Getting antsy for the Summer Time

I haven't written for a while. Sorry. I need to say something though. Last summer was so rad. My good friends at Rendezvous River Sports taught me to kayak hard white water. I couldn't get enough of it. I kept pushing my self, and with each new step up, the increase in difficulty resulted in an equal increase of reward. I am not talking crazy white water. I don't imagine I will ever paddle crazy white water, but I do want to be able to steadily and safely progress.
I sit here at school, at these computers and day dream about what was and what will be. I am able to live in the moment, to enjoy school, friends, events, and girls, but when my thoughts wander at school and work, I get antsy. Watching these videos doesn't help.

My buddy from the summer is in Ecuador right now. I chatted with him for a while and I got so jealous of him. I've decide I'm going to go there next winter.

Surreal Summer

I haven't written in this blog for a bit. I've had a busy schedule and limited internet access.
I still am busy, but I have a lot of time at a computer again. There is to much yo talk and rant about for one blog post, so this one will let everyone know what they can expect in future post.

I got pulled over three times this summer, so you can expect me to rant about that.

I lived in my van. I will probably remissness about that. Maybe I will give some encouragement and some pointers for people the want to do the same. 

I made a couple of videos that I will share, they're okay.

I did a ton a super fun kayaking this summer, so you can expect me to ramble about that.

Here is a little video Ben Petersen made for a online Knife company for now.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SPMMrhUfZE

I bought a house!

Recently I bought a new vehicle.

Here it is.

I also recently bought and did some work on a new home.

Here it is.

Cool, huh? Do you want to see the inside.

First, we will start up front. I consider this the kitchen. I have a cooler here and an Ipod,

 Now to the master bedroom.

I attached that clothes rack with some wires. That orange board is Jared and my's affirmation board. I'm the lucky one that got to keep it. Those drawers under the bed are super convenient. I build a little bed frame that attaches to the drawers. I have plenty of clothes space.

It might not look like there is a lot of room, but, there is.

I'll keep you-ins updated on my experiences.

good day. nay, I say great day

It was a great day today in spite of the tragedies. The last couple of days we have been running Coal Creek, the river that runs down Cedar Canyon, and through Cedar City. It has been so fun, and the water keeps rising. Here is a better, but sideways graph It's a very small river with tons of fun drops. Today was particularly fast and fun. It was non-stop action.

I am telling you guys, this run was so so so sweet. I'm on such a high right now.

There are a few good stories from it, and a couple tragic ones.

I will start with the sad stories.

I lost Jason's camera. I had it on a mount on the front of my boat when we took off. I got worried that I might hit it on a rock and it would come off, so I put it in my boat. Everything went well, but at the takeout, as I was getting out, I lost my balance and my boat filled up with water. The camera must have fell out. This wasn't just any camera either, it was a GoPro. I was sick to my stomach about it. Jason was so cool about everything. I didn't see a second of frustration or anger on his face. "It's fine man, if I cared I wouldn't have let you take it." "it's just stuff" is what he said. If I've ever met someone with a heart of gold, he has it.

Second sad Story

Josh had bought a yellow kayak years ago from Jason. The first day Josh took the boat down the river, it cracked. Recently he bought a nice used kayak. It's a boat that is as nice as mine. At the take out, he discovered a huge crack in it. I couldn't believe his luck. Poor guy. If you ask him though, the trip was sweet enough that it was well worth it.

If you ask Jason about this next one, he might not think it's a good story. Jason hit a rock and a tree (Rocks are unavoidable on this stretch) and it sounded like he got pinned up on something and the river popped his spray skirt (the thing that keeps the water out.) He tried to roll up, all while getting beat and hitting his head on rocks. There was just too much water in his boat, so he came out. Sick of having this now super heavy boat drag him along rocks, he let go and got to shore. There were no calm spots for Josh and I to get his boat over. I was worried, because I knew there was a large twenty or thirty foot water fall coming up, and I did not want his boat to go over that. I saw one of his sandals, that came out of his boat, floating in the water, so I grabbed it and put it in my mouth. Josh put the other sandal (chacos, mind you) in his mouth. Josh Paddled down stream and grabbed some plants on the side of the river to anchor himself there. I pushed Jason's boat to Josh. Josh grabbed the boat and hung on. I pulled over and hopped out of my boat in time to grab Jason's, and none to soon to avoid going over the death waterfall.

We all got scraped up, and beat up, but loved it. We kayaked over one super fun water fall and all almost got sucked back into it.

Even in such a small river, there is sooo much power.

Here is that waterfall in lower water. There is about four to eight times (or more!) as much water running through there today, as there is in this picture.

This is Hayden. He's quite impressive. This is a great picture. 

Jason got the video on his helmet cam. When it's available, I'll post it here.
  

campaigning

I am campaigning for the position of business senator. It's a good experience. I've loved working with all the people in my party, and all the people that help support me and my party. I went door to door earlier tonight and it was so fun! It was like the mission, except people let me in. Here is the link to our Facebook page. I got up at five this morning and have been going non-stop since. I look forward to work and classes because they are a break.

Not the most flattering picture. I was kind of ashamed to put it up with all the classy signs from the other parties. That's how it goes. Things are good.

more free fun

I found a snowboard in that dumpster! That dumpster that I wrote about yesterday! So I broke off the legs of a chair (a free chair, of course) and used the snowboard bindings to attach the seat.

After a evening of heavy snow, we attached a rope to Lindsey's car and rode behind the car on this snow board.

 Look how crazy Jared looks. It was a good night.

free stuff

I love free stuff. The fraternity next door was shut down, and I got some free things. I am so happy they were caught hazing. They parked a dumpster in front of their house, and it turned out to be a great resource for free things.  I'm running for student government, and I knew I needed some big plywood boards for campaigning. So, what did the fraternity throw into the dumpter? Big plywood boards. When I went up there to grab the boards I found this!

CANDY!!! This was my day! That's like, 15 pounds of candy! Jared gave some away in Sunday School to test it out, and it's fine. No one got sick. I have eaten enough of this candy that I haven't had to buy groceries for a week. Those frat boys aren't to bright. So wasteful. They'll probably just get their daddies to buy them new candy.