The Speedy Ice Effect

New Years

2012-01-02T15:11:00.004-05:00

Spent New Years in Rochester with my best friends at Tilt, super fun!

Im back on the internet!

2011-12-28T12:59:00.005-05:00

My hard drive died right after thanksgiving so I wasnt able to post about it. I lost all my documents and pictures but luckily most of the pics were on facebook. I went to Norcal with Gabi and Chris ( my teammates) to Gabis moms house. It was super fun, heres a list of things I experienced for the first time on this trip:

I saw for the first time:

The Pacific
Palm trees
Almond trees
orange trees
lemon trees
starfish
surfers
kelp
sea lions
a wharf
Huge redwood trees
a miniature horse

Places I went to for the first time:

Salt Flats
Wendover
Reno
California

Places within california:

Paradise- where gabis mom lives
San Jose- to see the Sharks of course
San Francisco- is awesome
Santa Cruz- sweet beach town where gabis grandma lives

Pretty exciting stuff. We went with gabis sister to san fran and we stopped at Urban Outfitters to get matching mustache sunglasses which we all wore for the rest of the trip thus enhancing every picture we took....lol. We met up with Matt and his sister in the city and they showed us all around, then we crashed his family reunion dinner.

Pics:

Now for Christmas- I flew to Iowa City to my brothers house where I still am right now. I got a bunch of sweet stuff including CUSTOM OAKLEYS for skating :) My brother and his girlfriend got me a couple Rugrats shirts and a orange iguana hoodie from that old Nickelodeon show called legends of the hidden temple.

I got another mustache for Christmas haha!

This is Cooper, hes my nephew.

For new years ill be going to boston with Karen and hopefully ill be able to see some friends and my aunt Jane while im there.

Spring Semester Classes

2011-11-08T16:40:00.003-05:00

I just signed up for spring classes and after 3 YEARS im FINALLY taking classes for my major...Unfortunately I had no choice but to take 2 morning classes twice a week. I figured its better to get them out of the way now and miss morning practice while im still not competitive.

Here's my schedule in all its glory:

BIO: Global Environmental Issues: T, H 910-1030am
ENVST: Intro Env + Sustainability: T, H 1045am-1215
ENVST: Mandatory environmental major field trip to who knows where for 2 days in April.
HIST: American Civilization (online) The last of my stupid pointless gen ed requirements!!
Zumba: T, H 2-250 to make up for my missed morning practices... (yeah I get 2 credits for that lol)

(ENVST=environmental studies)

Yay interesting classes!

My Preciouses!

2011-11-07T20:26:00.004-05:00

I should show everyone some pics of my "lazy fat-ass nephew" Cooper. Hes my brothers adopted bearded dragon son. You can hardly tell though, looks just like him!

How cute!

Sitting on his salad bowl...

So noble!

And heres my kitty Maya on Halloween with her pumpkin!

Alright fine...

2011-11-06T23:28:00.004-05:00

Heres a new post! Id like to say i've been too busy to post but in reality i've just been lazy. So whats been happening with me you ask?

I RACED for the first time in over a year thats what! After 2 (well, 3) false starts I managed to stumble 500 meters in 49.2 seconds! Thanks to Donald Nelson for this vid.
It felt great to race again, I plan on doing these time trials at the oval every other week so I can stay motivated through my "trial season". I originally hadn't planned on racing till next year so as not to embarrass myself, but racing is the only reason I skate!

School wise, IM DONE WITH MY GED EDS AFTER 3 YEARS!!! I can finally move on to fun environmental studies classes. I feel like im super close to my degree even though in reality I probably still have 3 years.

What do I do for fun now?

I hang from weather balloons thats what!! Just kidding...Jerry Search put this together. Looks like fun though...

But really, I went camping a couple times last month which lead to some interesting experiences. The first time I went to Grand Titon National Park in Wyoming with Garrett. The first night we camped at Bear Lake in northern Utah, sky was clear and it was beautiful so we slept under the stars. Next day we drove to the park and it was super nice there, big trees, big mountains, good beer.
We were chatting with a park ranger and asked how the bear activity was. She told us theres been a lot, especially in the Shadow Mountain area where we were going to camp that night. We didnt think anything of it and later that day were on our way to the site when all the sudden we look at each other and both say "I have a bad feeling about this..". We got the same uneasy feeling at the same time about camping there because of the bears. Since we both felt liek something might happen that night we decided to drive out of wyoming back into Utah to Logan Canyon.
However, on the way out of Grand Titon, I said to Garrett, its like final destination, we were supposed to die tonight...not I bet a moose will walk in front of us and kill us. about 10 seconds after I said that a GIANT MOOSE with HUGE antlers walks out in front of us. I slam on the breaks and this thing is literally 3 feet in front of us and its PISSED. It starts to charge the car when it gets distracted by another car that came from the other direction. It seemed undecided on which car it disliked the most and then got fed up and went back into the forest.
Death averted...again. Or so I THOUGHT.
We were more than a little creeped out by the timing of the incidents and the incidents themselves, and yet the night was not over. About 5 minutes later these 2 cars come out from behind me riding my bumper and swerving. I think oh wow theyre drunk and I pull over to let them pass and they follow me to the side of the road. I get nervous and get back on the road, as do they. They continue to follow like before. Garrett suggests we lead them to a police station but the nearest one wasnt for at least an hour and we had no reception either. By some miracle about 20 minutes later when I pull over for the third time they pass me. We soon find a camp spot, relax and realise how lucky we were to still be alive! Now THATS a camping trip.

What blog post would be complete without one of my cakes?

Red velvet for Jamahl's 20th.

More cake, and skating too.

2011-07-15T14:55:00.004-05:00

I just realized I never posted a pic of the 4th of July cake..which even surprised me. It is a smores cake, Maria was my design consultant :) Chocolate butter cake with marshmallow frosting and gram crackers and hersheys on top. It was waayyyy better than a real smore.

Also the long track has been up about a week now and ive skated on it 2x. Feels little awkward but better than I expected. Jerry Search took this pic of me in the corner with my new super high long track form....lol

Another Cake

2011-06-17T12:11:00.005-05:00

This is the cake I made Mikey for his 2nd 19th birthday-

It was a chocolate butter cake covered in chocolate sour cream frosting with raspberry filling in and on top. It was the most amazing cake ever. Ive got a big idea for a 4th of July cake, it will remain a surprise till then! I would love to make more and I have a lot of ideas but ingredients and equipment are expensive, so if anyone wants me to make them a cake, Ill just charge you for ingredients/equip. Any size, shape, flavor, with anything on it. Itll be everything you've ever wished and hoped for. Maybe you're not convinced by the cakes ive made so far, but just wait till you see my 4th of July cake!

Cake

2011-05-16T11:20:00.004-05:00

This is the cake I made last night for Brittanys birthday today!! I made it all from scratch, no its not plastic haha. My first time rolling fondant. It was a little thick but still awesome. It was a chocolate butter cake with white almond frosting. I get to make another for Andreas birthday next week!

I didnt make a skydiving post or say anything about my birthday yet, so here it goes. I ended up jumping with Katy and Jerebelle, and Andrea, her mom, and KD were there watching. It was EPIC. Did a backflip out a plane at 13,000ft. No big deal. I decided to do it every year on my birthday I loved it so much. And I only have to do it once more tandem then I can fly solo! I have a video and pictures on a CD but my disc drive is broken so I can only post the pics we took on our phones. Later that day we went to see bridesmaids which was hilarious, I think everyone should go see it, and then Jun drove KD, Gabi and me in his new BMW hardtop convertible to a bar. My first legal drink was called a green swamp monster...dont ask me what was in it, I have no idea. But it was green, haha. I then played the best game of pool in my life. Good birthday :)

Im legit.

2011-04-21T16:11:00.002-05:00

I got an email today telling me my blog has been featured on Online Universities' Best Speedskating Blogs!
They have me a sweet badge I put on the right sidebar!! ---------------->
I feel special now. Thanks!

In other news, finals are in 2 weeks, then we officially start training again, then I go skydiving, then I possibly drive to Iowa to visit my brother. My parents are driving out too. Cant wait for a break!
Tomorrow morning I go in for an EMG where they stick my foot with needles to stimulate the muscle and test how well my nerves are healing. It will be sooo much funnn.....not.... BUT now I will never have to go through a recovery like this again because I got Sebra cutproof leggings from Cascade Speedskates!! Im pretty sure because of my injury they're now making it mandatory for all short trackers to wear one of these, not sure if its the whole suit or just the legs, but your welcome short trackers!! :D

Switching

2011-03-29T19:58:00.002-05:00

Ive decided to switch over to long track. It could be because the crash put me off, Maybe ive been more interested in LT for a while, maybe I think LT will be easier on my body especially after I recover from this injury. Maybe a mix of all those reasons? who knows. Its helped that everyone even when I was doing ST kept telling me I should switch because id be better at it, so maybe I will be. Well see. Im not sure how fast my leg will keep recovering, I can already do most things related to dryland. I can bike too. Just cant run and skating is a little awkward. The bottom of my foot is still numb but I still don't know if that will matter, as long as I regain the ability to move my toes soon... thats a problem.

Anyway Ill be training this year with the F.A.S.T long track team, we start up again May 2nd. I got my bike all tuned up and ready to go! Not looking forward to summer classes though... Im taking chem, which I thought would just be one class. But noooooo. I have to take a discussion which requires me to take a lecture and I have lab also, which has a lecture as well. BUT! before all this crap I have to take an online class to prep me for the chem. So I basically have no break in between spring and summer semesters. Awesomeee.

On a more fun note, Ive booked my skydiving spot, 4pm on my 21st birthday, may 5th!!!! Jerebelle, Andrea, and Katy are going with me so far. And yes, the reason im jumping out of a plane is because Mikey is driving me INSANE. Just kidding....were just bored out of our minds since theres no practice and theres nothing fun to do in Salt Lake if your under 21.

PS. Im getting a video and/or pictures of my free fall, so you all can see what you missed!!!

The arrival of the Captain.

2011-02-25T13:20:00.004-05:00

I got a guinnea pig yesterday!! His name is Captain Jean-Luc Picard. No pics yet since he keeps running around but hes all brown, he likes asparagus, and sleeping in my hoodie pouch.
Also a few weeks ago (yeah I kept forgetting to post this) I went shooting with some of the team. IT WAS AWESOME. New hobby for sure. I must say I was surprised at how powerful the gun was. Then the second shot, the shell hit me in the mouth HHAHA.

Ive decided instead of the birthday trip I was gonna do ill go skydiving with Jerebelle. So far its just us 2 since everyone else is lame. CANT WAIT.

Other that that theres nothin else goin on. Kinda wishing I could have some epic ice climbing or skiing pics up like I normally would this time of year :/

Keep a lookout and pass the word.

2011-02-13T14:16:00.002-05:00

Please, please reblog this, even if you don’t live in the area! This is my best friend’s sister, she’s been missing for three days (today is Feb 13 2011, she’s been missing since the 10th).
Name: Marion Chadwick
Height: 4 ft. 11 inches
Weight: about 115 lbs
Hair/Eyes: Brown hair brown eyes
She was last seen in Pittsford, New York, USA.
If you see her or have any information, please contact ( 1 603 305 9052 ).

Boston (part 2)

2011-01-21T19:38:00.001-05:00

Heres the rest of the Boston pics all conveniently located in an album! I didnt post it when I got back b/c I got strep. That was fun. I also got on the ice for the first time a couple days ago just to get a feel for what ill need to work on and what will give me trouble. Balance is an issue lol. I probably wont get back on the ice for a few more months.

Boston (part 1)

2011-01-04T23:16:00.006-05:00

Ive only been here 2 days but ive got a lot of pictures so ill post them now! This isnt all of them though, there are too many to post and im too lazy to make a slideshow....but maybe ill end up doing that next week for the Part 2 post...

Christmas/New years part 2

2010-12-31T10:23:00.009-05:00

It was a good christmas. My brother came home for a couple days, I wanted to get garbage plates but we didnt have the time. Thats ok though...theyre a little bit unhealthy...lol. We cooked a turkey for xmas dinner that didnt cook all the way the first time so we ended up having side dishes and desert and had the turkey the next day, haha!
My dad was afraid he wouldnt get maple sugar candy but I think everyone and their mother gave it to him, so hes set for the year.

My mom also got him this TV series on DVD called Danger UXB. Its really interesting, its about these "volunteers" for the Royal Engineers Unexploded Bomb division during WWII as they try to disarm these bombs around London.
As for me, I got a ton of chococat and hello kitty stuff, a nice jacket, some gift cards to American Eagle and Einsteins, a chinese character painting book, and...Ill just let the pictures do the talking.

Yup I was kinda spoiled this year.

Its been nice seeing all my friends again, I hung out with Meghan and Clarissa the other day and we went and got Korean food.
Last night I made kimbap and cupcakes with Karen, Wendy, Dennis, and Yuhang.

