Monday, May 26, 2008

If you want to live life...

...it's time you head to Southern Utah.

(warning: this post is long. Just my fair warning)

Trevor seems to have these "things" that just make him happy, that really just make him feel like he's "livin' life." I suppose we all have those things, it's just so easy to see Trevor's. It's totally in his face (which I love)...and...he usually goes on mini rants to me about how I could be living' life too if I tried out these joy-isms (sometimes I love a little less, but appreciate the thought). Thus, I've recently been on the look out for all of the things Trevor believes adds up to livin' life, so I can do just that. Live life. As a perk for him, when I figure out what these little joys are to him, I simply say..."Livin' life to Trevor is....(fill in the blank)." Trevor has many great suggestions, a few of them being....

Livin' life to Trevor is reading instead of watching TV.
Livin' life to Trevor is eating things you haven't tried before.
Livin' life to Trevor is driving with the windows down and no AC.
Livin' life to Trevor is getting outside to be with the wonders of nature.

It's that last "livin' life-ism" that took us to St. George, UT for my little time off between jobs. For those unaware or those aware, but have yet to behold it's beauty - portions of Southern Utah are natural wonders. I'm sure anyone that's visited Zion's, or Bryce Canyon, or Moab, would all share similar sentiments. So Trevor and I are taking this opportunity through our blogpost to encourage everyone that has the chance to go hike Angel's Landing, or the Subway, or Bryce Canyon or just drive between Zion's and Bryce to just do it. It's amazing. It's livin' life.

The following is a really, really long post, including A LOT of pictures of our time spent in southern Utah. Emjoy, we sure did!

Bryce Canyon National Park


I'm not really touching those rocks. This is the result of about 10 minutes of Trevor trying to tell me how to hold my arms so it looks like I'm touching these rocks. Turned out pretty well if I say so myself.

Zion National Park
Welcome to Angel's Landing. Many people are probably familiar with this hike. We've posted on it before. It's just really something you should do if ever in Zion. It's so sweet. Plus, it's funny to see first-timers when they climb over the first semi-scary camel's hump, think it's done, and then you point out the second - way taller, way skinnier - camels hump that we will be climbing. Just a dream. Ask Brandon and Mere.

Behind us is the 2nd camels hump we scaled over


A Few Other Activities
Of course we got some great R&R time in. How often do you have zero responsibilities because you're in between jobs??? You've got to take advantage. We went to the pool a day or two, watched a few of the NBA playoff games, did plenty of reading, and good eating. Mere and Brandon joined us for a couple of days, so we were able to play tennis as well. The last morning we were there we played golf. The picture of me happens to be on a hole that I got a real birdie - no mulligans....kind of. I call it a real birdie because I hit 4 legal shots in a row from tee-off to ball in the hole. Sure, that doesn't count the 6, and yes, I said 6 balls I hit beautifully into the water. I can't help it, I've got a slight slice.

One other special treat was our experience at "The Cactus Room," a little restaurant right outside of Virgin, UT. There's no way I can do this place justice over a blog. The slightly stale, old house smell, the waiter that stared at me AND Trevor a little too long, the waiter that was also our chef and took a solid hour cooking our meals, the gross tasting water, the weird Indian store attached to the restaurant with all "authentic" items...even the occasional Sponge Bob toy???. This is the kind of restaurant that's in movies, scary movies, where they end, if you get my point. But, as Trevor likes to say, we were livin' life!

A few photos that resulted from boredom at The Cactus Room.

I'm out.

ps. for those wanting to see photos of our Subway hike....stay tuned. That deserves a post of its own.

12 comments:

Russ Nelson said...

The pictures are freakin' amazing!!! I want to go down soooo bad.

Watch out Leslie cause when Trevor would give Eliot that "livin' life" bit he could get him to do just about anything. I'm just sayin' be careful.

You guys have truly inspired me and I will be talking to Katie about going hiking this week end.

Good luck with the new job!

Meredith said...

Amazing post! It was an unforgettable weekend and I'm glad I was apart of it!
-B
P.s. Antelope island soon???

Bridget and Derrik said...

Is that your first time to those parks??? I think I've only been a few times and I grew up about 30 minutes away, I think I took advantage because they were so close. You got some GREAT pic's, they are all gorgeous:)

The Winns said...

This was a wonderful post! The pictures were great. I would love to visit southern Utah for a little vacation. Can we leave the kids with you guys? :)

Unknown said...

My favorite pic for sure is the one where you are in the tunnel thing and you can see mostly rock and a little of you guys!!! heh heh

Unknown said...

On a more serious note, Congrats on your new job Lesley. That is great! I wish Bridget would switch jobs so we could go on vacation:) That's standard procedure right? A vacation then a new job!!

The Smith Family said...

Gorgeous pictures! Wow. That looks like a lot of fun! You and Trevor are lookin' slim and trim. All set for summer. I on the other hand, am looking rather round in the belly area... 21 weeks now! :)

Adrienne said...

Utterly profound. I have to show this post to Steve....he will love the "livin' life" mantra.

Love the pics. Can't wait to be there with my two favorite photographers to capture the cute little ones in their dresses for the wedding.

Adrienne said...

Utterly profound. I have to show this post to Steve....he will love the "livin' life" mantra.

Love the pics. Can't wait to be there with my two favorite photographers to capture the cute little ones in their dresses for the wedding.

bajork12 said...

Loved the post. I must admit I got a little choked up with it all. I know you didn't have time for all of them, so here are a few more I thought of that I'm sure Trevor would approve of:

If you want to live life...

-ride a horse instead of drive a car
-boots instead of shoes
-shoot a gun
-eat sushi
-watch your wife give birth
-hike the Y (just kidding... wanted to see if anyone was paying attention)

Steve

Ross said...

We're still up for the copper mine; if you want to live a real man's life, go visit a big hole.

The "All Out White Out," and "One Team, One Dream" shirts really made that trip happen.

Meredith said...

Great post Les. Very beautiful and informative. We still need to get a copy of all of these pictures. And I'm just dying for a post on the subway. I can give you the video footage if you need it.