Team Zubs Whitewater Club Page

with a heart full of sorrow // a tribute to mr. finch

2012-02-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

growing up i often found myself running, screaming, terrified, surrounded by friends, neighbors, brothers, we ran, jumping over stumps, tripping over ourselves, pure chaos in sued as we rushed through the orchards, running from the man on the tractor, running from "Mr. Finch."

as i grew older, bigger, wiser, i grew to love "Mr. Finch," simply because his heart was full of warmth and i was lucky enough to call myself his grand-daughter.

my grandfather passed away this morning.

my grandfather was a ripple in still water, his warmth extended far beyond his reach. he had an incredibly contagious personality, i loved being near him. he had a spirit of adventure, he travelled, he saw the world, he lived and he loved living. he found his sweet-heart and best friend early on and spent 62 years married to her. she passed away a year ago, and he missed her greatly while they were apart.

they are together now. they were sealed to be together forever just a year before she went home. i can only imagine their reunion this morning.

over the years i've shared many incredible memories with the great spirit that lived inside my sweet sweet grandpa. he worked hard. he was a farmer all his life. he worked with his hands. he was a master black smith. he was a man of integrity and he knew how to smile. he lived to be 90 years old, and was in relatively good health until the end.

as i sat next to his bed tuesday night with his hand in mine, tears in my eyes and a heart full of love, i was able to tell him goodbye. I told him that I would miss him so much, I told him that I loved him. I asked him if he remembered coming to the finish line of the r.a.n.a.t.a.d a few years ago, he said that he did. I told him that it meant the world to me that he was there, I will never forget getting to the finish line and seeing him there, with open arms. I told him that I know he will be with me at every finish line I come across. He put my face in his hand and he smiled, he winked at me and said, "I will always be with you."

i know that he will.

grandpa, I love you. I am so grateful for the many memories that I have with you, working at the cherry farm, sitting across from you at the table listening to the tales of your life, looking up to you always, swapping hats with you as a young child, watching your eyes tear up with joy when I arrive home from adventures, knowing with out a single doubt in my mind that you loved me. I will miss you, you taught me to live, you taught me to be a hard worker, you taught me to love with a pure love, i'll never forget that sparkle in your eye, that laugh, that grin, and that warmth that you shared with me and the world.

i cannot wait to see you at the finish line. i love you.

Will she be a kayaker?

2012-02-02T14:01:00.002-07:00

This morning, I caught Lyndsey reading my Essentials of Whitewater Kayaking textbook. She pulled it off the shelf and was pointing at the cover, "talking" to the kayaker. Then she thumbed through the book.

She is at 23 pounds, so that means....17 more pounds until the Fun 1???

Miss you guys.

Let's Talk About Winter

2012-01-22T21:35:00.002-07:00

So, this idea of winter has finally decided to show up, a few months late, but she is here.

I was getting a little over the whole, find snow to ski it idea as you can see from the picture above, waiting for a snowmobile tow-out after making my way through the dirt and the grime.

yes, it finally snowed.

I've spent my last couple days off skiing at Alta with my big sister, here we were yesterday enjoying the puking snow, the face masks and the fat skis. A very enjoyable day indeed.

oh, and look who I found, Fat Newty and his invincible team of two, Tiffy and Greg. I was fortunate enough to spend the morning shred dogging with this gang the other day, had to avoid people who needed help from "ski patrol" in order to stick with them, but I was crafty.

The snow kept falling this weekend, and then, this morning the skies cleared, the sun popped up and I found myself standing on top of a mountain trying to get the snow to move. These photos were taken today, after waking up at 4 AM, making my way to the mountain, assembling 60 lbs of explosive hand charges with the "Bomb Squad"that I have recently become a member of, skiing out to the Far East Ridge line with my team and navigating our way through this crazy chess game we call Avalanche Control.

My route partners, Dane and Carey, discussing snow.

The Sunrise this morning was pump-up-the-stoke edition // I bought a new point and shoot camera that I love by the way, it's nice to have something small that I can snap a few moments with. Here is Dane and that sunrise.

Explosive work.

and then there is that snow science stuff I've been into lately, the snowpack is incredibly sketchy this year, but it has allowed for a super stellar learning curve when it comes to getting right in there and looking at it. i've certainly enjoyed the brain boost it's giving me.

looking down at this often times makes me smile.

looking down at this often times makes me remember that multiple simultaneous days in ski boots makes my feet hurt. but. things are good my friends. much love //

mendy was first runner up...

2012-01-22T00:20:00.001-07:00

in distinguished young women tonight. She looked beautiful and performed flawlessly.

January // Thaw

2012-01-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are, it's January, feels like March. I still get to work most everyday up at the old sun-dandy with the little snow that we do have.

I am learning a lot about snow science this year, and even with the lack of snow it has been interesting to get out and make my brain grow.

some days I look more like a ninja gnome than a ski patrol person, but i get the job done regardless... or irregardless for that matter, I've just recently been informed that "irregardless" is an acceptable term. I guess I should re-title this post to read January // De-Thaw. What is this world coming to?

Anyway, I found myself up at Alta on my day off yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed myself skiing with My big-little sister and her mustached boy friend Chris whom is visiting from Austria for the month. It was a stomp-tastic shred-gnar day. Loved it. Let's see, what else is new? I've had some form of viral-bronchitis-death-gumbo in my lungs for the last week and a half which has really hindered my breathing, sleeping and living for that matter, I think I'm on the uppity up now though. Goodness //

Grand Canyon Mini Edit // Finchie from Shannon Finch on Vimeo.

Here is a funny little mini edit I through together from the grand trip. Anyway, life for me is good. I'm happy and I would like for it to snow. Hope all is well with you guys!

Love //

Beatles song or phrase

2012-01-15T10:53:00.003-07:00

sorry this has been so long in coming.

New Year, and Lyndsey's 1!

2012-01-08T20:05:00.004-07:00

Here she is on her birthday.
We went paddling on her birthday-- three days before the new year! Pretty close to our New Year's Day paddle.
Birthday party! At first she was very timid, but after a few minutes she dug right in to her cupcake. I still can't believe she is one!

This just doesn't look like winter! We went down to the Clearwater to enjoy the sunshine.

Our budding artist

2012-01-07T01:37:00.002-07:00

Self portrait by Jack R. 2011

Title or phrase from a Beatles song

2012-01-01T10:48:00.003-07:00

Each week I will visually depict a Beatles song or phrase and you try and guess the phrase.

Happy new year from Utah

2012-01-01T09:28:00.002-07:00

The plan was to usher out the new year by paddling, but instead we ushered out the new year by biking. It was good to have two team members in the same space after about 6 weeks of seperation. We got cold enough that we were able to break out the ho cho after the ride. Good times.

Hope you both have a great new year and I hope your resolutions for the new year include more paddling. I'm pretty sure it will be hard for me to paddle less than last year.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T01:26:00.002-07:00

We should be paddling together tomorrow. It just doesn't feel like the new year without freezing our toes off together.

I hope this new year is good for both of you: progress in the right direction, comfort in sending your daughter off to a new adventure, and finding happiness in the pursuits in your life. My heart is with you both.

Happy Birthday Lyndsey :)

2011-12-29T18:42:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe it's been a year.

Merry Christmas !!

2011-12-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas!! from all of me to all of you. What an amazing time of year, so much to be grateful for. Friends. Family. Life. Love. Beauty. Lungs. Music. Existence. Peace. and all around goodness.

Thank you for being apart of my life. Thank you for bringing holiday cheer to my soul. My spirit wouldn't be seen if not for the light of others that illuminates it.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, may this time of year be full of good cheer.

Alan, as you can see from the above photo, yes, I worked all day. It was a wonderful day though. My big LITTLE sister came up to ski with me, I laughed a lot, I smiled even more and then... I got to come home to a house full of creatures waiting for my arrival, with more smiles, hugs and loves than a girl could ask for. Christmas was pretty great.

Love //

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

to everybody everywhere.

Shannon. It's so weird to have a post....

2011-12-20T03:39:00.001-07:00

related to whitewater on here. I hope this doesn't change the mood of the blog. : )

Grand Canyon // Private // Trip Report

2011-12-20T00:59:00.004-07:00

I don't know where to begin, i suppose the beginning would be a good place to start.. the beginning, well May of 2010 whilst driving to the Selway with the one and only Fat Newty, I was invited to join him on an adventure, so I marked it on my calendar, etched it in my arm and burned it in my brain, November of 2011 I would be paddling down the Grand Canyon. To be honest, it always seemed like something that was far off in the future, and when it arrived as I knew it would on the 13th day of November, I found myself surprised. It was here. We were at Lees Ferry, boats rigged, smiles attached firmly to our faces, and we ready ready, to depart down river. and...We embark.

There were 16 humans. 5 kayaks. 7 rafts. and a whole lot of food. Meet the team: If you notice the photo above and to the left you will see a team photo, from left to right, top to bottom we have: Evan Tea and his beautiful wife Nash. My soul brother, johnnie a, also referred to as "souly" Next to him we have Shad Hunter, Jason Tea, Grace Rich, Lindsay Hale (My bestie from another breastie) Keith and Jenny Davidson, Our natural born leader and "elmer" of the party (he was the glue that held us all together) Fat Newty, back down to bottom left we have: Wiley, Myself, Ben Hanel, Brian Dowd, Cass and Mark Pierce. That is the cast, for the first 6 days anyway, we would swap out a few players a little ways down stream. The accumulative number of trips down the Grand Canyon between all the members of this party was over 700. I've now been down twice.

I don't know that I can describe with words what exactly happened in 18 days, over the course of 277 miles. A lot happened. A lot of things made me laugh, a lot of things made me think, a lot of things made me stop and listen, and even in moments when it was loud, chaotic, and full of happenings, I found myself in silence, it was a peaceful place to exist. I will let the photos do most of the talking in this post, but I'll interject with my punctuated grammar when I find it necessary. Every camp was awesome, each one becoming "home" within moments of landing for the night. We often found ourselves at camp around 2-3 in the afternoon. Fire was started by four, dinner served by five and off to bed by seven. Seven!? Well... yeah, most nights we didn't make it very far past the seven o'clock hour, eight if we was lucky! Our evenings were totally rad, they were packed full of food, stories, music and laughter, we guitared, we danced, we sang and we were.

