{ Memorial fun }

I didn't memorialize enough on Monday, but I did have plenty of fun with friends. Thankfully, I would say living a full life is somewhat of a good tribute to pay to those who have gone before me though, don't you think?

Monday began with Matt Cobabe texting me, telling me not to eat breakfast becuase he had made Spanish Tortilla that he wanted to share with me (delicious), and it ended with me and Katy swinging in hammocks while chatting and reading in the last hours of sunlight. In between I hiked to a waterfall in Pleasant Grove (where I discovered a new repelling site -- awesome), went to an amazing BBQ at the Meesh's house, lounge by the pool, got my first shaved ice of the season (Tiger's blood with the snow cap), and had a visit with Terri, Preston and Kellen who were in town from Idaho. Not too shabby for a Memorial day.

My most favorite and least favorite moment of the day were the same: When the dude making my shaved ice overflowed the cup with the syrup he was pouring on, then proceeded to step out of the snow shack, pour part of it into a drain on the ground, and step back in to finish topping it with the cream. Both funny and disgusting all at the same time. I ended up only eating the less-soaked top half, but it was still delicious.

I only got pictures of the first part and end part of the day, so you'll just have to imagine the rest (including the soaked snowcone).


Me and Kates at the top of the falls. You can't tell, but we're sitting on the edge, looking over the falls. I should have taken a picture of our feet I think. You can faintly see us in the picture at the top of this post sitting on a rock in between the tops of the falls.


Sir Cobabe fording the falls at the top.


Nate on our hike as we continued above the falls a ways.


Me and Scott with a view toward the mouth of the canyon.


Scott with his walking stick (by far the best picture of the day).


Running back down the trail.


Cheeto break on the way back to the car.


Nate with the watermelon we were getting at the grocery store for the BBQ.


BBQ goodness. Thank you Chris for your cheese-stuffed hotdog wrapped in bacon. And thank you Meesh for the spinach and pasta salad with sesame-ginger dressing.



End of the day hammocking. I'm not sure why I look so grumpy -- it was delightful.

On another note, I had been looking for a place to hang my hammocks since I moved into my condo complex last August, and I just located these sets of perfect little guys this week! Just so happens they are 100 feet from my doorstep, and the two sets are close enough together to hang two hammocks and chat comfortably. How did I not see them before?! No fear -- I have utilized them three times within the last week.

{ Temple Gardening }

The other Saturday, our church stake had a service project to do some gardening up at the Salt Lake City temple. Who knew I would ever be appreciated for ripping up beautiful flowers and putting them into trash bags to be recycled and used for mulch?

The project was nice, and getting my hands all dirt-ish made me feel really capable as a gardener, even though no gardening was actually involved. The people in charge just equipped us with shovels and latex gloves then had us clear out the old plants in three large flower beds to make room for the new, turn the soil in said flower beds, and lay down mulch for the new-comer flowers that I assume will be planted by another volunteer group in the next couple weeks.

I struggled throwing away the poppies they had us rip out of the beds. But we definitely had the prettiest looking trash I've ever seen.


The gardening group from our ward. You can see most of the volunteers who came that morning in small scale in the top picture.

From left: Amy, Mark, Katy, Me, Amy (a different one than before), Mary, Church (the man, not the edifice), Marie and Karalee.


Some of my fellow gardeners. We were only supposed to pick out certain plants from each bed, and then leave others to keep growing. This bed had to be rid of all daffodils, poppies, tulips and pansies. And can I just tell you that daffodils are THE MOST stubborn flower I have ever encountered. Seriously. Those babies take some serious effort to uproot.


Me with one of the hard-to-throw-away poppies.

{ Free Coldplay }

PS -- Coldplay released a free live album today. The live Clocks version on it makes my heart smile.

{ Favorite accomplishment of the night }

Cocheted blue beenie.