Karen made us bibimbap with the leftover kimbap ingredients.

Happy New Years Eve!

Christmas and New Years (Part 1)

2010-12-24T15:41:00.008-05:00

Im in ROC now! My flight on monday was delayed in JFK but no big deal. This lady there was with her toddler when the toddler ran up to me going for the iced tea i had sitting on the ground. I saw it coming so I picked it up pretended to drink it and ignored him. The mom came up and said: sorry, and thanks he was going for the drink.
Me: Thats ok, I saw it coming. I remember when I was like that way back when.
the mom: Yup hes very curious and sneaky this one...
Then she walked away. She came back up to me a minute later and said: "You know, you DO have this devious look about you...like you would be sneaky and run away given the chance... I guess you never grow out of it!"
This struck me as an interesting thing to say to a complete stranger. But apparently I look devious!

Anyway. Ive been getting acupuncture from Leslie, fun! He put needles all down my leg, on my back, and all over my foot.
Evidence of fun.

This cut didnt look like it hurt enough lets stick some needles in it. And throw on some salt while were at it. HAHA Im just kidding, Leslie is good at this.

Ive been seeing a lot of my friends but I mostly only have pics with karen, and one with Ash and one with me, Clarissa, Meghan and Karen. I went to get cupcakes with Meghan today at the cupcake shop in town and I forgot to take a pic! O well. We all had fun at Javas the other day and well do some more stuff after xmas.

So Ash works at starbucks now so we went in o visit her. I remembered this one pic of me and karen drinking starbucks way back in high school so we reenacted it :)

Before:

After:

Im also happy to see my kitty again!!

Isnt she cute?!

Ok shes not really evil....she likes hiding under the blanket.

And of course this is the first place I went when I got here.

And I went to the tea shop inside and had me a pot of blooming tea with some petits fours.

Also, I watched Senior National Championships last weekend. Even though it was sad since this was the first Sr Champs I qualified for (they didnt even send me my invite!!), It was very interesting being there to watch instead of skate...got a completely different perspective on racing. Landon decided he wanted to join the Sliced Skater Club and got cut by a skater in front of him in the thigh and chest...I freaked out of course. But he was ok, just needed stitches, he didnt cut anything except muscle. He got lucky. But ill never skate without a cutproof ever again. They came out with these new ones that are really comfortable and thinner and stronger than the old itchy yellow ones. All I got to say to all you skaters: Wear your cutproof. We dont want any new members in this exclusive club.

Im going to Boston on the 2nd with Karen, but ill make a post before then.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Update

2010-12-04T22:17:00.005-05:00

Mk. Ive been kinda lazy and there hasnt been anything going on.. But I guess so far Im walking better and I can do more exercises. Im spinning, doing some weights and lots of core. I almost have a 6 pack :) I lost 2 more lbs. Grand total weight loss since the accident=18 lbs. Once I get my strength back ill be a lean mean skating machine.

Im thinking about getting a hamster. I want a teddy bear hamster though and they dont seem to sell them in utah...Ill keep looking and if I have to go to wyoming to get one I will! Its name will be Lieutenant Booboo.

There are so many things I want to do now. Ive been planning my 21st birthday for a while now, its gonna be epic no matter what. Me and some teammates were thinking about carpooling to Vancouver and if that doesnt work out well go to Vegas.
Me and Jerebelle were just talking about skydiving and theres a place like half an hour from us that charges 190 per person, so if I have any money for it this summer were gonna get a little group together and SKYDIVE!!! Its on the TOP of my bucketlist. Which ive been thinking about more seriously since my accident. It would be a shame if I dont get to skydive before I die. Having an epic birthday/roadtrip/vacation like im planning for my 21st is also something I really want to do.
Its so weird. Ive been thinking about how horrible that crash could have been. The blade was only 2mm from cutting my artery and if it did I would be dead, theres no question. I was out on the ice for so long before they got me to the hospital.
Im insane for risking my life to accomplish my skating goals...but even after what happened I want to keep doing it. This makes it more important to me to be able to do some of these one in a lifetime things.

Ohh yeah thanksgiving. I was gonna make a post but forgot...lol. I spent thanksgiving with my teammates at Andreas parents house. My mom was there too. (Shes going back to Rochester on monday btw). It was super fun. We played a game where we all anonymously put a piece of paper in a bag with something we were thankful for, then we passed the bag around and everyone read a card out loud and we had to guess whos it was. So that was fun, and the food was amazing. Here are some pics.

Table #1

Table #2

Jerebelle & me

Jus chillin.

Andrea & KD

Mikey

News

2010-11-04T22:41:00.007-05:00

K so ive been lazy with the posting since theres not much going on, so I wait for it to build up. But I decided to make one just for Mrs. Bee. :)

Im getting a biomodulator to help with the pain and healing. This this is pretty amazing and it works on every kind of pain or physical ailment you could ever think of. Its super expensive, but thanks to my godfather who lent us the money for it I can get it soon!

Ive been going to the oval and spinning with one leg while resting the other on one of those big inflatable balls. Did 40 min the other day and a little core.

Jim got me some of these Boathouse Farms smoothies and I finally got around to trying one, it was berry. I really liked it! Theres 2 more in there, and I feel like ive tried the green one from this brand once and I hated it but this berry one is awesome.

My sucker fish Charles died today :( Hes been doing this thing lately where hed flip upside down on the surface and suck air and it was really weird. We all thought he was dead like 20 times before this. But this time it was for real...I guess he was sick after all. I got charles a few months ago from Nichole Miller when her tank broke and she needed a home for him. She told me to tell everyone that this fish was the secret to my skating season, so it was kinda symbolic when he died. At least Francois Louis (my beta who reluctantly shared the tank with him) is happy now.

I just started watching Alias which Nichole let me borrow on the portable DVD player she bought me, lol. Both of which are amazing. I was hooked from the first 5 minutes even though I was getting distracted by how cool the player was hahaha.

Gabi visited for halloween and left today. We had a party at KDs house. It was kinda weird since a lot of people were in Canada for the world cups but I guess everyone that mattered was there. I dressed as Nancy Kerrigan. Genius. I know. It was Mikeys idea lol. I won funniest costume award. My favorite was Brittanys lumberjack costume, it was so her!!

I drew these pics of my roommates Mikey and Jun a few weeks ago. This is really what they look like.

Also I might have wrote about this last year, but at nationals me gabi and andrea met this eccentric photographer on the plane and he wanted to shoot speedskaters. So we went over to his studio and got a free photoshoot! Finally got the pics. Theyre pretty epic. I look kinda chunky in these though, ive lost 16 lbs since then. 11 from the injury and 5 from workouts, haha! There are a lot so heres the link.

Thats all I can think of for now, good luck to my teammates in Cleveland for Am Cup 2!

Recovery

2010-10-10T11:40:00.011-05:00

Not drugged up this time I dont think. Heres what ive been doing...

Jen from Center state was staying with us for the USS board meeting this weekend and she washed my hair for me! :) It was getting real nasty. And yesterday my mom got lost for 4 hours so no one was home to make me lunch. Thats when I put up a status on facebook asking someone to help the hungry cripple which is pathetic and funny at the same time..lol. Simon came over with subway and saved me from starvation, thanks Simon!
KD and Andrea stopped by with a bunch of toys and I made playdoh replicas of Gumbi and Pokey.

Ahhh boredom.

I also made caricatures of Mikey and Jun which I dont have pics of but theyre pretty cool.
Ive been seeing this acupuncture lady thats been sticking needles in me and doing some sound and laser therapy on my leg, thats been interesting. Im also seeing Dr. Heiden. We havent started anything yet but im thinking this week ill be doing something. Cant wait to get on my feet again, im so sick of laying down. My legs are super restless, even the hurt one but I cant move it if I try. I got some meds for it since it was making it so I couldnt sleep, but they made me feel horrible.
I still cant feel the bottom of my foot but its tingling a lot, which is good. The tingling is starting to hurt a lot which is funny...the cut area doesnt hurt at all but my foot, the innocent bystander does...

Alsoooo... If you want to see the video of my crash, Tony Chung posted it on youtube. Be warned though, I hear its a little graphic.
(I cant get the link to work so copy paste this)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7YElndU8lI
I havent watched it yet though, Im gonna wait a little bit. So dont spoil the ending for me :P

Accident

2010-10-06T17:20:00.004-05:00

First off im on some pretty strong pain killers now so some of this might not make sense, haha.

As you may know I was in Milwaukee skating at Am Cup 1 this past weekend. I havent been skating very well ever since last season. So I didnt really want to skate it but I went anyway. I has some really good races and surprised myself. Not so much the 1500, I hate the 1500 sooo muchhh. But the 500 heat and the one 1000 I raced went way better than I expected. I did good enough in the 1000 heat to make the C final. The thing is I almost didnt skate the 1000 heat because I fell in the 500 final and got checked out for a concussion. They cleared me to keep skating though. Now I wish I did have one so I wouldnt have skated the 1000 final but what can I do. Anyway, What im pretty sure happened is that I was leading and a girl was trying to pass on the inside. Bumps me, I lost balance and took another girl with me into the "pads". (They may as well have not put any pads up the sucked so bad). The other girls blades were up when she fell and my leg went down on it. Cut me right behind and above the knee I believe. Havent been able to see it yet though. From what I remember I hit the pads and felt blood gushing from my leg and I screamed. I just lied there and tried to cover my head with my hands so I couldnt see my leg since I knew it was bad. There were swarms of people around me trying to stop the bleeding and I got really cold and was shivering a lot. When I got to the ER They cut all my clothes and my skinsuit off and covered me with heated blankets, I think my temperature was around 95 or 96. I didnt realize until then that I crashed with another skater, Katy Ralston. She was also brought to the ER because they thought she might have had neck or spinal injury, which turned out to be a concussion. So she was released and I went into surgery that night. They repaired 2 cut tendons, some muscle, the vein I cut which a couple millimeters deeper would have been an artery, and the worst part was when they told me I cut 95% of one of the nerves behind my knee. The dr said 18-28 months recovery because of that nerve. the bottom of my foot is numb and I cant move it in certain directions. He said I wouldnt skate again and id be lucky to walk withought a limp, but im not sure I believe him. I know of about 3 skaters whove had nerve damage that have recovered way sooner and are on the ice again.
So itll be a long recovery but I think ill recover. I have to give myself shots everyday to prevent clotting which really sucks. I can hardly get to the bathroom on crutches and it hurts the leg to sit upright so sitting on the toilet is another sucky experience. Then I sit on the couch all day. With nothing to do. So, visitors are welcome. hint hint. lol

FIRE!!!

2010-09-19T23:33:00.006-05:00

Go here for more awesome pics of the fire http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdumont/sets/72157624993362092/with/5006499983/?ref=nf

Im alive!

2010-08-12T16:00:00.005-05:00

Ive been lazy about posting but I have all day off today so I have no excuse now.
So Mike Kooreman is our coach now, he was our coach before Jun now hes back. His coaching style is a complete 360 from what Jun was like, I dont think any of us are used to the niceness yet, haha! We miss Jun no matter how strict he was. Mike is great too though. The other day we had to do 12x 200m low walks. after the 3rd one I was dead and when I got to my 9th one everyone else had already finished and left but Mike stayed there and even did the last one with me to make sure I finished it and didnt wuss out, LOL.

Being badass at practice.

What else....I went back home last month which was fun. Saw my friends, went to our camp in the ADKs, ate real maple syrup, drank real coffee, hung out at Wegmans, good stuff.

Went to the Aledphi for coffee and maple juleps lol

This is my first ever attempt at making a campfire by myself, not too shabby.

Clarissa and me!

Katy crashed in practice the other day and her face is all ice burned and she sprained her ankle which I felt compelled to take a picture of cuz it looks like a rainbow...lol

Gabi is moving back to Cali to go to school and Mikey will be Juns and my new roomie.

I have just experimented with dinner tonight, which is in the oven as I type. I think I just made this recipe up... Its broccoli (which I just learned you can cook in the microwave), cream of celery soup, milk, garlic salt, and pepper all mixed together in a bread pan topped with italian bread crumbs. Itll be done in a few min, I hope it tastes good!

My punishment for skipping a workout

2010-06-17T21:17:00.003-05:00

So Tuesday I decided to skip the afternoon ice session and go climb Mt. Olympus with the long track team. I needed a little change, I was getting sick of ice 2x a day, and it was so nice out. So I parked my car at the trailhead and we went for a hike. It was a good hike, im feeling great, relaxed, came back to the car and my window was smashed and my purse (which id hidden under a jacket) and my university parking pass were gone. In the purse was my favorite chococat wallet with all my cards (I dont carry cash anymore after the last time my wallet got stolen) and checkbook, my ipod (which I got for free so not too devastating, just annoying..) and my passport. Which sucks cuz now I have to go spend 100 bucks on a new one. I cancelled all my cards and the dude who stole it tried to spend 40 bucks at a laundromat and then get gas...weird... I was so pissed. If I ever catch who did it ill slit their throats with the glass they broke. Teach m to mess with me ever again... I dont care if growing up, their mom was a druggie and their dad beat them. Thats a personal issue..they need not make my life more complicated, I have enough crap to deal with.