Lets talk about weather, whether or not we had weather, i assure you we experienced weather, but not the weather one might expect in the time frame that was November the 13- December the 3rd. I brought too much warmie warms for the weather. It was nice, I slept out under the stars most night. As you can see in the photo above, top right corner, there were some moments that you could call chilly, but I bundled up, secured my spot at the fire and smiled.

oh lindsay hale, always a good time with this bestie from another nestie around... she pretty much spent the entire trip trying to be just like me... as you can see from a couple of the above photos that she did a pretty darn good job of it. I spent the majority of my hiking time with this gal and I loved every moment of it. Pretty sure I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Redwall Cavern was a super cool spot to hang for a moment, played some frisbee, took on some sunshine, took a couple photos and existed together.

The camps were seriously incredible. The miles in between the camps were astonishing. and every moment that filled the spaces in between the two were remarkably memorable... often times I found myself thinking, this... this is a moment to keep.

we were able to do an up and over hike on day four, it was pretty sweet really, some of us started at camp and ended up rowing boats down, certainly an outstanding walk-about. The wind (i know fatty, four letter word) started to blow that afternoon, it picked up incredibly so that night, I found myself running around camp at 2:00 AM in pink tie-dyed frum-undies, making sure that my purple diansaur suit and other belongings weren't blowing back up to Lees Ferry, it was quite the wind event I must say.

We spent a lot of time wandering. Which totally ruled. The history of this place almost screams it's story, at times it can almost be deafening. Here we are above Tanner rapid, messing about, in the rocks.

these photos are not entirely in chronological order, they're close, but yeah. So here we are on day five, otherwise known as FAT NEWTY'S BIRTHDAY!! Whiskey // Tango! Celebration Station, as you can see cake and candles were prepared and a compelling dance party followed, happy birthday to you mr. newtimus, thanks for being born and bringing us down to your party! What a celebration it was indeed. That Newty, I guess he is worth celebrating.

The next morning we hiked. Destination: The Tabernacle. Breathtaking. The hike took about two hours to get there, we hiked right out of camp, up along a spine and seemingly to the top of the world. Not a bad place to spend a morning.

Photos and such were taken at the top. The sun shown brightly, the smiles followed suit, life was impressively good. We hiked back down to camp, and ventured forth down the river, today we would enter "the gorge."

It all seems like a blur of happy goodness really, I certainly took more photos on the first half of the trip than the latter... well, on day six I decided to break my camera. Dropped it in the water right after taking the above photos, oddly enough the last self portrait I took almost shows the exact expression I had on my face after realizing what I'd done. A whiskey tango foxtrot moment indeed. But, I was in the grand canyon with some pretty grand folks and I was determined to have a good time. So, I threw the camera and lens in a bag of rice and moved on. I'll admit, it was incredibly hard to wonder through some of the beautiful places we did and be without my camera. Thank goodness the photo story doesn't stop here, my sidekick and greatest inspiration fat newty came through once more, he let me use his camera on a few occasions, which made me happy. So, somewhere around this time we swapped some of the cast out, the davidsons and jason tea hiked out at Phantom Ranch and Jocelyn and Greg Newton hiked in, bringing with them a whole new energy.

There was some water down in that canyon... around 21,000 cfs of it in most places. The rapids were incredibly fun, outstanding really. Huge fun happy big brown claw goodness. I couldn't have been happier with the boat I chose to take. The water was just super super super fun. The eddy lines and boils could be tricky at times, the waves could be enormous, the energy was rad, and I simply loved it. The rapids really had little consequence for the most part, just fun bigness, and I enjoyed every single moment, even when my little vessel was tossed to and fro and up down and around, rag-dolled at times, but always flowing with a good positive energy. There was no carnage. Everyone had very stylie lines, some with one oar, some with two, big hits and giant smiles, high sides and high fives. It was awesome to experience the adrenaline with everyone. There were some serious landmarks made in the boating careers of some, I saw some paddling and rowing that simply made me proud. I was just stoked to be along for the ride, what an incredible ride it was // following the man with the gray beard.

the brown claw simply was //

oh, and then there was thanksgiving, turkey, taters of the mashed variety, stuffing, rolls and cranberry sauce, yes, cranberry sauce. we had decorations which were supplied by Benjamin hanel and credited by me, we had pumpkin pie, and we had a thankful thanksgiving, together. I think Mark Pierce's smile in the top right corner pretty well summed up the day. I was very thankful to be where I was, with the people I was with, all tied up in the spirit of thanksgiving.

the following day we hiked... up and up and then over, and then down. It was AWESOME! We headed up to the source of the Thunder river which was mind numbingly awesome, an oasis of goodness in the dessert. We hiked up to some granaries, that were super cool, we crossed the river a few times, we hiked through Surprise valley, and down to the source of Deer creek to the patio, and meandered down along the cliffs back to the mighty Colorado River.

I was entirely grateful to Newty once again for letting me take his camera for the day.

I believe the hike was about 9 miles or so. We camped across from deer creek falls that night which was directly across the river from the end of our hike. What a way to spend a day. Pump up the stoke...whish whish whish.

Havasu was a welcome gem, it was certainly a fun place to spend an hour or so.

a few more random moments that filled our days //

I think one of my favorite camp was Ledges, pictured top left, you can see me sleeping soundly on a ledge above the river. That camp also had the "this-rules" factor because we had like an hour of incredible sunlight that promoted very little clothing and a lot of just lounging around like a bunch of lizards. So, the bottom right photo depicts a different moment all together from the sunshine ledge experience, yes, this is the night that my dry suit froze. flat as a pancake, cold as an ice cube... boy that was a chilly time indeed, forcing my scrawny self into the flattened freezer that was my dry suit.

Ben Hanel pictured in black and white did a pretty good job just keeping it real most of the trip, my hair did a pretty good job of just minding itself, wiley did a pretty good job of always smiling and being nice to people, and greg newton stayed out of focus just long enough to get away with everything, always with a sly dog smirk on his face, oh the madness that encircled our little bundle of buddies //

yes, it was beautiful. here I am at Travertine Falls, just another freaking beautiful place, you'd think we would get tired of all these glorious creations right? Top right is Deer Creek Falls. We had to wake up to that one morning. Glory glory :: Hallelujah

and then, 18 days seemed to have disapeared into the canyon. I could not believe how fast time seemed to go by throughout the whole trip. I wish this blog post did the trip justice, but alas, the moments, the memories, the experience... is one that is simply impossible to describe. However, I could not forget it if i tried.

and at the end of it all we seperated ways, we separated the ammo cans, the camp chairs, the paco pads and the paddles, we packed up the dry suits and the tables, and at the end of it all we seemed to find ourselves wanting, oh to be able to do it all over again. What a remarkably memorable experience it was. I simply loved every mile, every memory and every moment.

Thank you to everyone it was magical.

Love //

I have been living by this saying that Mendy told me today:

2011-12-19T21:23:00.001-07:00

Whenever I utter the word excersize, I have to wash my mouth out with chocolate.

I had a slight calf pull

2011-12-15T17:44:00.002-07:00

on my run today, now I'm hobbling. Can't catch a break. The swimming is good though, no injuries there and I seem to be improving. I think it is really rehabbing the shoulder I dislocated 18 months ago on Brush creek. :)

pictures from Cancun

2011-12-12T21:00:00.002-07:00

pictures from Cancun

2011-12-12T20:51:00.001-07:00

Rena and I won a trip to can cun and we just got back

2011-12-09T21:56:00.001-07:00

I did lots of walking on the beach, with some bare foot running. The vacation mode set in and so the volume of running and walking was pretty reduced. I did do some swimming in the pool and some ocean swimming too. The ocean swim was in pretty rough water but was good practice. I really wouldn't want to swim in water that rough. I will post some pictures soon.

Shannon's trip report here...

2011-12-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

had a breakthrough today

2011-12-03T10:33:00.002-07:00

I've been run/walking about 20 to 25 miles a week for a month or so. most of that mileage is walking, 60% i would estimate. my calves and achilles' feel too feeble to handle much. The least hint of something about to be a pull or strain and I walk.

Today was the first day in months that I haven't felt on the precipice of injury. I went 6 miles, 80% of it in run mode. I'm hoping tomorrow I'm not writing about a breakdown.

read from 4 post down first.

2011-12-01T13:43:00.002-07:00

this version is for me, but the version Mendy wants is the previous one.

you need to read this from three posts down and then read up

2011-12-01T13:31:00.003-07:00

I think this is the final version. At least 'til Rena comes home.

mendy didn't like that version

2011-12-01T11:54:00.002-07:00

I needed to create a sponsorship page for ...

2011-12-01T11:35:00.002-07:00

Mendy for the program for distinguished young women. Feed back is needed today if it is to be changed.

I am not posting this just for post count, really.

2011-11-24T12:13:00.001-07:00

Where ever you are I hope you all have a great Thankgiving. I'm so grateful to have you in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:02:00.002-07:00

Rena's insanely delicious apple pie. I could have taken pictures of store bought punpkin pie but this is just too mouthwatering.

I went run/walking the other day...

2011-11-24T11:56:00.002-07:00

and found these images to shoot on the hood of the Mercedes.

Side note on SMU

2011-11-24T11:45:00.001-07:00

I'm quite sure smu doesn't stand for southern meth dist. university because that would be smdu.
See first picture below.

Mendy auditioned at SMU

2011-11-24T11:38:00.003-07:00

One day after Nutcracker, Mendy and I flew to Dallas to audition at SMU (Southern Mormon University) or some other religion that starts with an m- mennonite or muslem or something.

She made the first cut and got to perform her solo and now we just wait to get a letter. We're just hoping to have the priveledge of paying $39,000 a year for tuition.

Mendy and Ady in Nutcracker

2011-11-24T11:32:00.002-07:00

Mendy and Ady were in Nutcracker last week. They both had the biggest parts they've ever had and did really well. Mendy got a few backstage shots. Unfortunately we have to wait for the dvd for Ady.

