Sky of Blue, Sea of Green: Jumping off cliffs and getting lost in the mountains. You know, the usual.

During the week I like to write lesson plans for The Odyssey, analyze South African literature for evidence of social Darwinist theory, and answer the phone with a cheery "USU Writing Center, this is Hilary." Throw in a free-pie night at Village Inn, maybe some water aerobics with Alexa, African Dance, and the occasional mental breakdown, and that is pretty much my weekday life. I don't sleep a lot.

So when the weekend comes, I just want to on an adventure! I am not the kind of person who is rejuvenated by naps or do-nothing days. Lazy days, though they happen of course, actually really drain me and make me super cranky. So here are my latest weekend adventures!

Two weekends ago...

Alicia and I went canoeing. It was a little comical seeing as the water at first dam is like 8 inches deep. But I greatly enjoyed it.

Then the excitement really began with the arrival of my dear Mallory and Kaitlin! Life is so much better with them around! That night we celebrated Ryan's birthday at Jessica and Bill's house. Ryan is a goldfish. He is 3 years old! What an impressive little guy.

Ryan's birthday two years ago...I looked better this year.

Anyway, we love you Ryan! Thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate every September! You have the best fish mother in all the world.

Finishing the night with fhazookies and a crammed-into-one-room sleepover was just fate.

In the morning, Mal, Kaitlin, Lauren and I headed to the farmers' market. Give me every single sample of every single thing! Love it.

We had lunch at one of my very favorite places...Logan's Heroes...watched Crazy, Stupid, Love....fed the ducks at first dam....and had dinner at Fredrico's. What a stellar Saturday! I love you people!

feeding ducks at first dam

Fredrico's...dont' worry about it

After church on Sunday, Lauren, Haley, Aubree and I went on an epic adventure to Bloomington Lake to go cliff jumping! What a beautiful drive through the canyon and through Bear Lake! I live in the prettiest place!

enjoying the drive!

When we finally got to Bloomington, after an hour of chasing sheep down a dirt road, we were pretty excited!

We had to hike in our swim suits, barefoot, to get to where we were jumping. We were dropping things along the way like refugees. Our clothes, towels, cameras, were basically scattered all over the mountains.

I was still really excited when we got to the top, until Lauren jumped in. When her head finally surfaced out of the water she couldn't talk. Haley and I were yelling to her, "Are you okay? Lauren? Talk to us!" and she couldn't. That scared the crap out of me. So then Haley and I stood up there for probably half an hour, shaking in the wind.

But once I finally jumped I was ready to do it again! Even though those two jumps were the two coldest moments of my life.

Let's talk about other cold water I've been in.

The Pacific Ocean in February.

Bear Lake in May.

Lake Tahoe. Doesn't matter what time of the year.

Those are bath tubs compared to this. Lauren and I decided we would rather swim back to our clothes instead of hike....I have never moved more slowly in the water. It was seriously like my blood was frozen. Luckily we lived to tell this tale!

trying to recover afterwards

On the way home...we killed a duck. Aubree really tried not to, but the duck just stood there. And when we turned around it was a pile of feathers. This has taken me some time to get over. RIP Waddles.

Now for this weekend's adventure...

After being cute roommates and actually cooking together...

Kim, Neil, Cody and I went on a hike on Crimson Trail. It was sooo beautiful!

We were having a great time, all was well, until the very last part of the hike.

The boys took the "path less traveled" and Kim and I decided to stay on the path. Is it fair that the people who stay on the path should be the ones to get lost? No, but that is what happened. You guys know that I get lost probably 10x more than the average human, but this was seriously lost.

We swam across a river, walked probably 2 miles around the campground, and ended up walking on the road like we were going to hitchhike or just walk home. The good news is that I got a pet caterpillar along the way who kept us company during the journey.

We decided we needed to go back to the campground instead of walking home, because we figured the boys were probably wandering around looking for us and it was about to get dark. We were sitting in the dirt in the campground and Kim said we should say a prayer. I am glad I have roommates who think of these things, because honestly, I probably wouldn't have. Right after that, Kim said, "Let's just go knock on that trailer door and ask where the start of Crimson Trail is." The lady who answered the door turned out to be the person in charge of the campground. We asked told her what we were looking for and she said, "I just gave that car a ticket," and seemed annoyed at us at first. But once she figured out we were lost and had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years, she was so nice. She drove us to Neil's car and offered us dinner. There was a note on the car asking us to stay put, so she told us to just come back to the trailer if we got too cold. What a nice person!

We sat at the car for another half an hour, and I was yelling the boys' names continuously. Finally we saw them running down the mountain! We were saved. They were glad that we weren't lying unconscious somewhere, but very confused about how we could get THAT lost. That is a confusion I face daily. I basically get lost in my own apartment. Luckily we were all able to laugh about it on the way home.

This week is Homecoming Week which makes me happy! The chalk dance was a pretty good party for a Monday night!