As Promised.

I told you there would be pictures about hiking the Narrows down in Zion (as if you're all waiting in desperation). I try not to disappoint. (And you can read more about our trip here, if you're so inclined.)

But first:

Megan and I built this fire, from scratch, in approximately three minutes (no joke) without the help of gasoline, fire starters (ok, we used a lighter, but that's it), or men. And then we did it again later. And again the next day. And each time was a wild success.

Also, this was the view from our riverside campsite. Lovely.

Right, so then we hiked the Narrows.

We thought it was pretty cool that evergreen trees can grow out of sandstone in the desert. Seemed like an unlikely place. If you're not familiar with the Narrows, you're basically hiking back and forth across a river in the bottom of a canyon for about 5 miles in to a spring coming out of the canyon wall, and then you hike back out. Most of the time the water's about shin-deep, but sometimes it's up to your chest and every once in a while you're just swimming, and for a good chunk of it (called "Wall Street") the canyon walls are looming above you at about 1500 ft. high. It's beeeeautiful.We were very lucky to have started hiking pretty early and essentially had the entire canyon to ourselves for the whole five miles in. Unfortunately, halfway back, the masses had arrived. We decided that they're only good for one thing - taking our picture - and pretty much sped up our return to try and get away from them ASAP. There were hordes of them. Everywhere. But overall, the hike was awesome. The canyon walls kept the sun out, the river kept us cool, it's SUPER fun to hike in rivers, and swimming in them might very well be one of my favorite things ever (Emily, the entire time I kept thinking about how back in high school we used to go down and swim in the Green River and how your dad miraculously found my jelly sandal two weeks later...). The scenery was gorgeous, and everyone knows pictures don't do it justice, so you should go there. This also seems a good place to point out that Megan is hilarious. We have just as much fun together as we did in high school. Basically, my friends are rad and I'm grateful for this one in particular.

When we got back that night, we were fairly wiped out and pretty much sat in camping chairs reading and eating Starburst (after we had a well-balanced dinner, of course, courtesy of Megan, who whipped up chicken teriyaki and stir-fried veggies on rice. What did I make for dinner the previous night? Hot dogs. Lots of them. And Megan made French toast for breakfast the next day. When it was my turn to do breakfast, I made instant oatmeal. Why the disparity in meal quality, you ask? Because I have absolutely no idea how to car camp. Dad and I usually go backpacking, and we live off of "just add water" fare, sweaty cheese, and PowerBars. And it suits us just fine.)

I did take this picture -

Megan: "You look deranged."

Me: "But so, so playful."

We also tried for a more successful jumping picture than the night before, and got it, but this picture is more interesting.

In sum, Girls Weekends are a key component of a happy life.