A Little Spontaneity Never Hurt Me

February was spent mostly trying to stay motivated enough to finish strong in school. Which was VERY hard to do. We were both so burnt out and ready to be done that it was a struggle until the very end... BUT we did do a few things to make life better in between classes, homework, tests, and work. :) At the beginning of the month we went and saw Swan Lake at BYU. I absolutely love taking full advantage of BYU and it's awesome plays, concerts and musicals and have seen many in my years here (including a really cool opera). But in all of these I have never seen a ballet. Now here is a secret confession: I LOVE ballet and wish that I was a ballerina. I think they are beautiful and graceful and elegant. So going to this for the first time ever was actually kind of like a dream come true. It was really beautiful and I loved reading the story line right before and then watching them and trying to interpret it. I had no idea that there would be no speaking, but it was actually really fascinating to have the whole story sold by the dancing, along with the amazing orchestra. Later in the month we also went and saw Cymbeline, which was adapted for young children. It is a very strange story line (but it's Shakespeare so who's surprised?) and is full of twists and turns that keep you entertained. The best part is that to keep the kids engaged they add in a lot of audience participation. Luckily we didn't participate in this one, but it was a ton of fun to see adults and kids trying to act out parts. The girl that played the part of the Queen was absolutely hilarious!

So, something else that I did to shake up life was to join a dodgeball team.Yes. I know. I have no idea how to play dodgeball and there is a good reason that I played lacrosse and rock climb (hand eye coordination). But some friends asked me to join the team and playing on an intramural team is a big part of college and I had never done it! So here I am. Now we were not very good and only won a handful of games, but we had great team spirit :)

Then it was Valentine's Day!! We went to a party thrown by our good friends Steve and Whitney and met some new people. This year it was Rusty's year to plan Valentine's Day (we alternate V Day and Anniversary planning every year) and he planned a great night in! He got take out and some ice cream and had a great old black and white movie all set up (I'm a sucker for those).

Rusty even looked on Pinterest this year for ideas. Haha

We woke up the next day (Saturday) and talked about what we wanted to do that day. It had been a really long couple of weeks and we were really struggling so we decided that we should do something fun! And... we decided to go to Bryce Canyon. Luckily we camp a lot and so packing was really quick and easy. What a fun trip! And it was so fun to just pick up and take off on a trip last minute like that. I know that we won't always be able to do that, but all the more reason to do it lots now. :)

Our trip started off stopping by Wal Mart and getting some food for the drive and for the weekend. We had a blast driving there. I could feel my worries and stresses just lifting off the further we drove from school and work. And, as a bonus it was Free National Park Day so we got in for free! We got there and found a camping spot and got settled in a little bit. Then we hiked to Mossy Cave, a little cave that has water flowing from the top in the summer but in the winter it created giant ice stalactites! Then we went back to the camp ground and played catch, had dinner and had a fire and made s'mores. We used our Jetboil for the first time for dinner and it was fantastic! The water heated up so quickly and it was easy clean up. We made delicious hot pasta and lots of hot chocolate. Can you tell we were a little cold? :)

The next day we got up (after a freezing cold night-this tent was NOT made for winter camping) and picked a few hikes that we thought would be the best. We did Navajo Loop and Queen's Garden Trail. We also did part of the Rim Trail. It was all a little bit tricky because parts of the trails were closed so we would hike for a while on one trail and then switch to another one. I was hesitant to go to Bryce during the winter because I felt like it would take away some of the majesty and grandeur, but honestly I feel like it added to it. It made it so there was a very drastic color scheme of red, green, blue and white. It was beautiful! Winter, fall, summer, spring; it doesn't matter. I think this place is so unique and breathtaking!

It was so windy! My hair is sticking straight up and I couldn't open my eyes haha.

Following suit from Valentine's Day, another Saturday we just decided that we wanted to go dirt biking! We knew it was a little bit early for the season, but we also knew that the upcoming months were going to be CRAZY so we decided to go for it! Rusty did lots of research and found a place for us to go. And let me tell you, I was not a happy camper for the first while. It was all really muddy which equals slippery when you are trying to ride something with only two wheels. Slippery is not good when you are not very coordinated or balanced and are just getting used to riding a bike. Hence, not happy. When we got out of the muddy part it was great though! I even went down a giant canyon on my bike! Ok, so it was a tiny little ravine; a small dip. BUT this was a big deal for me. Strangely enough I felt like I was on the African Serengeti and fully believed that I would see giraffes galloping along on the plains below me. It was flat with mountains in the distance, kind of deserty, with trees that were tall and full at the tops. So... still weird but it kind of makes sense. Kind of. Don't judge.

Down the giant trench!!

Aaaaaand back up.

We went through a teeny tiny town called Eureka. I love those small places!

Beautiful view of the mountains we don't normally see. These are the ones on the West side of Provo; this was our first time out exploring in and around them!

And that about sums up February. We made it through and managed to do a couple of fun things along the way. :) I love being able to do some fun spontaneous things with my husband!