Three New Stickers

I added three new stickers to my shop this week. Click here to buy, share, gawk, critique, you know the drill. My #NPSLover stickers are listed first with my I ♥ Public Lands sticker right below them.

Up first is the painting I did last summer of the Milky Way over Sand Dune Arch at Arches National Park. I painted this during the weekend I spent at Draper’s Art in the Barn. It was a 2-day art exhibition (my first ever!), and I found it impossible to just sit or stand while people milled about, so I brought supplies to paint and ended up doing 3 small paintings.

Sand Dune Arch was a favorite spot of my kids when they were younger and didn’t much care about the awe of the park. Hike for just a few minutes in between these giant fins of sandstone and there’s an arch in there; it’s super short. It’s a wonderful spot to let little ones play in the fine sand and, depending on when you get there, you could rest in the shade. This spot can be super popular in the summer months when it’s hot. We’ve been to Arches multiple times, but only in April and May; which I HIGHLY recommend. Spring Break is a wonderful time to visit Moab.

You can click on the image to purchase a sticker too.

Next up is a painting I did of Corona Arch, just outside of Moab. It’s one of my favorite places ever and I did this painting for a client a while back to be printed on neck gaiters some day. For this sticker, I went with a new-to-me website, Jukebox Print, for these stickers and I LOVE how they turned out.

This is one of my favorite paintings and I had SUCH a fun time painting it. It was one of those times where I felt like I was in a groove and paper and paint just cooperated and coordinated.

Last up is Sundial Peak in Big Cottonwood Canyon and part of the Wasatch National Forest. I had to do some research to find out if this peak was on National Park Service land or BLM Land. I’m still not 100% sure, because I also see it tagged in the Twin Peaks Wilderness. This spot is close to where we live and it’s a hike I hope to do this summer. If I can plan it right (depending on snow melt and weather, we’ve had a TON of snow this winter), I want to do a backpacking trip there. It’s a tough trail with a lot of elevation gain, but it’s supposed to be worth it… barring the mosquito situation.

I painted this one just last month to help pull me out of a funk I was in. Finishing it, and subsequently making a few changes in Photoshop, really helped pull me out of my Winter Blues and the funk that I was in. I will have this available as a giclée print in a couple of sizes in the coming months.

I actually made a mistake when ordering this one as stickers. I didn’t pay attention to the wording on a sale and I ended up ordering 2x2 inch stickers. These are a lot smaller than I usually order, so I may just make these freebies to anyone who places an order.

I will order this in a 3x3 inch sticker at some point.

I want to paint some places that are gorgeous and not in Utah next. I have a few spots on my list like South Falls in Oregon, and I have a photo that I took of a beach in Half Moon Bay, California that I may paint. Any suggestions??

Land Beyond Zion at Winter Break

Over winter break, my family spent the Christmas holiday with my sister and her family in southern California. We drove there from Salt Lake City. My husband was only able to take off one of the two weeks from work, so as we headed home from SoCal, we dropped him off at the St George Airport and stayed in the southern Utah area for a couple of days; specifically Land Beyond Zion.

Land Beyond Zion is a fun campground/vanlife spot right on the UT/AZ border. Shanti has built out a beautiful place to camp comfortably with flush toilets, running water, an outdoor shower and claw foot tub, WiFi, and a shared outdoor kitchen. It has multiple sleep options: from BYO tent, RV, or van with full hookups to a canvas platform tent (with heater!), an RV, or a tiny house. There’s a lovely spot with hammocks hung, and a play area for kids. She has plans to continue building more amenities and dogs are welcome!

Kicking myself for not taking photos of the structures she’s built; mostly on her own too!

My oldest with Shanti’s dog, Sunny

It’s 30 minutes from Hurricane and 50 minutes to Zion National Park. It’s 20 minutes from Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It’s super close to Gooseberry Mesa, about an hour to St George, and 90 minutes to Bryce Canyon National Park. It’s a wonderful basecamp to all kinds of outdoor exploration and adventures.

