Volunteering

So one of items on the Master Bucket List is "volunteer at a homeless shelter." I haven't done that yet, but I worked as a volunteer at Alta View hospital for a couple of years when I was in high school. I started in the Women's Center, then moved to the Information Desk, and ended my time in the Gift Shop. It was a great experience...I enjoyed meeting new people and sharing some pretty memorable moments with other volunteers (mainly my Great Aunt Carol).

Rock Climbing (Indoor)

Another half check seeing as I've only done this indoors. One of these days (when the weather is warm again) I'll do some real rock climbing.

Personal Check-Offs: Marathons and the Grand Slam

Run A Marathon: I ran the Top of Utah Marathon in September 2009...my first marathon ever! I thought I'd never run one, but after I placed first in my division at my first 1/2 marathon 3 weeks beforehand, I decided to just go for it. My finishing time was 3:50.

Compete in the Utah Grand Slam: Okay, so being a marathon newbie I decided to push myself a bit in 2010 by signing up for the grand slam. This is a four-marathon competition between those in your gender and age division category (a much bigger age division competition than regular race standards). First up was the Ogden Marathon (pictured above). Finishing time was 3:46.

The next marathon was Utah Valley...in the rain!!! Finishing time: 3:45.

The third and the hardest of all the marathons was Park City. It's full of the most challenging hills which sometimes makes it difficult to enjoy the scenery. Plus it didn't help that my bf and I broke up the week of this race. My finishing time was 4:11...not the best time in the world, but I'll still take it.

The last marathon in the grand slam series was St. George. It was definitely a challenge, but a great experience overall (thanks to my awesome friends, Michelle and Justin Anderson). I accomplished a few things in this race. First, I finished it in 3:31; second, I qualified for the Boston Marathon (another bucket lister); third, I completed the grand slam competition. I ended up coming in third in my division, and above is a pic with the slam medal and the St. George one along with the grand slam shirt.

Visit the Rockies

Now this would be a sad one not to cross off the list seeing as I live in UTAH! However, visiting the Rocky Mountains is on themasterbucketlist.com so it's an easy check-off. Gotta love those gorgeous mountains!

Travel to Italy

Now, this is another one that gets a half check on the bucket list. Why? There are other parts of Italy that I still need to explore...hello, Rome is calling! However, one of my favorite places in the world has got to be Venice. I know that it isn't the cleanest city in the world, but it definitely gets points for uniqueness. I loved all the canals, architecture, and overall ambiance. I had the chance to ride a gondola (how can you not), but my pics don't really show the actual gondola. I watched a "glass-blowing" demonstration which was pretty interesting. My group and I dined in a cute little Italian place and the food was excellent. The dinner was going pretty good until our waiter offered to show me "the gardens" outside of the restaurant. I realized that English wasn't his first language, but I'm just hoping that he really only wanted me to see actual "gardens." Needless to say, I didn't take him up on his offer.

Lake Lugano was such a gorgeous, romantic place. It had that summery, (new word again) vacation-like atmosphere. It's the perfect spot to enjoy a gelato while enjoying the scenery.

Build a Snowman/Sand Castle

I've been involved in a few snowman constructions in my lifetime...kind of a hard thing to miss out on when you live in Utah.

I figured that building a sandcastle would also fit in this bucket list category. This was taken in St. Augustine, Florida. My mom, sis, grandma, and I all worked together to create this masterpiece. Up next, maybe a combination of the two...a sand man.

Jungle Treking/Tubing

So I think that this is an on-going Bucket lister because there are other jungles that I'd like to trek. However, I have visited a couple of jungley (yep, a new word) areas that were beautiful. Above is a pic from a jungle trek in Hawaii (Oahu). I was "smart" enough to not actually climb the vine I'm posing with, but someone else in the group lacked, well how do I say it nicely..."intelligence." He climbed the vine, it broke, he fell, and I laughed (I probably should've been more helpful and concerned before I started cracking up...oops!). We eventually hiked our way to some beautiful waterfalls...wish I had a great pic of those.

My sis and I did a mini jungle trek in Belize. Our main jungley (addicting word now) adventure was tubing down the river. Since the water levels were a little low, we did have to stand up and push ourselves every now and again. At one point, our guide asked us to come close to one of the bushes on the side if the river. As soon as we were all positioned right along side it, our guide shook it and tons of bats came flying out. It freaked us out a little, but not so much that we started screaming and trying to frantically paddle our tubes away.