Utah!

We are back from Utah! It was wonderful and I suggest going there. Abster Out.

Just joking! I will tell you all about it! But just a note of caution: those of you who are slow readers, read this when you have about an hour worth of free time, faster readers, about 30 minutes of time.
Well, the first day (Friday, June 6th), we flew in which took nearly the whole day. Then we ate supper and went to bed (we also played numerous games of air hockey).(Don't worry, I get into more detail as I go on).
The next day (Saturday) we went to Antelope Island which is and island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. On the island, we saw three American Bison (or buffalo as some call it) and some antelope. Then my family decided "Hey, let's go for a hike!". So when my family says lets do something, we do it. Anyway, we decided to hike to the highest point on the island, Frary's Peak. We started out hiking and it seemed a little hard, but I hadn't hiked much, so my leg's weren't that prepared. About halfway up, we had probably already passed two or three "fake peaks" half of the group was getting tired and decided to turn back. Well, the other half (which included me, of course) kept hiking though our water started running low. Finally, we made it to the second highest point and two of the group thought they'd stop there and let the rest of the people go on. The last four people (still including me) started the hike to the top, which turned out to be pretty steep and rocky and if you looked over the edge, it went straight down and the path was only four-five feet wide. We persevered and finally we made it to the top! It was kind of hard to decide if the hike was worth it, but looking back at the great pictures I got of Salt Lake City, I think it was. I had a more motivation on the hike down and was very glad to get to the bottom. But at the bottom, the sign that we should have read before the hike said, 'This is a strenuous hike with difficult terrain, recommended for experienced hikers only." If only we had read that before, we might have had more water. Oh well...
Moving on, Sunday, we had a trail ride (on horses) and had a wonderful view of Park City, UT. After that, we went back to the giant house and relaxed.
Monday, we swam in a crater. Yes we actually did swim in a crater! we went to the Olympic Park which held the 2002 Winter Olympics. There, they had the X-Treme zip-line, the longest steepest zip-line in the US (if not the world) and the Ultra zip-line which was shorter and slower. They also had the Alpine slide in which you get on a little cart thing where you control the speed with a little lever. The slide was metal and it was extremely fun! I also loved the X-Treme zip-line! Then the park also had the US Olympic Bobsled track. Bobsledding is similar to luge and the skeleton. I was too young to do this, but my mother and two uncles were and after a forty-five minute training session thing, they did it and reached 66.6 mph. On a little car thing! That's cool! After that, we went back and rested.
Tuesday, we drove to Moab, UT, the desert and went to an orientation for our rafting trip which was the next day. After that, we went to Arches National Park and hiked up to the Delicate Arch. It was so windy up there that hats were blowing off and I had to sit on the ground to keep from blowing away (aka being off balance). We also saw some petroglyph's on the way down. That was a nice hike but we went right to sleep when we got back to the hotel .
Wednesday, we got up too early for me, to eat breakfast and head on to the expedition center. After that, we got on the bus and drove a few hours to the drop-off place which was in Colorado. After the boats were in and we had one more chance to use a nice bathroom. We started off and my dad and I got to kayak on a "ducky" for the whole day. We had lunch and the continued on the the campsite. Once we got to the campsite, we did a fire line to set up tables, chairs etc. and they set up the groover. You may think it sound pleasant, but it actually is a container with a toilet lid which is for #2 and they had a bucket for #1. They did have toilet paper but it still wasn't the most pleasant experience. We went on a hike at the campsite led by a guide and we saw a collared lizard which is a very colorful lizard. That was a treat for us and the guide since they are so rare. After the hike, we had supper which was steak, mashed potatoes, and salad. Seriously! We did have that while we were camping!
Thursday, we woke up and had breakfast, packed tents and sleeping bags up then headed off. We didn't kayak today, but we got to ride along and that was fun. After lunch is when we really did the whitewater. We went up to class four (if you know anything about that) and it was awesome! A wonderful first whitewater experience for me and my family. We got to the take out place and had a bus ride back into Moab. Overall, it was a very nice trip!
Friday, we had to get up early yet again and a bus picked us up to go canyoneering. This included hiking, and rappelling (a way of getting down cliffs). This was very fun and I am looking forward to going rappelling again. We did a 90 ft. rappel and then we did an 120 ft. rappel. Both were fun! After this, we got in the car and drove back to Salt Lake City and spent the night there.
Saturday, we get on the plane and fly, fly fly. We get home very late, and go to bed even later.

