The usual Justin outing

Today was such a beautiful day and i needed to get out and do some thinking, so what better way than to go on a nice rollerblading trip up Provo Canyon to get away, relax, and enjoy life. :)

I did my usual routine of about 12 miles round trip. I have always been wanting to stop along the trail at one spot and go hiking up to a waterfall called North Falls, so i brought my tennis shoes to be able to make that happen. It was only about a 10 minute hike off the river trail. You know when Spring time is finally here when the plants are beginning to start budding, and the leaves from the trees come out. It was beautiful all around.














I tried hiking up to the top of the falls, but it was a little windy and i didn't want to get blown off a cliff, so i turned back.
I love days like these where i have time to be able get out and exercise and enjoy mother nature. It's a great way to clear my mind and be happy

My last outing

So i realize that i have been lame lately for not blogging about anything. Normally i have all kinds of adventures to blog about, but lately it just doesn't seem like i have been doing much. I figured it was time to blog again so i can keep my followers happier than little campers.

A few days ago when the weather was looking spectacular, i decided to get in some good leg exercises; rollerblading. As most of you already know, my old school roller blades of 14 years recently passed away and have been laid to rest in the dumpster. Currently they rest in peace at the Orem City dump. Needless to say, i ended up replacing them with some sweet K2 inline skates.

My favorite place to skate is on the Provo River Trail that starts at the mouth of Provo Canyon, and goes up past Bridal Veil Falls to Vivian Park. To Bridal Veil the trip is about 3 miles one way. To Vivian Park it's about 6 miles one way. The trail is always so much fun to skate on, because of the surrounding mountains and the beauty of the river that runs along the trail. Going up is a slightly uphill. I was hoping to make it all the way to Vivian park when i suddenly came across the remnants of an old avalanche that covered the trail. I didn't want to risk ruining my wheels, so i decided to turn back. Going back is great since it's mostly downhill. What a great way to enjoy mother nature and exercise at the same time!

I have recently started working this week doing asphalt maintenance. I'm totally bummed that i can't find a job that will allow me to use my degree in public relations, that i recently got just a few months ago. No one seems to be hiring these days.

Hobo Birthday Party

My friend Lacie had her birthday party yesterday and for some reason thought it would be a good idea to do a homeless party. She had a pretty good turn out. We played Mario Kart on the Wii, and Rockband. The highlight of the night was splitting into two teams and doing a race to see who could find certain items out of trash bins that she had prepared in her house.
It was fun party, and would not mind dressing up as a hobo again.

Educational fair in Goshen

Today my brother Brandon and i got the opportunity to be judges at the Educational Fair at Goshen Elementary. For those who don't know where Goshen is, it's west of Santiquin.. if you're still lost.. find a map....
Last year my brother and I were judges and judged the Math category. This year we did the Science projects for the 4th - 6th graders. We recognized a few of the kids that we met last year when we judged their projects, and even remembered a few of the projects that they had done.
Most of the kids were pretty nervous to explain their projects to us. Some of them even had memorized the things that they wanted to tell us.
That was pretty impressive to have them have something with hard vocabulary memorized.
The most interesting project was from a 4th grader who put food coloring drops in milk and then added soap. You can see how the soap attacks the fat molecules and swirls around the colors. The less fat found in milk, the less effect the soap had on it.
We also got Silver coins for helping out with the project. Now i wonder if we'll go back for a third year next year.

Festival of colors

This weekend I got the opportunity to learn more about a Hindu religion at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork along with 15,000 other festival attendees according to The Salt Lake Tribune. I have always heard about the festival of the colors, and finally this year got to go. Basically the Hindu's believe that the "throwing of the colors" is the best way to celebate the arrival of Spring by throwing colored aromatic powder up in the air, or at your neighbor. It was interesting and a lot of fun. I'm glad I had my sunglasses on the whole time, because i got plenty of face shots. The taste isn't great either.
Aside from the activity the leader of the group taught everyone a little about the religion. He said that most of the time people spend at church will just put them to sleep. He also mentioned that this colors festival will give you "more spiritual advancement than 4 hours of sitting in church." I'm having a tough time believing that, but it was probably more fun than an average evening of activities.

The festival starts out with a bonfire where they burn some kind of witch. After that, the throwing of the colors starts. It was kinda funny, cause everyone kinda jumped the gun and started throwing it around before we were suppose to. The director was shouting on the mic, "not yet, wait!" haha it was pretty funny. Eventually everyone calmed down, and we started over again the way it was suppose to be done.
I tried meeting up with my friends there, but they didn't take into consideration crazy traffic, and therefore didn't show up on time. Luckily i was with my friend Crystal, so we were able to enjoy the festival. Hopefully next year all of my friends can make it out, so i can throw powdered paint at them and have fun. It's like "la Tomatina" but without tomatoes.

Riding solo

I wanted to get up and away from the city life and have a little fun, so i decided that i would go to Sundance Ski Resort today to do a little snowboarding.
I have only been snowboarding one other time this season with Dave back in December. It's been tough finding friends to go with, or the cash flow to want to go up more often, but i decided that i might as well just go solo.
When i worked at Park City Mountain, I used to ride alone all the time while i was working, so it's not too bad. Just got to put the ear buds on and turn up the music and it's all good. My phone was acting weird a little bit and would randomly call people every time i plugged in my ear buds.














The snow conditions were great, being that it had just snowed about a foot up there two days ago. The sun was out and shinning warm, so it was a good chance to get away and do some pondering.

18 holes of golf

My last day with my dad before coming back to Utah all of us boys went to play some golf. I actually have never played through a real game of golf before, so this was a first for me. I have been to the range a few times to hit balls, but never played a game.
It was way fun to play, even though i hit way better on the range. There were a few times where i had a couple of really good hits that didn't go off and get lost.
I think i ended the game with a score of 112. Not too bad i guess for my very first golf game. For the most part, if i was able to just get the ball out there right off the tee and not hit it into a tree or the water, i would have done much better.