Anyway....Im going home july 19-29!! yaaay. I look forward to hanging out with my friends (which I dont get to do here...), drinking good coffee (which does not exist here), and joining the RSST and the derby girls at some cobbs hill workouts!!

Here are the pictures from my awesome hiking day.

My Favorite Youtube Vids

2010-06-09T21:49:00.002-05:00

just have to show these to you...I almost died loling they were so funny!

First one is "dramatic cat"

Second is the sneezing baby panda...

Third is the stalking ninja cat!

Storm

2010-06-07T18:21:00.003-05:00

I was outside for a good hour last night watching the most amazing storm ever. It started with the most perfect anvil cloud ive ever seen hovering over the mountains, then some virga over the valley. Then the coolest brightest rainbows! There were 3 all at once, but my crappy cell camera didnt catch the 3rd one. Then the lightning started. All of this happened at once as the sun was setting, so there was an orange glow on the mountains.

Heres some video I took of the valley and the lightning.

That wasnt so bad...

2010-05-30T13:44:00.005-05:00

Ok, I survived the hard week. It was actually easier than I thought itd be. Either I overestimated it or I just became used to the pain, lol. We go on bike rides almost every saturday, and yesterday we rode Big Cottonwood Canyon. Its about 14 miles to the top, 4584 feet of vertical gain. As soon as I woke up and saw the evil black clouds of doom hovering over the mountains I knew it wasnt gonna be a good ride, haha. It was freezing outside. About a quarter of the way up it started raining on us, then soon after it sleeted then slowed. Im proud of myself though, I finished with the guys in about 1 hour and 25-30 minutes. Apparently Jae Su said whoever doesnt keep up will get attacked by wolves and bears, which is kinda funny....because Gabi, who was towards the back almost got attacked by a moose on the way up HAHA! Anyways, it was too cold and we were too tired to ride down so we piled our bikes into Eddys truck and rode down in Jae's van with the heat blasted. There were a couple insane ones who decided to ride down, it was the first time on this ride for one of them so he obviously didnt know any better, haha.

I just hope next week we dont do Little Cottonwood, dont let the name or distance deceive you. Its only 8 miles to the top but the elevation is 3472 feet, a 9.2% grade... ever heard of the Alp D' Huez climb in the Tour de France? I read that Little Cottonwood is pretty much the same as that but without the switchbacks...Snowbird and Alta ski resorts are at the top, about a mile apart. I remember last year, getting to Snowbird and almost passing out I was so dead. After a short break though, I did make it to Alta (which is at the top).

Bring on the easy week.

PS: My moms going to VT to visit my grandma, aunt and uncle. Kinda jealous, I havent seen them in a while and I love Burlington (especially Dobra Tea which has the best tea ever). But I think Ill be going home for a week in July sometime and to the ADKs, so I might get to visit then!

PPS: We might get our new coach this week, Im excited but not, because if the coach comes that means we have to stop training with the national team! Oh well, if its who I think it will be, well have an awesome coach.

New place, new pics!

2010-05-23T14:56:00.005-05:00

Me Gabi and Jun are all moved into our new townhouse! Its only 5 min from the oval and its really nice. Ill take some pics later and post them. Right now we have no furniture in the livingroom except a small Ikea coffee table and a tiny chair Gabi had, it looks kinda funny cuz the room is so big, haha. I want to fill it with cool retro stuff from garage sales and thrift shops, give it a coffee shop feel. Then I need to get a coffee maker to give it the coffee shop smell too :)

We just finished a medium training week, which is the hardest Ive ever experienced. Next week is a hard week...if there are no more posts after this one, assume the worst, lol.

A few weeks ago I went hiking in north salt lake with Nick, 4 hrs, i forget how many vert feet, but there were nice views of the city and the snow covered Uintas to the east.

About a week after that, Gabi, Mikey, Britt, Andrea and me went to a Bees game. They won and we took our tickets to Sonic to get FREE SLUSHIES! Yessss.

This is the Aerobar Andrea got me for my birthday, they sell these in Utah now!!

Update.

2010-05-13T14:14:00.006-05:00

Soooo its been kinda crazy lately. Ill list off the new unusual occurrences:

- I got a job at bath and body with Gabi
- Jun came back from korea
- Gabi me and Jun are in the process of looking for an apartment
- Jun is now the assistant national team coach
- We are still waiting to see who our new coach will be but we have a couple hunches...
- Since we dont have a coach yet we get to train with the national team!
- Since half our team (mainly the girls) are now on the national team along with our coach, training doesnt seem any different, lol
- Speaking of training we started up again a few days ago. We are in pain. We cant walk normally on stairs anymore. :P
- I went to Ikea a few weeks ago and got some really cool cacti.
- I like cherry cupcakes
- Were going for a bike ride saturday and im super pumped.
- Im making a mix 90's music CD as we speak.
- I just went to get my hair trimmed and she gave me this really cool braid:

- Jun has not once since hes been back "said" I was fat. But Im pretty sure thats what pinching my arm fat and making a sound of disgust means. But he hasnt SAID it!! lol.
- Today was our first day on the ice and Jae-su is very helpful and didnt make us feel bad about our skating at all. Jun on the other hand was amused and laughed at our pathetic failure the whole time. Hahaha!
- The Sharks are in the playoffs so that means whenever a game is on dont try to call me, I wont be able to hear you over the screaming and chaos Gabi will be creating.
- My parents sent me the old school nintendo!!!! I now feel complete. :D

AND LAST...

-THE BACKSTREET BOYS ARE COMING TO SALT LAKE JUNE 23RD!!!!!! Whos going with me?!

Earth Day

2010-04-22T11:52:00.001-05:00

Happy Earth Day everyone!! "Make sure you stick around and be on Earth today." ~Stephen Colbert

More Moab Pics...

2010-04-11T02:36:00.003-05:00

Hiking to the arch.

Climbing to the top of the arch.

Waiting to repel the arch.

still waiting...

Me standing on the edge of the arch ready to go!!! Look at all the little people down there...

Rockin out in Moab

2010-04-05T10:53:00.007-05:00

I went rock climbing this past weekend as part of a rock class I took through the U. It was soooo much fun! Never climbed anything like it in my life. They said climbing on sandstone would be different than the granite here in slc and now I believe them, lol. Its weird when you put all your weight on what you think is a good hold then it turns to sand right under your fingertips!

The first day we all got stuck in a traffic jam on the road to Moab because some guy going to the Jeep Safari also in Moab that weekend totaled his Jeep in the middle of the road somehow. We all got there late but that night we just went over basic skills so as not to kill each other the next day. Then we set up our tents in what looked like a beautiful weather. Clear skies, stars were out in force. We made a campfire and smores and a couple people brought guitars so we got some live music, it was fun. Then as soon as we went to bed the wind came in. It came in bursts and made it sound like the tent was gonna blow over. Super noisy that night so no one got any sleep.

Day 2 we climbed an area called Wall Street. It was SUPER fun. Got there early and climbed till about 3. I climbed the hardest route of my life there! Its the one in the picture with the overhang. As we all know, speedskaters do NOT have arm muscles. Also as we may all know, my arm muscles are worse than any speedskaters, therefore giving me negative arm muscles. Climbing an overhang requires arm muscles. Me+overhang= epic fail. LOL. Got some cool pictures trying to climb it though! One of my instructors totally killed it, he was doing splits and other crazy maneuvers and holding on in places where there was nothing to hold on to! Looked like he was hanging on by his fingernails at some points. Got back to camp, ate smores, went to bed early because it started raining on us (in the desert? what??!). We still got to listen to music though since the guys who brought their guitars were playing in their tents, haha. That night the wind was SUPER strong. even though we had our tents zipped and our rain flys up the wind would blow dirt through the tent onto us. I woke up at one point with my face completely covered in dirt and sand, it was all in my mouth and caked in my hair and in my sleeping bag! Every time a burst of wind would come through, we would have to hide our faces in the sleeping bags to keep from getting a face full. Dont think anyone got sleep that night, haha.

The last day we went and repelled Corona Arch, which is probably the most badass thing ive ever done in my life. Its about 140 feet tall. The craziest part about it was when you started at the top you would repel like on a normal rock wall, then suddenly the wall is gone and your out in the open with that view!! You could repel as fast or slow as you wanted, and what some of us thought was fun was to go super fast then completely stop right in the middle of the arch! It was like flying. What a rush!! I could do it all day! It was fun watching people repel from a bit of a distance because it looked like a spider coming down on a string.

This is ME REPELLING CORONA ARCH!!!!! so cool!

So that was my adventure. Got some souvenir sunburn to remember it by.

Wall Street.

This was taken at a weird angle, but you can see it better in the next pics, this wall is completely vertical!!
Also in this pic, my humungous skater butt hanging out the harness. Obviously spandex was not the right choice for this sport. The guys below me disagreed.

The overhang of death.

Setting up the ropes.

The canyon around the arches. Complete with cool railroad tracks!

The arch itself.

Bowtie Arch right next to Corona Arch.

Supplement to Earth Hour

2010-03-28T13:22:00.003-05:00

My career goal is to someday make people realize that global warming is basically human action that is speeding up a natural cycle in the earths global average temperatures. An ice age and a warming period will happen with or without us, and the ecosystems can adapt to these natural changes. They always have. However, at the rate we are speeding it up, the ecosystems can NOT adapt, and will die. My goal is to beat sense into those who are trying to convince people otherwise, because its all politics and money for them. What they dont seem to get is that it doesnt matter how much money you have when you and most everything else on the planet is DEAD.
Just realize most people who are trying to convince you that global warming isnt happening are not scientists, never studied meteorology or any earth science, and probably have degrees in econ or political science. Take for example the founder of the weather channel. No meteorology degree. He made a youtube video against global warming, however he didnt not include all the facts, did not cite graphs and data, and to prove his point, he only took bits and pieces of the whole picture. What bugs me is he also said theres no way we can have global warming now because the global average temperature is decreasing, and showed this graph that only covered the past 20 years or so. It is true that the average global temperature is decreasing at this moment. But take a look at this graph that actually includes over 4000 years of temperature patterns, and youll see why we are still in trouble:

Here is a graph compiled by actual climatologists. I believe this is accurate, however I wish I could find one that went back a few million years like the one my teacher showed us in class. It looked like this, so just pretend it goes back farther. :) Notice if you will the gradual, GRADUAL increases and decreases in average global temperature. The sharp increases as you can see are all happening around major volcanic eruptions. HOWEVER take a look at the most current increase. There are no eruptions to cause this. Its happening around the industrial revolution. There is nothing else that could be causing that increase except human industrial activity. If you can think of a different reason that doesn't include human activity please tell me so I may inform my professor and the rest of the scientific community. Say we never went through the industrial revolution. Around 1900 where all of the eruptions stopped, that decrease would have continued into a deeper ice age, then temperature would have gradually increased again.
Now, seeing as how short lived and shallow that last ice age was thanks to our industrialization, how small do you think our next one will be? As you can see on the graph, temperatures are dropping again, as they would in this natural cycle. But at the rate at which the earth is warming, the next cooling period will not last long or be very cool compared to past cooling periods, and the preceding warming period will be even warmer and will come fast, as did the last one. Therefore, we have a rapidly warming earth. The end.

Im done with my rant. If you still don't get it, please, comment back with your arguments and I will prove you wrong with science and facts. I have many reliable resources.

EARTH HOUR TONIGHT

2010-03-27T20:28:00.003-05:00

Dont forget to turn off your lights at 830 tonight! This is important.

Click here to see how cool this is.

Little buddy!

2010-03-20T20:02:00.004-05:00

My new betta fish!! It was an impulse decision to get him, on the way back home from running I thought itd be cool to have one so I swung by petco. He was the prettiest one there! Cant see it in this pic but hes electric blue with white fins that look like flames. Still deciding on the name. Suggestions?

And I couldn't resist posting this, this is Jun at 7am, ready to start practice!!

Nationals- WI

2010-03-08T23:58:00.006-05:00

Just got back today. Ive got mixed feelings about this meet. On one hand, I havent been skating well at all in practice or at the other am cup meets, and that was the best ive skated since before trials. I won the 500m and got 2nd in the 1000 and 1500. Looking at pictures, it looks like my form is better than it has been since the beginning of the season. On the other hand, I know that I can skate better, because I did at desert classic before trials. So even though I know I havent been training at my best or training hard enough so that I could reach my own expectations im still disappointed with the results. Marty talked to me about this middle of the road deal, if your only half in you have to be satisfied with whatever results you get, if you cant accept it then youll be frustrated and unhappy and thats not a good place to be. So all in or all out are the better choices. For next season I would like to be all in, although having full time school on the side doesnt help at all. 13 credit hours plus 6-8hrs of skating a day do not mix. Well see how things go...
Anyway I fell in the 1500m superfinal which lost me the possible 1st place overall. I wouldnt have had to worry about winning the superfinal if I had won the 1000, but I didnt pass up when I should have. Looking back on these races ill say next season ill definitely be paying more attention to strategy.

