Hidden Lake

For our Memorial Day McKay, Christy (my old roomate), and her husband (Jason), and I planned a camping trip to Hidden Lake, Montana.  It is north of Island park, somewhere relatively near Henrys Lake.  In order to get to the camping area you have to travel up to Island Park and then take a dirt road (for about an hour) until the end.  At the end, you unpack all of your things and carry it down a hill to the edge of the lake and canoe everything across (about a mile) and set up camp.

The bear signs were pretty nerve-racking especially we were 7 miles away from the nearest person. It was just us... Christy and Jason.. and the animals.  Looking back, we decided that it would have been smarter if we had brought something for self defense... ya know... just incase we had any unwanted visitors.

Above: Christy at down at the lake for the first time

Below: After we canoed across and found where we were camping

McKay and I canoeing to our campsite (that purple spot, in the trees, is our tent)

Setting up and making dinner.  I love cooking in dutch ovens! They are easy and make really good food.  The bad part is trying to clean them.

Later that night McKay and I didn't sleep at all.  I think all of the "Beware of Grizzlies" signs had something to do with that.  Right when I almost started to fall asleep McKay woke me up and whispered "Jessica, there are like five animals outside our tent". This was most likely just the wind rustling leaves and branches but we were having a heart attack. 

The picture below is a footprint a couple of feet away from our tent.  I'm pretty sure it is a moose print (correct me if I am wrong).  There was a whole bunch of elk and moose poo poo all over our camping area.

Karate Grizzly Cubs... first off I wish this picture was mine, and I wish we could have saw them... wait, no, not really.

Early the next morning, we went canoeing  and it was the most beautiful, quiet, and untouched area I have ever been in.  

There was an awesome echo and it kept the guys entertained for quite a while.  Christy has a video of it on her blog so go check it out 

Cool, abandoned, non smelly, broken, outhouse.  We saw this on our hike, along with a moose.  I think this outhouse is AWESOME and has future ceramic project potential.

When we were packing everything up the hill it was much harder than going down.  We were exhausted and I almost had another heart attack.  And after we left we ended up getting stuck on a steep curvy hill along the dirt road with the canoe trailer starting to jackknife off of the cliff.  Yeah, I almost had my third heart attack.

And we all lived happily ever after.

The End

Homework

This semester I have it pretty easy.  I am only taking two classes.  Elementary Art Methods and Sculpture.   The elementary class is cake, pretty much you just have to participate in class and you get an A.  She doesn't grade on the art.  That is kind of nice when I don't feel like trying (which is happening a lot this semester).

This was one of the projects that I actually put some effort into.  The whole deal with this project was to pick a time period and recreate it.  I did pottery from the Ottoman Empire.  They actually have some pretty awesome things. I wouldn't mind buying a real one but they are all in the $200 dollar range, so thats not going to happen.

Sculpture is good.  I spend a lot of time on my pieces.  As you can tell from the picture no one from my class stays after to work on their projects.  I don't know how they get them done or how they can not do any work outside of class and still expect a good grade.  It is really boring spending working hours by yourself.

My first project was a leather Trompe L'Oeil project.  AKA "make it look super realistic" project. I started by making baby moccasins and my teacher (who had me for ceramics) was disappointed by how small they were.  So I threw in some baby cowboy boots too.  

All of these pictures are still greenware (not been fired) and I still have to finish them.  I will post finished pictures later.  

I know, I know, these moccasins look like ducks... but once I stain them, string leather laces through the holes, and attach some traditional looking beadwork I think (hope) they will look just fine.

This was an interesting, and fun project to do.  I think it would have been a little more fun if I would have broken it up into smaller work chunks (yesterday I spent nine hours on it) Look closely because it is not what is seems.  Once you figure out why look for nine specific "things"

This other picture is of a cadaver's hand.  Ha! Yeah, I would like to think that but no, this is my hand.  Seriously, the clay has sucked moisture out of my hand like salt on a slug.

Random Stuff

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted anything.  Life has been pretty busy. We have traveled down to Blackfoot and Pocatello a couple of times to visit family.  Grandpa Hatch met Ethan for the first time, which was fun.  He mentioned that Ethan was "the most widest awake baby" he has ever seen.  I have to agree, Ethan's eyes are pretty dang big.

Also, we are also pleased get so much response for the raffle. We would like to thank everyone who participated. But now to the good stuff...

The winner, of an awesome 1990 VW Golf, is....

....

Braiden and Sharon Willey

Congratulations!

This wonderful new *cough* car comes with tons of features including new struts, sharp squealing when ever you turn the wheel (which is great for alerting pedestrians that YOU own the road), and a great compact size perfect for stealing parking spots. 

haha!

Panic Attack (from McKay)

I'm one of the assistant executive secretaries in my ward. One of my roles is to assign opening and closing prayers for sacrament meeting. Well, I didn't ask anyone to say the closing prayer so I told the person conducting the meeting that I would say it. When I returned back to my seat I looked up at the stand and then panicked.

"What is president Clarke doing hear?" I asked Braiden.

He said " forget president Clarke, what is Elder Bednar doing here?"

It turns out that Elder Bednar, President Clarke and our stake president all decided to attend our fast and testimony today. Had I known this TINY detail I wouldn't have assigned myself to say the closing prayer. To make things worse, I didn't shave my face that morning or wear a suit jacket. Yeah I know, I'm a real brainiac. Seriously, that was the most scared I've EVER been.