Driving Home

After a wonderful weekend in Scottsdale with my family, we are making our way back to Utah. Our weekend was filled with so many fun things. I got to see my favorite person in the world, my grandma Myrt, And my cousin Adam, who I haven't seen in 3 years. Gabe and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary at a beautiful hotel and got a couples massage and lastly we got to celebrate my aunts 60rh birthday. What a fun weekend! 

My grandma is seriously my idol! I love her so much. It was amazing to see her and have her make it to my aunt debs bday. Cherish every moment you can with your family!!! It sure is a treat when I get to see them. 

On the ride home, I started to realize that I wasn't feeling too hot. Well thinking back, my mixture of events explains it all. First a day at the pool, with a few FULL strength beers and not a lot of sleep, and then a deep tissue massage (releasing tons and tons of toxins from my body) followed by a night of celebrating my aunts birthday- that explains it all. Being dehydrated and getting a massage followed with getting even more dehydrated is not very nice to do to your body. The deep tissue massage was amazing though! So nice and relaxing! I think I've drinken a lot of water to the point where it's annoying Gabe, stopping every hour to use the restroom facility! I've been spending some of this driving time tho looking up tips to do before a massage. So for next time Cassie.

 Check it out....

Massage Tips 

Remember, you are about to stimulate your body's most powerful system of detoxification. If you do not follow the recommended instructions given below, you may feel sick after receiving lymph massage. The lymphatic system is responsible for handling and neutralizing toxins and wastes created from food, pollution and our own body's daily cellular activities. It is also responsible for housing and transporting immune cells.

MASSAGE TIPS

Massage Tips Before your lymphatic treatment:

• Arrive at your appointment well hydrated. Dehydration will severely impair your ability to detoxify and rebuild and may make you feel ill.
• Expect to undress to your level of comfort but know that direct contact with the skin is always best. Tight clothing and under wire bras will make it difficult to get lymph moving.
• If you choose to wear clothing during your session, wear cotton underwear
• Arrive with an empty stomach or eat a light snack prior.Drainage will be performed in the deep abdomen and organs.
• Do NOT apply lotion to your skin prior to treatment. Dry skin contact is more effective for stimulating the stretch response needed by your lymph vessels.
• Do NOT drink alcohol or consume recreational drugs the night before or immediately after your session. Your liver will be responsible for detoxifying much of what the lymphatic system collects so please don't burden it before your session or you may feel quite sick afterwards.
• Plan and allow for a period of MOVEMENT immediately after your session. Your lymph collects toxins and places them into the blood stream for removal. 10 to 15 minutes of gentle movement and breathing is recommended such as a short walk before getting into your car after the session, walking your dog, or hitting the gym or a gentle yoga class is one of the most critical massage tips to follow.
• Plan and allow for a period of REST after treatment and movement if needed. Your body's resources and nutrients will go toward "cleaning up shop" and this may include an immune response to cleanse any bacteria or foreign cells that don't belong.Rest will allow the body to regenerate and heal.
• If you are already sick, fighting an illness, or recovering from illness, consider shortening your session or contact your therapist to identify the best time to receive lymph work. The first acute 24-48 hours of illness is NOT the appropriate time to receive massage. Be prepared for your immune system's increased response listed above!
• Use the restroom prior to getting on the table. No one likes to "hold it in" or run to the restroom in the middle of a relaxing Lymph Drainage session!

I'm feeling a lot better now. But for a good hour, I was not feeling well. I'm glad it's passed and over with. Tomorrow I will only be drinking water.

All Finished

Our road trip was amazing. I love being on the road and having no reservations or places to be. I was excited to get home though and sleep in my bed :)

Lake Tahoe was amazing. I am glad we decided not to move there though. Truckee, the little town, is a bit smaller then park city and not as artsy or cultured. I did enjoy some of the little towns though that were closer to the lake. The lake is absolutely gorgeous too. In some spots, you can see all the way to the bottom. Theres a lot of kayak, paddle boards and boat rental shops surrounding the lake. Theres also tons of campgrounds, little cottage hotel/motels and some bars. We didn't spend a lot of time there, we didn't even camp. We just got out at a dog friendly beach and let panzo do a little swimming. He's such a little swimmer dog, its quite comical because its not in his breed. But he just cant get enough of the water.

All in all, the trip was amazing and unforgettable. If I had to spend some time in California, which I wouldn't be opposed to at all, I would live in Ocean Beach or Santa Cruz. Ocean Beach because its such a cute little beach town. The pier is beautiful and its so dog friendly. Everything is in walking distance, its not too big, its not too small. They have a farmers market that we got to go to, EVERY wednesday. The people there look neat and around our age. I wanna go. Santa Cruz was a little bit more touristy, but I could see myself fitting in there too. I loved the pier, and the downtown area is really cute too. They had a little trolley that we road that reminded me of park city that took you from the beach boardwalk area to the downtown area in 5 minutes. We'll see what happens. Ya know, I also fell in love with Vail when we went for the Burton US open. Its way cuter then Park City, and I love the set up of it. The only problem is, its kinda spend, from what I heard. $$$$$ Everyone said that Park City would be expensive too, but we've managed this far. I guess it helps to know people. ;)

Anyways, we're back home and settled in. Our cable/internet has been shut off since Lindsay and Matt left and it was in Matts name. Time to start reading more and renting movies from the library. Thats where I am right now. Im getting two books today, one recommended by Ashley Devaan called Wild, by Cheryl Strayed and The Traveler,recommended by Andrea Currie. YAY!!!!

