Mona Rope Swings

This post is pretty overdue mostly because every time I try to import the pictures from my camera to my computer one of those two items freaks out. Anyways, I have been hearing about these rope swings and have wanted to go for a long time. A couple weeks ago, I finally found a reliable source for directions here: http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/60322

The ponds are located about 35 miles south of Provo. To get there, take I-15 south and take exit number 236 to Mona. Turn right after exiting the freeway then turn left at the first stop sign. Drive south 1.7 miles and turn right on a paved road just beyond the outskirts of Mona. The road leads straight to the ponds.

We were only there for about an hour, but if you bring a raft or fishing pole or grill, it would be easy to hang out by these ponds all day! There are about 5 rope swings: 4 on the north side of the lake and one on the south side. Try them all! The one on the south side  has a water ski rope and for some reason is pretty hard for girls to do. Every girl that went before and after me on this rope swing completely face planted it, I wish it would been on film! I nervously survived though and would do it again.

I took videos but can't figure out how to load them, so here is my one picture:

(I have no idea who the guy in the green shirt is)

Let me know if you try it out or have any questions about it. Definitely a fun family or friend hot summer day adventure!

Bring It

Oh please bring it.

Life's a Party, Dress Like it.

Well I am headed to the classiest town in America.

So classy, in fact, that it costs $18 for a round trip bus ticket, dinner, and tokens, and we will cross the state border twice within 12 hours.

I have gotten A's on my first 5 assignments in my probability class (stats minor), it's about time to reward myself.

Figure I'll put practice to the test.

I'll let you know my winnings.

(No I don't know how to gamble and yes I have a mere $10 to spend.)

Homestead

This was a few weeks ago, still an adventure I would like to share though.

Gavin and I are always looking for new places, joys and thrills.

I saw this picture on pinterest,

was excited about it's Utah location, looked it up, and gave it a try.

This is a hot-spring filled crater in Midway, UT (featured on the upcoming episode of the bachelor!!).

Midway is my new favorite town- half way between Provo and Park City.

Gav and I went on a sunny January day and were about the only ones there.

On the website, it says you pay for a 45 minute swim. Because they weren't busy, we pretty much got to do whatever we wanted.

We just swam around with little life jackets.

Because the crater is 70 feet deep, it is also a great place for scuba diving if you are into that or want to train to be certified.

Leap list.

(Because I use that phrase instead of bucket list now.)

If you want to check it out, visit http://www.homesteadresort.com/Crater

I Don't Know What All These Lights Are For

Talk about knocking on wood.

When I wrote my post, "Deprived,"

I didn't know I was about to have one of the best nights of my life!

Gavin had the idea.

I had the car.

Patrick had the directions.

Hillary had the courage.

I can't tell you exactly what I did for fear of someone turning us in,

but it was a night full of my favorite things:

Hot springs, stupidity, and not getting caught.

Little looksy...

Deprived

It's been a while since I have done something crazy.

Given I spend 60 hours a week with school, homework, work, and lacrosse,

but now I am feeling deprived and the cold weather doesn't help.

I miss swinging on a rope with a Costa Rican I've never talked to before then landing in a waterfall,

getting lost trying to find hot springs,

being the only sober one to jump 50 feet off a bridge,

and blowing all my money.

Maybe it has something to do with maturity.

Nah...

Any suggestions?

Timpanogos

This post is way overdue, but I still want to share!

The Saturday before Labor day, I wanted to hike Timp. I have done it before, but not in a few years. My neighbor from home wanted to hike too, so we got a group together and started driving around 3 a.m. There ended up being only 8 of us when a lot more people said they could come. That is ok though, we missed everyone else, but 8 is a great number of people to hike with.

Lynn and his friend Craig came down with my brother Jake. I drove Hillary, Rick, Autumn, and Tyler. It was Autumn's first hike ever! We threw her right in there!

