One Part of My Trip to Utah!

So I finally have a moment not packing or painting to sit down and blog about my trip to Utah! Yes as many of you know my dislike for the state of Utah but I bit the bullet and ventured to the land of much fun and had a blast! There are thousands of reasons why Utah is the place to be as Kimmie liked to point out but I think the only reason that I loved it this weekend all starts and ends with the Prettymans (also Adams! I guess!) I really needed the calm before the storm and also the reasurance that I am still fun... ( i think!!!)So allow me to tell you a little story of what a crazy friend gets me to do... When I called Kimmie to tell her I really was coming the first thing out of her mouth were, and I quote "...I know the perfect thing that we can do. We will go shoot the tube!" You wonder what shooting the tube is, well let me tell you! There is a 8 foot tall industrial drainage pipe that runs underneath a freeway in mountains of Salt Lake that is paved on the bottom half and has a river/creek running through it. You hike down this hill (kim tried to downplay it because she knows of my dislike of HIKING!) and come to the water and pipe. I will have you know that it was 11 at night when my plane got in and we went directly to kims to change and then leave to pick up mel and Ben (marne's kids) and then meet up with Annalee and Jose and John. This my dear people of the Internet that are reading this is when i realized something... Everyone in Utah owns head lamps! It was an amazing realization as Kim is hiking behind me trying to shine the light so that the both of us can see! Oh and did i tell you that going downhill is always a bad idea for me because for some reason I always fall! It at some parts was pretty steep! Anyways, on to the actual water part, we get there and Jose and John are already up damming the water up so Kim, Mel, and I start to go up. I didn't realize that it was as long as it was going to be and we were going up an incline, when we get to the top i see this wood contraption with a door and a post that has rope attached to it and the guys trying to figure out how to dam the water... not long after Kim is telling everyone to sit down in a train and turn off there headlamps... I had poor ben in front of me on a purple saucer, kim mel and annalee on a sled in the front and john in the back. Jose brought up the rear as the guy that got to release the flood gates! Did I happen to mention that this water is ICE cold and that it raised us up and shot us like a bat outta hell down into the plunging darkness! I LAUGHED MY HEAD OFF!!! Poor Ben had to be the one in front of me and had to listen to the laugh scream the entire way down! But oh what a blast... that is until the ice plunge at the bottom of the tube. I was so worried about Ben that I was plunged under into the ice water pool at the bottom of the tube. I had to quickly (I mean quickly get out because the air was sucked out of my body!) get out of the water and safely to the side. I looked over and saw Ben basically turning into Michael Phelps to get out of the water. I don't think I have ever seen someone swim soooooo fast in my life. After getting out I quickly decided that I had to go again!!! I do have to say that on the way back up the tube I realized that my ears really really hurt and that I must have frozen my eardrums but it was all worth it! Twice was enough for me but really it was worth it!

this is after the second time, as I was coming out I was soooo cold and looking down to make sure I didn't hurt my toe on some rocks that when the flash went off I looked up at annalee and said oh no you didn't... with a smile on her face she said oh yes I did~ so world this is a lesson we should all learn, when taking pictures from an downward angle you will guarantee be able to get a really good bust shot of people scrambling to get out of freezing water!

the group right after the first time... Ben was not having it and Mel was being a good older sister and helping him to get warm!

No people its not a star or a moon its the headlamp that everyone in Utah must have in order to be able to claim citizenship in the great state of Utah!