It actually rained most of the time we were there, so we did no hiking, but it was still fun and relaxing. We had no pressure to actually do anything… and we kind of didn’t. We played a competitive round of Phase 10, we chilled in hammocks, and we slept in; even thru an epic sunrise that Shanti was gracious enough to share a photo of.

One rainy afternoon, I attempted to paint that beautiful sunrise in watercolor and made a video of the process. You can view it here. At the end of the day, I couldn’t get my paints to make that peachy-pink sky (at least not at the vibrance I wanted, so I did another one after I got home in gouache. They’re very different, but I love both for different reasons.

As the rainstorms cleared and we headed home, we stopped at the Cinder Knoll trail in Hurricane to take photos of the Pine Valley Mountains with snow and Red Cliffs Desert Reserve in the foreground. The puddles were serendipitous.

Check out Land Beyond Zion on its own website, but also on AirBnB and HipCamp.

Shanti is hosting two retreats for adults this spring; one at the end of April that is hiking and running focused with Kathy Pugh. Click here for info about that retreat.

She’s hosting another at the end of May with amazing photographer Michelle Craig. Click here for info about the May retreat. If I didn’t have other stuff happening at the end of May, I’d be attending Michelle’s retreat!

Also… I love the logo I designed for Land Beyond Zion. It really turned out awesome. I’ll write a post about that on its own at some point.

A Mom’s Superpower to Combat Busy Life

You ever have times in your life where there is just so much going on, you don’t feel like you can catch your breath? Life has been busy for us these months; pretty much from April-on. It’s the kind of busy where I’ve done plenty of Instagram-worthy things, but haven’t managed the time to post about them. And then when I do have a minute to breathe, I don’t want to do anything at all.

A few years back, when I ran a parenting blog, we asked all of our writers/moms if they could have any superpower, what would it be?

One mom’s answer really stuck with me and I still think of it from time to time… mostly times like right now.

She wished she had a superpower where her body did not need sleep. Between working full-time, caring for her family, and all of the day-to-day things that consumed her available time, she realized that if she didn’t need sleep, there were so many hobbies and interests she could pursue.

In a nutshell, she never really had time for herself, and she felt this most profoundly when her children were young. Her kids are older now, and I hope she has been able to find more time to devote to her own interests.

Times when I feel overwhelmed, like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do All. The. Things., I think of this mom and her desired superpower and I wonder just how much I could get done if I didn’t also have to sleep.

Me with a couple of fellow kick-ass moms. Image by Michelle Craig Photography

Cuz like, I’ve done a bunch of things this year that could earn their own blog posts (and will eventually)…

• My oldest son and I had our belt graduation where we finally got our black belts in taekwondo (it’s been pretty fun to wear in class).

• I flew to the Bay Area by myself for a weekend to say farewell to the man who was a second dad to me growing up (fuck cancer).

• Went on a wonderful retreat in southern Utah with a bunch of amazing women.

Image by Michelle Craig Photography

• Family road tripped to Reno where my kids competed in a taekwondo tournament to qualify for Nationals.

• Both my kids did competition track & field for the first time and were killing it at track meets and learning new events and skills.

• I have a new gig as social media manager and graphic designer for our competition running club (follow us! @wolfpackingrunningutah on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok).

• I got some new tools for my freelance work that I’m excited to share about.

• My parents came to Utah for a visit and we were able to take my dad on a couple of our favorite hikes.

My boys with my dad on the trail to Cecret Lake in Albion Basin.

• My paternal grandma passed away at the age of 102.

• My kids both competed in USA Taekwondo Nationals in July and my oldest earned a gold medal in black belt sparring in his age and weight class.

• I dipped my toes into the world of art festivals and had a booth at two local festivals. It was really fun and I actually made a few bucks. Show #1 and Show #2. I also entered two paintings into a city art show and I won a 2nd place ribbon!

• I made the decision to begin training for my 2nd degree black belt in taekwondo and will decide when to test (either next May or next December).

• My youngest son was asked to be the main character in a short film that is both a comedy and horror and learned a ton about how films are made.

• Both of my kids are doing competition cross country and are doing awesome at meets. They both are hoping to qualify for USATF Jr Olympic Nationals in Texas in December.

