starburst: faveREDS

seriously thinking that starburst fruit chews knows my number cuz i found a box in the store today that has just the "red" flavors. watermelon, cherry, strawberry and fruit punchy goodness! i tolerate the orange ones but absolutely despise the yellow ones (lemon?). the really good news is i don't have to pretend with this box. i don't have to fake it with this box. no, with this box i can be the real me. i think i'm in love.

re-focus

do you remember when i said that i keep a small list of personal goals?!?! well, lately i've been slacking on some really important goals i set for myself about 6 months ago. and i didn't realize how poorly i was doing until recently. i was doing really well for awhile and people were actually noticing a change and making wonderful comments, but the past few months have been a gradual descent into old ways. it makes me sad and regretful. i wasted a lot of chances to improve myself. there were times when i made the wrong choice even when i was telling myself not to. and then there were the times that i didn't realize the errors of my ways until well after the opportunity had passed. here's a quote from the movie "hope floats" that i've always really liked: "it's the worst kind of extravagance, the way you waste your chances." well, i don't want to live so extravagantly. i want to re-gain control and be all i can be. only not in the army. in my little life.

ahhh, it's 'bout christmas time

so, i've been feeling it (by it, i mean christmas) these past couple days. yesterday i put up most of the christmas decorations, except the tree which is going up on friday! today was the christmas luncheon at work and tonight i saw "white christmas" at the theater. i'm really excited for christmas now. almost all of my christmas shopping is done and by shopping i mean going around to different places to buy gift cards. i've wrapped the two presents i actually have in my custody. and i've been listening to christmas music ALMOST non-stop for a couple of weeks. woot woot. christmas is a wonderful thang! except that it was warm enough today to melt all the snow. that makes me sad, BUT i hear there is more to come in a couple of days:] anyways, just thought i'd bore you with a little of my christmas spirit.

19 wonderful, joyful, peaceful days to go!

p.s. brandon expect to be extra helpful on friday.

brian head: the finale

actually, this wasn't in brian head. it's the parowan petroglyphs. on our way home i made brandon drive out to the spot where american indians carved these diagrams into the rock walls of a gap in the mountains sooo long ago (date is apparently unknown).

didn't you just come through the line??

i was a little embarrassed when i had to go through the line again (at cafe rio, yummmm!) to take some home for brandon and one of the guys preparing the meal said, "again? didn't you just come through the line??" why yes, yes i did. and thank you for noticing.

btw, for those that don't know cafe rio salads are that good that you could eat there more than once a day. ah-mazing!

brian head, part deux

neither of us had ever been to cedar breaks national monument so we weren't sure what to expect. but this (look below) appeared out of nowhere. we had intended on hiking there but did not know of the snow and since we didn't have, like, appropriate gear, we had to settle with driving through it. nevertheless, it was quite amazing to see.












so, we went back down the canyon to do some hiking where the leaves were still changing and ended up hiking to a waterfall...after a slight detour due to the amount of wrong turns we took.




the waterfall. yes, brandon got in the water. yes, i took a pic. yes, i will spare you the image...and brandon the embarrassment.


so, a funny story about how this pic happened. i hung the camera from a log and positioned it just right. i then put the timer on pressed the button and ran over to where brandon was to pose. it was quite comical, and took a couple tries before it actually took a decent shot!


the view from our hotel room of brian head peak.

Brian Head, Utah: Part 1

brandon and i took off to brian head to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. it was one of the best weekends we've had together. there are too many pics for one blog so i'm dividing the trip into three parts...here are the pics from part one (we did a lot of hiking that day so the pics are all from our hike):


i loved the way the yellow tree and red rock stood out against the green trees.


we found this piece of wood with the interesting pattern in it. must have been some sort of burrowing insect. the bark had fallen off in one piece next to it and had the image imprinted on it.


brandon with his walking stick. he was on a mission to find the perfect walking stick. he did end up with some pretty good ones.


this was found on the henderson hill hike near parowan, utah.


this tree had a weird smooth spot. nature is so interesting sometimes.


a view from vermillion's castle.


another view from vermillion's castle. brandon said i need to be smarter about picking places to hike and look for hikes with names like "flat meadow" instead of vermillion's castle.


me posing my a small cavey thing on the way up to vermillion's castle.


brandon hiking vermillion's castle.

that night we enjoyed a nice dinner and the steam room/hot tub to soothe our poor muscles from all that hiking. it was heavenly.