a new year to remember...

Tiffany calls me around 10:00 am on New Years Eve. I do not answer because I am still asleep. I then get a text message...I guess I can read that...The message was from Tiff and it said, "Call me immediately!"

So I call her, not knowing what to expect. She answers and asks if I would want to go camping instead of going downtown for New Years. Some of our guy friends were passing through Edmond and were setting up camp in Jasper, Arkansas. If we wanted to get there @ a decent time, we needed to leave fairly soon. I immediately said YES. It sounded so fun.

Jess and I met at Tiffany's around 3. We picked up Jen in Tulsa and headed toward Arkansas. Tiffany was a baller navigator with her atlas. The whole way there I was dreading the cold. It was around 30 degrees that night and I did not pack enough to be warm. I was prepared to be miserable.

We meet the boys in Jasper, and we headed towards our camp site.

The stars were beautiful. The trees were numerous. The moon was smiling. The company was great. The outline of the mountains was visible. I was excited to see what was around us in the daylight.

We hung out by the campfire, made jiffy popcorn & smores, and played The Best of 2008. We welcomed in the new year with a countdown. Typically you are surrounded by chaos and noise during New Years, but tonight it was just the sounds of the fire, the wind, and our conversation.

We had a heat warmer in the tent. Jen caught it on fire. Fumes of plastic filled the tent. We all died. Not really. But the fire really did happen.

7 in one tent + the generous donations of clothing from Jess made for a much warmer night than I expected.

I woke up on top of Justin's pillow. Oops. Sorry Justin. I went back to sleep. Woke up. Jen and I were the only ones still sleeping. We get up and the boys are making us breakfast: breakfast burritos. My favorite :)

We eat, get in our hiking/rock climbing gear, and drive to our destination...

So we are hiking, rock climbing, and enjoying the day. That is until Jess got hurt..........................

Jess was just messing around and climbing some rocks when she slipped and fell an estimated 20 feet and broke her leg. We called 911, called her parents, and tried our best to handle the situation. We were in the middle of nowhere so it took some time for the search and rescue team to find us. Jess was in so much pain. In order to distract herself from her leg, she started talking about all the good things in this world. Her true colors were shining more than ever. She is such a beautiful soul. They put her on a stretcher, gave her some morphine, & took her to the hospital. Her leg made an S shape and it was covered in shades of blue and grey. The doctor confirmed that she did brake her leg, both her tib and fib. There were many more details to this event that I don't want to actually type out. But it was a long day to say the least. We decided to drive home that night instead of sleeping in the cold again....Back to Oklahoma we went...I will not ever forget this New Years. It was so good to be in the mountains; I felt so relaxed and free. In addition to seeing my friend in such extreme pain; it was hard to watch. It was a bittersweet beginning to 2009. What's next?