summer so far...

I kept thinking to myself that I still have plenty of summer to still write, but I realized that today is already the beginning of August.

Where did it go???

I suppose that I should keep up on my writing because this is the closest thing I have to a journal at the moment. Needless to say it's been a busy summer. Right after school ended I packed up and headed to CA to fulfill my lifelong desire to sell pest control door-to-door. . . . . . . . . . . .

Just kidding.

That lasted a few weeks (enough to see a few friends from my mission and visit Lake Tahoe with a great friend) and I realized that I left my heart in Moab and that's where I needed to be. So I woke up one morning, called and quit, threw my stuff in the back of my truck and dead-headed it back to the homeland. I was lucky enough to get my riverguiding job back that I had before my mission, and I've been working nights at Sunset Grill as a server.

So between whitewater trips and serving delish steak and seafood I've been climbing and camping when I can. It's been so good to be with my family (especially my brother Joseph who leaves on his mission to Brazil at the end of this month), hang out with old friends, and find new ones.

Anyways, the summer's not over yet, but here are a few of the highlights so far. One of the best trips this summer was a Desolation Canyon trip I did with Dani and Kayla (can you tell that Deso is my favorite?).

Lasal Mountains

Camp at Jack Creek, Desolation

Kerri on Nervous in Suburbia, Wall St.

Rocky Rapid, Fisher Towers section of the Colorado

a moab christmas

Annual Andrew Christmas Day hike to Cowboy Hottubs

Christmas morning excitement (including a thoughtful gift from Santa to Olivia)!

Logan and Brooke

It's been hard to sit down and write about Christmas break because so much happened and I really haven't wanted to say that it's over, but in a nutshell, I...

...went duck hunting (I just need my duck stamp right? HEY DUCKS!! I hear I'm the best bird dog out there, so if you need a hound to flush out them ducks I'm your man), hiking, was the best man for my best friend's wedding, climbing on Wall Street, bearding (what happens when Olivia strokes your beard excessively), hiked, ate good food, snowshoed with Kerri, watched the Hobbit II and hung out in downtown SLC with my best aunt Naomi, more hiking....

Of course Christmas day wouldn't be complete without the traditional Andrew family hike. We went up the right fork of Mill Creek, and the stream was completely frozen over. I love ice hikes in the desert during the winter. Not very many people get to see Moab like this with thirty-foot icicles hanging from slowly dripping springs in the canyons and cliffs. As enjoyable as it is to cool off at Left Hand in the summer, I love it just as much in the winter.

And most importantly it was great to be with my family again after two years in California. This will probably be one of the last that we're all together, because Joseph will leave on his mission this summer, and then Anna will get married...

The best two years!

I'm home!!!

President and Sister Lewis, me, and mom and dad

This has been the greatest two years of my life! I cannot think of a better place to have served the Lord than Sacramento. After two years of teaching the gospel, working with the saints, and helping others, my parents came to pick me up and see the greatest mission in the world. We visited people that I had taught and become friends with and it was incredible to share such spiritual experiences with my family. 

I spoke in sacrament meeting the day I arrived and spent the next six days hanging out with my siblings, friends, and reconnecting with the desert and mountains I love so much. Now I am in Logan, UT for school at Utah State University. Life is great!

Horseshoe Canyon

Last weekend my dad and I took off to the San Rafael Swell. We started in Horseshoe Canyon, a deep canyon filled with incredible pictographs, known as the Great Gallery. The trail meandered through a sandy and rocky wash in the shadows of the towering walls and the cottonwood trees. There were small pools in the wash where thousands of little tadpoles and water skippers swam. The red pictographs rose high on the cliffs, obviously painted in a time when the canyon floor was higher. Some figures were close together with triangular bodies, and some had limbs wielding weapons.

Part of the Great Gallery panel

Little friend on the trail

On the way back we stopped at Chaffin Ranch Geyser. Who knew there was a geyser in the middle of the desert?! It was an old drill hole that spouts carbon dioxide and water filled with minerals twenty feet in the air. We were there when it blew, and it went on for about fifteen minutes. The ground all around the cold-water geyser is covered with hardened layers of minerals that turn everything a brownish-orange color. An old wagon wheel and wood beams laid close by, slowly petrifying. It was incredible.

Thanks, dad!

Merry Christmas



Shorts and Chacos, baby.

 Another great family hike this year! The ugly weather opened a perfect sunny window for Christmas weekend, so we took advantage of it. We hiked the Moab Rim in almost-60 degree weather.

Logan to Moab... and everywhere in-between.

Last weekend my aunt Naomi picked me up to go to her place for a couple days! When we got to her place in Sugarhouse, Salt Lake, we dressed up for the Halloween party her roommates were having. It was fun, and I liked getting to know some of Naomi's friends. On Saturday morning Naomi and I met up with two other friends at the Olive Garden she used to work at and had an early lunch. Naomi brought the pictures she took in Italy (a trip that OG gives to outstanding employees) and we got to see all the stuff she did there. So cool. After that we saw "Red" at the Megaplex 12... wow, the theater in Moab is a joke! It was a great movie; perfect blend of action and comedy. Later we stopped at REI (picture right, like my stool?), In-n-Out, the climbing gym and then Naomi gave me a quick Haunted Salt Lake tour. It was really interesting to see the old buildings and hear the haunted stories. We drove to the cemetery above The Avenues and walked around some of the graves. Later in the evening we went to the haunted "Asylum 49" in Tooele. That was pretty intense--it was Naomi's fifth haunted house in two weeks, and she said it was the best yet.

Sunday morning we left early early and picked up my grandparents to go to my cousin's primary program in Logan. I love Logan, I can't wait to go to school there. And I haven't seen the Duerschs in so long! I got to sit next to Hannah and whisper with Austin in church, but that's all we could stay for. Back to Pleasant Grove! We had a quick lunch with Charlotte and Big Chris and then got on the road. On the way we stopped by Provo and talked with Ivy for a couple minutes! A big storm was rolling in, and the drive home was crazy; we got back pretty late.

It was a crazy-awesome weekend, and I loved everything we did. Thank you Nopey!

click to learn about the legend of  Emo's grave