Hiking Heaven

Early one morning my sister Katie and I decided to hike a trail above the Bountiful temple and watch the sunrise. It was a good hike and it was so great to have a good talk with Katie, who I consider to be one of my best friends. I love the outdoors and it always rejuvenates my spirits.

Can you see the top of the Bountiful temple?

A beautiful overlook of the whole valley

Another Friend Tied the Knot

Elise, one of my very best friends was married August 16, 2011. We have shares so many memories together. We started off on the same competitive soccer team in 9th grade and then we hung out all throughout high school. We have kept so close throughout the years and I love her so much!! We both served missions in Argentina which brought us a lot closer because we understand exactly the feelings that we felt as a missionary. We both love the Argentine people and culture.

The ceremony in the Bountiful temple was so beautiful, her grandpa was the sealer. Her husband Mike is such a humble, quiet stud that treats her so well. I was so grateful to be there with her the whole day. They are so happy and will create a great family together. Congrats Mike and Elise!!

Our good friend Stacey is on her mission in Nashville and we missed her greatly that night.

Grandma's Garden

So while I was on my mission my mom told me that she was renting a garden plot and was growing a garden. Then while I was in Jerusalem, she told me she was doing it again. When I thought of garden, I thought of maybe a couple squares and a couple vegetables. But her garden exceeded all my expectations!! She grows everything and lots of it!! Tomatoes, pepper, Kale, lettuce, green beans, carrots, potatoes, all kinds of herbs, onions, green onions, spinach, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and many other things.

The Gardener herself

My niece Kalia and I reaping the rewards

After we gardened we went and had a picnic with our little Bennet boy, I love his new tombstone!!

My New Goal

I have always wanted to do a half marathon, and I couldn't think of a better time to do it than right now. I better start training because it is on the 29th of October. WOW!!! I am so excited, go to the this website and check out the movie. I need to start planning out my costume to run 13 miles in!!

Please join me in this adventure, you will get hooked.

http://www.halloweenhalf.com/index.php

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo!!

So when you live somewhere for a while, you have to hit up the local zoo. So we DID!! It was one of the best zoos I have ever been to!! I loved it! They had so many animals and the atmosphere was so great. Some of my favorite animals were the monkeys, penguins, elephants, and zebras. I felt like a kid again and also was reminded of how awesome our God is. All these animals have totally different lives, but all are so beautiful in there own way and all know how to survive in there own way.

Of course I had to take a picture of the Zebra butts - they are so beautiful!!
These bears were so pretty and really entertaining.
They were drinking the nectar with there tongues. I thought I was smart, so after the nectar ran out I covered up the cup so the birds couldn't see there was nothing in it and I tried to get them to come on my arm again. One of them was close, and kept trying to look inside. When she finally got a good look inside and saw there was nothing she bit my finger and flew away. She knew I was tricking her!! I just laughed for a little while because I thought I was so cool and smart.

And last but not least. . . . . the elephant show. They put on an impromptu show for us. We loved it and I didn't know that elephants loved to swim so much.

The Saltiest body of water on earth. . . . can you taste it?

We had the opportunity to taste, feel, and float in the waters of the DEAD SEA!!

It was so interesting to float so much that it was hard to even get your feet under you. There were definitely parts of your body that stung really bad so most of us could only handle for about 15 minutes. But it was fun! It is 3 times more salty than the Great Salt Lake. It was so salty that if it got in your eyes it stung and if you licked your finger you could get your full intake of sodium for the week. After we dried off there was a salt layer on our skin. The water is really blue and pretty, and under the water the rocks have beautiful salt crystals on them. There were many people that rubbed the mud all over them to get softer skin, but the mud smelled like poop so I decided against it. But it was a great experience to partake of the salty waters of the DEAD SEA. Now I know why they call it the dead sea.

This is the cave where they found most of the Dead Sea scrolls. It is a near a town called Qumran that is on the northeast shore of the Dead Sea. They found all these scrolls by accident from about 1947-1956 when a shepherd went into the cave looking for a lost sheep and found bottles filled with ancient scrolls that were written by the Essenes in the 3rd century BC. There are many different caves around these parts, but this cave is where they found most of the scrolls.

Faces of the Holy Land

I just wanted to share a couple pictures that my friend Adam took while we have been here. There are so many different cultures and people here. These pictures give you a little taste of what we see everyday.