These pictures are from the end of August when best friend Karylin (KA) came into town from Washington DC on a business trip.   She works for Congressman Jason Chaffetz and lives in DC, however she grew up in Utah and we love when she comes home to visit!  During her stay we were able to get together with our good friends Joe and Jamie for a bike ride up to Bridal Veil Falls.

Our night together was so fun!  We met up at a park about 3 miles down from the falls and had a picnic, chatted, and got caught up on life.  Its always so fun to get together, we can honestly talk all night long.  Good times!  Once we were done with our picnic it was back to the cars to get our bikes.  After getting all the bikes off the racks Joe notice that his bike had a flat tire.  Bummer!  He pumped it up and within minutes it was flat again.  Joe being such a good sport decided that he would run beside everyone instead of riding since his bike wasn’t working.  Because we chatted for so long and and had a few technical difficulties with the bikes, we ended up getting to the falls at dusk which make it hard to take pictures with the water in the back round.  Just know that there was a huge waterfall just behind us!

Me and KA on the ride up!

Joe, Jamie, and Carson at the Falls!  Carson is saying “cheese”! 🙂

What Bridal Veil Falls looks like in the day.

Me and Jas…half way there.

KA, Me, Joe, and Jamie.  Love you guys!

Big Thank You to KA for planning such a fun night!  We miss you already!

…Yep, still pretending like it is August!  I swear one day I will be caught up on my blog.

Family Reunions!  Who doesn’t love them?!

Every year Jason’s moms side of the family (The Evans) get together up at Bear Lake for a week of camping, swimming, cards, bike rides, hanging out and relaxing.  This year was no different.

Driving up to Bear Lake is BEAUTIFUL which makes the drive go by really fast.  The last hour or so is very scenic with lots of pretty views.  Although I must say that the best view comes as you drive over the last hill and out of no where you see the lake with the mountains behind it.  Super cool!

Awesome view, this picture does not do it justice!

Hanging out at the “beach”.

The water is freezing!  I must admit I never got in all the way…the water was just way to cooled!

Jason and I slept in a tent all week, however his mom had a cabin which was great!  We were able to hangout with her and stay warm and dry on the days/nights that it rained.

The best part about having bikes is that if you have a bike rack you can take them anywhere.  It was so great to be able to take them up with us for the week.  Bear Lake has some awesome bikes trails!  One of the best rides we’ve ever had together was during this trip.

Camping+bike rides+family+good talks+Bear Lake = HAPPY!

He loves his life!

Jason’s Aunt Lana makes homemade Oh Henry’s!  Jason loves them…this was him sharing his with me for the first time.  I love this picture!  It sums up the experience perfectly.  (haha)

Hanging out with Jason’s Grandma.  She a totally sweetie.

The whole gang!

…The birthday celebrations continue!  You should still pretend like its August (not just so you can pretend like we are still celebrating Jason’s birthday, but also so you don’t have to come to terms with the fact it was SNOWING today!)

In August Jas and I packed the car, turned on the iPOD,  and drove 5 hours South to Las Vegas to spend the weekend celebrating his birthday.  I have to be honest that our celebrating consisted of a total of 4 things and 4 things only.  Checking in at the Wynn Hotel, swimming, eating, sleeping, and oh yea… more swimming!  Sadly with all the relaxing I  was horrible at taking pictures.  Here is the 1 picture that we took (and yes, we were on the way to the pool).

After a few relaxing days in Vegas we packed up the car again, turned back on the iPod and made our way over to Zion National Park!  It was our plan to camp in Zion and then hike the narrows the following morning.  Haha!  This is where all the fun really begins!

We purposely left Vegas before we wanted to in order to arrive at our camp site in Zion before dark.  Of course, arriving before dark is usually a good idea because it makes setting up a “tent” so much easier.  Do you seen anything missing from the picture below?

Yep, you guessed it!  The TENT!  We totally forgot it.  We arrived in Zion about 8:30pm in a rush to hurry and set up the tent and unload the car before the sun went down.  Funny thing is when we pulled into the campsite Jason look at me and said,”did we even pack the tent”?  After unpacking the car it was confirmed that we had totally forgotten the tent.  We pulled it off the shelf in the garage to put in the car… but it got left behind.  Oops!

As you can see we still had fun.  We pumped up our air mattress (this also doubled as my bed at home… convenient right!) and slept under the stars.  The night was warm and clear (no rain) so we were lucky.

The picture below is of a lizard that was perched on the tree bark right next to our bed and was the first to greet us in the morning.  Oh the joys of sleeping in the “wild”.

After I got up, it was off to the showers.  Jason told me that if I wanted to shower that I would need a token that he was given when he checked in.  Just as I was walking away he asked me to hurry so we could get going and then he said “oh and the showers automatically turn off after 5 minutes!”  I laughed and headed off.  In my mind I was thinking…”I am not cut out for camping” AND “why would he tell me to hurry if he knows my shower can only last 5 minutes?”

Anyways, I jump in and wash my hair and body as fast as I could.  I finish and the water kept going, and going, and going, and going!  By this time I was sure it had been more the 5 minutes.  Then I start thinking, “oh my gosh, Jason was just trying to trick me because he wanted me to hurry!”   I seriously convinced myself that he was just kidding about the timer at which point I covered myself in soap and shaving cream so I could take a “real shower.”  Just then…. THE WATER TURNED OFF!  Oh no!  He wasn’t kidding! DANG IT!

Don’t you hate that.  I thought for sure he was joking, guess I should believe him next time he tells me the shower has a timer!  After getting as much soap off me as I could and packing up the campsite it was up the canyon we went.

I love going up the canyon in Zion.  Everything was so green and pretty.  This was Jason’s first time in Zion’s so it was fun to see him experience it all for the first time.  The pictures below are from our hike.  The water was really low since it was so late in the season.  I think at the deepest point it only came up to our waist, however it was still freezing cold!  We had tons of fun and would totally do the hike again.