For all cat owners of the world:

You MUST see this!

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/kitty_pet

Lolcat of the day

The Mormons

Haha

Grayson's boogie woogie dance

He is the cutest thing ever!!

Stolen Parking Space

Best hike yet!

A few days ago, Andy and I set out to hike Broad's Fork up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Andy randomly decided we should try this hike, but I've actually wanted to hike this trail since winter, ever since I saw a beautiful picture of the scenery from the hike on Googlemaps! Great minds think alike. It was a STEEP hike! It was pretty difficult. Here are the technicalities of it:

Big Cottonwood Canyon- Trail Head- S turn-4.5 miles up the canyon
Distance to Meadow- 2 miles
Elevation Gain- 2200 feet to 8400 feet
Hiking time- 2 hrs

The scenery was well worth it. It was gorgeous the entire way. I especially liked this hike since there weren't very many people around, so we got to enjoy the silence of being away from it all. Once we finally reached the meadow, there was a big "lake" with lots of beaver dams in it, and Andy even spotted a rattlesnake slithering back under a rock! That freaked me out. We stayed away from that area. The main meadow you reach has mountains around it that I believe make up the backcountry areas of the ski resorts in that canyon. Hiking is so fun because it's EXCELLENT exercise and you get to enjoy beautiful scenery the whole way!

Just a bunch of pictures!

This post is just going to be nothing but pictures that I've taken this summer. It includes random hikes, the Bahrain/London/Ireland trip, and from the time I was back home in Bakersfield. Enjoy!

Tom Cruise on Home Teaching

This is pretty funny :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXGCGZa8YkE

The Phantom of the Opera

Hello there! I deeply apologize for not posting more often...it's been a long time! But I just saw a trailer tonight for the London show of Phantom of the Opera and it is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

You HAVE to watch it. Seriously. This is the best video you will ever see. The best part about it? This is what I saw in London.

This is the Christine I *would* have seen if her understudy hadn't been on (usually I am very forgiving of understudys, but the Christine understudy was AWFUL....so I'm glad I saw this trailer to see what I missed) and I am pretty sure the Phantom is different too, but the Raoul is the same! Point being, this is theatrical set up that I saw. Every piece onstage you see was there when I saw it. It was seriously the best Phantom I've seen because of the set designs!

Just watch this video, and I know that most of you reading this have already seen The Phantom of the Opera live and onstage, but this gives you such a great look at how AMAZING the London stage is.

Also, there is a US Tour of Phantom coming to Los Angeles beginning September 23rd ;) *hint hint*. Hahah.

ENJOY!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFhae3RDx0s

(Just copy and paste the link into your browser and wait for the commercial to end. Then enjoy the show!)

Most True Statement Ever

I saw this posted up one time online, and it is the best way to define college:

COLLEGE
You Can ONLY Pick 2:

*Good Grades
*Social Life
*Sleep

It makes complete sense. If you pick to have good grades and a social life, I guarantee you will get NO sleep. If you pick good grades and sleep, you'll have NO social life. If you pick social life and sleep, you'll get bad grades. There you have it.

Weekend in Arches National Park

This weekend I got to go camping in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah for two credits! It was great. We saw SO MANY Arches!!!!

Friday, we left Salt Lake in our separate cars at around 9:30 am, and then got in to Arches around 1:30. We went in the visitor's center for awhile, watched some movies, and then we went up to our campsite and set up our tents. I just bought a nifty little tent for this occasion (Steepandcheap.com of course!!!) and it was a really cozy two man tent! There were 17 students there, and I'd say 80% were married :P So it was kind of weird, around the campfires we'd have most of the group saying "My husband and I..." or, "When my wife and I go camping..." Oh well!

After we settled in to camp, we all went hiking and saw two Arches near the camp. One was Tapestry Arch, the other was Sand Dune Arch. I'd say it was about an hour and a half we spent out there. Every night after dinner (we had to bring all our own food) we'd sit around the fire and we'd give our presentations on a topic that related to the area. We had to write a research paper for this trip, so it wasn't just an easy 2 credit course!

Saturday, we woke up around 7 am (Ok, I woke up at 7. Everyone else woke up around 6:30) and got ready for the day. We went hiking around an area called Devil's Garden and saw SO MANY ARCHES!!! I think we saw about 7 or 8. It was amazing. We went back for lunch after hiking for 4 hours, and then we went hiking again. This time, we went to a place called the Fiery Furnace. There are lots of "Fins" in Arches, and this hike went in between these fins. This was a unique hike because you have to get a permit to go into it, and there aren't any marked trails. It's really easy to get lost. We ran into a couple of lost hikers 3 times.

It was such a great hike. We spent about two hours in there, and there were other Arches inside, and little spaces and cave-like areas.

Sunday morning (today) we packed up all of our gear and loaded it into our cars, and we drove down to the trail head for Delicate Arch. We all hiked up to this arch (the most famous one in Arches, the one on certain Utah license plates) and sat around and enjoyed it for a long time. Delicate Arch is amazing. It's humongous, and the fact that it's so solitary in comparison to surrounding arches and other sandstone formations makes it stand out. Also, the landscape behind it is fantastic. After we hiked down, we split up and went home! I went into Moab to get gas and grab some lunch. I love Moab...it's like a beach town, without the beach.

Anyway, this has been a super long post! Sorry about that. I could go on forever about Arches! But here are some pictures. I took about 150 but I'll just post a few:

PS: As far as these pictures go, just imagine yourself actually there and looking at these sites. The pictures pale in comparison to the fantastic colors and size of the Arches and the landscape. It was phenomenal.

Early morning in Arches!

My sexy tent, and then even sexier view of the Arch behind it! And the toilets...yeah

Excited to be hiking!

This is me underneath Sand Dune Arch. Sand Dune was one of the smallest (if not the smallest) Arches. Can you imagine how GIGANTIC the other ones were?!

Fins!

Landscape Arch

Inside Navajo Arch

I forgot this one's name. It begins with a P though...

Me, inside the window!

Fantastic view of the Lasal Mountains and the Fiery Furnace.

The Fiery Furnace!

A cool Arch inside the Furnace

This is me...that little hole dropped you into a cool area you could do some climbing in!

We dubbed this "Nostril Arch" :D

This is Surprise Arch, inside the Furnace. It was lovely

Some petroglyphs on the hike up to Delicate Arch. This one boy was like "Native Americans didn't draw that...goats did! It's their genealogy! They were just drawing their family reunion." It was hilarious!

Sunset!

Behold...Delicate Arch!

I walked behind Delicate Arch and then some little boy was saying, "Daddy! She's gonna fall!"

I came, I saw, I conquered! Oh yeah! Do you like how I paired my purple Hard Rock shirt from Bahrain with my neon pink and blue beanie? I obviously didn't plan out the coloring on my outfit too well!