On a wonderful day three years ago...

...I married my best friend. It's been a wonderful three years. I love you, Jason!

Memorial Day with the Lloyds

Everyone loves a three-day weekend! We spent ours by hanging out with Jason's family. On Friday, we left work around noon to head down to Utah Lake in Provo to go boating. I couldn't get in the water because of my asthma medication (no exercise for a week...countdown almost complete!), and I was worried about Jason skiing because of his leg. However, when he saw that the lake looked like glass (and seriously...it was perfect glass. I've never seen water so smooth!) I knew that he wouldn't hesitate to jump in. I'm happy to say that he managed to do some great waterskiing without hurting his leg further! His foot/leg has been much improved over the last few days. He even went mountain biking today! He's a much happier camper when he can be outside enjoying the world and his favorite activities.
On Saturday, we woke up and went to Hogle Zoo. I hadn't been to a zoo in ages, and Hogle Zoo is a fairly big zoo! I was excited. We were going there with Jason's nephew who is about to turn one, so we were excited to see his reaction to all the different animals. They had rhinoceroses, elephants, giraffes (who kept trying to mate!! ha!), and lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!). It was pretty cool to see all the different animals. The family had a great time. Afterward, everyone came over to our place and had dinner and hung out. It is so nice to finally have a place where people feel comfortable just hanging out and aren't so squished together! Anyway, here are some pics from the weekend!

Mill B North Fork Overlook...

This weekend Jason's family is getting together to hang out before Shantel and Greg move clear across the country. One of the things suggested as an activity for all of us was to go on a hike. There is still quite a bit of snow in the upper areas of the mountains, as well as on the north-facing side. Because Jason is a gimp and can't walk well, let alone hike, the task was assigned to me to find a good hike. This is probably because I've spent the most time hiking the SLC mountains out of the crew. Anyway, I decided that I would try the Mill B North Fork Overlook trail because it is on a south-facing mountain and isn't all the way up the canyon. I usually don't hike alone, but I didn't have anyone that could come with me on this trail so I decided to just go anyway.

As I started the hike, it was a beautiful sunny day in Big Cottonwood Canyon. The blue sky looked awesome against the green and reddish brown mountains. The sun was shining so bright I couldn't get a good picture.
The hike starts out steep with a flight of stairs and then several switchbacks. It definitely gets your heart rate up.After climbing up several hundred feet, the trail gets kind of mean and descends almost to the level you started out at (mean trail! all that climbing for nothing!). At the base of this descent, the trail starts to follow the river. Normally the trail is right next to the stream, but because of all the spring run-off and how hot it has been the last few days, the trail was pretty much the river bed. Good thing I had my hiking shoes on!Can you see where the trail is (upper right hand corner)? Yeah...definitely a stream in the way! Anyway, it was like that in a few areas so I had to just get my feet wet and keep going. It was a great temperature in the shade--perfect for hiking. The water level was so high! It was crazy to see the stream going places where it doesn't go normally.
After making it through the stream, the trail just follows the cliff edge for a while. The scenery is beautiful!
I'm almost to the top of the overlook at this point and really enjoying the hike. However, I go to take a picture of the valley below and notice a problem:Ummm...where'd my sunshine go? The sun wasn't set yet (not for another hour), but I notice that it is definitely raining hard in the valley. Time to pick up the pace! I hiked as fast as I could to the overlook so that I could snag some pictures and then try to beat the storm. I was huffing and puffing! I made it to the overlook right as the sun broke through the mountain to my left:
That's a very bright sun. So I'm hoping that I'm going to be lucky and not have any issues with the rain (or flash flooding). I finally get to the overlook and start to take some pictures.It has a very pretty view of almost all of Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's super pretty, especially on a sunny day. I thought I had a sunny day....but then I looked across the canyon. Why is the top of the mountain so hazy? Please tell me that's not rain...Oh yeah...it was rain. And plenty of it!So I realize I need to book it down the trail. I'm not one to mess with Mother Nature, especially when the runoff is already dangerously high. I'm not going to risk getting tangled in a flash flood. So I quickly leave the overlook and start running down the trail. I ran the whole way (except through the parts where you actually walk through the stream...that's just dangerous!). Anyway, I was very nervous I would be one of those stupid hikers that ends up in the paper because they didn't play it smart while hiking. I didn't stop running until I reached the last set of switchbacks. And guess what I saw when I got there?
That's right...blue sky and sunshine!!!I think that Mother Nature was feeling slightly bi-polar yesterday. The total length of the hike was 1 hour, and I went through very sunny skies, to very rainy skies (i was soaked!), back to a beautiful blue sky with a rainbow! What the heck?
I would rather have the sunshine than flash floods though, so I was very excited to see it shining! Overall, the hike is a good one that definitely gets your lungs and legs working. It's 2.6 miles with an elevation climb around 1000 ft I think. It took me an hour, but I was running on the way back (and kind of meandering on the way up...). If you decide to go on this hike, wait a few weeks for the runoff to die down (and check the weather!) and bring good shoes and plenty of water. The overlook is definitely worth it!Oh how I love Big Cottonwood Canyon...