I went to the pool today

2011-11-16T18:00:00.001-07:00

and knocked out 2 miles. It's official, I can swim further than I can run.

halloween pictures

2011-11-14T19:10:00.003-07:00

Ady was Bethany Hamilton from Soul Surfer

Bailie was a peacock

a picture of Rena and me

2011-11-14T18:59:00.001-07:00

A picture of me and Rena

2011-11-14T18:55:00.001-07:00

here is the Zubs Postcard

2011-11-14T18:53:00.002-07:00

we've got 60 posts this year

2011-11-10T19:05:00.001-07:00

last yr was 104 posts. We need to beat last year. all agreed? Fill it up with meaningless posts like this.

Our friendship.

2011-11-09T19:17:00.003-07:00

I just read over portions of our last four years of blogging-- so cool to look back at the memories and the bonds that we have created and strengthened. Some of my favorite blog moments:

1) Watching Shannon develop from a good kayaker to an exceptional one! What a ride! I feel honored to be part of it.

2) Sharing the moments of life, on and off the water. Races, trials, challenges...

3) Admitting that I am not the most relaxed person, and returning to three wonderful comments all assuring me that I am perfect the way I am. Alan said, "Don't change-- if you did, who would make the decisions?" That one actually made me tear up tonight.

4) Reading all the "expecting" blog posts before I finally announced my pregnancy with Lyndsey. Alan was "expecting" Izzy (spelled wrong probably) and Shannon was "expecting" a stressful day.

5) Birthday posts.

6) This post: http://team-zubs.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-always-wanted-house-in-river-bottoms.html I can't remember ever laughing this hard.

7) Just being a family. We are family. I was truly reminded of that tonight. In my two and a half years up here, I have not been alone. I have been lonely, but you were both just a phone call or blog post away. There is never judgment or doubt or being forgotten.

I love the river.

2011-11-03T11:55:00.006-06:00

I have to start with kid photos. These guys make me smile. Alan, recognize the trike? Thanks to you and your family.

Alan, I am anticipating your Halloween pics! It is tradition! (And you know I'm big on tradition). Lyndsey is the cute butterfly-- she totally was the cutest kid.

Last weekend, we got the opportunity to go fishing on the Clearwater River. Although it was a completely different experience than kayaking (we did four miles in six hours), it was still great to be out there with Chad and our friend, Bill. Chad caught a steelhead! A steelhead is a rainbow trout over 20" that has made it to the ocean and returned-- through all those dams on the Columbia and on up the river system. Considering we are 450 miles from the ocean, it is pretty darn amazing!

I struggled with the pictures a little (okay, a lot) so forgive me for the haphazard placement. I'm just glad they are finally all on here.

Lake Powell Adventures

2011-10-11T20:35:00.002-06:00

First of all, I am sad to move Alan's first descent down the page. What a huge accomplishment! :-)

One of the best parts of my trip was being able to see two members of Team Zubs: one original and one honorary! I guess I saw Chad too, but that was expected. Thursday afternoon, I heard a boat motoring around our bay and I look out to see dreadlocks flying in the wind-- it was great to see Shannon! And I felt so lucky that she made such an effort to do so. I felt blessed to have a friend who loves me so much. It was a highlight of my trip! Then, when we were at the E gates in the SLC airport, connecting to our flight to Spokane, I saw a familiar tall kayaker in a different element than usual. It was great to give Newty a hug and see a friendly face.

Lake Powell was amazing. First, some sad news: the camera went into the lake inside of Chad's pocket, so it remains to be seen if we can get the pictures off of it. But I loved wakeboarding, swimming, watching Jack be a little hero. He swam all over that lake, tried tubing, went down the slide off the back of the houseboat, and drove a SeaDoo all by himself (Chad was present, but Jack did it on his own!) I can't even describe how amazing it is to see him be a person! He is cool!

Lake Powell is a wonderful place for reflection: I felt so blessed to have my family and my friends and my simple life in Moscow. I am surrounded by happiness. Our first night out on the lake, we faced a terrible storm-- one of the worst the Neilsons have experienced. I was laying (lying?) awake in bed when I started feeling severe gusts, and one ripped three anchors out of the sand. We were flailing across the water, connected to only one rock anchor. We ended up in a cove quite a way up the beach, and I sat holding my baby and answering my four-year old's questions, trying not to sound panicked. I watched a rock outside fly past the window at least twenty times. I must say I was scared. Chad was out in the open water in his clothes, trying to save us and the boats. Chad's Dad and Mom, brother-in-law and sister were risking their lives too. When it was all over and we were safe, we knelt down and said a prayer of thanks that we were all preserved. I know God was there with us.

I am running my half on Saturday-- please cheer for me from afar. I need it!
I love you guys!

Ok so you guys are boating calm Lake Powell

2011-10-08T13:18:00.002-06:00

while I am kayaking the gnar. I think you will appreciate that when I edit a photo there is no mistaking that it is edited.

ok I think now I can download these shots

2011-10-03T21:02:00.001-06:00

Ady and I worked on this together.

some shots I have been working on

2011-10-02T17:54:00.004-06:00

well, i had two other shots but the others wouldn't upload.

Tough Race

2011-10-01T20:48:00.002-06:00

Today I ran a 5k in my worst time ever. It was very frustrating, but I am trying to not let it bring me down before my half marathon in just two weeks. The race started at 10 am, so the sun was beating down on us pretty hard. I was a good seven minutes behind my PR, which was so disheartening. If you guys have any tips on how to stay cool-- I would much appreciate it! The half marathon starts at 9 am, so it should be better, but it is down 2000 feet (down by the river) so it will be a little warmer.

It is hard to remind myself that I can't be 100% at everything all the time. I am trying to train, study for my auditing class, study for my tax classes, and be a good wife and mom. I think I am too much of a perfectionist sometimes (but you guys knew that, right?)

Overall, life is good. Off to Lake Powell on Monday-- hope to see you there, Shan!

just sayin

2011-09-19T21:48:00.001-06:00

the canal has dropped to the point that the risk-reward doesn't justify going. I know you all wanted to know.

Shan in motion

2011-09-07T19:55:00.002-06:00

so the strategy...

2011-08-31T18:04:00.004-06:00

is to flip when a cop drives down the road and hold our breath until they leave, no matter how long it takes.

This technique is called the hide your head in the sand or ostrich technique.

It seems to have worked, all those cops not one of them noticed us and I'm still free.

I SUK

2011-08-23T19:47:00.002-06:00

I started participating in a new sport...Stand Up Kayaking. It's a great sport for practicing your shimmy. I don't believe I've ever engaged my abs to the same extent. Even slack lining didn't give my abs the workout the SUKing did. I will say I need a lot more practice and maybe a 300 cm paddle, the 220 was way too short. On the way home from a pretty defeating outing I wondered if turning sideways and keeping both feet right on the centerline would produce better results. Any opinion Newty?

I tied one on...

2011-08-21T09:11:00.002-06:00

a kayak on the roof I mean. I did the spanish and then went to the res. for some roll practice because the boat rolls about like a biscuit 65 if you get my drift.

At the res. these adorable 7-8 years olds were admiring my boat. One said to the other, "look at that ship." The reply came back,"that's no ship, I think it's an old man's canoe." Did I call them adorable? I meant anoying brats.

It's pretty bad when this is the extent of my adventure, but at least I'm posting.

forks of the kern // final wrap up

2011-08-15T23:26:00.001-06:00

well. the season in kernville is coming to a close. an end of sorts. a final wrap. so, to top off a fantastic season i decided to do a bullet run down the forks. i didn't really get a day off... this summer. but i had a sort-of day off on friday so. i made it happen. i had to work in the morning carrying boats up for the sale. which turned out to be a tough 3 hours of work. carrying boats. and organizing them. by size. and company and. yes. i was tired. but 12:00 came around and i was set free.

we, johnny grom and myself, got to the trailhead at 2:00 PM. loaded up the kayaks with first aid kits, break down paddles, emergency blankets and pop-tarts, you know, the essentials. then we hit the trail. the 2 mile hike took us an hour. 1,000 ft in elevation drop.

i took some tunes with me to keep my mind of the pain that comes from 60lbs of boat and gear resting on your shoulder. i kept smiling, so i would say it worked.

there was a nice grass slide at the end that made for a great celebratory pose at the bottom.

and there we were at the put in. we met a handful of hiker types there, they were kind enough to take our photo and wish us luck as we shoved off.

we found ourselves in granite. in trees. in water. crystal clear water rushing through boulders and so forth. oh the sierras. what a magnificent place it is.

here i am looking back at the needles. you may recall last year i took a photo of myself standing on top of the needles lookout, it is the tower on the far left.

and it was just j. grom and myself. silence. 17 miles of solitude, rapids and goodness.

this smile was on the down-stream side of vortex. a good place to be :)

johnny entering one of many rapids.

j. grom running westwall at dusk. the lighting was perfect on the run. power to the peaceful.

scouting carson falls.

and here we are. at the johnson dale bridge. the take out. the final test of strength is getting up that dang hill with your boat. 2 mile hike = 1 hr. 18 miles of beautiful wild and scenic whitewater = 4 hrs.

4 months of life living on the kern. my arms are up in the air. stoked. what a great season it truly has been.

much love //

summer in pictures part un

2011-08-14T15:24:00.001-06:00

the summer in pictures part deux

2011-08-14T15:16:00.001-06:00

Checking in...

2011-08-11T10:07:00.003-06:00

Lyndsey already proving she will make a great Idaho Vandal someday! Ha ha.
This is how to have fun when you have two kids and thousands of dollars of medical bills!
My favorite subject! She is amazing to me.
I got new running shoes! I am feeling more confident about my running. When I started training, I couldn't even run a mile-- now I am up to a confident three miles and a possible four miles.
Here is our little man painting our door bright blue! I love it!

We are headed to Seattle this weekend for a commitment ceremony and lots of fun. I am excited to get out of town and be with my family.

