Snowshoe adventures with the Waites

This past Friday, we headed up to Layton to visit the Waites. It had been WAY too long since we'd seen them (since before Christmas!) and I was feelin it. We got there in the middle of the kids' Friday night movie, and they all got up and said "Aunt Bri! Uncle Mason!" with huge smiles and hugs. I love it.

The kids went to bed soon after and then we stayed up with Shell and Nate and played a game called Code Names that I really liked. Emmie has been sick so they were super tired and we let them go to bed after that ;)

The next day was snowshoe day! We went up to cut some fresh pow up by The Castle, a ginormous mansion up on the mountain. It was a blast.

Those are my pictures, and here are Mason's:

It was so fun and so pretty and the snow was VERY deep for most of it. Also, let the record reflect that Shell fell like 600 times (probably because I had one of her hiking poles,) and one time she even did a full on split! It was incredible. 

We hiked on the trail for about 3 minutes before we decided we wanted to blaze one of our own. We went up a hill and kept going straight up or straight down for a long time after that. We had to do some serious bushwacking through the little trees, and sometimes slide on our fannies. Also I got whipped in the face with a branch that someone who shall remain unnamed unknowingly let go of while I was right behind them. It was okay though, my glasses took the brunt of it. 

After we finally made it back to the trail some guy was on top of a giant hill overlooking us and shouting things like, "Hey dummies! This way!" Over and over and over and over again. Finally when we got out of the trees, Nate shouted back to him, "Are you talking to ME?" He wasn't. He was looking for a group of kids. Good grief. 

Then after we went to a couple of bridges, we hiked on the trail home. When I took off my snowshoes I felt light as a feather. Then we went to the gas station and got hot chocolate and drank it at home. It was soooo much fun, and it was so good to see Shell and Nate and their kiddos. 

Hiking the Y with Nate R.

Our friend Nate and his dear wifey Maddie are moving to Arkansas soon. Nate and Mason were roommates their freshman year at BYU and then again after their missions. They've gotten to be real good pals, and I like him a lot too. :)

One of the things on Nate's Provo Bucket List was to hike to the top of Y mountain. Seeing as he is leaving soon, and Mason and I are experts at hiking the Y (because of the one time we did it together last summer), we decided to make his dream come true, and one late April morning we did it!

Nate and I were both kind of dying a little on the hike to get to the actual Y on the side of the mountain. It is an indisputable fact that the trail leading up to the Y is a very terrible hike. It is SO steep, there's about a million switchbacks, and it's not even pretty. It's just dusty and rocky and steep. Did I mention how steep it was? I mean, really.

Eventually we made it to the Y, and then the real fun began! We went off on the little trail that leads to the top! We were on our way!

Soon we made it to Mouse Rock, which is cool because from a distance it actually looks just like a mouse. Close up, Nate was convinced it looked a lot more like a rabbit. Also like a lizard. Haha I'm not sure how a rock that is supposed to look like a mouse can possibly look like a rabbit AND a lizard simultaneously. It was funny!

It was a fun, pretty hike and the weather felt perfect. Lots of cloud cover, and cool but not too cold. We stopped for some Clif bars, saw our old dead nasty goat friend's skeleton laying on the side of the trail right where it was last year, and then... it happened.

Snow. Everywhere. We had gotten up so high on the east side of the mountain where the sun barely ever shines, and the snow was everywhere! It was beautiful, but SO slippery and actually really deep in some places. We struggled through it, Mason decided his new name was Captain Crampon because of his very grippy trail running shoes he was wearing, and Nate was starting to get grumpy. I'm sure we were quite a sight.

We actually ran into two guys who were looking for the summit who had given up and were on their way back down. I felt bad for them and we all wondered for a moment if we should keep going. Of course, we did! The terrain was steep and slippery and it was getting a little cold, but we WOULD find the summit! With Captain Crampon as our fearless leader, we could not fail.

