Best surprise ever/Christmas Snowman/and a ski trip!

We weren't expecting sis Kate and bro in law Neil to show up for the holidays until today, December 29th. So on Christmas Eve, we were more than pleasantly surprized when they rushed through the doors and shouted xmas greetings!

*picture not necessarily candid

Christmas this year was better than hoped for. Here is one of our fun family traditions: My Dad likes to buy everyone (and I mean everyone- sibblings, cousins, brothers of brother-in-law's, guys my brother takes care of at Chrysallis, you name it) especially awesome personalized DI presents. He then gets them professionally wrapped at the BYU Bookstore. How could it get greater? Here are some of us with our awesome loot.

We even decided to make a gigantic snowman, so that if a helicopter was flying overhead..they could definitely spot it. Luckily we have bro Matt's superstrength.

(check out those sweet 8Os gloves...that's right)

After realizing it was too late to do twilight skiing at Sundance, we booked it over to Brighton on Friday to do some night skiing.

It seems that every year I somehow forget how freezing night skiing is. In case you were wondering how cold, it was 0 degrees at the base. At the BASE. Translation: it was negative degrees at the top of the mountain. yikes. Kate and I had to wear large down vests under our coats, incase you were wondering why we look like marshmellos. Good thing the skiing was worth the cold.

Christmas Tag!

I love Christmas. Who doesn't I guess? I decided to do a Christmas tag, to get me in the spirit! So here goes!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I'm not the best wrapper, but I prefer wrapping..it's the thought that counts. Either that or take presents to BYU Gift Wrapping..wink wink.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Oh real all the way. Dang tiny apartment..

3. When do you put up the tree? This year we actually put it up on like December 1st, which is highly irregular..seeing as we usually procrastonate stuff like that.

4. When do you take the tree down? Umm.. Usually around the 1st week of Jan. I am gonna hold strong on this...last year at my work our Christmas tree got turned into the Valentines tree, then the easter tree, cancer awareness tree....man, it has to stop somewhere.

5. Do you like eggnog? Mmm. Eggnog. I do. Never buy it though. odd.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember getting a really sweet art set that I loved...yay chalk pastels.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Probably my brother Matt. He loves getting presents for other people, but he never tells people what he wants for himself! What a good guy.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Either Kate or Becca. Plus girls are easier to buy for in general. Maybe because I am a girl I am more in tune with what they'd want...but then again boys always want video games. haha.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Well we didn't think so, until we found one by chance in our coat closet the other day...Yay random nativity scene!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Oh definitely email now. Christmas blog style newslettters :)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever recieved? Oh I've had a lot. Mostly gag gifts though..like when my brother gave me a safe, and inside were cans of diced jalepeno peppers. Yup. You heard me.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Definitely Muppet Christmas Carol. Its a family tradition.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Well. Right now. I mean tomorrow. I am GOING to start tomorrow!  :()

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Um yes. White elephant presents are always recycled around here.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My grandma's tamales. mmmmmmmmmmmm. so good.

16. Lights on the tree? Umm yes. Of course! And around our front window. Woo woooo.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Song for a Winter's Night - Sarah McLachlan.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year, staying home. Next year, traveling (to home)!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, prancer, donner, vixon, comet, cupid, somethin and blitzen..rudolf. Did I get them all? hmm.

20. Angel on the top of tree or star? Well right now it has a little peacock looking bird. Does that count? 

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both! We do family presents to each other xmas eve, santa presents xmas day. Yup. Still do the Santa presents and all of my sibblings are 20+. 

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Commercialism. But I get over it...'cause its such a happy time!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Umm I haven't done a theme, but I'm digging the silver ornaments and tree decor.

24. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? Well, the tamales of course, but also my Mom's mexican wedding cake cookies...and shrimp cocktail on xmas eve...and wassel...and prettymuch any type of homemade rolls. yay for food.

SO there you have it! My favorite things about Christmas! I tag anyone who feels so inclined!

Family Newsletter

Hello all my lovely bloggers! I wrote my family's Christmas Newsletter a-la blog style for the technologically savvy. So go here to check out our Kelly happenings of 2008!