• My family was heartbroken by the loss of a taekwondo friend who took his own life just before he turned 15.

So yeah… it’s been a busy and tough year, and I have had many moments where I wished I could skip a night’s sleep so I had more time. September was crazy with our kids playing three different sports, plus school, birthdays, a funeral, and lots of emotions. October has been more chill and I am hoping as the weather cools off, November will continue to be chill. Fingers crossed.

Trying to relax on Gooseberry Mesa and enjoy the view.

Traveling Gingerbread Man 2

In 2019, our friend Jaxon had an assignment in his class where he asked friends and family to send postcards and notes claiming they met the Gingerbread Man on their road trips and travels. I leveled up on our adventures and had a TON of fun in Photoshop adding the Gingerbread Man to some photos and sending fun messages to Jaxon’s kindergarten class. You can view that post here.

Last fall, my niece Maddie’s kindergarten class was doing the same assignment and I was STOKED to get to create a few more images and also send the ones I made before. Below are the photos along with the letters we sent. For these, we actually printed everything out and sent them in cards. Apparently they were a HUGE hit in her class.

Hi Ms. Conti's Class,

It's Matthew and Tommy again, Madison's cousins. We've done a lot of road trips lately, and it seems like we share a lot of the same interests as the Gingerbread Person. This July, we bumped into them while exploring the Trail of Ten Falls at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. This trail is so amazing as we hike through a lush forest and we can see ten different waterfalls over the 9 mile hiking trail. On many of the waterfalls, the trail goes behind them! Thankfully, the Gingerbread Person didn't get too soggy when we splashed in the water with them. Wouldn't want them to lose an arm! We also shared some s'mores with them at our campsite. What a beautiful place to visit!

Hope we'll bump into them again this summer.

Love, Matthew and Tommy

Hola Ms. Conti's Class!

It's the Wong Family again, saying hello to Madison and wanting to share that we had a fun afternoon with the Gingerbread Person at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Crater Lake is the DEEPEST lake in North America at 1,949 feet deep! Wow! It's a crazy deep shade of blue and was formed from a volcano, so there are no rivers or streams that flow into or out of it. Pretty cool, right? We hope you can visit one day because it's such a beautiful place.

Adios, the Wong Family

Hi Madison and Ms. Conti's Class!

We spent a day exploring Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The sandstone cliffs and canyons look a lot like many places we've explored in Utah, but it has its own geological history. We watched some kids do some rock climbing, they climbed so high! It was a pretty hot day, but that didn't stop us from enjoying a couple of short hikes with the Gingerbread Person. We shared some fruit snacks and trail mix and we chatted about where they were headed next. The views were gorgeous and it was a really amazing place to explore after being on the road for so long. We hope you can check it out one day.

See ya! Matthew & Tommy

Below are a few repeats from the previous iteration:

Hello, Ms. Conti's Class,

Madison's cousins, Tommy and Matthew saying hi and sharing yet another Gingerbread Person sighting. They must have had the same road trip plans as us this year. We ran into them at the north shore of Lake Tahoe, California and they joined us for a swim in the crystal-clear water. The water is so clear in Lake Tahoe that we can see more than 50 feet down and it's the 2nd deepest lake in North America. We bid farewell when we got wrinkly fingers and advised them to do the same. Since they're made of gingerbread, we didn't want them to get soggy!

I hope they had a great time on the rest of his road trip!
Adios, Tommy and Matthew

Hi Ms. Conti's Class,

It's Tommy and Matthew again, say hi to Madison for us, we miss her! We were on a road trip with our parents and we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah to see if we could watch some race cars break land speed records. Did you know that the Bonneville Salt Flats are left over from when most of Utah was a massive ancient lake?? Lo and behold, we saw The Gingerbread Person too! They were scoping out some rocket cars and enjoying the weather. Thankfully it wasn't too hot, but wow, it gets bright when the sun reflects off of the salt! Sunglasses are a must! Wonder where they were headed next?

Best, Tommy and Matthew

Hi Ms. Conti's Class!

