Well, this past month has just been filled with life experiences that I have to ask myself "why in the world have I not experienced these things yet?!"  Mind boggling epicness.  The two events in particular that I'm referencing are Joe's Valley for bouldering and the mountain brewers beer fest.  These are things (errrrrr, places!) that became two of my very favorite things the first moment I was even there.  As proper essay dictates, I will now go into detail on these events, in chronological order:

Joe's Valley for Miss Bonnie's Dirty Thirty!  (Bonnie's my BFF, in case any of you are new to this blog)
We left after work on a Friday, piled into Dave's truck and began our journey.  I'm a social climber-- I'll freely admit that.  I like to climb, however I've never had the motivation to actually become GOOD at it.  But I love the social aspect, and watching people I love power up some really amazing moves.  I'll hop on a wall and climb as well, but I just don't have the guts or motivation (and I'm totally fine with that).  We all went to bed pretty early Friday, as we wanted our energy for Saturday's shenanigans.  Woke up Saturday, went into town to grab some breakfast, and then went off to "new Joe's" (a part of Joe's valley that is a great starting point).  We bouldered all day long, I got halfway up a problem!  And then jumped down (in my defense, I was only 2 weeks out of a sprained ankle-- and I just kinda suck) But I got some REALLY cool pictures of everyone else :)  After climbing we headed back to camp- we prepared food, played hammerschlagen (oh my, such a fun camping drinking game), and just dinked around.  That night was Bonnie's party.  Have you ever hula-hooped in the moonlight, with a fire lighting your steps and a LASER show happening on the dance (dirt) floor?  You haven't lived then.  I mean it's that simple.  Impromptu dance session in the desert, complete with lasers and hula-hoops equals living. We definitely welcomed in Bonnie's thirtieth year with so much pure happiness, love, and positive vibes- that she should be set for life.  Joe's Valley is a beautiful place.  However I feel truly confident in me saying that the people I was with made this trip what it was.  Such positive, happy, and just plain amazing people to spend my time with.  People who I value and have so much respect for-- and who can get down in the desert.  I feel truly fortunate to have this hippie family in my life.

Shane (top left) Bonnie (top right) Scott (bottom left) and Heather (bottom right)

Beer Fest!!!!!!! This is an annual trip for my group of friends who refer to themselves as "Team Awesome" (a VERY fitting name).  They've been planning it months out now.  I'm lucky enough to get invited to such great events, they are SO welcoming, caring, and just a great group of people to know.  Here's a good synopsis of the actual beer festival.  Imagine two circus tents filled with all of the beer you can drink for one low price of $25.  I'm not joking.  All the beer you can drink..... and GOOD beer.  Craft beer.  I'm a light weight, a very light weight.  I was drunk within the first 30 minutes.  Everyone very quickly became everyone's best friend.  Strangers were hugging and telling each other they loved each other.  The porta potty line became a fun and friendly competition to see who could get in the door first (and was oddly well organized for a mass of drunk people).  There was great food, GREAT beer, and the sun was shining (without shining TOO hot).  Within five minutes there, I was asking myself "how did I never know this existed?!".  The festival is held in Idaho Falls every June, that's only 2.5 hours from my house.  So let's scoot back to the actual trip, now that I've tried to paint the epicness of circus tents filled with beer.  Ryan and I (you may remember him from my previous post) went up Friday night, checked out the town, and then went back to "party" with my peeps.  (by party, I mean I had a beer and a glass of wine and put on a puppet show for everyone).  Saturday was the festival, and Saturday night I was just plain pooped.  The weekend was filled with amazing people, delicious food, and sooooooo much beer.  I will definitely be adding this on to my annual tradition registry.

And then there's this guy

So these two events were the highlights of my May/June.  I am truly fortunate to have such amazing people in my life at this moment.  I have no doubt that whatever event I'm doing with these people in my life, they'll make it epic :)