These guys are champs. They carried their skiis all the way up the mountain. They got their skiing in for September, meaning they have skid every month for the last year!

The only toilet on the entire mountain. What a great view.

Fetaling, the new planking.

The greatest driving range.

When we got to the top, we decided to slide down the glacier instead of hike back down the way we came up. Bad idea Madi, bad idea.

This was the detour...

This was the experience...

Don't try it yourself.

Then we took the wrong trail from the glacier and Lynn had to chase us down and redirect us. It was all I could do to backtrack, we were exhausted after that glacier! Rick literally had to push me back up until we could start hiking down again.

With the aspen trail and the glacier, we added an extra 2 hours onto our trip. Timp-1, Madi-0. Next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing.

Dear Summer 2011,

I appreciate that you have been full of good times like Angels Landing and mattress surfing, It's its and going fishing. I've gotten lost, slept in, eaten at Menchies too many times, and rafted in multiple places. You've allowed me to read self-betterment books, a lot of blogs, and a lot of pinterest. You've kept me busy with bridal showers, weddings, and waterfalls. 7 peaks, Gepettos, rockslides, fetaling, nude high heels, and being done with Monday emails are also great characteristics of you that I have enjoyed. You've kept up the traditions of making scenes and nude lake. You almost spanked me with a train but I am not mad about that because I got to go to Alabama, see lots of cousins, and go hiking and camping.

But I want you to know that though I have lived you to the fullest since the end of April, I have not pushed you to your limits quite yet. There is a lot I need before September 21st so if you could stay warm til then, it would really help me out. I am also begging you for a little bit of October too.

Either way, you've been a blast. I just want to keep having a blast. Thanks.

Love,

Madilynn.

Redneck Rafting

On Saturday, Maddy and her parents and I went to a town that was so typical Alabama. I loved it! It was like what you see in movies about the south and the small towns with plantations and hillbillies.

There is this farm. Maddy called to get directions to the farm but she couldn't understand with the lady's heavy accent. She heard the freeway to freeway then something about a canoe.

After a few wrong turns we found it.

They didn't take credit cards, I don't know why we expected them to, so we had to find an ATM and come back. You pay this guy $10 and pick out a tube. Then you and your tube hop in the back of a pick-up truck and get dropped off at the river.

It takes about 2 hours to get down the river to where you parked. You go over a few little rapids and pass a rope swing or two, meet some southerners, see a turtle and a snake and some cows, and just enjoy the ride.

Let me define redneck rafting though. The other people there rented an extra tube and tied it to their own. In that extra tube they put a cooler full of beer. The second tube took priority while going over 'rapids.' Hilarious if you ask me.

F-pod: Joe Williams. He said he got his hat from Britney Spears and said he could hook us up with a place to stay if we want to visit. He also shouted that he needed to pee but he was scared it would propel him down the river too fast. Yeah he was completely wasted. My favorite line of his was "casper called and wants his legs back!"

At the end of the river, there was a cliff you could jump off and another rope swing. There was a ladder to the cliff with platforms every 8 feet-ish for jumping. I made it off the top of the ladder (25-30 ft) but couldn't bring myself above that. It's probably a good thing though.

I would have been the only one to do it sober.

Reunion

I got to spend last week with my mom's side of the family. The itinerary said games at the park, a luou, a talent show, and a movie in my grandma's backyard.

Apparently, when they say games at the park, they mean games at the park!

And when they say luou, they mean luou.

And when they say talent show, they mean talent show!

And when they say movie, they mean movie!

They also took very seriously a hike, a 5k, and family pictures.

Gotta love the summer family reunions!

Camp

Take nothing but pictures,

Leave nothing but footprints,

Kill nothing but time.

Before last week I had never...

Gone to Fish Lake,

Fished,

Carved my name in a tree along with someone else's,

or hitch-hiked (unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this!)

Thank you Scott family for letting me be part of your vacation! I loved it!

