Eyes Open

This is my life...

Since November is the time for turkey day, I figure what better time to write about what I am most thankful for in my life.

I am very grateful for my family and friends, even ones that I don't see as much. It seems there is so much that stays with me.

I am grateful that I am being paid to learn about compassion, leadership and how to help others be the best people they can be in their lives, at least work-wise. I can't think of anything cooler and more rewarding.

I am grateful that I have a mind capable of seeing and understanding the goodness and some of the little things in people, when others sometimes miss it.

I am grateful for having a great environment to live and work

I am grateful for having crossed paths with so many great people that at different times have believed in me and convinced me to never settle for less

I am grateful for all the trials, big mistakes and painful experiences that I have had to go through that have enabled me to become a better person and to feel and truly understand the joy in my life

I am grateful I can go run outside in the rain and truly enjoy the feeling of splashing through puddles

I am grateful that I know I have a choice everyday on how I choose to live

I am grateful for all the bad relationships I have had, otherwise I would never fully understand and appreciate how incredible Nate is and how lucky I am to have him in my life.



I am grateful that I have friends I can go hiking with and have fun moments



I am grateful I can go hiking to places like this

I am grateful for the moments...thanks to everyone who has added to them

Hate Goodbyes, but Love the Adventure of Beginnings

Alright it has been a while since I have blogged and all I can say is that it has been an unbelievable summer in more ways than one. I met and mingled with some outstanding people, who I will always be proud to call my friends and I have never had such a hard time leaving a place, but at the same time I am looking forward to some new adventures in Oregon, seems like the best things in life have that sort of pardoxical dynamic

Me and Nate out on the rim, truly one of the coolest guys I have known

Jackie and I on the rim

This shot was pretty representative of the four of us (we all ended up being pretty great friends)and the adventures we were are about to take on. This is probably my favorite one from the summer.

Gorgeous Canyon hiking up from Phantom Ranch at 5 am

Awesome Crew in the canyon

Pretty cool fire pics

Let the Fun Begin!

Alrighty, it has been a little while, but it is good to be back to the blogging world and see what everyone is up to these days. I started work on the Grand Canyon Helitack Crew in the middle of April and have been through a crazy training ordeal the past few weeks, as well as mixing in some SARS (Search and Rescues) and medevacs (crazy) in the middle of training! But I am loving it down here, I forgot how awesome the Southwest is; This last week we have been training to do rappels out of helicopters (see below) into fires, and yest it is very fun.
Me about to do my second rappel out of a helicopter, around 100-125'

This is some of my fellow crewmembers doing a rappel around 200-225'

Also, here is some footage...

Oh and I couldn't forget that I got hang out with my best friend Lindsay right before I took off to go to the Grand Canyon. It is always awesome to see and remember how amazing your super cool friends and family are (they never cease to amaze me).

Oregonians!

RUNNERS!!

Okay one of the coolest things about Oregonians is that they are so runner friendly; they go out of their way to let you cross the street, they smile and wave! This is easily the most friendly running place ever and Oregonians get a thumbs way up in my book for that!
Grad School!
I don't have any sweet pics of Corvallis, Oregon, aka home to Oregon State...but there is this cool pic of a beaver!!

The visit was absolutely amazing!!! I met with some incredible people who have done so much for others through their work and have greatly humbled me. They are facing some pretty drastic cuts in their department though, because of the economy :( So we will see how everything pans out.

On another thought, I have been having an a great time with my sister and her family. They are awesome people, who let me hang out at their house for weeks on end. It seems I have been at their place at least a few days of each month for the last 4 months!

More good skiing times

I thought these trees all bundled up amidst the snow was pretty cool

Ya know the prettiest time to ski is right at dusk, but then it also gets quite a bit chillier, but of course still worth it.

Hi!

I took a detour and did some snowshoeing with my mom, Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda at Bryce Canyon, which was fun

Mom, Bob an Linda

Can't stay away from the skiing too long, though I love this lookout, which takes a while to get to, but always is always rewarding with its views

I love the fresh snow where no one has been and you are breaking your own trail

Again, one of my favorite times is at dusk for reasons such as this amazing red rock that glows when the sun hits it

The moon was also awesome! This was just a taste of what the night looked like

How I feel everyday I get to touch, feel, smell, see and sense nature around me

Finally an Update!

SKIING!

One of the great things about being in Mammoth right now and taking a much needed breather, is that I am finally able to be outside enjoying the wonderful outdoors. I have been going backcountry skiing about every other day since Christmas and I can't get enough. I love the smell of the pines, the feel of the sun on my face and the slight kiss of the wind as it whisks by, the sound of the skis slushing through the snow and of course the amazing views that I have been able to see in solitude. It is always a humbling experience and makes me fully appreciate how great it is to be alive. Here are a few shots..
Skiing the Breaks is always awesome!

And a different view of the breaks.That's right, loving this!!


