The BEST Vacation!

We Took a vacation to visit Lynne and Steve and get out of the wind and cold for a while. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the weather. It felt so good to walk around in shorts and sandals again. It was nice to have to use sunscreen for a change and we had a fun time climbing, eating, watching conference, exploring new canyons, relaxing, and being with family. Although Daniel got a kidney stone while we were on the trip we were still able to get out and have fun for most of the trip. Poor guy was out of commission for most of Sunday and Monday in a lot of pain. :( Good thing nurse Lynne was there to take care of him. Lynne and Steve were so good to us while we were there. One of the favorite parts of the trip was just sitting around and talking to them while we grilled up dinner.

Steve and Lynne took us to Red Cliff Park (I think that is what is was called) But it was a fun slot canyon we could hike up through the water in. It was very beautiful and a good way to end the trip.

Now I know where Daniel gets his climbing blood from.

Beautiful Lynne was so fun to have on the hike. I love how she appreciates all the beauty's of the earth.

So there is Rock Climbing in Rock Springs!

So we got a little desperate to rock climb out side and discovered that if you look hard enough you may just get lucky. After our First climb I was not to impressed after climbing through rats nest that had random bones in it and have 3 holds pop off. But then we found it the new project. It was a awesome off with crack and was bolted for some of it. I guess someone else became as desperate as we were.

Our First Visitors to Rock Springs!

We have been in Rock Springs almost 6 months and now that the winter is coming to an end and the roads our open I have been counting down the days until our first visitors came. We will just say Steve and Lynne were welcomed with desperate and welcoming arms. We had a fun time celebrating there B days. But they brought us the best gift of all... A NEW BED.

Daniel and I have been sleeping on a double bed. I like being close to him but after a few elbows to the head I was ready for my QUEEN SIZE PILLOW TOP BED. Granny Francom had left behind a detailed list of what was to go to who when she passed... and I am grateful to Granny Francom every night I lay in bed for passing on her bed... even if we got it through default. Love you and Miss you Granny Francom.

The Birthday Boy!

Daniel turned 31 this last Feb. He is the man of my dreams. I love him more and more everyday. Our newest adventure to Rock Springs although lacking in Rocks to climb, has been a good one for us. We both felt strongly that we needed to come here and although sometimes I loose the reason why in the wind we have grown stronger and closer together. I love having my best friend with me on this adventure. I love you Babe. HAPPY B DAY!

The Nielsen Ski Day!

Bobbie and Casey invited me to go skiing with them and the fam. Josie and Kate were awesome little skiers. It was a fun day.

This was Jase's first time skiing and he did awesome. The Hot princess on the the magic carpet.

See ya life... I need a brake.

The Girls and I needed a brake from life and we found it snow shoeing in Logan canyon.

Things got a little crazy. :) But oh so fun!!

Stairway to Heaven

Last weekend Daniel, Mike and I all headed out for another adventure. The "Stairway to Heaven up Provo Canyon was our destination. It is a beautiful series of rock ledges that freezes with ice in the cold. It was a warm day so it made the ice perfect and very sticky but the wind was blowing pretty dang hard. Just when I thought I was getting away from the wind I found myself almost being blown off the mountain.

Daniel taking a shot at mixed climbing.

I was not brave enough to try mixed climbing so I stayed on the ice.

Although at one point I couldn't feel my hands and my arms were burning from climbing I am proud to say I did it and I LOVED it. In my mind suffering to accomplish something makes it even more rewarding when you get to the end. Adventures are not always comfortable nor pleasant, but it is how to truly "live" life. But I still think it should be called the Stairway to Hell.

Winter Camping

Daniel and I needed a brake from Rock Springs
so we packed up our things for the weekend and headed to the Tetons to test our winter camping skills. When we arrived to our surprise it was just starting to rain. Which made our adventure even more epic. Daniel rigged up a sled and was the sled dog the entire trip pulling the heavy sled through the snow.

We found a beautiful area to set up camp and dug out our spot. We thought that if we set up under a tree it would protect us from the rain a little. We learned the hard way that when the wind blows all the snow falls from the tree right on to the tent. It made for an interesting night because right as we would doze of to sleep "BOOOMM" a big chunk of wet and heavy snow would fall from the tree right onto our tent. It sounded like we were in a war zone the entire night.

The next morning the beautiful view was worth the sleepless night.

Sadly we had to end our hike early that day because the weather had made a drastic change as we soon found out when we came across a huge fresh avalanche. But we were just glad to have an adventure, of any sort.

At the end of the day my legs were very tired and Daniel treated me to a ride on the sled. :) What a great guy! Did I ever tell you that I LOVE the TETONS! :)

My last days as a Ragnar Employee!

Well the long hall has come to an end. Leaving Ragnar was defiantly a bitter sweet. I will miss a lot about Ragnar; Traveling, My friends, Ultimate Frisbee, Being a Race Director, Working in the Running world, Frozen Yogurt, The gratification of working hard, The craziness, Ralenes class, and the over all epic experience. I have learned a lot from my experience at Ragnar including how to down more Frozen Yogurt in one helping then I have in a life time, how to work with upset people/ customers, Laugh when fatigued, how to work with (bless there hearts) challenged customers/ volunteers, set up a construction sign, how to hack into a VMS board, how to set up 4 miles of cones at 3:00 AM that were so kindly tip over by angry residents, how to resolve situations with angry dogs, residents, and the occasional goat, how to stuff goodie bags and then some, smooth talk old men, smuggle beer into a non-permitted area and serve it to 2,000 participants, cry, make waffles with cheese, drive a 17 foot Uhaul during rush hour in down town LA, how to get lost in NY city, how to miss a turn because your messing with the GPS, How to talk Enterprise into letting you take the rental car even though you have now way to pay for it, how to convince government inanities to let me slip between the lines and and make and exception for almost every permitting rule, how to brake 1,000 driving laws and not get a ticket, to know what it feels like to work amazing friends, and finally how to pull together an awesome event for thousands of runners to enjoy and some how be smiling at the end of it.


Rachel has been my great friend for a long time and she will be taking over my "baby" (the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage). And being 100% honest I couldn't have picked a better person to take it over. I am just sad I do not get to work with her.

I have fallen in love with Seattle and the whole state of Washington. One day I hope to live there. On this last trip I finally made it to the much anticipated Vancouver B.C. Although I didn't have a ton of time to explore Vancouver we made it to the public market for lunch, where you can taste some of the most expensive and yummy chocolates you will ever have.

Behold..... VANCOUVER B.C.!!!

For now Goodbye RANGAR!! I will miss you! :)

Welcome to Rock Springs!

Well... We are official residents of Wyoming! We have been searching for all the adventure Rock Springs has to offer and we have found some good ones, cold but good ones.

Our day hike around White Mountain was a great introduction to the bitter cold wind and temperature's.

Does this picture need any more explanation.

Notice the frozen eye lashes.

The other day we went on an skiing adventure to Boulder WY. AND guess what... We found a boulder.

Wyoming's blue Sky's = bitter cold.

Now this may surprise you but we drove 1 1/2 to get to this beautiful trail. We skied for an hour one direction and turned around and came back. Weird but desolation can be rather pretty and fun.

The Wild Horse Scenic Tour!
Very cool and only 15 mins out of R.S.

My first time seeing Wild horses! It gave me hope for Rock Springs!

Rock Springs has been rather fun so far and we have tried our best to find the adventure in it. According to the locals the only thing to do here is to drink, obviously they don't know how to discover the beauty in barren lands, a talent that Daniel and I are determined to master. Today in church a girl told me "It's kind of creepy I know, but Rock Springs will grow on you." Let the growing begin.