exploration time

we've tried to take full advantage of these weekends at the beginning of the semester when rich doesn't have to study too much. this weekend we took off to explore "little finland". rich discovered it while playing around on google earth one day (a favorite pastime for him). we were surprised we'd never heard of it since it's not too far away (southeast of mesquite)! i'm guessing because it's pretty remote and hard to get to, but polly pocket drove like a champ and what we found was well worth the 2 mph drive through the final wash and dirt road. i will be taking my dad here the next time he's in nevada so he can do these incredible and delicate rock formations justice. we didn't see a single person the entire time we were hiking around although we were surrounded by animals, muppets, and bug hotels...

sunset during our drive to camp

a little discovery at "whitney's pocket"
camped next to this sink hole, "devil's throat". luckily there was a fence around it and neither of us sleep walk!

our introduction to little finland

surfing

my nice table and chair

rich says it's a horse, i say it's a dragon

grouchy old muppet man?

bug hotels (my mom loves these)

sorry for the overload of pictures... we went a bit snap happy!

happy mother's day

to our amazing mothers! We love you!!!

utah

we took a road trip to utah last weekend to see friends and family, pick up our tandem bike (it's too beautiful in vegas right now to not be riding it around), make a run to ikea and eat some of our favorite food. we thought we would camp and do some hiking, but then realized it's still a bit snowy and cold there. thankfully we have generous friends and fam that let us crash on their floors each night. here are some pics.

with brooke at the byu MOA and a nice stack of books! we were also able to see the incredible Carl Bloch exhibt which was well worth the wait!

had lunch with annette and brooke at guru's in provo (forgot to get a pic with annette... we were too busy eating the yummiest sweet potato fries ever!).

citrus grill dinner with jackie, ryan, greg and bianca (and twin girls coming this summer)!! followed jackie and ryan home and slept on their awesome air mattress with jackie's amazing quilts.
saturday morning we had the best belgian waffles at bruges with the SLC girls. they were so nice to eat there with me even though there's only seating outside (it was freezing!). those waffles are so worth it.
next we took off to the ranch...

I took pictures,

while rich dug our bike out of the snow/ice.

drove back to provo through these beauties...

we met up with brett, beth, joe and jake for a fun day at the park.

performed some tricks. the tandem seems to be doing pretty well after a long winter...

this is rich's friend Joe. he just got back from his mission in italy. he still likes to have a companion...

saturday night we stayed with mandy, brian, jenny and mark. mandy made us the best cookies ever and mark showed rich his cool toys. we also got to see little brian and timmy. they are the cutest! sunday we drove home with tandem and new ikea furniture in tow. it was such a great weekend! how did we get so lucky to have such amazing friends and family?! we miss and love you all!

aloha

okay, i think this is the final hawaii post.  sorry for dragging it out, i just didn't want it to ever end.  so besides cliff jumping, hanging out on sunset beach, chilling in hammocks and trying to take cool black and white pictures, here's what we did:

explored pearl harbor

showed the boys how to use these guns...

 found pretty flowers

hiked really fast through these amazing trees (i could barely keep up because of my short legs compared to the rest of the group.. yep, that's my excuse). 

 spent a dollar on fish food to get some go-pro footage for our next documentary

 hiked to the famous treehouse rich and nate built back in 2007 in the hills behind byu-hawaii.  this was definitely a highlight of the trip for me- i've wanted to come here since rich told me about it when we first started dating. 

thanked rich for being so crazy and hauling all the equipment up the mountain and begged him to be a dentist in hawaii so we can live here.

read lots and made lovely faces for the camera

drove all over the island with our awesome tour guide nate and d.j. ang

swam through and jumped off pretty little waterfalls 

 

spent the day at my former workplace.. the polynesian cultural center

wore cool hats

 found our dream dinner bell

still enjoyed the last day of rain and wind thanks to this pretty site

cried a little when we had to go back to real life

did some fun snorkeling that rich took videos of that i'll have to post at some point- so i guess i'm not done.  haha.  we also ate really great food- pb and j sandwiches by day and thai food, mexican in haliewa, shrimp at romie's shack on the side of the road (yummy but i don't want to see their eyeballs next time), delicious crepe place in kailua, duke's on waikiki, and vietnamese in a grocery store by night.  well i think that's it.  it was an amazing trip and we loved hanging out with nate and angie all week. thanks guys! 

okay, back to real life.  :)