Celebrating Seven Years

Jared and I celebrated our Seventh Wedding anniversary this week. We've been talking about hiking Angel's Landing for a while and decided that our anniversary would be a good time. Zion is a place we often come on our anniversary because it's so close and always warm in May.

We tried to take our own picture. Haha.

Jared had never hiked Angel's Landing. As a kid, I thought Angel's Landing was a wimpy hike that everyone had done. Jared hadn't even heard of it and this time proved to me that I'm not in as good as shape as I used to be. At the trail-head it had a description saying that its not for people who are out of shape and that it has obstacles that people have died on. Someone fell to their death just one month ago.

This is looking down Walter's Wiggles. The whole five-miles (round trip) are steep, but this is the steepest part just before the Chains. Going down hurt more than going up.

After Walter's Wiggles you get to Scout Lookout. A lot of people stop here. This is where the last person fell 1,000 feet to her death. If you continue on you come to a half mile of Chains. As a kid, I didn't use the chains. I thought they were there to help you pull your self up. This time, I didn't let go of the chains. They are there to keep you from falling off the ledges.

This is the narrowest part. The ledge narrows to about three feet wide with 1,000 feet of sheer cliff on both sides. Notice how I was not going to let go. Even though this was a good day for my vertigo I had to concentrate on keeping my eyes on the trail.

Here is a picture of the narrow ledge you hike across to get to the landing.

There were so many people there that it made it even more dangerous. Its not a two-way trail. We waited here for a group of people to pass. We got down on our stomach's and looked over the edge. The cliff was concave here so all you could see was the river 1,000 feet below. One glance was enough for me.
Just after the chains, before the landing.
Sitting on the landing, eating lunch. We were able to call Kendi from here. Later, we found a 3D map of Zion and Angel's Landing isn't even close to being one of the highest peaks.
The squirrels are so used to being fed that they would come right up to my hand to see if I had anything. Fat little thing. We thought he was going to jump in our pack.
We really enjoyed this whole trip. The drive down is beautiful and we may consider moving to Toquerville. Haha. Thanks, babe, for a wonderful seven years. Here's to many more.

Travel? hmmm. . .

I don't care to travel. I know some people are obsessed with it. If I were to travel it would be for humanitarian purposes. You couldn't pay me to get on a cruise ship. Don't even bother asking us if we'll go with you, I'll turn ya down flat. I have never been outside the U. S. and the only way I would do it is if I weren't a tourist. I would love to experience other cultures, but keep me away from the tourist traps. Whats that word for people who are afraid of crowds? Anyway, CLICK HERE to read about what happened to my sister in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago.

More of the Subway

My dad coming down one of the easier rappals.

Jared, belaying.
Jared, rappalling.

Zion's Subway

Yesterday, Jared had the privilege of doing a back-country hike with my family. It was Jared's first time doing the Subway. It is well known that its not a Bulloch family outing unless your life is in danger. I wanted to go, but didn't have a good feeling about it and I've learned not to ignore those feelings. I was very jealous and sad, but I've done it several times already. I knew it was a grueling hike that can be down right miserable at times. This time proved to be quite the experience. My dad, whose done this more than 20 times, has never experienced it this early in the year. And what a difference a month can make. There were torrents of icey snow run-off that made them avoid the water as much as possible. Later, in the year it gets so hot that you would normally enjoy being in the water.

Sorry, these pictures were taken with an old point and shoot, we didn't want to ruin the expensive camera. Jared couldn't believe the scenery even at the beginning of the hike. The back-country of Zion makes the tourist-congested areas seem silly. He wants to come back and paint someday.

Jared went with my dad and two of my sisters, Cari and Jana.

If I have the hike memorized as well as I think I do, this is right before they dropped into the canyon. Some of these pictures are out of order because I haven't figured out the order that blogger loads them yet. Drives me crazy!

You hike for a couple of miles on layers of sandstone. We named these the "pancakes". You must cut your toenails before walking downhill over these.

Here they are dropping into the canyon. I think the correct name is Left Fork of North Creek.

When you get to the bottom there is normally a large alcove with sand at the bottom to wait for everyone to get down safely and to watch for falling rocks. This time they were in water up to their thighs. This is when it became apparent that there was a dangerous amount of water in the canyon. My dad had never seen it like this and considered turning back. If you know my dad, you know that he is too big of a die hard. I haven't done this hike for about eight years and that was back when we were in a serious drought. I'm used to seeing just a trickle of water throughout the whole hike.

This waterfall must be there every spring, but we've never seen it before.

