Climbing mountains in Moab

After Andrew found out he got a job and would start after the Memorial Day weekend, we decided we'd better take a camping trip down to Moab while we had time. We were there for five days...which was a little long for me to be camping without running water...but it was a great trip. I was worried about it being horribly hot, but it rained on us probably 75% of the time we were there (which was a problem for cooking). It was a little scary to go to sleep with thunder and lightning in a tent that is not well-equipped for rain. We did get wet, but not too bad.

Kate loved it! Except for the ride there and back--you can see from the picture below that she was slightly cramped. Andrew decided we should bring our futon mattress to sleep on and somehow got it into our trunk--barely. But it was definitely worth it--sleeping was SO comfy! (These pics are all taken with our old cruddy camera because we loaned out our other one. So the pics aren't so great, but oh well.)

The first day there was the hottest (before the rain hit), so we went to the Colorado River to play. It was FREEZING!! Kate doesn't mind freezing cold water to splash around in, so she had the time of her life. Andrew decided to jump in and shock his system. Then he somehow convinced me to jump in--still not sure how he managed to do that. Once we did, though, it was fun to jump back in a few more times. It was refreshing until a windstorm hit and the clouds came out. Then we froze.

We went on a couple of hikes with Andrew that were really freaky, in my opinion. I'm really scared of heights, though. Didn't seem to bother anyone else. Kate's a great hiker/climber, and Andrew's great at carrying her (and all his camera equipment) for all the tough parts. I, on the other hand, always have to grasp on for dear life.

Andrew looks ready to be a nice lightning pole.

Andrew preparing to get a shot of a pretty cactus flower. He got more than a few cactus thorns stuck in his behind. Some he didn't even feel until the next day. Ouch.

Mmm...cantelope! Kate couldn't get enough--even tried eating the green part.

Kate is doing her morning stretches here as we pack up the car.

The second big hike we went on was right before we left. There was a huge lightning/thunder storm right before we went up. Andrew wanted to watch the sunset from a great spot he found on his last photography trip. It was really gorgeous!! When Kate got to the top, she told me proudly, "I climbed a mountain!!"

This is a picture of a software engineer.

Hooray!! Andrew's job search has ended--luckily, with a job! We were worried about him finding a job with the economy and all, but Utah's economy is still doing fine--Andrew got interviews with two companies and got offers from both of them. One of them was much more appealing than the other, so the choice wasn't difficult. It seems like the perfect fit for Andrew! It's a start-up company that builds websites. The company was started by three guys that were sick of the corporations they worked for and how they were treated, and so they decided to start their own company that was good to its employees. They have a very small team, and so Andrew will be an important part of their company.

Andrew will be able to work full-time this summer and part-time during school. This is his first time working in his field, and we are very excited! Congratulations, Andrew!! :)

I'll give you a hint...

We have good news! Can you guess from the photo? Andrew actually posted about it on his blog (he's going to try to update more frequently now--oh, and me, too...). Also, if you haven't been to his photography website recently, he's added some cool new features. You can now comment on pictures (beneath each image), and you can see much larger versions, too.

Oh, and I realized that I never mentioned on here that Andrew won first place in the landscape category at the 2009 Bean Museum Photography Exhibition and Contest (it was in February) for "Ashen Flame" and also got an honorable mention for "Sandstone Sanctuary" . Woohoo!