So, I'm a little lazy and don't have any pictures of Mill Hollow yet, but just know that it's totally awesome! This past week was our first full week of having students up there. Wow. That's all I have to say about it. On Wednesdays, we have our outgoing group and our incoming group for lunch. That was definitely the most hectic meal EVER! But good news: we made it through! Yay! Thursday was quite the adventure. Bambi (aka Bryce/Fonix) wanted to go up the mountain and go "elk hunting." So, he, Edna, Brownie, Scout, Patch, Cub and I all climbed into his truck and headed up the reservoir road. About 8 miles up, we came across a snow pile across the road. He asked if he dared go across it, and mostly everyone said yes. So he gunned it. We almost made it too. But, alas, right as we were coming out of the snow pile, we started to slide. Thankfully, he hit his brakes before we hit the trees. But, we were also stuck pretty deep in the mud. We tried to get out, but to no avail. So Brownie called her dad to get the Granite Police number. She then called them to get a message to Mill Hollow and our managers to come get us out. Meanwhile, Patch and Cub had started hiking back. This was at approximately 9pm.

Dave and Bob got to us around 9:45. Dave has a winch on his truck, so we weren't too worried about getting Bambi's truck unstuck. However, as they started going, Bambi's truck slid a little farther down, and eventually he high-centered it over a stump. Around 11pm, they decided to just leave his truck there, and go back for it Friday morning. So, we all piled into the back of Dave's truck to go back to the center. That was quite the ride down the mountain. Six of us in the back and one of us in the front, between Bob and Dave. If we weren't all close before that, we're definitely all close friends now!

The rest of the weekend has been equally as fun, though not quite as eventful. My good friend Tyler Eliason came home from his mission to Brazil on Friday. Maybe Thursday; I'm not sure which. Either way, he's home now. So, Elise, Fitch and I headed down to Manti last night to go see the pageant. Thankfully, we didn't get rained out. Done that before; it's no fun. We stayed with our friend Loni. It was so much fun to see her again and catch up! Then this morning we met up with Christina and Drew in Nephi and continued on to Delta for Tyler's homecoming talk in sacrament. It was so exciting to see Tyler again! I've missed that kid so so much! After hanging out with him and his family after church, we took Fitch to his house in Delta. His mom came over to give us directions on how to get back to the main road from their house so I had opened my window so that we could hear her. Well, Fitch's family has lots of dogs. One of them, Sasha, decided she must have really liked us because when she came over to the car, she jumped through my open window, landing on top of me. It was very startling. But also very funny.

And now, I'm off to bed so that tomorrow I can start another week at Mill Hollow. And then come home to another very busy weekend. Good thing I'm looking forward to it!

Warm River

So we went to Warm River for Memorial Day. Before I go any farther, I want to inform you that Warm River is not really warm at all. And yes, I speak from experience. I fell in it once when I was little. So I happen to know that it is, in fact, very COLD! However, I learned this time why it's called Warm River. Apparently back in the old days, the people that settled the place (which definitely isn't settled anymore!) could see steam rising from the river in the cold months, which made it look like it was full of warm water. Boy were they wrong!! Anyway, it was quite the eventful weekend. Blistering hot the first two days, and then pouring rain the next two. Yuck. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that weekend...

My favorite rock ever!!

Jason watching Shayla fish. 


The best bridge for playing pooh sticks EVER!!

An Adventure Filled Week!

