The Narrows

Last weekend I went with my friends down to Zion National Park to do some hiking. We went to do the Zion Narrows, which is a 17 mile hike through the narrow canyons cut out by the the Virgin River and its tributaries. Almost the entire hike is spent wading through water filled with slippery rocks and lots and lots of sand. This is one of my favorite hikes as it is the third time I have done it. Walking down the middle of a canyon that is only 6-8 feet wide at some places with 1000 foot tall rock walls on both sides is truly awe-inspiring. I recommend this hike to anyone that has not done it before. Here are some pictures from the weekend with the guys.

The day before the narrows we went and hiked Angels Landing.
Here is myself and Jamin, I told him not to touch me, but he just
couldn't keep his hands of me.

This is Angels Landing. You have to walk along that narrow strip,
with 1000 foot drops on both sides, hanging on to chains to keep
you from falling to your death. Also an awesome hike.

Here we are just entering part of the narrows.
It's a long way up.

Here we are at the waterfall. We had Miles
convinced that he had to jump down, but we really just
had to go around.

This is the Grotto, a natural spring coming out of the rocks.

Here I am trying to climb over the rocks.
I only slipped and fell in once this time.

The six of us.

FINALLY!

So I finally did it. Several years ago, Drew and Brittany brought me back an unabridged version of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I have to admit that I was so intimidated by the 1200 pages of teeny-tiny type that I made it a life goal of mine to read the novel -- and today I finished it! I started reading the novel in January, and can finally check this one off my list. And while I skipped a few pages on the Battle of Waterloo (there were 46 pages on the topic) and a few more the sewer systems of Paris (another 25 pages), I feel that I have accomplished my feat. At times I really enjoyed the book, but I don't think I'll ever even pretend to attempt to read it again.

Just for your information: the above picture is the same one that's on the cover of my edition, that's why I put it on here. I really am quite sick of it myself.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

We went in for our second ultrasound today. This time we had more luck in getting the baby to cooperate. We were able to get some great pictures of the head and face. Betsy thought it was fun to be able to see the kid kick and feel it at the same time. The little kiddie also uncrossed it's legs long enough to show us she's a girl! She already acts like a little lady and keeps her ankles crossed most of the time. Hooray! it's a girl!

I Like To Vacation

Betsy and I just arrived home from a quick Labor Day weekend trip with my parents to Colorado. We went to go visit a National Park that we had never been to before. I was able to put three new stamps into my National Parks Passport: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Curecanti National Recreation area, and Colorado National Monument. I am now up to 12 stamps in my passport! Nowhere near the two hundred some odd that my father has, but it's a good start, and I have many years to play catch up.

As is Bagley tradition, we stop to take pictures at every sign.


We did however, take some pictures of the scenery. This is an amazing view of the Black Canyon. It was really more than I was expecting.

At the bottom of the canyon, we found a 33 ton boulder that came crashing down last April in a land slide. You can see the cracks in the pavement. They still aren't letting people drive on that part of the road.

So by the end of this, you can tell who had the camera most of the time. But we had to give everyone one last good look of Dallin's beard. That's three weeks not shaving, and it's driving him nuts, so it is gone as of this morning.