Snowshoeing With Our New Toy

On the 24th we drove down to Rebecca's parents' house in Orem. After unloading the luggage, laundry, pet bird, presents, bedding, and food from the car we had lunch then headed out to Tibble Fork Resevoir to go snowshoeing. And even though it was a little early, we opened our Christmas gift to ourselves (a hiking GPS) to use on the trip. Now you all can see exactly where we hiked (within error limits of the device, of course). Right click Here and save the link then open it in Google Earth.

We had meant to go along the Silver Lake Flat trail but went the wrong way and just followed the main road. We didn't really need the snowshoes, but it was still very pretty.

Eventually we found a turn-off from the main road that was not already packed down from snowmobiles and actually got to make use of our snowshoes.

We're not sure what the road is for, but we came to a cabin at one point with some amazing views, and later we found an entrance to a mine.

By then, it was time to turn around, but since the sun was starting to set, we got some more beautiful views even though it was the same path we came up on. The small leg of trail down to the river was especially worth it.

Temple Square

Since we enjoyed our visit to Salt Lake City so much last year, we decided to do it again this year. So, last week on Thursday, Nate took the day off of work and we drove down Salt Lake City. We went through a session in the temple, visited the Clark Planetarium, and used a gift card for our dinner at Macaroni Grill. Then we returned to Temple Square to see the lights and listen to a local high school choir perform in the Assembly Hall. It was so nice to spend the day enjoying each others company. And the lights on Temple Square were beautiful. Something about being surrounded by trees completely covered with little red, yellow, and white lights is so magical. The beautiful white temple in the background and the white nativity figures only accentuate that feeling of wonder.





Even the drinking fountain looked impressive as it reflected the lights in the trees above it.

Christmas Parties and Such

We finally went out and chopped down a Christmas tree to put up in our apartment this last week. The people who owned the lot were very nice to us. When they saw what a small tree we had, they only charged us $5 for it. Our large tree stand is overkill for it; the screws that are designed to hold the tree in place barely reach the trunk when they are screwed in all the way. It is not a perfect tree, but we like it, and it fits well in the small space we have available for it.

Friday night we went to our ward Christmas party. The party itself was...different. The theme was "Christmas with Emma and Joseph." But they did have a ginger bread house contest as well. We were told we could use any material, so we designed a card-stock paper pop-up gingerbread house.

It took us awhile to make, but we had fun with it. Gluing the "candy" pieces on took an especially long time, but we thought the results were pretty good.

Saturday evening we attended a white elephant party with a bunch of my cousins. It was pretty fun. We brought two white elephant gifts: a snowman decoration Nate got from his company party that we didn't want, and a foot massager we found at DI that looked like two large fuzzy blue slippers and vibrated when you turned it on. We both ended up with a box of See's chocolates, that obviously came from someone who didn't understand what a white elephant is. We also enjoyed seeing other people's white elephant gifts: a blow-up guitar and sparkly red hat (pictured below), an enormous pink calculator (designed for old people so they can seen the numbers better), a container of Sponge Bob shampoo accompanied by a mermaid toy that grows in water and a rubber ducky, and a reindeer toy that plays music and does a wiggly dance when turned on (pictured below) to name a few.

Unfortunately, we were late for the party since we didn't know they had closed part of the I-15 freeway. We didn't even see much to warn us of the closure. Traffic backed up for quite a ways as they narrowed the freeway down to one lane and forced you to exit, drive through the city, and then re-enter the freeway after the construction area. We took a different route home!

Opportunity to Help

Looking for a way to provide service this holiday season? Here is a great opportunity. Starting Thursday, December 10th, there will be a charity auction at BLOOM to benefit Claire and Benson Skinner.

As explained by their parents, "Benson and Claire were born with a rare genetic disease in which their liver produces too much oxalate--called primary hyperoxaluria. Claire's condition has progressed much faster than Benson's. She has been on dialysis since she was 3 months old and is on dialysis 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. She is now on the waiting list to receive a combined kidney / liver transplant. It is expected Benson will eventually need similar transplants."

You can read more about the Skinners' experience HERE.

All proceeds from the auction at BLOOM will go directly to Claire's COTA (Children's Organ Transplant Association) account to help pay for her transplant. Please head over to BLOOM Thursday-Saturday for the auction!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had an enjoyable and busy Thanksgiving weekend. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side of the family in Salt Lake City Thursday afternoon. We ate some dessert with them too. Then we drove down to Murray to have some more pie with my dad's side of the family. We felt quite full after that.

Friday we hung out in Orem with my immediate family, and then that evening we drove back up to Salt Lake to celebrate my grandpa's birthday. We had another very large meal involving lots of delicious food and some leftover dressing from the day before. (My mom and a couple other people made several recipes worth of dressing for Thanksgiving. However, my grandma, not knowing so many people had been assigned to make dressing, was afraid there wouldn't be enough and made a few more batches to bring as well. Consequently, we were swimming in dressing.)

Saturday morning was particularly fun. We met up with Nate's old roommates and their significant others for a morning of racquetball at the Orem Rec Center.

Andy, Brian, and Jill (Andy's wife) playing a game of cutthroat.

Here I am playing a game against Hailey.

I have improved at racquetball so much since I first started playing. Now racquetball is one of my favorite sports. Nate and I are pretty fortunate to have access to racquetball courts so we can play and practice regularly.

After racquetball we headed to the nearest Subway for some lunch. Man were we hungry!

Saturday afternoon we visited the Springville Museum of Art to see the religious show. As usual, there were some really nice pieces and some really strange ones.

After visiting the museum we went to visit Nate's extended family. They always have a Thanksgiving dinner a day or two after Thanksgiving because everyone is with other family on Thanksgiving day. Only this year, we also were celebrating Nate's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. So, we congratulated them and ate another very large dinner.

