Key Largo, Montego, Baby why don't we go!

Off to the Florida Keys for the epic finale of my Open Water Diver Certification course! The winds are howling at 20-25 knots and the reef side chop is between 4 and 7 ft. But no worries! I'm bringing the ginger gum and non-drowsy dramamine to keep from feeding the fish my well earned lunch of peanut butter and my home made jam! Ha! Take that Northwest winds! Cool under water pictures to follow...

Life in the Swamp

Well, lately it's been hot. I know all of you reading this are probably like, "Um, duh! You moved to Florida!" Well, I mean even the locals think it's unseasonally hot for this time of year. Like muggy, humid, sunny, windy...yep all of the perfect ingredients for me to have white girl fro! For real! My hair was so dry and coarse feeling, I went straight for the olive oil instead of conditioner for my hair. On a side note, it worked really well, but for those of you looking for a good remedy let me give you this advice: a little goes a long way! And that's all that I have to say about that.

Moving right along. I have had some great experiences here so far and contrary to popular belief, alligators don't just run up to you and attack. In fact, unless you are a) jumping on top of them, b) walking your dog right next to them, c) swimming in a canal with them in it, or d) feeding them marshmallows they really aren't concerned with you. Yeah, so out west walking a small dog is called "mountain lion trolling". Down here, it's called "Gator trolling" and your dog doesn't have to be small for them to be interested. Just a tip.

But the cypress swamp is one of those amazing places that few people visit and even fewer appreciate it for what it is. It's not one of those places that just wow's you. It's a place that you have to get into it's heart and then you find all the small intricate things that make it beautiful. Just so you know what I mean, here are some pictures that I've been taking. Enjoy!

Cypress sap and cool shelf mushrooms.

Clamshell orchid and Swamp Lily.

Cypress needles and the cypress swamp area of the Turner River.

Baby Alligator and Green Tree Frog.

My first visitor! Me and my friend Erin McBrady biking Shark Valley and then she dropped me off for work before she headed back to Minneapolis. What a sweet heart!

Moving to Florida

View of Sedona at Sunset/Me and the girls/Sharlot and Amanda outside the Asylum for dinner.

Boynton Canyon trail near Sedona.

So, for those of you who still follow this, but didn't know yet...I'm moving to Florida! I've got a job with Big Cypress National Preserve. So, I'm leaving Arizona in 4 days and traveling across the country yet again to go live in the swamp and hang out with kids in nature. It doesn't get better than that! But, just to update you all on more pictures of my adventures, here are some great things that have been going on at the close of my time here in central Arizona.

Update a little late...

So, three months into Arizona summer and lots to show actually. Sorry that there hasn't been a whole lot up until now. Kind of hard to update this when I don't get on the internet all that much. Well, not unsecured internet at any rate. So, here are some pictures of adventures and I hope you all enjoy them!

Me and my bouldering buddies at Priest's Draw, Flagstaff.

Camping in Flagstaff.

Monsoons do happen! And the Tarantula living under the sidewalk.

V-V Ranch Petroglyphs. Montezuma Well one of the places I work.

Unwanted critter outside my front door.

Storming the Castle!

So, one of the many perks of being a park ranger is that you get to do sweet things that the everyday visitor doesn't get to do while visiting your site. This one happened to be going up into Montezuma's Castle with the three park archeologists and get a personal tour around this cliff dwelling that was built around 1000 A.D. and inhabited until 1400 A.D. Needless to say, it was awesome!!! So, enjoy the photo tour of what it would have been like to be a Sinagua indian living here 600 years ago.

We have to climb ladders like the ancients would have in order to get up there. It's pretty high. I can't imagine trying to carry all the supplies to build let alone just carry water and food up and down several times a day!


I'm inside one of the cooking rooms. The archeologists are sitting and taking in the view.

So many of these doorways were for people much smaller than me. This is the roof of one of the rooms and they chopped these huge trees for supports with rock axes that are more blunt than anything we would consider an axe. That these huge beams are up here is a building miracle!


(on the left) This is looking down from the 5th floor of the Castle. (on the right) This is looking at one of the doorways we came in initially.

ROAD TRIP!!!!

Here are a few pictures from the road trip Mom and I are taking to Camp Verde. Enjoy!

