Narrow hiking at Zion National Park

A few weeks ago we got together with Maren, Brita and her boyfriend, Matt, and hiked the narrows from the top! It was a trip that Morgan has had in the works for awhile, so to see it come to fruition was a happy day. In fact the day after our 2 days of hiking we all thought, "Well that went fast." However, while hiking all 17 miles in a river that ranged from ankle deep to chest deep there was more than a few times that we thought (maybe not Morgan who is just as studly as they come) this hike may never end!!! Don't get me wrong, the hike was BEAUTIFUL, and totally worth it, but I underestimated that hike in a very large way. Luckily my husband is Mr. Prepared when it comes to trips like these, so we had our hiking poles all ready and quickly realized after 7 1/2 hours in sometimes fast moving thigh deep water that those poles were more than a luxury, almost a necessity! They saved my life more than a few times!!! (Therefore my recommendation being if you are hiking the narrows and the flow rate is at least 90 or higher, BRING POLES. Or else wait later in the year when the water's flow rate is lower). All complaining aside (not that I'm meaning to complain, just my forewarning to all those I love who may consider hiking the narrows really), the hike was one of the coolest hikes I've ever done. The scenery was gorgeous at all times, and even camping in the narrows was an awesome experience! Our campsite, which we didn't get the best picture of, was like this little island almost, hugging a thousand foot high cliff with opposing cliffs just as high. The moon was full, and not that we ever really saw it through the tall narrow cliffs, but it lit up the upper half of the wall across the river. It was breathtaking, seriously. And Morgan's backpack was broken into by a squirrel, which he swears was a rat. But no one saw it, we just found the holes in his trail mix. It was an awesome adventure, one that I may do again, but not for a very, very, very long time (it hurt!!!). Get ready for lots of pics

Just starting out, the river is nice, calm and even fairly warm

Seattle girls hugging the beautiful, but slightly scorched, tree :). Maren loves the tree the most.

Brita and Matt. The first part of the hike (first half of the first day) looked like this most of the time.

We hike in water.

Love him

Maren took a lot of pictures, which I have not been granted access to, but I did get a picture of her in her photo-happy state. She's cute :)

We always seem to get a picture of Morgan laying one on me every time we go out into nature. I think its because he's just so happy to be outside :) So this one is for "traditions" sake

coming into the first real narrows, except for this was a very short section. The walls were so tall that it seemed so dark hiking through these sections

There was this wall with water running down (not enough to call a waterfall, and that's more than a trickle...) Anyways, it looked like someone had taken a giant paintbrush and made a solid stroke. It was cool

This is the waterfall we almost thought we'd have to jump off of, until we noticed the much safer trail hidden on the other side of a giant wall. I thought one of us was going to die. This is the pic Matt got hiking up onto a huge rock trying to reach around, but it was a big mean waterfall!!! (well bigger than I care to jump off of, about 12 feet)

Matt getting the shot. You can see the much safer trail we took to the right.

Ready for a picture, then I looked down and was like, "why are we holding hands???"

"Oh well"

hiking through tall canyon walls (believe it or not this isn't even what they call "the narrows" section of the hike)

This is my favorite picture. This is Morgan trying to get us pumped for day 2 when we're all sore and freezing. The night before we had barely made it to campsite 3 before dark, we were all tired and grumpy because we thought we were suppose to have arrived at campsite 4 about 2 hours earlier!!!! The time estimates given us by the back country desk were INACCURATE. Day 1 was suppose to be a walk in the park compared to day 2, so we were less than enthused waking up that morning still feeling the pains of day 1. Not to mention right before we found our campsite another tributary joined the Virgin river (the Virgin is the river that goes through the narrows), that about doubled the water flow, and brought the water temperature down significantly. It was a good campsite though! We slept under the stars and gorged ourselves on freeze dried meals that tasted like 5 star restaurant food!

Day 2. More water. More beautiful.

Tough guys at Big Springs

Maren "the chipmunk" steals more than just food, keep your CAMELBAK straws tucked away!!

