Tif's Strong Will

Cherries and Raspberries

2012-01-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

Some Native American tribes believed strongly in the connection between mother and child that comes through the placenta. To honor this connection, Native Americans would bury the placenta and then plant a tree or perennial over-top so that the child would always be able to find his/her way home.

My aunt and uncle embraced this tradition when Sarah, their first child was born, and planted a cherry tree in the yard. We reaped the fruit of the harvest while we were up there.

Everyone enjoyed picking cherries. Joe was especially good at finding all the ripe ones and eating them.

With our bountiful harvest, Uncle Gary made Grandma Ruby's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream, by far the best I have ever tasted! The secret ingredient, sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar.

Matt and his brother were standing on a limb of the tree and it broke away, leaving basically half of the tree naked. Here, Mindy is examining the fallen branch.

Will says I always steal kisses from Cole, but I maintain that I pay in full by changing many poopie diapers.

We were fortunate enough to be able to pick raspberries at Brian and Dixie's too.

Cole helped with some supervision.

Just enjoying the wind.

Pioneer Day and Rodeo

2012-01-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

While we were in Montana, we took a nice little stroll by a stream near the golf course.

Here Cole is awkwardly sandwiched against my bosom.

I like this close-up of grass Sarah took.

The big sky of Montana is captured in a pond.

We also visited the historic Eureka village at the entrance to town. Eureka was a huge logging town for quite some time. In recent years, however, many logging companies have gone out of business due to restrictions on the industry.

We celebrated Pioneer Day at the local LDS branch with some of the Henderson clan. We are authentically sullen. Top row: Matt Sieler, Brad Linnell, Gary Henderson, Tifilia Henderson, Sarah Boren, Me, Will (holding Cole); Bottom row: Faith Sieler, Sarah Quilling, Dixie Linnell, Moshe Henderson. Kids in front: Tessa Sieler, Emil Quilling, and Joe Sieler

Joe Sieler (Faith and Matt's little boy) is just enjoying his ice cream.

He was very excited for the rodeo and dressed up to show his support.

Everyone is excited to see some cowboys get bucked off.

Sarah is such an adorable Mommy.

Cowboy Cole.

We traveled all the way up to Montana so Will could experience his first rodeo. He may be a farmer, but he is not a cowboy. The general consensus was the rodeo was neat, but they needed more bucking broncos and less barrel racers to make it shorter and more enjoyable.

Road Trip to Montana and Baby Baths

2012-01-16T20:56:00.000-08:00

This summer, we took a nice road trip to Eureka, MT to visit the Henderson cousins. My sister, Sarah, came along for the ride and the good company. She was great at entertaining Cole in the backseat. But, if memory serves me right, Will was actually in the back at this time and Cole is laughing at him headbanging to music.

Some beautiful pictures on the way up to Eureka.

Sarah was the photographer in this one. Great use of the "rule of thirds" principle.

We stopped in Kalispell to visit Aunt Lee Anne and Jenny.

Cole in the Henderson bathtub. I remember cousin baths with Emily in that same tub growing up. (Pre-pubescent, of course!)

Cousin Sarah with baby Emil and Cole with Daddy post-bath.

Both babies sucking on Sarah's fingers.

Independence Day in Alton

2012-01-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

Cole ventured down to the little town of Alton, Utah to celebrate Independence Day with the Andersen Family. He made his debut in the annual fun run. Cole looks really excited after his victory. Will and I pushed him two miles into town. The first mile was all uphill and I felt like an old grandma pushing the stroller. Thankfully, the stroller propelled us forward in the second mile since it was all downhill. The Lehmitz family ended up in first place and we were awarded a Camelback!

Here is the happy family sitting on Grandpa Andersen's train. We took a nice little private tour around the town.


Cole with Great-Grandpa Andersrn.

We love going down to Alton for the fourth of July! It's great to participate in all the small town festivities.

Sibling Weddings

2012-01-15T21:07:00.000-08:00

Jessica and David Pratt kicked off the wedding season in May. They were married in the Oquirrh Mountain temple. We're very happy Jess has found someone who shares in her love of Star Wars and Nintendo. David seems like a great match for her in many other ways. He is a pretty easy-going, friendly guy who wants the best for Jess. The wedding turned out beautiful. We were a little scared because of the pouring rain before the sealing, but we had a nice cloud break and there were no need for umbrellas.