I wanted to share a few more pics from my trip. Especially the ones from Big Sur, the most beautiful place ever. I can't get over the beauty. I kept asking myself, Is this real life??? Seriously, the beautiful water colors and then all the amazing flowers that were surrounding the beach. Unbelievable!

BIG SUR- In and out of the Clouds

BIG SUR

Driving down the Mountain where our campsite was

Santa Cruz Board Walk, taken from the Pier

Sand Sculpture

Lake Tahoe @ its finest

Panzo swimming away in Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe Bound

Cutting out of San Francisco a little early. We went over the Golden Gate Bridge, check, and had dinner in a little Bay Area so we experienced a little bit. Wish we would of made it to fishermens wharf, but we ve seen a lot and we re ready to start venturing home. Once you jump on 80, it's a 10 hour shot.

We are stopping in Tahoe and may camp for the night there. We did have plans once to move here, so now we can actually check it out.

I would like to do another road trip sometime starting in San Francisco and head north, finishing the states coast.It's sooo Big! Better yet, just move here for a year. I would live in ocean beach or Santa Cruz, those were my two favorite spots.

California here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      

In a week or two we will be venturing out for our Road Trip. Time to pack up the car, pack up the pooch, get some snacks, and get on the road. We are heading to Sedona, AZ first to go to some really cool rock slides at a state park called Slide Rock State Park. Sedona is also really well known for their Red Rocks which we'll be seeing all the way from MOAB to Arizona. Then after Sedona, we are going to scottsdale to spend some quality time with the family. It'll be good to check out Grandmas new Pad and see Auntie Deb & Dan.

Then after Arizona, time to hit up California for some Exploring. I have been to Cali once and that was when I was a baby, so technically, that doesnt even count. We will be making a few major stops, one in San Diego and one in San Fransisco. The rest of our time, we have nothing scheduled, we're just going with the flow. We have a couple of friends on the way that we will stop and see.

We are also going to do some camping at Big Sur, Northern California. They have tons of great camping and beautiful hikes. There is a 10 mile hike that I would like to do to these hot springs called Sykes Hot Springs. There are really cool waterfalls on the way too.

If we can, and have enough time, we would like to check out the Redwood forrest.

<-------------- Yeah I wish that was our WHIP!

I just cannot wait to lay on the beach, chill on the board walks, people watch, eat tons of good Mexican Food and do some camping & exploring!

And while we are there I would like to VISIT Sea world and we may, just may, go to Disney Land if my manager Ty can get us free tickets, which he said is a great possibility. We'll Seeeeeeeeeeee, The Adventures are Endlesssssss!!!!!

 



An epic trip to Vail Colorado

We had a sick opportunity to travel to vail Colorado and volunteer at the burton US open. The benefits that came along with it, were like a chest of gold. Free condo, free ski passes, free drink tickets and free food, meet pro snowboarders, watch an epic competition and the opportunity to be in an awesome ski village and out of park city Utah- I"ll take it!

So Wednesday night, me and my partners in crime (lindsay Clark and Kristina sandi), headed out on our 7 hour journey to vail Colorado! Girls trip! We loaded my jeep to the max and headed on our way. Expected arrival time: 3:30, actual time, around 4:45.

The first day we woke up, after our hour or 2 of sleep and headed to vail mountain for our volunteer work. We volunteered in the VIP tent, which honestly wasn't the most epic day. We worked with this know it all dude- that told us what to do and stood around. It was still fun, and we honestly didn't have to be in there that long, so we were happy when we were done. Then we took a ride break and hit the mountain. Now- might I catch you up on my cast situation- I had broken my arm previous to this trip, 6 weeks ago. I got my cast off the day before I left for this trip. I was excited to get back on my board- but nervous! I mean I m not a good rider yet and I'm still a beginner, but man I was riding so good the day I broke my arm, I just wanted to get on my board and be right at the level I left off, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I ended up having a nice little ride, I was overly cautious tho and hit some flat spots. Those are the worse, because if you don't get efficient amounts of speed, your going to get stuck!

I'm skipping to the next day! This day was awesome!!! It was a dream to wake up and see powder every where! Powder is like floating on a cloud of joy! If you fall, you don't hurt yourself, it's like falling on a big, white, fluffy cloud. This day, we got to ride all day with minimum volunteer work to be done! It was awesome. I rode by myself this day, you know what they say, "no friends on powder days"! I did some fun blues though and my snowboarding was already improving. I had my wrist brace on, so I felt great about the situation!

During our stay in Vail, they had free concerts at night too. We saw macklemore and santigold played the next night which we unfortunately missed:( but macklemore was good, I'm gonna pop some tags!! Heheh

The last day, we did some fun volunteer work- got free burton shwag and drank a few beers ad watched the competition! It was a bluebird day and the sun was shining. Getting my goggle tan on:) ad yes I did get some sun! Then we had the private burton party which was epic. The she's were sick and we danced our little butts off.

Ad yes- I did hang with Sean whites mom and meet KELLY Clark and Louie Vito;) I had a pretty good time. It's good to get away sometimes. Oh and we did a hot tub sesh and drank champagne. Always gotta do that right? What's a weekend get away with out champagne?