Big Springs was one of the prettiest parts of the hike. It's exactly like it sounds, a really big spring coming out of the wall that's pure enough to drink, and it looks like a tropical paradise in just that one spot because of all the greenery. It was so pretty that Maren and Brita couldn't help themselves from going for a swim, and then froze their bottoms off hiking through the narrows where the sun no longer shines!

Coming out of the first chest high part of the hike. Not my favorite. At about this point we put our camera in a dry bag and never took it out again, so the amount of pictures we took dramatically decreased, but the rest of the hike was narrow, cold, sometimes chest high, sometimes thigh high rapids you're afraid will sweep you off your feet, and when we saw that man made wall at the end of the hike that means you've reached the end, Hallelujah's could be heard all around.

We were going to stay another 2 days in Zion, Morgan wanted to get a permit to do another overnight hike originally, but as we were all in major pain (I was walking like a saddle sore, 90-year old grandma), we decided to head home a day early, and do a scenic drive in which we stopped by Bryce Canyon, and Boulder (Utah). It was a very enjoyable weekend, that we were happy to have a day to recover from before work on Monday.

Morgan had never been to Bryce, so we stopped by real quickly, basically got out of the car took a few pictures of Morgan doing his, "Is this what you want?!?!" pose, and then took off. The only regret I have is that we didn't get a picture of Maren eating the brownies that got soggy in the cooler. They were so gross we actually took them away from her, and she was mad. It's what real friends do, Maren. Those were nasty.

The beautiful drive from Bryce Canyon to Escalante. These are for you Mom, we'll go when you come!!!

This is Hell's Backbone (where the grill got it's name from). They call it Hell's Backbone because the road follows the backbone of this mountain and basically falls off on both sides of the road. It was amazing!!! Utah is Beautiful!!! We couldn't believe how gorgeous this drive was, especially once we got to Boulder and the mountains north of it. The deer and free ranging cows were so abundant that we had to keep 4 eyes on the road to make sure we saw everything. Long drive, but I would definitely do it again, just to go back to Boulder and eat at the Grill. Sorry for the SO LONG post, but it was a trip worth remembering. Great idea Morgan :) 

Asian Night!

And by that I mean we made Asian food (mostly Chinese to be specific) for dinner. It was so good, and so fun I would gladly do it again. We made yummy steamed pork dumplings, stir-fried beef with ginger and celery, and crunchy summer rolls (spring rolls)! Anyways Kylee and Ashley came over and we all cooked together, Kylee, bless her, made brownies. It was an evening of experiment and gluttony, in other words, it was a good evening. This was more than a few weeks ago, but I don't blog often...

 

Small kitchen so we had to use the coffee table for all our prepared ingredients. And yes, Ashley is holding up a glass of Diet Coke.

Cute little baozi, aka "dumpling" :)

Aren't they cute??? I get excited for any chance to use my bamboo steamers really...

This is Morgan's "sweet little boy" face, showing off the food

Mmmm....

Anyways, I will be posting the recipes on the blog if you're interested. And by the way, Ryan and Elana, that beef ginger stir fry stuff is the stuff I made when I almost set your house on fire forever ago :) I have learned my lesson when it comes to heating oil in a pan!!!

New Family Room!

We finally got a couch! At the moment our loft style town home doesn't leave too much room for more than just the sofa and a chair, but we had fun furniture shopping and decorating our first home, and finally it feels like one!!!

Morgan is eating lunch :)

There is our new chair (ignore the clutter). As you can see, Morgan likes the new couch.

Our new shelf, and new lamp.

We're Married!

In fact it has been over a Month since the ordeal (and what an ordeal it was), and now we are finally settling in. So since it has been so long, here is our last month in pictures. Enjoy :)

Honeymoon In San Diego!

We Loved Coronado Island

We went to Sea World, the Wild Animal Park, and The San Diego Zoo. We saw a lot of animals.