The sisters looking all cutesy.

Cole decided he was done taking pictures and just passed out.

The bridesmaids trying to look sassy. Jess decided to follow in our footsteps and have the reception at Le Jardin.After the wedding, the newlyweds fled from Utah to live in Seattle. We miss them, but hope to make it up there soon for a visit.

In July, Will's sister, Becky, was sealed to Sam Knotts in the Draper Temple. Here they are celebrating with Cole on their big day. In a couple of years, they'll be holding a little one of their own.

All the siblings looking as happy as can be.

The boys in their role as protectors. I guess they didn't do a very good job because Sam got her anyways.


I am enjoying having another in-law in the bunch. We still remain the most popular, but that definitely can be attributed to Cole. We're glad that Becky has found someone who makes her happy.

Blake decided to make it official in August with Lilia Jasmin Henriquez. We are so happy that Jasmin is part of our family on paper. They had a beautiful wedding at the Woods on Ninth. Jasmin did a great job decorating and the food was delicious! They spent days slaving away making tamales. Jasmin continues to make us laugh and is very good for Blake.

We're glad that Jasmin came with Ana. She is such a spunky little girl, full of enthusiasm and energy. In this picture she is looking unusually docile and coy.

You can't really see Bentley's mow-hawk in this picture, it kind of blends in with the background. Until recently, that was his trademark. Bentley is such a cute little boy. We're so happy to have him in our family. He has a passion for Elmo and loves to play with Cole.

Ewww... kissing. Will and I do it best, but we don't like to publicize it.

Cole's Summer Collection

2012-01-01T17:26:00.001-08:00

Cole visiting his name sake Great Uncle's grave site in West Jordan, UT on Memorial Day.

Hanging out in Mom and Dad's bed.

Eating toes on the changing table.

First time eating rice cereal.

Hanging out with Dad.

SecurityMetrics Summer Party

2012-01-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

My company hosts two big parties a year. For the summer party, they rented out the Veteran's Memorial Pool in Provo, brought in some caterers and have a big pool party. I entered the boggle competition to win $500, but I had a disappointing performance and lost in the first round.

This was also Cole's first swimming experience, although he thought the water was too cold to be much fun.

Lake Blanche

2011-09-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

To train for King's Peak, we took my dad hiking up Lake Blanche one Saturday in July. Previously, Will's only experience with Lake Blanche was snowshoeing in a storm. Needless to say, this time when we reached the top, he was actually able to tell where the lake was and he enjoyed his experience much more.

Dromedary Peak above Lake Blanche.

Look at that beautiful reflection!

Cole is happy and fed, there's nothing like nursing on a rock.

Not the greatest camera angle, but at least we're all in the picture.

Photo Journal Summer Hiking Adventures

2011-09-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Avenue Twin Peaks--First hike of the summer with hiking group and Bff, Megan

Jack's Mountain with hiking group

Mill B North Overlook with hiking group

On the way to the overlook

Yellowfork with family

Megan, Ana, Jasmin, Sarah, and Cole

Bentley is a happy hiker

Awww... Cole and Sarah snuggling

Esther knows how to share

Snacktime up Yellowfork with Sausha and Esther

Walking at Lake Mary, one of the several Brighton Lakes

Cole and Esther braving the wind--Esther is doing much better

Lake Martha of Brighton Lakes

Lake Catherine--notice Cole and Esther gazing at each other. They are betrothed.

Making Exercise Fun

2011-04-30T14:59:00.001-07:00

Cole has been learning to laugh this week. He was going long enough that we were able to catch it on film. It definitely makes us both want to exercise more to bring out his cuteness.

Random Pics and Easter

2011-04-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Unusually happy for tummy time

Little monster after his bath

Handsome father and son

Matching family

Who can resist this little suit?

Newborn Pictures

2011-03-31T06:46:00.000-07:00

I've turned into a mom that only blogs about her kid, but really, Cole's the most exciting thing in my life right now. Here are some of my favorite newborn photos.

I just love the Newsies model look he has going on.

Cole is very alert and attentive for such a little guy. The deer in the headlights look comes from his mamma.

Kisses... that's all I have to say.

He's our little froggy. This picture just makes me laugh.

I wish we had some better pics of the whole family, but Cole peed on Mommy and Daddy so we're lucky to have any at all.

