Ren Fest 2011

There was a funky balancing act that was cool except for the crass humor during the presentation.































Glass blowing. Reminded me of the Jamestown Glass House.

This was one of the reasons I went to the Ren Fest--the Carillion--AWESOME!!!

Turkey legs!

We rode an elephant, even though there is no photographic evidence of it since both of us were on the elephant and couldn't take pictures of each other while riding!

Cool chair swings

Some Snow

So it snowed at my folks house up north! Trying to eat falling snowflakes is hard because when you look into the snow, it gets in your eyes!

Lately

Lately, I have not taken many photos that I can put up here. Many of them are of children, and since my blog is not locked, I don't feel comfortable putting them up.

I had a lovely Thanksgiving with my family. Christmas came and went. My baby brother and his wife came down from Idaho for Christmas, and that was a lot of fun. Some of my Christmas loot:

A pressure canner
A small flat screen TV--fits my apartment nicely
Scrapbooking punches
Calendar of my brother's cool adventures
Mp3 player with Les Miserales unabridged book loaded to it
jogging oufit
other stuff, too)

I think I got a lot more than I gave, which bothers me a bit, but oh well. I can't wait to get some time to can some food in my new canner!

I turned 35. No more comment needed on that!

My boyfriend and his kids came this past weekend. The girls stayed with me Friday night and the boy stayed with my boyfriend at his brother's house. We made Valentines, watched cartoons, played Frisbee, and played around in the living room with my "banana" chairs. They sure are great kids!

Graham County Fair

I went to the Graham County Fair this last weekend and it was fun! My boyfriend and I took his kids and had a great time! This is a bale of cotton all wrapped up. They raise cotton in this county.

I actually rode two rides! One was the spinning one where the centripital force lifts you off the ground. The other was the boat that swayed back and forth and made you think you were falling!

Canyoneering

Canyoneering= hiking, climbing, rapelling, swimming--all in one trip!! This is at Bear Canyon near Payson. Dallin and Ryan were our fearless guides; they took me and Will for our first canyoneering trip.

We weren't really sure HOW deep some of this water was, but it sure was COLD!!

We had some fun little areas to get through. Some were more dangerous than others! Dallin is also in this picture.

Will and I on an edge in the canyon.

Dehydrating

I started out with yummy ripe strawberries! This one was ginormous!

Then I cut them up.

Then put them in my new (to me) dehydrator for several hours. Two pounds made about a cup of dried stawberries!

Alaskan Cruise

My boyfriend, Will, invited me on his family's cruise to Alaska. We left out of Seattle. It was a really fun trip!

This is an obnoxious "gum wall" where thousands of people have stuck their gum. Morbidly awesome!

We walked by the Aquarium, but it was closed because it was at night. There was a cool aquarium outside we could look at, though. :)

Even though it was kind of chilly there in Seattle, I still wanted some deliciouse ice cream!

Some cool Ecuadorian singers and pan pipe players from Otavalo.

On top of the hotel where Will's brother stayed in Seattle.

Some Seattle skyline

Will in Seattle. We didn't take any taxis so we ended up "hoofing it" quite a ways...probably like 3-4 miles or more!

Will and I getting ready to board the "Rhapsody of the Seas" ship.

Onboard activites: Dressing up for dinner, scavenger hunt, a view of the cabin Leesa (Will's sister) and I stayed in, hot tub. Very nice!

We found a mossy spot on some giant boulders up a few feet up off the path back to the ship. We sat for a bit, just enjoying the non-ship, non-peopled, non-touristy environment. Peace at last.
Of course, I had to steal a little smooch! :)

The tundra above Skagway, Alaska. The tree line was at about 3000 feet and this is above that. My first real tundra!

It was pretty chilly--even though it was JULY!!!!

Glaciers are "rivers of ice" gradually moving along. It was a glacier (a long time ago) that carved out where we cruised into to see this glacier. Glaciers are massive~this one is half a mile away!

There was a rock wall on the back part of the top deck of the ship! Sweet!

All those goodies on the cruise ship did not do good things to my waist!! They were both beautiful and delicious.

This is a chocolate sculpture, but on closer examination, it was Styrofoam covered with some chocolate. (I think it would have been too heavy as solid chocolate!)

Dance cards from a mansion we toured in Victoria.

A room in the mansion.

We ate with Johnny and Christi at a Vietnamese restaurant in Victoria. Yum!!

You can see a piece of this giant watering can in the left corner. It really DID spew forth water!

This was part of a museum display. I love butterflies!

There was a really cool museum in Victoria, British Columbia that had native masks. This one reminds me of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal!