It's Done.

I’ve never been so glad for a break. This semester was ROUGH.  The good part is that I studied so much throughout the semester that there really was very little left to study for finals. But somehow, we found it and stopped only rarely for snack and sanity breaks.

Took a Differential Diagnosis exam, then played basketball and studied. Took an Anatomy 2 test, then played volleyball and studied. Took a Neuro test and rejoiced that I was done. Hallelujah. They all went well, all things considered. Brandi came over so we could watch a movie and go hot tubbing.

Thursday was terrible weather, but we had previously decided to take full advantage. Lizzy, Nazgul, and I had our end of semester cardio workout – everyone was sweating and nobody threw up.

Lizzy, Brandi, and I went fishing at Lake Mary and caught nothing, but it was nice to relax with my new pole and some homemade cookies.

After a short lunch break, we went to the boonies for a short hike to the Chocolate Falls, which were not actually falling. Despite the rain, I guess there’s only enough water for the falls to exist about two months out of the year. We thought we were getting the tail end, but we got the butt.

 

I told Lindsey I was going to take her on a real Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – style double date. We made pinewood derby cars out of vegetables and got ice cream. (Ours won, just an FYI.)

Brandi and I had planned to take a short trip around southern UT to visit some national parks and our good friend Thomas agreed to let us be co-signers on the annual pass he bought so we could get in for free. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive, so we thought we were gonna be out $100 until we arrived in Kanab at Gram’s house and her son Richard offered to let us use his. Praise.

Grams fed us a hearty meal and lulled us into a short nap before we went on a short local hike to the beehives. We only got lost a few times and enjoyed the red rock. We made it back just in time for dinner and watched Justice League.

Saturday we drove out to Zion’s for a full day of adventuring. Per the suggestion of Richard, we hiked up Angel’s Landing – which wasn’t bad until we got to the second chained area, where it’s a narrow path, slippery rock, bidirectional traffic, and 2,000ft sheer drops on either side of you. That was a no for me. (This time.)

 

Hike 2 was to the lower emerald pools (the upper ones were closed d/t flooding). We were hustling hard, but it was a nice time.

Then we found the Archaeology Hike, with “ruins” all along. In actuality, the trail was super run down and unclear (since finding the hike entrance is a challenge) and the ruins were just more areas of grass and rocks with plastic signs that said “there used to be a storage shed here”. Brandi was mad.

Hike #4 was the Canyon Overlook and my favorite hike. Pretty short, lots of climbing on stuff, nice and sunny at the end. But I was exhausted.

We drove home and met the family for a nice meal at the nicest restaurant in town, Houston’s. Then I entertained company and only said a few questionable things and almost killed everyone by accidentally starting the gas stove. Then I went to sleep.