Happy Holidays

In October of 2011 President Eyring gave a talk about bearing witness. In the talk he shared an experience where he was to speak at a graduation at a university. As the date grew near he received a call from the woman who had asked him to speak, she had become concerned because she had learned that Elder Eyring’s responsibility as an apostle was to bear witness of Jesus Christ, she informed him he could not do that in his speech. As the time grew nearer he was more and more troubled over the situation then he says “In a miracle like the Red Sea parting, I found a news article. That university had been honored for doing what the Church has learned to do in our humanitarian efforts across the world. And so in my talk I described what we and they had done to lift people in great need. I said that I knew that Jesus Christ was the source of the blessings that had come into the lives of those we and they had served.”

I know there have been many arguments over the phrase Happy Holidays; I confess I love to hear “merry Christmas” but last year as I thought about the general feelings at this time of the year. I love the whole build up, even starting with Halloween then Thanksgiving and all the excitement as people put up lights, make family plans, get excited about shopping…I just love the whole feel of it. There really is a spirit of Christmas that is in everyone. So as I pondered this last year I decided that the excitement everyone feels, whether believers in Christmas or some other holiday that generates excitement and love is because of the light of Christ that is in everyone, even if they don’t know it.

So if you say Happy Holiday or Season’s Greetings or anything other than Merry Christmas to me I will be glad in my heart because to me that means the light of Christ is in you whether you say you celebrate Christmas or not.

Zion's National Park

Emerald Pools

This summer I spent five weeks in Utah. I had a lot of fun spending time with my nieces and seeing a lot of old friends and roommates. I also enjoyed many hikes and other fun activities as I have posted about. My last week in Utah was spent taking a fun journey to southern UT. I took a day and went to the Manti and St. George temples so I could add a few more to my list. They were very beautiful, I particularly enjoyed the Manti temple.

I also took a day to go to Zion's National Park. Something I would have loved to do with friends but in the end it was a good for me to just be brave and go on my own. I did a few short hikes like the Lower Emerald Pools and Weeping Rock. I also did a big hike of Angel's Landing, that was the best! Here are some pictures of the views from the hikes and driving.

some great views

more scenic overviews from the highway, I also bought some jewelry on these scenic byways

                          

I think this one was the Weeping Rocks

                            

I think this one was from the Emerald Pools

                          

this was the beginning of the ridge climb at Angel's Landing, see the people going up?

at the top/end

me at the top, with a great view



more of the ridge I hiked, yes that outside part



Bitterfield, I Mean Butterfield

the right one is swollen, couldn't put a shoe on for two days

Another hike I did was up Butterfield canyon. If you drive to the top you get a great view of the Bingham Copper Mines. They also have several trails to hike, or in my case to fall down.

I don't know why I can't figure out how to turn these pics

Dog Lake, Up Big Cottonwood Canyon

Here are some of the pictures (again from my phone, so not as great) from one of my hikes while in Utah. I actually did this hike a few times but this was the most beautiful.

Don't know how to turn this but it is pretty.

Spring Break: Missouri Botanical Gardens

  These pictures are from my phone so they aren't so great, and I guess they are a little out of date, but I wanted to post them.

A Tikal Moment

(couldn't quite get all my pictures in order, but this is the best I could do)

Guatemala is known as the land of eternal spring. It is a beautiful country that I describe to people as a mix of the Utah mountains and the Missouri green. It also has a pretty cool culture and history that includes some pretty neat ruins.

A number of years ago I got to go there with my brother, sister-in-law and a roommate. I had been to Guatemala as a missionary and thoroughly loved it for both the work I did there and also the land and its people.

Traveling with my brother and sister-in-law is great because they know how to plan. They know also know how to do things on the cheap which is great for a college student's budget.

Our trip included some pretty neat sight seeing including a trip north to the famous ruins at Tikal. We took a few days up in the area and stayed in a little place called El gringo perdido. It was so cool there! We were in these little huts along a lake and there were no other guests there. I could tell all sorts of things about this stay like the boat ride there, the bats and the liquados...but that isn't part of my story.

So the day before we went to Tikal we did this huge hike. It was hot and hard and at the end of the day I was sunburned and sore. (I probably wasn't in too good of shape for such hikes so that didn't help). It was a beautiful hike that we all really enjoyed, however, maybe not the best thing to do the day before the ruins.