Okay, I am not much into sparkly, shiny things, but I love this sparkly, shiny snow up Deer Valley
Even the view through the trees is nice

Another great day up Cedar Canyon, although very cold

Love this pic, really captures the solitude

Okay, this was a rather frigid day, it was snowing and was somewhere in the single digits...but still awesome and look at the cool tree!

That would be my glove...not as tasty as everyone says...go figure

My winter playground

Christmas!!

Christmas was great! It is hard to beat being SNOWED in at Mammoth Creek at the folks house. My cute little niece Brighton was a riot; that girl has got some sass and I don't think we would trade her for anything.
Okay this is Princess Brighton, who I am pretty sure doesn't like taking off that tutu

The girls on Christmas Eve

My great parents on Christmas morning

Yep that's the snow on Christmas Day on the front doorstep...after we shoveled

Mom, Ash and Bri at Brice Canyon

Thanksgiving!!

So I went to Portland for Thanksgiving and had a great time hanging out with the fam; lucky for me I was able to stay longer through December and hang out with my sister's awesome family.

Dancing with my niece Brighton
Brighton doing a great job combing my hair


Brighton building a SNOW castle

My Sister Ash and Her cute Fam playing in the snow

BALI!!!

(Sunrise in Pemuteran)

Okay to begin with I am going to have to do this in chunks, because it was a long...wonderful, adventurous trip and unfortunately I could only put in some of the really awesome pics, but I thought these best portrayed the overall experience.


The Flight Over
It was interesting from the beginning. First off my flight to LA was delayed while my Mom's was still on time to San Francisco, which meant I would miss my connecting flight to LA...so in 20 minutes I managed to switch flights with a very awesome Delta personnel named Maria to My mom's, needless to say I was the last one on the plane and my mom was very surprised to see me. But while this was great, it meant my luggage was sent on without me and I would have to catch up with it...

The 19 hour flight to Singapore ended up going really pretty smoothly, unfortunately my Mom forgot her knitting though :( BTW if you ever get a chance to visit Singapore Airport I would highly recommend it, it is AMAZING!! It is so beyond what any other airport is with free movies playing 24 hours a day in the terminals as well as all kinds of shops and food, not to mention free gaming centers and internet, extremely open space, windows, gardens and hotels/spas, here are a few pics.

Bathroom in Singapore Airport

But alas, the peace and perfect flight was not too last, we landed in Balikpapan, which, when I went to find my luggage was informed by a really nice man who spoke a little English that Balikpapan was not Bali!!! It is part of an island just north of Bali, to make a very very long story short, we took two flights, one to Surbaya, (on Java) and then one the next night at 10 PM to Bali, which was an hour late and then Bali is an hour ahead of Java.

We were very lucky to meet Adi, because it got us tickets, walked us right through security, waited with us, bought my mom some stones for a necklace, then walked us out to the plane and told us we would be able to get tickets for that night to Bali, unfortunately we missed them by two minutes. In Surbaya, we met some very nice people who helped the only two white people, not to mention blonde American women in the joint get tickets, one is below, Mr. Kucandi (cush-nadi), who asked for my phone number when we left and he walked us through security. BonBong who did all they calling and arranged for the cab fares was awesome as well. This part of the trip kind of freaked me out and to hear more about it, I would have to tell you in person.

Me and Mr. Kucandi, practicing English/Indonesian

Finally, Waka Ganga...aka BALI

So we finally made it at 12 am to Bali!! (at this point my luggage was no where to be found and our new friends we met from Australia thought that I wouldn't see my luggage again, but to check back in the morning) A wonderful man from Waka Ganga waited for us and took us back to the hotel, which I cannot even describe the moon hitting the water as you could hear the waves crashing on the black sand beach...did I mention they served us fresh fruit juice, no concentrate and let me just say now that the food throughout the trip was incredible. The next day I got a hold of the airlines and it appeared that my luggage had been sent all over the place, I believe the woman on the phone even mentioned FRANCE, if you can believe it, either way they miraculously got it on to a plane at 6:30 that night and I got my luggage!!
Each place that we stayed (there were three) were not long enough we never wanted to leave where we were.
In front of our room looking out to the ocean, can also light a candle and sit by on the bench at night

Looking out of our bungalow, which was all glass!

This was the bathroom, with an outside SHOWER, OH YEAH!

On the black sand beaches at Waka Ganga

Great Waterfall
Okay anyone who knows me knows I love the feet shots
Hello Paradise
The pool at Waka Ganga

In the Restaurant at Waka Ganga

Me and My Mom with "Debbie and Harry" from Hong Kong who spoke a little bit of English

On the way to Pemuteran, we stopped at a famous temple, the island is primarily Hindu and there are a lot of smaller temples throughout Bali. In the temples we had to wear these cool Sarongs thingys which made it very hot in the high humidity that day. Also, we shared the transport car from Pemuteran with "Debbie and Harry" from Hong Kong.

