I love Birthdays!

Sorry for the delay in posts, we've been so busy with school, moving and life in general that I've failed to post pictures of the whole summer. Oh, and I've come to blog a couple of times and it hasn't uploaded my pictures, so I'm crossing my fingers this will post!

August 29th was Stella's birthday and my birthday. I love sharing my birthday with her, it was so much fun throwing an Owl Themed birthday party.

My first go at fondant...

Party Favors...

I didn't make this one unfortunately!

Cupcakes made of oreo's, runts and jr mints...

It was really hard cutting into that cake! It took a little too long to decorate...

Our Birthday Girl

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!!
The next day was Sunday and was our actual birthdays. David did so many special things for me that day, he really made my birthday special, thanks Love!

I didn't want cake, he got me rhubarb pie instead

We also celebrated our 5 year Anniversary on the 18th of August, Stella was super sick so we took her to dinner with us. It turned out to be a disaster and I think we're still waiting for a date re-due, but it was definately a memorable one!

He got me flowers and a vase, I was most impressed with the vase!

We also celebrated David's birthday in September, but that will have to be a different blog post. And we got our pictures taken by our sweet neighbor, I can't wait to show you all those soon too when I get more time. But for now it's back to the books, I have 2 1/2 weeks left and national exams to study for. David is also taking a trip to Canada for work, it's kind of bad timing since he'll be gone for my week of finals, we're praying everything will go smoothly and he'll be able to make it back in time for my graduation!

Canyoneering

A couple of weeks ago David and I had the opportunity to go on a little mini vacation while Stella stayed at her granapple's house in Highland. This was a much needed break for both of us from school. This term for me has been a lot of book work and no practical learning. And for David, well, anyone who can even make sense of the homework he brings home every night deserves an award! So we went to St. George where we stayed with Bret, David's friend from scout camp, and his wife Jess. I was a little nervous for this break however, hearing about heights and how high we'd be rappelling... but i'll get more into that in a little bit. While we were there we had one canyoneering adventure, 5 hikes, went crawdaddin', and camped out.... all in two days! We definately picked the right tour guide, we still didn't get through everything on Bret's list of fun stuff to do!

These pictures aren't in any order of when they happened, this first hike I'm showing below was at Red Cliffs and was amazing!

I called it God's playground for his favorite children :)



All the hikers stopped at a certain point, but Bret took us deeper in the canyon, and the only way to go was swimming!

...or stemming

Natural water slide

This was the popular spot where everyone would stop. This part was pritty deep and David was the only brave one who cliff jumped.

This hike, or shimmy space I should say, was at the Crack

Looking in, we thought two things. There's no way we can fit through that, and I sure hope there isn't an earthquake!

David found a small crawl space.

Poor Jess is afraid of small, inclosed places. She toughed it out and went with us anyway!


This next hike was at snow canyon. It was amazing to see where the red rock stopped and the white rock began.

This is at the top

Bret and Jess and my finger

We found a blue spotty friend

This hike was at Lower Hell Hole Canyon

Can you see my pockets? Dad you'd be so proud, I brought most of that canyon home with me!

This was too far of a jump for me, David had to hoist me up


At the Desert Rose, this maze took David a good 20 minutes at least!

We also went on a hike to see indian petroglyphs

They were by far, the biggest ones I've ever seen

Yankee Doodle Canyon

This was the beginning of our journey down the Yankee Doodle Canyon, and as demonstrated earlier, there are only so many ways down a canyon. We've covered hiking, swimming and stemming, now we'll add some rappelling!

I had to use David as a latter for some of the decents(notice the foot prints on his shouler)
I later said it must have been a drag for the boys to worry about and assist the girls down the canyon, David said, "Are you kidding me? It was the best part! Makes me feel like a man!"

You have to see it for yourself....

Our tour guide, Bret

This was about 80 feet or so...

80 footer cont'd

This was the beginning as well, you wouldn't even know it existed

It got darker and colder the further you went down, down, down...

I always struggle at first, but then get the hang of it, and it becomes a thrill!

Thank you Bret for showing us so many amazing things that weekend. We look forward to the next trip sometime this summer! And thank you Jess for sacrificing your husband for a weekend and letting us crash at your place...next time we'll supply the Red Bull's ;)