people climbing up, water falling down

Today we went on a hike up to a waterfall. I almost died because the air was so thin. False, but it did remind me a lot of hiking the Y my first weekend in Provo and not realizing that when you are up in the mountains as opposed to at sea level it makes it really hard to breathe.

The waterfall was up really high. It took us about 2 hours to hike up the mountain to the first waterfall. Some of the trail was almost vertical and we had to use tree roots and branches to pull ourselves up. It was awesome.

Along the way we ran across a field of cows.

Also a drinking trough for the cows made out a recycled tire and filled with water pumped from the waterfall up above. Uhm, yes.

Once we got to the waterfall I discovered my initials already carved into a rock there. Clearly someone in Ecuador is not-so-secretly in love with me.

While we were up at the waterfall it began to rain. This made the hike down a bit slippery and muddy (though I slipped a lot I did not ever fall—unlike some others I know. Bonus points for Cassi! Reminded me a little of our zip lining adventure, though not as muddy). These shoes used to be white.

After the first waterfall we hiked back down to the house where we had lunch, then hiked up to a second, smaller, closer waterfall and jumped off a rock into the freezing cold water. The rock was not very high at all, probably only 6 feet above the water, but I was afraid to jump. But I did. And scraped my foot on the rocks below because I didn't jump out far enough. This is my splash.

this is why i love stephanie

This is an email that Stephanie sent me today:


here are two funny stories that happened to me the other day:

1) so when my cousin was in the hospital getting his femur bone all fixed and his parents were with him I thought it was a good idea to clean the kitchen so when they got home it would be all clean. Anyway, so I had just swept and mopped the floor and made some cookies and my cousin and i were enjoying these delicious peanut butter cookies with a glass of milk...then he spilled his cup on the floor and it went everywhere! hahaha it looked like he dropped the whole gallon. It was so funny! oh man, hilarious. I did a bad job of explaining the story but it was funny.

2) Then that same day a different cousin, Luke, and I went out to go feed the calves their bottles of milk. We filled the bottles up and put them in a basket and on a four wheeler like we always do. But I wasn't quite on all the way when he started going and turned a very sharp corner. In an effort to save the milk I pushed the carton back on the 4-wheeler but then I went flying off. I thought he noticed and I was just laughing so hard because it was so funny. But he didn't notice and then drove off very fast and the milk fell off and went flying everywhere and broke open. He looked back and said he was so surprised to see me all the way back near the house. hahahaha oh man, we just died laughing. He said he didn't notice at all and was just singing away. hahaha

a day of much laughter and spilt milk.

I love you cassi
and miss you more than the cookie misses milk

love,
steph