Pemuteran

Pemuteran was awesome, it was set back into very rural Bali, again right on the beaches, we did several fun things like snorkel on a nearby island that we had to take by boat and had a guide show us around, woke up to incredible sunrises, had two-hour body massages, great food, and frequent gecko guests that hung out in our bungalows and even freaked my mom out. I think they could feel that she was not fond of them, which is why they pooped on her shirt. We spent the majority of the time here and it was paradise, with the slight breezes and the sound of the waves, with colors on the water that changed from the orangey-red sunrises to the deep blue in the afternoons to the light blues at night and ending with the deep midnight blue at night. Also, each night they would turn lights on for us and light an incense for us before we would return from dinner. We had more outside garden showers!!Night time in Pemuteran at our Bungalow
Our Dutch snorkeling friends and our guide Haki on the boat

Afternoon Deep blue sea
Morning sunrise, looks awful doesn't it
Okay, just one more
The first bungalow, the gecko suite (the next one, the frog was also great and was closer to the beach)

The only bad part about Pemuteran was that I got my first bout with diarrhea, not fun, but we did meet a really cool doctor (we just happened to run into) who gave me some immodium, which made me feel much better.

The Arts: Ubud: Painting, Carving, Jewelery

We went to the villages surround Ubud (Central Bali), which is the cultural center of Bali and we saw some of the shops in which the artists reside. We each got some incredible carvings at some great prices, some jewelry, which we saw how it was made before hand and then I bought a really cool painting. In Bali, it is common to barter for good deals on stuff, so that was kind of fun to go back and forth until a price could be reached.

This was our driver Yeman, he was really great, as were most people in Bali, who were usually always smiling and more than happy to help you.
Mom at the top of a mountain overlooking two awesome lakes
The Grey monkeys hanging out on the side of the road

Legong Keratin Beach Hotel
We didn't expect this last hotel to be as nice as the first two, but I must say it was truly amazing! It was a bit more westernized, but it still had an awesome beach and a great pool which was right outside our bungalow door! It was a great last place to be before heading home.

The awesome pool!

Me watching a beautiful sunset
The Beautiful Sunset

Walking along the beach
The pool getting rained on briefly
Mom walking along the beach

Traveling Back
Well, all I can say is that each time we dealt with airplanes on this trip, we were guaranteed stress, it was like God was watching us and would say "lets push this button and watch what they do this time, it will be fun." Which meant that the morning we left our taxi was really late and when we called him he said he had forgot and would be there in five minutes, which was more like ten and then when he was rushing along, he hit a pothole and got a flat tire; at this point another taxi was driving by at that exact moment (very early in the morning) and he stopped, backed up and took us the rest of the way.

Two volcanoes as we hit a quick stop before going back to Balikpapan
Hanging out in Balikpapan Airport...again before heading out

Sunset flying into Singapore

Then we were in Singapore for 14 hours, which , really if you are going to be stuck in an airport for that long Singapore is the place to be. When we finally left and landed, got off the plane and then got back on in Tokyo, we had to wait for an hour for it to stop raining, in which it spontaneously decided to do (again, I think God was having fun with us). When we landed in LA (an hour late), it took a long time for our bags to finally come around to us and then to go through customs...which at this point we were moving very quickly to Delta to get our tickets home. When we got there the flight had been closed and we couldn't print out our tickets, so another great ticketing agent, (Chinese guy with a Broklyn accent) got into the system and got our boarding passes and then ran with us (literally) through the LA airport, in which we just made our flight and our luggage actually made it! Well, all but one, which we had to wait in SLC to get, but really not a big deal.

Singapore Airport

One of the movie theatres in Singapore Airport, spent a lot of time here

Back in Utah!

Hey everyone,

I am back in Utah and have definitely gotten behind on the blogging, mainly because of fires and what not, but here are some updates...from fire since that is about all I have been doing the last few months. These first few are from Cali, up by Redding, it was quite the adventure... These first few were taken at night across the lake, from where our tents were staked out.
These next few are also from Cali, in the day time, it wasn't a bad deal to get paid to go see these amazing waterfalls along the fireline.

Fishy Faces

Then here are a few of the fun PT hike, wahoo!

Yes, that is definitely sweat, but feeling pretty good at this point, only another mile of uphill to go :)

Sheena and I, yeah girls kicked this hike!

These next pics are from fighting fire in Yellowstone, our one big fire that we had.

Driving through the fire, definitely a new experience

Fire burning at nightThe bison decided that the helibase was their spot...during their rut season, which was fun for us to try and avoid the horny, irritable bison, who kept doing their mating call, which was an attratctive sound, something like a burp mixed with a throw up sound. I don't know how us women could detain ourselves, sheesh

A smoky morning mixed with fogSome more fog and steam coming off Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone in the morning not a bad deal, even fire seems to create some cool stuff like this