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Sorry for the long absence... this may be a hodge podge of story telling, but they're all pretty entertaining stories none the less.
First off, I'm thrilled to say that I've been awarded a $2,000 scholarship award from NOLS for my trip to India. I'm tremendously proud of what I wrote for it and may post it later on. Before, I did have my doubts about whether I was going to be able to go, but I feel that if NOLS believes in me, I should do my darndest to get there.
That said, we've been given another forced week off of work and may end up backpacking through the La Sal Mountains for a week or possibly heading down to the Grand Canyon and doing a rim to rim hike. Though this sounds like a ton of fun, it's a huge bummer that I'll now be out of two paychecks this summer.
Luckily, one of our neighbors came by yesterday and wanted help channeling water from a nearby creek for the neighborhood's ditch irrigation so we got dirty for a few fun hours and afterwards hung out with the irrigation master in his house that he's building from scratch. The house is truly phenomenal and an iconic building for Castle Valley and the sustainable living movement. It's the first geodesic dome that we've been in and the design is simply brilliant and beautiful. We also scored a free futon mattress! So finally, we have a bed in our bedroom and this prompted my crazy cleaning spree which uncovered my cell phone that had been lost for more than a month!
Aside from getting unwanted time off, work has been fun, challenging, and truly inspiring. I went on the most beautiful hike of my life this past shift which went past several waterfalls, creeks, and lakes; finally ending at a blue-green body of water called Bullberry Lake. This hike is even accessible for the average joe and if you're ever in Utah, I would highly recommend it. It's also been crazy rain for a few weeks now! I had a ton of fun slurping through it with the girls, but the dangers were always on our mind.
Speaking of being in Utah, my parents are coming in the middle of June for 10 days and I'm psyched to have our first visitors! We also have a ton of people coming for Nate's birthday on July 23rd. Our hot tub is fixed, though we haven't used it quite yet... Aside from that, all are welcome to visit on these off shifts:
June 25-30
July 9-14
July 23-28
Aug 6-11
Aug 20-25
We also visited our friends in Fort Collins about a week ago and congratulated our friend Kris on his graduation from grad school! It was definitely a low-key, fun weekend with his family. Nate has been his usual optimistic self, always planning for the future and has actually begun job searches for both New Zealand and Australia for after India.
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