Ma Mere comes to Utah

Back in September my Mom came to visit me in Utah. We spent the first day exploring Saint George and I showed her where I work and even drove her close to the field area our kids are in. We also went to Snow Canyon State Park the first day, which is a beautiful park just outside Saint George. We attempted a couple of trails at the moderate level and decided it best to complete an easy trail because of the heat that day. It was warmer than usual for September!

The next day we went to Bryce Canyon National Park. On the way there we stopped at Cedar Breaks National Monument. My Mom was really impressed with the scenery and I was excited to collect stamps for my National Park Passport. At Bryce, we walked along the rim trail for a while and decided to head back as a Thunder Storm was rolling in. It turned out being a pretty cool lightening storm in the distance and once we were safely in the car and not struck it seemed even cooler. We got back in the car just in time to miss the rain and head to Cedar City for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. Cafe Orleans, which I don't get to go to much because it's an hour drive, offers authentic New Orleans style food and was perfect for my Mom.

On the third day of touring the scenery Southern Utah has to offer, we headed to Zion National Park. We ate lunch just before entering the park and got there just in time for the rain, so we drove through the entire park to kill some time and then got on the shuttle to catch a trail. We had a nice walk on the Emerald Pools Trail and got to learn all about the park while on the shuttle. My Mom was equally as impressed with Zion as she was Bryce.

The final day of the visit, we headed to Las Vegas to watch the Cirque Du Soleil show, "Love". Being the huge Beatles fan that she is, my Mom really got into the show. After the show, we walked around for a while and decided we weren't much built for the Vegas Strip so we headed back to the hotel to relax.

The next morning I dropped my Mom off at the airport and we said our farewells. It was a really nice week and I look forward to having more visitors!

Road Tripping

Just after the Pug incident, a couple of co-workers of mine and I went on a little road trip. Since moving out to Utah, I was introduced to a band called The Avett Brothers. I instantly liked them and when I realized they were going to be performing in Los Angeles, I immediately decided I was going and asked around to see if other people wanted to go. Since I also hadn't been to Joshua Tree National Park, I decided that we could make a trip out of it and stop there on the way to LA.

Joshua Tree was not as impressive as most of the parks I've been too, but it was still of course amazing in it's own right. We camped in the park that night and made smore's and played a game my sister gave me called "bananograms" The next day we got up, took a few pictures and headed for the city.

Los Angeles isn't my favorite city in the world, but we tried to take advantage of the beautiful day and walked around as much as we could. We visited the Cathedral and happened to barge in on an actual wedding. It was a unique Cathedral and very different from any I had seen before and especially the one in DC. Later that night we headed to the Orpheum Theater for the show. We ended up running into a former client there, which was surprising.

The show was great and we all had a great time. Even though I don't live really close to any big cities, it's nice to know I can find good music just a few hours away.

Nameless and Cute

Early in September I got out of the field and had to do some training for work. One of my co-workers showed up to the thing with a young Pug puppy that she had found near her house. I immediately fell in love, being a Pug owner myself and offered to watch the homeless creature. In true form, she had a ton of personality and was immediately attached to whomever was taking care of her. I tried desperately to talk myself and others into keeping her, but circumstances did not permit. I even went as far as giving her the name Chloe and started to train her. Luckily one of the ladies that works in the office at Second Nature was able to take her home and keep her. She named her Maddie. So cute!

They Call Me FP

During most of the summer I worked in an adolescent girls group. After a shift or two I started wearing a very fashionable fanny pack. I had found that none of my pants had sufficient enough pockets to carry everything I needed on my person, so I thought this was a good solution. My friend and Co-worker, Jessica, started calling me "FP" in honor of the new fanny pack. Little did I know, this name would stick throughout the next few months as I continued to work in the girls group. All of the clients were calling me FP and the staff too. After a while I got moved to a different group and since then there has been no more nick names. It does, however, still amuse most staff teams that I wear a fanny pack and it is commonly asked, "What is really in Katelyn's fanny pack." I'm sure as I continue to work here I will acquire many more nick names.