Today, now that we are back in our house with laundry done and our dog who I missed a whole bunch, life is starting to get normal. Though I must say that I will never eat another peanut again in my whole entire life!
Abster Out. (finally)

Update from Utah!

Hi everybody reading this bLog! We are currently in Provo, Utah after yesterday being a day of exploring airports and watching Fool's Gold (which while on the subject, I would not recommend watching this movie) so it is nice to be "relaxing" now. We are now planning to go to Antelope Island, which is in the Salt Lake. It snowed this morning, though it melted before it hit the ground, it still was interesting to see. But now the ground is all wet. The house that we rented to stay in for a few days, has 7 rooms (wow!) and a game room which includes air hockey, foosball, and a huge screen TV! It is the hot spot for the cousins, but so far we only have girl cousins, the boys are coming later today, so it will definitely get a lot wilder around here. But anyway, whenever I get to a computer and have the time, I will try to post some more info about Utah, pictures too! Abster Out.

carol's corner

If you have ever taken time to look at our Fellow Bloggers list, then you might notice a new one called carol's corner. This blog was started by my friend and it really is quite entertaining. Carol's corner has fun and interesting stuff, it is pretty much a conglomeration of facts and games. You really should take a look sometime, because you won't be sorry! Abster Out.

Liven Up Your Life

Card games are a forgotten way to have fun now with TV's and computers, but that doesn't mean they have lost their fun. The First game, Animals, is very quick paced, and it definitely exercises your brain trying to remember names. The second game, Spoons, is fun also and you do have to have good reflexes for this one. Anyway, here are the directions:
Animals-Players go around the table turning over their top card and placing it face up in their own discard pile. When a player turns up a card that matches one on another pile, the two pile owners race to say each other's animal name three times. The first to do so gets the other's discard pile. Play continues until someone has won all the cards. VARIATIONS: Players make the animal's sound instead of calling its name. Each player chooses an animal name to play under. The longer the name, the better (think hippopotamus, rhinoceros and so on). The cards are all dealt and placed facedown in piles in front of each player.
Spoons-The object is to collect four cards of one kind (four twos, four kings and so on) and not to be the person left without a spoon. To begin, place the spoons (one fewer than the number of players) in the center of the table within grabbing reach of all players. Each player is dealt four cards. The dealer keeps the deck. The dealer picks a card from the deck and then discards one card from his hand, sliding it facedown to the player to his left. That player takes it, then picks one card from his hand and passes it to his left. The player left without a spoon has lost the round. If you like to keep score, that player is given an S. As players spell S-P-O-O-N-S, they are out. The player left at the end is the winner. Play continues until one player has four of a kind, at which time he takes a spoon from the pile. He may steal the spoon surreptitiously, continuing to pass cards until someone else notices. Or he may grab his spoon, creating a mad rush for spoons at the table. Each player in turn does the same, as quickly as possible. Each person should have four cards in his hand at all times. The player to the right of the dealer places discarded cards in a pile to his left to be used by the dealer when the original deck is used up.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the games and don't forget to check out later posts for more interesting tid-bits and more funny stuff. Abster Out.

Masters or Staff?

Rush Limbaugh said “Dogs have masters. Cats have staff”; if you don’t agree or do (though you might need more reasons) than these reasons will help. The first is dogs obey commands, the second is cats don’t do what you want them to. Last but not least, dogs do amazing things!

Have you ever seen a cat sit or rollover? Dogs have masters and they serve them, so they gladly obey you. Would you obey your staff at work if they told you to do something you weren’t in favor of? No! That’s how cats feel.

If you tried to train a cat to do something useful or funny, don’t since it is simply not going to happen. Cat’s run on their own secret schedule and it would be pitiful if you tried to interrupt it!

Cats never save lives like dogs. Dogs also can do agility, which is very amazing. Though cat owners must have heard Rush Limbaugh state that “dogs have master. Cats have staff”, and decided to rebel against that. Now they have cat agility, which I must say is nearly as boring on TV as golf is.

Don’t embarrass yourselves in front of the world cat lovers, because cats do not want listen to you! Hopefully you have accepted that dogs obey commands, cats do not want to listen to you, and dogs do amazing things. Next time you think about giving a cat a command, think about the janitor at your office telling you to get back to work.