First snow of the season!

Chris and I got to go skiing for the first time this season yesterday, and it was a blast! We went to Brighton's 'ski for gold' and got some cheap tickets (yay!). It snowed the ENTIRE time we were there, and needless to say, the powder was amazing!

We went with our boarding friends the Quongs, who knew skiing with snowboarders could be so fun? (just kiddin ;) 

Gotta love the half serious/half smiley couple pict. The best part was when I realized that I had somehow gotten an 'ice-dread': half icicle/half dreadlock on a part of my hair that had escaped from my beanie. Luckily ice melts and my hair turned back to normal! The shin deep powder made the bitter-freezingness worth it, and we can't want to go again soon!

Let us rejoice

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Chris's extended fam. We are so grateful to be around so much family and loved ones, all of which are amazing cooks! I love this time of year, and now that Thanksgiving is officially over...I am finally allowed to listen to CHRISTMAS Music! I put some of my fave Christmas tunes on the right ---> for your listening pleasure. Anyone have any favorite Christmas songs I should add to the list?

Why we don't shop at Wal*Mart

'Cause people get killed. Yup. Today on the holy black Friday, a worker was killed in Long Island, NY as crazed shoppers trampled him to death on their way to shoppers haven. I sure hope their cheap crap was worth it.

This article pretty much states how I feel about it. Good thing Wal*Mart would rather have a photo op where hundreds of people are shown crammed outside of their doors rather than creating some sort of order/line for the craze.

Also a testiment to why I don't do black Friday. The madness I tell ya.

Oh happy day...

Exciting news! Chris got in to Penn State Medical School! We just found out today, and couldn't be more excited. He got into the MD-Phd combined biomedical engineering program, which is what we were shooting for, yay. 

We are still waiting to hear from other med schools, and we are still going to apply to Phd only schools for bioengineering, so we've still got a long way to go in the decision process...but at least we now have ONE viable option! Now if PA were only a little closer to UT we'd be set. 

Evidence.

Karlee, this is mainly for you ;). My friend Becca put out a quite hilarious post the other day, and anyone that doesn't believe I had a chubby phase should go to her blog. And no, that wasn't my chubbyness peak (thankfully we have hidden such documentation). If you don't want to be scared, or forever see me as grotesque, don't go to the link. haha. Good times.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!

It's Amy's birthday. I thought I'd write a post about her. If you've had the chance to get to know Amy, you know that she is simply the best. She's very fun to be around and has a great sense of humor. I'm so lucky to have her as a wife. She's my best friend. So, I thought I'd share some things about Amy in pictures, if she doesn't mind . . .

Amy loves to travel and have adventures. If you've kept up with our blog, you've probably noticed.

Snorkeling in Cancun

Delicate Arch

Chichen Itza

Amy loves kids (and kids love her. She's going to be a great mom)
Amy loves freedom

and Halloween (all holidays for that matter - especially the 4th of July and Christmas)

and bears

and I can't keep her away from teepees
and she won't shy away from making a silly face with Becca

Amy is the joy of my life. She has made my life a lot easier. She has been really supportive in my educational endevours. When I get discouraged or frustrated, she cheers me up and keeps me going. She is very patient and understanding. I'm lucky to have such a supportive wife and I'm sure all her friends would agree that they are lucky to have her as a friend. Happy birthday, Amy!

Ode to November

I love November! Though it does have the increasing fridgidness factor, there are many great aspects of November. Reasons firstly being that my birthday is in November (always exciting), then of course Thanksgiving = lots of delicious food, and we get to VOTE! Election day is typically on my birthday, but this year it isn't! This year I had the opportunity to vote EARLY which was awesome! On Thursday I went across the street from my work to the Administration building to vote, but the line was so long that people were saying it would be an HOUR and a HALF wait! Not being a typically overly patient person, I promptly left and went back to work. Then on Halloween, they had moved the voting to my work building (the Health and Justice Building) in order to accommodate the masses, and so I was able to assess the line and see when would be the best time to jump in. This is what it looked like for most of the day.And that wasn't even the longest line they had! The best part was that a lot of people in line had halloween costumes...we had many witches and jokers voting this year. Once I finally braved the line length, it actually went pretty fast. It only took me about 25min to get up, and back down the hallway and curve around to the voting booths! I am so amazed at how many came out to vote early! Word on the street is if people come out to vote at this high of a percentage on Nov. 4th, we'll have 80% of voters in Utah actually coming out to vote! I think that is truly great. I even got to add my little "I Voted" sticker to my crashing stockmarket halloween costume, what a treat!