The next day was the day to tackle the ruins and of course there was a lot of walking involved. I was willing to go up a small pyramid but I refused to do more than one and I certainly was not going to go up the big one everyone was excited about. You see in addition to my tired sunburned body I hate stairs. I don't like going up steps, just don't.

The templo mayor (I think that is what the big one was called) was pretty cool coming out of the ground, and as they were still excavating there had been built up some wooden staircases to make the bottom easier to scale. I stayed at the bottom while the others climbed. They kept saying come up, the stairs are easier than the stone, you can do it...but I had already decided.

I don't know what made me do it in the end, I don't know if it was my brother at the top saying how worth it it would be but finally I decided to do it. Can I just say the view from the top was amazing! You looked out at all the other pyramids below you and were amazed at the people who had built it and the beauty of the land with the trees and the waters...So worth it!

Fast forward about 15 years. I found myself this summer in Jackson Hole at a weekend activity with a mid-singles ward. It was such a fun weekend. We had various social activities including singing, going to shows, eating, root beer floats, a dance, white water rafting...so many fun things. The last morning when everyone was getting ready to go there were a lot of groups planning on doing one final activity. I was really wanting to do a hike in the Tetons that my brother had suggested and was really pleased that the other three people who rode with me were on board to do this before we headed back to Salt Lake.

So we drove to the park and paid our fee and found Jenny Lake and started the hike to the falls. When we got there they were really beautiful. There was also an extended hike to "Inspiration Point" that was only another .5 miles that we decided we might as well do since we were there. (again, glad the others were willing)

The hike was a little more extensive as it was more elevation in a shorter amount of time, but since it was only .5 miles it couldn't be that bad right? There were a lot of switch backs to compensate for the incline. Finally we reached a nice lookout point where you could look out and see the whole lake and a good view of the Tetons. It really was pretty. We didn't go all the way to the top because as we looked at the maybe 20 or 30 feet above us we decided that that much distance couldn't really make the view that much better than the one we had there.

Funny thing at that moment I remembered my trip to Tikal and that feeling I had where I didn't want to climb the templo mayor and that my brother encouraged me and said it would be worth it. I looked up and I knew I wasn't too tired to do it and I figured I had come all this way might as well go all the way to the top regardless of the view I had from where I was. I knew it would just take 5-10 extra minutes and I told the rest of my group I was going on. I guess someone was listening to me ramble because as I headed on one guy said "oh, looks like she is having a Tikal moment".

So a few minutes later there I was at the top and wouldn't you know that 20-30 feet made a big difference in the view, it was so pretty...maybe even what I would call inspirational.

view from the top of templo mayor, a bit out of order

view from inspiration point

Note on Rest Stops

In regards to my question about rest stop being redundant...in more recent travels I have realized that while I call them rest stops they are actually called rest areas, so no more pondering the question of redundancy.

On Rest Stops

In this piece I will share a few of my experiences and thoughts having visited numerous rest stops in the past 6 months. But before I go any further, first I ask myself is the word rest stop redundant? Hmm, there is something to ponder while you muddle through my various stories.


Generally speaking:

While traveling across several states I have stopped at many rest stops. I stopped at them more than usual because I was driving alone and probably a little more tired and restless than I sometimes have been in the past. This would have driven most travelers crazy since I stopped sometimes when I probably didn’t even need to, not to mention that I also stopped for gas, it made for a long trip, but that is the beauty of traveling alone, you can do what you want without annoying anyone else.

Some states have matching rest stops, doesn’t matter where you are you can know what state you are in because of the rest stop. Some have little TV monitors that talk and offer information about the points of interest you may consider in their state (this is weird in the middle of the night because while you are in the bathroom it is like people are talking to you that you don’t even know and also when you think you are alone (which you really are because it is the middle of the night, but you forget that because of the voice talking to you)). Some have little play areas, some are well maintained, and well some aren’t.

So, if you are still reading and you are bored just realize my little stories are probably about as interesting as the previous paragraphs that simply states some facts about some rest stops I recently encountered. Feel free to stop reading now, not my most interesting or cleaver post, but I wanted to write it anyway. :)

Hand washing cave:

So on one of my trips to Kansas City this year I stopped at a rest stop that had these fancy new hand washing things…wouldn’t call them sinks. They were more like caves. So you put your hands in this cave like cavity in the wall and it sprays soap, then you keep them there and rub your hands together while it sprays water then after a bit of that, the water stops and it blows air to dry your hands…all there! All in one! I confess as I stood there marveling the new system and letting my hands dry I pondered just a bit too long because before I knew it I was being sprayed by soap…needless to say I experienced the hand washing cave twice that day.