We are the Wong Family: Alex, Bill, Tommy and Matthew. We're Madison's cousins and we live in Utah. We were exploring Arches National Park in Moab, Utah earlier this year and you wouldn't believe who we ran into: The Gingerbread Person! They must have been on vacation, exploring the beautiful sandstone desert. They were so nice by sharing some gumdrops with us and we shared granola bars with them on the trail. We were totally photobombed too! What a stinker!
Love, Tommy and Matthew

Hello, Ms Conti's Class,

It's the Wong Family again, Tommy and Matthew. We were hiking with some friends in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the snowy Wasatch Mountains of Utah this week and we ran into our old friend, The Gingerbread Person. He said he was hoping to get in some skiing before another snow storm came through, and we hope he found some slopes, because it's supposed to snow again tonight!

We hope you're staying warm this winter, miss you Madison!
Cheers, Tommy and Matthew

Hiking My Way Retreat - 2022

I had the privilege of attending a retreat in 2019 hosted by Shanti Hodges and Mirna Valerio and it was transformative. I had spent almost all of my 30s juggling a long commute, being pregnant, and taking care of babies that I completely neglected my own physical, mental, and emotional health. The year I turned 40, I vowed to make my own health a higher priority and saving up money to attend this retreat was part of that.

I wrote about that specific retreat here and I find it funny how I really only documented the hikes we went on rather than the experience itself. Maybe I couldn’t find the words?

The following year, I saved up even more money and got some help from my mom and my brother-in-law so I could bring my sister with me. It was a wonderful experience to get to share this escape with her. We both needed the time to reconnect with ourselves as women and it was perfect timing too. That retreat took place the last week of February in 2020… literally weeks before everything shut down.

Shanti wasn’t able to host a retreat in 2021, but with the Covid vaccine finally available and the virus seeming to head down a path towards becoming endemic, a retreat happened again back in February. Shanti asked if I’d like to come and be a staff member. So long as I could make things work with my husband and the carpooling of kids to and from school, he made it happen for me.

There’s something magical about coming to the desert and spending time with complete strangers. We all came for a seemingly singular purpose: to move our bodies outside. But within a single day, it became a sacred space where we could be completely vulnerable and naked; both figuratively and literally in some cases. Even with this being my third time attending, with mostly different women each time (there have been a few repeat offenders), it became the same magical space of support and community.

We were all asked one night “why are you here?” For many, that was a loaded question, for others, not as much. Some of us had lost our selves in motherhood or careers and were trying to find us again. Some wanted to connect with women and be part of a new community. Others simple needed a retreat; in every sense of the word.

Tuesday is an Episcopalian rector and she attended the event this past month. She wrote a beautiful blog post about her experience and comparing it to why Jesus went into the desert.

“Being in the desert quickly calls your attention to what is essential. What do you take in your pack each day? Whatever you bring, you carry for many miles. Start with plenty of water and portable foods to sustain you on the trails. Temperatures rise quickly and drop quickly - layers are essential. Sunscreen, hats, gloves, first aid kits, phones to take pictures with, maybe a GPS device. Not much else. Too much and you risk carrying more than you need, wasting valuable energy. Too little and you risk dehydration, hunger, sunburns, and open wounds.”

I am probably one of the least-religious people I know, and I found her words really moving and spot-on with how curative and healing being in the desert has been for me; especially when I’m there with other women.

“We waited on one another. We accommodated one another. We showed each other what we knew. We were good company. At the end of the day, we knew deep down in the marrow of our bones that we were alive, that life is a gift, and that gift is a joy-filled good. What power does the tempter have over such as this?

In the desert, everything is stripped down to what is most essential: water; food; basic supplies; kinship; reverence. The rest just weighs you down.”

With the combined knowledge and skill throughout the group, we took care of each other. We had women who had never visited Utah before and some who were veterans at hiking in the desert. We had women who were ultra-runners and women who were hiking on trails for the very first time. We were all shapes and sizes, and ages that spanned more than a few decades.

Shanti has a magical talent for bringing people together and it was an honor to get to be a part of it; every time.