The Trip

Well more is to be said about the trip than just the photo journal - especially considering that RockYou wouldn't even take all of my photos- half of my good ones are missing! Grrr!....

Anyhow, I am a very happy girl. I have been able to live my dreams for the past couple of weeks. I spent some time in Indian Creek - my favorite place in the world. Josh was able to come with us, and that was a privilege. He is a very good person - humble, patient, and thoughtful. He cares about people, and is good to his friends. I was happy to get to know him better, and to be able to watch him climb. Which - he happens to be amazing at. For most people, you wouldn't think of taking them to Indian Creek on their 4th time climbing EVER. But, Josh... well he's special :) haha! Anyhow, he proved us right, and did a great job. He even walked Super Crack!

Anyhow, back to my narrative - we met Anneliese and Klaus there. Two of the most genuine and kind people I've ever randomly met. They were at the base of Supercrack Buttress, asking for directions to the climbs. We invited them to climb with us, and spent the next three days laughing our heads off! Mainly because I developed some weird accent trying to accommodate the language barrier. Problem was, that it was annoying to Josh and Jaren, and yeah.. I was using it with them. I couldn't stop! Ha! Basically sounded like everything I said was a question. Klaus was adventuresome. He enjoyed trying everything and anything. He's now a Mountain Dew and Sour Cream addict - Thanks to Jaren. He tried Wendy's because he saw it in a movie, and ate Donuts because of Homer Simpson. Oh you have to love American culture. My favorite part of the entire trip was the night we spent around the fire just sharing our cultures with each other. I was overwhelmed with a sense of the wastefulness of our country. While we have so many amazing and beautiful things, we take so much for granted... like energy. They explained to me that in Europe if your sitting in a traffic jam for more than 30 seconds everyone just turns off their car! There's an idea! Oh, and how everything here is air conditioned (or "climitization" as they call it). We loved taking them out to eat. It was truly an honor. They were initially hesitant, saying that they didn't want to "capitalize on our friendship." Uhmmm... can you really capitalize on climbing bums? Anyhow, we went to a Pizza joint, and waited 30 minutes outside (which was amusing - because they never wait in Europe supposedly). When we went in, we were delighted to watch Klaus literally try to eat "all you can eat." 11 pieces of Pizza, 2 bowls of salad, 2 bowls of fruit salad and enough drinks to bloat just about anyone. And - did I mention he's super skinny and built? Ha! Not for long if he keeps up with all of the American traditions.

Anneliese was so warm. I loved being around her. Her English was fantastic. She was curious, and fun to talk to. She is a strong climber - that inspired me to want to climb more.

They were gracious enough to invite us to Austria when they are done with their trip. We seriously might have to take them up on it!

I cried when we had to leave them. I truly wanted to just follow them to Bishop... not even so much for Bishop (although I love the Happy Boulders) but to just continue to get to know them.

When Josh and everyone was gone - Jaren and I were quiet in the car for about 2 hours. We had the realization that we were going to have to do the talking, and then things were fine from then on. But for a brief moment, we were lonely. We camped in Moab at the Slick rock campground. A new one for me. It rained, but produced a beautiful rainbow.

The next day we headed to Hovenweep. An ancient village that instilled a sense of mystery into our trip. Why did they build it only to leave 13 years later? What happened? It was a neat trip, and we took a ranger tour to see the petroglyphs (Meghan didn't even draw these ones!)

From there we went to Monument Valley. Another spooky place. What is it about Indian reservations/ dwellings/ camps that just produces a spirit of "you are definitely not alone"? Well the wind helped to keep our minds off of that, and the rain made me think for a while that it might be nice to be in a hotel. This was the only time of the trip that I thought that... but our tent was amazing, and didn't budge a bit. We bent a stake- but the tent didn't bow or anything. Good job tent!

We took the drive through Monument Valley the next day in the rain. Cool with the weather all crazy. I guess most people only get the sunny pictures, but not us!

We then drove through the Valley of the Gods to the Natural Bridges. We decided to buy the National Parks pass there. Good idea too! This was beautiful. I like Bridges, and we learned the difference between a Bridge and an Arch - Bridges are created by water flowing under them. Arches are usually from erosion from wind (or something... wow.. I already forgot! Ask Jaren okay!)

From there we went to Lake Powell. We spent the night at Halls Crossing and then took the Ferry over the next morning. We waited for my parents to arrive. I really started to miss my friend Lena during the wait. I felt like I had so much to share, and was worried that I would forget it all. I was excited to see my family and to start boating.

Lake Powell was pretty windy, and that produced a bunch of waves. My dad almost killed me... but not on purpose. But let's just put it this way, I'm lucky to be alive! Note to self - Brenna - you are not a luggage strap for the front of a boat.

We had fun exploring, tubing, wake boarding for about half a minute (until I took the hardest face plant in the history of mankind). I worked on my tan, and just chilled. I caught a fish, which was miserable mistake. I didn't even fish... I was just holding my Dad's fishing pole for half a second, when BAMB - a bass jumped onto it 3 feet from the boat. I cried! Dad released it. I'm sure its probably dead anyways. But I did like spending the quiet time with Jaren and my Dad. I really began to appreciate fishing time when the rest of my family showed up. Scott, Alicia, and all of the kids came, and the quiet ceased. Oh did it ever cease!

So I swam.

Jaren swam.

Then we cliff jumped.

I loved spending time with Siobhan in Lake Powell. She is such a strong willed woman. She kept me laughing a lot. She was always quoting something, and adding "your face" to it. Or "your mom's face." How do you come back from that?

Jaren drank at least 3 cases of Mountain Dew, and I'm sure he is an addict!

All in all, a very fun and needed vacation. Which I still happen to be on. I am so glad that I scheduled the rest of this week off too! It's fun to be at home and pick up stuff while I recover from my vacation! Good times.