Love you guys!

happy birthday AP

2011-07-31T16:58:00.000-06:00

A few days late... i know. but I wanted to wish AP a happy birthday via blog... making it official!

this guy... he's been around a while... since before motor vehicles.

yes... since before "Go-Pros"

... even before "logical" kayaking runs.

he's been around since before i became kayaker... and to him i owe my passion for this wonderful thing. so here are a couple photos i found in the archives of him. living. smiling. being. he's the best alan peacock i know.

middle fork of the salmon

team zubs // new years paddle led by our fearless leader AP and his purple dinosaur costume.

and of course. we've shared countless days on the water. fossil creek, az, sixth water which he pioneered, cross mountain, co...

it's been a lot of fun. AP. I'm grateful you were born and that you made your way into my life... or perhaps i made my way into yours, regardless. you're one of the greater people i know and someone that i truly consider one of my very best friends. happy freaking birthday. love you.

may the good times continue.

something new again. something blue again.

2011-07-22T23:10:00.002-06:00

well. once again... i've surprised even myself. another new boat. that is blue. also. it came just the other day. happy feet and all. and i took it out to the river. naturally i left the happy feet home, mostly because they make me unhappy. stuff a little foam in the bow and call it a day! so. j. grom and i went and did a little park and play at the cables wave. i brought the camera, which was fun, mostly because i love taking photos.

here are three of the photos that i really quite liked of j. grom master shred dog. i just love the water. i love editing with water. i love capturing water. the first of the three photos has so much movement in it. the wave is super fast and when the elements all come together and you edge just right you can catch a little air... with a little luck i caught that air on my camera. the second shot is a classic shot from me. focusing my thoughts on the water. i love the water dripping hence forth from j's helmet. and the last shot here kinda brings it all together. i love the angle. i love the water. the lighting is good and... well it just makes me think. yes. i do. i do like kayaking. surfing. water. splashes and good things. to say the least i would have been happy just staying behind my camera all afternoon. but... the heat got the best of me and i jumped in my new little blue boat.

not before a self portrait though...

so, i handed the camera off to johnny and he took a couple snap shots of me. and my new boat. that is blue.

the wave was super fun. had a couple pockets of disapointment that would spit you out if you fail to pay attention on them. the river left corner of the wave being one of those pockets. but all in all.. .it was fun. and fast. i think that shiney new boats are faster than old not so shiney boats. theory proved to be true so far. felt as such any way.

it was just so nice to be on the water. ok. so. another blue boat? yeah. WT. I ordered a custom color. green-white-purple. jackson called and said, no dice. they wouldn't be making any more this year... so i defaulted to green. naturally. but then i thought... no. be different. grow a little, venture out. so i emailed. i'll take a blue-white-blue... three days went by. and decided i needed green. so i emailed once more, casting all hope aside that the fine people at jackson wouldn't think i'm insane... they responded that I am insane and that it was too late. that my new blue-white-blue boat was on it's way. alright then.

so. i went back to smiling. and... i'm quite happy with the blue. i suppose we'll all have to get used to it. still ... i bleed green. much love //

AP ... I know you've got more stories about ho-cho to tell... M-Sauce keep us posted on that life in Moscow would ya, I want more stories about your new. blue. boat.

the utah krew that kame to kernville

2011-07-15T12:15:00.000-06:00

a group of friends made plans to come see me. this week i was blessed to have 11 friends. came all the way to kernville. to see me. i spose that's what friends do. and i was sure glad that they did. they arrived late on the night of the 11th. suppose it was the morning of the 12th when they arrived at 1:30. i tried to stay up and wait by watching a movie called Ponyo. I wouldn't recommend it. at all. we got up tuesday and had some breakfast at the cracked egg and then prepared for adventure.

this is the gang. that came. i was able to outfit them with some boats, a couple guides and a few thousand cfs of water. they supplied the smiles, laughs and happy things. i paddled along side them. like a little drone fish. ready for a show.

dropping into ewings.

the surf is coming in!

we did a couple laps. the first was the warm up down the lickety split run. which gives one of the best hits in ewings! it was so fun for me to watch and laugh as my friends blasted threw the waves. i watched landon get bounced right out of the raft in powerhouse. i watched tyson and taneshia do a synchronized barrel roll out of the raft in big daddy. i saw a lot of big grins and a lot of soaking wet happy people. happy friends. in kernville. with me.

we headed up and ran the cables section. which was super fun.

alex. tyson. and landon. three of my best friends. standing in the park. in kernville. what the.

it was a short and sweet little party. but i'm sure glad it happened. thank you friends. for coming all the way out to my little life. my little adventure. thanks for wanting to share a bit of it with me. much much love love //

blue boats // new boats

2011-07-09T22:26:00.002-06:00

chuck barbee. bought himself a boat. the other day as we were sitting on the deck. enjoying life and the afternoon, he jumped up and declared, "i forgot, I was going to buy a boat today!" and off he went. he returned. with a boat. yesterday, we took it out for a spin on the lake. it was lovely.

I got me a new blue boat. of the nomad variety. it's making me happy. i like that it's blue. i like that megan too has a new boat that's blue. who knew? perhaps a new team color too? probably not, but it's something. something that is happening. so. i got my new boat that is blue just the other day. thursday to be exact. i spent that night outfitting the boat to fit. to fit a me... a me fit. friday i took it for a test run. a break in. a, hmm, what does this boat got... so the first thing friday we went out. for a wonderful day. what better way to start out a lifetime of adventure with a new boat than scratching it up a bit on brush creek..? so off to brush we went, johnny grom and myself. and our boats. that are blue.

j. grom, my bestie, of the kernville variety.

here we is... d-ropping. on the triple drop. so much freaking fun. my goodness. it was fun to have someone taking photos this time... that someone not being me... that someone being wendy, the mother of j. grom, and one of the sweetest people i know.

doesn't that SKY blue color POP!!! My goodness. One word describes this boat. BOOFTASTIC. Yes, that is a word. It's fast, it's fun and it's blue. I threw down some brown claw action on these runs! Every time I ran the "big" drop I threw a brown claw, the first time making eye-contact with j. grom at the bottom. locked in. it was hilarious. brown. claw. brush creek. Goodness.

the two fellers on either side of j and i had never run brush before, so we took them down, brought back memories of my first lap which is the whole reason i'm sitting here now. the boy on the left of me is chris, you likely recognize him from the sierra south kayak guide photo. he rocks.

Between laps on brush J and I went down and ran Ant Canyon, a run that I've only done once before and it was running about 1200 at that time, this day it was closer to 4800. It was monsterous! What THE! The first rapid, as we peeled out of the put in eddy J said, " Shan, this first rapid is one of the bigger ones on this run..." I responded, "no worries, what's the line?" J said, "Oh, I have no idea, but it's class IV read and run." Read and run it is, my goodness, there are some large holes, massive one might say, one being me. For future reference the line on the first rapid is right, to left back to right! It was so fun to be on something new, something I'd been on before but have it be so different and so big... reminded me of joes valley. sweeeeeeeet.

what a great day it was, the best way to take a day off work! boy was i tired at the end of that day, but smiling nonetheless. ps. i added some new music to the blog. enjoi.

missing you all // love// get some, right megs?

my favorite shot from vail run

2011-07-08T21:53:00.001-06:00

chillin with Ady drinking ho cho

Cascade, ID!

2011-07-08T16:57:00.003-06:00

We had an excellent weekend in Cascade, ID, home of Kelly's Whitewater Park. It is really an amazing place. They are hosting the national championships this upcoming weekend, and it will overwhelm that little town! It is right below the dam on the North Fork of the Payette River, which, when dammed, is Lake Cascade. We camped there on the beautiful lake. We also did some swimming and just enjoyed the sunshine!
Here's a good sibling picture-- finally! I took about twenty, and this was the best one.
Here's our Lyndsey! It was neat to take her to the river she was named after! We met someone who worked on the play park who had a two-year old named Payette.
Here's "our" Chad in our new boat, with his new paddle, on a wave at the park. This wave reminded us a lot of Jack's summer home. Shan, I saw on Facebook-- I think your boat is the same color! Good times.

One of the best things about the park was an island in the middle of two channels. It provided a good take-out and gave plenty of space for the boaters to spread out. It was also great for taking pictures and for some wading for Jack.

Glad to see the team is out doing some kayaking, albeit not together. At least we're sleeping underneath the same big sky. :-)

some shots from where we are staying.

2011-07-06T12:33:00.001-06:00

Some ho cho action, even in the summer!!

a little a everything

2011-07-05T22:43:00.003-06:00

so here is the gang i get to work with. from left to right. will, spencer, david (the red haired version of me) stein, myself and chris. the kayak crew for sierra south 2011. never a dull moment.

speaking of dull moments. here are a couple shots i snagged from the sierra south site, they made me laugh. this.. is what we do.

we manage madness... over. and over. and over again. this shot made me laugh. i can see my thought process... ok, i got the boat. i see the swimmer, wow, he is actually swimming, keep swimming! now... where is the paddle? and when is lunch? oh the madness, tis wonderful indeed.

we put our heads down. pull them into shore. we help them in their boats. and then... we do it all over again. and at the end of each day i usually laugh. in an uncontrollable fashion. i really do love my job.

oh check this out!! it rained the other day. in a major way! total summer thunder storm down pour during one of my classes! it was awesome! here i am with one of my students. one of the other students in the class said to me, in all seriousness, "shan, my confidence level is way down because of this rain..." if only i could control the elements like i do my laughter. what a wonderful rain storm it was.

i play on an adult co-ed softball team out here. once sometimes twice a week. we rock. we're undefeated and everyone hates us. i end up bleeding somehow in every game. i dive, i get dirty, and i usually drop any ball that is hit directly to me, i only like to catch the hard ones.

slowly, but surely, i'm learning how to hit slow pitch softballs. waaaaaaaiiittt for it. i'm enjoying myself. on the water. and on the field. I spend the rest of my time being a nerd. KarmaBe Photo is happening. i'm so excited about it. i've spent a lot of time working on the website and coordinating events to shoot. we're stoked. check out the progress: www.karmabephoto.com

here is my personal link, i just finished it today. nerd alert.

www.karmabephoto.com/shannonfinch

love love love//

jack's summer home-open for business

2011-07-01T20:59:00.002-06:00

This post will include no pictures, sorry. Wednesday was the seasons opening. Of course, I was there. The flow was moderate, one might call it friendly. I was reminded of my goal to do a loop by July 4th and that is just around the corner. I was letting myself out of the goal because my kingpin doesn't have the volume to really get me airborn and it's not ice blue which we all know really pops, at least in the pictures. It was maybe the most fun I've had in a boat in a while.

