Family Home Evening at Joe's

Last Monday, Cousin Joe from Japan came to visit Utah briefly, bringing his fiancee Sarah.
We're happy to welcome her to the family!

We sang hymns and had a short lesson by Joe (Japan Joe, not Utah Joe.)
And Kathleen & the kids made a great dinner (Stanford Bell.)
It's nice to visit with family!

Yummy food!

I had some leftover frozen red chile puree from New Mexico.
It made a great sauce on top of chicken/cheese enchiladas!

Resolutions

This is my fridge on Weight-Watchers.

Notice the very full vegetable and fruit drawers, and the abundance of sugar-free, low-calorie drinks.
My get-in-shape-for-Timp goal includes both slimming down and exercising more.

Weekend camping at Bryce

I went camping with Joe and Hyrum and the OAC down in Bryce Canyon this last weekend.

It was quite cold overnight (about 29 degrees) and none of us had really prepared sufficiently to stay warm. (My mistake was packing a conventional air mattress; since it isn't insulated it acted as a giant drain on my body heat. I need a Thermarest.) I was up at the crack of dawn (literally) making hot cocoa, and sharing it with those who didn't want to leave their sleeping bags.

Of course after our chilly overnight experience, the day was lovely: high 60s, a bit warmer down in the canyon. Hyrum found some snow on the trail and packed it into his hat to stay cool.

Joe and Hyrum hiked down with me to Tower Bridge (1.7 miles one way) and then I hiked slowly back up while they did the 6 plus more miles of the Fairyland Loop trail. I had a grand time, but got a bit overexterted and dehydrated and had a nasty headache that evening. Fortunately Joe drove most of the way home.

Red Rock Country!

Bryce canyon has always been one of my favorite spots.

These views are from the Fairyland Loop trail, on the way to Tower Bridge.

This last one is from nearby Red Canyon.

Spring Snowshoeing Cabin Trip

This weekend I went with the OAC on a cabin trip up Fairview Canyon, about 2 hours south of here. There's no snow left in Provo Valley but up the canyon there were still several feet of snow. We snowshoed into a rustic cabin (owned by the family of one of the club members) and stayed overnight. No water, no electric, and no heat but for the fireplace, but there was a snug roof and extra mattresses to sleep on-- girls upstairs, guys downstairs.

It's very beautiful up there!

We had marshmallows to share and folks brought their own foil dinners (that's Alyssa with the marshmallow and Brian with his dinner). The club made pancakes for everyone for breakfast. We had about 20 people there total.

Emily Jane even packed in her guitar! She sang a variety of things, from John Denver to Collective Soul. She's good!

The next day, folks went sledding on the hill behind the cabin. I mostly photographed (that's Emily Jane going over the sled jump, and Emerson watching.)

Some folks opted to just relax on the couch by the fire for awhile, feet on the hearthstone.

Hands and feet

OK, so I am not fond of posting pictures of myself, but this is too funny:

Ethan will be nine in a week and a bit.
His hands and feet are already the size of mine.
He is already almost as tall as I am.

A Day at Home

Even when I'm under the weather, a day at home has advantages.
A lovely view out my window:

Company, even if somewhat shy and retiring (that's my bathrobe he's curled up in):

Simple but yummy food: in this case, a cheese quesadilla with lots of hot sauce to clear out my stuffed sinuses, and topped with refried beans.

I myself am curled up on the couch, with the other half of the bathrobe over my feet, reading up on Archaic Greek art (and dreaming of visiting Athens this fall.)