I started my job at Mill Hollow on May 28th. Mill Hollow is an outdoor education camp run by the Granite School District up in the Uintah's. It's pretty much the best place to spend the summer! Partly because while it gets up to the 100s here in the valley, it only ever gets in the upper 70s there. It's pretty fantastic. :) However, those first two days, and then this entire past week, I was freezing! I honestly don't know if I ever stopped shivering the entire week! Another reasons it's the best place to spend the summer is because the other people that work there are just awesome! Brownie, the one who got me the job there 2 summers ago, is also back this summer. That's way fun. And the other staff that I've met so far has been way fun as well. Our first adventure started out on the 27th when the district called me to say that they didn't have my paper work and I needed to go get it done between 8am and 3pm M-F. They called at 3:45 the day before we were leaving for the camp. When I mentioned this they just told me to come in right at 8 the next morning and that Gary, our manager, would just wait for me to get to the designated meeting place and we'd leave later. So, Elise and I got up early so that we could make it to the district offices for me to do paper work and then get to the Granite Peaks office to meet everyone else. Literally 30 seconds before we got to the district offices, they called me back to say that they had found my paper work from 2 years ago and I didn't need to go do new ones. Ugh! So then we were late meeting everyone else anyway, plus we had missed out on an extra 45 minutes of sleep. When we got to the camp, we started cleaning. Me and the rest of the kitchen staff that was there, got thrown into the most disgusting kitchen I've ever seen. So we went to work and started scrubbing things down. It reminded me of how much I hated working in the kitchen a couple years ago. I still hate it just as much.

We came home Friday and that night, Elise and I went mini golfing with her friend Janie. It was so fun! Elise lost her ball to a massive spider. (Okay, really, she just hit it in  a tree and we couldn't find it. And one of the people looking for it saw a massive spider in the tree.) That gave us some entertainment. Saturday was her birthday party. I was suprised to find that I actually knew everyone there, minus one person. We made virgin margarita's and apple martini's and pina colada's. Great fun. :) Sunday was actually her birthday so before church she got to open all her presents. Monday, we got up early (again) so that we could go get her a new driver's license, just to find out that the wait was too long and we have to try again this coming Monday. :S Once we got to camp, we all split off to our various assignments. Me in the kitchen. Yuck. The entire week we scrubbed and cleaned and scrubbed some more. I think it was pointless to scrub some of the things we did, but oh well. At least I got paid for it. 

Wednesday after work, we drove down to Kamas to get ice cream. And phone service. It was fun to get away from the camp for a couple hours. Thursday, was awesome. Not only was it my birthday, but I got to pick all the meals for that day. Plus also, I slept in and didn't have to make breakfast. It was fantastic! And then, I got to spend a lot of time helping somewhere other than the kitchen that day. I loved it! The best part of the day was when Elise found the porcupine in the trading post. The entire staff that was there this week was up watching or helping get it out. It ended up dying, so we gave it a proper burial. Friday was also wonderful! I only had to work for 4 hours so I was done at 11:30. Yay! After getting back to Elise's house and showering the Mill Hollow-ness off for the the weekend, we went to see a movie and then we hung out with Fitch for a bit. We also ate dinner at Applebee's and Elise tried to get them to sing to me, but they never did. Thank goodness! 

We got to sleep in a little bit this morning, though not as much as I would've liked. We had to go to a CPR/First Aid training class for Mill Hollow. I'm just glad I only had to stay for the CPR part. So I left at 11:30 whilel the rest of them were there until 1. However, I may as well have stayed until 1 anyway. It took me an hour to get from 3600 South in Salt Lake, to North Salt Lake because of this massive accident. I was really bugged that there was so much blasted traffic. All I wanted was to go home. Traffic comes to a stand still and we're sitting there for 15 minutes when all of a sudden there's millions of cops and fire trucks and ambulances behind me. (They were a ways back.) So of course, everyone starts moving over to let them pass on the left side. The only problem was, there was practically no where for anyone to move in the first place. I've never seen such a traffic jam in my whole life. Not even when I was in rush hour in downtown Chicago. They ended up closing I-15 not too far in front of me, therefore forcing everyone onto Highway 89. I was able to get back on the freeway in Bountiful though. As I drove on 89 past I-15, I could see about 2 miles worth of  backed up traffic. There were people sitting on top of their cars taking pictures; people taking a walk along the freeway. It was insane. I saw it as a blessing that I was only stuck for 45 minutes, instead of the 3 hours that all those other people were stuck there for.

And now, I am home. My laundry is done, I've eaten my delicious belated birthday dinner that I didn't have to cook (thanks Mom!), and now I'm going to eat cake and ice cream and watch a movie. Maybe I'll even make it to bed before midnight tonight!