"i can see russia from my house."

today, as i re-enter the blogging world, however temporarily it might be, i would like to share a link to a pretty awesome montage of SNL clips from the last election. ah, the memories.

click HERE for fun.

tuesday funnies

i was reading on The Pioneer Woman (one of my favorite websites) and found this post of really funny puns. they're laugh-out-loud funny.

the sad business of cameras

i am so sad!! i had about 50 pictures from wedding weekend, and they somehow got erased off of my camera!! i had great pictures of the beach bbq, the kidlets playing on the playground, a visit to the reno temple, incredible lake tahoe sunsets, and the list goes on. and they're gone. instead, i'm left with just 15 pictures from the entire weekend. i don't know how this happened, but i'm very very sad about it. here's a few of what was left.

the golf course where the wedding took place. (not in this place exactly, but close)

me and lake tahoe from a scenic overlook above incline village.

ellie-bell

makayla with her birthday presents. we had a little birthday party for 3 of the kids whose birthdays are coming up. i missed it because i was taking a nap with marlee. that was almost as fun as a party :)

camping posse highlights in reverse order

day 4

capitol reef national park

another stamp in my national park passport book. that's why i look so excited :)

pool at the bottom of upper calf creek falls in grand staircase escalante national monument

upper calf creek falls, gsenm. this is about an 85 foot drop.

after the big dive. ashley, beth, sarah, seth (l-r)

the brink of upper calf creek falls and the location of the big dive.

into the canyon to upper calf creek falls

me, julia, ashley, beth, sarah, seth (l-r)

day 3

sarah. lookout on the trail at escalante petrified forest state park

camping posse all stars and some petrified wood

seth, me, sarah, beth, julia, ashley (l-r)

a reservoir whose name i forget. these are the sunniest skies we saw the entire weekend!

escalante petrified forest state park

day 2

we are amazing and resourceful. we found a way to put up a 10'x20' tarp in a place with few trees. this was the best idea ever.

at the very windy base of lower calf creek falls, gsenm. thanks to all of the extra rain, there was about 3 times as much water coming over the falls as usual. lucky us!

me, julia, ashley, sarah, seth, beth (l-r)

the perspective shot at lower calf creek falls. this waterfall is about 129 feet high.

sarah is happy, in spite of the rain.

day 1

this is me as a hobo.

on the first night (thursday), i camped up a dirt road with andrea and lyndsi (who later moved on to greener, drier pastures in st. george). we were worried about being able to find another campsite since it was the holiday weekend, so we left lyndsi's tent and andrea's sleeping bag at our original camp. dirt roads + rain=disaster, in case you didn't know. we found another campsite, but when it came time to retrieve the rest of our camping gear, my poor little car just could not make it up that muddy dirt road! we pulled off the side of the road about 2.5 miles down the hill from our original campsite. we started to hike up, when a couple of kind gentlemen from california stopped to see if we needed help. they gave me a ride up the hill to the campground, where i dismantled the tent and started to hike down the hill, juggling tent, sleeping bag, and pad. lucky for me, the elastic straps on the sleeping bag were completely stretched out, so i untied the knots that were in them, and converted a rolled up sleeping bag into this lovely hobo-style backpack. i met up with andrea and lyndsi just around the bend from the campsite, and we trudged back down the hill to my car. good times.

WARNING!! not for the faint of heart!!

no really. if you don't want to see a medical procedure performed in my dining room, you'd best avert the eyes now!!!

believe it or not, some people actually wanted to see these. my friend heather from the ward was very excited to take my stitches out for me. for all i know, it saved me a few bucks, and definitely a long wait in the waiting room.

i am pleased to report now that the skin is all the way attached everywhere now. it's almost back to normal now, except for that last bit of swelling that will probably be around for a while. it's amazing how quickly our bodies heal sometimes.

the actual stitch removal

no more stitches!!

immediately after stitch removal

one week later and almost all healed.

one more video

here's a video i took of what i like to call "the big dive"

just click on the title of the video and it will take you to a permanent link on facebook to view it.

CORRECTION: if you click in the middle of the video here, it'll play :) it cropped the edges off, but you get the point.

movin' pictures

here's a couple of videos from the trip. i was the interpretive guide for the hikes. both of these are from the lower calf creek falls hike. funny stuff.

this one is from the middle of the hike. please note seth in the background. that's sorta his thing :)

this one is when we arrived at the falls. the pictures don't quite capture what it was really like down there, so i'm glad there's this video so you can see.

p.s. i hope these links work. i'm crossing my fingers for you non-facebookers that this works as an external link. if not, i'll see what i can do for you.

UPDATE: i tried to embed these in my blog, but i can't because i wasn't the one who posted them on facebook. if you're on facebook, look at them there. if not, i'm sorry.