No Trespassing Signs are Optional

My weekly goal is to fit in at least one hiking adventure. So far I have been able to reach my goal for the last several weeks. My interest in photography; along with my enjoyment of nature and hiking has led me to make this a routine. This week’s hiking destination was stumbled across by my friends during their run. They weren’t able to make it to the top of the peak (for fear of coming in contact of a wild cougar), but that failed attempt led them to try again and they decided to include me this time around. Thank you! Not gonna lie as we started the hike we were all a little skeptical as our shoes were encaked in inches of mud and we were slipping everywhere; but our end point-a random gazebo found at the top of the peak-was just too appealing for us to pass up, so we pressed forward. As we paused to admire some mysterious footprints, a heard of white-tail deer began stampeding down the mountain side. We quickly hid in some shrubbery and started rapidly taking pictures as if we worked for National Geographic. Once the deer were out of our site we continued on our way up the trail. When we reached the gazebo we all began wondering who in the world would build a perfectly good gazebo way out in the middle of nowhere on this hill. The many “No Trespassing” signs, found around the gazebo, to us were optional. We felt this particular gazebo was not getting enough use out of it as it should. We felt obligated to change that-so we made a tasty lunch in the gazebo and began thoroughly exploring around it. While enjoying the breathtaking views; we were privileged to witness some rare creatures called harpies. Luckily those who I came with were quite educated on them, and were able to relate to them in a very intimate way-I’d say they may have been obsessed with them.
Remember to take the path less traveled.
One of the greatest reliefs in life is when you finish speaking in sacrament meeting.

TV Remotes and Olympics

Ever wonder how you can cut back your amount of time spent watching TV?? My roommates and I learned the hard way… Our TV remote mysteriously stopped working one day. I believe all of my roommates found this out on their own attempts of trying to change the channel with the remote having no success. After multiple attempts of grabbing the remote, rushing to the couch, getting comfortable and ready to view some worthless, time wasting TV show, I found myself clicking the remote buttons furiously with no luck of the channels changing. Everyone knows that it is not worth the effort to watch TV without a working remote. It is just too big of a pain for some, or an inconvenience for others, or just not appealing; when you don’t have the ability to change the channel without moving your body. I fall in all three of those categories and found myself not watching any TV until my roommate who owns the TV decided to reprogram the remote so it works correctly.

To pay tribute to the US dominating the 2010 Olympics I decided to participate in one of my favorite pastimes-snowboarding. So in order to fully enjoy the slopes: I took the day off from school Thursday, rounded up a good friend and began blazing down the mountain. Both of us weren’t familiar with our way around Snowbird, yet we thoroughly enjoyed getting lost and finding our own way down the mountain. We found ourselves in some treacherous terrain one run, where we had an encounter with some rather intense cliffs. Through it all the only downside was the fog which was so thick you had a hard time telling apart the snow and the moguls. This created a great workout though. Take that p90x oh and see ya in the 2014 Olympics!!

The “Give the Coke to a Stranger”

Four day weekends are hard to come by at Brigham Young University, there what you may call literally once in a blue moon… Yeah definitely Cougar blue… This weekend business writers, including myself were asked to give a stranger a coke and write about it. If we were at any other University one might be sketched out with the words stranger and coke in the same sentence. The weekend was packed with outdoorsy adventures which led a limited amount of time to drop the coke off. It started off with a wintery hike up American Fork Canyon on Friday. Early Saturday morning the weekend took a turn to the top of Little Cottonwood canyon for some cabin fever. Snowmobiling didn’t seem like the best place to find a stranger to give them the coke so I just enjoyed my time plowing through the mountains and digging myself out of 5 feet of snow. Sunday was a day to rest and recuperate from all of that digging and lack of sleep. Monday seemed like the perfect day to make the coke assignment happen. I went to the usual store to purchase the beverage, Smiths. Having no clue who I was going to be the lucky recipient of the beverage, as I was driving out of the Smith’s parking lot; I stumbled across a homeless man sitting on the corner by R.C. Willey who looked parched. I rolled down my window and wished the man a happy Presidents day as I gave him the coke.

Hyke.

<-Big Hollow Springs
I am on this hiking/photography phase right now where that is all I want to do. This world is so pretty on many levels and I want to capture it with my Nikon d5000. Three winter hikes took place this week: Rock Canyon, Big Hollow Springs, and Battle Creek Falls. Rock Canyon brought on a gorgeous sunset; plus a night scene with the lit-up Provo Temple. Big Hollow Springs was a surprise; I’ve never done this hike and I didn’t know what to expect. The lush green moss stood out so well surrounded by the white snow. This spring was worth seeing even if you had snow up to your knees when you ventured off the trail. Battle Creek Falls is already slowly melting away, yet the icy falls is always worth witnessing.

