Dirty Thirty Birthday

As some of you may know I had a Birthday this past Thursday. I am now an old lady of 30 and I feel absolutely fabulous. Everyone keeps asking me how it feels to be thirty like it's this awful affliction i've somehow succumbed to... I figure as long as there are no tumors it's gotta be better than 29... right?

With the crazy work schedules, school, and birthdays falling on a week day Christian and I took off last weekend to do some canyoneering. I haven't done any canyoneering in the past because:

A) I usually prefer to climb up rocks not rappel down them

and

B) I'm super claustrophobic and there always seems to be tight squeezing and things called the birth canal, or the elevator shaft...

Anyhow I'm slowly creating a bucket list of things I want to do and canyoneering although somewhat ominous and scary sounding is something I had always wanted to try. Christian warned me that it would be very dirty (hence the title) and whatever clothing I wore would be ruined, ripped, and destroyed. I warn you all in advance that my outfit was not cute and my hair was a complete mess but i've never had so much fun in all my life!

We did two canyons that are both in the Escalante area near a tiny little town called Hanksville. The two red sandstone canyons are named Monkey Business and East Leprechaun.

We outfitted ourselves with gloves covered in latex to help stick to the sandstone walls without ripping the skin of our palms. We also wore elbow and knee guards to prevent tearing of flesh in the aforementioned tight squeeze chimneys and elevator shaft. We did several rappels down corkscrew shaped erosions and walked across ravines with both feet straddling the crack and straight sheer cliffs standing parallel on either side. My straddle isn't quite the length of long legs magee Christian but I managed to make it through some pretty cool formations. I think most of the time I was so nervous about falling down the cracks that I forgot about being claustrophobic... that is until we reached... the elevator shaft. We were already squeezing our way through this narrow sandstone corridor when suddenly the corridor ended and dropped about 50 feet down. I started working my way down the shaft when my hips got stuck and I started to hyperventilate. Christian told me to turn sideways and put my palms against one side and bend my knees as much as I could to get some friction against the opposite wall by using my bootie. By doing this I could basically slow my falling speed. I became unstuck and slowly slid down the long shaft dropping into a huge bed of sand. It was rad! We enjoyed some pretty amazing scenic views and saw some awesome looking sandstone formations. We both walked away with minor cuts, abrasions and the biggest smiles on our faces. After our huge workout (it took about 7 hours to get through both canyons) we were rewarded at a place called Rays where we indulged to the most delicious giant cheese burgers.

Peep our Pics:)

Cranky 7am morning face...

Christian working his way up...

me lookin hot in my thirties...

Christian jumping over the pot hole...

awesome outfit...

amazing lighting and cool formations...

getting ready to rappel...

happy face!

In all it was a very happy birthday and time well spent with my sweetie.

Here is a very innovative birds nest we saw along the way using the surrounding pieces of sandstone as its nesting material. Cool huh!

Mom requested that I post a picture of Bret and I found this picture on my cell phone from last winter when we went to shoot my Valentines Day present. Awesome!