Lindsey- this one's for you!

LINDSEY LYTLE/MARCH!! that was so awesome to hear from you!! i am making this a special post b/c i don't know if you would check the comments section for a reply from me. :) how great that you found my blog. it looked like you don't have a blog though cuz i clicked on your name- or maybe you just didn't have a profile. you are a very brave women, with Drew being gone for so long. i'm sorry to hear about his absence but will look forward to his return with you!

okay, hope this wasn't too weird sending out a post just for one person- i was just pretty excited to hear from you! :)

"in sickeness and in health..."

i returned just last night from visiting my friend Lindsay Porter in colorado.

Lindsay and I on the slopes


i had a blast- except that the night i arrived i started to come down with a horrible sore throat which worked itself over the course of the few days i was there, into a full blown cold. all this, and i was still taking antibiotics from my strep throat just last weekend! poor eric has had his hands full taking care of sick polly ever since we moved to utah. i don't know if it's just getting used to new bugs or working in a hospital or what, but i've never been so sick before!

colorado was perfect! we snowboarded at Breckenridge ski resort on sunday, meeting up with eric's best friend Sam Higby in the afternoon. Sam showed us some really fun places to ride.

that masked pirate is Sam Higby

it was snowing the whole day so we got some actual real powder during the afternoon. i haven't snowboarded in over 2 months and i can tell b/c i haven't been this sore in two months! boarding uses different muscles than skiing does, especially falling and getting back up- you have to use your arms so much more. i was having a hard time opening doors and putting on my coat after sunday. we spent monday in ft collins, where lindsay lives now in the old part of downtown. that's a really cool city with a lot of culture and personality. we would have toured the breweries there, but my sore throat was begging to not be exploited by my brain's desire to taste 'non-utah, real" beer. i am so proud of my friendship with lindsay. we actually haven't lived in the same state since 2001- when we were freshmen in college. we became fast friends during that one year however and have kept up the friendship basically through phone calls and brief visits here and there. it's like something out of a movie, the older we get the better and deeper our friendship gets and the more sure we are of being "friends forever".

traveling is actually exhausting. i have a deep desire to 'travel'- you know, the cool sense of the word. like when you have conversations with people you've just met and you're getting to know them you'll ask, "well what did you do after that job?" and they will say, "i traveled". and you'll think inside, "ooooooo, i want to travel like that- just wherever the wind blows or decides to take me...i wonder if i can take off work, i wonder how much that plane ticket would cost? should i use a lonely planet guide? who would i travel with? what do i want to see the most? is it safe for americans to travel there these days?...." well that sort of travel is cool, fun, discovery, and uncomfortable, eye-opening and an opportunity to grow. traveling within the united states is exhausting! it is still cool, and it is still a growing experience, but it isn't that exotic kind of travel where you've packed your swim suit, travel towel, and warm jacket just in case. i'm exhuasted after traveling twice in the month of february- first to ohio and then to colorado. the airports were tiring, such a feeling of urgency there and people always pushing and shoving to get in lines first. sitting in airports waiting to go home is exhausting, you can only people watch alone for so long. then there's the inside feelings, of anticipation of your up coming trip, or of saying goodbye to family or friends, not knowing when you will see them next. traveling with eric is way better b/c i can voice some of my feelings, or talk about that strange person i just saw. but traveling alone....my sense of adventure is a little tweaked being out there alone. if i had never married i might look at it differently- a time of independence and adventure. but now, no adventure is complete without eric, so traveling alone becomes simply time away from him, and not so adventurous. plus, i was just sick this time. so maybe i was a little skewed, i was really tired and just wanted to relax at home, not in that uncomfortable chair.

i believe our trip to indian creek has been put on hold. utah has received 30+inches of snow in the past week, and the powder is full on. how can we leave that?


after a long day of riding, Lindsay and i took time out to play our snowboards. i wonder if anyone else has ever done that....

Travels and trinkets

For all of you who have posted in the past two months- thanks! i just realized that i had enabled the comment moderator, but had no clue how to use it. i just enabled all the comments so they have finally shown up! i was sorta wondering... i mean, usually someone has something to say!! it was kinda fun though, getting all those comments at once! it felt like i almost had a conversation with some of you!!

it's been a busy february. i haven't gotten out too much due to this nifty brace i have been wearing on my thumb. who knew that sprains take, um, forever to heal? my thumb still hurts and i sprained it at the beginning of january. i wear my brace religiously though and it is healing, just slowly. i will continue to wear it until the beginning of march when we are planning a trip to southern utah (indian creek of course) for a weekend of climbing with our friends katie and mark (and anyone else who wants to come- lacy??!!! pleeeeeeeease!!)