Prairie dogs:

This one isn’t very interesting but was one of my favorite. I remember once as a child stopping at a rest stop and there were all these prairie dogs running around, I thought it was the craziest thing. So when I was almost to my destination I stopped for a final stretch before my last hour (yes, I had to stop before the last hour). There were two things I particularly enjoyed about this stop one was the prairie dogs, reminding me of when I was younger and the other was this trail that took you to a couple of different sites, yes at a rest stop I stopped to see some sites. First I went to the edge of the area to overlook the cliffs and down into the gorge (don’t really know what to call it) where there were train tracks. The mountains were pretty with different layers of red and yellow rock. Then after that I went up a hill. It was a little steep and there was a picnic table at the top. It offered another neat view and good access to a lot of wind, which gave me the final wake-up I needed for my last hour.

Going for a run:

I think one of my favorite stops was just over the Wyoming boarder. At this stop I had been driving through the night (actually I had stopped at another rest stop and slept for a couple of hours, but that one wasn’t too interesting to write about) and needed a pick me up since I had been in the car for so long. I went in, washed my face, put in some fresh contacts, put on my running shoes and went running. It was a good choice for running because this stop wasn’t just a building with rest rooms, it had about 7-10 individual pavilions with picnic tables and grills at each one. I ran around each one a couple of times getting maybe a good 15 minutes of running in. I was impressed with the whole place, you could almost do a family reunion there with all the little areas for grilling and resting, it was cool and I enjoyed my break there.

Nitrate:

So, you know how you feel after driving for a really long time and all you want to do is wash your face and brush your teeth? That is how I felt at one point. I stopped and used the restroom, then I went and washed not only my hands but also my face. I used lots of soap and water to not only wake myself up but to feel more refreshed. Then I went to my car and got my toothbrush and toothpaste. Fortunately before I started to brush my teeth I noticed a sign that warned people not to drink the water because it contained high levels of nitrate. While I am grateful that I didn’t use it to drink or brush my teeth, I think I also would have preferred not to use it on my face…oh well, I am still alive. Which is a good thing, because that was the reason I made all the stops I made and it would have been crazy to take all the breaks I took only to be killed by nitrate.

PS:
I know the nitrate wouldn't have killed me.

Exercising

As you can tell from my previous post I have been active...one thing I learned from the project is that it isn't necessary to try out a new Jillian Michaels workout when you are going to spend three days lifting and laying tiles...

I Love Summer!

I think one of the things I love about summer is I can just dig into a project no interruptions. I don’t like to do things a little here a little there, I just like to get it done, I think that is one of my strengths and my weaknesses. That having been said, in my first week of summer some of the things I have done have included a pretty thorough cleaning of my house including reorganizing my office so I could get rid of an old bookcase, cleaning all rooms and bathrooms including hands and knees mopping, mowing my lawn, mulching (first time since I got my house and I had help on getting that project done :)) and re-laying my patio.

Here are some pictures of the patio…as you can see there is a lot of weeding to do! Every summer I spend about a full day weeding and then it grows back in about two weeks. This time I decided it would be different so I took all the pavers up, put down new landscaping fabric and put them all down again. I am very pleased with the results…and very sore!

what it looks like when it needs to be weeded

half completed...funny how the shadow worked out in the photo

all done...the picture needs to be turned

Singing in the Shower

I have never been very big on singing in the shower, I don't think there is anything wrong with it, just never much did it. So today I found myself singing in the shower and I learned two things:

#1 "The Lord is my Light" is more fun in Spanish "Jesus es mi luz" (you gotta pronounce it right... hey suess es me lus)

#2 you get a lot of water in your mouth when you sing in the shower...am I doing it wrong?

What Woud You Do If...?

What would you do if you worked in a high school and if you were walking down the hall one day, and if you saw two students, one former and one current, and they happened to be dating and standing close together flirting and if they saw you coming and then if another one of your students from behind you down the hall just hollered hello to you and if there were all sorts of other students all around and if you suddenly had a strange sensation that something about the clothing you were wearing wasn't right and then all of a sudden you realized your skirt was falling down and if you happened to have on silky pantie hose along with the silky skirt so that before you knew it your skirt was bunched around your ankles...I was just wondering...if this all happened...what would you do?