Wild and Precious

Le Sigh. I've reached the end of another year feeling the same conflict as in years past. How do I appropriately celebrate all the awesome that has happened without bragging? How do I acknowledge we all have struggles without being a bummer? I guess the only thing to do is try to be brief and hope it's clear the struggle is real. We all have something we're dealing with.  The video below captures how things go pretty well: we're rappelling down the Weasel in the dark with a few snowflakes after climbing a pretty great route, getting a little lost, and watching a gorgeous sunset. Adventure is always a mixed bag of good and not-so-good.

It was an action packed year. Brent and I have fallen into the practice of going out of town most weekends, which gave us the opportunity to see our favorite places and visit entirely new locations.

Before diving into highlights from the year that has passed, some personal achievements that are un-photogenic.

• I went to the dentist and physical therapy. Going to the doctor when I'm not really sick feels like a very grown up thing to do. Like registering my car. 
• I made progress on one of my pet peeves - I worked on not saying how busy I am when people ask how I'm doing. That's not very descriptive and if I'm busy all the time it's not noteworthy.
• I have developed exceedingly strong feelings for the Oxford comma (it's completely necessary) after reading through 80+ water quality standards.
• I experience regular feelings of rebelliousness when not using two spaces after the end of my sentences. Even more so because I use one or two spaces according to whims.
• My quest to gather more hobbies continues: I now sew a little, enjoy building stuff with my power tools, like to look for fossils, and am better at kayaking.

But, of course, I took lots of pictures of the very cool things that happened this year. Below are highlights. 

• Didn't run much, but did run great stuff: the Moab Red Hot 33k and the Rim Rock Marathon

Moab Red Hot 33K

Big climb at the beginning of the Rim Rock Marathon

• Worked hard to become a bad ass mountain biker, attained some new levels of skill (bad-assery is a difficult benchmark to know), including surviving a 6-hour trail race

Finishing El Doce after 3 laps and 41 miles

Blissful riding on the Wasatch Crest

• Finally got to Costa Rica, a childhood dream of mine. Searched for bugs, snorkeled, saw volcanoes

Brent holding a tail-less whip scorpion during our nighttime bug tour in Drake Bay

Hiked through 5 miles of jungle to snorkel on an isolated beach

Listening to birds in the cloud forest

• Went on our annual backpacking trip, this time to the Sawtooth Mountains, which were spectacular

Camped and swam at this lake below the Finger of Fate

The Finger of Fate

• Dove into backcountry skiing, it's a lot more work but also quite wonderful

First time touring to Dog Lake

• My family came to the San Rafael Swell - my favorite people in my favorite place!

K's at the Wedge

Little Wild Horse Canyon with my people

Niblings learned how to stem canyons

• Solo vacation took me to Great Basin National Park, tagged Wheeler Peak

I hugged a bristle cone pine

• Built the platform for the back of my truck I've been dreaming about for years

• The book! The book! The Great Salt Lake wetland plant book is real!

• Spent more time on my road bike than I expected, rode it to the top of Big Cottonwood and around the Wellsville mountains for the 5th time.

Almost 4,000 feet of climbing done, ready for the downhill

• Sister's trip to San Diego with Brent's sisters (my sisters-in-spirit) included bonding, building terrariums, and riding segways

Segways are really fun

• Lots of opportunity for family bonding. Courtney lived with me for a bit, having a roommate was great and I enjoy getting to know my baby sister better. Took my sister-in-law rappelling, watching her overcome a fear was wonderful. Got another nibling. Mountain biked with family. Enjoyed many family get together's

Biking Wire Mesa

• One of Brent's dreams (and what I worried would be my nightmare, but it wasn't) came true: we did big wall climbing in Zion! On the fall equinox! It was gorgeous! And stressful!

What a morning view

A line from one of my favorite poems, "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver,  captures how I tried to live 2018 and hope to continue into 2019:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?  

So wild!