In Which I Visit Another Canyon

So our friend Matt was down from Utah this last weekend, and even though it was conference weekend, we decided we needed to show him a good time. Nancy had to stay home for this one, unfortunately, but those of us who did go had an excellent time! We went to a canyon that's been on my list ever since I heard of it, though before I moved to Phoenix I never thought I'd actually get to it. It's called the Jug of Salome Creek, and it was awesome. It's a flowing water canyon with a single rappel that can be jumped, though all of us chickened out when that time came. The rappel was pretty sweet, though. It was down through a chute and the water really pushed on you. There were also several waterslides and swims. Observe the pictures:

Looking down canyon from the head of the canyon.

Classic Matt

Water slide!

Sarah coming down the water slide

Me sitting in a waterfall. I ended up backing up the water and it was quite a bit of pressure,
but I made it through. I now I know that you shouldn't sit in waterfalls!

Cool leaning rock

I told Dustin to look awesome. He did this.

This canyon was crawling with huge spiders.

I thought this picture was cool, but then Sarah insisted that I let her take the next one.

The rappel. You can do the jump from the end of the safety line that you can see on the top right.

Pulling the rope

Then the rope got a little stuck and I yanked on it and it came loose and I fell in. You can see Dustin laughing at me.

The hypothetical jump can be done from the rock just above and to the left (in this picture)
of the waterfall. Like I said, we all wimped out. Oh well.

The last swim

Looking back at the mouth of the canyon.

Cactus flowers!

The view on the hike back to the car. The road you can see across the valley is a previous section of the trail.

So, that's the canyon! Matt had a good time and so did everyone else. It's definitely one I'd be willing to make my way back to, and if there's enough water, I'd probably even try the jump! At any rate, that's about all I've got for the moment. This is Captain Danger out.

Spring Break

Last week was spring break (for me anyways, Cliff still has another week until his).  It went by way too fast and seemed way too short.  However, it was packed with fun activities, family, and friends. So that was good.

We started off with a Friday night ward temple night and social.  Then Mckell got into town to visit for the next few days and the adventures began.  On Saturday, we did Minnow Canyon for the second time.  It was so fun having 5 of us from our Utah canyon crew as well as some new friends.  The canyon was just as beautiful as the first time we did it and maybe even more fun.

The whole group

Then on Monday Cliff had to go back to school so Mckell, Sarah, and I went out for some adventures without him.  We met up with Sarah's coworkers for some rock climbing in Queen Creek Canyon.  With two of us pregnant, we didn't do anything too crazy but it was fun to get out and climb.

Mckell

Made it!

Me and Cailin on the wall

Then Tuesday, us girls headed to the Gilbert temple for a session together. 

Then Tuesday night I headed to the airport for a flight to Reno to visit my parents and pick up our new car.  I spent Wednesday visiting Chelsea who I hadn't seen in forever.  She cut and highlighted my hair which I had been considering for a long time but never had the courage.  I donated the ponytails and really love the results. 

Thursday, I spent the whole day with my mom shopping and hanging out.  Then Cliff flew in and joined us that night to spend some time with us all and then chauffeur me back to Phoenix Sunday.
Friday, Cliff and I went to lunch with Rachel then had dinner with the whole family including my grandparents.  Then on Saturday we spent the day hiking and enjoying the views of Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe.  It also happened to be the wedding reception of a boy from my home ward that night, so I got to see a lot of people there.  Sunday, we headed back to Phoenix which ended up taking 16 hours because of an accident and long delay (not to mention mention all the pee stops).

Our brand new car (well compared to our trusty old car, that is)