so I finally found the cord to the camera...

I drove home through the Alpine Loop route one night in late October after work...it was pretty breathtaking.

Hood To Coast

Yeah I know it was like 3 months ago...but I thought I'd post the one and only picture taken with my camera right before our 4:15am start time...

(Click here for a link to the pics Baron took.)

I know you missed me...

There's been lots going on in the past few months and I've been keeping really busy. The good news is that we finally got an internet connection at the house this week which means I'm back online and I can continue to updated you on my awesome but crazy life.

The thing with the guy in the place...

My place of employment was involved in a Motorcycle Ride against child abuse the second weekend in September. Here are some photos I took ;)

I Went To Denver!

As I'm sure everyone knows, I got to go to Denver over Labor Day weekend to see 3 Phish concerts. It pretty much rocked. I haven't been to Denver before and I really enjoyed it. In the evenings of course I was at the Phish shows but during the day I was able see some of the town. On Saturday I went to the Denver Art Museum and also enjoyed an arts festival that was going on in the square downtown. On Sunday I went to City Park and enjoyed seeing the sites and reading a good book under a tree with the geese. Here are a few photos I took, and some that I didn't...I borrowed some awesome shots off the phish website of the shows ;)

I got to borrow dad's awesome camera last weekend to take some family photo's for a co-worker who's son just returned home from a mission in Japan. Since I had the camera I also took the opportunity to visit thanksgiving Point and shoot some flowers and such. A little preview:

*Special thanks to dad, his camera and the beautiful day ;)

Two things combined that I love: The Weepies and Ryan Woodward. I loved this song before I found this video which made it the perfect combination since I love Ryan's stuff too. I had the neat opportunity to sit in on one of Ryan's classes once, he's a cool guy.


side note: don't read too much into this post I'm not trying to make some statement about how I feel through the music :)

I ate at Mazza recently...

Gosh I love this place. This is where I come to get good comfort food. Lebanese food is amazing, quite easily my favorite type of food and it's incredible at Mazza. Their Lamb Dola is out of this world ;)

We Came, We Saw, It Snowed...

Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to hang out with my good friend Tyler. We had planned a camping trip with some people that just ended up being the two of us. We planned to go to City of Rocks near Almo ID. We headed out early Saturday morning and headed north. I had watched the weather for Almo all week and the forecast was some scattered showers in the afternoon, which was fine, I don't mind some rain ;)

When we left Salt Lake it was actually pretty sunny, but as we traveled north the clouds became thicker. Truthfully it was really beautiful. The puffy grey-blue clouds the dark snow tipped mountains and the endless green fields...I just kept saying out loud "wow, it's so beautiful out here!"

As we headed down the "highway" of 81 (on which we did not see a single other vehicle) and we saw signs to City of Rocks so we started following them. Little did we know that while these signs certainly did get us there, they got us there in the most rural way possible on awesome dirt roads with no names. I don't think I've ever been anywhere this rural before. We passed through the ghost town of Naf, which don't worry isn't on any map anywhere, I checked. And we came to a super cool abandoned house that we called "The House the Tim Burton Built", and so of course we had to stop so I could explore and take some pictures...






We then continued on our way to City of Rocks and as we approached the sky was getting a bit darker and it was raining a little on and off. Upon arriving our first order of business was to find our campsite which was no simple task...we had to ask a nice man from the Idaho Fish and Game dept. He gave us directions that included about 7 different steps which we failed at remembering after getting back in the car. But no worries we continued on into the park. We stopped at the first large granite boulder we found hopped out of the car and climbed to the top.

By the time we got to the top it was raining pretty hard. We got down and got back in the car and continued down the clay roads but the further we traversed the more apparent it became that rain+clay road+truck=potential "stuckage." And then it happened...in a matter of minutes the rain turned to sleet and the sleet turned into snow. And I'm not talking about wimpy mini snow, I'm talking about hardcore big huge flakes the size of a silver dollar snow.