PS Gabi met a photographer on the plane that wanted to shoot us so her Andrea and me all went over to his studio and got a free photoshoot in our skates! He said hed send us the pics in a couple weeks. Ill post them when they come.

Jerry Search took this, I think its my 500. My first meet not wearing glasses, I look so mean without them, lol.

Annnd the traditional photobooth at the airport pics.

This is the most ridiculous picture ever, mostly because of Morgan, LOL.

Me and Jun as he pretends not to know me.

Gabi and me on the plane.

Morgan.

we couldnt rent any vans so we had to get 2 little cars, we fit 5 of us plus baggage in a honda civic, this is what that looked like. Mikey is buried on the right.

Our pink rejects relay team (all of us that werent on the pink ladies team, which was made up of 4 of the faster girls on our team)

Mikey was our alternate since we didnt have a 4th person...in case you dont know you have to have 4 people on a relay so we really were rejects. (you cant have guys on the team either, his title was just honorary, lol)

my 1500 silver.

This is Jun wherever we go. He sleeps 24/7. If I werent in front of him getting on the plane to prop him up he wouldnt have made it to his seat, LOL.

skiing and ice climbing

2010-03-04T16:21:00.010-05:00

I have a bunch of pics to post from the past few weeks but I havent had any free time till now so here it goes. A few weeks ago...ok im not gonna lie it was way more than a few weeks it was back on the 14th, I went skiing with Garrett and a couple of his friends at the bird and took some crazy cool pics. Way too much powder for my GS skis though, the mountain pretty much pwnd me. Twisted my knee pretty bad and couldnt walk for a day but surprisingly it completely healed in only 2 days.

The clouds at the same level as the trail!

Ice Climbing II class in Ouray, CO.

Carpooled with a classmate. The drive was about 6 hours but we had the most interesting and random conversations so it seemed shorter. Went from religion to chocolate to drugs to southpark episodes, lol. Stayed in cool little cabins in town, I bunked up with 2 others. The first morning we climbed it was 11 degrees out. The next day it was a little warmer but not by much. After climbing and dinner at this awesome mexican place with monster nachos we went to the hot springs. Water was about 108 degrees :) Getting in and out was the hard part, it was still in the teens outside. My hair froze on the way back to the cabin, haha. There was a climb I did that day, hardest route ive ever done. It was completely vertical and had a little "cave" near the top that required some navigation to get around. On the way up I fell and dropped an ice pick, so my instructor, being the badass/insane crazy person he is, climbed it back up to me without being attached to a rope half the time, no big deal.
He eventually knotted sketchily onto my rope kindof...but I dont think it would have held him if he fell, haha. Hes a pro.
We were mock lead climbing that day and its good I was still attached to a top rope cuz I ran out of ice screws (the things you put into the ice to keep you from falling to your death if your not attached to a top rope) before the top, that would have sucked, lol. So on the way down I remembered the "cave" below me and the instructor reminded me to stay to the right of it while repelling so I didnt fall into it, and naturally I slipped and fell into it headfirst, haha. But it was basically just an indent in the ice/rock so it was shallow.

Nate the crazy instructor.

See the cave at the top? Thats what I fell into, haha.

Chocolate ice climbing sculptures at Mouses Chocolate.

The very first ice screw ive ever placed!

Ninja garb.

Downtown Ouray

The fire we made one night.

The almost demise of US Speedskating

2010-02-08T21:51:00.009-05:00

This is overdue, but the power at the hotel was out. I shall explain:

The American Cup 3 in VA this past weekend was an experience. Mostly because it didnt happen. It was saturday morning and blizzard came in and dumped 2.5 feet of snow, which Virginia is not used to. We were warming up on the ice when we heard a loud noise. (Luckily) after a while someone noticed a support beam holding the roof up was no longer straight. It was brought to the attention of the officials and they put 2 and 2 together and got everyone off the ice and told everyone in the locker rooms to pack and get out because the roof was collapsing.
By this time the beam was twisted and bent at a 90 degree angle. We quickly got our skates off but as we were packing, we could all hear rumbling and creaking noises, part because of the stampede of people trying to get out, partly because of the roof. It was super scary.
Meanwhile, Jun is just sitting there sharpening skates in the corner like nothings happening.
His sister comes in and tries to tell him to get going, hes like ok let me finish.
She leaves, and most of the people in the room are gone. Im like JUN its ok, you can stop sharpening now. We need you alive, ok?? And he finally comes to his senses and packs out, hahaha. Crazy dude. Putting our blades over his life...
So we all leave and meet at the hotel. Only an hour or two later, the building is in ruins. Can you imagine if no one noticed the beam? All of Americas elite speed skaters except the Olympic team (which is in Vancouver now) would be dead or injured. The end of US Speedskating. Crazy to think about.
In case your wondering, the meet was cancelled and I know were lucky to be alive, but we all spent craploads of money for entry fees, airfare, food, gas, and hotel, uuugh. At least it was kind of a vacation...
Till the power in our hotel went out. All the guests except me and some of my teammates left the hotel, so we had it all to ourselves. We made the best of that by sitting in the dark in the hot tub till it got cold, then we played hide n seek in a pitch black empty creepy hotel, scariest thing ive ever done.

In the end we decided that everyone at the meet tied for first place, except Adam who is number 2, so we could all go home happy. The end.

Here are some pics Kelsey Schiel (skater from MI) took after the rink collapsed. So intense.

It started like this...

And ended like this.

This is around where the coaches and judges were standing.

And here are the traditional airport boredom photobooth pics.

Random pics I took:

Heres our favorite kiwi rockin the new look.

The blizzard outside my hotel window.

when your powers combine..i am..CAPTAIN PLANNEEEET!

Mustard sauce anyone? (engrish in VA)

My creation...IT LIVES!!!

2010-01-29T20:24:00.006-05:00

Take a gander at this masterpiece, the first...thing...ive ever made with needles and yarn!

Good karma: Check.

2010-01-28T17:14:00.002-05:00

Im so proud of myself I had to blog about it... I just saved a puppy!! I found her wondering the hood and I returned her to her house. Yay me.

PS im also learning how to knit today. Wish me luck.

air?

2010-01-23T15:12:00.004-05:00

Most of you know we get super bad inversions here in Salt Lake. Last week was the worst one ive EVER seen. I couldnt see even the outline of the mountains, the most obvious things out here! Hope this air doesnt take years off my life... If it does, I BLAME YOU, READER WHO DRIVES AN SUV!!!! >: (

Its not snow, not a wind storm, its POLLUTION! *gasp*
Its times like this I wish I lived up in Park City...

Back in the desert

2010-01-10T00:37:00.005-05:00

Im back in SLC after a 2 week break (although I actually started this break a week before I left) back in NY. A much needed mental/physical break it was. It was awesome seeing all my friends again and sleeping in and eating junk like the old days. Aside from 1 spinning class I went to, I did absolutely nothing for 3 weeks. I definitely felt it my first practice this morning. It was horrible I thought I was gonna die! Its a combination of the being out of shape and the altitude. I figure in 2 or 3 weeks ill be back where I left off. If your a skater and wondering what Jun is having us do lately and what I came back to, this morning we did a warmup relay, 3 laps skulling/3 laps normal skating x3, then 2x 100 lap relays 4 person teams 1.5 laps, 5 lap cooldown. From what I hear this was an easy day LOL easy, thats funny. I guess thats because today he left out the 27 lappers which he would normally have us do in addition.

Anyway. The trip back. So my flight from roc to detroit was supposed to leave around 3pm. The plane to take us to detroit was stuck in detroit for some reason, weather maybe, and got there 3 hours later. This didnt worry me since I had a long layover in Detroit anyway and would still make the connection to SLC if I ran. But, over the intercom the pilot informs us that the paperwork has expired and it would be a "short moment" before we take off. So 25-30 min goes by. We move a little, he come on again. As you can see we need to be de-iced so itll be a "short moment" before we get on our way. 20 minutes goes by. I realize now that theres no way Ill make it. I get to detroit and were sitting on the plane waiting to get off. Captain comes on, sorry folks we need to wait until we get a jet bridge driver over here so we can de board. 10-15 more minutes go by. Im super pissed by this time because there are no more flights out to slc until the next morning and im a poor college student/ unsponsored athlete which means I cant get a hotel room. Im not expecting any vouchers or anything since airlines love to pull the weather card and deny responsibility for everything. I go to the desk and without even asking they rebook me for the first flight out, give me 2 food vouchers, a hotel voucher, plus moved me up to FIRST CLASS. Now THATS customer service.

First class was the most amazing thing ever. When I got on, they took our coats and offered us drinks other than the bottled water that was already in our seats. There was so much room in the seat that I was all sprawled out and there was still room to spare. When we took off they served a breakfast of cheerios, milk, yogurt, a bagel, and a bowl of cut melon, strawberries, blueberries and oranges. Its definitely the way to fly!!

First class. The seats were so big I couldnt even get the whole thing in the picture.

The thing I miss most about the east coast...TIM HORTONS.

My kitty Maya! She sits on the sink and waits for me to turn on the water so she can play with it and get a drink, HAHAHA.

Maya again.

I went to the pet store to look at the hamsters and they had these!!! LOL robo-hamsters...hahaha.

Went to a good korean place and ordered all the good stuff, bulgogi, kimchi jjigae (due to the lack of budae jjigae which I love), and bibimbap. Out of this picture are korean pancakes which are amazing. mmm

Me and my 3 best friends <3

The chocolate banana heart cake Meghan made me!

@ Javas

Cool Javas sign that only speaks the truth.

mmm Javas.

Bored on the Plane

2009-12-23T18:59:00.009-05:00

Cool story...I get to the SLC airport and im standing there waiting to board. I look to the guy standing next to me as he does the same and we both are shocked! Turns out it was one of my high school friends Henry Bowen who I did stage crew with!! Small world... I said hey we should try to switch seats so we can sit next to each other. So he gets on first and im looking for my seat and find that our seats are already next to eachother! How weird is that? Anyway, it was a 5 hour trip to Cincinnati and another 2 to ROC so we got bored. What happens when I get bored on the plane? Thats right, I make good use of photo booth on my Macbook. Photo booth + old friend + 7 hours= craziness. And lots of photos...lol

YEAAAHHHH!!! (lol this is my favorite...)

The guy in the backround kinda looks like Dr. Kutner from House, doesnt he?

This was hilarious... Henry fell asleep with his mouth open so I filled it with a bunch of little pieces of paper! When he woke up he spit it all out and it was all stuck to his gum!! HAHAHAHA!!!

FINALLY

2009-12-17T22:05:00.001-05:00

Going home on Sunday! Whoop whoop! I plan to not do any short track and eat lots of cookies and sleep in. Maybe do some long track in Lake Placid and get some quality skiing done. :)

Camping in Kamas

2009-12-08T02:07:00.006-05:00

So at the beginning of the semester, I signed up for a backpack snowshoe class, not knowing what the weather conditions would be like. The trip was this past weekend, by the way. The day before we leave, I get an email from my instructor saying there wouldnt be enough snow to use snowshoes. So im a little disappointed since I wanted more winter camping experience. Little did I know I would get all the winter experience I expected plus more...The weather forecast predicted very cold conditions for the Kamas area in the Uinta mountains where we would be. So im thinking since the forecasts are usually off, maybe 20 degrees? I also figured id be ok with my 20 degree sleeping bag (Northface Cats Meow, love it most of the time) since I like sleeping on the cool side, plus id have a couple layers of clothing. NOPE!

So heres how the trip went.

