A Swell Start to Spring!

During the month of March my company got me into doing a bracket for March Madness.  I had never done it before and was excited to see what it was all about.  I decided it would be fun to have a little side contest with Mike as well.  Neither of us really follow college basketball so I thought it would even the playing fields.  Let's just say Mike smoked me.  At the beginning, it was relatively close.  However, with each passing round I fell further and further behind.  Needless to say, Mike won the first year.  It's funny how often you check the final scores though once you have written down your picks for the year. It definitely spices up March.  So we decided it was a tradition we would continue and I was determined to get him next year.

With March Madness heating up March and spring rapidly approaching, it could only mean one thing, it was time to get out the camping gear again.  On the weekend of the 22nd of March, we were going to join Ryan and Kenzie and Dusty and Michelle on their trip to San Rafael Swells.  They would be carpooling down and as a way for us to save on a little extra gas money they suggested we pick up their siblings, Donna and Britain, and split gas money with them.  Mike was able to pick them up and then swing by my work and grab me as well.  With the crew on board, we were ready to hit the road, literally.  Mike was loving driving the Subaru in the swells.  He was hitting those curves so fast and was all the more encouraged with Donna and Britain squealing and laughing the whole time.  They were loving their little roller coaster ride. I, on the other hand, was a little more nervous for not only our safety but also the well being of the car.  Mike was 100% confident we would be just fine.  Thankfully, he was right, despite a few close calls, we pulled safely into the campsite.

By the time we arrived, it was dark and time to set up camp.  We were camping by the entrance to Ding and Dang.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get up there quite as early as the other car and join them on their hike through the canyon.  However, Donna was able to find a pretty sweet cross bow that provided great entertainment to the group, especially Mike.  It was a homemade bow that shot sticks a good 20 feet or so.  We all enjoyed sitting around the fire watching Mike and a few of the others shooting sticks out into the surrounding area.  The trip was off to a great start.  In the morning, we awoke and drove over to the trail head for Baptist Draw.  Ryan had his handy navigation tool and we began the 9-10 mile journey.  It was a fun hike with several different repels.  I had an awkward repel where I was heading down head first.  The others had a pretty good laugh and Ryan was able to help straighten me out before reaching the bottom.  After several miles of hiking we stopped to have some lunch.  We enjoyed throwing sandstone at the walls and watching the sandstone explode into a powdered mess.  After dropping off the largest repel, the canyon shortly opens up to a larger slot.  We again sat to rest before making the final trek up to the car.  Again rocks were thrown, but this time it was more of a game where we tried to hit particular targets.  Perhaps there is a correlation with being tired and having a desire to throw rocks.  Either way it worked out that way for us.  It was a fun trip. 

The next week was conference weekend so we decided to hang around town.  Let's be real, we couldn't fathom missing the famous Hill Family Potato Bar in between Sunday sessions of conference.  The Wednesday before conference we had a game night at the Hill residence.  As always, there was a yummy dessert involved.  On this particular night, we had pie because Village Inn ran a special on their pies on Wednesday nights.  We played games, laughing, chatting, and eating pie.  All was well until we got to the last slice of pie.  Trouble quickly arose as the situation became clear to those at the table.  Let's just say, I had never seen grown men act like animals  to get the last remaining piece of pie.  They were like savages.  It could have been because we had just seen or were going to see the Hunger Games or it could have been the Hills natural drive for sugar. All I know, is it was quite entertaining.

Well, conference weekend had arrived and as usual, Mr. Mac had their buy one suit get one for $1 sale.  Danny and Mike went in on the offer together.  They must have been feeling in sync as they even bought the same suit.  But you can't blame them when it was such a good looking suit!  Saturday morning we awoke and turned on the Saturday Morning session at our place and then decided we would watch the afternoon session at the Hill home.  We were itching to get out and ride our bikes since the weather was getting nicer.  We thought we could even ride our bikes to there place in between sessions.  It was a brilliant plan, it was only 13 miles and most of it would be pretty easy going.  Or so we thought.  Turns out strong head wind along with our mountain bikes, aka non-road bikes, can prove quite challenging.  At times, it seemed as if we weren't making any progress.  It took us over an hour to go those measly 13 miles, but it was definitely worth the experience.  Not to mention we would be able to recuperate the next day as we were not only spiritually fed but as we carbo-loaded on delicious potatoes!