I came home feeling a little like a kayaker. I looked on KSL and there it was a boat that really popped. A Jackson Superstar in yellow and red which also pops for the pictures pretty well.
I bought it yesterday, and debuted it at the summer home today. The canal had reached Shannon's favorite level, she likes it real sticky as I recall. There I was in this monster of a boat in a sticky hole, a little intimidating. The worst of the thing is all the squishiness of the happy feet, the sweet cheeks and the too lose of hip pads. Still I survived but definately have to work on getting a better connection to the boat.

That boat is big but the ends initiate easier than my kingpin, I know cuz' I really had to work to stay flat. It will really push me or kill me, sounds like fun.

joes valley // 750 cfs

2011-07-01T14:12:00.001-06:00

so. i've been on a blogger boycott, until AP pulls through with a post, lest i should have to remind him that he started this whole blog thing... ok. so, really i have a ton of stuff that i've failed to post about, but here is a story that i feel is worth telling. i went home a week ago. a week ago today in fact. at this time two weeks ago i was pulling into my driveway. then there was a wedding. what a beautiful thing it was. shane and emily, a magical confluence of lives. it was so nice to be with family, celebrating such a wonderful wonderful thing.

i really didn't take many wedding photos, but here is one at the reception. we had little bird houses and little mason jars with candles through the trees, puff balls and lightbulbs, it was so fun.

i got to paddle while i was home! the water on BV came up to about 1400 while i was there which was a pleasant surprise which stoked my stoker. i was privelaged to paddle twice amount of times with souly on that, my favorite backyard run ever and sir fatimus newtimus once. what a sweet sweet thing. stoked. ok, so the story i chose to tell. the story of cottonwood creek, joes valley, at 750 cfs. newty and i planned to spend the better part of wednesday going down to joes. i talked AP into coming with us. he let me use his kayak, dagger kingpin, we threw some hip pads in at the put in. i didn't have a paddle, well that's a lie, i did have a paddle there was a broken AT paddle in my closet. cracked on the shaft from that nemisis of a rapid on the black canyon of the bear... anyway, i like that paddle, in fact i'm quite particular about my paddle, so i jimmy rigged it. using a construction pencil and some red duct tape i had that thing all sorts of ready... so i hoped.

i had never seen joes at 750, i think that the highest i had seen it was around 400... and lets be honest we usually run it at about 250 on a good day. so we got there, not knowing what to expect, newty, ap and myself. a beautiful day. a great day to be with friends. i was so grateful.

so. we scouted. we found that there was water. lots of it. the rapid above is "alan's rapid" look a little different? to be honest there were so many times while scouting from the road that we didn't know where we was or what we was looking at. it was all so different. so... we jumped in our boats.

oh boy... from the get-go i realized that this was a very different joes. the holes that we scouted from the road were much bigger when on the water, it was go go go.

newty and i weren't sure how deep the water really was, it looked deep, but we decided to check it out for ourselves. conclusion: it was deep. and moving fast.

here is what happened in the above scenario.

the first few hundred yards of the run we chalk full of holes and giant-ness. we had scouted Alan's Rapid from the road, I chose my line. I would start left and work way right, next to the wall, then i would ferry above the two holes that were forming above the undercut rock which was almost underwater at this level. well, the plan went to pot as soon as i realized that i wasn't going to make the ferry, the current was way to strong. so, i turned my boat and took three good strokes and punched through the two holes, ending up in a stern squirt. I threw it down and turned down river, i was directly above a ledge hole that i really wasn't keen on hitting with no speed, or with speed for them matter, so i shot left of it, there was a small tongue, i knew i could at least try it, but then i was stopped. a thick tree branch was reaching across the tongue and smashed my arm, hard, sending me head first into the ledge hole... sweet. newty ended up in the hole as well somehow, i'm sure experiencing some sort of madness similar to my own. we rolled up and rolled out.

notice the red duct tape job. holla holla. skeet skeet.

double drop is always my favorite rapid on the run, this day was no different, it was stout. mo water = mo betta.

newty and i decided to do a little tandem system boating. good times. big water. good things.

mine car looked a little different! seems like there used to be a large boulder in there somewhere...

Alan, thanks for taking the great photos! What a great day it was to spend with two of the greater people i know and to find myself on a run that i know like the back of my hand yet know nothing of where i was. a worthy run indeed.

love//

Beautiful new boat has arrived!

2011-06-27T23:45:00.002-06:00

Today we heard the beautiful sound of a boat being dropped on our front porch.

It's blue.

I love it!

I will get pictures of it this weekend when we are at....drum roll please.....

Kelly's Whitewater Park, the only play park in Idaho (for now!), on the beautiful Payette River!

Of course it can't be as beautiful as the little girl named after it, but perhaps I am biased.

Remembering the Kingpin

2011-06-13T12:31:00.003-06:00

I'm sad about the Kingpin. Glad my sis and Chad are okay, but feeling nostalgic for a boat! I guess it feels like the ties to that life are slowly disconnecting, one at a time. So I wanted to share things I remember about the boat-- you guys both had it too, so do the same!

I remember seeing the Kingpin for the first time at the pool, the first kayaking class I took from Alan! It looked so much smaller than all the other boats. My friend that I took the class with (Jessica) learned to roll in that boat, I think. She took it on the Spanish Fork too. I was too nervous to paddle it that first class, because it looked so tiny.

For the longest time, that boat was synonymous with Alan. I knew he would be paddling it. I would follow it (and him) down so many rivers. Perhaps I am more familiar with the stern of it than the bow. I remember watching him take it down Cottonwood Creek, followed by him taking Devin's boat down and then mine.

I loved driving by Zubs in the morning, seeing the Kingpin tied to Alan's Trooper. That meant there was the possibility of a fun afternoon! I enjoyed seeing him drive through town-- you could spot him from a mile away!

I remember being sad hearing that Alan sold it to Shannon. I thought he would always have it! But then I got to know the stern even better, following Shannon down rivers. Hopefully she got to know my stern better too, on a few rivers! That's the boat where Shannon really became an exceptional kayaker, learning how to playboat and read rivers with the best kayakers out there.

I was happy to be the recipient of the Kingpin after many years! It was a great boat for us. It joined me on many runs of Bridal Veil and became the boat I was most confident in. I think Justin got to know the stern of it pretty well!

I think the Kingpin is a physical representation of things I love: the growth inherent in kayaking, the love of wonderful friends, and the joy of the river.

backpacking // the little kern

2011-06-10T18:52:00.004-06:00

i finally got a few days off work, i worked about 20 straight river days coordinating my kayak guide staff and students from different schools, with private and group lessons in between, we were all mentally and physically exhausted. i decided to retreat to the wilderness for my break, take a break from the whitewater, the waves and the chaos. i found refuge in the golden trout wilderness in the sequoia national forest. i took a sidekick with me. meghan wilde. it was her first backpacking trip ever! i got to teach her the do's and don'ts and the tips and tricks of becoming a turtle in the backcountry.

here we are close to the summit of our adventure, we hiked up just over 1,000 ft and then dropped down another grand to the river. The weather was beautiful. The trees were thick and green. The trail quite welcoming with new sights around every bend.

There is still so much snow in the sierras! waiting to melt, and become the little kern, which flows into the forks which becomes the kern, which flows in a constant fashion, sometimes silents and other times deafening. Flowing into the valley of kernville, my current home, keeping me afloat, flowing all around me, sometimes friendly other times not so much, into the nose of my students, and back out again, making it's way surely to lake isabella, spit out of the dam and eventually to the central valley, and turns into carrots. What a journey.

Meghan. Smiling at the top.

This footbridge was the end of our journey for the day. We set up camp only after shedding our clothes and diving into the sharp water, the icy elements flowing past, the shock presenting itself in desperate gasps of air attempting to escape my lungs. exhilarating. the taste of salt as the water drips from my face. i sit. and stare. with nothing else to do, and nowhere else to be.

the little kern flows through a magnificent granite gorge, the sound of the water bouncing and echoing off these walls, you can hear it's power, it's magical.

camp was quite pleasant, we shared dinner and sat by the fire, sharing stories, laughs and thoughts. sleeping under the star filled sky in the southern sierras is incredible. i slept soundly.

morning came with more sunshine. we hiked out the way we came in. up the way we came down and down the way we came up. just under three hours we returned to the element. which drove us back to kernville. it was so nice to get out of the village. away from the people. my people box was full.

it's summertime here. i feel good. life is good. love//

tacos tuesdays and tunes

2011-06-09T15:03:00.001-06:00

chuck barbee and myself hosted a little party last night at the house. being a tuesday i thought we should celebrate. so we made some tacos and shared some tunage on the beach.

here are a few members of the cast for the evening, myself and my southern belle meghan wilde, she comes complete with an alabama accent.

Meghan is learning to play the guitar, we made a trip to the village (bakersfield) earlier in the week to buy her her very first guitar! sweeeet. so, here we are, myself and my mandolin, meghan and her fender, on the beach at my home, the mighty kern flowing right on by, the fire shedding light and warmth. things were good.

the other side of the beach included wendy (johnny's mother and a tambourine) mr chuck barbee himself and of course johnny grom.

it was a perfect evening. johnny and meghan learning to play. egg shakers and tambourines, and me, singing, you are my sunshine, at the top of my lungs, making up words as I went.

topped off the evening with smores. now i'm heading into the sierras with my backpack. much love//

sensory overload.