i recently returned from Lima, Ohio where my sister, brother in law and now TWO nephews live, as well as my grandparents. miranda, my sister, had an emergency C section on friday february 9th and my newest nephew, Elliot, was born. i arrived less than 12 hours before she began labor, and it was a good thing. she was scheduled for the operation on monday, but friday morning she began some intense labor that resulted in the C section occuring that afternoon. i had no clue. i mean, aren't laboring women always making it up? :) (j/k to all my friends who have recently labored!!) but it does seem that all too often labor is false- or just not close enough together, or not regular enough. but you have to go into the doctor's b/c what if it is real? it just seems like most of the time they are sent home to rest, relax and let that baby come when he/she wants to. well miranda wasn't faking it. i took her to the hospital and went home with my 2 year old nephew Adrian. we had a grand ole time athome, playing trains, hide n go seek, watching thomas the tank engine. well a few hours later what had happened? miranda had gone into surgery and we hadn't a clue! i got a call in the evening saying, baby elliot was born! everyone was very healthy and the baby was soo beautifully perfect. it was a good thing i had arrived when i did b/c who else would have endlessly pushed that swing for Adrian?!


Miranda, Me and Baby Elliot

my mom arrived saturday evening and sunday afternoon my grandfather went to the ER with his lungs filling up with fluid and heart irregularities. i mean, as if one hospital wasn't enough, now my grandpa was in a different hospital across town fighting for his life! it was very stressful, between taking care of Adrian at home, going to the hospital to see miranda and elliot and then going across tgown to see grandpa. miranda came home on monday and my grandpa started doing better too. he is still in the hospital but it looks like he will pull through.

i was supposed to leave on wednesday and tuesday morning the blizzard of the century started in ohio and chicago- both of the places i had to fly out of. it snowed alllll day. that's more snow that even utah has gotten in the entire month (we have a pathetic excuse of a snow base here this year) i really started to worry as all the flights from ohio and chicago started to get cancelled. and we were stuck inside all day from the blowing wind and snow which just adds to the pent up feeling. wednesday mroning as beautiful and clear and the flights began resuming, mostly. Thank God my flights were all actually on time(which is awesome, chicago airport seems to always always always be delayed for some reason). i arrived home wedneday night and started work the next morning.

friday afternoon i started to get that tickle in the back of your throat that means a cold is coming. great a cold- after all that i've been through this week? friday evening was spent in the hot tub with our friends katie and mark and mark's roomate's blind, deaf husky named Mookie. i had the worst time sleeping b/c every time i swallowed it woke me up from pain. i took a look at my tonsils saturday morning and was horrified at the site. we went to an ugent care clinic and lo' and behold i have strep throat. i've never had strep throat before. i have gotten more maladies and horrible diseases in the last year and a half in utah than my entire life in arkansas. they grow 'em mean here i guess. anyway, i was stuck in the bed all day yesterday and today and have started my antibiotics. if you havne't had strep throat you are lucky. it is extremely painful and uncomfortable and your tonsils look like some sort of alien life form. it is a 3 day weekend too b/c of presidents day, the slopes have a little bit of fresh snow on them and it's completely clear and blue out and what am i doing??? in bed feeling horrible. eric and i were supposed to go touring, or at least to the resort or at least on a long snowshoe with Pilsner or something!!! i was so looking forward to it after being gone for a week and working on either end.

i am leaving again this next saturday for Ft, Collins, Colorado to visit my dear friend Lindsay Porter for 4 days. i am really lookingn forward to it as i haven't seen her in a year and a half. Ft collins is an extremely cool town if you've never been there, and a ton of breweries are located there ! :) (by the way, try to say the word "breweries" out loud, it's a very awkward word)

This week eric and i ( and a bunch of our friends ) are going to see the Banff Film Festival (it's here in salt lake, not in banff) but it is an independent outdoor film festival. we went last year and it is extremely fun! anybody can enter, but usually the people are experienced and put together great films. they can be any length and be about anything- as long as it is outdoor-ish. last year we saw a couple climbing films, kayaking films, base jumping and para-gliding films, and a film about two french guys living in a small village and how their life basically hasn't changed at all with the times. so you never know what you are going to get, but it's always great. it runs for two nights and i can't wait to view the films!

before all of this crazy stuff in february started a bunch of girl friends and i drove down south about an hour and a half to my favorite natural hot springs called Diamond Fork. they are incredible, and the girls i went with have become some of my best friends. it was pilsner's first experience with snow hiking too. we went on a day when the snow was still everywhere around and the springs were steaming- i just love this place!



Diamond Fork Hot Springs. you can just see the waterfall above tracy's head- the springs are beautiful. from left to right: me, tracy, cassie, lacy


alright, so this isn't quite as long as my posts used to be, and i used the enter key so no one can get upset with me! :) i was asking eric the other day how ever did i used to post so long? i'm not sure what i used to write about, but i think i have significantly improved.

on my plane flights to and from ohio i read the book, Life of Pi. it is a quick and good read if anyone is looking for an entertaining book.

FYI- if any of you are looking for really good, easy, and fairly quick recipes for dinners my sister and i keep a recipe blog where we post our menus and good recipes we've found. if i don't know what to make some night i can just get on there and find some good stuff. just wanted to help all those other cooks and families out there. it is linked off my main blog site as "recipes and more" or it is frickenscookin.blogspot.com

alright, i'm out.