We get to the area and im expecting a fairly moderate 3-4 mile hike the first day, then find a place to set up camp. Turns out the hike to the camping spot, which the instructors had already planned out, was only a mile away, lol. So we get there after a horribly easy 30 minute hike down a dirt road. I look at the campsite, which was way more developed than id expected. It had a yurt with a fireplace and already cut firewood, an outdoor fire pit, and a wide open area to set up tents in. I was thinking, ok...so this wont really be camping, but hanging out outside for a while...this sucks.
We set up our tents and went on a day hike for about 4 miles since we arrived so early. Thats when the cold set in and it started to get miserable. We got back and immediately started a fire around 3pm. It must have been about 5 degrees out and dropping. It took me a good 20-25 minutes to get my water to a semi-boiling point to make hot cocoa, which I have never appreciated more in my LIFE. It was about 6 when I decided to make dinner (we were all still huddled around the fire, too cold to leave it as we might get frostbite) and as it got colder it took about 30 minutes to bring water to a partial boil, if that. So I made dinner and quickly ran back to the fire so I didnt die.
We all sat at the fire shivering until about 2 in the morning because we were all too cold to make the transition to the tents and/or afraid/unwilling to leave the nice warm fire. So there I was, -3 degrees out, in my tent, in my sleeping bag, with a water bottle of semi-boiling water, huddled under 3 jackets, 2 pairs of under armor pants, 2 pairs of socks, gloves, a hat, and shirt covering the exposed area of my face not covered by the sleeping bag, colder than ive ever been in my life, and unable to sleep because I was shivering too much and my toes were numb and maybe a little bit frostbitten. I Manage to sleep about 30 minutes and wake up to find that the hot bottle in my sleeping bag went cold on me!
The next morning I realize my contacts, which I had taken out, had froze. Yay now I cant see anything. All of us were too cold and miserable to make breakfast so we packed and got the heck outta there first thing. I was cold for a good day after that. :P The single most disappointing part of the trip was the fact that it was cloudy all night and we couldnt see the stars. That is my absolute favorite part of camping. Where else are you going to see every star, astroid, planet, and galaxy in the universe at night? Even with it being so freezing cold, it would have made it worth it for me if the stars were out.
As miserable as the trip was, a good thing I can take from that are little things I learned from my classmates on how to stay warm in those conditions so the next trip wont be miserable. Guess its good to have a bad experience once in a while. :)

Guess what gourmet dinner im making? Thats right. Ramen. Mmmm.

My nice warm comfy tent...not!

Im having so much fun!

Frozen beaver dam!

These pines reminded me of the ADKs!

Thanksgiving at Andreas house

2009-11-28T23:42:00.006-05:00

Every speedskater and their brother was at gabi and jordans house for thanksgiving so 9 of us had an alternative party at Andreas house. It was Andrea, her brother, her dog Meritage, Fergie, Ansis, Mikey, Britt, Rob, and me. It was super fun, the first time for all of us cooking on our own, which is what we toasted to. The food turned out amazing. I made stuffing from scratch in the crockpot which turned out to be the best ive ever had. From the time we got out of practice at 12 to 6 when we ate, Britt and me were cooking the stuffing, sweet potato fries, salad, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, you name it we cooked it...Fergie cooked up a nice juicy turkey and he and Andrea made 3 different pies. Here are some pics...

Andrea was taking pics and got this one just as I attempted to break my diet and missed my mouth completely...guess ill have to learn how to eat junk food again...

Fergies first time eating unsweetened chocolate...I warned him...

making stuffing

sweet potato fries

mmm our first turkey

Ansis walked in front of the camera mid burp as this was being taken , HAHAHA

Pie!

Dinner

Andrea, Ansis, Fergie, Britt, me, Mikey, Rob

Fergie the cleaning lady

Mikey, Ansis, and Meritage in a turkey coma on the floor...LOL

Overdue chocolate review

2009-11-14T23:06:00.004-05:00

I havent posted any food reviews lately, and I just got this mini Chocolove bar, 55% cocoa with cherries and almonds. It was amazing. Eat this chocolate. It was shiny with little hearts on each individual square, perfect texture, melts in your mouth, mini size, 99 cents and easy to eat when your not hungry. Good stuff.

Halloween part 2/Am cup 2

2009-11-08T17:59:00.002-05:00

Neither one was very good, for Halloween I went to see couples retreat with Gabi and Jun then we got some candy and watched the world series. I hate baseball but it was fun to route for the Yankees while Jun was completely for the Philies and was about to kill me, HAHA.

As for am cup 2, just finished racing this afternoon. It was possibly the worst meet ive raced ever. I lost almost every race, Jun was suspended from this meet for supposedly organising a team skate in the last am cup which he didnt do, so he couldnt be inside the building although he did come he just sat outside and sharpened blades, and also some other stressful things went down. Its times like this that make me absolutely hate skating. Never thought id say that, I used to love it. Now, not so much. I loved it when there was no stress and it was all fun. I improved so much more back when I was having fun. There were no problems focusing on what I needed to work on because I didnt have to worry about teammate issues, friend issues, or school issues.There was no pressure because everyone was so encouraging and laid back it was hard to ever feel bad about a race or practice. Now im the head case I never thought id be and skating is just a horribly frustrating mess. Hope it gets better.

Halloween part 1

2009-10-30T11:43:00.004-05:00

Weve already had our halloween party because we had some Australians/New Zealanders training with us that are leaving today for the World cup, and we wanted them to have the full halloween experience! Well probably do something again for tomorrow. I went dressed as a Candy raver (its a raver who dresses in neon colors, glow sticks, and an insane amount of bead bracelets that they share :)

Andrea makes a GREAT witch!

ME!

Group pics

THIS was the BEST costume ever. Mikey not only DRESSED like Jimmy (natl team asst coach) but he ACTED and TALKED like him too! It was super funny. Jimmys got this way of walking that he nailed. What made it perfect was mikey didnt even know what jimmy was wearing that day! He fooled a lot of people that night.

Snowing in North Salt Lake

2009-10-27T12:03:00.003-05:00

First legit snow of the season! Early ski season please?

American cup/Backpacking Lake Powell

2009-10-25T20:13:00.001-05:00

Ive been putting off this post FOREVER so here it is finally. Am cup 1 was in Saratoga NY which was not too bad of a drive for my sister inlaw Anne and my brothers friend Geff. Im glad they came!! Loved having a support crew and Geff took tons of pictures. My brother ditched me to go to Germany for Oktoberfest, which is ok cuz I totally would have done the same thing lol. I skated horribly, probably the worst ive ever skated. Got dead last. But it was fun being back in NY, I got to see my friends again (Meghantron treated me to lunch at the best deli everrr!!) and visit my grandmas camp in the Adirondacks. I havent been there in a few years at least. I sure do miss the trees in NY...Utah is pretty but im just not a canyon/desert person.

Speaking of canyons and deserts..I took a backpacking class thu the U in the Lake Powell area. I assumed since it said LAKE powell I would be in a wooded area near a lake. NOPE! it was in the desert and we were hiking through canyons for 3 days. It was super fun though. The instructors we had are the climbing instructors who teach rock and ice climbing and were filling in for the normal instructor. Apparently the map the instructor gave our instructors didnt work since the canyons have changed since it was made..We all got lost at least 3 times, lol. On all of the occasions where we got lost, in order to get out of the canyon we were in we had to use technical rock climbing and scrambling skills so we were VERY lucky we had the climbing instructors. It was funny, they were like um yeah sorry guys.. we were told we wouldnt need ropes or climbing equipment so we didnt bring it..and you all have 40 lb packs on...and were going to have to get everyone over that cliff without rope, lol. We ended up making a shuttle, with a train of people on the rock wall holding eachother up while passing up the packs. It was interesting. Especially this one area of rock we had to get across that had a deep pool of water under it. Soft landing maybe? Well I love rock climbing so I had alot of fun, Ive always wanted to learn how to free climb without rope. OH I also got to walk on quicksand for the first time!!

I have a slideshow of some of the pics, which ill have to post separately cuz blogger is stupid. The slideshow is in the previous post. My carpool group went to 7-11 n i got coffee in a domo-kun cup and a SROOPWAFFEL!! whoda thunk 7-11 would have those things...thats what the coffee pic is about. Theres another pic of a noticeable set of fang marks on my hip..that was a HUGE spider bit i got, must have been in my sleeping bag. Lucky it wasnt a black widow, Ive seen them around here...

Heres some pics I took in NY

Me and Clarissa!

Lily and Mc Dreamy, lol

Ahhh my camp...good ol NY with trees and water...

back of the camp

The Rochester group at Am cup

2009-10-25T20:11:00.001-05:00

Dream

2009-09-23T11:16:00.003-05:00

So I had a dream last night, I was at a very very small short track rink with no pads, where there were long trackers from around the world skating. As I was watching I noticed my stuffed animals were around me and I found a live baby fox with them!!! It was the CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD.
It was a red fox, but it was as cute as this one:

Just thought id share the cuteness with everyone :) (Does anyone interpret dreams?? This was a weird one.)

Shoutout

2009-09-18T22:02:00.003-05:00

Remember Shannon, my roomie from freshman year? Well I have something to say to her mom, Mrs. Bee. I MISS YOUR COOKIES AND MUFFINS!! They were sooo delicious. I was just talking to Shannon and we were talking about the good ol days when you'd send her cookies and id sit there and eat them all. Hahaha!! Just thought Id share that with you.

Ps. If you ever feel like sending me your top secret muffin recipe, thatd be cool. :)

Trials

2009-09-09T10:45:00.003-05:00

Didnt do so hot yesterday in the 9 lap time trial. I got 18th putting me outside the top 16 so that means im done skating for the week. Now im stuck in Marquette watching the top 16 skate. Which is ok I guess, I get to watch and learn. But Im disappointed in myself because I know I could have skated better. My time was 1:39 and if Id skated around the time I did at the Desert Classic a few weeks ago, 1:37.4, I would have made it. I know ive only been skating 4 years, this is my first trials and I should just enjoy being here. And I would enjoy it, if I knew I skated my best. Even if after skating my best I still didnt make top 16, but I cant help but feel like I didnt skate to my potential. Maybe I was too nervous, maybe I didnt prepare well enough or eat the right things before the race, I dont know. But I guess ill just have to work on it and wait for my next chance, heres to the next 4 years!

Ps: id like to add how much it means to me that so many of you (family, distant family, people I wish were family, haha) have sent me emails and cards wishing me luck, its awesome to have that kind of support. Some of my family even sent me checks to help with travel expenses while im here at trials! Just wanted to thank you for being behind me, and I wont let you all down in 4 years you can be sure of that! :)

