31 Reasons Why October Is My Favorite

1.Hocus Pocus

2.Jumping in a pile of leaves

3.It's socially acceptable to wear oversized sweaters

4.The little kiddos all dressed up in their costumes

5.Corn Mazes

6.Houses that are decked out in Halloween Decorations

7.Carving Pumpkins

8.Eating Baked Pumpkin Seeds

9.Trick - or - Treating with the little ones

10.Cuddling up to scary movies

11.Pumpkin flavored everything

12.Every Business on Main Street in Spanish Fork decorates their own scarecrows

13.Yummy Apple Cider

14.Caramel Apples

15.Pumpkin Patches

16.Dressing Up As Anything Your Heart Desires

17.Festive Clothing

18.Farmers Markets

19.Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point

20.HALLOWEEEN DAY!!!!

21.Hay Rides

22.Ghost Stories

23.Odyssey Dance Theaters "Thriller"

24.Halloween Music (i.e. purple people eater)

25.Stores Filled With Halloween

26.LDS General Conference

27.Frightmares at Lagoon

28.Haunted Houses

29.Driving Up The Canyon To See All The Pretty Colors

30.Watching the Trees Change Colors

31.The Only Month You Can Wear Black & Bright Orange and get away with it.

Angels Landing, Zions National Park

This past weekend I decided out of complete impulse to go and surprise one of my best friends for her Birthday! It was a non-stop weekend, we all had such a blast. On Saturday we decided to go hike Angels Landing, we were getting pretty discouraged on our way there when it decided to start rain, but we decided to keep driving hoping that it would clear up.  We pulled up to the entrance to Zion's park and decided to ask the ranger if the hike was safe , and if by chance the weather was going to clear up. She told us yes, then proceeded to tell us that it was closed for search and rescue this morning but we should be fine to hike it now. All that was going through my head at the time was, "SERIOUSLY?! You just had to tell me THAT of all things?!" definitely not something that you want to hear, kind of freaked all of out.

 The hike was difficult for me, let's just throw it out there…. I'm out of shape. The hike was full of steep switch backs at the beginning. The last 0.5 miles of the hike was were the "fun" began, there were chains for the rest of the way up since it was so narrow. We met a lot of very friendly interesting people along the trail, including a 77 ….. Yes 77 Year old man, hiking with his son. What an inspiration to all of who hiked that day and crossed their path, I hope that when I get to the age I'm still ambitious as he is.

 We were all burnt out by the end of the hike, we all decided to go down by the river to go and try to cool off a little bit. There was another group down there already and they all jumped into the river to cool down. We all didn't exactly want to get all sopping wet but we decided to just dip our feet into the water.

 Gradually throughout the hike the sky got clearer and clearer, it turned out to be such a gorgeous day. I have to say this was probably one of the more difficult hikes that I have done, but I'm sure glad that I pushed my self to be able to complete it. It makes me want to get more in shape for next summer and do a lot more difficult and challenging hikes. I personally have never been to Zion's I was amazed how gorgeous it was! I have learned to appreciate what a gorgeous state Utah is, going on all of these hikes I have been lately. Utah has such gorgeous secrets that you have to go out and search for, so why not go appreciate what we have been given?!

Stewart Falls

It's amazing to think what a beautiful world we live in, living in Utah we are very privileged to have such beautiful mountains that surround us. I love hiking, once it starts to get warm I get all excited about hearing about new hikes that I can go on. All of us that live in Utah County have heard of Bridal Veil falls, super short 10 min hike right at the beginning of Provo Canyon but nonetheless its absolutely gorgeous. I have heard a lot about hiking Stewart Falls and honestly thought it was connected to Bridal Veil falls, boy was I wrong. It's in a completely different part of Provo Canyon near Sundance and Aspen Grove tucked away where you can't see it from the local road.

 

The hike to the falls was a little bit interesting, we had a little trouble trying to find the trail head since there were no signs leading us to Stewart Falls, all the Signs there said Timp. Trail. We finally asked someone nearby where the start of the hike was, he pointed us in the general direction and we still had a little trouble finding it. There was a trail but it looked a little to steep for it to be a family friendly trail. We couldn't see any other trail so we decided to trudge up the steep hill, what a great way to start off a hike right? The rest of the hike went pretty smooth, there was a lot of gorgeous scenery along the way it reminded us all of the "Sound of Music".

 

We finally got to the point where we could see the falls, we got to a point were the trail just seemed to end (I was the one leading by that time) so I chose to go right and take the most difficult way to the falls which included, rock climbing and sliding on the dirt with our bums.

 

By the time we got to the falls we realized that there was a much safer way and there was actually a trail to get down there without sliding and getting all dirty. If you ask me hiking is worth the end result the beautiful ending that you get, we hiked up the falls to were a ton of little water falls formed a little stream which eventually turned into the big water fall at the bottom. One of the most breathtaking scenes I have ever seen. We stayed up there for a little while just in awe of our beautiful surroundings.