Omaha by night from the amazing room Justin got us. Love ya Justin!

Mom and I eating lunch at a rest stop in Nebraska. It was cold!

After sleeping well at Amy's, we took the long way over to Frisco to meet Whitney for Bfast.

We saw some backcountry skiers/snowboarders and I was looking longingly at the snow with envy.

Sarah, this one's for you!

Mom and I at Arches National Park.

So, we decided since we're in cowboy country that we both needed cowboy hats that would also protect our white Wisconsin skin from the sun. Yehaw!

Don't be fooled!

Dress that I made for the wedding.

Mom and me.

Sweet mushrooms on the trail.

Me by the Wisconsin River.


Bobcat prints near the river.

So, I was catching up on things and realized that I apparently didn't have much to say in March. Hmm.. either that or I was really busy with things that I didn't write down. March always does that to me. I'm always like "yeah, it's March and my birthday" at the beginning and then I'm like "it's not April yet is it?" Just crazy.
Not too much happened. I went traveling to Ely for a weekend to visit my buddy Brad. I just got back from a friend's wedding in souther Missouri. It's amazing to me how much people freak out down there about snow! They make rocky mountain and west coast drivers seem like kamakazi drivers in the snow. That and it's a completely different culture down there. It was a learning experience, but still fun. My mom drove down with me and it was an enjoyable time spent together.
So, just when I get back to Wisconsin and get all comfortable, that's when I get a call from my dream job place- The National Park Service- and start planning to go to Arizona during the summer. I must be nuts! Do you know how hot it gets down there in the summer?! Really Hot! My dad sort of joked/ sort of was serious about getting me a $100 gift card to Walgreens so that I'd have enough sunscreen to get me through the 6 months I'm there! There's truth to that though, I'm totally going to fry! Bring on the freckles baby! Whoooo!
In all seriousness though, I'm stoked! I'm excited to be back working for an organization that I believe in and working at some really sweet locations and able to do some fun things. First on the agenda is to summit Humphrey's Peak before monsoon season kicks in. That's the tallest peak in Arizona just north of Flagstaff. Again, really excited! So yeah, there are good things happening these days in my life. I can't complain. I could use a really good full body massage though! Happy trails and go out adventuring to you all!

Life on the River

I never thought that I would be back here. I am though and surprisingly enough, I am loving every minute of it! I have however forgotten how boistrous 5th graders are. I can't remember when I heard so much chatter! They all sound like magpies to me: loud and louder. I am having fun though. I have been teaching a little bit for a couple of groups this past week, but we really start getting going this coming week with a bunch of school and scout groups coming up. It looks like it will be fun, but extremely busy.
Training was great, and my co-workers are great. They all have very distinct personalities which makes me happy. And so far, we all get along very well because of all of our differences. Always a good thing when there is teamwork going on. I think though that it will take a little while for us to get to that "performing" stage of group dynamics. I have a feeling that it will come soon, but only after some more group work and activities working together. That's just the way things go sometimes.
But, I have been going on some great adventures and explorations of the area around the Wisconsin River and exploring the sandstone dells along it. Really picturesque and I had some friends fooled that it was Utah they were looking at and not Wisconsin. So enjoy them and I'll post more as the adventures grow...

Me in sandstone cave.

Define Love

What is love? We hear about it movies, books, music, stories, and so on. We hear about love, but I am confident that were I to ask a complete stranger on the street what love is, and they would be taken off guard. Partially because you are asking them and mostly because they don't know.

It's sad really that not many people do know what love is. True love, that is the essence of love is perfect, unconditional, and pure passion for another person. Humans are unable to show this kind of love to each other. We are imperfect and our lives are full of conditional circumstances.

Well, you may be wondering then what my point is then if no single person can offer perfect, unconditional, pure passionate love. My point is that only God can. Until a person realizes that they are imperfect and cannot offer another person what God has clearly given us, they will idolize a person. Then they will quickly learn that person cannot give them what they most desperately seek; unconditional love.

Now we think of passion as being physcial, hot, and heavy for another person. If you looked in a dictionary it would also mention sacrifice. Interesting. God is passionate because he sacrificed Himself in His perfect love for us because we are imperfect by nature. So, the next time you are looking for a good chick flick or a love story to fill a void, look no further. You'll find it every time in every page of the bible.