Summer Extension

Recently I have had the wonderful opportunity to do several things that I either haven't done or haven't had the chance to do in quite awhile. It has been quite the adventure and hopefully will continue.

School is for now put on hold while I work and save and play in the meantime i suppose. One experience that is strange is having all my friends and roommates head off to school and work while i sit at home with nothing much to do but fill out job applications. Lucky for me I now officially have a job and am able to be gone at least sometimes.

Within the last three weeks I have traveled to and from Provo area at least three or four times, gone hiking in adam's canyon twice with different people, gone to the zoo, been repelling, horseback riding, pistol shooting and just having fun :)

The first trip to Adam's canyon was with an old friend from high school. She and I wanted to catch up and spend some time together and the result was Adam's canyon; in the pouring rain. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, however by the end we both had mud up to our knees and were soaked through. It looked like we had just stepped out of the shower with clothes on and all.

Everything else done in the last few weeks has been with another friend and has resulted in many laughs and pictures. When I went pistol shooting, it wasn't for long, but i wasn't sure exactly how mucht the gun would kick and so when it did, it suprised me and almost flew back and hit me in the face; so even though i was expecting it the next few times, i would flinch everytime i shot the gun.

The horseback riding was an adventure as well. The horses were a little skittish at first but seemed fine when we first put the saddles on them. It wasn't until we had moved out to the pasture and actually got on the horses that they decided they weren't going to do anything that they didn't want to. In my case it resulted in a couple of full gallops, hanging onto the saddle for dear life, yelling at the horse, pulling on the reins, and ducking the tree branches, while the horse chased a stray dog back to the fence near the other horses. Once back at the gate to the pasture that we had just moved out of there was absolutely no getting the horse to do anything but move from one side of the gate to the other and keep whipping it's head so as to continue eating the grass that was growing nearby. Luckly my friend had better luck and had a couple good runs around the pasture. However strange and unexpected the riding was, it was still quite fun and worth the trip.

Later I went repelling with this same friend, who on my way down convinced me to hang upside down on the ropes at two different times. It turned out to not be quite and scary as i had originally imagined, however the harness dug into my hips and felt similar to when you go backpacking for a couple of hours.

The zoo trip was fun as well. They had a baby elephant there, who was about a year old I think, but we were able to watch it play with some of its toys. The favorite at the time was a 15 gallon plasic barrel with a small hole in the top. The little elephant kept putting its' trunk in the hole and either pushing the barrel around the enclosure, or trying to pick it up. At one point the elephant just sat on it for a time. It was rather comical to see, and you could easily relate it to a human child playing with a plastic bucket or somthing.

There are of course many other stories and adventures, but this at least gives you an idea, and perhaps a few laughs. :)