No Longer Inactive

2011-03-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

Cole just passed his one month mark. Although becoming parents is quite a change, Will and I have loved almost every minute of it. (I can't say I love being peed on or spit up on or getting less sleep, but that all comes with the package.)
Cole and I decided to venture out to church on Sunday. Between feeding, diaper changing, and Cole peeing on me, it only took me an hour longer to get there, but we made it! I found this cute, little, striped dress shirt for Cole to wear with his newborn jeans. He is between stages right now--a little too long for some of the newborn clothes, but not quite big enough for the 0-3 months. We are trying to fatten him up. Cole was great at church. He slept through all the meetings and woke up to eat just as we were getting home. I really enjoyed going back to church after such a long stint of absences.

To the Father of my Son

2011-03-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

My friend, Elise, was talking to me a couple weeks before Baby Cole arrived and she asked if I thought that my love for Will would increase after the baby was born. Elise said she had heard of many women "loving their husbands so much more" after they had a child. I am here to say, "Yes."
Will and I didn't really have a chance to celebrate Valentine's Day together. We were in the hospital recovering from the birth and getting to know Cole. I may have changed out of my hospital gown by then, but chances are, I was still gross and sore and less than desirable.

I just wanted to write a little note expressing my love for the wonderful man I married. It has been so fun seeing how proud he is of his new son. He is a great dad and I know that he will always seek to have strong relationships with his children. I am very grateful for his support and love. Throughout my pregnancy and after, Will always assured me I was beautiful. He has helped out in whatever way possible to make me more comfortable and my burden lighter. One thing that impressed me about Will from the start is his chivalry. He really knows how to treat women and is very respectful of them, especially his wife. Will never degrades me and constantly reminds me of his love. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband who I can laugh with, confide in, and cuddle up to. Thanks for being my best friend. I love you, Will.

Cole Emerson Lehmitz

2011-02-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

I woke up around 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning, the 12th of February because I was having contractions. I didn't really recognize what they were at first. I just didn't feel right, so I decided to eat something to settle my stomach. After a sleepless two hours, I awoke Will and told him I was pretty certain I was in labor. The pains were welcome because Cole was nine days overdue and I really didn't want to be induced. I used various techniques to help me relax as the morning progressed.
Around 11:30, we headed to the hospital. They checked me out and decided to keep me. I was dilated to a four-and-a-half. We walked around and I breathed through my mounting contractions for the next three hours. It became more difficult for me to relax during the contractions. When the nurse checked me around 3:30, and I was dilated to a six-and-a-half, I decided I wanted an epidural. The contractions were about two-to-three minutes apart and mounting in intensity. The thought of several more hours of labor was daunting. As soon as I got the epidural, things looked much brighter. Grandma Sally and my friend, Linnea joined us in the delivery room. We talked a lot and even played Bananagrams. About 8:00 p.m. they started to have me push. I pushed for three and a half hours. It was exhausting and discouraging. The doctor could grab his hair for about two hours but Cole's head was jutting up instead of down and he just wasn't coming out. As he was in the birth canal, the doctor noticed he had some meconium staining, which is when the baby is pooping inside the womb. The doctor decided that we needed to use the vacuum suction because he was concerned about the meconium. With the help of the vacuum, I only had one push and Cole appeared. My tears of exhaustion and effort quickly transformed into tears of panic and fear as I realized my baby son was not all right.

They didn't want him to breathe right away because he had the meconium in his lungs and stomach. So, Will cut the cord and a team of about fifteen people whisked him away and began to work on him. They had tubes down his throat to suck all the fluid and meconium out. His heart rate dropped from around 150 to below 60 and he started to turn blue. They had to start doing chest compressions as well. Luckily, he began to respond. His heart rate when back up, but we was having what they called retraction, which means that he was struggling to breathe on his own. They had to put a respirator on him to help him breathe while still pulling more fluid out of him. By this time, they were calling for life flight to take him up to the University of Utah or Primary Children's Hospital where they had all the baby ICU equipment. Of course, lhis parents were hysterical at this point, hoping that our little boy was okay. They continued to treat him, and after about 45 minutes, they took him off the respirator to see how he would do on his own. He started to breathe by himself and his breaths became more regular. The life flight crew showed up, ready to take him. They were also running some blood tests and had to do an x-ray of his chest to see if any of the meconium was still deposited in his lungs. We continued to pray for our newborn son.

