Flaming Gorge

Ever since we got married we have really wanted to go camping as a family, but especially since this is likely to be our last time in the West for a while. We decided to head north to escape some of the blazing desert heat and enjoy the lush greenery of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The park is on the Utah/Wyoming border. They have huge trout, lots of wildlife and many rock formations & dinosaur excavation sites. We had our hands full just trying to cook on a campfire, pull rocks out of Abby's mouth and avoid any too-wild forms of wildlife.

We got a late start and pitched our tent in the dark. Neither L'Anita nor I got much sleep because of strange noises we heard throughout the night, mixed with bear stories Caleb had filled our heads with the day before. We thought the low bellow we were hearing must have been a crossbreed of a moose and a bear. Abigail didn't mind at all. She woke up once and after snuggling up with her mom in her sleeping bag, she feel right back to sleep. In the morning we found the culprit. It was a horse with a wheezy cough.

We drove around to see the sights and to give Abby a nap because a tent is way too much fun for napping (and too hot and too bright - the thought never crossed my mind before).
Here is a shot of Abby escaping the tent. She usually ran toward it unless, of course, we actually wanted her in it.

The second night we moved our tent to a shaded area where the ground was dry and free of rocks. We slept much better, as the mystery of the strange animal noise was solved. Abby climbed into my sleeping bag this time. It was really cold at night and she isn't good at keeping the covers on. Fun times.

The last day we went for an easy hike with amazing look-outs starting from the Red Canyon visitors' center and walking along the ridge to our campground (Greens Lake) and back.
Gorgeous!

Squaw Peak

This is not the same as Squaw Mountain which has a road that sweathearts sometimes drive up to look at the view (So I hear; Never been up there myself). No, there is no road to the top of this one. It is the impressive peak that hangs over Rock Canyon and the one I decided to conquer once and for all.

I hiked with two of my neighbors, Stan Hall & Shinji. We are grateful to have made friends with such good people so quickly out here. I have gone swimming and climbing with Stan and used his tent to go camping. Shinji invited me to play soccer with him on Fridays. It is nice that they are keeping me busy (and sore).The hike was a lot of fun. I had been in the canyon many times before. Once I did take the trail that forks to the left with my dad when he was visiting, but we didn't have much time so we turned around before long. If I had know what a beautiful view was in store I would have done it long ago and returned often. I believe it only took us about two hours to get up from the parking lot. We were cruising at a fast pace, and had to stop to catch our breath a couple times.

This is the view looking to the east. These mountains are not seen well from our home because we are so close to the smaller peaks in front of them.



Looking down on Provo. The orange arrow is where we live. The blue arrow is the parking lot where we started and the red arrow is the Provo Temple.
The parking lot is at an elevation of about 5100' and the peak is above 7840' (our apartment is at 4800').Here is a little video vertigo for your viewing pleasure. Really quite spectacular. I highly recommend this hike.

Awe-ffles

I mention below that Grandma Heiss saved the day with her famous Belgian waffle recipe. A funny thing happened a couple weeks back when I experienced a culinary catastrophe. I borrowed a recipe out of a family cookbook from the people we are renting from.
Apparently the recipe left out about six cups of water so our batter was more like dough. I figured it was a more authentic type of Belgian food so we tried it and concluded that they can keep their waffles if that is how they like them. More like a loaf of sweet bread.
Here is my Mr. Bean face. A great workout for anyone trying to build up their masseter (muscle of mastication, aka chewing).



We didn't dare leave them out for the deer for fear they might choke. Thank goodness that Grandma's recipe worked. Now we are enjoying wonderful waffles and I am allowed back in the kitchen.

Sundays

We are trying to establish some family traditions while we and Abigail are still young and malleable. One of those is making Sunday a time for family. Whether we are going to church, serving others, or just going for a walk we want to do it together. That is our plan for staying close and keeping up with everyone. I hope that we can cook together and eat together and sit around and share stories, jokes and concerns.