This part of the hike was always the scariest for me. There used to be a huge log across the gaping whole in the front of the picture. I can't imagine how they got across without it. It's about a thirty foot drop with a torrent of water at the bottom. See the little people on the left?
Some more never-before-seen waterfalls.
My dad trying to get warm in the little bit of sunlight.
The shivering group of people.
Cari and Dad in the "Subway."
Normally, we don't see water here.
The cascades. Usually, you can avoid walking through the water here. My dad said he was walking along and unexpectedly stepped into a hole and was in water up to his chest.
It took them a lot longer to finish the hike because they had to rappal a lot in order to avoid swimming. I had told Jared that if anyone mentioned the "duck walk" that he should not do it. It isn't safe. Apparently, they didn't think they would last a minute in the water so the duck walk became a safer route.
More of the Subway. Jared said that the rest of the hike was too intense to take pictures. And the last couple of miles were just boulder-hopping. He really enjoyed it and would love to go again. Hopefully, I'll get more pictures from everyone else and post them soon.

Mother's Day Memories

I'm sure this will be boring to the rest of the world, but I wanted to write down some things to remember about mother's day.

I actually woke up with an uncontrollable cough that I knew would keep me home from church. Aydri was acting sick too so that was one more reason to have to stay home. I hate staying home from church. It is the longest three hours of the week when you can't go to church and I hate missing it too. The saddest part was that I knew I would miss seeing Kendi sing with the Primary for the first time. I even considered going just long enough to see her, but by then it was already too late to make it. Kendi was so sweet to me that morning and tried to sing to me some made up mother's day songs.

Apparently, at church, Kendi was a little scared to go up and sing with the kids so Jared went up with her. When she got up there an older girl held her hand. So sweet.

When Kendi got home she couldn't wait to give me the things she made in primary. She had a cookie flower that was made out of fudge striped cookies and gumdrops. I ate it right away in case it had egg in it. She also had some "helping-hand-coupons" for me and a poem about her tiny hands with cutouts. The ward had given out chocolate covered strawberries to all the moms also.

Jared made sure that I didn't have to lift a finger all day. Even when Aydri had two poopy diaper's, he changed both of them. Kendi was very sweet and caught on to all the mother's day stuff that was going on and was very helpful and sweet.

We visited both Gma's and gave them photo books we had made earlier in the week. Kendi and I had also made photo cards to send to all the great gma's too.

It was a great day that turned into a bit of a roller coaster when Kendi started throwing up on the way home. And we got news that Tammy had been in a terrifying, life-threatening situation that made me lay awake all night. I want to remember all the good things that happened and how grateful I am to be a mom.

Dresser - Before & After

I can't even remember how long ago we picked up this dresser, but I found my before pictures in my February folder so I've been working on this since then. We picked up this dresser at DI. We bought it right as it came off someone trailer. I think they were mad that they didn't try to sell it themselves. All the dressers inside were over-priced and they gave us a discount for not having to haul it inside. We paid $60 and that was still a lot more than I originally wanted to find a dresser for. But it looked good compared to $95 and $100+ inside the store.

This dresser was quite ugly. Because we bought it so fast I began to get worried about it on the way home. It had a lot more metal details on it than you can see in this picture. It was very medieval looking. You can faintly see what was in front of the giant hinge looking things if you look hard enough. It also had huge metal handles that I had already removed. We thought the whole thing was solid wood, but when we got it home we realized the little doors were not. I still sanded them down like the rest of the dresser.

By sanded, I mean I roughed up the wood and smoothed out the scratches. I knew I wanted the whole thing to be white. So I didn't bother to take it back to the natural wood.

Here it is after painting. We used my paint sprayer that Jared got me for Christmas. It worked wonderfully. The best thing was that it put nice, thick, even coats of paint on and by the time we were done with the first coat it was dry enough to do another coat. The painting process took all of about an hour and twenty minutes. It took a little while to get the hang of it and the right consistency of paint and water, but it still went really fast.
I ordered the hardware on ebay. I paid .99 cents for the knobs and I think about 3 -4 dollars for the pulls. They were the only pulls larger than 3 inches that didn't cost $80. I like the way they look.
Sorry that the pictures are a little skewed. I was maneuvering around the bed.
Isn't she pretty? She really brightens up the room. I still need to put a coat of finish on it and I can't wait to do some more projects. I'm so glad Jared loves to help me with my crazy ideas.

Impromtu Photo Shoot

Kendi got a new tutu. When she got dressed for ballet in the morning I realized that she matched an outfit I'd made for Aydri. I was waiting to have professional pictures done, but Kendi had her hair done and Aydri's had been recently cut. We had about an hour before ballet and seemed like the stars had aligned for me. So I tried to take some pictures. Out of a couple hundred shots these are the ones that turned out. Poor Aydri got tired about half way through. Although she would still smile for us, she didn't want anyone near her.

Aydri is so cute with stuffed animals and baby dolls. She gives them lots of luvs and kisses.
Kendi's favorite thing to do for the camera.
They have been able to play together a lot more lately. A few days ago they spent an hour sitting in a laundry basket together laughing their heads off.
I love the pictures that show real expressions.
I spent way too much time on this applique. I did it all with my regular sewing machine. I could have just got one custom made for $13 from stitcheroos. Oh well.

I never thought I could get such cute pictures in my own living room