the sealing

the sealing was yesterday. we went up to the mt timpanogos temple since the provo is closed right now. my family (my mom, all four of my brothers and most of their spouses, my aunt and uncle, and a cousin) who live nearby came, as well as brian's parents and his sister and her husband, and then a few friends came too. the sealing was great and really special. our sealer was really neat--he had been sealed to his family when he was a kid too.

after the sealing, we went outside and took a few pictures before we all retreated to our cars and headed to cooler places. it was around 100 degrees. we (me, b, and w, and b's parents and his sister and her husband) went to an all-you-can-eat salad bar dinner on our way home. once home, we got ready for the post-sealing party at a park near our house. the party was a good time--we got to see a lot of friends. i completely over-estimated the amount of food we'd need, but thankfully my mom has some freezer space and we have company in town to help us eat it!

here are the rest of the pictures of our high uintas adventure.


w holding the fresh water shrimp we found.


w with one of the many trout he caught.


w and b fishing at the third, and most remote, lake we went to.


the picture that proves i was there.


w walking through one of the many rock piles.


view of the upper lake.


the view from our tent.


brian getting one of our fish-fires ready.

the high uintas is the place for me and the place for you

on thursday morning, we got up early to go up to the high uintas. it's not too far of a drive, so we started on the hike around 7:30am. brian and i were carrying the big hiking backpacks that his parents gave us a few years ago. we weighed them the night before, and they were only about 22 pounds, but that started to feel pretty heavy pretty quickly. the hike up is 4.5 miles and is fairly steep at times. it took us 4 hours.

about 3 hours or so into the hike, i started not feeling very well. my stomach was feeling off. by the time we were almost to the lake, my stomach had gotten really bad, and i found a convenient place to quickly take off my pack, run to a nearby log, and throw up. i felt a bit better at that point, but not much better. when we got to the lake, i stationed myself on the ground by the side of the lake while b and w fished. i tried to sleep it off for about 1.5 hours. when i got up to move to the shade i had to find another convenient place to throw up. but after resting again on the ground for another hour or two, i was pretty much back to normal. our self-diagnosis is that i had altitude sickness. we were in the 9,000 feet range by the time we made it to the lake--so that seems like the most likely culprit. thankfully it didn't last the whole trip.

while i was resting by the side of the lake, b and w fished on two lakes. between the two of them, they caught enough fish for brian to tin-foil cook them for our dinner (me and brian--william doesn't like eating fish too much). note: by this time my sickness had subsided so i could enjoy eating the delicious trout they had caught.

later that evening, brian scaled the nearby mountain ridge to see what was on the other side. he knew there should be some lakes, and he was right. it was a rough-going hike, but it sounded like a lot of fun. he found a crushed balloon on the ridge (one we imagine someone let go of who knows where and made its way to the high uintas), and he saw piles of snow twice his height. i'm sure it was a beautiful view from there too.

that night we pitched the tent and set up our food/good-smelling stuff so a bear couldn't reach it. we were on our own at the alpine lakes, which was very nice. the ground that night was hard and a bit sloped, but we all slept pretty well. and there was no rain and there were no bear encounters--two very good things.

on friday morning we got up early to try our hand at fishing the upper and lower lakes. we didn't have a whole lot of luck, but b did catch a few good ones. we then cooked those up (a nice brunch for me and b) and then set off on a hike to find another alpine lake. brian had seen where it was on google earth. we set off without the benefit of a trail, which was most of the fun of this hike. it was a challenging hike with a lot of rock scrambling, but brian took us straight to the lake. it was a beautiful alpine lake with lots and lots of trout. we were catching fish on nearly every cast. there was also a really amazing view from the edge of the lake. ah, the high unitas.

after being at that lake, and seeing a deer pound down the rocky mountain escarpment, we headed back to our original lakes and set off back on the 4.5 mile hike back to the car. the hike back was considerably faster and easier, although by the end, all of our feet and shoulders and backs hurt pretty bad. but it was all worth it. even the altitude sickness. it was such high adventure--carrying the packs, backcountry camping, catching a lot of trout, rock scrambling, blazing trails, etc. our camera is out of battery power, so i'll post more pictures later. but below are a few other highlights.

w caught the biggest fish on the first day. b caught the biggest fish on the second day.

we got to see several pikas while were there. this was w's first time to see those cute, little animals.

the high uintas were even more beautiful than i had remembered from last summer. constantly i was blown away by how amazing the scenery was. one thing that was neat about going up earlier in the season that was that there were a lot of wild flowers in bloom. one down side to going up earlier in the season was that there were a lot more mosquitos.

catching up part 4 -- leche

a couple saturdays ago, brian and i were talking right after waking up, and he mentioned that he had found some really pretty milk snakes for sale nearby. he thought one of these snakes would be a good pet for w. he showed me the pictures--knowing i like pretty milk snakes--and i said that that sounded fine. well, by the end of the day we had purchased leche.

i like snakes fine, but i've never desired to have one as a pet. in fact, i don't particularly even like pets much. i like animals in nature, but not really at home. but i have to say, leche is the perfect pet. he isn't always under foot (in fact he never is), he only needs to be fed (at most) once a week, cleaning the "cage" isn't difficult and doesn't have to be done more than once or twice a week, and he's so pretty. the only downside is that he is a bit smelly, but it's not that strong.

i have to agree with b: a snake is a great pet to have around.

catching up part 3 -- parental leave

my parental leave has now officially started--so i am off work for 2 months. there were some last-minute issues to work out with my hr department, but it all worked out in the end. so for the next two months i am truly a stay-at-home mom.

it's still been a bit crazy during the past few days, but it's so nice not to have to think of work and being there to spend time with william and do everything else i need to do. it was really starting to wear me out. i don't know how people do it all.

we are now planning our summer trips: a trip to cali (san jose/gilroy/monetery area) and a trip to yellowstone. i am also working on a few other projects--so between that, swimming lessons, water balloons, legos, grocery shopping, reading more, going to duck ponds, playing with friends, fixing the car, running, ect...i still feel like there's plenty to keep me busy!

catching up part 2 -- william's baptism

w got baptized a few weeks ago. as you can imagine, it was an exciting day. the service was nice. brian baptized him, whitney played the piano, the three of us and some cousins sang "army of helaman" (william chose that song because i sang at my own baptism), don and ron were the witnesses, all of the family men (brian, don, ross, kyle, matt, duane, ron) joined the circle, and i gave the closing prayer.

we didn't have the biggest group of family and friends at the stake baptism, but there were a lot of people who came to witness the special event. to those who came, thanks! afterwards, we had people over to our house for snacks, chatting, and playing around.

it was really neat to see brian perform william's baptism and to give him a blessing. he did a really good job. it would be sad to not have a husband/father who could do those things.

we are proud of w for making this great choice and for being such a good boy and son.

catching up part 1 -- escalante

we made our way down to escalante again this year. it's a pretty amazing place--rugged, beautiful, remote, hot. i can't imagine how scorching it would be down there in the middle of the summer.

this year there was no rain, which meant we got to hike more. we actually made it to some very narrow slot canyons, like we had wanted to last year. we caught some fish this time and found a fair bit of petrified wood (outside the monument of course). like last year, we went to the sons of the pioneer breakfast in town and the community play at the high school.

william really liked the slot canyons, the lizards, and the fishing.

each night we backcountry camped at a place along a roadside (which isn't too backcountry, but there were no facilities). we were usually setting up our tent around 11 or 12 at night. there were a few close calls with some cows walking across the roads, but we had no major problems this time. no crazy rainstorms and no almost getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. although last year that was part of the fun.