2011-06-03T00:51:00.000-06:00

well. as i sit and stare at the computer screen expecting words to appear I realize that my brain is in melt down mode, the time is 11:00 pm. i'm going on day... sixteen or something? seems like I had a day off this week, oh yes, monday was my day off, I spent the day working a half day kayak instruction and a few more hours meeting the new group of 80 kids that I'm working with this week. so... lets talk about crossroads school. 30- 8th graders. in wet suits. learning. how to kayak. lets see, there were 30 of them, 6 of us guides. 5:1. which really equates to 90 items (kid, boat, paddle) so lets see thats 15:1 with 4,000 cfs in class III water, carry the two, square root of 49 equals 7, I just put a cake in the oven at 10:40 needs to cook for 35 minutes, the toilet in my bathroom needs to be flushed for 10 seconds, back to crossroads, yes. we were overwhelmed, it was circus. But. we did it.

the youngsters never stopped asking questions. in fact the answers to their individual questions inspired their classmates to ask the exact question from which the answer came to inspire the question they asked. in other words i repeated myself. a lot. never did the questions stop, only momentarily when they were swimming a rapid and their mouth was full of water would they take a break. as we discussed earlier the odds were against us. there were times of pure madness, i realize that my job out here is two fold: manage madness and coordinate chaos.

divide and conquer.

8th graders are an interesting breed. we had a cornucopia of characters. this was one of my favorites: haskel.

all 65 lbs of him, a wet wet suit almost doubled is weight on the scale, and i can still see him sloshing around in those soggy booties. the first thing he asked me, "how cold is the water?"

"it's pretty cold" I responded. he looked up at me with his pale little face, shrugged his shoulders and said "I have weird blood circulation" he then slunked off into the solitude that he constantly found, he claimed that the other kids just weren't on his same "level" I'm not sure I was either, but I liked his style.

after the yard sale of epic proportion that we experienced in taking the group down the lickety run I made an executive decision and said that everyone would ride down in rafts for the afternoon run.

Each guide would guide a raft, this way we would have more control over our little buddies. we would take them up one rapid higher and run the gnar in powerhouse a 1/4 mile class III rapid of glorious goodness. shortly after making this descision i realized that I too would have to guide a paddle raft of youngsters down. let me remind you, I am not paddle raft guide, in fact i've never been a paddle raft passenger, participant or in any other association with the craft. I'm a kayaker. and I can row an oar rig.

next thing I knew I had a group of seven peeps in my paddle boat asking me more questions, "where do i sit?" "where do we put our feet?" "will we flip?" "how do I hold this paddle?" "Is this a paddle or an oar?" "Where is my inhaler?" I didn't have any of the answers to these questions, for crying out loud finchie, I've safety boated how many trips? I've never once listened to their instructions? guess not, i had my own set of questions, how do i work this thing? the group that came in my boat came to me with confidence and hope in their eyes, "you'll take care of us right shan? we won't flip right?" I looked down to my new little crew and with confidence said, "I've never, ever flipped one of these boats."

I didn't finish that statement with the rest of the truth that I had never guided one either. I decided to omit that little bit of info...

we made down just fine. half way through the run we stopped and set up a slip and/or slide. which turned out to be a huge hit. everyone was smiling at the end of the day... and everyone was breathing for that matter. things were good. we were all exhausted, mentally and physically. our thinkers all thunked out. press forth young paddler guides.

I'm halfway through this second school group, in the crux of my season and at the end of my day. I should be sleeping, I've got "dish duty" in the early hours of tomorrow. that's a long story.

good things. much love //

Kayaking!

2011-05-25T01:00:00.003-06:00

First things first: cute Lyndsey picture! Time is flying!

Our local river: Paradise Creek. This is the highest it gets, for one day. Sad.

Palouse Falls! We took this picture when we first moved here, but I just wanted to show you guys-- can you believe someone paddled off of this??? Crazy.
Jack took this photo, and we thought it was pretty cool. Our little artist!

Chad and I went kayaking too! We played on the Clearwater River at a measly 38,000 cfs. That is a lot of water! Chad still has his play magic and I did some mean ferrying. I think I would have gotten an A.

Miss you guys.

I kayaked yesterday

2011-05-22T20:42:00.002-06:00

Gary and crew went to do muddy creek and pulled me out of my boycott. Muddy was too low so we did the San Rafael. I would like to post some knarly pictures of the black boxes along with descriptions, but we ran the stretch above. There was beauty everywhere but no real whitewater. Still it was nice to be kayaking with one of my favorite kayak partners. I hope he continues to boat.
Totally diffferent subject:
My brother Brent competed in the world championships in off road triathlon in Spain last month and won his age group. He's a world champion, owns a gold metal!!! He has been doing it for three years. He says he doesn't know what to do next, he's definately reached a huge goal.

straight into darkness

2011-05-22T09:25:00.000-06:00

i went on a hike after work. we. valerie, j. grom and myself, started just above mcnally's on the pack-saddle trail. we hiked up and up and up for three miles. our destination:

Packsaddle Cave.

I had worked all day and got off about 330. We started hiking about 445. It is a pretty steep hike, taking you up and away from the river, over two different ridges. The cave entrance is huge and the cavern directly through the entrance is massive, then it sections off into smallers caverns, the exploring without headlamps would be impossible.

the stalactites were awesome! a lot of them shining in yellowish crystals. It was so fun exploring through the different rooms, crawling through holes, going up and going down, in out and around. I haven't done a lot of caving, but this cave was one of the neater caves i've wondered into.

here johnny and val are preparing to go down down down through a little rabbit hole at the bottom. this tunnel opened up into another room that had lower ceilings and then continued on to a another section, but none of us dared to go through the hole that lead there!

with no lights. it was dark. pitch black. we would turn out our headlamps and just sit, just exist in pure darkness. darkness that you really can't find anywhere else. i was reminded of a book i read in school about children that had never experienced such darkness until going into the wilderness. it was refreshing to be in such darkness.

this is one of my favorite photos from the excursion. there are a lot of really neat things up here and i plan to explore a lot of them. this was a cool place. i enjoyed it. and i certainly enjoyed my company! thanks for joining me val and johnny!

as we left the cave the sun had begun to set in the sky. once again i was reminded that this place is beautiful. (there is beauty all around newty... yes that has been stuck in me head ever since!! WT)

with dirt on our hands and smiles on our faces we ventured back into the world of light and hiked the 3 miles back to our car. it was a great day.

love//

a thunder run

2011-05-19T20:17:00.001-06:00

so here in kernville. life goes something like this. every morning i wake up with the sunshine about 7:00. i hear the sound of the river first thing. yes it drowns out the sound of those blue jays. i get up. some days i do my perfect push ups. every other day that is. on tuesdays and thursdays i go to yoga. most days i work. and just about every day i paddle. i ride my bike everywhere. in fact my car often doesn't start because of the lack of juice-age the battery has from lack of usage. most days i look like the picture above. gnarly hair, no dreads, big-ol-head phones, messenger bag and my single speed retro road bike. cruising down the street. bliss. everyday is an adventure. so.. lets talk about adventures shall we.

here i am with j. grom. i'm the one on the right. yes, that one, in the purple dinosaur costume. the newest member of my family. my dry suit. who knew i would love being dry so much. so anyway, back to the adventure. here i am with johnny at the put in of the thunder run. it was running at about 3500 cfs one of the higher levels i've run it... ok the highest i'd run it. and it was raining. and cold. in kernville, yes rainy and cold in kernville, and i was kayaking. what the.

so, i'll take you through the run using photos i took of j. grom and andrew matthews the day before. here we are: squashed paddler (V) enter in the center, punch the first hole, stay up right, check, then prepare for a stack up of huge waves, wave/hole 4 being my favorite, huge easily 12 feet tall at these flows. keep paddling and keep yourself moving right, you don't want to hit the hole at the bottom on river left! good times!

a small pool, catch your breath and there you are at the next rapid: Sock-Em-Dog (V) I wish I had photos of this rapid! There really is no way into the rapid without a camera in the boat, I have photos somewhere looking back at it. but they don't do it much justice. This is the most talked about and most feared rapid on the run i would say. Due largely in part to the "dog hole" that takes up most of the river. Enter the rapid on the left. Eddy out. I was feeling the line, I could see it. exit the eddy, running center above the dog hole, punching/boofing holes, hold your line, as you get about 20 feet above the dome of the dog hole push right, don't flip, head towards the over hanging tree, the water is big, hold your line, aiming for a slot on the right of the hole, about a 5 foot drop holding your left edge, airplane turn around the dog hole and enter the massive river wide wave/hole that awaits, stay forward, the tail waves are huge! you're there. schaweeeet.

Next stop, the Golf Course (IV), upper and lower. There are 18 significant holes that make up this rapid. Read and run my friends, there is no significant line of travel, try not to run into johnny, stay out of the holes if you want to.

Lets see there seems to be another strange class for in the middle, oh yes, don't recall the name, lets call it chico (IV) you need to start in the left channel as this one gets thick with trees, after moving left get right, there is a small opening in the trees, you should go through this door, it's kinda a bumpy ride at lower flows, today, it was just fun, there are some big pour overs at the bottom of this, move right again, easy read and run.

OK. Small section of calm and then... The Flume (IV+) for some reason this one gets me nervous. With these flows the "main line" move is super aggressive. You can see andrew matthews coming off the rooster tail wave. The rapid flows into the rooster tail, directly behind this wave is a lateral wave that feeds into a decently large hole. The goal: Run the rooster, it will look and feel as though you are too far left and are going to get worked by the curl of the roo, keep going, boof stroke now, get up and over the lat wave and avoid destruction. Oh, once you come through the rooser you're pretty well blind, trust your boat. Ha ha. it's such a strange rapid. Super dynamic. Scares me. I like it.

Ok, here we are, Fender Bender (V) this is the longest and possibly hardest (V) on the run. It has a long series of holes to avoid and punch. Here is johnny in the entrance about to punch the hole by the house rock. After running this hole, dead center, (wanted to run it closer to the rock) I came through, eager to move right, but don't move too soon! you have to weave through two holes missing one on the right and left. Patience is the key. Move towards the trees at this level to avoid a huge pour over hole and most importantly avoid the fender bender hole at the bottom that goes from river left and crosses two thirds of the river.

and there you have it. now you're at the top of the Cables Run, a super super fun class IV run above the lickety section. So. that's the "Thunder" run. Good times. Me and my buddy johnny grom. I built a website/blog for him. Check it out: Chase Whitewater I have been working on my photography out here. hoping to start getting some private sessions with boaters. I've started working on a new KarmaBe Photo website. Check it out: KarmaBe Photo

why not, cameras make me smile.

there is beauty in this place after all.

love//

happy freaking birthday to one of the greatest people i know.

