Good messages

pict via papertissue

I don't have any big news - not engaged to get married, not pregnant or adopting a baby, not buying a house or new car...

But I do want to share something that made me happy...

Recently, I've received three emails from people that made me feel pretty good.

1. My cousin Kristina graduated from UC Riverside this year and I sent her a card. It made me happy that she appreciated it because when I was shopping for her card and gift, I looked at all the cards to find one that I thought fit her personality. She wrote me, "thank you SO MUCH for the card !! you are truly one of the most thoughtful people that i'm fortunate to know -- even more fortunate to be related to! haha. i LOVE my card + its message :)" I thought it was a very thoughtful and nice email she sent me!

2. Last Saturday, I helped organize and lead a hike for a local hiking group. The main organizer of this group wasn't able to make it, but he wrote me this, "I just looked at your pictures for the hike… I am jealous… looks like you had great weather and a large group to enjoy the hike with. Great job! You can organize as many of those hikes as you want. If you are up to it, take the group on ones you want to do… Looks like you did a great job!" I like organizing events, and introducing people to hiking trails that they haven't been to is a lot of fun for me. We had 16 people on the hike and it was a pretty vigorous hike, but everyone made it to the peak with good sportsmanship.

3. This one is random. I haven't seen this guy since last fall when we went to go shoot targets, which became quite an adventurous day. I think I must be on his mind lately (or maybe he wants me! lol) because I got this email, "Hey Holly - how ya doin? I just picked up some camping gear to complete my setup and I'm itchin to get out sometime soon. We should plan something out if you're down one of these days. How do you feel about old ghost/mining towns? There are a few I'm stoked to check out here in UT." I'm very curious as to what made him think of contacting ME out of the blue.

Beware TMI - I miss this guy

I miss this guy...
I miss his philosophical insight: "You have to find your own direction. And if someone wants to join you, then good and if not, screw them."
I miss the way he adores me.

I miss how he comes up with silly poses for me to do.

I miss the little trips he plan for us, like the time he planned a trip to Southern Utah and made reservation at Desert Pearl, the nicest hotel nearby Zion National Park.
I miss his sense of humor. He sent me this picture for my last birthday.

I miss his style of clothing. This is what he has in his closet: black shirt, a new black shirt, a brown sweater, another brown sweater, a white tee shirt, and another white tee shirt, repeat... :P
I miss the way he showed an interest in me and the people in my life. Everyone that meets him had told me they think he's a nice guy and they think we're compatible.
I miss our long drives when we would listen to his Ipod that has every This American Life episodes.
I miss him teasing me about camping, and how he'll have to carry my backpack and his backpack when we go on a backpacking trip.
I miss him teasing me about kicking my butt when we hiked in Bryce Canyon, but he seem to have forgotten that I kicked his butt hiking Observation Point at Zion NP.
I miss how cuddly he was with me.
I miss spending time with one of the smartest people I've ever met. He's going to school right now, but he's going to do really well in the career of his choice.
I miss him telling me about his future plans... he knows what he wants and he goes after it.
J is a wonderful guy in so many ways and that is why I miss him in so many ways.

Who likes going to weddings?... Me.

I'm one of those people that likes to go to weddings. It's a happy occasion with people to socialize with, and a reason to dress up all fancy. (i hope you don't think i'm crazy, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people dress like they're going to the park with their dog but they're at a wedding)

The past couple of years, I've regretfully missed a handful of good friends' weddings. I wish I could have made it, if I was more assertive back then about having certain nights off work. I remember missing my friends, Cristian and Tasha's wedding because I didn't receive permission to have that night off work. I remember missing my friend, Lindsay's wedding as well.

But a few years ago, I went to Poland for a friend's wedding. And we got to travel in Eastern Europe with the couple and his family. The wedding was a very big celebration with so much food and drinks, and fun games and dancing until sunrise. I crashed about 3AM and was dead tired the next morning. I had a great time at their wedding. It was a blast.

Last week, one of my best friends got married. They both wrote their own vows and it was a tear jerker for all of us witnessing their wedding ceremony. I'm happy he found a woman that makes him that happy. They're very compatiable with each other. She wanted someone that would treat her with respect and love. Rod is a man that treats her right, and she is a great woman for him.

Tonight, I went to another wedding, a young woman that lives a couple houses from me got married. There were a lot of people from the neighborhood at this wedding reception. And tonight, I thought to myself that these are my neighbors and I don't really know them, but I wish I did. The majority of them knew each other from the local ward and from living in the neighborhood for a long time. I would like to have friendly neighbors and I want to get to know them, but I don't want to have to go to church for them to be my friends. I was asked a couple of times if I was interested in getting a ride to church and certain church activities. I do like going to weddings, but tonight I felt a little uncomfortable... On the up side, I like something that the couple did - so instead of having a book your guests sign in, there were postcards from all over the world for you to pick and sign the back of with your message and/or advice for the couple. There was an album to put the postcards in as well. It was unique and something I might do at my wedding because I love traveling and the postcards would be symbolic of that. The advice I put on the back was for my friend's husband to give her massages. Couples that give each other massages have happier marriages than those that don't give each other massage ... okay, so I made that up but it sounds like it could be true.

Bells Canyon

The trail started out easy and it started out dry. With dark clouds above us, it started raining harder the closer we got to the waterfall, and it also got steeper.

Lansia and I hiked to the first waterfall in Bells Canyon... 3/4 of the time in the rain.

I'd guess that the run-off of the waterfall was greater with the extra rain water. The waterfall is some where between 40 to 50 feet tall.

This strenuous trail took us 4 hours to complete round trip. I think we did pretty good for a wet and slippery trail. It was well worth it with the stunning rock formations above us and an incredible waterfall to see.

I'd recommend good hiking shoes and plenty of water for this hike. You should hike this canyon just to see the beautiful waterfall. They say there's a second waterfall about 45 minutes after the first one, but most people only hike to the first one because it's the nicer waterfall.

Adventure in Southern Utah

Summer is here and life is busy... busy with work, busy with fun times.

Currently I don't have a camera to capture some of the incredible sights that I've seen.

Like a recent thunderstorm - a lovely sky with big dark clouds and an incredible red sunset over the lake. I love the colorful sky, and how pretty the clouds and sunlight play together . I'm very lucky to live where I live... because watching the summer sunset over my balcony makes me happy.

Check out this blog post by my friend. She wrote a great post documenting the day we went canyoneering. Go read about our epic adventure in South Central Utah.



It was such a blast! I want to do more slot canyons and canyoneering!



She took some good pictures!