Congratulations Ben!

My youngest brother just got his mission call today. He is going to serve in the Antananarivo Madagascar mission speaking Malagasy. He will be entering the MTC on March 24th. We so are excited for him!!! Congratulations Ben!

Halloween Festivities

Friday evening we drove down to my parent's house for a family Halloween party. It was lots of fun. We ate our traditional pigs-in-a-blanket Halloween dinner, carved jack-o-lanterns, ate doughnuts, drank cider, chocolate milk, and root beer, and watched Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. Nate and I carved a skull out of our jack-o-lantern this year, since our pumpkin was shaped just like a skull. My favorite jack-o-lantern though was the one My mom carved as figure in The Scream, shown in the middle of the group above. If you look closely, you can even see the hands she carved into the side of its face.

















We also dressed up for the occasion. I dressed as a cowgirl and Nate was my cow. Everyone else in the family dressed up too, except for my grandparents, who took the group picture for us.

Saturday was also a lot of fun for me. I went horseback riding in the afternoon with my old teacher, Geneva. We all dressed up, and she took some of her family, students, and friends trick-or-treating around the west part of Provo. We trotted up Center Street to the housing areas and stopped by pre-arranged trick-or-treat stops (at some other friends' houses). Then we rode through the Provo river to the other side where we hit up a few other houses in another subdivision before returning to the stables. It was a lot of fun!

In Memory of Grandma Wilcken

Two weeks ago I got news that my Grandma was in the hospital. On Tuesday they told us her liver was going out and would only have a few days left. I was at work at the time but left and drove down to Cedar City to see her. My mom and sister were also there as well as some cousins and an uncle. My grandma was very uncomfortable and really wanted to just get out of the hospital. We were able to talk to her for a while and basically say good-bye. Before I left, I leaned down to give her a hug and tell her how good of an example she was. Even though she was suffering so much and probably didn't even know who I was (because of her dementia), she pulled me even closer and kissed my cheek and I felt her love for me. That was my last experience with her.

She finally passed away last Sunday and there was a family viewing on Thursday evening and the funeral on Friday morning. My employer allows us four days off for bereavement so we were able to go down on Tuesday and be with the family for the whole week. I don't see that side of the family very often so it was good to spend so much time with them as well as my immediate family who were all there except Michael (who is on his mission) and Aaron (who is in Indiana).

We also did some fun things while we were in Southern Utah. We took my Mom to see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Rebecca also talked me into doing a "good hike" (defined in paragraph 2 of this post) with her to the Kolob Arch.

The viewing and funeral were both very nice. Grandma looked very peaceful and beautiful. The speakers all emphasized my Grandma's testimony and anonymous service. The family sang a beautiful song that my uncle had written for my Grandma from her favorite scripture - Luke 6:38: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." The family was emotional, but there was always a spirit of gratitude for her example and a gladness that her suffering was over.

Grandpa Wilcken and I

Melissa, Mom, Me, and Jonathan

Melissa and some flowers

Uncle Scott, Uncle Jay, Mom, Uncle Gary, Grandpa Wilcken

Kolob Canyon

While we were down for Grandma Wilcken's funeral, we were able to spend some time in Kolob Canyon. We ended up hiking to Kolob Arch on Wednesday. I have wanted to hike this for awhile, so I was ecstatic to get the opportunity. It was a great time of year to do this hike since temperatures were pleasant and we found beautiful fall colors in abundance in the canyon and along the trail. Unfortunately, the sunshine hid shyly behind clouds for a good part of the hike, which made it difficult to get some of the pictures I wanted. But on the other hand, the clouds added a lot to some of my pictures when the sun started to show itself more frequently during the second part of our hike.


The hike was somewhere between 14 and 15 miles long round trip. I don't know exactly though because every source I have seen on it gives me a different length for the trail. The trail we took starts at the Lee Pass Trailhead and follows the La Verkin Creek Trail. It starts out dropping and continues to drop gradually about 1100 feet before it rises about 400 feet to the arch. Much of the trail is pretty flat, and there aren't any really steep parts. However, there are also some sections of the trail that go through deep soft sand, which can also become tiring. The first part of the trail follows Timber Creek, which was completely dry at this time of year.

The pictures above show the area we stopped to eat our late lunch. This is the point where the trail first meets La Verkin Creek. It was a beautiful area, and we ended up spending awhile here relaxing and taking pictures.

Along with there being lots of fall colors along the creek, there were also quite a few flowers and some bumble bees to go with them. This combination seemed a bit odd to us. The abundant flowers and the bees reminded us of spring while the yellow and red leaves told us it was most definitely fall.


From there, the trail continued to follow La Verkin Creek, and it was along this section of the trail that we encountered the most sand. After awhile, a trail breaks off from the La Verkin Creek and turns up another smaller canyon. This short trail is rougher, but the little canyon is beautiful with a little stream of water trickling through it. The arch at the trail's end is high above hikers on the canyon wall. If you don't know where to look, it is understandable how you could miss it. I guess that is why someone scratched in some instructions on this sign for spotting the arch. As large and impressive as the arch is, you can't get a full feel for it since it is so far away. It is a bit anti-climatic.


However, the amazing scenery surrounding the trail is so beautiful that it makes the hike well worth it, particularly at this time of year with the fall colors. It would be fun to go back sometime and continue up the La Verkin Creek trail past the arch the rest of the way up the canyon.


















As we hiked back up to the trail head, the sun was setting, and the soft light really lit up the rocks and the sky beautifully.


After the funeral on Friday, we had time to take a couple of Nate's brothers back up the Canyon to the viewpoint at the end of the road. We hiked along the short trail at the top, and were able to watch the sunset again. It is hard to get enough of something as beautiful as that...