Hiking Timpanogos Peak!

My friend Kelli Arnesen, a friend from nursing school, asked me to hike Mount Timpanogos with her Monday. I had never hiked Timp and so I was thrilled for the opportunity to do so with Kelli. Yet, words of advice, don't hike Timp after running the Dirty Dash 10K race 2 days prior, without training. I'm sore sore sore!

Timp is the second highest mountain in Utah's Wasatch Range. Timp rises to an elevation of 11,749 feet. It is a 14-mile round trip hike with a mile of elevation gain. The fall colors were beautiful and I was excited to take a few pictures!

The weather was forecasted to be 50-60% chance of rain/thunderstorms, so Kelli and I were prepared to turn around before the summit. These clouds hung on the back side of Timp as we continued to climb.

This shack sits by Emerald Lake, Kelli is showing off the luxery of its walls!

Kelli hiking up ahead, preparing to cross the lengthy land of "Mordor", aka rock field! It was so hard to cross and just as difficult to maintain our trail.

View of Provo and Utah Lake from Timpanogos Peak! Luckily for us the clouds cleared giving us a view of the valley.

The shack, marking the summit of Timpanogos Peak. I wanted to cry at this point, seriously! My thighs were so sore, tight and couldn't bare to move upwards any longer. Kelli supplied me with pep talks and slowly but surely I summitted!

Fall colors, so vibrant and beautiful!

The trail coming out to Aspen Grove, so pretty with the yellow leaves!

Dirty Dash September 2012

Bryce and I ran the Dirty Dash on Saturday, September 22nd at Soldier Hollow, Midway. It was my second time and just as great! I dressed up with my co-worker as "Mud Medics"! My mini jacket said "Mud Medic #1 with a red cross! We got pretty muddy, yah! My face had so much mud that had hardened that when I tried to laugh or smile, it hurt. We loved every minute of it!

Temple, petting zoo, and Moab...all in one day!

I completed my goal! I attended an endowment session in all open Utah temples before my one year anniversary of receiving my own endowment, which is September 10, 2012! Monticello, UT was my last stop. My roommate Angela joined me on a journey down to Monticello, waking up at 5:30am to make the noon session. If we missed it, the next session isn't until 5pm, 5 hours later! We arrived an hour early but we made it.

Monticello Utah Temple!

I found beautiful flowers/plants to take pictures of on the temple grounds!

 Beautiful!

 The view leaving Monticello...now onto "Hole N" the Rock"!

What a site, huh! They have the most random stuff, including a petting zoo!

Angela loves Elephants!

We discovered this cute "hole" had a petting zoo and we had to do it! Tickets $3.75 plus we shared a $5 bucket of oats and carrots to feed the animals. We were so excited!

Meet Cramer! He's the camel we were told we could get a kiss from if we held a carrot between our teeth. On my first try, I ducked away right before he bit on the other end of the carrot. I was so nervous! But I finally got the guts up and was BRAVE! Results below...

First base with Cramer...the Camel! Yes, only an inch of carrot between me and my camel.

Angela tempting Cramer with another carrot. He was so greedy, he wanted our whole bucket!

Caution! Alpaca spitting zone!

I'm feeding the minature horse and donkey! El burro! :)

Angela loved this Zebra, too bad there were 2 fences between them!

 Cramer, struttin' his stuff!

I loved this sign...I may as well be a part of their exhibit!

A cactus made out of bowling balls! It's ginormous!

After our adventure at the petting zoo we drove into Moab and hiked Delicate Arch! Angela had never seen it before and so we had to do it with being in the area. We cruised up the trail and inbetween Asians and their cameras we were finally able to get a shot with the arch with no one in it!

I love Delicate Arch, I'm so proud to be a Utahan! All in all, we drove 9 hours, enjoyed a 2 hour endowment session, fed zoo animals, was almost kissed by a camel, and hiked 3 miles to the most scenic arch in Utah! What a day!

Lemon Yodels at Swiss Days!

I was hesitant of the idea, candy canes in a lemon, but for $1 Angela and I had to try it! I am an official Lemon Yodeller! My lips might have pursed a few times! Sour :)