Fireworks made fun

Last night I went out with my Dad to check out the fireworks. The have a neighbor about a mile away that does his own private show. I have heard good things about the show from my sister. I didn't think much about it because I know how Utah treats fireworks so I kept my expectations low.

Instead of a mini show, I was treated to a spectacular event. He had all sort of wonderful explosive devices. What made it even more impressive is that you are nestled in a valley with rolling hills all around. It makes for some killer acoustics so the explosions seem to roll back and for through the valley. I was blown away(figuratively).

We are headed out to the Flathead river to raft. I am really looking forward to that. But I know that tomorrow I have to fly back to St. George and to reality.
That bites.

Montana: Capital of Coffee houses and Casinos?

I just wanted to make an observation here. It seems like there is a coffee house and casino on every intersection. It's kinda creepy. I feel like I am in a mix of Seattle/Nevada here.

BTW, Happy Independence day to all.

Those sneaky Goats!!!

I have had a blast today. We took off for Glacier to see the sights. Last time I was up here, we couldn't get past Lake MacDonald due to forest fires and such. So this time we took off and started the climb.
We started up the road but found out soon that my Dad's truck had a little problem. It was overheating badly. We would have to pull over to the side of the road and let it cool. The we would go about another mile or so and pull over again. In other words, it was a long trip but I got some wonderful shots of the peaks. I am just in awe at the beauty around me. And in a sense, it was quite humbling.
We made it to the top called "Logan's pass." The parking lot was full but a Park ranger was understanding of the truck and just let us pull to the side and said as long as the hood was up, no one would really say anything. I hiked around a little bit up there and enjoyed the scenery.
On the way back down, we bumped in to some mountain goats that were just hanging out. Some where walking in the road so the traffic backed up quickly. As we got closer to a momma goat with her young I had my camera ready. At the last second she decided to head down the side of the mountain. I was 10 feet away but couldn't get a shot off in time.
Oh well.

Hello from Montana.

My vacation has finally arrived. I am such a happy camper. The best part of this is that I am able to spend time with my dad in Whitefish, Montana. Part of this wonderful trip is that my sister got me a round trip ticket from St. George to Kalispell, Montana which is about 15 miles south of Whitefish.
I got up this morning and made the quick trek up and I was in God's country by noon.
I love flying. I love most to look out the window and see where I am heading. So what happens? I get an isle seat. That just about broke my heart. I had to keep craning my neck in order to look out the window to check the landscape but that didn't stop me. I saw some really impressive mountain ranges on the way up.

This afternoon my Dad got out a canoe and we took it out to check out a lake. I get in and we promptly turned it over. Welcome to Montana. :) I didn't mind whatsoever.
I had brought clothes to get wet. After that, we paddled around for a bit.

Now I am staying in the Yurt. If you want to know what a yurt is, I will have pictures posted later on. It is a blast.

More to follow in the coming days.

Sometimes, this says it all.

Me likey!!!!

Time to check in.

I can't believe that it is already the middle of June. If you have a clue on where the time went, I am all ears.

Last weekend I did something totally original. I went camping. :) We started by going over to visit a place just east of Zion. One of my friends has friends that manage a dude ranch. It was really a nice area. We broke out the 4 wheelers and took them around to tour the place. At one point I had a race with my friend's dog. We got up to 30-40 MPH and she kept up. I was impressed. After that we started to climb a hill. I had a girl on with me and I climbed up the hill at a good safe pace. We only went about half way because we had assumed that there would be water for the dog. There wasn't. We turned around and started heading down. The girl wanted to drive so I was more than happy to let her. My mistake. This girl freaking gunned the machine down hill and it was all I could do to stay on the back of the machine. It was a tad bit insane and if I ever ride with her again, it will be to soon.
After that we headed up on Cedar Mountain to a little secret camping spot. It was gorgeous if not a bit cold. We woke up to a very chilly morning. It was a great way to get the blood flowing.
Of coarse we are back in town and it is getting warm. Tomorrow is supposed to be 106. Welcome to summer.
On to other news, my weight loss is going well. I started out at 270. Went up to 273. Now I am at 264. I am very pleased with that loss. Slow but steady. I am still drinking at least 64 oz of water. That makes for a miserable road trip when you constantly have to pull over to take a leak.
I am mixing in different activities for exercise. I am walking for an hour and now throwing in some jogging as I feel the urge. I also go over to a friends house and we use is "Dance, Dance Revolution" for a 30 minute workout. That really gets you going. I just have to keep it up.

The way to kick off summer.

To kick of the weekend, Eric and I decided to take off and camp up on Beaver Mtn. He had a delivery that he had to make in Beaver and we were just going to play off the cuff after that. We start climbing up the mountain in his truck and we found out how cold it was going to be. We decided to wimp out and stay at my Grandparents condo. It was nice for an overnighter. And in the morning, we went up on top of the mountains and got some sweet pictures of the area. I am still waiting on the email to get them. I'll post them as soon as I get them.
Anyway we came back down to St. George Saturday afternoon and I decided I needed to bum around town and do a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday comes and me and Eric decided to go up to Enterprise Reservoir. We invited a couple a friends and headed out to camp and fish. The fishing was excellent. I caught a healthy 2 lb rainbow. I was proud of that considering the dog that came with us wanted to swim wherever the line was and we have a fun time trying to control her. The best part was there was a girl with us that was helping with the fish as we caught them. Once we got them of our line and put them on a line to keep, she went to throw out the line but didn't keep hold of the end. We saw these beautiful fish flying out into the lake. Bummer. I had sandals on so I was volunteered to go out and get them. I was lucky, I got them back.

We got back up to the camp ground and started to clean the fish. One of the girls, a city girl, wanted to help gut and clean them. She said she was OK because she had dissected a fish before. That didn't last too long and we took over the duties of getting them cleaned. We decided to do an experiment, we took the fish and poked a stick right through them and cooked them over a fire. It actually came out tasty. We had some tomato and basil wheat thins and use the cracker with the fish. That was really tasty. We started to set up camp but it got windy and we wimped out(again)and headed home around midnight.

Today we went up to hike on the Pine Valley Mtns. The trail we took was called Mill Flat. It was a fun trail but long. On the way up, I apparently crossed a rattle snake. I even had a dog with me and neither of us saw it. Eric got into a battle with it after being surprised by it. I am a little shocked because it could have easily bit me or the dog once I saw where it was. Then about 1/2 mile further up. I was scared when a water snake blew past me. My nerves where frayed. We hiked about 8 miles round trip and I was TIRED on the way back down. I made the mistake of trying to cross a stream by stepping on rocks. I took a wrong step and went into the stream. The worse was to come. I ended up stretching my calf muscle funny and I ended up with a Charlie Horse. That was painful and I still had over 3 miles to go. I stretched out the best I could and hobbled down.

I made into town but even now I am stiff and extremely sore.
I came to this conclusion, the trouble I had today were in large part to my weight. I weigh just to damn much. Eric is going through a weight lost center that is also changing his eating habits. I need to change mine to make this work but I am resolved to shed off the pounds.
My goal is to get down to about 220 lbs, I am at 270. I have some work ahead of me but I am going to go over and get on the same program and see what I need to do to change. Wish me luck.