Though Friday technically was October 31st, and can't technically be included in an Ode to November, I just have to mention one great thing. Friday I went as both Dow and Jones, and Chris did a spontaneous costume change. We went and raided my Dad's closet and dressed Chris as Jim Kelly. Being the car washing maniac that my Dad is, the best part of the costume was definitely the bucket and towell.
Oh the cowboy lasso shirt, white tennies, and fitovers.. gotta love it.

Happy Halloween!!!

Chris' Pumpkin

Amy's "wicked" pumpkin


Our "depressing" costume. Hey it's the scariest thing we could come up with.

It's an MP3 fiesta!!!

Me and Chris discovered this delightful site for downloading music. It has pretty much any song you're looking for at a fraction of the cost of iTunes. Songs are 20 cents and whole albums are around 2 dollars. You can't really beat that, unless you download illegally ;). How it works is you sign up and you load your account with at least 20 dollars (I think that's how they make their money). Then you can buy tons of songs and they're compatible with iTunes and your iPod or MP3 player. Click here to sign up. It's awesome . . .

The big S-D.

We've been back for not even 24 hours and I already miss San Diego and my hilarious sister. We got to go to the San Diego Zoo for the first time, and man is it amazing! It is quite huge and awesome. We also went to La Jolla, a family fave. Even though the water was in the low 50's my crazy family still snorkled (minus all the girls, yes we are wussy). 

Coronado Beach

Kate the giraffe

La Jolla, braving the bitter water.

Celebrating Kate's birthday by going out to seafood (though she and Neil are vegetarian) and gifting them with twinner fleece vests, oh the greatness.
One of my favorite picts from the trip. The bird hangout at La Jolla.

This last picture makes me want to stay in San Diego forever. Bitter cold Utah winter, here we come.

Tagged again..

One word tag this time. This'll be interesting.

1) Where is your cell phone? Off

2) Where is your significant other? couch

3) Your hair color? natural

4) Your mother? mutifacited (one word, right?)

5) Your father? Spontaneous

6) Your favorite thing? husbo

7) Your dream last night? crazy

8) Your dream/goal? masters

9) The room you're in? clinic

10) Your hobby? Travel

11) Your fear? Lonliness

12) Where do you want to be in six years? Family

13) Where were you last night? Bookclub

14) What you're not?

15) One of your wish-list items? Skipants

16) Wheree you grew up? Oregon

17) The last thing you did? Slept

18) What are you wearing? closedtoedshoes/sad

19) Your tv? Nocable

20) Your pet? Fishies

21) Your computer? IMac

22) Your mood? Excited

23) Missing someone? Always

24) Your car? CDPLAYER!

25) Something you're not wearing? Makeup

26) Favorite store? UrbanOutfitters

27) Your summer? Short

28) Love someone? Duh

29) Your favorite color? Turquois

30) When is the last time you laughed? Currently

31) Last time you cried? Forget

Whew, that was tough! Like how I made up multiple compound words, that works, right? I tag Becca!

The bachelorette days begin

Chris flew out for his first interview this week, and though he 

will only be gone a total of three days, it seems like a lot! I feel widowish

 already (kidding). Luckily I have my new found indulgence to 

distract me from missing my other half:

Pushing DaisiesOh ned, how I adore thee.

