our desert adventure

so it's been a month. I have been doing so much end-of-year homework. holy crap, can I just say, most stressful time of year. so then summer starts, and I'm supposed to feel relieved. nope. on fridays, I practice tennis with Timpview for about 2 1/2 hours, and on other weekdays, I do the provo city league tennis for an hour. on saturdays, I have 1 hour with a private tennis coach who actually used to be the BYU tennis captain, and sometime in there, i play with my mom or with friends. so tennis takes up a lot of time. to earn money, I will be teaching piano lessons to little kids in my ward. and I still have to do some summer work. so I'm actually pretty busy this summer.

because we went to Japan last year, we decided to just have a chill summer and never leave the state of Utah. we spent an enjoyable 4 days in Moab this week to start off the vacation.

we drove away Tuesday morning after I went to my first Timpview tennis practice for an hour and a half. I am a walk on, so I don't really know anyone on the team so I just practiced hitting with the new freshman. anyways, we stopped off at Canyonlands National Park, did a little hike, drive around to some viewpoints, and took several pictures. it was really hot and we got tired quickly. we made it to our condo in Moab around dinnertime, and just chilled there.

Wednesday we hiked the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park. since I hate hiking, I wasn't very excited for this hike. we were told it would take 3 hours, and there are no bathrooms anywhere, and we can't just poop on the trail, as Wesley brilliantly suggested. I braced myself for the worst, but it was pretty easy. we had a guide who stopped every 5 seconds pretty much to talk to us about the beauty of nature. it was more like a chill, extra long, intense nature walk with some rock climbing in the desert. after the hike, we went to some other arch, but it was really hot and we were all getting grumpy and tired. I don't remember exactly what happened, but my mom decided she had enough of me and spat a ton of her water in my face. I got back at her, and then she did it again, but this time she practically showered me with her water. at this point, we decided to leave, go back to the condo, take naps, and watch Elf. i know, you are thinking that we're insane, watching Elf in June. but that was the only movie they had at the condo, and it's hilarious, so why the heck wouldn't we watch it?

 Thursday we went river rafting! we left early in the morning, got in a van with some guy from Wisconsin and our guide, and drove along this really bumpy road for a looooooong time before we finally got to the river, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. we finally got on the raft, and it was just our family and Jake the river guide. poor Jake had to drive us, row our boat, and put up with us all day! the night before, the boys and i made plans to see who would get thrown out of the boat first and how long it would take. but we didn't do anything on our list. we were pretty good, I guess. by the end of the day, Jake knew pretty much everything about our whole family and could probably fit right in! the raft was fun, and I admit I did freak out when the rapids came and was terrified of flipping out of the boat. but we were all safe, got soaked, no one fell out of the boat, and had a great time. and no one got sunburnt. that's a great accomplishment.

friday or today, we packed up all our things and drove home! but first, we stopped at Goblin Valley to play around in the hoodoos and eat lunch. mom and Wesley had gone camping there last year with my grandpa and cousins and they said they had an amazing time, so Dad, Justin, and I were the only ones who had never seen it in our lives. all I knew about it was 1. rednecks like to go camping there, and 2. the music video for Human by The Killers was filmed there. it was a really fun place to just run around and check out everything and climb on the hoodoos. we found some pretty cool caves. but of course, Justin and Wesley wandered off, got lectured, Justin had a meltdown because he wanted to stay longer, it got really hot because we're in a desert in the middle of nowhere, I ran out of water, and my parents realized we had to eat ASAP. we all needed to refill our water bottles, but the water was yellow and questionable, so we asked a ranger, who said it was fine, just full of sand. yeeeeeeh. so we ate some sandwiches, drank some sandy water, and drove home.

I had a pretty fun time, even though I would've much rather been in London, New York, or San Francisco. or Tokyo again. someday, I want to travel the world.