happy birthday to me...really.

on june the 19 we celebrated a very important day in history...my birth. yes it is true on thursday i turned 23 and what a great age it has been so far. i rafted, volleyballed, line judged, frizbeed, footballed, and pictured.

i aly, went camping for the first time in forever! i mean i really camped. i slept in a tent, in a sleeping bag, on a foam pad which happened to be over a nice little incline with what felt like a tree stump right in my back. my feet were filthy, i didn't shower other than what the river washed off, bathroomed in a latrine and reeked of smoke due to constant intense burning...thanks jessie for the terminology there. so i journeyed up to flaming gorge for the first time in my life. traveling in a car for about 4 hours is the best way to spend one's birthday. it was hot and long! by the end i was yelling at alex and austin to stop talking to me and stop talking in general. i was irritable and hungry! when we arrived i finally saw jessie, which was the whole reason i went, and she gave me some pink water socks as a present for the river rafting portion of the trip and somehow everything else was mellow from there. i was mocked for showing up in a skirt and flip flops, obviously these people forgot who they were dealing with! but i showed them when i took charge and put my tent building skills to good use. you don't go to girls camp for 7 years and learn nothing!

i was uber prepared thanks to my uber scout brother in law randy and i feel i impressed a few of my peers. my raft dominated the river. i jumped rafts at one point, which was such a thrill. i could have pictured my younger boyish self doing that, but me at 23...no way! the jump was successful, but the return to my amazing raft came with a bit of force thanks to maxwell shoving me off their raft. the water was bitter and i felt like jello trying to pull myself up! no more than 20 minutes later dear maxwell pulled danielle and i back into the river! for those of you counting that is twice! we schemed and plotted to take down maxwell since he was the main 'pirate' of the green river. on our attack 3 of our rafters jumped ship to attack...as the 4th jumped i was catapulted off the raft and landed in the river for the third time! in case you were wondering, i was pushed in the most. this time my return to the raft was horrible and i ended up bent in half at the bottom of the raft with my feet straight in the air. not the most graceful or pleasant experience! after lunch we were all so drained of energy and zeal that we just relaxed and let the river take us down the rest of the way. without brandon or alex on our raft i think that jess, danielle, linds, mindy and i would have been royally creamed by maxwell all together. thanks brandino and al.

i made new friends and bruised my thumb trying to play volleyball. i wasn't much good at that. i found out that my 'teammates' aka the girls planned a rematch of 4 on 4 with the guys and i wasn't invited because, and this is a direct quote from ryan...aly you just get bored and play with the net, you can be the line judge again. i didn't really fight back cause it was true. the only time i really played was when i served the ball, and the rest of the time i was doing yoga on a tree stump and making calls that only would benefit my own team.

but the moral of the story is that i survived and came back older. here are some pics...i only took pictures in the car. my camera can do lots of things, but resistance to water is not one of them!