The Lovin' Up of Life: Spring Break-ish

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Spring Break-ish

So BYU doesn't have a spring break, we just plug all the way through and then finish before everybody else. I like it that way, even though it doesn't really impact me that much since I only have one class anyway. However, UVU just had spring break and Chris wanted to do some climbing, so we hit up southern utah for the weekend. My cousin Joey came with us and we had a blast. We started by trying to get a camp site at Red Cliffs. It was full by the time we got there on Thursday evening so we pitched the tent in a random spot quickly because we had to get to the temple, and we hoped the tent would be ok there. We made it to the St. George temple just in time. I was able to be there as he walked through the temple doors for the first time in over six years and I got to be there as my cousin baptized and confirmed him for those who have passed on, it was really neat. We asked on of the couple missionary men to take a picture for us after, digital cameras are not his forte, but oh well.

Chris Me, Chris, & Joey

Next we went to In-N-Out and met Vicki and Logan there. I love that place. Such simple burgers, but the fact that everything there is so fresh, makes my little nutritionist heart jump for joy. The lettuce was still crisp and the tomato was delightful and I washed them peel, cut and cook my fries, all right there, hooray. We chilled there til just after ten and got back to our make-shift campsite at 10:30, only to find a little note on the tent that said "No Camping Ever" That's kind of what we expected but we figured we would try anyway. So we took the tent down really quick, in the dark, in our temple clothes and began on a journey to find a campsite. We had no idea where to even look because all the ones I knew were already full, this is where I got out numbered by the boys. They decided it would be fine to just drive around til we found a dirt road, follow it a ways til we found a flat open spot, and camp there for the night. We wound up near the freeway and some warehouses, including that ginormous walmart one down there. I slept in my tent and the boys slept outside. Chris slept right up next to my tent with his pistol in his sleeping bag. Don't mess with that boy. Here is a photo of it once we woke up and could actually see.

We went to Bear Paw Cafe for breakfast. It's a long wait and slightly pricey, but I got my vanilla pecan belgian waffle...totally worth it. We then went to Snow canyon to climb for the day. Megan (another cousin) met us there with her baby. We did one climb with zero problems, the second climb was around the edge of an arch that was sunk back in the rock, but Chris couldn't finish leading it so after he hung there for about 40 mintues, I belayed him down and we called for lunch. We had a little picnic in the canyon still and then went to look for more climbs. The next climb was exciting because I got to lead it!! Let's be honest, it wasn't a very hard one to lead. They had it ranked as a 5.7 but I would put it at 5.5 probably. However, there were a couple almost rough spots where I could have fallen, but I got to the top with no problems. Success.

Chris Stuck on the Arch Me belaying Joey on the 1st climb My first lead

Once we decided we were done on the ropes for the day, we did some normal climbing around and went through an awesome little slot canyon and played around on the red rock for a while.

That night we went back to the camp ground (oh, we went and got a camp ground at red cliffs first thing in the morning so we had a spot for sure. :D) We climbed around over there with Vicki and then we cooked hot dogs and starbursts over the fire. We couldn't do S'mores because water from the cooler leaked into the marshmallows. Dang it. Saturday we went into Zion National Park for with Vicki and Logan and climbed up Hidden Canyon for a while. Then we came back into St. George and went to a place called prophecy wall and threw a couple more solid climbs in before bringing the trip to a close.