Horse Back Riding

Last weekend McKay's Uncle took my sista and brotha in-law and I horse back riding up Daniel's Summit.   You're probably asking, where was McKay?  He had a fishing date with his man friend Dan at Strawberry.  Every year we make it a tradition to ride up this area.  I'll be honest riding a 1,000 lbs animal that is 7 feet tall is sometimes kind of intimidating.  It seems like I've always get a horse that is female, has an attitude and likes to do whatever the heck it wants too.  This year I was determined to have a better behaving horse.  I got to ride good ole Risky.  Risky is an oxymoron; he is a sweetheart, but his name makes you think otherwise.  He is a horse that is 26 years old which equates to 78 years old in horse age.  Risky was a good horse, riding him was like turning on cruise control.  I didn't have to do too much when telling him where I needed him to go.  He even galloped a bunch of times. 

Katie is on the left and Risky is on the right.  They were acting really cute right before I took this picture, it looked like they were kissing and snuggling up with each other.  How tender!

In this picture Risky is kissing Katie

Emily and I 

The view from Risky

On Sunday, McKay and I took a motorcycle ride up Weber Canyon where he checked out the hot fly fishing spots. 

Train a coming!

L-3 Work Party

On Saturday McKay's work had a big party at This Is The Place State Park.  That morning we ran in the 5K and it was pretty hard because there were a lot of hills and I'm not used to running up hills.  Were we live its pretty flat.  To my great astonishment I did pretty well even though I stopped twice to walk up some of the steeper parts of the course.  My time came to 26:53 which equals to around 8:36 mile.  This is the part that got me, I placed 1st in my age group (the age group was pretty small 21-25) and placed 6th overall in the Women's.  McKay did pretty well too, he got 5th in his age group (26-30) and 17th place overall in Men's.

The work party was pretty fun, it was obviously western themed.  We invited Meggle and Chad to come with us.  They were so good, they dressed up in Western wear, I was being a party pooper and wanted to be comfortable.  We walked around the park and read up about the history of the park.

 

 They had snack stations all over the park and we grabbed some good ole' corn on the cob.

We rode around on the train and explored through some of the old houses.

We even stopped by the mortuary, I saw this and couldn't resist not taking a picture.  If you can't read the sign its says, "For Sale, only slightly used." 

Update

Here is an unexciting update on what's going on:

I got called to be an adviser in the Mia Maids.  When they first asked me, the first thing that came to my head was, "Really? I sure hope I don't corrupt any of them."  So far I don't think I have yet.  Our first YM/YW activity was at our Bishop's parents ranch in Eden.  It was fun getting to know the YW and leaders.  They had a larger than life water slide we were having fun on, until one of the YM broke his collar bone on it, gross!

McKay and I went down to Bryce Canyon National Park over Labor Day Weekend.  We went with just the two of us (I realized we haven't taken a trip by ourselves since our honeymoon).  We camped at this RV/Campground place called Ruby's near the entrance.  We hiked through the hoodoos (the spiral rock formations) on a trail called Queen's Garden (I would recommend going on this hike) and looked from all of the viewpoints over the amphitheater.   

 

We biked 9 miles to this place called Powell's Point, where the elevation is 10,000 feet high.  It was breathtaking and pictures don't do this place justice.  You could see Arizona, Moab, Cedar Breaks, and even the La Sal Mountains to the east. 

Can you see McKay in the picture below?  He is that white speck to the right.

We visited a ghost town called Widtsoe, it was interesting and kind of eerie.  

This is a picture of the school house and the ceiling inside the school.   

Hiked to the pioneer made waterfall and ditch called Tropic Waterfall.  Those crazy pioneers they dug a ditch that was 10 miles long!  I can't imagine doing that.  

McKay caught a horny toad, one of the things we really wanted to do.

 

We decided to take the longer and more scenic route home.  

 We went through the small towns of Boulder, Escalante, Torrey, Loa, and Richfield.  We decided to make it a tradition with our kids to go visit all of the National Parks.  Next spring were set on Capitol Reef and Canyonlands.  

  We went to the Greek Festival with Meggle and Chad.  Our friends who moved back from the Cayman Islands.  There's nothing like greasy Greek food with good friends.  Don't be silly, of course I ate too much!  If you go, make sure to go on Thursday night.  There were no food lines! 

McKay and I finally compromised and decided on a color for our new counter tops.  After three months of asking everyone of our family members and friends which color they liked best, mine or McKay's, we decided to go on a different color.  Wow, at five years of marriage I'm still learning how to share and compromise.  We decided on this color called Santa Cecilia.  I couldn't find a cute picture of this color online, so you'll have to wait until the kitchen gets done to see it.  I've changed my mind a few times about the colors of the cabinets and walls, but this is my most recent inspiration for our kitchen.

 

I joined book club in my ward.  I felt it a need to get myself to read more.  So far I've read 3/4 of one book called "The Counsel of Dads."  It wasn't my favorite, but that's ok, it's fun to discuss with friends the author's shortcomings.

Funny and sad story.  I was walking home from book club in the dark.  I was texting while I was walking, my shoe laces were untied, and I bet you can guess what happened.  I tripped and fell and slid across the cement.  My poor cell phone case got the brunt of the fall, along with my elbow and wrist.  The funny thing was I was so shocked it happen, I rolled over onto my neighbors grass and laid there for 10 minutes, hoping no one saw me.  I continued to lay there while I whimpered.  I went back to the accident scene the next day to see if I could find any traces of skin on the cement or blue bits from my cell phone case.  Nope, didn't find any.

I've been more obsessed with Pintrest.  I've starting to create a long list of DIY crafts.  For some reason they're all wreaths.  I might run out of room on where to put these once I'm finished. 

 To end, kind of random I know, I found this picture of McKay and I at my prior employers work party last summer, I thought it was funny and happy.