How can you not love a show with: a girl named Chuck, her love affair with a guy named Ned -though the two aren't allowed to touch, Kristin Chenoweth of Wicked's original cast (and her non-reciprocal love for Ned, and the fact that they randomly make her character 

sing just because she is an amazing singer), 

beautiful cinematography & artistic rendering,

loads and loads of awesome quirkyness,

hilariously insane/creative plot twists,

and the narrative voice of the

Harry Potter audio books.

Amazing.

Truly.

New wheels

By request..we are putting picts of our new car! Fun! Its a Mazda6 2007 (used). We got a smashin deal, and couldn't love it more! And, when compared to how much we had to pay to fix the 'ol bmer every month/how much it was to insure it/how much gas would cost since it was a guzziling machine - even with a payment on this new car every month we will still be saving lots 'o money! Yay for pinching pennies. Wahoo!

Oh and the bottom right pic is us randomly parking right next to our twinner car (the only differrence being the batman wing..aka spoiler on the back of the twin).

Stark Contrast

Hello All!! I have seen some friends doing these right brain, left brain quizzes and thought it would be fun to have Chris and I both do one and publish the differences! As many of you know, Chris is the logical thinker, and I am the aesthetic/artsy one.

My results:

You Are 15% Left Brained, 85% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

So, now here are Chris's results:

You Are 70% Left Brained, 30% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

As you can see, we are pretty much opposites in our thinking...good thing opposites attract! Go here to do the quiz :)

Joe vs. the Yoga Ball

This is my brother's (Dave) dog, Joe. He's pretty much the coolest dog ever. He's really mild mannered pretty much all the time, but when you get out the yoga ball, he goes a little nuts. He's really fun to play with. As you can see, he's gotten pretty skilled.
Wow, I've gotten two posts in a row . . .

BYU(59) versus UCLA(0)

So the guy in front of the Johnny Harline poster looks just like Johnny Harline. I added a picture of the real Johnny Harline. Click on the picture and take a closer look. You be the judge. "Hey guys, come meet me by my poster." I'm about 85% positive it's him.

Amy and our friend Rachel during halftime(it was already 42-0)

Final score and stats. What a beautiful sight.

Amy and I just got back from the BYU UCLA game. BYU beat them 59-0. It was UCLA's worst loss in their entire history. BYU really needed to make a statement after eeking out a win last week. Anyways, they played this video before the game. It represented what happened in the game very well. BYU was protecting their BCS bowl hopes (the little cub) and UCLA did pretty much nothing, just like the bear or Bruin in this video. It was one of the best BYU games I've seen . . . and I've seen a lot.

Gary Indiana..

(Well, Indianapolis, not Gary. Its just fun to say.)

Chris got his FIRST med school interview! Woo woooo. Its set for Oct. 8th. He'll be flying out on October 7th and will be in interviews all day on the 8th and 9th. I'm so proud of him! I told a friend that he was going to interview in Indianapolis, and he said he'd been there and that it was ugly.. Probably true, but hey, we take what we can get! Being a person that loves to be surrounded by green, I'm hoping some 'prettier' options are soon to come! 

7 years ago

Seven years ago today was Sept 11th. Wow, has it really been that long? I have no intention of getting political here (being one who tends to be on the moderate side). I just wanted to say that I remember that fated day. I remember being in 11th grade at good old HRVHS. It was early in the morning and my Dad had flown out to Denver. I remember hearing the news at school and immediately stopping all class lecturing to watch the news. We were glued to it. In awe. And having my Dad out on a plane while destruction was happening. This made it personal for me, and very frightening. Luckily my Dad's flight got re-routed and the worrying didn't go far. 

Its crazy how you can recall exactly what you were doing years down the road from a momentous day (such as this). What were you doing?

Horrible monstrous beast

(title inspired by Beauty and the Beast) Today I felt like about the meanest person in the whole world. I had to fire a girl at work. This was a first for me, and let me tell ya - I think I felt worse than she did. She actually took it pretty well and just asked if she left anything there and that was that. I had to prep myself to call her...repeating in my head what I would say and how I could phrase it to be as nice as humanly possible and then wait till I was calm enough to call her without breaking down. Call me sensitive, but it was hard! I hope I never get asked to do that again, 'cause let me tell ya. I am not cut out for it.