Dinner

2009-08-29T15:53:00.003-05:00

I made one of my favorite korean foods the other night, Bibimbap!! It was no joke...the best ive ever had...even better than at the korean restaurants around here. All 2 of them. Haha. for those of you who dont know what it is: Heres the Wiki on bibimbap.

~~~5 days till I leave for Trials!!!~~~

Ramen eating contest

2009-08-23T16:17:00.004-05:00

Fun story, thursday night I had a ramen eating contest with Simon Cho. Everyone thought I was crazy for taking on an asian in a ramen eating contest, and I lost...but only by a few mouthfuls! I put up a good fight. Together we ate about 13 packs of ramen, and it wasnt the tiny top ramen packages, it was these monster packs of korean ramen. I was full for the entirety of the next day. Ill tell you, after that I NEVER wanted to see smell or hear about ramen again. Think maybe the ramen had something to do with how fast I skated saturday? haha.

All 15 packs of ramen we made...

Note how Jonnys making weird faces in every picture hes in...

This is my lead on the first bowl!

Heres us about to blow chunks simultaneously, haha

Never wana see food again...

Happiest moment of my LIFE

2009-08-22T18:42:00.005-05:00

I QUALIFIED FOR OLYMPIC TRIALS TODAAAAAY!!!!!! I skated a 1:37.4 in the 1000m at the Desert Classic here in SLC, and to qualify I needed a 1:38.0! My previous best time was a 1:39.1, so Im thinking I did pretty well. Ive never worked so hard for something in my life, I almost died skating that 9 lap time trial but it was soooo worth it. Ive never cried out of happiness before, but this was for sure one of the happiest moments of my life. After I finished I heard some teammates yelling way to go liz! and I looked at the time and FREAKED OUT. People probably thought I was crazy when I got off the ice, I ran up to Jun and gave him a big hug, hes the best coach ever.

Side note, we all stress Jun out a lot and frustrate him regularly. He puts so much time into us and maintaining our blades, last weekend he even turned down his weekend vacation with Jimmy to Vegas that he already paid for because he thought we needed him at saturday practice. 2 days ago, he even spent the night at the Oval in his office sharpening and bending blades. So we all got together and bought him a gift certificate to get a hot stone massage!!

Anyway, this means Ill be going to marquette MI in about 2 weeks to compete in the 9 lap TT. If I make top 16, then Ill get to compete in the races, but to make it out of the TT ill have to try like ive never tried before and be super lucky that day. But Im Irish so I should have no problem. :)

This is a card I wrote all my long term goals on, and until today, ive never been able to cross one out. It felt good.

This past week

2009-08-02T18:48:00.005-05:00

This weekend wasnt very exciting, especially compared to last weekend. But heres what went on:

- We did jumps on thursday that made my shins so sore Jun made me get off the ice friday morning because I could hardly skate

- That night I went in for a nice relaxing massage and got trigger point instead, and im sure people down the street could hear me scream. The whole time im thinking "Ive never done a workout that hurt this bad, WHY SHOULD THE MASSAGE HURT WORSE THAN THE WORKOUTS!!?"

- Sat morning we had to be on the ice even earlier at 650am to do 9 lap and 4 lap time trials that went horribly for me, im thinking partly because of the shins and also from being exhausted and weak from the past week, even though it was only a 6 week (note its on a 4-9.9 scale). Andrea somehow decided she was gonna go ahead and get a 2 second PB in a practice TT...no idea where that energy came from but thats cool.

- Sat I decided I needed a sundae so I went to Coldstone and got a chocolate sundae with peanut butter, hot fudge, and MMs. Then I went out and ran it all off, no harm done :) Highlight of the week.

- Next week is a 4.0 week YAY

- Ive been eating pasta and pbj everyday (except for the day when Anthony cooks) because I dont know how/am usually too tired/lazy to cook. So if anyone has FAST and EASY and CHEAP recipe ideas lemme know!

- I noticed I now have over 10,000 views. Who are you people?! I dont have THAT many relatives and friends! But im flattered. Really. Its nice to know my life is so entertaining to so many ive never met, lol!

My own recipe...

2009-07-26T19:07:00.005-05:00

Try Lizs exploding flaming crumbly cake today!!
Heres the story.
I went to play paintball with some skaters, horrible idea. It was very painful! But Anthonys buying me a sundae for playing more than one game, haha. I got some nice welts on my head, butt, arm and leg. Here are some of my battle wounds:

Then, I went to make this amazing chocolate butter cake ive been planning ALL WEEK. The batter is perfect. It smells amazing. Then, I open the oven door to check on it, it had exploded all over the oven, then caught fire! Im like wow for real?? This is really gonna happen right now?? So im thinking. How do I put out a fire in the oven? I blow on it, swat it with the oven mit, didnt work. im like well, I know water in an oven might be a not so great idea but here goes. I sprinkled some water in there and POOF there goes my visibility. I got the cakes the hell outta there and spent a good half hour scraping the mess off the sides and top of the cake pan and in the oven, but there is good news! the cakes are still edible and DELICIOUS. So im like oh I can just put these here on the cooling rack. Then it tipped over and stuck to the pan while other parts of it proceeded to stay on the cooling rack...theres goes my cake. But even though I can no longer stack and frost it, it still tastes amazing. So im gonna put it in a plastic bag in chunks and call it chocolate crumble. mmm. Meanwhile, Anthony is calling Nick and Terri to "get back to the house, NOW." because he didnt trust I had the situation under control. So now I guess im on kitchen probation according to Anthony, and he will explain that when he gets home. Oops...

PS I just finished scooping the remnants of the cake into a plastic bag...the thing is, its probably some of the best chocolate cake ive ever tasted :)

Heres some chocolate banana bread I successfully made yesterday

new place

2009-07-23T21:27:00.004-05:00

So I finally have internet on my own computer! That means more regular posts. I moved in with some other people on my team in a house in north salt lake, Anthony, Nick, and Terri (who sometimes records our practices and takes really cool pictures of other things) and next month Brittany will move in too! Love my room, its bigger than my last one and its downstairs where its nice n cool when its 100 out. like every day. Practice is the same, 8 hour days at the oval, mon-sat. Besides the occasional usually once a month field study I have no life outside skating. I pretty much just come home eat and sleep, haha. BUT! this weekend I plan on making an amazing cake. I was warming up today by making cookies, but I forgot I was at a higher altitude so I burned the bottoms. This is good though, ill know for the cake. Just so you all know Im not actually eating all this, the cookies I actually had to make for nick and terri cuz I lost a bet, lol. Ive lost 4 lbs since I started that diet, Jun wants me to lose 4 more. Also, the reason I had time to make cookies today was because I didnt go to practice this morning. I was just so incredibly beat up and exhausted from so many hard weeks in a row. I woke up, got dressed, and sat there for like 10 minutes fighting with myself debating wether I should actually go or not. I ultimately decided I would just suck in practice if I went like I have the past week and went back to bed. I think it was a wise decision, I might not have made it through the 2nd workout today if I hadnt skipped the first one. I guess I did pretty well, Jun gave me a pat on the back instead of a whack, haha!

Heres some pics from last sundays weather balloon launch.
(Thats me with the balloon!)

The sounding (data) from the balloon. Red is temp, blue is dew point, where they meet is a cloud.

MAKI!

2009-06-21T15:03:00.009-05:00

I GOT A NEW BIKE!!!! Its a Trek triple 1.5, super nice. LIME GREEN. And I even got them to customize the handle tape to match :) I walked into the bike shop, and it was the first bike I saw, love at first sight. Before I went to the bike shop, I was struggling to come up with a name for my future bike, but once I saw it Maki popped into my head and it fit perfectly. I dont know why, theres no good reason to call it Maki, maybe I was hungry. But it looks like a Maki right?

So I havent been posting partly because I still dont have internet, partly because of my practice schedule, and partly because im not conscious in my free time. Heres what my day is like now: wake up 545am, eat, skate, dryland, eat, sleep, ice, dryland, eat, go to bed at 830. Yup. Exciting life. Most of the time I dont even choose to take a nap, ill get back from morning practice and suddenly ill wake up and itll be time to go to practice again! On one day last week I was at the Oval for a total 8 hours. I think it was a 9.9 week. Jun rates the volume of each training week, supposedly its on a scale from 1-10 but so far weve seen 6.5-9.9. Mostly 9.9. Why not 10 you ask? I have no idea. My theory is that in korean training philosophy you cant have a 10 week because you can NEVER train hard enough. Cant wait to go back to Rochester for some r&r.

Theres a dietitian at the Oval, Ted. Hes given us all tailored diet plans. According to Jimmy and Jun Im fat and need to stop eating. (lol) Jun put it this way: "you need to find a boyfriend, fall in love, have him break up with you so youll be so upset youll stop eating!" Apparently thats what happens when girls get dumped in korea. So we all had body fat tests done, and to everyones surprise I had the lowest body fat at 14%. You should have seen the looks on Jun and Jimmys faces, haha! It was great. Heres the good part, this is Jimmy accepting the fact that im not fat: "You look fat...but youre not...huh.." HAHA.

Anyway, my diet is set up so I can lose 5 lbs of fat, so when I take the body fat test again the goal is to go down by about 2%. Before I was eating 3000-3500 calories a day, and now im eating 3050-3300, so no big deal. I have to eat low calorie bread, no cheese, no stuffed pasta, lasagna, sugar, more veggies and fruit etc. The good thing is I can drink as much chocolate milk as I want!! O a cool thing I found out from the nutrition analysis is exactly how much milk I drink. I consumed 2957mg of calcium in one day, 7.7 cups, when the recommended amount for me was 3.5c or 1000mg, lol.

Heres some korean food Jimmy made, mmm.

PS I quit my mascot Job, I couldnt take it anymore. lol.

Meteorology Field Study

2009-05-20T12:43:00.008-05:00

Im doing a lake breeze field study this summer, and we got thru the first day easy! We set up some weather stations and launched a weather balloon, my first balloon launch ever! Ps I got a job as the mascot for Red Robin...haha...

This is the sounding (data) we got from the launch, the blue line is temp and the red is dew point, they are decreasing with altitude. The wind speed/direction is marked by barbs on the side, wasnt windy at all.

The Kestrel, tells dew point, temp, wind speed, pressure, altitude, and relative humidity!

Hang gliders

Life

2009-05-09T15:49:00.008-05:00

So alot has happened since my last post but I dont have internet now so ill smush everything into this post. Here goes:

- I moved out of the dorms into a house with some other skaters and my coach near the oval

My new room, complete with giant leaf canopy courtesy of IKEA. Your jealous.

- I dont have internet
- On my birthday, I went out for korean food and bubbletea! Got a heart rate monitor, an rei gift certificate, and a Sigg filled with dark chocolate and peanut MMs!

Bubbletea!

Korenglish menu..mmm "dumprings"!

- Practice has been a b*tch, im so sore all the time that sitting on the toilet is (again) NOT an option most of the time... itll pay off next season, thats what I tell myself :)
- SCHOOL IS FINALLY OVER.
- Last sunday I climbed Mt Olympus (elev. 9500ft, 4500 ft gain) with Garrett and our friend Rachel. When we reached the top we saw a storm crusin across the valley. We got below the snow line before it hit us, but we were on a rock face and the trail we were on was a stream. Nice. We flew down that Mtn like no other with lightning above our heads, got drenched, but also got some nice pics and a couple videos!

Chillin on the couch rock.

We made Rachel carry all our stuff, shes training to be a mtn guide in CO!

Rain dance!

Massive storm

- Im trying to get a job at Ben & Jerrys
- That job is more important now than ever...because SOMEONE STOLE MY CANNONDALE R600 THIS MORNING. Yes. Someone went into the bike storage room and cut the lock on my bike, and apparently everyone elses too. Im extremely upset, that bike was my baby, I even named it, "B3" (check the old post about b3 with pics). I went and ate a whole container of ben & jerrys. It was the first big thing I ever bought with my own money. Well I paid for half and my parents paid for half as a christmas present, but still alot of money, I pretty much emptied my savings for that bike...Id say what id do to this thief if I ever found out who it was, but my plan is so graphic, violent, twisted, and horrifying id probably get arrested for (you pick..murder/torture/violation of human rights etc)...
- To top off my morning I got locked out of the house after everyone left to go bike riding.

Timpanogos trailhead, still too snowy to climb :(

Backpacking the Canyonlands Natl Park

2009-04-20T20:54:00.005-05:00

Yes it was a class (3 days) and yes I got 2 credits for backpacking. Only in Utah. :) It was sick, its just outside of Moab in southern Utah, which is pretty much the world center for rock climbing. I wish I had a digital camera (my birthdays on may 5th hint hint), my phone died before I could get some pics of the hike, but I did manage to get some of the ride through Moab. Actually I did get 2 pictures of the campsite and a desert flower but those pics mysteriously disappeared from my phone....maybe Navajo spirits are responsible...after all that whole area was occupied by at handful of different indian peoples in ancient times, and we passed ancient ruins along the hike that proved it.
Its amazing anyone lived there, it was very desert like and mountainous at the same time, red rock, sand, cacti, big horn sheep, giant rabbits that are the size of goats, cougers. There were 10 people int he class including 3 Navy seals, who were hilarious. They made for some awesome campfire stories. Or flashlight stories since we werent allowed to have fires in the area. It really interesting hearing what really goes on overseas, its like wow, so thats what really happens. Its like the news we get on TV doesnt cover anything.

In part of the hike the 2nd day, the instructors make us hike about 2 miles on our own and set us off in intervals to experience solitude, and wed meet up at a certain location down this river we were following. I got sick of the river and decided to take a short cut through a desert area and look for some lizards, which I found plenty of but had no luck catching. When we all met up again, one of the Navy guys said he found me and was following me for a good 20 minutes to make sure I didnt get attacked by cougers, HAHAH!!! Wow. It was weird I didnt notice he was there at all since it was so quiet. I wouldnt want to be that guys enemy, he could have sniped me if he wanted to. But then again they do that for a living so they should be good at it.