Honestly it was pretty laughable. I mean the reason I wanted to go to City of Rocks is because I had seen pictures like this:

But what we ended up seeing was this:

and then this:
We couldn't stay long because the roads were deteriorating rapidly but I will say that the whole 30-45minutes I was in the park were pretty cool. We headed back to Almo where we discovered that the only gas station in town was...yep out of gas for the entire weekend. So we ended up having to drive 30 miles down the road to Malta. Once in Malta with a full tank of gas we realized we had a decision to make. We could go back to Punxsutawney or we could stay there an freeze to death, and let me tell you we thought about it for a while ;)

Of course in the end when we considered 1.)the inch of standing water that had been everywhere in the park (I mean who wants to camp in a pond right?) 2.) The fact that the next day was supposed to have worse weather and 3.) When we were there NO ONE else was anywhere to be seen...we decided to just drive home. So in the end yes we went home...stopping in Odgen to have a fabulous steak and lamb dinner at McCool's and then at home we pitched a tent in the living room put on a movie and fell asleep. It was a pretty fabulous day.

**nice photo of City of Rocks borrowed without permission from Dad's awesome photo collection...thanks Dad ;)

Wildflower Season

I've been trying to make it down south for the last several weeks (wildflower season doesn't last long in Capitol Reef), but things always seemed to come up. Finally I made it down there yesterday. It was a really lovely day, the drive was nice and the canyon was beautiful. On my way into Cohab I passed about 15 people coming out and then...no one I had the whole trail to myself all afternoon. It was really relaxing. Here are my photo's ;)

You'll have to forgive me...I don't get to teach Gospel Doctrine any more and since I really wanted to share this I'm blogging about it ;)

I started reading "The Continuous Atonement" a few weeks ago after it was recommended and subsequently lent to me. It's excellent and I also highly recommend it. The book offers valuable insights about God, Christ and our relationship with them.

Anyway I was reading it today and came across two quotes that I wanted to share. The chapter I'm on is called "After All We Can Do". It talks about the general misunderstanding of that phrase and in particular the word after -as if it were time related. Brad Wilcox shares " I believed I had to do all I possibly could and then grace would kick in--as if it were a finishing touch to all I had to first accomplish alone." He goes on to say that the gift of grace is not limited in time to after all we can do. We receive his help before during and after, it is continuous.

A little later in the chapter he examines the word/concept all in the phrase "after all we can do" and I love what he teaches us...

"In those anxious moments,[when I want to beat myself up for not being better] the greatest comfort I have found is in knowing any effort is pleasing to God even if He and I both know it's not my all or my best. It may be far from an acceptable offering, but God accepts it nonetheless because ultimately He is more concerned with the offerer than the offering."

Easter is always a time of great reflection for me. I am so grateful for the blessing of our Savior's atonement and for the opportunity that we have to strengthen our personal relationship with Him and our Heavenly Father. Happy Easter Everyone!

Adele

So when things get a little crazy and I need some down time I usually find new music. This is a fantastic song with an amazing video. Even if you don't care for the early 60's revival, you should still watch this video! Enjoy.

J. Kirk Richards

I experienced a small miracle on Wednesday night. I was at school attending a lecture for one of my classes and afterwards went to the library to do a little research. I accidental ended up on the wrong floor, the 3rd floor which I've never been too, and happened upon a J. Kirk Richards Exhibit. It’s being shown as part of the "Mormon Scholars in the Humanities" conference going on at UVU. For anyone who doesn't know he's pretty much my favorite LDS artist (right there with Walter Rane of course). I LOVE his art so it was a really neat surprise. There were 10 large pieces, and 6 smaller portraits of Christ(they are quite small, about 3"x 5"). If you have the chance I highly recommend it. It should be up for a few weeks.

His website: http://jkirkrichards.com/

Just two more that I love...

These were not part of the exhibit, but I just love them...

Songs of the Heart

Concourse of Angels

Having some fun with Colby!

By Popular Demand

I'm posting this one for Airie...here's Kaya's priceless cranky face. Check out that snarl! (Kaya's favorite toy is a purple ball of yarn. I got this shot right after Dexter tried to come play with it while Kaya had it.)

Went to Gardner's Village with a group of friends last weekend to attend their Queen of Hearts Event. Did some shopping, enjoyed being serenaded by a Barber Shop Quartet that sang "Some Where Over the Rainbow" to us, ate some chocolate, painted our faces and had a lovely time.

Look Again This is NOT One of My Cats

For anyone that didn't know...we temporarily fostered Dexter, a stray cat, for a about a month. He followed Kaya home one night and was so starved that he was barely managing. We didn't have the heart to turn him away so he stayed with us till we found him a home. He was a sweet, social, playful addition that actually helped Maki and Kaya get along better. A cute college student named Josh answered our add on craigslist and Dexter now has a new home and we're thrilled because the two seemed perfect together. It was a wonderful happy ending kind of story ;)

out with the old and in with the new...