2011-05-17T12:02:00.001-06:00

megs. i was unable to get to service to communicate with you in any way yesterday. so today. i wish you the very happiest of birthdays. one day late. but it's never too late to celebrate. i vote we celebrate you.

thank you for being born. you've enriched our lives. you've been a shining star, one that i look to always.

you deserve the best.

i love you megs. happy birthday.

back to kern-tucky

2011-05-11T00:16:00.004-06:00

well. i'm back, in fact i've been back for about a week and a half. i'm living in a home this season. yes, i upgraded from the happiness bus, though the happiness bus lives on. as i mentioned before... i'm staying with a man named chuck barbee. i arrived late sunday night to a dark house with an oak tree growing in the middle of the driveway. as i knocked on the door waiting to meet my new roomie i laughed to myself. what am i doing? meet chuck barbee. 70 years old. a professional filmmaker, cinematographer, director of photography, big deal hollywood been there done that kinda guy. as i've gotten to know chuck over the past few days i'd say he is nothing short of fascinating. i'll do my best to get a photo soon... anyhow chuck and i get along great, and i look forward to the wealth of knowledge i will gain from listening to him throughout the summer. so my home. it's pretty awesome. i will attach a few photos, though they won't do it justice.

here is a shot of the house from the back...

this is looking off my back deck... that there is the kern river, flowing through the back yard. sweet.

our beach.

here is my bedroom. the photos on the wall are of people i don't know... think that is going to have to change. asap. nice living space though. bigger than the trailer...

the kitchen table. not a bad view.

here is that back deck i was speaking of.

i'd say i lucked out.

so, i settled right back into why i came out to kernville... paddling. paddling with my best chum johnny grom. we've paddled just about every day in our twinner rock star rasta boats. so good to be back on the water with my pal!

oh, another view of the house? yup, there she is. I really love where i live!! ha ha, i'm paddling past my house. what the!

i went for a hike the other day with these two girls, lynn and val. it was fun, mostly it was fun to get my camera out. I quite like taking photos, this was up at a place called vahala. it was a cool hike along the salmon creek falls which flows into the kern, it is cranking right now.

well... that is a brief update. i have worked two lessons so far and a handful of shifts in the shop. it's been a much easier transition this year as i have returned to friends rather than arrived to strangers. i'll do better to keep the blog updated. i do miss home. but... this adventure will be good.

love//

Happy Mother's Day Megan

2011-05-08T12:38:00.002-06:00

In honor of your day the mighty is flowing 1250 cfs and Diamond Fork is 600+. I've never seen Diamond Fork that high. We should do the illogical run. anyone in. I might come out of my kayaking boycott for that.

I am a kayaker!

2011-05-03T00:14:00.005-06:00

Jack is learning the art of the nose plug here. Who knew a nose plug could provide so many hours of riverside entertainment?
Yes, this is really me. I did not hire a stunt double. It felt so great to be back in a boat. Really, it felt great to be outside, on the river.

Lyndsey loves the flash! Ha!
My little angel.

So Shannon is in Kernville, Alan is in Spanish Fork, and I am in Moscow. What happened to our team? I still feel the connection though. Miss you guys.

Good luck, Shan! We are praying for you!

life continues through april...

2011-04-25T13:59:00.000-06:00

to start things off. i became an aunt. again. meet little zoe loraine finchie. she is awesome. daughter of tyler and rachael finch. she really is perfect. i had the pleasure of taking some baby photos of the little angel.

I've kept up on living life this month. I paddle just about every day. sometimes twice. often early and usually again a little later. Bridal Veil is flowing. and I am currently boatless. I sold my kayaks. smart. However, I have friends with boats that have been entirely too gracious and have shared. Thanks friends!! PLUS I know if all else fails I can always borrow one of fat newty's shoes to use if I need a playboat. I had a birthday. I am one quarter of a century old. Sweet. I started off my birthday kayaking. I put on the water with Joe at 7:00 am. We had a blast. Then AP and I decided to put on the water at about 5:00 pm. The water was rising. and brown. and the wood was moving. As we put on I said to AP, "lets be sure to look out for wood..." He responded that we aught to have maybe looked at the first drop... I agreed with this notion and continued to paddle. As I dropped into the first drop on the left side I noticed right away that something was wrong. I couldn't see the wood for sure, but it seemed different. I made a quick change in my plan catching the eddy behind the first rock, instantly i realized that what seemed "different" was wood. I yelled to Alan. It all happened so fast, he flushed into the log, I spun around attempting to catch an eddy, and was grateful to see that he came through, a miracle. He rolled up with only half a paddle. I peeled out of the eddy to catch him, thinking we would be ok, that the worst of it certainly was over, then as he struggled to paddle with only one blade, he ran into more wood, another log jam, I screamed, "no no NO!!" certain that there was NO way that he would flush through this log jam. Another miracle, he came through.

i took a couple screen shots of the footage i had on my gopro helmet cam. in this photo alan is under the logs that are directly beneath my right hand...

you can see his arm in this shot. i hate these photos and have decided not to watch the footage ever again, but i thought you might want to see some photos of what happened.

here is a shot that tells quite a story. this is just after i got to alan, after he came through log jam number two. you can see one of the large logs that he dislodged from the jam in his effort to free himself, his boat floating downstream. muddy water. gloomy day. my birthday. i had everything i needed, AP was ok, holding to my boat, not stuck in a strainer. i'm very grateful.

on to some better thoughts. less watery, but oh so wonderful. shaner... my better half, is getting married!! i got to take their engagements, and I quite enjoyed it. here are a couple of the photos from the day

during the shoot I got in a little too deep and the water made it up over my muckers. good times. but such is life, sometimes we get in a little too deep, but all you can do is keep on keepin on.

next stop, westwater. just under 10,000 cfs. big fun waves. some rapids got bigger, some disappeared. it was a great day on the water, joined jason tea's trip. paddlers included, myself, dowd, johnnie a, wiley, and the legendary fat newty. after the westy adventure fatimus newtimus and myself travelled to joes valley, slept in the toaster, after watching slingblade on newty's iphone jimmy rigged to hang from the ceiling with a pair of tye-dyed chums.

We had an awesome day on joes. Good things. I'm happy. //

Three day kayaking streak, wt

2011-04-20T12:09:00.002-06:00

I turned down bv to kayak the mighty today so I could test the modified skirt I bought last year in Moscow. Results were good, the skirt stayed on and I could get it on without anyone's help.

As a side note the mighty is abnormally mighty right now. The big wave is the biggest thing I've surfed in years. In order to keep my beginning status in tact I pearled flipped and was done. My computer did the italics thing on it's own so I hope you enjoy it.

Happy birthday Shan!

2011-04-18T08:48:00.004-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of my greatest blessings!

A few of my favorite Shan things:

1) She always cheers me up when I talk to her. She makes me laugh!
2) She is good about keeping in touch. Even when she is busy, she makes time to call me and make me feel like I am part of her life.
3) She is willing to try anything. It keeps me brave! "Who wouldn't?", right?
4) She always sees the good in people. And she believes in second (and third and fourth etc) chances.

Have a great day, Shannon! Enjoy being you!

We did something fun! Yeah!

2011-04-11T22:19:00.002-06:00

Chad had a business trip in San Francisco, and I was lucky enough to join him! It was wonderful. I loved spending time with him, being outside and active in such a beautiful place. He got this great picture of the bridge.
Here is proof that I was there.
Here we are on Alcatraz. The best part was riding the boat across the bay. On the way back, it was very cold, and Chad and I were the only people outside.
Here is another great photo that he took on the Pacific side of the city. I think it captured the light and feeling of our trip just perfectly.

And yes, Lyndsey is really cute right now. You didn't need pictures to prove that, right???

PS Hoping to kayak in less than a week-- tax season is almost done!

sundance closed today

2011-04-04T19:18:00.000-06:00

my toe babies rejoice. i worked ski patrol for the employee party, we broke down the remainder of the mountain. alex and i dressed up for the occasion. no mohawks. but i think we done did a mighty fine job.

Rena and I went ballroom dancing.

2011-04-03T15:29:00.002-06:00

We needed to dress up for the occasion. We had a lot of fun.

Another bracelet.

2011-04-02T11:54:00.001-06:00

I went to the sundance art shack and made a new bracelet. I felt like I needed another one. I quite like how it turned out. Stamped an S on it. Naturally. I quite enjoyed the day. Sharlene came and made a bracelet as well. Stamped w an S too. S letters are good. Shannon shiznittle Shanny shantastic strength and steeze. Good things. Lastly. This owl replaced the bunny murdering owl. I quite like it. Wrapping up another season yo. Give thanks and praise.

I am a floater

2011-03-30T06:51:00.002-06:00

shan, newty, john, justin and myself floated the provo daily last saturday. there was a remarkable lack of kayaking even though we were in kayaks. just a calm float.

ok ok ok

2011-03-25T20:44:00.001-06:00

i'm back. i never really left. but in all honesty, i have failed in an epic fashion when it comes to blah blah blogging about it. about life. my life. so, i'm back. i've sure been busy living, working, being. i ski on a daily basis, which is easy being a ski patrol person of sorts. i'll post some photos to tell the story of what i've been up to.