{ Rhubarb Saturday }

Along with being the first official "garage saling" day of the summer season, Saturday was also the first official "Pick fresh rhubarb and make dessert with it" day of my life. Up until this past weekend, I had only consumed rhubarb once, in a pie, made by Scott's mom. So, when Marie's psuedo-grandma, Sister Goesche, invited us to pick fresh rhubarb from her garden, we jumped on the charming opportunity. There is something to be said for picking food fresh then cooking with it. We made a pie and a tart with our lovely gleaned vegetable. Re-realization= I need a garden.


Nicki sliver, Katy and Marie with our bounty after picking the rhubarb. It really is such a pretty vegetable.


See. So pretty. Like red celery with WAY fuller and more beautiful leaves.


Kates in the garden.


The snipping process. Taking off the leafy green part made it less pretty, but more portable.


Marie-b with the bag of partially-snipped rhubarb.


Kates jumping off the planter box. It was such a beautiful day Saturday. That last comment had nothing to do with the first comment, but it was definitely noteworthy.


One of the results of our efforts. We crafted a rhubarb pie and a rhubarb tart out of our spoils. I didn't get a photo of the tart, but it was equally delicious looking, only crumblier. One of the guys who came over to eat the pie said his girlfriend used to make it for him all the time; then, after eating a slice of our pie, commented "This is totally girlfriend worthy pie." Thank you, rhubarb-pie loving, man.

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SIDE NOTE: Photoshop is AMAZING!

I went climbing yesterday on a group date, and Matt (one of the guys who was there) took some shots of me on the wall. It was a bit dark, so the lighting in the photos was tricky.

Matt sent the pics my way today, and 3 minutes of Photoshopping transformed one of the photos from the photo on the left to the photo on the right.


It takes the photo from "What the heck is that photo of?" to "Oh look -- there's Nicki climbing on a perfectly beautiful day." SO COOL! I love you, Photoshop.

Side note #2: I like this crop of the photo best.

{ 4-wheeling and crocheting happen }

For the record, while 4-wheeling at the sand dunes could be considered by some as overrated, 4-wheeling in the snow and mud in forested areas of Idaho during a weekend excursion to visit Katy's family is definitely NOT overrated.
Pictured from left: Dave without mouth, Katy without nose or mouth, Nicki without face.


Kates can seriously haul on those things. B.A.B.E.


This was not the most exciting part of the excursion, but it was a part that I didn't have to be hanging on and I could take a photo.

Along with 4-wheeling, the weekend trip included seeing Katy's brother, Dave, in the last big play of his senior year, catching up with not-often seen friends (I miss you already Terri, Preston and Kellen) and visiting the LDS temple in Rexberg. Just a nice weekender to take time out and enjoy, and enjoy I did.

As a side note, I've realized that when I go on road trips, crocheting happens -- it's a nice way to pass the time in the car, and I end up with tangible things that I've created; both good. This trip included several attempts (all of which I had to undo because of sizing issues) on a crocheted laptop cover, and two beenies -- they both looked the same; like this:

{ Crafty sibling trade }

My family is crafty; meaning, we make a lot of stuff. But not lame stuff...cool stuff. We even had a "homemade-gifts-only" Christmas one year. I think we get it from our parents.

So, when I saw these bags made from the remnants of sail fabric on ellavickers.com, I knew a family trade was in order (seeing as the MUCH TOO EXPENSIVE price tag of $488 for the set makes purchasing these bags utterly ridiculous). My brother makes, repairs and rigs sails for sailboats out of Seattle, so I crafted an e-mail two mornings ago soliciting the trade.

"Dear brother,

I will love you forever if you make me one of these bags out of your sail-fabric scraps, and I will even make you something cool in return. What do you think?"

It was a success (thanks, Andy). Sometime in the next month or so, I should be the owner of my very own, very greatly shaped, very durable duffle made from sail fabric. Now I just need to think of something cool to make him in return. I was thinking a very colorful, very cool shower curtain, or something else that is great, but I'd love some input if anyone knows of anything cool and home-makeable.