Eventually, we made it. It was beautiful. Nate had mentioned on our way up the mountain that he wanted to scream, "WHO AM I????" from the top of the mountain, but we all forgot, so he didn't. We all took some pictures and drank in the beauty, and then realized that it looked like a big storm was rolling in so we had better skidattle. Also, someone who shall remain unnamed used our emergency toilet paper. Hopefully that proves to someone else who shall remain unnamed that bringing TP on adventures where there's no potty is not a laughable idea. ;)

The way down was even more slippery than the way up, and we all fell on our bums at least once. I was the record holder, with 5. Even Captain Crampon went down! Oh, and later Nate found a stick to help him get down the mountain, and Mason started calling him Admiral Ice Pick. They are goobers!

Finally we made it out of the snow and started down on the easiest part of the trail. Then it started to hail! HAIL! It was insane. We hustled along and eventually it stopped, but it was about 10 minutes of being hailed on I think.

Finally we made it down the super steep Y trail. Nate had holes in the toes of his shoes, so his entire big toe stuck out of one of them on the way down and we all laughed about it.

It was a blast. I'm sad to see the Robisons moving away, but I hope Arkansas holds happiness and many fun adventures for them.

The Semester of Discontinuance

Well, about a trillion things have happened since I last blogged, so this is my effort to start getting caught up!

So winters out at BYU have always been really hard for me. I think it's the darkness, the way it just seems endless when it's been snowing for 2 months straight and there's no end in sight, the stress of school, and probably a bunch of other stuff. For whatever reason(s), it's just always kind of ridiculous and it makes school darn near impossible sometimes.

That's why this semester, I decided to discontinue. I loved a lot of my classes but decided that discontinuing would be the best thing for me to do right now so I didn't get terrible grades on my transcript. (It's kind of hard to do well in school when you just stay home all the time.) I'll be going back in the fall and everything will be just fine with my transcripts, I'm just taking a little break right now.

Since discontinuing in the middle of March, I have been busy! I switched my major back to psychology, because that means that I can graduate in just THREE SEMESTERS. This is the first time I've really been able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is really exciting!!!!! If I can stomach any more school after BYU, I'd like to go somewhere and get my masters in Social Work.

I've also been painting! You'll remember that on our 6 month anniversary Mason got me some paints and an easel. I actually did a little craft with stencils before that that was super easy, and I wanted to keep painting and get better.
Here's the first craft I did with stencils:

I remember I was SO stressed out with picking out the colors for this project. I like the way it turned out! My favorite one is the cream background with the blue flowers, and Mason's favorite is the purple background.
Anyway, fast forward a month or 2 from that project, and I completed my first painting with no stencils! With paint brushes! Here it is:

I know, I know, try to hold your applause, please. ;) Haha totally kidding. It actually looks a lot better in this picture than it does in real life. If you see it up close, you can see the paint is really uneven, there are several places where the shapes are kind of weird, and the blending in the background is choppy at best. But it was SO MUCH FUN painting this! I followed a step by step tutorial on youtube and picked out my own colors. I loved it. I started working on my next painting a few days ago and I'm not using a step by step video for this one, so hopefully it doesn't turn out totally gross looking.

I've also started learning to play the guitar. Mason and I both have an app called Yousician that has cool lessons so you can practice and learn. It can be really frustrating but it's also really fun and when you finally get something that you've been messing up it feels really good.

I also had to find a new job when I discontinued, so I've been working doing transcriptions at a company called Rev. It's all online so I just do it from home. It's getting less terrible the more I do it, and if I really put my mind to it I can make some decent money. I'm thinking I'm going to get a "real" part time job in the summer so I can actually get some social interaction every once in a while.

And I've also been running. Mason, his dad and I are all running a half marathon in about a week and a half. I would love to PR, but I think my only real goal is to get done and then not have to be stuck on the potty for the next 5 hours, like after my last half marathon. Haha. I know you were all dying to know that.

I've visited Michelle and Nate and their fam a couple of times too, and they always help me to feel happy . I LOVE going up there!