End of an era...

We are getting rid of the bmerama. In hopes of getting a more economically friendly car (the bmer gets 18miles per gallon on a good day, and she is too expensive to fix) we have decided our journeys with the red wonder are over. Its bittersweet really.
I have had the car since before I was married (all those long 2plus years ago) and have really taken a liking to the old gal. She has been good to me, and she will be greatly missed. Next up: mazda 3..or 6... If we can find one cheap enough.

Husband Tag!

I've had a week of insanity..and its only WEDNESDAY. I can't believe it. Yay for getting back from a week on vacation to find out you've been promoted at your job and have tons of new responsibilities! I am now the supervisor at Project and have much to learn (and thus have been somewhat stressed). I am real sad to see my former supervisor Leslie leave (she is amazing in every way) but am excited (as well as nervous) to fill that role. In hopes to de-stress I am going to do the husband tag (thanks sarah :). I figure that focusing on my awesome love will help me to chillax (yes, its a new word).

1- Where did you meet? Um, actually Chris and I were in the same FHE group together when we lived at the Glen-Hood (not to be confused with the Glenwood). We were called to be FHE group leaders together (yes, mom and dad, ha-ha), and he was also called to be my home teacher. Talk about cliche. But, the good man must have known we were meant to be :)

2- How long did you date before you were married? 15 months. Yup. Consecutive. We have found that that is sortof a rarity around these parts, but we loved it. We started dating in Feb of 05 and got married May 06

3- How long have you been married for? 2 years and 4 months. Yeah baby.

4- What does he do that surprises you? His amazing ability to mess up any lyrics to any song. :) It is hilarious. And if we are talking literally, he likes to hide and jump out and scare me when I come home..quite the surprise. Like the time he hid in the closet for 15 minutes and I thought he was dead on the road..oh man. Almost killed him.

5- What's your favorite feature about him? His eyes, such an amazing color! And his face. and basically everything.

6- What's your favorite quality about him? He is so dedicated to everything he puts his mind to.

7- Does he have a nickname for you? What is it? Amy-cakes, Miss Amy, babe, babes, honey-eyes..Some of my nicknames for him include: chrissy (most frequent), chris-ah, chris-ums, booka.

8- What's his favorite color? Blue. BYU blue to be precise.

9- What's his favorite food? Umm..juevos con chorizo (yeah, I probably spelled that wrong), pizza, and anything with lots of spice, and anything meat-a-licious.

10-What is his favorite sport? Football. Then basketball. He also loves racquetball, pingpong, badminton..the list goes on.

11- Who said I love you first? He did, but I said it right then back to him. I was at BYU Hawaii at the time..good thing we both had T-Mobil. We had both been meaning to say I love You for a long time.

12- When and where was your first kiss? Oh boy. February 25th, 2005. We were actually watching the music video to "Thriller" (yes, Michael Jackson, how embarrassing).

13-What are your favorite things to do as a couple? Just be together, play boardgames, hike, swim/wakeboard, ski, be with family together, laugh, chase each other around the house, etc.

14-Do you have kids? How many? Nada.

15- What's a hidden talent that he has? He has a very calming effect, and is very easily trusted by those around him (which is a good thing, 'cause he is very trustworthy, and very awesome. ha).

16- How old is he? 25

17- What's his favorite type of music? Anything acoustic, anything classic rock, anything non-country.

18- What do you admire most about him? He has an amazing ability to know what others need - he is very sensitive and caring. He has an uncanny ability to work persistently to achieve goals that will lead him towards where he wants to be (unlike me, i'm the procrastonater :)

19-What's his favorite past time(s)? He loves figuring out the mechanics of anything technical, he loves getting up to date on current news/issues, he is a guitar hero master, reading about/watching BYU football, hanging with his awesome wife.

20- Do you think he is going to read this? He better!

I tag Becca (due to a lack of current posting!), Amanda, Caroline, Kari, Sara, Amy, Dominique, Lauren, Melanie, and anyone else that feels so inclined!