Zions...

It's so beautiful in Zion's. If you haven't ever been, you need to go. The pictures aren't actually from the inside of the park (we didn't want to pay the $25 fee this time), so they are all from the outskirts. Obviously, the inside of the park is even more beautiful.

Anyway, Jason and I decided to do a quick road trip down there this weekend. We went with our dear friend Nolan, and we met up with his sister (Shay) and brother-in-law (Bill) down there. They were kind enough to let us stay at their place. They have such an amazing view! Bill is an avid mountain biker (and I mean avid...he's already logged over 1100 miles on his bike this year!) so he knows all the great trails in the area. He wants to start up a mountain bike tour guide for the area, so if you are ever in the area let me know and we can hook you up with him.

Friday night we went up into the park after it closed and stopped at the halfway point on the switchbacks up to the tunnel. It was dark so you could only see the silhouettes of the giant monoliths, and then nothing but stars. There were so many critters making noises that it was a bit distracting, but in a good way. It was super cool. We hung out there for about 45 minutes and just enjoyed being away from the world. We stayed until a park ranger stopped and made us a bit nervous. I think he thought we were trying to go for a midnight bike ride down the canyon (we had our bikes on the bike rack on the car). After that, we just decided to call it a night. It was late anyway!

The next day was a very interesting day. It was my first mountain bike experience! Jason, Nolan, Shay, and Talon went for a bike ride on the Jem Trail. If you are a new biker, this is the trail you want to start on! It was so beautiful. Too bad I couldn't focus on the scenery! I was too busy trying not to eat dirt! I was pretty successful. I had a few moments where I was lucky I didn't fall, but for the most part I did pretty well. I'm just glad it wasn't like the last time I tried biking... This was a much better experience! I can't wait to go back down and ride the Jem Trail again.

Later that day, Jason and Nolan decided to go ride the "big kids trail" aka a trail that no one but the really skilled should go on (and Jason has ridden it several times before). It's called Grafton. Anyway, they usually ride this trail using the big downhill bikes that are beefier and made for this type of trail. Unfortunately, this time they were on their regular cross country bikes that don't have as much travel in the shocks. Jason is kind of an animal when it comes to mountain biking and does some crazy trails. This particular trail is really rocky and has some sharp drop-offs. Why do these details matter? Well, because Jason decided to see what it was like to fly off these cliffs. He hit a rock wrong and didn't have his weight in the right place, and he basically rocket launched off his bike and fell 30 feet off a cliff. No biggie, right?!? Luckily for both of us, he was in a lot of gear for protection. He had his full-face helmet, elbow guards, and shin guards. It kept him pretty much safe from the elements. However, his leg didn't stand a chance when it came in contact with a rock during his fall. All his weight landed on his left leg and then he tumbled for several more feet. Luckily, his injuries weren't as bad as they should have been. He rode the rest of the trail and met me at the road where I picked him up and took him to the hospital. He got some x-rays and some good painkillers. They didn't show any breaks in the foot area, but they didn't x-ray his calf and that is where it is really hurting him. So in a few days we might have to go get some more x-rays. Hopefully not! Anyway, I'm just glad he is safe!

After that experience, we decided to just hang out and have a low-key weekend. We read some books and relaxed. Jason was bummed he couldn't go on the "epic" ride the boys had planned, but we'll just have to try again next time!

This is the Jem Trail that I rode (this is the last part of it...it's a 7 mile trail so it would be a bit long to film). The guy in this video is Bill. He goes much faster than I do:

Lower JEM trail from Jon Gustavson on Vimeo.

This is Grafton that Jason rode. Once again, this is Bill showing us how it's done... The song swears...It's Rage Against the Machine. Not sure you would expect less from them, but that's just a heads up:

Pioneer DH trail HD from Jon Gustavson on Vimeo.

Even with the trip to the hospital it was still a very fun weekend. I was very hesitant to try mountain biking (I had seen Jason's battle wounds from previous rides), so I wasn't sure i would like it. However, I ended up having a great time and had a lot more fun than I thought I would. The scenery was beautiful, and the company was fantastic. I can't wait to go back!