What makes a horror film, actually scary? This weekend we experienced the classic old-school movie, Halloween. This 40 year old film’s music is what created the creepy atmosphere for me, along with the Cook’s haunted cabin hidden in Sundance.

You cannot ‘one up’ a testimony-period.

A Winter Hurrican Aloof-take two

Here is a Chinese Riddle for you… How does the VIP line take longer than the general admission line? This was the question of the night as I was freezing and anxiously waiting in the VIP line at Harry O’s in Park City. There was a lot going on at the moment to keep me occupied: the snow was coming down profusely, celebrities were sneaking by on the sidewalks trying to remain unnoticed, and a cop was busy with some yelling drunks. I’ve lived in Utah most of my life yet never really experienced much of the famous Sundance Film Festival. Here I was about to see a former Jurassic 5 member, Chali 2Na; not even a movie, yet I felt so apart of this independent film experience. We had quite the fun filled night full of entertainment-especially when we were homeward bound (classic movie by the way which was on TV this week).

The snow had begun blanketing the roads and we knew this was going to be a looong night. It turned out to be as we literally, barely made it home-we witnessed several prideful 4 wheel drive SUV’s spin out and slam into cement barricades, believing they were the exception in this winter hurricane. I felt like we were THE little Toyota Camry that could. If it wasn’t for our driver’s experienced skills in Mario Kart we may have never made it up the mountain between Park City and Heber. The driver, a good friend, was an expert on the ice levels and took advantage of the dry spots in the snow to catch traction so we didn’t end up sliding back down the mountain. This was the second weekend in a row were snow and driving created problems, it was even the same route.

Note to self: winter hikes can create unseen challenges. Not only is it difficult to find an actual trail that is not closed because of snow but certain canyons aren’t the most accessible in a tiny Toyota. Any ideas of winter hikes would be greatly appreciated-THANKS.

I love sunsets...

If it’s a 435 number should you answer it? Yeah I shouldn’t have. Everyone is welcome to come and witness me speak February 28.

Fun in the Snow

The TV show, The Office, has more application than I ever thought possible. You know it is a big deal when your business writing professor shows clips from it-expecting you to learn from it. Whomever or whoever??

Battle Creek Falls.

Snow is so pretty, and I am glad that it played such a big part in my weekend’s activities. From a snow covered hike up to the partial frozen Battle Creek Falls, an epic, exhausting, mid-night snow battle, a sketchy drive up the canyon to the Olympic snowboard half-pipe qualifying competition in Park City. Thanks for the snow enabling such an entertaining weekend!

What do you do when your roommate wakes up all giddy wanting to tell you about the dream they just had? Considering I too was just waking up from my Sunday nap, I went along with it. My roommate goes on to tell me about this dream whose main character is his future wife (at least he swears by it that it will be). He goes through the dream’s many events and settings but the thing that caught my most attention was his description of Sha-nay-nay (names have been changed for his benefit?). He goes on describing the characteristics of his future lover who has very dark skin, deep blue eyes, is 6’6, and has man hands who would hold him. So to go back to that first question, I had no real comments for him

Movie of the weekend: High Crime. This movie literally sucked all the sleep out of me, if that makes any sense at all. You know the feeling at the end of the day, when a group of friends pick a movie and the majority has intentions of falling asleep during the movie. Well this thriller of a movie was so captivating, intense, suspenseful, and full of twists that no one ended up falling asleep during it! We were all upset at the lack of sleep but we felt like we accomplished something great.

What are you supposed to think when your Sunday school teacher publicly announces that he just received a restraining order towards JC?

Blogging is my newest drug.


Gingersnaps with white-chocolate frosting, what a way to begin a cooking career! I am enrolled in a cooking class for several reasons: of course to become an even better cook (I know-I still can’t tell if it’s possible ether), meet some new people, and to have a class where they cover your lunch. So our first day of cooking consisted of 7 different kitchens each cooking away while following their specific recipe. At the end of our lab’s we then get to sample everyone’s final concoctions. Let’s say I experienced quite the sugar rush on Monday. Everyone was assigned a sweet to bake and I still don’t see how this fits into the food pyramid (or if your from Asian it is called a food pagoda) which we learned that very day. Oh well it was tasty!


Roommates all have secrets which keep life in the apartment exciting… I wasn’t aware that a roommate of mine had secretly been a movie star! After a healthy planned Sunday evening, my roommate and I find ourselves in a basement with our other roommate watching his movie debut. How does one begin the movie-star journey in life? I guess all movie celebrities go through the phases of low-budget films, 2 star motels, no stunt double movies: to their famous billion dollar high-speed-chasin, babby-makein, Grammy or is it Oscars. Who cares they are way over paid…


Its everyman’s dream to come home from a 9 hour day on campus to find a note saying there is a Mid-Winter Hot Dog Friday. Or maybe just those who live at LibSquare…