To start things off. I made this vase. Yes. I made it. the whole dang thing. i was given a gift of creation. i got to take a class at thanksgiving point and learned the ins and outs of glass blowing. and then i got to create from my brain, and this is what i came up with. it was so hard! i was really quite shocked at how much goes into the art of glass blowing. i am so happy with my final piece. it's awesome. yes i just said that what i made. is. awesome. well it is. and i'm simply pleased with it and myself.

and then there is work. this is my stinky locker which resides in the stinky locker room at sundance. every day i open my locker, gear up, and go... to work.

oh. and of course. i put on my knees. what. the.

control work. here we are. hiking. these are my route partners. d. lewis and j. gibson. good things.

here i am. with an explosive. one of which i wrote the name of a good friend on. he blew his knee out earlier in the year. this bomb blew any bad vibes right out of his life.

on that same control day i caused this to happen. during one of my ski cuts it fractured pretty big, luckily i didn't go for a ride.

my brother cody on this same day was skiing in the back country and was caught in an avalanche. he and his partner were touring in big springs canyon up south fork and were hit by a slide. cody was taken for a 300 ft ride and was buried under five feet of snow. his partner was also hit by the slide and luckily was only partially buried. I am doing very little justice to this story. but cody's fought for his life and then. the snow settled. and he was left to the mercy of the mountain. his partner and hero was able to initiate a beacon search and dig cody out in 8 minutes. the circumstances that all came together for cody to survive were unreal. there is no reason he should have survived. the slide path took him through numerous trees, none of which caused any serious trauma, he blacked out due to a lack of oxygen, his partner saved his life. he didn't give up on the search, on the dig, on the rescue. it is incredibly rare to survive a full burial avalanche, especially when your partner was hit by the slide as well. i am so grateful that cody is alive, that he is ok, that he was spared. its more than luck that kept cody alive. love you brother.

i continued to ski. on my days off. i even got a couple pictures of myself. hey imagine that. i became a ski monkey myself.

this was my favorite shot of the weekend. wiley and the trees.

and... the photography job continues. i was able to go do a double shoot one weekend. went to eagle point in beaver and brianhead in cedar city. brianhead comped me a room. the snow was awesome. so good. the people were few and we had a freaking blast!

i got to ski with my buddies from high school one day, which rocked.

i witnessed the murder of a bunny rabbit at sundance one day. i was doing my opening rounds and saw a large bird of prey snatch a bunny right out of the orange bowl. it was terrible. i cried a little. then sang the "circle of life" and went on my way. i told my story, and the next day this showed up on the sign at the base of arrowhead lift. it's been there ever since.

here is a photo of AP shred doggin down top gun, his nemesis. conquered. what a lovely day it was indeed.

i got a couple more days off... so i went skiing! naturally. I went to snowbasin and powder mountain for the weekend with my family. it was so nice to get away! here are the master minds behind this whole scheme... my mom and dad. good good things.

i wore a ridiculous GREEN helmet on st. patricks day. it was a little intense. yes. i looked like a bug. a space bug. it was truly magnificent.

i continued to exist. moving from point A to point B...

[insert westwater pictures here]

I didn't take ANY photos of my westwater trip... but i jumped on board a fabulous fat newty westy trip on a thursday in march. it was a perfect day on the water.

ski season... feet season... knee season... snowy winter season is coming to an end... ish. so AP and I went out on a road bike ride the other day. he dragged me up south fork. it was so nice to get out on the bike. i doubled my miles from last year in one ride... lets just say last year wasn't an epic mileage year on the bike. we had to carry our bikes over a couple snow fields, but it was awesome. thanks for getting me off the mountain and back on the saddle AP.

what the. it's spring... more snow? yes... exactly. more snow. more control work. more skiing.

so. why not celebrate... if spring won't come to us... we'll bring spring to the mountain.

enter spring skiing shantastic ski patrol girl.

i only wore this git-up during control work of course, someone told me that they didn't think i'd do it... so of course i did... megs... i knew you'd appreciate this.

ok. life is slowly slowing down. so i'll post more. ski less. and laugh always.

end. of extremely long. postponed. post. love//

Your turn, Shanny Lou.

2011-03-24T18:29:00.001-06:00

gettin' back on the horse

2011-03-17T21:06:00.002-06:00

so Shannon finally got me back on skiis after two years. These were taken before my first run down Top Gun. I was able to avoid a second toboggan ride. Good times with Shan but we missed the rest of the team.

more pictures!

2011-02-22T20:52:00.002-07:00

i'd like to say a few things.

2011-02-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

a: happy birthday rena peacock.
b: thank you for being born rena peacock.
c: hope that your birthday was magical.
d: alan pass this along to rena.
e: megs i miss you.
d: like the dang dickens.
e: that seems like it is all.
f: love//

More pictures!

2011-02-02T17:55:00.004-07:00

It is impossible to capture in a photograph how truly beautiful I think Lyndsey is, but I will still post pictures!

Here she is wearing the awesome hat that Ady made for her! Make sure you show Ady, Alan!

I love this photo of Jack. I think it captures his exact reaction to the whole "baby sister" experience. He loves her, but sometimes it is tough for him to tolerate her. But he is very helpful with re-inserting her pacifier and telling us when she needs help.

Being a mom is an adventure in itself. The emotions and changes you go through to bring a life into the world alter your view on everything. I've always worried that being a mom would make me forget who I was-- intrinsically, without outside things to define me. I'm thankful to say that, somehow, I am still me. I was blessed with these two kids because I could give them something that no one else could, or I could love them in a way unique to me.

Now get me in a boat before I go stir-crazy!

a little solitude... with a friend.

2011-01-30T20:19:00.001-07:00

next stop on the tour de photography de mountonas de las guapo muy fantastico... Solitude Ski Resort. this truly was a treat for me because i had yet to experience solitude up to this point in my life... so there i was, camera in hand with my newest monkey... b. dowd.

so there we was. solituding. shred dogging. being.

i put my camera thingy mabobber in b. dowd's hands and tested out what solitude calls the "fun park" it was fun... have fun. check. have fun in black and white. check. check.

dowd did a great job being a monkey. go here. do that, shred this... i only had to yell at him once :) and i let him buy my lunch... oh the life of a monkey.

but it isn't always butterflies and rainbows. as you can see my monkey is in a predicament here, a scramble of sorts, making his way through the gnar. over the gnar. siiiick.

but don't let me fool ya, being a monkey has it's ups too... that is if you consider happy butter love snow a good thing. i kinda do. i really like the lighting in this shot above. thanks b. dowd for shredding gnar and using my athlete pass for the day.

and. of course. i've made my way back to sundance. again. as always. i found myself in the park with the gromlets. came up with a couple fun edits.

and i got to ski with my mom and her best friend who might as well be her sister. they rock. and they're beautiful people.

captured a shot of a couple patrollers hiking up to the mandan summit. an imaculate day indeed.

and my feet are suffering. exhibit a: sixth toe growing in below pinky. exhibit b: blackish purple chunk fest on toes 3, 4, and 5. day after day after day after day in boots...

i'm still smiling. love //

ALSO: i got to talk to Miss Megan this week. and that was simply lovely. she promises to post soon. Stay Tuned!

canyons

2011-01-24T00:07:00.004-07:00

well... i "had" to go shoot the canyons. to be honest, i really wasn't super stoked about it, the snow all around the wasatch had been saturated with rain and had then froze. i pictured a day of dust on crust trying to make my way around the gigantic ski resort that is the canyons. i took a new monkey with me, poor guy, i dragged fellow ski patroller alex williams around with me for the day.

well as luck would have it, the day was awesome, truly, we were laughing at A: how much snow there was. B: the lack of ice death ball gomer fest snow pack and C: how much fun we were having at the canyons.

like i said before, i feel "so" bad for my monkeys, as you can see poor alex had to ski all this powder like snow. yes, i'm one of those people that goes down first, scouts out the best snow, the best shots, the best of... everything, and then instead of skiing it, i go around it and then yell back uphill, "alex! you're gonna want to ski this line skiers right, just outside the pines, then dip into the aspens!" yes... i'm that girl, the one that gives you.. the monkey, ALL the best lines, and then takes your picture. grateful to have a monkey in the first place, and just happy to taking photographs and being in the mountains... with snow and a friend.

as you can see... alex is kind of a super sucky skier, which made my job as a photographer super challenging to make it look like he knew what he was doing. of course you can read this statement with the sarcasm that wrote it.. but if you can't, alex rocks and i think he has a promising future in the world of ski monkey modeling.

i had a blast. i love this new job. i do. i love it. i have complete creative freedom, i get to see the mountain through my eyes, through my lens, and share it. i'm grateful that i am able experience it with friends. thanks for shredding gnar for me alex. sorry i made you ski all the good lines.

well... back to sundance. i seem to spend a lot of time here. i went up and shot some long exposure night shots the other night. which was fun...

and of course... i had to add that classic trademark smile.

the oreo volcano

2011-01-22T09:46:00.002-07:00

I woke up, got out of bed, ran a comb accross my head, saw some oreos, thought of Megan. It was cold so I decided to have some ho cho, with oreos blended in.

The first go around I pulverized the oreos with the lid off of the blender, that is where the drink got it's name. Sorry I have no pictures of the volcano.

The second go around I pulsed the blender (lid on) with a better result.

If you liked chocolate, marshmellow hot dogs, you will love this. Think: dipping oreos in ho cho without all the tedious work of repeatedly dipping!

This is best served in a hard days night mug, second choice team zubs ho cho mug.

The

Provo town run tonight at 5pm

2011-01-19T15:02:00.002-07:00

We should be boating the Provo, it is 400 cfs. If it pops up to 10,000 lets go for sure.

In other news: I was out riding my road bike and went over a particularly rough cattle guard and double flatted. I was 13 miles from home with the sun going down, no co2 canisters, one tube and a patch kit that had dried out glue. A scout is always prepared...cell phone. Rena's response was - I have to pick up Izzy from the groomers but after that I'll come and get you. It's a dogs life.

i've been out... taking pictures

2011-01-11T23:22:00.001-07:00

so. i started my new job... taking pictures. i quite enjoyed myself and have continued to do so in the last week of life. here are a couple shots i liked from the brighton shoot:

of course the majority of my time is spent up at sundance. one of the most exciting parts of my new job is the opportunity i have to write an article and do a photo spread on an avalanche dog team, naturally i chose sundance's team. i've been able to participate in a number of dog problems and have really enjoyed taking photos of the whole show.

meet chloe and her handler butler. shane came up and shadowed the ski patrol one day, so i buried him in a dog hole. i've buried a lot of folks in dog holes and been buried in a number myself, but i felt weird burying my twin brother... regardless chloe did an awesome job and found him... no problem.

alex... early morning lift ride.

chad and i... keeping it real.

oh and it's freezing out.

life has been busy. but. i'm happy. love//