(Asa spent a really long time sticking pins through this fabric strip. Then he showed it to me and said he made it for Uncle Mason, who couldn't be up to visit with me. We sent Mason this picture.)

It is inspiring to me to see Mason working so hard to get through this semester. He is so diligent in his school and has some really long days sometimes, but he always gets everything done that he needs to. I'm glad I have him with me as I go through my hard times, and I hope I can be his rock when he goes through his.

Anyway, that's a little of what I've been up to this semester. Here's to the summer when neither of us have class and it's warm outside!

Celebrating the Holidays!

Well, Christmas break is over and we've made it through our first week of school. Go us! Christmas break was fun--we spent some time at Shell and Nate's house for the beginning of the break (we were there on Christmas day and got to sleep with a surprise kitten in our room for a few nights! The kitty, named Timothy, only pooed a couple times, but MAN did it STINK.). It was so fun to be with the kids and see the wonder and excitement in their eyes on Christmas morning. It was also fun on Christmas Eve night to see them all exchange their gifts and to give them the gifts from the dollar store that we got for all of them. I think Asa liked his present the most. We got him a little flashlight with a button on it and he walked around shining it everywhere for a long time. :)

 We went to see the lights they do at the Roy fire station, and witnessed Nate accidentally plowing over Bryn while playing tag. It was cold and Mason let me wear his jacket, because he's SUCH a sweet heart!

 We spent some time outside playing in the snow (this was before it really snowed). We also got to go sledding with some of the Waite's friends later, and it was a blast!

It was so pretty! I love looking at the coniferous trees with snow on them, they're gorgeous!

 Sweet little Timmy, who was named Africa by Mason and I while he was living in our room. He's precious!

Also, I got to squeeze my Latin hips between 2 car seats and Mason sat on the floor of the minivan for some of our car rides. :) I don't even mind doing that! These kids are fab!

It was also really fun to give/receive presents with Mason for our first Christmas being married. I'm glad we'll have lots more Christmas's together! :)

A few days after Christmas, we had a beautiful trip down to Las Vegas to spend time with the Parkes family. It was so fun to go down there and see everyone!And there was no snow! We actually got to go running outside for several days because the weather was in the 40s a lot. It was great!

For a few days we watched some distant relative's kids, and it was quite an adventure (7 kids, only 2 could talk!) but there was one named Axel who was a favorite and just ADORABLE.

AND THEN WE GOT TO GO TO IKEA FOR THE FIRST TIME AND IT WAS LIFE CHANGING. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I took the entire time. I think it looks like the space ball Christmas lights we used to have in front of my house.

For New Years we had discada, a new tradition that has emerged at the Parkes home. :)

We also went on a day trip to Death Valley, which was my first time being in California that wasn't for marching band! It was fascinating and fun and so cool to look around and explore, and we LOVED being with Mason's family! The road home was really bumpy and windy (that's like, a winding road. Not like, wind blowing) and dark, but we stopped for a minute or two to look up and see the stars. It's been a long time since I've seen so many, and it was truly awe-inspiring.

Pictures of Death Valley coming soon!



The next day Maddie and her boyfriend Tony came to town, and we partied it up with them! We were able to go to a really interesting aquarium called the Shark Reef and Mandalay Bay. There was an octopus there! (I'm going through an octopus phase... I just love them!) And we got to touch some kind of sting ray thing and look at piranhas and LOTS of sharks!

Then, we walked all the way across the strip and saw some street dancers, which I thought was awesome. It was cool to look at all the casinos and stuff, even though I for one was a grump for a little while. I blame it on dehydration. We stopped and I chugged an entire Arizona in about 7 seconds flat and felt like a new woman.

Then, we made it to THIS!

It was sooooooooooo much fun to go up so high and see Las Vegas from 550 ft up! Mason liked it too, he started to get his groove on in there. ;) It was excellent because we got the entire car to ourselves, just the 4 of us! I absolutely loved it. Thanks to mom and dad Parkes for making it possible.

All in all, it was a fabulous and much needed Christmas break. We are excited for school to start again!