Wave Cave

I'm so happy to have gotten some hikes in lately! This Friday I went to the Wave Cave, which is about 45 minutes outside of Mesa. The trail was not clearly labeled, so we ended up going probably almost a mile in the wrong direction before we headed back. Then we did find the correct trail up to the cave, and it was super close to where we started! Kinda frustrating, but what can you do - that's part of the adventure of hiking to new places for the first time! We brought my friend's dog, which was a blast. We didn't bring enough water for the hike - 1) because it turned out to be a lot longer than we originally planned because of our detour and 2) because the dog drank more than we thought he would haha. At one point when we were almost back to the car, we didn't recognize the part of the trail we were on and thought we were lost, we had run out of water, and we kinda laughed about the fact that we were THOSE stupid people who were in the middle of the hot desert and totally unprepared with no water. Luckily, the car was about 200 yards ahead of us hahaha. I had a blast, even though the ascent was really steep and kicked my butt and I was dehydrated. But it made for good memories!

Benny is my friend! Such a great dog. :)

Arizona beauty.

Hiking pals.

The Wave Cave was pretty awesome!!

When we were lost, she climbed a tree to see if she could see the car haha.

This weekend has been pretty eventful. Friday turned out nothing like I planned. The hike took much longer than planned, and then I had to go to the grocery store which also took longer than planned, and then I went to the Phoenix fair again! They had free concerts included with the price of admission, so that's the only reason I've gone twice haha. Last week I went to see Scotty McCreery, and Friday night they had Andy Grammar and Gavin DeGraw performing! It was all fantastic!!!

Break from school to see the show! 

They were so good!!! I love this show! Except for when the guy right in front of us was getting happy smoking his week and blowing the smoke right in our faces...yuck. 

Then Saturday morning I finally went back to donating plasma. It takes forever and a day the first time you go to donate, because of all the paperwork, health questions, and physical you have to get before you can actually donate. But after being there almost 5 hours I successfully got through the process. I need the money for it right now, otherwise I probably wouldn't go. When I was donating plasma in Utah, my veins started hating me and it became an almost impossible process every time I tried to go. My veins were deep or they would roll, they'd have to poke both of my arms, and then it still wouldn't work and it was a lot of pain for no gain and no cash. Talk about frustrating. So yesterday was successful, I hope that it will stay that way for a little while.

Last night I went to my friends house with some people from school. I haven't laughed as hard as I did last night in a looooooong while. We battled it out with Nintendo 64 Mario Party, and then we tried playing Spikeball. It is so embarrassing how uncoordinated I am!!! I don't get it! But yeah, I'm awkward and I've learned to laugh at myself about it. But man, it was so fun to play and just let loose. I also had 2 cups of Dr. Pepper, 1 cup of Root Beer, 3 pieces of pizza, and then some candy/brownies/cookies....so the major sugar high I had made me a laughing lunatic to the point where I thought I was going to be sick a couple times hahahaha. So much fun.

Can't do all school. That ain't no way to live. Gotta have some fun and let loose a bit. 

Now to start another week...2 weeks of classes left before first quarter finals.  

Mount Humphreys

Last week a couple girls from my class went and hiked Mount Humphreys in northern Arizona. They had an open invitation to go with them, but I didn't think it through in time. After they posted some pictures I decided I really wanted to hike it! It ended up being just me and one other person from my ward, and we left Mesa at 4:00am on Friday and drove the 3 hours up to Flagstaff and started at the trail head at about 7:20am.

The night before I was literally just praying that I wouldn't get sick from the elevation. I knew this would be the highest I'd ever hiked before, so I was a little worried with how my body would react. Luckily I didn't get any crazy side effects, besides feeling a little lightheaded close to the summit, a total lack of energy, and a bit of a headache. Nothing that was going to stop me from hitting the summit!

We also got a little lost of the way up...we missed the trail at one point and were literally scrambling down and up some pretty steep spots. We knew it wasn't the trail, but we couldn't see it!! This gave us about a 45 minute detour, and luckily we ended up connecting to the trail again. On the way down we couldn't quite figure out how we had lost the trail. Oh well! It added to our time but luckily we were able to keep going!

Once we hit the saddle, I was amazed at the views!! It was so beautiful up there! I didn't think the summit would be too crazy of a journey after that, but that's when it got pretty difficult and when we had more trouble with the elevation. Again, luckily nothing too bad but it definitely didn't feel normal. My gatorade helped a lot, and we had to stop before the summit to eat our lunch because our energy levels were lacking. But that helped give us the boost to push to the top and summit at the highest point in Arizona!!

We got back down to the bottom with a total of about 8 1/2 hours of hiking. It took quite a bit longer than I thought it would initially, but once we finished I was just grateful that 1) we had made it to the top and 2) no one got hurt! My hiking boots were the best investment I think I've ever made haha. They have saved my ankles countless times already since I bought them back in February - I get nervous when I hike because I've hurt my ankles so many times. So this is a great accomplishment to not get hurt at all. We then made the drive back to Mesa.

It was a really long day, but it felt so good to cross this off of my AZ bucket list and to get a challenging hike in!!

Trail head.

I was loving all of the leaves everywhere!!

There was some fun color pops with the trees from our vantage points.

This tree on the left may or may not have saved me from falling down the mountain...

Up at the saddle.

Grateful I had a hiking buddy! We originally had 6 people interested in coming, but it turned into just the 2 of us by that morning. 

At the summit and so happy!! Seriously had a hikers high. Endorphins rock.

So pretty.

At the bottom again. Made it!

A perk of going up north...Flagstaff had trees that change colors. SO HAPPY.

My calves and butt are quite sore, but aside from being tired I feel pretty good after that hike! It was great to have a day away from school. Now I feel pretty behind though, so there won't be any big adventures again probably until after finals are over. But then I'll get a whole week off for Thanksgiving and life will be GRAND. :)

Soul Refreshed

For me, this is a good time.

Waking up to a view like this...doesn't get much better for me.

Camping and hiking in Payson, AZ. I already want to go back.

The past couple of years I have really discovered what helps me to relax and reconnect with myself, and that is doing things outside like hiking or chilling in my hammock. I like to push myself on hikes, even though my ankles and knees are getting to be kind of awful. And I love the way I feel when I hike and surround myself with nature. 

The past couple weeks in school have been CRAZY. I have never studied for so many hours for one subject (ANATOMY...holy crap). I had 5 midterms last week and have 2 this week. I still have that 7th test on Thursday, but it is quite a relief to have 6 behind me. And to know that I got A's on the ones I've found out my grades so far...it's a pretty good feeling! Grad school is definitely proving to be a challenge for my mental stamina...but I'm happy with the results so far.

Last weekend I was itching to go somewhere, so my roommate and I decided to camp and hike up in Payson the next weekend. A couple of my friends from school came along, and even though we got basically no sleep because it was colder than we anticipated, I know I had a blast! Just what I needed!! 

Coming back was hard because I had to get back to the books hardcore after taking the time away. I feel like I need another break...one more midterm...