arches

I just got back from Southern Utah with all my friends! Rachel, Rachel Jane, Alyssa, Heather, Curtis, Tylor and I went to Arches National Park on Saturday and hiked around all day. We left Provo Friday evening and somehow all squeezed in Alyssa's seven seater Dodge. We had literally 5 square feet of trunk space, and managed to squeeze all of our luggage, sleeping gear, and tons of food in the car with us.

We set out on the trip, all giggly and excited. We talked, listened to music, and planned. During our discussion, we discovered that I was the oldest, so I labeled myself as the "supervising adult." We were expecting an hour and a half drive to Price where we'd be staying the night. However, in the middle of a canyon shortly after Spanish Fork, we got stopped dead in the middle of traffic. But this wasn't a normal traffic jam, because it didn't move. We were at a standstill on the highway for over two hours. We figured there must be a horrible accident because we saw three ambulances racing in the opposite direction with their sirens on. I got a little upset because that means people are hurt, but then Ty reminded me that that means people are still alive. It would've been worse to see the ambulances driving away normally.

So, dilemma. What are seven teenagers supposed to do squished in a car stopped dead for two hours? Um, dance party. We turned the stereo up as loud as we could, got out, and danced around in the road. It was so fun! A few times we had to jump back in because the traffic moved up a few feet, but we had a good time. Finally, we got moving again, and finished the drive to Price, where Rachel's great Aunt and Uncle were waiting for us with barbecued hot dogs, potato and chicken salads, and key lime pie. It was delicious! Then, after drawing the new, invisible, password protected, "chastity" line in the hallway between the rooms :) we all settled down and went to sleep. Well, sort of. The girls stayed up for an hour and talked and giggled. It was funny to hear Curtis's impression of us giggling the next morning. Imagine a high pitched elvish laugh.

After intending to leave at 7, we left a little after 8:00 to drive up to the park! We finally got there, paid, and drove in. It was breathtaking, and I couldn't wait to get out and start hiking around! I had never seen rocks or mountains like this ever before! They were gorgeous. We luckily found a parking spot, grabbed our hiking gear, and went out. It was about an hour hike up to delicate arch, but that may have been because I wanted to stop and take pictures of everything. There were some really cool hieroglyphs and awesome rock formations. Then we got to Delicate Arch (the famous one on Utah's license plate). It was much bigger than I expected! We ate lunch, which was hard because it was extremely windy. We played around, took more pictures, and then headed back to the car.


After that we drove to a few more arches and walked around those. I paid less attention to the scenery this time around because Ty and I hung back and had some really good talks. I love talking with him. We think so similarly. We saw Landscape Arch, and a few others. My favorite was definitely Double Arches. It was amazing! They were huge, with two of them stretching over you. There were some cool looking caves higher up, so Ty and I climbed up to go check them out. It turned out they weren't really caves, but it still gave us an absolutely amazingly gorgeous view. Then we drove to a little picnic area and made s'mores on Curtis's little camping stove. Really, it was just half of a pop can with holes in the side that you light. But it worked.














On the way home we drove by a humongous, steep hill, and there were tons of people playing on it. So, naturally, we pulled over and played on it, too. There weren't any bushes at all, just extremely soft, red, clay-ish sand. It was very gushy and fun! We played for about 45 minutes, climbing up and jumping back down, just squishing around in the dirt. Before we left we buried Rachel Jane up to her neck in it. I told my friends that my mom used to do that to me at the beach, and then draw a mermaid tail on me. So we tried to do that, but Rachel got up before we finished.

Finally, all dirty, tired, and smelly, we grabbed dinner at Arby's or Subway and started driving back to Provo. Ty did most of the driving, and to keep him awake I read Twlight out loud to him. During the drive home, something scary happened on the way home! We were driving through the canyon, and two deer were standing in the middle of the road! One in the oncoming traffic lane, and the other in ours, sort of on the side. They saw the headlights and froze. Luckily, Ty stayed calm and slowed a bit, and swerved right in between them. I almost had a heart attack. We were lucky that he's such a good driver!

Now we're all back home with many good memories together, wishing we could all go back! I have a ton of pictures, so I'll get them up as soon as I can. When they are, they'll be on my photobucket! If they're not posted now, keep checking. I'll get them up soon.

http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c299/magicalmuggle16/BYU/

Quotes of the Day:
Ty: "I know first aid! I don't know second aid... but I know the first."

Ty: "Don't be sad about deer getting hit. It thins the heard. You wouldn't want a deer emperor someday."

Alyssa: "The cloud is just like suspended in the air!"

Rachel Jane: "You smell like Jell-o. Strawberry Jell-o."

Me: "I want to go to London on my honeymoon."
Mom: "Then get a job at the law library!"