Lots of twelves.

12/12/12. The last sequential date for the rest of the century. For the rest of my life! Kinda special. So what did I do? I got up at the booty crack of dawn to take my 7am scheduled final for GIS. I wrote down what seemed to be every piece of GIS knowledge I know for a solid three and a half hours. I got hit on by a guy and kind of fibbed when he asked if I was dating anyone so that I wouldn't have to give him my number... God understands... right? Please be right... I went on a breakfast date with a cute guy. {And when we say 'breakfast' we mean McFlurries. Yeahhh. It was way rad.} I took a picture at 12:12pm with the two most amazing ladies I know. We ate chocolate because it's finals week {Yes, I ate so well today}. I sat in the library and studied for four hours. I rocked my geology final. I made a quesadilla with about half a pound of Mariah's cheese in order to get it all used up before we go home. Yep. Team effort for the win.

Taken on 12/12/12 at 12:12. We were real excited about this, folks.

One more final left and then it's home to my family and the Evergreen State. Life is good.

Reading days? Finals? Studying? What?

This goes on the "videos that are only funny to the people who were actually in them" list. But it needs to be on here. My grandma knows I love office supplies. {Seriously. I have an addiction.} So to encourage me through finals my grandparents sent me these totally rad speech bubble shaped stickies in the mail. This is the first thing we did with them. Needless to say not much studying got done yesterday.

Hope you're proud, gramma! [:

Things I want to remember: Jackson style

So like FOUR months ago, during the summer, my mom's side of the family had the annual family reunion in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I was so beyond stoked. A week and a half between two of the most amazing national parks in the country? With 24 of the most kickbutt awesome people on the face of the earth? Um, pretty sure life cannot get much better.

We stayed in the coolest lodge in Teton Village, dubbed the "Blue Moose Lodge." Cause apparently people like to steal ideas from the British and give big houses their own names. We loved Ol' Blue. She was good to us. Plus she had amazing, huge windows and an exposed wood interior that I fell in love with. The evenings were spent here playing intense Hearts tournaments, making meals together, tye-dying shirts, watching the Olympics, putting on a family variety show, and competing against each other in a Conger family Iron Chef competition. 

All 24 of us were divided into teams for the week and were assigned jobs each day, such as dinner preparation, dinner clean up, and the like. These were also the teams we competed with in the family games. To be honest I don't even remember what our team name was or what we put on our banner, but all that matters is that we won best design or something in the Iron Chef competition. Vanilla pudding pie with a chocolate pudding lattice top, complete with berries. Check it.

Teton National Park was stunning. About 20% of the pictures within iPhoto at this very moment are of the Tetons. I have some serious deleting to do. But none of the pictures I have can parallel the experience of standing on the floor of the valley and looking up at these 13,000-foot peaks of granite. Running/biking along the awesome trail with those big guys right in front of you was so cool. Just a few days before we left home to drive to Jackson, Dad had summitted Grand Teton with some of his climbing buddies. And he brought back rocks for me. [: They were beautiful! I wish I had taken pictures of them. They were gorgeous. Full of biotite and muscovite flakes, little pieces of iron pyrite, and just lots of metamorphosed granite. They blew my mind. The fact that I holding in my hand pieces of the the mountains, which were made of rocks that had been reformed kilometers below us ages ago and then were pushed up to the surface and eroded over even more ages and ages is so amazing. 

Guys. Earth is flippin sweet.

1- Biking along the lovely paved trail along Moose Wilson Road. 2- A gorgeous day we spent hiking in the Jenny Lake area. 3- Hidden Falls 4- Jenny Lake 5- More hiking! 6- Guys. Moose are huge. Holy cow. They are so stinking cool. 

A few days were spent in Jackson Village, looking through touristy shops and getting our old-fashioned, saloon style family pictures taken. Seeing everyone from my grandma down to my three year old cousin dressed as Indians, cowboys, and saloon girls was very entertaining. 

Another adventure in Jackson was the alpine slide at the Snow King ski resort. It was insane fun and the biggest adrenaline rush I've had in awhile. We loved it so much that we laid the money down and went twice. Yeah. Sometimes we allow ourselves to get hosed if it's really really fun. And it was totally worth it.

After blasting down a mountain on a wimpy plastic scooter, I thought I had the whole no-fear thing down pat. Then we went white-water rafting. You can't tell in the picture, but I was legitimately scared. The last time we went rafting things didn't go so well and my lil bro and I ended up in the water and separated from the group. Needless to say I still had some issues after that. So... wasn't super thrilled about going again. But I figured after almost ten years it was time to give it another shot. So I did, and it was CRAZY fun. Gut-dropping-ly terrifying at some points? Yep. But so worth it. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. I want to go again soon!

Grandpa is hardcore. Class 5 rapids? Psh. Easy.

The coolest experiences were yet to come, though. No adrenaline rush or gorgeous hike can compare to the fun and fulfillment of learning more about your ancestors and people whose choices determined where, to who, and into what circumstances you were born. The main purpose for our family reunion this year was to go on a heritage tour of the sites in the Rexburg, Idaho area that are connected to our ancestors on my grandpa's side. John William Hart, my great-great-grandfather whom the Hart Building on the BYU-Idaho campus is named after, was pivotal in the development of what was then Ricks College. When it was threatened to close during financial trouble in the 1930s, he worked his rear off to keep it afloat. I can't express how cool it was to tour the beautiful campus and see what had become of his life's work, knowing that it wouldn't be what it is today without his resolve and faith in the school. It has grown so much from its days as a little community college, and now sees over 15,000 students enrolled per year. We got to tour the Hart building, the Manwaring center (also named after one of my ancestors) and the rest of the campus, including the breathtaking BYU Idaho Center. Holy moly. If I went to school there I would be in that building as much as possible. It is incredible! 

