FIRE!!!

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

Im alive!

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

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

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

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...

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!

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.

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

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

More Moab Pics...

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

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.