We Are Nichols

So for the past two weeks or so I’ve been consumed with MICROCHIPS! I’ve been programming them buying them, buying different components to interact with them. The very last thing I’ve done is I’ve created a light sensor. I used a photodiode that detects the light and will alter the current flowing to a certain pin. Then the microchip converts that level of current into a number and I read the number and display it on the computer and on a bar graph of LEDs you see in this picture. Pretty fun stuff. I’ve got these cool wires that allow me more flexibility than I’ve had in the past but they also can get pretty confusing.

For a few years I have wanted to go up to Albion Basin to see the wildflowers but never made it up. So finally Tyler and I went up this weekend. I’m so glad we went, it was gorgeous!!!!! We took tons of pictures, as usual. I just love being in the mountains. Its so peaceful and quiet and the temperature is perfect and the air is clean. Its great.

Chelsie and John invited us to go down to Zion and hike the narrows a couple weekends ago. It was a lot of fun! Definitely a unique experience for me, I have never been on a hike where you are in the river most of the time! Tyler and I were taking tons of pictures, so Chelsie, Jon and there friends finally gave up on waiting for us and went ahead. We had gone about 4 miles and Tyler realized his shoe was falling apart. So we decided we should probably just head back down, although he wasn’t looking forward to it at all with a bad shoe. I decided to hike up a little further to see if I could find the rest of our group and tell them what happened and that we would just meet them back at camp. I wasn’t able to find them. As soon as Tyler took a step down the river, his shoe came completely apart! Walking down a rocky river with no shoe did not sound the least bit pleasant. So I asked a group of people that were taking a break near us if they had some string or something that we could use to tie his shoe back together. The mom asked what size he wore and called one of her sons over who happened to have and extra pair of shoes that fit perfectly. Luckily we had some cash and gave it to them because we really didn’t want to just take their shoes! They weren’t perfect, but they were a whole lot better than nothing! On our way down we finally saw our group coming up…wait a second, how did we miss them?! Come to find out there had been a fork in the river and they had gone up that while Tyler and I had stayed with the main river. They continued to hike up and we met them back at camp. Tyler and I came home the next morning because we were pooped! Everyone else stayed and did another hike. It was fun weekend. I love camping!

We went down to Moab this weekend with Tyler’s family. We had a great time. Although I don’t think I ever want to go down there this time of year again. It was way too hot! Tyler and I drove down Friday night after I got off work. Saturday we all hiked up to Delicate Arch which is always a site to see. Then me, Tyler, Chelsie and John hiked Corona Arch. Corona Arch is just as beautiful as Delicate Arch, but way less crowded, which was so nice. We just sat under the arch as long as we wanted. We saw only a handful of people on the trail. We came back to the campsite for dinner, and then a little later drove to Dead Horse Point for the sunset. The picture of Corona Arch was taken by Chelsie!

Tyler and I finally went on a hike this summer. We bought a hiking book and had a hike all picked out and were going to go a few weeks ago. We got part way up the canyon and realized we didn’t have very much gas, but decided we’d be ok and just kept going. A little while later we realized we went up the wrong canyon. So we figured we’d just fill up at the bottom and head up the right canyon. Except that we realized neither of us had our wallets with us. At that point we gave up and just went home because we had people coming over that night a didn’t have tons of time. We were so disappointed because it was such a nice day and we really wanted to go hiking. The next weekend was rainy and cold so we didn’t go. So then finally last weekend we made sure we had gas, wallets and went up the right canyon! We hiked up to Lake Mary, which is one of the three Brighton Lakes. There was still quite a bit of snow, which made for a fun day. We didn’t really know where the trail was most of time, so we just climbed up, hoping we’d find the lakes eventually. We just went to the first one because the snow was becoming more abundant. After the hike we got some lunch and then went to Tanners Flat Campground with some friends and spent the night. It was so much fun. I love being in the mountains!

We went to Zion National Park over Memorial Day weekend. It was a lot of fun. Tyler and I picked Carly up on our way down Friday afternoon. My parents and Thomas and Sam were there waiting for us. That’s right, Heather let my parents have the boys for the weekend! Hopefully they didn’t miss the boys too much and were able to enjoy their weekend! Anyways, we went on a few hikes, and Thomas did so well. Tyler complained more than he did One of the hikes is called Angel’s Landing. It was quite the adventure. Apparently there are people that die on in every year. Yeah, I was a little nervous to go after hearing that! But I’m so glad we went, it was a lot of fun and surprisingly not too scary. We went swimming that night, which was a blast. I’ve never seen Thomas get in a swimming pool, but he was having tons of fun! It was so nice to get away and be outside a lot.

Thomas loved doing sand angels!

Tyler being a monkey!

See that cliff?! Yeah we hiked up and down that thing!

We finally went through our pictures that we took in Europe…a year ago…and printed some out! Considering we started with close to 2,000 pictures, 25 isn’t really that many! Now we’re just trying to figure out where to put them all.