Memorial Day

This Memorial Day weekend we went and stayed at Boulder Mountain with Andrew’s parents, his sister and brother-in-law, and my little brother Brandon.  I guess the fishing is really good at Boulder Mountain so this is one of the main reasons Andrew and Brandon wanted to go.

Here’s Andrew driving his Motorcycle through a little stream on our way to McGath lake!

Andrew and Shane on their float tubes ready to fish at McGath lake

McGath Lake! It was super pretty here!!

Brandon ready to fish with his waders on!!

Brandon caught a huge fish but it got away…this is his face right after it happened hahaha poor guy

We saw some elk while we were there too!  Right by the road!  The Crazies..

Brandon is the only one who caught a fish at Coleman Lake while I was there!  I didn’t catch a thing the whole time!!

Coleman Lake

We wore Gus right out!  He jumped in the back of the truck with us and laid down.  As soon as we started to pet him he fell right to sleep!

Brandon and Gus

Gus really liked to lay down in the back of the truck..I think it was because of the carpet…

One of the days it was super windy and freezing cold!  The boys went to fish at Blind Lake, but us girls did not want to sit out and freeze all day so we went for a drive through Capitol Reef instead!  I’m glad we didn’t go the Blind lake because Andrew said his eyelet on his fishing pole was freezing and there was some ice by the lake still!!!

We drove to Capitol Gorge and decided to hike down to the see the Pioneer Registry.

Me and CarolAnn (Andrew’s sister) on the hike through Capitol Gorge.  We didn’t get all the way to the pioneer registry because it was super long! But it was still a fun hike and it was nice to be out and away from the wind back at camp.

We had a really fun trip and some great food too haha  I hope next year it isn’t as cold though and the wind doesn’t blow!  Then the fishing might be a little better as well!

Graduation!!!

 

I GRADUATED from BYU in April!!!  I can’t believe I am done with college!  I graduated in Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation.  It feels so great to be done and sorta crazy at the same time!! 

Kelsey, Me, and Raylene (all friends from my major)

Raylene, Liz, me, and Kelsey (Liz and Kelsey were my roommates and Raylene was in our major.  Liz is an English major, but we still love her haha)

Me and my niece Morgan, she is such a cutie!!

Everyone!!  I was thankful for all my family for supporting me and sitting through the entire graduation for me!  Thank you!!

I was looking forward to some down time after graduation.  Just being to able to do some projects and organize our apartment the way I wanted it, but I started my new job the monday after graduation!…so much for a break haha

I am now working for the…..

on the Weeds/Botany Crew!  It’s been a lot of fun starting a new job and learning new things.  My plant ID class has definitely come in handy since starting this job!  It’s great being able to see the plants alive and not just dead and dried up on some piece of paper in the classroom haha  We are working on surveying an endangered species right now that is endemic to Spanish Fork Canyon, and it involves a lot of hiking which I love, but it makes me really tired at the end of the day and I have no motivation to do anything around the house after (this needs to change  otherwise my house will be a mess in no time! Which it may or may not already be haha)

Zions and Bryce Canyon!!

 

It has been FOREVER since I blogged last and a lot has happened, so here it goes… 

In March Andrew presented his masters research at the Utah Wildlife Society Meetings in Zions.  Since it had to do with my major and a lot of my professors were going to it, it counted as an excused absence from school, so of course I was going!!!  Andrew did a great job on his presentation and I was really happy I could be there to watch him present. 

After the presentations were over we took our mountain bikes and rode the JEM trail.  I have completely fallen in love with mountain biking, it is pretty much the funnest thing ever!!!  The JEM trail was really cool because at some parts we were riding just a few feet from a 30 foot drop off to the virgin river.  It was a really pretty ride once you get to the actual trail.  I wanted to die riding uphill the whole time to get to the trail haha but it was worth it.

Then we rode our bikes into Grafton, which is an awesome little ghost town right before Springdale.  It was fun being able to walk through the old houses and cemetery. 

The next day we met up with our friends Justin and Kalyn, who live down there. We drove into the Park and hiked to emerald pools. They have the cutest little girl named Avery who smiled at everything!

Justin, Kalyn, and Avery hiking to Emerald Pools

 

We were driving around one day in the park and spotted this guy in a tree by the road.  Porcupines are so cute!!

On our way home from Zions we decided to drive the other way home and stay a night at Bryce Canyon.  It was weird driving from Zions where it was warm and sunny and getting to Bryce where it was cold and still had snow everywhere!

haha I’m not exactly sure what Andrew is doing here….maybe just making it so you can see what’s behind him? haha..

It was so bright with the light reflecting off all the snow!

We forgot to get an actual picture of the bridge…but here’s the sign!!