When we decided to head back we take the "smart" way back and followed the trail the whole way back, we did however encounter a snake that looked like a ginormous worm, and I freaked everybody out by screaming when I almost stepped on it. Hiking Stewart Falls makes me want to go/do all of these hikes that I have never done before, hopefully by the time it hits winter I can go on a few more other than that I guess I will have to plan a lot for next summer!

 

 

 

Making memories last a lifetime.

In high school I had a lot of friends that would take millions of pictures, me personally, thought it was annoying and WAY overdone. These last couple of months I have been going through all of my old stuff and realized that I don't have very many pictures or videos that document that best times of my life. There are instances where I get together with old friends and we reminisce about hilarious, embarrassing, adventurous, amazing, and fun times of our past unfortunately most of those times we don't have pictures of. I have realized recently why the reason all of my friends took pictures constantly, having memories to share for a lifetime, If you don't you'll regret it. When I grow up, get married, and have children I want my children, and grand children to see how weird I truly was.

Day 10 of the 31 Day Blog Challenge: Daily Routine

I'm a pretty O.C.D. person I have certain things that I absolutely have to do during the week. If I don't do those certain things it feels like my whole day goes to pieces.  I'm not going to sit here and list off every specific thing that I do each day because lets face it, that would just take to long and bore you all to tears. Yes, I'm the type of person who has certain rituals that I have to do every Morning and Night. I think that we are all like that for the most part, or maybe I like to think that to make myself feel a little better :)

Day 9 of the 31 Day Blog Challenge: What's on Your Life List/ Bucket List?

1. COMPLETE A HALF MARATHON
2. ENTER A BIKE RACE WITH MY DAD
3. DRIVE A SPEEDBOAT
4. LEARN HOW TO WAKEBOARD
5. RIDE A JET SKI
6. LEARN TO PLAY GOLF
7. MAKE A HOLE IN ONE
8. GO ICE FISHING
9. GO HUNTING
10. GO HORSEBACK RIDING ALONG THE BEACH
11. RIDE A HORSE WITHOUT A SADDLE
12. TAKE A SELF DEFENSE CLASS
13. BE FLUENT IN SPANISH
14. BE FLUENT IN ASL
15. LEARN TO SAY "HELLO" IN 50 LANGUAGES
16. LEARN HOW TO PLAY PHANTOM OF THE OPERA ON THE PIANO
17. LEARN HOW TO PLAY ALL CHURCH HYMNS ON THE PIANO
18. GO TO AN OPERA
19. GO TO THE BALLET "CINDERELLA"
20. PERFORM IN A BALLET
21. GO SCUBA DIVING
22. GO SNORKELING
23. JUMP FROM A CLIFF INTO DEEP WATER
24. GO SURFING
25. RIDE IN A HOT AIR BALOON
26. GO ON A HELICOPTER RIDE
27. GO ZIPLINING
28. RACE A SPORTS CAR
29. GO ON A CROSS-COUNTRY MOTORCYCLE TRIP
30. DRIVE DOWN ROUTE 66
31. RIDE A TRAIN
32. GO ZORBING
33. RIDE THE TEN LARGEST ROLLER COASTERS IN THE WORLD
34. SWIM WITH DOLPHINS
35. GO WHALE WATCHING
36. GO ON A CRUISE
37. RESCUE AN ANIMAL
38. VOLUNTEER AT THE HOSPITAL
39. ADOPT A PET FROM THE ANIMAL SHELTER

40. TRAIN A GUIDE DOG

41. SWIN WITH MANATEES

42. VISIT THE GRAND CANYON

43. SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

44. BACKPACK THROUGH ITALY

45. GO TO AUSTRALIA

46. GO TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

47. GO TO A CARRIBEAN ISLAND
48. CLIMB UP THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
49. HIKE TO THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN
50. GO TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, HOLLYWOOD
51. RIDE A STEAMBOAST DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
52. SEE THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
53. VISIT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL
54. VISIT THE WHITE HOUSE
55. SEE MOUNT RUSHMORE
56. RIDE A CABLE CAR IN SAN FRANSICO
57. GROW MY HAIR DOWN TO MY BUM
58. BREED MY DOG
59. "FLIP" A HOUSE
60. LEARN HOW TO MAKE POTTERY
61. LEARN HOW TO JUGGLE
62. SOLVE THE RUBIKS CUBE
63. MAKE A QUILT