Point Loma was perhaps our favorite place, it was so beautiful!!! (As you can see)

Just for fun :). We had the best food in San Diego! Mahi mahi fish Tacos, halibut sandwiches, and lobster burritos, not to mention our evening of 4 different desserts from 4 different shops in La Jolla...

We did about 60 hours of driving going from Utah to Seattle for one open house, and then after being back in Utah for less than a week we headed out to Topeka for our last open house. So fun to see everyone, not so fun to stare at the road for literally 4,000 miles. Ugh.

The weekend after we got home from Kansas we apparently were addicted to the road so we made one last road trip to Moab! Always fun, and 3 hours is much easier to stomach than say 18.

I love my husband :)

Morgan rappelling through Tierdrop canyon in Arches National Park.

Beautiful Arches National Park. This canyon we went through was so gorgeous, it was a great way to kick off another Summer of Southern Utah fun :)

This is just a cool picture, we rappelled off of this last ledge to finish up the hike. You can see Alex looking like he could fall off that 100 ft cliff at any moment. We were safe though, we promise Mom(s)!!!

The last rappel. It was only 105 feet, but it felt so much taller! It was very exhilarating, for sure! We have been on so many fun trips in the last month, its crazy that this last weekend was the first weekend in which we stayed home and did nothing since the weekend before we got married (when the craziness all started)! This last month or so, so much has happened, and eventually we'll post wedding pictures on this blog so all those who haven't seen, can see :). This week also held a huge event for us, Morgan and I purchased our first couch and we now have a family room instead of just one chair and many camping chairs. We'll post evidence of our domestication later as well.

One Week.... then I'll actually be Megan Eldridge and this blog will be legit ;)

 We don't blog often. In fact Morgan you have never posted a blog. You can blog too If you want! No pressure :). Anyways, we've done A LOT over the last however long it's been since I last posted something new. We... well I moved (Morgan moved some stuff) to Draper! Our new place is really quite fun, the location, the crazy stairs, the vaulted ceilings, the garage, it's all great! However our favorite part is that we have a "backyard" and an amazing view of the whole of Salt Lake Valley. In fact (quite appropriately) we have an Excellent view of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and the Mountains that gave that temple it's name. Since "we" have moved up here we have painted and even had our first dinner guest! Unfortunately for Josh (Steorts) we only have 2 chairs, and some sturdy speakers that occasionally double as a chair. But the place still feels like home, and it will only be better when I don't live here alone and therefore don't get scared at night of the dark... apparently I'm 5 years old.

Morgan painting. When we moved in the wall was a tomato soup red, that we decided to paint a color called Silver Screen. May I just say that I now know to ALWAYS do test spots with paint on the wall before buying the whole gallon! The new color is so light for an accent wall that when one of my sister's walked in she asked which wall we had painted. The wall even still had the tape around the baseboard!. REALLY Brita??? (love you, wink). However we like the color more now, and it looks great with Morgan's $4 D.I. chair :).

By the way, Thanks Megan and Mike so VERY VERY MUCH for the paint supplies!!!

 






As mentioned earlier, we had our first dinner guest! Morgan's friend Josh Steorts was in town for a work trip and was able to come over for a quality evening of fine dining. Sarcasm. It was a really fun evening, and I know Morgan and Josh enjoyed having the opportunity to catch up. These few pictures are of us opening the Wedding Gift from Josh and his wife Kourtni.
It feels so exciting to open gifts together and know that this is the beginning of US. It is a great feeling really. We are both so excited to finally get married next week, and what's even better is that so much family is coming in that festivities really begin Tomorrow!!! These next two weeks will be awesome! However, I promise you won't see a post about them for awhile!! We Love you All! And we'll see you soon :)


(note the color of the wall behind us on the left side of the picture. Does it look white to you or does it look like Silver Screen???)

One last important note is that we took our Bridals/Groomals... it seems weird to call them "bridals" when its not just the bride. If you'd like a sneak peak (and haven't seen it yet) check out our photographer's blog