SoCal

What to do on vaca:

1. Replace a boogie board with an air-mattress. My family was the coolest family at the beach.

2. Ride the accelerator at Knott's Berry Farm.

3. When getting on a ride, don't look at the person who was in the seat before you were. It may or may not freak you out.

4. If you plan on showing up at a restaurant with a group of 27, call ahead of time.

5. Buy It's its at the grocery store. 350 calories of ice cream in between 2 cookies covered in chocoloate- so worth it.

6. Watch Baby Mama and quote it even more.

7. Boys remember- 5 hours of golf for you does NOT equal 2 hours of shopping for us. 5 hours of golf = at LEAST 5 hours of shopping.

8. Wear sunscreen. and lots of it.

9. Embrace the humid-curly hair with the no-makeup face.

10. 1 huge family, or 3 big families, or 5 families. However you look at it, it means 6 cans of sunscreen, repeating every story 8 times, 10 boxes of Its-its, 12 boxes of soda, 15 bags of garbage, getting everywhere 30 minutes later than expected, and at least 100 laughs.

Pics and videos to come!

Travelling with my team vs. Travelling with my Family

Stickbags and gymbags vs. Tupperware boxes,

Jammin to music vs. no one agrees on what music to listen to,

Talk about boys, roommates, and random questions vs. What are the people in the front talking about? I'm in the back and no one wants to listen to each others stories anyways,

Does anyone have clothes I can borrow vs. Who stole my clothes?

Bonding vs. Recording fights.

I love my family. I am excited to spend a week with them in California. But I may have really overestimated myself by agreeing to be in a full car with them for 12 hours.

Utah, see you next Sunday!

Within 2 days I went to work, finished 2 books, played mini-golf, roasted hot dogs, watched movies via projector in backyards, went 4-wheeling, crossed a river, had a great 7 peaks experience, tried a new Chinese Restaurant, and played whiffle-ball.

I love summer.

Books I finished: The Peacegiver, Believing Christ

Chinese Food: Fortune Cookie...highly recommended!

Sliding Rock

Like most of us, I have this summer list... things to do/accomplish/learn etc. before school starts again. The first thing on my list of adventures was sliding rock in Alpine. For those of you who haven't done this, there is this little waterfall up in Alpine, UT that is a natural waterslide. I have been there before and it was a blast but I didn't remember exactly how to get there. I figured it would be a good thing to do since the weather was wonderful; the first day of SUMMER!

At about 5:00 Ryann, Gavin, and I drove to the trailhead and started hiking. Poor Ryann only had flip-flops. We got to the end of the road and there were 2 trails. I hate making decisions. There is a small trail that goes north and a big trail that was blocked by 2 boulders. Naturally, we chose the trail that was blocked. We hiked close to a mile and decided that we probably should have taken the other trail. We backtracked a lot and finally found where we wanted to be.

Because this is what the waterfall usually looks like, this is what we were expecting:

Due to the massive amounts of rain Utah has received this year, this is what the waterfall looked like on Tuesday:

We went down the slide once, somehow lived, and received our dose of adrenaline. I will definitely be hitting this place up again when the water is lower!

If you want to try it out for yourself, it is awesome in July and August. Anyone over the age of 8 could do it when the water is normal. I have heard of kids younger than 8 riding on their parents' laps. You can't live in Utah or Salt Lake counties and pass this up!

Directions

Take the Alpine/Highland exit off I-15 and turn left (north) on Alpine Highway. If you are coming from the South, take an American Fork exit and head north on 100 East, this road turns into Alpine Highway. Turn left (west) on Fort Canyon. The address is 1800 N Fort Canyon Road. If you stay on Fort Canyon, you will go straight into someone's driveway. Right before this driveway, there is a smaller road that forks to the right, take this. Park by the No Trespassing sign. Apparently it isn't trespassing. Walk through that gate and up the road until the road ends. (This is about a mile long hike.) From this point, you can either hike east, past the 2 big rocks, or North on the little trail. GO NORTH. The waterfall is about 30 yards from there. If you go east, you will find a pond with a popular hill and bike jump. I have seen guys do this and it is sweet, but I have never tried it.