The peace garden state

We made it back from the road trip of death. If you haven't taken a 42 hr road trip, consider yourself lucky. It makes the trip home to Oregon seem like a breeze. We made our way through Jackson Hole and Yellowstone, on through Montana (where Chris got pulled over for speeding, no endless speedlimit on the MT interstate anymore, turns out..the lucky duck got off with a warning) and on to ND.

Old Faithful

We had tons of fun with my aunts, uncles and cousins. I hadn't seen any of them since 2002 (and some of then since before that!) so it was definitely a much needed visit. I got to visit my little 2 1/2 year old cousin Rylee for the first time, and she is definitely a delight.

This is Chris showing his skills on Lake Cormorant. We got to spend a day at my aunt Susie and Barry's lake house in Minnesota (just over the ND border) and it was a blast!

Chris has much greater skill at wakeboarding..I am a fan, but can only seem to stay in the wake or go directly to the right and stay there..not quite sure how to cross back yet..someday.

And, the biggest feat of the trip: We got my MOM to go tubing. Mom, you're awesome.

On the way back we got to stop at Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty spectacular..somehow we felt the need to pose like the ye old presidents. We look just like them, I'm sure.

Overall it was an awesome, awesome trip. But next time, I'm flying.

On the road again..

Chris and I are on the road to North Dakota! Chris finally gets to meet my Dad's side of the fam in the good old ND. We are trippin it through Jackson and yellowstone, so hopefully we'll steer clear of bears this time. We'll put some picts up when we get back next week :)

What a SCHAM (scam+shame)

I don't know why this story makes me feel totally HAD. Chris and I have had a fun time watching the olympics and we've been watching semi-religiously (we don't have cable..we have a tv, but not tv..you know). We basically have family members tevo (sp?) it for us, and also watch the stats online (yay for not paying for cable!). The opening ceremonies (however amazing it was) had a MILLI Vanilli stunt. The oh-so-cute little Chinese girl who sang the traditional hymn in the ceremonies was actually lip syncing. No joke. They had another little girl sing it, but apparently the real singer didn't portray the China they wanted to present (ie: she had buck teeth).

Sad! Check here to see the article on the whole ordeal. AND apparently those footprint fireworks at the ceremonies....computer graphics. What is going ON? And this one is more of a conspiracy theory, but seriously people, are the Chinese girl gymnasts REALLY sixteen(age minimum)? I'm thinking they are about eleven. Maybe twelve. Teentsy!!  I don't know why this all makes me feel so worked up, but I just feel taken..taken I tell you!!

How to avoid getting eaten by Bears:

1) Stay in your car (Check)

2) Don't have any food in or around your camping tent. (Check)

3) Make lots of noise. (umm..didn't feel brave enough to do that, luckily we had rowdy neighbors).

So now that everyone can feel safe in their future camping endeavors, I will share our short-lived horification (yes, I made up the word). We had an amazing time away from work and school this past weekend. We went down to Moab and got to see Canyonlands, Arches national park, and the La Sal mountains (mountains of salt, it looks like there is snow on top, but really its salt apparently). Our first night we stayed by the Green River in Moab, which was super fun, yet super hot. So the next night we decided to stay up above the heat in the La Sal mountains. While driving up there, a large animal bounded out of the brush on the right side of the road about thirty feet in front of us..ran across the road, and jumped into the brush on the left side of the road. Initially thinking, "Wow, that is one large dog" i realized maybe it wasn't a dog..I said to Chris, "WHAT was THAT!?" and he said, "That was a BEAR!" And so began my terror. We decided that we should drive to the other side of the mountain where it was 'safe'. But needless to say, I was still freaked out. Even though I was safe in my car and seeing a bear while camping is 'rare' I still felt somewhat uneasy. Luckily though we had no further sightings. Phew! Here are some picts from the happier side of our vaca:

Delicate Arch...not the longest hike ever, but DEFINITELY the hottest.

Squirly squirrel! Actually I think it was a chipmunk..

At the top of Aztec Butte, Canyonlands

Warner Lake, La Sal Mountains

Canyonlands

Mesa Arch