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.

Rock Canyon

We live about a half mile from a huge canyon. I used to go there weekly as a freshman and frequently throughout college. It brings many fond memories and a sense of peace and happiness for me. I couldn't wait to visit Rock Canyon again and so the first Saturday I after I arrived while L'Anita was busy doing homework, I decided that the best way to keep Abigail entertained was to do something; so we went on a hike. (We hiked to the Y on the mountain the day before which Abigail wasn't thrilled about - maybe because she soaked her diaper and pants through around the top. She decided that no one, but her dad would be allowed to carry her down! That was interesting. Try carrying a baby without touching their pants.)

On the way up to Y. Sorry the view is not very good. Like my grandmother says, "unless you're at the front of the pack the view never changes".

Here is the mouth of the canyon.

Here is Abigail after 20 minutes. Snack break! And by a nice, cool stream too.

Cindy thinks that the Colorado Rockies are much more beautiful that the stony Wasatch front. I usually tend to agree with her, but I've never seen them in the summer. Looks like there are some trees and green on them after all.

Finally, here is a picture of the two hikers. I forgot her nose was running the whole time, otherwise I would have been a little embarrassed with all the people seeing her on our way down. We hiked for 2 hours, 1.5 up and .5 down. We found snow and some strange chicken-bird. We went farther than I had ever been on that trail before. Last time I was there is was all snowy and I turned around when I saw paw prints as big as my hand and no one around to hear me.

I wonder what we will do this weekend? Perhaps hunt down some ferocious wild animals...? Tune in again next time.

Trip to Utah

Well, shortly after I turned in my last final I jumped in the car and headed west. I had planned on leaving quite a bit earlier to avoid traffic and get to a reasonable point to stay the night, but everything took longer than expected and I hit the road around 4:30pm, just in time for rush hour. Not too bad though, and with a bundle of books on tape I didn't mind all that much. I hoped to surprise L'Anita, but when I called her for our evening chat she guessed right away that I was not on my way home from Wendy's at 11pm, but really on the road to reunite with them several days ahead of schedule. So after many miles and a couple of books, plus a couple of nights sleeping in the back of my car (no room in the Wyoming inns for a pathetic, smelly cross-country traveler) I made it to Provo just about 40 hrs after I left Atlanta (30hr drive).

Here is a picture of the house my Great-grandmother Mohr used to live in and my grandma Bankhead in Heber, Ut.

And this is the view of Mount Timponogas from the Heber side. Indian lore states that a beautiful Indian princess who had a broken heart lied down there and turned into a mountain or something. See if you can make out her head (on the left) and her feet (on the right, obviously).

Can't wait to get up into those mountains for some hiking and communion with good ol' Mother Nature!