#1 worst idea ever

i will be the first to admit that i have had a lot of stupid ideas and done a lot of stupid things in my life. for example, kaitlyn and i went through a phase where we thought it was so cool to walk from her house to my house. here's the glitch though: we would walk in the middle of the hot summer day in a field full of rattle snakes, ginormous man-eating caterpillars, and who knows what other kinds of critters. halfway through our trek, we would have to cross a swiftly moving creek, that was sure to engulf us if we made one slip. we would then continue on where we would grab an otter pop from my house, only turn around and make the VERY long walk back, all the while, pretending that we were pioneers. {i was sister sue and she was sister mary. we had a strict policy that we could only answer to those names}. at the time, stuff like this doesn't seem dumb, but looking back now, i sometimes wonder if my brain had fallen out for a moment. out of all the ridiculous things that have happened in my life though, this weekend definitely tops them ALL off.

at 1:30 a.m. 14 adventurous souls and myself set out to conquer mt. timpanogos {the second highest peak in utah's wasatch range}. after a half an hour of hiking, we realized...we were on the wrong trail. we were all in good spirits though and were able to laugh it off as we hiked back down to the cars. so take 2...we got started on the RIGHT trail, bound and determined to annihilate the rigors of this journey.

{this is when we took the wrong turn. be sure to take note of how happy and cheerful we are. soon this will be just a memory.}

{we made sure to load up on all kinds of goodness. ie. jolly ranchers [case in point], salt water taffy, fruit snacks, water, etc.}

it's 2:33 a.m. and i'm hiking up this beast of a mountain, loving every second of it. i won't lie, it felt like a hard hike from the get-go, but we didn't care much about that. the occasional rustle in the bushes around me kept me on my toes and wanting to stay as close to the group as possible. by this time, the moon had gone over the mountain, so the only light we had {literally, the only light} was our flashlights, and even then it was difficult to make out the trail sometimes. it made a cool sight to see though-the light trail of our little group slowly making our way to the top and also groups ahead of us that were higher up. all in all, we had high hopes for the night and were excited to make it to the top before sunrise.

**3 hours later**

exhausted from so much walking. starving because all we brought was freaking candy and junk food. dehydrated because the freaking candy and junk food made us extra thirsty. ornery because we were all running on 0 hours of sleep.

basically, i was ready to jump off the cliff we had just climbed.

i will admit that the scenery was breathtaking. when we saw this though, all we could think about was bookin it to the top so we could catch the sunrise from a better view.

...and a better view is what we found...

good thing vincent was prepared and thought to bring a machete to ward off any human-eating zombies. we felt very protected in his care...

we actually didn't make it to the very tippy top which was a little disappointing, but we were too tired and cranky to care. it took us the longest, most grueling 3 hours of my life to get off the mountain, but we finally made it. although, the whole experience seemed miserable and i have sworn never to do it again, the scenery definitely made it worth it. the crappy little camera on my phone doesn't do justice, but you get the general idea.

welp. that's all. until next time...