If you do go on this adventure, in JULY or AUGUST, let me know how you like it! Also, if you have anything I should add to my summer list, please post it. I am always looking for fun stuff like this :)

On the Day the World Didn't End

When I was in high school, a new community (Daybreak) was built about 10 minutes away from my house. My girl friends and I went to check it out and we discovered a little man-made lake in the middle of the neighborhood. Later, we were looking through my garage and we found one of those little kid rafts you can pump up... the ones you get at Target for about $30. Lake + Raft... It didn't take long for the raft to become our new best friend.

The first time we played on the raft, Maddy and I blew it up, stuffed it in her car, headed to daybreak at night, got freaked out, came home and decided to do it more often.

Since that day, we have taken the raft down the Jordan River, to Daybreak many times, to fountains and ponds on campus, in pools at apartment complexes, to Nude Lake (feel free to ask), and any other puddle, pond, river, pool, or lake we could find.

About a year after our first rafting experience, I was talking to some of my guy friends. They said they were going sailing (this was probably my senior year of high school). A little confused because we live about 15 hours away from any beach, I asked what they meant by sailing. They explained that a few guys in the group had some little kid rafts that they took to ponds around the city.

Were we destined to be friends? Yes.

After many failed attempts to get the raft past my mom and into my college apartment, I finally got it down at BYU my freshman year. Some of my high school friends and some of my college friends still would play on the raft with me. The raft got beat up, and we patched it so many times! What a champ that thing was!

The next year all my friends went on missions or to different universities. I brought the raft home with me for the summer, my mom found it, and threw it away because it had a hole in it. Mom we seriously could have patched that.

My rafting days were over for a while and I was not happy because of it.

So

Saturday, May 21, 2011

It was the only day in the last week and a half that it hasn't rained all day. Gavin took me to Olive Garden for dinner and when we came home it was getting dark but was still nice outside. "Wanna go rafting?"

We went to his garage and found his old raft that hadn't been used in over 2 years! We drove over to the golf course at about 10 pm and snuck the raft onto the golf course pond. It is in the middle of the city, but the pond is surrounded by trees so it feels like you are somewhere else. We brought blankets, a portable DVD player, Pirates of the Caribbean, cuddled up and watched Pirates in the raft on the pond at the golf course.

Top that for a date!

P.S. Trespassing is only a minor offense, right? Please don't tell.

Yes yes, we did that.

I am a little late on this one, but I finally have time to post about last weekend. Some of the things I loved about it:

This Drive

This family

This photographer

This hike

This view

These champs

This face

and this picture...

We weren't down there long, but it was my first time to Zions and I loved it! I am already banking on going back soon!

Spanish Fork

I don't know what made my weekend so great. Maybe it's that I spent Friday night playing murder in the dark with my 2 little sisters and watching Psych! with my parents. Maybe my weekend was so great because Saturday started with lacrosse. Also, Gavin crowd surfed, and when we were eating at Mis Mariachi's Brent started a sentence with "Next time I come here..." and Randall got covered in chalk. Maybe it's just the fact that those 3 boys are home and I got to see them all. Maddy, Charlotte, and Cassie drove down from Logan for Woodstock, so that, singing Jiya with Maddy, and eating cow tongue probably had something to do with why my weekend was so great. Also, Caleb is a horse, Brent is curious, Jesse is a girl's lax coach (for reals), I am bendy, and Ryann is a prostitute. That made my weekend pretty great too. Maybe my weekend was so great because today I went to church, teamed up with my brothers in a game of Farkel, learned how to drive a stick-shift, my dad was home before 9, and I will be in bed by midnight. Anyway you look at it, my weekend was fantastic and I want to thank anyone and everyone who may have had something to do with it.

Pictures of the Weekend