Field Camp Week Zero

Looks like Indiana Jones is packing to leave on a big adventure...

(Except not really, because he would've just brought a brief case and a whip.)

Really though, this is a picture of some stuff James packed for his field camp. In case I forgot to mention it to everybody in the world, James had a four-week-long field trip back in May for his geology capstone class. They drive all over Utah looking at geological sites and things like that. 

Buuuuut they leave their spouses at home. At the time he was leaving, I was halfway done with my long-term substitute job. I was not excited about James leaving in the middle of that. Or at all. :(

He had to pack a bunch of stuff though. A tent, a sleeping bag, dishes and utensils, cooking stove, fuel, geology textbooks, a compass and a pewter cauldron. And also a boatload of food. (JK about the cauldron. We're muggles.)

It turns out they didn't have to bring all the food they would live off for a month, because they could drive to Walmart occasionally, but he did have to be supplied for the first week. We packed a bunch of granola bars, some cookies, freeze dried dinners, PB&J, and loads of oatmeal. By the time he got back James had a deep aversion to oatmeal. Would rather drive to Smiths at 1:00 a.m. to get cereal than suffer another oatmeal breakfast.

Anyway, James knew it was not going to be fun for me without him, having to substitute and everything, so that sneaky Jams got me this!

This is my favorite type of plant, called a Bromeliad. On the morning James was going to leave, I woke up to drive him to campus and POOF! There it was! A happy plant just waiting for me.

The note says, "Hi Miranda! I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Bro the Bromeliad. I'm here to keep you company while James is away. We're going to be best of friends as long as you don't let me die!"

ISN'T JAMES THE BEST??!?!

But also, James got to call me almost every night, and we even got to FaceTime a couple times. Pretty awesome!!

Ducks

I have Tia to thank for letting me know about this event. I didn't know until this year but apparently BYU hosts a Ducky Derby every summer! It was a blast!

James and I really like ducks. We always go to the duck pond and feed them. One time James got a duck to eat out of his hand! We also like to take pictures of them and even chase them. Also, "duck" is just so fun to say. No wonder people invented Duck Duck Goose. Anyway, it took me about zero seconds to decide to go to this thing when I heard about it.

Tia and I went, and later James and Dave could simply not help joining in the quacking fun.

Dave is peeved in this picture because James decorated his duck for him before he got there.... He gave it eyelashes and lipstick and wrote "Dainty Duck." It's kind of a running joke between them.

James had Fire Duck. I just love the flames he drew on the sides.

So all the ducks raced in heats, mainly because the little stream they used was too narrow for all the ducks at once. I thought it was funny how they set up the starting line: just dumped in a bucket of ducks. A lot of the ducks started off upside down that way.

Luckily James' duck didn't. Fire Duck did amazingly well in our heat! He got 2nd place but was about a centimeter away from getting 1st.










Here's a video I took. I only started recording halfway into the race when I realized James was winning. Also, I am extraordinarily sorry but I have Vertical Video Syndrome.



So because of that James won a coupon for a free Jamba Juice! Not bad. It's only a medium though. Maybe if he'd won first place he could have gotten a large.

Victory pictures!

He also got to race his duck in the final round, but sadly he was almost dead last that time. It was definitely very fun!! My favorite part was when the little kids were shouting "Fire Duck is winning! Fire Duck is winning!" Haha. Well James is super great and so are ducks.

He's Back!

...And so is the blog. James got back and the end of May from a four-week-long field camp and that is the reason I haven't blogged until now, the end of June. Makes perfect sense.

Here is the handsome bloke!

On the day he came back I made pasties for dinner, his favorite food in all the world. Straight from the deserts of Utah, still a little sunburned. I'm talking about James here, not the pasty. 

He had a lot of fun and went all over the place. It was really hard work, both physically and academically. At the two-week mark I drove down to visit him and it was lots of fun! I expect we will be writing a lot more about those adventures. And also, in the meantime, I will get back to the other stuff that has happened in the past 2 months.