Every test that came back was normal. His breaths continued to regulate and all of his vital signs improved. The doctor's and life flight crew determined that he was improved enough to stay at the hospital we were at. After about an hour, I finally got to hold baby Cole in my arms. I've never felt more relieved. Tears rolled down my face as I thanked my Heavenly Father for sparing our son.

He still had to stay in the level 2 nursery for the first 36 hours of his life where they had him on an IV and antibiotics to helps ensure he didn't have any infections. We've had to go to the doctor a couple more times since we've been home, but little Cole is a fighter and he is turning out to be a vivacious and healthy young boy. We are so grateful to have him in our lives and he has been an unspeakable blessing to his parents and those around him.

I enjoyed a low-risk pregnancy with no complications and the thought of a traumatic labor and delivery never crossed my mind. I was very determined to have him naturally and planned out several things I wanted to happen during labor, but all that was thrown out the window when things didn't go as planned. Nonetheless, I am grateful for modern medicine and all the doctors, nurses, and other professionals who worked so hard to keep our baby alive and well.

Baby Showers

2011-01-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

We have been thoroughly spoiled by friends and family. Thank you to all my co-workers at Sunset Ridge for the shower at work. A big thanks goes out to Will's mom, Selma and sisters, who threw a really nice shower just after Christmas for the baby. I was able to see some of my old Young Women leaders as well as relatives. We received a lot of really nice gifts. Baby Cole has more clothes than I do now. Here's a picture with the sisters and Jenifer and Sue Morris, a great friend of the family and an old neighbor/Young Women leader.

Sausha and Karrie Christensen came. I loved the picture Sausha picked out for the nursery.

The Andersen cousins gave us some cute little outfits and some very appropriate BYU slippers.

Thank you to Grandma Sally, Aunt Kathy, and Heather Butterfield for the family shower. We played lots of fun games and ate delicious food--I love shrimp! Thanks, Selma, for the breast pump!

Thanks to Tara Carpenter for opening her home to us. I loved the baby pictionary. It was quite amusing. I had so much fun seeing all my friends! A special thanks to college buddies, Jill and Elise, for making time to come get to know all my friends from childhood and teenage-hood. I have beautiful, funny friends. It was so good to see you guys!
Lastly, Thanks Kirstie Lovell for putting together a ward shower. (Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.) The food was delicious and I really enjoyed chatting and getting to know all the ladies in our ward. Everyone has been so supportive. We are excited for Cole to come and enjoy all the generous gifts you guys gave us.

Holiday Festivities

2011-01-25T20:13:00.000-08:00

Will and I celebrated Christmas by kicking it off with a visit to Mom down in Provo on Thursday as well as Christmas Eve. We watched Elf and decorated sugar cookies. Then, we went to my dad's house for a gourmet meal prepared by master chef, Jenifer. We enjoyed crescent rolls, prime rib, couscous salad, spinach salad, broccoli, and a delicious drink. (It was pretty memorable if I can remember most of what we ate a month later.) We really enjoyed seeing the family. Justin and I are pictured above comparing our bellies. After dinner, Blake, Jasmine, Bentley, and Ana joined us for presents. We were all thoroughly spoiled.

This is before we ate the amazing feast.

Poor Bentley was teething and running a fever. Christmas day we celebrated with Will's family. We had fun opening presents, playing games, and competing in a Ping Pong tournament. To kick off the New Year, Will and I went hiking up Yellow Fork Canyon in the Oquirrh mountains. It was a nice stroll for a pregnant lady, and it was good to get outside and burn some of that rich holiday food off.

Two belly shots in one post--I'm making up for all the other months.

The snow was pretty packed down. I went snowshoeing two weeks before, but you didn't really need them. We went as far as we could on the trail before we started to really sink in.

Baby Preparation

2010-10-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

So this summer I had a lot of fun transforming the guest/junk room into a nursery. As most of you know, I have a growth in my abdomen that will emerge as our very own miniature human come February. Before I knew the gender, I started revamping the house since I knew I wouldn't have time when school started. One of the big projects was redecorating my doll house that my dad made for me when I was little. I was anticipating that we were going to have a little girl. At least the house has blue trim for our baby boy.

I decided to get pictures of my parents, Will's parents, Will, me, and Baby Cole when he arrives as a little family tree. We are still working on getting some of the photos.

And I gave my old dresser some pizazz with a fresh coat of paint and a polka-dot design. Again, the treasure chest on top of the dresser was decorated when I had my premonitions about a girl-child.

