A Beautiful Hike...and some canning

Last week was busy, I went on a retreat with my coworkers to Provo. I drove up with Bruce and we left at 3:30 in the morning!!! That was early for me. It was a 4.5 hour drive, but it ended up being fun. Bruce is fun to talk to and we kept a pretty steady stream of conversation. We did get lost once we got to Provo canyon because he didn’t know exactly where we needed to be, luckily I could pull it up on my phone and get directions from the email they sent us. :) We had breakfast with all the counselors and support staff from the whole state and then Terri (the director) gave a presentation. After that we did some crafts and bonding time before heading over to lunch. We ate lunch at a restraunt there at Sundance and then headed up Provo canyon for a hike. It was really pretty, although I just had to be the one to find all the snakes. We also rode the lift up to the top of the hill, and I was a little nervous because I had never been on one before. Marc and Bruce and Terri and I all rode up together and they gave me a hard time about the lift, saying the creaking noise was the rope unweaving etc. But I made it. The hike was fun and I got to know some of the counselors better which was good. I drove home with Timandra that night and that was fun too. I learned lots of things about Timandra I never knew.Just as we passed Cedar City we ran out of gas, which was a little comical. Paul and her husband came and got us around 11pm. We were glad to get home and finally sleep. It was a fun but exhausting day! The next morning I didn’t get to sleep in because it was a 12 hour tech rehearsal for James and the Giant Peach which opens this week. I was there all day and then I came home and prepared my Young Women lesson for Sunday. After church I finally got to put my feet up and rest. Paul had been just as busy with school and work while I was gone so it was nice for us to finally relax. We also counted our canning jars that we have canned over the last few months, we have done over 450 jars of salsa, pears, pear sauce, pear syrup, apple sauce, peaches, peach jam, peach syrup, raspberries, strawberry pie filling, strawberry syrup, strawberry jam, blueberries, blueberry applesauce, blueberry syrup, beets, beans, apple juice, grape juice, strawberry lemonade concentrate, spaghetti sauce, rhubarb pie filling, carrots, and blue raspberry pear sauce. I am a little proud of myself! I also got some of my fall/halloween decorations up... more to come on that!