My ancestors rock and so does BYU Idaho.

The day was full of old stories, old houses and lots of time together and being 

thankful for each other and the people who came before us.

Other days we spent hours on the river with our kayaks. We relaxed as we floated along the meandering bends of the Snake River with pelicans, mergansers, herons, and muskrats. So peaceful. 

One last thing I want to remember that we did in Jackson: the gondola ride! On our daily walk on one of our last nights we decided to go ride what is usually used as a way for skiers to get to the top of the mountain. Thank goodness they keep it running in the summer because oh man it was gorgeous. Jackson Valley is positively one of the prettiest places I have ever been. 

Our timing couldn't have been better. We got to watch the sun set from the top of the gondola. 

It was perfect.

 All in all, Jackson was good to us. 

And I left a little part of my heart there with the rocky peaks, winding rivers, green hills, and big bright sky. I'm in love with Jackson!

Things I want to remember: Yellowstone style

Kay. This is a post about the place that changed my life.

{Old Faithful}

No exaggeration. Guys. Yellowstone National Park is the most incredible place I have ever been to in my life. Half the time I felt like I was on another planet. I'd stand there, with my jaw on the ground, staring at a geyser or a hot spring or just a beautiful landscape and would think to myself, "How is this real?" Every time. My. mind. was. blown. by this trip. 

After staying in Teton Village for a week, our family reunion migrated to Yellowstone for the remaining four days of the trip. Really all we did each day was wake up, and then spend the entire day walking around, driving to amazing places, browsing visitor's centers, listening to presentations, and just soaking up the completely fascinating place that Yellowstone is. I was in heaven, people. Like, could not wipe the smile off my face for the entire time we were there. Yellowstone happiness surpasses any level of happiness I have experienced as of yet. As in, my happiness is now measured on a scale from 0 to Yellowstone happiness.

{Yellowstone happiness} 

First, the thermal pools. Holy gorgeous. Some people we talked to said once you'd seen one you'd seen them all. I cannot even begin to agree with that. I had mini heart attacks with each new pool we visited. The fact that these pools form the way they do, with the incredible colors of microbacteria and chemical reactions, is absolutely unbelievable and so fascinating to me. 

Next, the geysers. People - SUPERHEATED WATER SHOOTING OUT OF THE GROUND. Hello?! We live on the coolest planet ever. I love geysers! It was so amazing to think that thousands of feet below my boots, water was trickling down, being heated indirectly by a flippin magma chamber, trapped by limited convection and then shot out of the ground when the pressure was released. AWESOME in every sense of the word.

Shout out to West Thumb. This is a must-see if you ever go to Yellowstone. It was stunning, 

especially in the twilight hours. Definitely one of my favorite places in the park. 

Next, the family-ness. The only thing better than experiencing something so beautiful and 

inspiring is experiencing it with people you love. It was so much fun to be with family in this amazing place. 

{I feel like I should have a post dedicated to Shadowfax. He really is a key member of the family.}

They had these hilarious signs everywhere, warning people to stay on the path in order to avoid breaking through the crust and falling into a geyser chamber or pool. We got such a kick out of the illustrations. Which, in this family, usually results in mockery of some form. We mostly loved the expression on both the boy and the girl's face, the girl's pose, and the man walking away from his kids as if nothing is going on.

Other things: Old Faithful Inn is incredible! I've made it a bucket list item to stay there 

one day, but apparently the place is already booked for the next two years. It's that awesome.

The famed Lower Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. So huge and so breathtaking.

The geology of this place blows my mind. Also, I kinda freaked out when I saw columnar joints while I was driving, and made my dad take a picture of them for me. This right here used to be a lava flow. SO stinking COOL.

The sunsets. With such a big, wide open sky, nothing ever stood in the way of the gorgeous golden sunsets we got to see each night. 

The bison! Um. They are massive. Even while driving Shadowfax, who resembles a tank, I was legitimately afraid that one of the bulls would tip us over. Those animals are just so dang huge. Also, Merritt and I were ecstatic to discover that they sound exactly like Apa the flying bison from one of our favorite TV shows. Also, on the subject of animals, we saw wolves and bears as well! I'd never seen a wolf in real life so that was exciting. They are beautiful. 

And then the last adventure, and one of the highlights of Yellowstone: our hike. See, most people are fine with just driving around the park and seeing what they can see from their car. A legitimate method, no doubt! However, turns out you can only see 2% of the park that way. And we weren't quite satisfied with that. So on our last morning, we went hiking. Off the beaten path. It. was. paradise.

The sun began to rise as we started out, and it bathed everything around us in this golden-pink light. It was almost ethereal. Really. The lighting was absolutely beautiful and the scenery equally gorgeous. This was definitely one of those moments where I had to just stop and ask myself if this was actually real! It really didn't seem to be.

At one point we ran into some grazing bison and their flat little bison pies. I thought it would be fun to pick one up, just to look at it and see what it was like, ya know? Turns out most of them are light as feathers! We had a fun time throwing them like frisbees, which made for some great video footage.

This actually touched my lower teeth. But it's okay. It's just grass. [: 

And that is how I met Yellowstone National Park. And fell in love with this planet all over again.

If you asked me about my favorite place in the world, it'd be this place. I will be back here soon.

{18 parks down, 40 to go till I reach my lifelong goal of visiting every national park in America! [: }