This isn't quite the finished product. I am still going to do some paintings and create pelmet boxes above the blinds, but it's getting there. We bought a really cute crib set, but have yet to find a crib. While Baby Cole is young, we are going to use the cradle my dad lovingly built for his first-born child. We're excited about Cole Emerson Lehmitz joining our family, but I am content to wait a couple more months to get used to the idea of motherhood. We are starting birthing classes this month and reality is setting in a little bit. Decorating for a baby is one thing, but actually giving birth and becoming a parent has left me feeling a little scared, but I just have to look at it as another grand adventure.

Nebo Loop

2010-10-25T15:46:00.001-07:00

Since Tiffani and I were overcome with a bad cold last week, we had kind of a lame fall break. While I didn't have to go to work for a couple of days, being trapped at home all day for 3 days straight was not too fun. You can only watch so many movies on Netflix, right? We did watch a cool documentary series on the National Parks, but we were ready to get out after a few days. Since we still didn't feel up to much, we decided to get out in the mountains to enjoy the beautiful fall leaves. We headed down to visit Tif's mom in Provo and, from there, we headed down to Nephi to take a drive on the Nebo Loop Scenic Byway. Here's some pics.

Surprisingly, these red rock formations are along the loop at a little stop called Little Bryce Canyon.

The rest of the pics just show the beautiful aspen and oak trees in their incredible, vibrant autumn hues.

Autumn in the Wasatch

2010-10-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

We have had three main adventures over the past month to add to our travel log.

1. Dog Lake
Tif and I took our mountain bikes up Millcreek Canyon a few weeks ago and rode up the trail to Dog Lake along with some of the teachers that Tiffani got to know over the summer from her hiking group. The weather was perfect and the scenery, as it always is this time of year, was beautiful.

2. We also took a trip to BYU-Idaho to take Tiffani's youngest sister on a campus tour. The campus has changed quite a bit since Tif was there for school, including a brand new 15,000 seat auditorium, a new book store and cafeteria, complete with glass skywalks between buildings. After the campus tour, both Tif and I felt like we were ready to jump back into the university life with all of its fun activities. While there, we were able to visit Brother Anderson, the former Manager at Badger Creek. We also spent several hours with Tiffani's friend T-Bird exploring Kelly Canyon and the metropolis of Rexburg. I had know idea that Rexburg had 3 different Subway stores. We also spent a couple of days visiting Tif's Uncle Torrey and Aunt Wendy and their family in Idaho Falls. It was nice to relax, visit, play with the kids, and enjoy the Conference Weekend. (Sorry, we forgot our camera on this trip, so no pics)

3. This last weekend we took our niece and nephew and Tif's sister Megan on a little hike up to Donut Falls. The Wasatch mountains were beautiful, and we had fun carting the little baby boy on our back. I guess we better get used to that.
We tired little Bentley out, though, and his head bobbed up and down against his carrier on the way down. One of the coolest things we saw, we weren't able to capture on film. As we were leaving Donut Falls, a car was stopped on the wrong side of the road. As we approached, they rolled down their window and told us they had just seen a moose. Just when they said that, a giant bull moose popped up over the small hill overlooking the road, not more than 20 feet from our car. We were disappointed the camera was in the trunk with our packs, because it was such majestic animal. Plus, you never want to be that close to a moose when you're out of the car anyway.

Anyway, that's our most updated adventure. We'll try to follow with more thoughts, pics and blurbs again shortly.

Cabin Fever

2010-09-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

Like many of you already know, we love visiting Tif's family cabin in Boulder, Utah. In fact, many of you may have already been there with us. This last month we got down to the cabin twice, once with Tif's sisters and once with John and Christine Bishoff. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll spare you the text and get right to the pics.

With the sisters, we hiked up to Blind Lake on Boulder Mountain. Tiffani and I had tried to hike there on our honeymoon, but we went too early in the year and there was too much snow. We had a nice picnic at the lake and we even dared to jump in the icy water. Our swimming consisted of just that though, jumping in and jumping right back out.

This is Tiffani along the trail to Blind Lake.The next day, we didn't do too many hikes because Sarah was feeling pretty sick. So, all we did was visit the Escalante River and Devil's Garden to take some senior pictures for Sarah. Tiffani and I decided we should take some best friend school pictures too.

