.

Post tree cutting - waiting for the others to return.

The final product!

Bug Lab Zion Trip II

This was the second research trip I took to Zion National Park this year. It was a quick, three days, in and out and a whole lot of miles. Ryan and I found a spot to pitch our tents on BLM land just outside the park. We got up early, marched around, and collected samples for two days. One night the wind was so bad that it left layers of dirt on my stuff inside the tent.

Our first site on the Left Fork

On our way to the Grapevine site, before our misadventure.

After the picture (above) was taken, we had to make our own trail. We came to a part of the river in which we could either go through the water or crawl up and around to try and get down the other side. We opted to climb. BAD idea. I ended up sliding down a really steep face and tearing the skin up on my arms and legs. Ryan lost his camera and one water shoe. Needless to say, we had to backtrack about an hour and ended up walking through the water, which we should have done in the first place. The misadventure left us shaky and exhausted. Even though we had another day of work, we were just ready to go home. However, we did have success and ended up with some great samples of insects from Zion.

Halloween 2011

I think Halloween is so fun. This year I decided to party hop, luckily that's what my friends wanted to do too. Mariah came to the Howl at USU and spent the weekend with me. I made a Halloween themed dinner and watched scary movies. Perfect way to celebrate!

I dressed as Rosie the Riveter this year. I loved my costume, it was comfortable and cute!

Wish 100

When I volunteered for LoToJa in September, I came across a flier for an all women's century ride in St. George Utah at the end of October. I didn't think much of it, but a few weeks later, I came across it and decided that I was going to do the ride and that I was going to try and raise money. I was especially interested because the ride was for the Make-A-Wish Foundation which is Chi Omega's national philanthropy.


I asked my sorority sisters, family and friends for donations for the Make-A-Wish foundation and ended up raising over $500. Thank you to everyone who donated!! I asked a friend from work to do the ride with me, so we headed south on Friday!

We picked up our packets, ate a pasta dinner and went to sleep as early as possible. On saturday morning we made our way to Unity Park in Ivins, Ut.

We got dressed, got our bikes ready...

Steph and I, just about ready to start the ride.

This is about 40 miles in. My mom was a great help, she drove ahead of us, and made sure we were on track. She carried our dirty clothes, gu's and extra water. Thanks Mom!!

The Wish 100 volunteers were great, we had wonderful rest stops and couldn't have asked for better weather.

We made it to the finish line with our seats in the saddle for about 6.5 hours.

We made it!! High Fives were in order.

I was excited to represent Chi Omega at the ride!

Me and my mom after the ride - we got to the hotel, jumped in the pool, showered and finished the day off watching Thriller at Tuacahn.

Sunday we drove home and called it a great weekend! Check out the website for more info : http://wish100utah.org/

Death Hollow

23 miles, three days, lost once and a whole lot of fun!

Just an overlook before we got to the trailhead.

Apparently we hiked on the 'old mail trail' and right through the Bolder "airport"...

Beginning of the trail. Or so we thought.

The mile 'detour'. This was a pretty stop right before we realized we were lost and turned around.

My mom and I

Just the landscape.

Cooking dinner, night one was my turn to plan and pack the meal. We had salmon pasta made with orzo pasta, fresh spinach, salmon packets, parmesan cheese and lemon. If you'd like to know more about my dinner visit recipe virgins!

Everyone enjoying dinner!

Doing dishes after it got dark. :(

If you look above my head you'll see a pile of rocks. The pile was bigger, but we pushed them off the side of the mountain...

Just another landscape shot - we were making memories.

Our first view of the canyon after dropping down.

This was our footwear for 2 days. Neoprene socks and chacos.

Just a pretty picture.... plus Jake.

One of the thousands of river crossings

Playing in the water. I fell in the water shortly after this, taking my camera with me. Needless to say, I had to let it dry out before using it again, and by that time we had reached camp for the night. Just imagine some really beautiful photos of me and some red rocks.

Orange pack = mine. I love it.

My family at the Escalante/Death Hollow confluence. Aren't they just so fun.

Escalante Natural Arch - Chalay and I in the last few miles on day three.

We made it to the finish line!

This was a really fun trip. We ate well, hiked a lot, and laughed even more. I wouldn't recommend this hike for the feint of heart seeing as it was a lot of bush whacking and water. We had to crawl under rock outcroppings and swim through chest high water with packs over our heads. I slept great, enjoyed cards, the stars and a full moon. I love to backpack, but I'm always glad to be back in my own bed!