Merry Happy. 2nd Edition: Holidays

Friends

In the sake of full disclosure, I will admit that my 30 Day Photo Challenge took a bit of a backseat this past week as I spent time in California with my family. Haha I don't know what I was thinking starting that RIGHT before I went out of town. But now I'm back and I have a few picture-posts in the works, so stay tuned! Like I mentioned before, the main reason I started the photo challenge was to simply get myself taking more pictures, and my mom asked that I compile a little video with memories from the reunion, so I was able to spend some quality time with my camera working on that.

When it comes to family reunions, my mom (the master planner - literally, this woman made a to-scale model of the reception center where we had our wedding reception) does not mess around! Every day had ample activities to keep the 9 children (aged 8 and under) as well as the adults (there are 12 of us now!) entertained and having fun.

Some notable activities included:

+ Adventure Playground in Berkley (a family favorite park for as long as I can remember)

+ A family-history scavenger hunt (that was organized by my sister Sarah, and BOY was it creative! I was blown away with how cool the tasks were)

+ Scandia (the play area was a big hit, even for my older brother, Joseph, and brother-in-law, James, who had a lot of fun throwing the ball-pit balls at each other as hard as they could -- which, I should mention was blatantly against the rules ;))

+ Swimming at a family friend's house

+ Sealings at the Sacramento LDS temple

+ A service project (aka tidying up the property by moving/laying mulch, and laying a brick path, which if you know my Dad, this shouldn't come as a surprise ;))

+ Sunsplash Water Park

+ Learning about Family History through activities and devotionals

+ Flinders vs. In-Laws basketball game (which was taken seriously by some and not-so-seriously by others, I won't say to which group I belonged baha)

+ Family Olympics (an opening ceremonies parade was, of course, necessary)

+ Country Dancing

And more!

Here's the little video I made showing snippets from the week. If you're going to watch it (which, I'll be honest, I don't know how interesting it will be for people outside of family) I HIGHLY recommend changing it to HD because it will do wonders for the quality of the video.

Hopefully the video can show just a small part of how much fun we have together as a family. I am so lucky to have such great siblings, in-laws, parents, and nieces and nephews! It's crazy to think that at the next family reunion in two years, Stephen and I will have a little baby of our own! Except, she'll almost be a toddler! That's a weird thought. A weird, happy one. haha.

_ _ _

han.

Everyday Life

Devil's Landing

8:59 AM

For President's Day weekend we decided to go down to St. George with some friends. I was excited to go on a little adventure and visit my Grandparents who live down there part-time, but I was also a little worried, because I don't really know what there is to do around St. George other than hiking. I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned on this blog how I am DEFINITELY POSITIVELY ABSOLUTELY NOT a hiker, and this fact is still true. Sophia ASSURED me before we went that we definitely wouldn't be doing any intense hiking because she's not all too crazy about it either (THE LIES!!!). We drove down to St. George on Friday night and we were chatting with my grandparents, when Gram asked what our plans for Saturday were. We said we weren't really sure but we would probably head over to Zion National Park. That's when this idea of hiking ~~Devil's~~ Angel's Landing came up. I was very adamantly against it from the start, but unfortunately I was outvoted 3 to 1 so there was really nothing I could do.

Saturday morning arrived (much to my dismay) and we made it to Zion National Park. I cried silent tears twice before getting out of the car (I am so dramatic). Stephen was being the sweetest (like always) but I basically felt like I was in a lose-lose situation. He kept asking if I wanted to do a different hike or just hang out while Soph and Will hiked, but I knew he really wanted to do the Angel's Landing hike and I just felt like I was being the biggest baby in the whole world (probably because I ~~was~~ am).

I decided I might as well start the hike with them and then just turn around and go back down when I'd had enough (which I was estimating to be like an hour into the hike). Stephen was 100% supportive (seriously how am I so lucky??) and said he would be happy to turn around whenever I wanted.

And so we were off. The first part was easy. Then it was a bit tough. And then is was really tough and I started breathing all weird and I kinda freaked myself out. Stephen said we should go back (because he could tell I was stressed) but I wanted to keep going just a little bit longer. Luckily the next part was really easy, and shaded (did I mention that the weather was literally PERFECT for hiking?) and then came the really nasty 21-switchbacks - which believe-it-or-not were actually much more terrifying in the picture than they were in real life. Finally we got to the "rest area" that was 2 miles into our 2.5 mile journey. We stopped, ate lunch, made friends with a chipmunk, named him Jasper, tried to feed him an apple, took some pictures...AND THEN I SAW WHERE WE WERE HEADED. Shock. Terror. Dumbfoundedness. These are the emotions I was feeling at this moment. I don't mean to sound dramatic (or maybe I do) but the last half mile has parts that are only 2 feet wide with ~1200 ft drops on either side. AND PEOPLE DO THIS STUFF FOR FUN???????? At this point I really really wasn't sure that I was going to make it. And every time I looked any direction other than 6 inches in front of me, I would get pretty scared. But I just kept holding on to the chain and kept going bit by bit. (Pep talks from random strangers also helped.)

Did I love it? No. Would I do it again? Probably not. Would I do it with my [future] children along? NO WAY.

But I did it. I attribute that fact to Stephen's amazing support and Sophia's HILARIOUS statements along the way (that we also tried to contribute to but she was definitely the best at it). She would say ridiculous things to see if we could get anyone to believe what she was saying.

Some examples:

"Did you know that Rosie O'Donal hiked Angel's Landing while training for the movie 'A League of Their Own'?"

"Can you believe that Shelly did this hike IN her prom dress after prom senior year??"

"Did you know that they actually filmed one of the Land Before Time movies at Zion National Park? I read it in the brochure!"

"Did you know that Led Zeplin was inspired to write the song 'Stairway to Heaven' while doing this hike?"

And then when we got to the top, Soph kept saying, "I just can't believe they lied about the giftshop up here!!!!"

HAHA. It was extremely entertaining. ~~So much so, that sometimes I actually forgot I was hiking.~~ But it was still the worst experience of my entire life. JOKING. It actually wasn't horrible. And in the end, I miiiiight even say I was glad I did it. Not for the view or the pictures or anything silly like that (I still stand by my statement that I can enjoy nature just as well through a photo) but mostly just for the fact that I did it. And it was hard. And I did it.