arch you glad you came.

Delicate Arch

     Over Memorial Day weekend, Jason and I wanted to take advantage of the 4-day break (we love taking road trips and getting out of the small town of Rexburg) so we decided to drive down to Cedar Hills, Utah to stay with his Aunt Kim. I had two midterms to take and two classes to go to before leaving for Utah. I was incredibly excited to leave my worries and stresses at home. After our 4 hour drive to Cedar Hills, it was nice to cuddle, watch Tangled and get some much needed sleep.

     On Saturday Jason and I went down to Salt Lake City to meet up with Jason’s mission friend and “best man," Chase. We were meeting him and his cousin, Ashley, for lunch at the mall. Jason and I went early so I could see the Conference Center for the LDS Church. I had never been there before and I really wanted to go when I found out there was a garden on the roof. The Conference Center was huge and beautiful and the garden was awesome.

     I was definitely ready for lunch when we met up with Chase and Ashley. We decided to go to Costa Vida, an amazing Mexican restaurant. The four of us were able to talk and get to know each other while eating lunch. I was really glad that Jason was able to see his good friend that he hadn’t seen in a while. After lunch, we all met up at Boondocks for a game of Mini Golf! I lost, but that’s okay. We really should’ve gone bowling . . . just kidding, but seriously that's my forte. From there, Chase and Ashley went home and Jason and I went to see Thor. Jason really liked it and I just thought it was okay. After our movie, we got together with our friends again for ice cream. I was really glad I was able to meet Chase and get to know him. He is really nice and very smart. I’m really happy he is going to be a part of our wedding.

A closer look at Delicate

     Sunday was...an adventure like none other, at least, for me it was. Jason and I got up really early to drive to Moab, Utah (about 3 hours away). We went to Arches National Park! We had our water, our sunscreen, hiking shorts, and we were ready to go. First, we went to Delicate Arch, the most well known one. It was a 3 mile hike there and back, but it sure seemed like a lot longer. If it weren’t for the wind, I probably would’ve died from the heat climbing up the mountain. Then again if it weren’t for the wind, I would have never been scared for my life about blowing over the edge. When we made it to the arch, it was completely worth the hike. It was beautiful— like nothing I had ever seen before. We had to ask at least 5 people to finally get the picture we wanted (we're picky).

     After our hike back down, we drove to Double Arch, the one seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This one only took 10 minutes to walk to, but it was just as amazing in its own way. Jason and I were able to climb up the side and sit under one of the arches. It was such a beautiful view of the desert. It was kind of scary when the wind started blowing pretty hard. Sitting there for about 7 minutes was good enough for me before I told Jason I was ready to get down. I had a lot of fun climbing up and down the rocks. I felt like a child on a jungle-gym. After both of these hikes and our trip to the gift shop, Jase and I were definitely ready to go back to Aunt Kim’s and SLEEP.

Double Arch

     On our way home, the adventure continued with an unexpected . . . something. On top of both of us being really tired, we also had a lot of distractions and confusions while on the road. When we made a wrong turn, we tried to quickly make a u-turn and took it too fast and ran straight into a road sign. This was my first car accident I had ever been in (as far as I can remember) so I was pretty shaken up and I definitely cried. Luckily for us, the way we hit the sign was right on the front license plate and the only major damage was to the windshield which shattered as much as it could with the safety glass. Man, was I thankful for that invention. We were able to drive away with no injuries and with the ability to drive safely through the large cracks on the windshield. Somehow we made it through strong winds, rain, and darkness. Even though this was a really scary time for me, I was still able to find things to be eternally grateful for. One thing was considering how fast we were going around that corner (about 65 mph) we could’ve easily flipped the car and been extremely hurt. The other thing was after Jason took a breather and calmed himself, he pulled over and made sure I was okay and comforted me. Whew! What a rough drive home. Jason assured me that it was just another part of the adventure. We were both so relieved to return to Cedar Hills and go to bed early.

     Because Monday was Memorial Day, there were no auto shops open. We also did not want to miss any school by waiting until Tuesday to get the windshield fixed, so we had to drive back to Rexburg very carefully. Overall, the weekend was great! We really had a wonderful time with a minor setback, of course.