64. READ ALL THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS

65. DISCOVER WHAT TRULY MAKES ME HAPPY
66. RELEASE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
67. DISCOVER MY PURPOSE IN LIFE
68. LEARN NOT TO TAKE WHAT OTHERS DO OR SAY PERSONALLY
69. BECOME AN EARLY RISER
70. STOP WORRYING ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE NOT IN MY CONTROL
71. BECOME A BETTER PUBLIC SPEAKER
72. LEARN TO SAY "NO" WITHOUT FEELING GUILTY
73. LEARN TIME MANAGEMENT
74. MAINTAIN A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
75. BE HONEST IN EVERYTHING THAT I DO
76. LEARN HOW TO TAKE COMPLIMENTS
77. ACQUIRE PERSUASIVE SKILLS
78. OVERCOME THE HABIT OF PROCRASTINATION
79. BECOME A BETTER LISTENSER
80. GET A COMPLETE MAKEOVER
81. TAKE MAKE-UP LESSONS WITH A MAKE-UP ARTIST
82. REVAMP YOUR WARDROBE
83. GET MY BACHELORS
84. GET MY MASTERS
85. BECOME A DENTAL HYGIENIST
86. BECOME CPR CERTIFIED
87. MEET THE PROPHET OF THE CHURCH
88. MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
89. BECOME DEBT FREE
90. INVEST IN THE STOCK MARKET
91. CREATE A TRUST FUND FOR MY CHILDREN
92. HAVE SAVINGS FOR MY CHILDRENS EDUCATION FUND
93. GO ON A SHOPPING SPREE
94. OWN A BEACH HOUSE
95. OWN A RANCH
96. GO TO A JEFF DUNHAM SHOW
97. SEE TAYLOR SWIFT IN CONCERT
98. SEE RASCAL FLATTS IN CONCERT
99. SWIM IN AN AQUARIUM
100. GET MARRIED
101. GO THROUGH THE TEMPLE
102. VISIT ALL THE TEMPLES IN THE UNITED STATES
103. VISIT ALL THE TEMPLES IN UTAH
104. BECOME A MOTHER
105. HAVE A HABIT OF GOING TO THE GYM EVERYDAY
106. FIND THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
107. BE A FOSTER PARENT
108. ADOPT A CHILD
109. CREATE A HOME WITH AN INVITING, JOYOUS, COMFORTABLE, AND LOVING ATMOSPHERE
110. PASS ON A FAMILY HERILOOM TO MY CHILD
111. HAVE FAMILY RITUALS AND TRADITIONS
112. HAVE A CONSISTANT JOURNAL
113. HAVE A LARGE KTICHEN WITH WOODEN FLOORS
114. GO ON A LDS MISSION
115. EXPERIENCE BLISS
116. READ THE BIBLE
117. MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN AT LEAST ONE PERSONS LIFE
118. VOLUNTEER AT A SOUP KITCHEN
119. DONATE MONEY TO A CHARITY
120. JOIN A BIG SISTER PROGRAM
121. VOLUNTEER AT A HOMELESS SHELTER
122. VOLUNTER AT AN ANIMAL SHELTER
123. START A CHARITY
124. BE PASSIONATE ABOUT A CAUSE
125. BE CINDERELLA FOR A DAY
126. MAKE A DOCUMENTARY FILM
127. DONATE BLOOD
128. DONATE AN ORGAN TO SAVE SOMEONES LIFE
129. CREATE A WEBSITE
130. CREATE A BLOG
131. WRITE A CHILDRENS BOOK
132. WRITE MY MEMOIR
133. BECOME A CHEERLEADING COACH
134. BECOME A DANCE TEAM COACH
135. GO TO A BROADWAY PLAY
136. LEARN HOW TO BARRELL RACE
137. GO TO THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING PARADE
138. COOK AN ENTIRE THANKSGIVING MEAL, FROM SCRATCH
139. GO TO TIMES SQUARE ON NEW YEAR'S EVE AND COUNT DOWN AS THE BALL DROPS
140. JUMP INTO A POOL FULLY CLOTHED
141. GO MUD WRESTLING
142. BE A MEMBER IN THE AUDIENCE OF A TV SHOW
143. SIT ON A JURY
144. RIDE A SEGWAY
145. RIDE AN ELEPHANT
146. OWN A HOME
147. DO A SERVICE PROJECT IN AFRICA
148. RIDE ALL OF THE RIDES IN DISNEYLAND IN ONE DAY
149. RIDE ALL OF THE RIDE IN DISNEYLAND AND CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE IN ONE DAY

Day 8 of the 31 Day Blog Challenge: Biggest Pet Peeve

Oh, this has got to be my favorite thing to talk about. I don't necessarily think that I have a lot of pet peeves but there are certain manors that everyone should have. I would have to say that the top one of my list would have to be chewing with your mouth open. Let's be honest no one wants to see chewed up food that's in your mouth. I think the thing that bothers me the most with that is the sound that everyone makes when they chew with their mouths open. Yes, we know that food is delish but you don't need to make a statement every time you take a bite. If you chew with your mouths open around me, don't worry I will let you know. I know this all might sound a bit harsh to some people but to me it's like scratching nails on a chalk board.