Also I learned a lot about backpacking....like remember to pack everything. Especially sunglasses, contact solution, and a light (which I found out would be nice to have when needing to pee in the middle of the night). All of which I forgot. Also I learned that in a desert, the water will be muddy, and a pump is a better choice over water tablets to purify water, because otherwise the water you drink will be muddy, have debris in it, and taste like a combination dirt, salt, and various animals. Maybe using tablets and a filter would have been a good idea, since cows roamed freely in the area and they liked to leave giant plops everywhere. Including near the water. Lessons learned the hard way.
But it was definitely an awesome trip. We hiked in and out of some canyons, through these amazing rock formations, saw some interesting plants. I even got to eat berries from a juniper tree! They didnt taste good.

Here are the pics I took going through Moab.

Newspaper rock is a 2000 year history of the people who lived there, created in the BC-early AD period. Its cool because there are contributions from all sorts of tribes.

haha! they labeled the hole in the rock...

Here is the muddy water I was drinking, collected from the stream at our campsite. First note the cool biker dude on the bottle. Second, realize that the bottle is translucent. Third, recall how normally you could see through water in a bottle, and here you cant. Made me realize how I take clean drinking water for granted...

Fundaymonday!

2009-04-07T23:40:00.006-05:00

So this week, monday was the funday. I woke up to THE most beautiful day. Sunny, 65, clear skies, NO INVERSION! I went and put together some kites, one is a cobra and the other a hummingbird! Then Shannon and I had a picnick with nutella sandwiches, watermelon, sunchips, and sparkling juice. Then I went for a hike with Garrett out in the Utina mts. Its still too early to climb Mt Timpanogos but we were determined to get as high and close to it as we could get without snowshoes and crampons! Tons of pictures. I made a slideshow, but it ruined what quality the pics had, so ill just make a really long pic post! Get your scrolling finger ready...

Elk!!

I found this bone, it was the same size as a human arm bone...creeped us out since we were in mountain lion territory...

Mt Timpanogos. My favorite picture.

see? its not that big...

The road

My awesome speedskater butt. (the snow had to be about 5 feet there...)

Heres the mountain we climbed...haha just kidding...

Great views from up there

The snow was cold but it was 65 out!

Annd then we buried ourselves...

Ill add that today I went on an amazing bike ride with some teammates in North Salt Lake. It was so pretty, but I forgot to wear sunscreen....

I got bad sunburn during the ride, its worse on my arms. I wish I had some aloe..

Awesome day!

Funday

2009-03-30T17:25:00.005-05:00

So I hereby dub yesterday to be Funday. It was the best day ever! Usually sundays in slc are boring, everythings closed. But not on Funday! Garrett took me to this church, it was actually pretty fun and ive never said that about a church before. There was a band playing when we walked in and they had huge screens up with the lyrics, there were 2 drum sets an electric base a violin a guitar and some singers. Cool! Then we went out to this waffle place for breakfast mmmm. Then I went up to Herber Valley near park city where he lives and we drove up this sketchy little road up the side of a mountain with amazing views, but we had to turn back because we couldn't see the road anymore, haha. Then we went snorkeling in the Homestead Crater which is a hot springs in a volcanic crater cave, the only one like it in the world!! Its about 70 feet deep and the water refreshes itself every 4 hours or so so it was ok to drink, and it tasted pretty good because of all the minerals in it! The walls inside were cool because you could see more rock forming, the mineral water splashes on the walls and the minerals get stuck in little hair like formations on the rocks and harden in time. There was a cloud in the crater when we went because it was snowing so heres a clear pic.

Then we went to Park City (by this time a huge snowstorm had blown in) and ate some good pizza and got carmel apples (my first carmel apple ever!!), went into a bookstore, found the outdoor section and planned a bunch of hikes for the summer. #1 on the list is Mt. Timpanogos, elevation 11,749 ft

I think its the prettiest mountain in the Salt Lake area, its got a really long ridge and two peaks, legend says it took the shape of an indian woman who froze to death on the top.

Speaking of freezing, this storm was going crazy. The freeway that goes from Park City to Salt Lake through the mountains is the most dangerous road in the US. The radar was broken so there was no data on this huge storm. So we were looking at the road conditions and web cams online, they put up the flashing lights requiring everyone driving to have 4 wheel drive or chains and you couldn't even see the roads. There were at least 2 semis that flipped or crashed. It kinda reminded me of Ice Road Truckers. So I stayed over at Garretts, I didn't feel like dying last night, haha. Then we started a fire and had some hot cocoa. Awesome day!

That storm was still going on this morning, were getting another one tonight and it will storm until saturday!! You know what this means. Im going skiing sunday.

This is the village around the crater, it was settled by Swedish people so all the houses and buildings were pretty cool looking, almost like a little Switzerland with the mountains in the back!

Hot spring crater!

Theres a fence around the top opening so this guy doesnt fall 50 feet into the water!

Hes always taking pictures when im taking pictures, lol

Earth Hour

2009-03-28T20:20:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone will be/is/did doing/do this today! from 830-930 turn your lights OFF. If you don't know why go here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/earthhour/2009/

I want people to know that this is not just a bunch of treehugger BS. Ive heard already from many people that "nobody does this" I feel stupid sitting in the dark" "This wont really help anything". Actually it does help. It DOES send a message, it DOES save a little energy, and it DEFINITELY cuts back on light pollution, if only for an hour. So go outside and enjoy the stars while you can see them! Go play scrabble or cards by candlelight! Tell ghost stories! From my sister in law, I even heard they're having candlelight cocktail parties in NYC! Heres proof that im not lying.

Sydney:

Toronto:

NYC:

Amazing, isnt it? All it took was a little global awareness...

Nationals

2009-03-28T14:45:00.008-05:00

Yeah so after nationals I didn't write forever because were on our 1 month break from training till April 13th. Thats when I realized I have no life and have nothing exciting to write about! haha. I guess there are a couple things I could write... like the other night I went to my friends marimba/xylophone performance which was awesome. And this cocoa place Andrew Love told me about Cocoa Cafe is where I have been living since skating ended! I swear they put crack in the cocoa or something. Its so thick its like hot fudge, or as Andrew put it "Its like a chocolate bar committed suicide in a cup." Ohhhh sooo goooodddd.

Anyway here are the nationals pics. I got 5 medals, 2nd in the 500 and 1000m, 3rd in the 1500m and 1500m superfinal, and 4th in the team relay. I got 2nd overall :)

Andrea and me dukin it out in the corner.

Jun (coach) sharpened all our skated the night before and lined them all up we thought it was cute so Gabi took a picture, haha.

We ate ALOT of Jimmy Johns.

We went to this korean/chinese place for dinner.

And now..the 500m final. It was intense. After consistently getting 3rd there was no way I was letting this one go. I started in the middle, got passed, passed back, got dropped in the last lap but found a burst of energy and made a very sketchy pass in the last corner. The girl in front of me had her hand down pivoting and I skated right through her. I was lucky I didn't get a DQ but id rather have gotten disqualified then get 3rd again. It worked!

2nd place! BOOyaah.

Practice

2009-03-07T23:38:00.005-05:00

Some pics Terri took during practice the other day! Shes an awesome photographer.

All the girls: me, Andrea, Vicky, Emily, Morgan, Gabi, KD

My failed attempt to make a serious face.

Second attempt didnt go so well either! haha

Vicky getting ready for her closeup!

Yun-Jae and Travis, they have so much lean they may as well just lay down and take a nap while theyre skating!

Chris ponders on the pads...

The funniest pic of Boudreau you'll EVER see!!!!

Jonathan has a model moment.

Ahhhh college...

2009-03-02T13:00:00.003-05:00

Ok so last night I got to bed around 12 (it was movie night at Gabis). I fell asleep before I hit the pillow I was so tired. I usually pass out at 8:30. At 3am, I woke up (kind of) to this extremely loud buzzing and flashing lights. My first thought was "Shannon! turn off the alarm!" Then I thought..."Why are the lights flickering on and off? They must be broken. Why are the lights making so much noise??" 10 minutes pass as I try to figure out what it is after I try to sleep through it. We finally realize its the fire alarm in our room, so we run outside past a ton of smoke, no shoes or jacket, into 30 degree weather. We were the last ones out, haha!! When we get outside im realizing im running over broken glass from beer bottles, courtesy of the assholes who set off the alarm. Turns out they took the fire extinguisher and emptied it all in the lounge area in our dorm, thats what set the alarm off. I was SUPER pissed. We waited outside for half an hour freezing our asses off. The whole time I was thinking of ways to punish those little *#@$&*! if I ever found out who they were. They're just lucky I didn't have practice the next morning or I would have hunted them down then and there. Haha. Ha.

More Ice Climbing Pics

2009-02-23T21:00:00.003-05:00

Courtesy of my climbing buddy Erin. More to come?

1st climb of the day

Schoolhouse

Setting up at schoolhouse.

Climbing at the schoolhouse area.

Me! It doesnt look very badass since its taken from below, but im actually climbing a vertical wall if it makes it any better!

Group at schoolhouse.

The stream is yellow because of the mines in town.

Me and Isaac.

Me, Erin, James.

Ouray Ice Park, CO

2009-02-22T20:41:00.006-05:00

I got to cross ice climbing in Colorado off my bucketlist this weekend!!! Ouray Ice Park was sick. A bunch of people in my group were taking pictures but I wont be able to post them till later this week. I did get some pics on my phone though.
Ouray is a little tiny mining town that lives for ice climbing. Its about 6 hours away from Salt Lake, its probably the coolest little town next to Lake Placid. The night sky was so clear it looked fake. Looking at the stars was like looking at the daytime sky with little black specks, I saw 3 shooting stars! So cool. So heres how it went:

Thursday:

Left SLC, carpooled with a classmate (yes, this was for a class and I got 2 credits for it!) we got talking about Paragliding and Snow Kiting (where a kite pull you on skis) which are apparently very popular things in SLC. You bet ill get into them! We get to Ouray and check in with our instructors. We stayed in cabins in groups of 4.

Friday:

We wake up at 6am and get to the ice park to set up some routes. It was about 17 degrees out, clear skies, perfect day to climb! We learned the basics, how to repel (climb down from the top), climbing techniques, tying into the rope, making anchors (tying the ropes into trees at the top of the cliff) and different knots and technical stuff like that. We climbed on some different routs for about 6 hours, most of the routes we climbed were around 70 feet high and the ratings were WI3-4 for those who know the rating system or feel like looking it up. After climbing we went into "town" and found this awesome little coffee and chocolate shop called Mouse Chocolates. They had the most amazing hot cocoa. Or maybe it was just amazing after spending all day climbing frozen waterfalls.

Setting up the anchors at the top.

Ice!

Saturday:

Wake up at 6 again, a little warmer at 23 or so. Still clear blue skies and perfect weather! We climbed in more difficult areas, Schoolhouse and South Park. (these are different areas in the ice park). My favorite was Schoolhouse, the cliffs were really tall I got about 2 climbs in there. The second time I fell and got some nasty bruises on my knees, yay for being tied into a rope and having a belayer to save your life! I was trying to compare it to rock climbing but its really different. Having crampons and ice axes youd think would make it easier but the axes and crampons sometimes slip or the ice gives out under them, which is what happened when I fell. In rock climbing you have grips on rocks but here the tools are the only things you have to hold you there! We hiked to south park, but all the routs were taken by other climbers so we had a test on making anchors and self and pre equalized systems (how the ropes are tied in at the top) and other fun rope related stuff. I passed :).

Wohoo! Fun in the happening.

Later, we decided it would be a good Idea to take off our 6 layers of clothes, get into our swim suits and do some polar bear. JUST KIDDING!! We soaked in the hot spring they have in Ouray! 106 degrees. It was sooooo nice. I could see more shooting stars sitting in the spring which was cool. The worst part was running in our suits in 10 degree weather from the cabins to the water. There was a separate cold pool of water next to the hot spring, and we had a competition to see who could get out and swim from the end of the cold pool back to the hot spring. It turned into a competition to see who could get out of the hot spring and get to the pool without freezing in place! haha. I win. Well I got thrown in but thats a different story. (PS the town runs on geothermal energy) Then we stopped by for some more Mouses cocoa and did "presentations" aka had conversations with the instructors about how cool ice climbing is and where would be good places to go hiking. What a kickass class.

Ive thought up the perfect career path for myself. With my meteorology major, I could get a Parks, Recreation and tourism minor and become a mountain guide or work in avalanche control, and also be an ice climbing/rock climbing instructor! If I do the more advanced ice/rock climbing classes, I could shadow the instructors by Jr year and become an instructor my senior year! What a cool job.

Also, Ive added something to my bucketlist. The instructors were telling me that through the outdoor rec programme here they're getting a group together later this summer to climb Mt Rainier in Washington. Its a CRAZY good deal, only 350 bux which includes transportation, food, a hiking pass, and we will be guided by the same instructors who do the climbing classes. Normally, just a guide is 3,000 bux. Its an intense mountain and a big deal to summit. Im definitely goin for it.

Cant wait for my backpacking class in April!!

Brrrrrr. I got sunburned by the end of the day.

12 hours of my day

2009-02-07T16:20:00.019-05:00

I found the blog of this really cool lady in Alaska who does arctic bike races. She did a post where she took a picture to represent each hour of a day for 12 hours, it was awesome. So I decided to follow myself around with a cell camera all day!

