Ok, so it's been a while!! I feel bad, but it has been so busy, and when you are working and doing things all the time away from your computer it is really hard to post. Doesn't mean I couldn't have at all, the only time I could was going to bed and then I would never really feel like it, since I had to get up at 4:30am to go to work every day. But now that is over!!!!
I am now in Dekalb, IL about to start at Northern Illinois for my masters. Weird huh. I think it is anyway. Lots has been going on that I have to tell you about! Especially the last couple of weeks....
Ok first, we went on vacation the week before last. It was a blast!! We went to Colorado for a week and played around outside. First we went hiking up in the mountains, then we went on a 3-day white water rafting trip. There were 10 of us total, with 3 guides. At night we would camp out close to the water. The guides cooked for us and we might as well have eaten like a cruise ship for meals. The first night we had steak and potatos, pancake and bacon breakfast, amazing fresh sandwhich fare, and the second night BBQ chicken and corn on the cob, cooked over the coals with the husks on and everything so you had to peel and eat. It was all soo good! We also did some rockclimbing and rapelling while we were out there too. I was sad when the 3 days were over. The rafting started out with a couple 3class rapids. The second day we progressed to 4 class rapids in the morning, then after lunch we got on some inflatable kayaks called duckies and did some class 3 rapids in them, then just played around in the waves the rest of the time until camping. I love kayaking...out of everything we did, whitewater kayaking is probably my favorite thing. The 3rd day we did class 5 (that's the most intense rapids). After rappelling from the campsite to the water, we did some class 4 and then got out to scout out the class 5 before we actually did it, and out guide pointed out things like where we should go if we got thrown out and where we were supposed to be and safety stuff. Also we scouted out our path through the rapids and what we should do if we got off course. Then we went down it.....sooooo fun!!!! We were all soaked but none of us fell out. After the class 5 we went into Triple Drop which was a really fun class 4 and then into a series of rapids called Numbers...9 in all back to back, a combination of class 3 and 4. The last meal we had was the best fajitas I have ever had. Amazing the food you can cook over coals or a camp grill (all the other meals were over hot coals and fire grid).
On Friday we did a cattle drive. We were on horses and herding cows and everything. It was so much fun, and we drove them from one end of the property to the other, which was around 10,000 acres total. I don't know how many acres we drove them, but we were herding for 3 hours. It felt so good to back on top of a horse. I never heard more cows mooing than we did at one time either. On Saturday we spent the morning at Royal Gorge, with the longest suspension bridge in the world. Very cool. We got to see some native animals such as bison (a white one too), big horn sheep, and elk, which make this really high pitch keening noise that you think is from a bird at first. I also learned how to throw a tomahawk. I landed 3 on the wood target!
So that is my vacation. I have to get ready for church now, first time in this area, but I'll be sure to post some more later!