While in Atlanta we would frequently spend time with L'Anita's family or mine on Sunday evenings, conveniently close to dinner time, which we always greatly enjoy (the company that is).
Last week we invited L'Anita's brother Caleb and his family over for Sunday dinner. I made Belgian waffles using Grandma Heiss's recipe, and they were amazing. That is definitely a tradition to carry on. In fact, Caleb asked for those same waffles for a Father's Day dinner this week.

I mentioned that going for walks is something we plan on doing as a family. It has been something L'Anita and I have always enjoyed doing together and that we have done with our parents as well, in the past and presently, when the opportunity presents.

In Provo we live right next to a temple of the Church, so we like to take walks over there because it is so peaceful and pretty. As many have asked in the past, the temple is not where we have our weekly meetings (we call that the chapel), but it is for special purposes like marriages, and ordinances like baptism for our ancestors who didn't have that chance. It is also a place to be close to God, so there is great effort to make those places beautiful and respectful. Heaven on Earth, I guess you could say, and that is just what it feels like both inside and out. Having one so close by is a real treat so we have gone there several times and just sat on the lawn or let Abigail dip her hands in the fountain. It is always a good experience and we all enjoy our trips quite a bit.
Quite a spectacular backdrop to go along with it.

Abigail is fascinated with water right now. She loves to splash in it and to lick her hands afterward. She has no problem walking all the way from where we are standing above to the fountain in the distant background without either of her parents.
I'll try to do a slide show of her funny expressions. It really is a lot of fun, and not just for Abigail.

Danny's Wedding

(Here is my attempt at technology... I embedded a link to the photo, but it it too big for some screens. If you can't see L'Anita then try clicking here. The uploaded pictures can be clicked on and seen in a larger form, but this doesn't work with embedded links)

Here we are at Danny & Yennifer's wedding reception May 30th 2008. Danny and I roomed together for my last at the Y and hit it off right away. Something about him was just very familiar. Could it be the way he walked or the slight hit of cauliflower ear (a former wrestler can spot another of his kind a hundred yards away) or was it his jolly laugh and good humor? I don't know, but we had a great time that year and have managed to keep in touch.
Congrats, Danny & Yennifer. Best of luck in future!

We didn't get a picture of it, but we were thrown out on the dance floor several times to a spicy Latin rhythm. It was a lot of fun, especially because we'll never see most of those people again.

Big Spring Hike

One Friday I was feelin' particularly couped up in the extra small apartment so as soon as it stopped raining I said bye to L'Anita, who was working on another long paper and Abby and I went looking for a hike. This one was in Provo Canyon, down the road by Vivian park (South Fork?). We hiked for over two hours and had a great time. It was fun to see what the other side of the mountains that we look at every day look like.

This is the view on the way in. We actually made it pretty far up, passed where the mountain on the left descends into the canyon. I really wish that we could have gone farther, but the sun was setting on us and dinner & bedtime were calling. Maybe another day.

Abigail tried out her hiking legs on this one. It was nice because it is not as rocky as Rock Canyon. She's not intimidated by the steep hills.

This is the view heading back to the car.

Abby was really good. We stopped several times to eat granola bars and to chew on rocks and other interesting things we found. Life doesn't get much better! Hopefully a long tradition of daddy-daughter dates like this will follow.

Visiting college campuses

We took Abigail for a walk around the Brigham Young University (BYU or the Y) campus. The campus is always beautiful, but to my delight, all of Utah is much prettier in the summer and especially when they are having lots of rain to let the desert flower and come to life.

This is a little stream and duck pond on the north end of campus by the bell tower. Abigail has developed quite a fascination with all fowl. She stops us wherever we go to point out the robins and other birds pecking the ground and flying about.

Here we go chasing those pesky ducks with Abby leading the way. They initially came up to us likely thinking that we had food. They quickly retreated when they realized that we didn't, but we came back later to make amends with the poor things (although they are probably over-feed, they are also likely over-harassed by little girls like mine).

Mom & Abby are feeding the duck and her ducklings. What fun!

Dad has a try at it. One for the ducks and one for me, right Abby?

The stoic look...

Looks like she might be a daydreamer like her dad.