Heres my day:

5am-
I wake up at 4:40 but lets call it 5. Im cheery and excited to go skate! Note the cheer in that face. Mmm coffee.

6am-
Im at the Oval, we warm up on the bikes and stretch for half an hour.

7am-
Ice workout

8am-
Dead. And its only 8!!

9am-
Jun gives us a break from dryland so instead we spin! fun. Can you count how many people are flicking me off for taking a picture now?

10am-
FOOD. HUNGRY. STARVING.

11am-
Chillaxing for a few minutes.

12pm
My motivation for going to math today! (extra credit was to make cookies using a metric recipe and convert to US system)

1pm
Getting in 10 minutes of homework before afternoon practice.

2pm
At the rink (again) stretching before the ice workout. Gabby loves skating!

3pm
Heres the track after we did our warmup relays. Sorry I would have gotten a pic of the relays but I was too busy messing them up.

4pm
Taking turns doing a pivot drill.

5pm
This is after we finished our 30 minute run, witch was actually kind of hard... At least we didn't have dryland today!! (Emily's in hardcore stretch mode, super serious.)

And there is 12 hours of my day! If your wondering, from 6-830 I eat and go to bed in that order. So exciting. Eat sleep skate.

Vacation!

2009-02-07T15:53:00.003-05:00

Not really. But it felt like one. Today I took the morning off from short track and did some long track instead! Man did it feel good. Long track is from 9-11 instead of 7-845, so I got to sleep 10 hours last night! The extra sleep and long track was just what I needed to recover from the week of death. My legs thanked me.

Heres the theme song for this past week of training: (Adam Sandler from the wedding singer-Somebody kill me please)

Oh somebody kill me please,
somebody kill me plee-ase,
I'm on my knees,
pretty pretty please kill me.
I want to die.
Put a bullet in my head.

Im pretty sure this does a good job on explaining how we all felt :)

And heres a funny picture of our coach on the phone (with his girlfriend?) while we are all dying doing dryland! Hes a strange dude.

Picture of the day...

2009-02-03T15:30:00.002-05:00

Sent to me by my grandma. Thanks, made my day!

Caption: "Snorkeling in Watertown, NY. Alcohol may have been involved."

HAHAHAAAA!!!!!

My Bucketlist

2009-02-01T01:27:00.004-05:00

I made this back in September of '06 and have been adding ever since! Its more of a goal list and places I want to go. Ive organized them into categories, they're in no special order. I don't plan on doing these things alone so feel free to join me in an epic adventure!! It'll be fun.

Travel

Places I want to visit:
Vancouver
Japan
Germany
China
Spain
Ireland

Places where I want to backpack/bike/ski/etc.

Alaska- Backpacking
Elizabeth Islands- Kayaking
Antarctica- Caving
Siberia- Backpacking
Anywhere in the Rockies- Backpacking
Grand Canyon- Backpacking
Utah- Skiing (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!)
An ocean- Scuba diving
South America- Caving
Yellowstone Park- Backpacking
Salt Lake City- Speedskating (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!)
Colorado Springs- Speedskating
Marquette- Speedskating
Calgary- Speedskating
Colorado- Skiing/Ice Climbing (Mission to be accomplished this spring)
Austria- Skiing
Switzerland- Skiing

Athletic Goals/Other Epic Things

Pan for Gold
Skydiving
Compete in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi
Attempt to climb all 7 summits of the World (Killimanjaro, Denali, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Carstensz Pyramid, Everest, Vinson)
Hike the Appalachian Trail (with my brother?)
Hang Gliding
Get my Black Belt
Bike camp across Europe
Bike across the US
Climb Mt Marcy (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!)
Climb Mt Washington
Run a Marathon
Earn Category 1 (for speedskating)
Break 18 minutes for a 5k (running)
Climb an active volcano
Bungii Jumping
Bobsledding
Skeleton Sliding
Go surfing
100 mile Bike Race
Get back into Alpine Ski Racing (after skating...)
Compete in a World Cup (Speedskating)
Become National Champion (Speedskating)
Compete in Arctic Circle Race in Greenland
Set a World Long Track record
Make the Jr World Team (too late now...)
Qualify for Sr Nationals
Qualify for Olympic Trials

Random stuff

Watch the Olympics live
Have my skates signed by my favorite skater
Get my Pilot license
Get a Husky
Road Trip across the US (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!)
Meet Hyun-Soo Ahn
Find the recipe for Kyoto Kinen (Tea drink in burlington, VT)
Look for Pearls
Stay in the Icehotel
Spend christmas in Austria
Spend New Years in a foreign place
Experience weightlessness
Sleep under the stars
Partake in a Japanese tea ceremony
See a Broadway Musical in NYC
Go to an Opera
Eat the most expensive dark chocolate in the world

And still adding...

Am cup 3

2009-01-27T15:24:00.003-05:00

Wohoo! Greenbay. It was SO cold there. There were windchills of -30!!
I did really well. It was my first time skating in the A group and I ended up in 16th by ONE POINT, yaaaay! Go me. I also got PBs in all 3 events, in the 1500 by 3 seconds and the 1000 (1:39.161) by a second, finally breaking 1:40.
Our coach was giving us hand signals during the races which I didn't realize at first. I never look over to the coaches box during races. So I eventually found out and decided to pay attention in the next race, which had 2 others from my team in it which made it really hard to figure out who he was signaling to. That didn't work out too well so I just decided to make my own plans in the rest of the races, haha.
I guess I should take a Korean class so I can understand the coach, it must have taken 20 minutes for me to decipher what he was trying to say on the phone.

What I heard, rephrased, in a nutshell: "Come to my room with your skates so I can sharpen them. And Tell Andrea to come too."
What he REALLY said: " I want Star to come up to my room so I can fix her blades."

I guess I should have guessed he wanted to see Stars blades because when I picked up the phone he said something in Korean, Id say something in English then hed say something else in Korean. Star is the only one in our room who speaks Korean. Hmmm...

Anyway,
Brittany was so amazing!! Ive never seen her skate like she did. Shes only been skating for 4 months and shes kicking ass and taking over the B group already. She may not know it yet but shes moving to Salt Lake this summer and will be living with me and Ansis and Mikey (who will pick SLC over Pittsburgh, sorry Pittsburgh). Yay Rochester!

Sorry dont have any skating pics! Just an airport one...

Me, Andrea, and Matt chillin at the Minneapolis airport.

Salt Lake City Inversion Madness!! (Nothing to do with the meet)

There should be Ginormous 10,000 foot mountains around somewhere...

Im still coughing from it!!

The Photo of the day...

2009-01-20T13:55:00.003-05:00

...Cannot be shown due to lack of visual appeal. Shall I describe it? It pretty much sums up the last week of training for me. Its my left butt cheek. And It is now 4 or 5 different colors, slightly resembling the northern lights. How did it get this way you might ask? Well its really quite simple. Try falling on it, in the exact same spot, 4 times over 3 days. Its a combination of ice burn and impact, really quite lovely. And very swollen. I can only sit on the right side of my butt. But you know what? thats ok! Because I don't need to sit when im skating.

Photo of the day

2009-01-18T15:22:00.004-05:00

It's Leslie and Jim on New Years!!

Nice antlers.

Recipes anyone?

2009-01-11T21:56:00.002-05:00

If anyone knows a good burrito recipe do share! I know they're easy to make but I want some ideas of what to put in them. Maybe besides chicken and beans. Im on a mission to NEVER eat school food again, and burritos are fun to make, freeze, and eat for the rest of the week.

Im not dead

2009-01-11T12:14:00.002-05:00

But I might be soon. Ive been busy waking up at 430 to get to the rink at 6 for practice now that our new coach Jun is here. Now were doing dryland before ice and again after. 4 hours total. If we don't get low enough in the corners he whacks us on the head with a skate guard! Then at 3 we've got dryland again and to top it off, 2 or 3 days a week we will have 2 ice sessions a day. Including saturday. Ive never felt such intense physical pain in my LIFE. The workouts are so painful they make me want to cry. And I DONT cry. Were doing pretty much the same workouts as the national team, and it made me feel better when I heard some of the Natl team guys cry during the workouts. I was so sore the other day it took me like 5 minutes to sit down on the toilet. OW. It was funny looking at everyones facebook statuses, "I CANT STAND UP!" "MY LEGS ARE FALLING OFF" "THE COACH IS OUT TO KILL US!" stuff like that. I figure at Am Cup 3 and Nationals were either gonna kick ass or skate 14 second laps trying, haha.

So im not sure if he knows much about long track but I asked him if I could keep doing it and he said NO. Im like WHATT??? Don't worry. Ill find a way. Theres no way I can quit long track. There are other skaters who do both, plus I just ordered a nice new LT suit!

Xmas

2009-01-03T17:25:00.004-05:00

It seems like every time I fly in or out of SLC there are AT LEAST 4 SCREAMING babies on my flight. Coming back to Salt Lake from ROC was horrible.

First ill say I had fun seeing my brother, Anne, and my parents again. Especially my kitteh Maya. And all my friends. And Wegmans. Got a BUNCH of nice presents like new Keens, 17 inch Maple Golds (skate Blades)!!, Tea, and a Greys Anatomy trivia board game. My brothers friend Greg whos got a bajillion pairs of skis is giving him some nice atomics. Im jealous. His other friend Carmine said if I learn to do the moonwalk he'll be super jealous. So I have begun my training...
There wasnt much ice to be had in Rochester so Ansis, Lily and me went to syracuse to skate. Theyre rink is even smaller and colder than ROC, I guess ive been spoiled with our nice, big, specially padded, warm rink in salt lake!
Then we went to Ansis's house for a new years party, which was also kinda his birthday party, he turned 18. What a cool birthday! (Jim gave me moonwalking lessons)(And I dont care what Ansis says, I beat him at doubles ping pong, best game ever.)

So back to the horrible flight back.

There were 4 or 5 babies on my flight as usual, but this was worse. It was a 6am flight so I decided to just stay up all night since I had to leave at 4. I was so tired, but the babies thought I didnt need sleep so they took turns SCREAMING for the whole 6 hour flight...the parents thought it would be a good idea to walk them up and down the isle, you know, just in case I couldnt hear them from where they were. So by the time I got back, I hadnt slept in 30 hours and had to drive myself back. Not fun.

BUT! good news, our new coach Jun will be at practice on mondaaayyy!

Im so fast.

2008-12-23T14:50:00.002-05:00

I skated 9.5 and a 9.4 sec laps in practice todaaaay!!! I was leading the laps too. Just thought everyone should know. Yay me.

Avalanche Stuff

2008-12-15T12:56:00.002-05:00

Shannons mom Deb just sent me this awesome link to the Utah Avalanche Center . If you go to Current Conditions at the top it'll have pics, advisories, podcasts, everything! The podcast from today talks about the avalanche yesterday, why it happened, and the woman who got stuck in it. Go listen to it I wont ruin the ending. Its not that happy though. I think ive found my dream job! Fits perfect with my meteorology major. AVALANCHE CONTROL!!!!!

Racing an Avalanche

2008-12-14T19:21:00.006-05:00

So Garrett and me...oh right, sorry grandma...GARRETT AND I were skiing at Snowbird today because we got a foot of fresh powder last night. For one of our first runs we took the Peruvian lift which is near Mt Baldy. The trail we took was right off the baldy trail where this avalanche was happening AS WE WERE SKIING IT. We didn't know this was happening so we took our time and took pictures, even took a break in the snow because it was so hard to navigate. So AS we were skiing down it they were closing it, because apparently powder up to your waist doesn't stay on shier vertical cliffs that well. When we reached the bottom we found out that this lady behind us got stuck in it and they found her a while later in critical condition.

Heres the story

And here are the pictures we took while all this was happening....
(as we were taking these pictures we heard the rescue helicopters fly in)

We weren't sinking all the way, but we wondered how deep the powder was so we stick our poles in and they were COMPLETELY buried...

Yup, I actually have my skis on in this picture, they're just buried under a foot or two of snow, haha!

Snowbird Trail Map:

Look at the far left, See the first red line? Thats the left we took. Now see Mt Baldy on the left of the lift? The very top double black off that is where we were. The avalanche happened on the white patch above it.

North American Champers (now with skating pics from Craig)

2008-12-10T12:53:00.008-05:00

I loved seeing the ROC team as always, and I passed off the McDreamy (greys anatomy) doll (picture below) to Lily. (Were sharing custody, we switch every meet).
AND! I was placed in the Senior group which meant I had to skate against the natl team members...yikes...but it was awesome because I was in the same group as Cherise! Ive never skated her before, so I was excited to see how id hold up against her speedyness. I was like "Cherise...its goin down..." and she was like "Oh it is?" im like "Yes. You'd better get mentally prepared for this..." HAHA. I knew I couldn't even touch her but I told myself I could skate just as fast and after that gun went off for the 1000m I chased her as hard as I could, which got me a PB by 2 seconds! And I was only 2 seconds behind! Thanks for the motivation Cherise!
Mikey pulled a Bradbury and won after everyone in his heat fell in the last corner...he even threw in a dramatic kick out, haha!!

OFF ICE PICTURES!

Heres McDreamy, someone decided to hide him on the wall.

Our kickass ride to the hotel.

Proof that I was on that bus too.

We had so many knocks on our door we decided to make a sign.

ON ICE PICTURES!

I am 1st on the left, Cherise is 2nd from the right in the blue.

Thanksgiving in Ogden

2008-11-30T14:07:00.006-05:00

Shannon and me went to her house in Ogden for turkey day. Her mom makes the BEST food! (Thanks for having me over mrs. Bee!) Before dinner her mom, sister, me, and 6 friends of theirs took a hike, which is DEFINITELY the thing to do on thanksgiving. It makes dinner that much more amazing. Anyway, we set off with a goal of seeing a moose. Ideally the moose would be standing right in the middle of the trail and would stay long enough for all of us to get good pictures with it. Needless to say this didn't happen, but we had fun anyway!

Shannon and me made turkeys out of apples and gumdrops

We went that way...

Who are the horses yielding to?!

Sibling rivalry

9.7

2008-11-29T22:37:00.003-05:00

I SKATED A SECOND LAP!!!!!

For those of you who dont know how fast that is...its fast. At least for me, since ive NEVER gone under 10. We were doing 2 lap fliers (2 fast laps) when Mike called out a 9.9 for the first lap, i was thinking NO FREAKIN WAY! and kept going, then he called the 9.7. I pretty much had a spaz attack and asked him about 5 times if he was kidding. It felt like I won the olympics or something, it was crazy.

So after practice I was like...

Me: "Mike, Im gonna get Cat.1 at north americans, ok?"
Mike: "Yeah, that sounds like a very good idea, do that."

Im tellin ya, im gonna make it happen!