A couple weeks later, we headed back to Boulder with John and Christine. The first day we spent hiking to Maverick Bridge and Phipps Arch along the Escalante River. There has been so much rain this year that the trail was overgrown with greenery, which contrasted beautifully with the bright red rock, white sand, and blue sky.

We arrived at Maverick Natural Bridge with no hitches. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of Phipps Arch because we accidentally left our camera sitting next to Maverick Bridge. Luckily, we were the only hikers that had been up that way, and we found our camera right where we had left it on our way back down the trail.

To cool off, we walked for a ways up the shallow Escalante River.
Right by the trailhead, you can even see some remnants of an ancient Indian granary in the alcove of one of the huge cliffs.
The next day, being Sunday, we went on a few more low-key adventures. First we hit up the famous (at least to our family and our cabin guest) crevice along the Burr Trail.
There we got some pictures of John and Christine in the Birthing Tree along with some classic shots of the red/green contrast of the crevice and some goofy pictures in the cheeseholes of sandstone.
After the Crevice, we drove up to the old bridge across the majestic overlook known as Hell's Backbone.Monday, Labor Day, we had to head home. But before we left, we went on one more adventures, this time on Boulder Mountain. We visited three different lakes on our hike.

Deer Creek Lake
Green Lake... you can see where it gets its name
And Moosman Reservoir, where we even let John do a little fly fishing before we called it a day.
By the end, we were all tired, especially the pregnant lady. But we were also glad for the opportunity to get away and explore some more of God's wondrous creations that surround us.

Bryce Canyon

2010-08-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

A tradition in Will's family has always been to spend the 4th of July in Alton, a little town in southern Utah where his grandparents live. This Independence Day, we made the trek down as usual. On Friday, we spent the day in Bryce Canyon with Will's family and his cousin, Sondie.


We went on a short, 3 mile hike to see Sunset Peak, Sunrise Peak and much of the rest of the park.

Along the trail, someone had gotten a little carried away making cairns. Instead of being a trail guide, they became environmental art.

Here we are at Twin Bridges.

After the hike, we had a picnic. Sondie was a little afraid of the ravens, but she managed to gulp her food down anyways. Then we did a little bit of drive-by tourism and stopped at every overlook. This was one of the more popular ones.

Yosemite National Park/Lake Tahoe

2010-08-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

To round out our trip to California, we spent two days at Yosemite and a day at Lake Tahoe. Our first day, we spent in Yosemite Valley, riding our bikes around to see all the sites. The park is very visitor friendly and stunningly beautiful.

Bridal Veil Falls

El CapitanMirror Lake

Half DomeYosemite Falls across the meadow

There is even a historic pioneer chapel built by the early settlers in the valley. They hold services every Sunday, including an LDS sacrament meeting.
We camped overnight just outside the park off of a forest service road. The next day, we took on the ultimate stairmaster hike--Upper Yosemite Falls. I believe it gains just over 2,700 feet in about 3 miles, so basically, you are climbing a huge set of stairs. I'm no mathematician, but if each story in a building is ten feet, we climbed a 270 story building. The hike was intense, but the views were amazing.

Yosemite Valley looking towards the majestic Half Dome. I can't believe people actually climb the face of that!

Tiffani at the top on the overlook platform. She kept teasing me about my fear of heights, but when you look over the edge, you can see how you could get a case of vertigo.

We also noticed that there was a face in the rock at the top of the falls, or at least that's what we thought it looked like.
After we made it back down the trail, we went and checked out the more touristy lower falls. I suppose everybody goes there because you walk up a little paved path to see it. We learned however, that the intense hike to the top was worthy the effort, even though the lower falls were pretty too.

Yosemite Upper and Lower Falls

We then decided to drive across the entire park and up over the Sierra Nevadas to Nevada. We took a few additional pictures of the drive through the lesser-known part of the park.

Apparently the pass you drive through up through the mountains is one of the highest in the country, around 9,000 feet above sea level. They have to blast the snow off of it which dynamite to make it accessible for the summer times, sometimes blowing through drifts that are up to 30 feet thick!

We planned on driving straight through to Lake Tahoe and finding a campsite there, but we were so exhausted from the trip, the hike and the driving that we ended up getting a cheap motel room in the metropolis of Gardnerville, Nevada. After our fourth day of camping and traveling non-stop, the shower and the bed were heavenly. We also got to catch the U.S. world cup game with their victory over Algeria.

The next day we carried on the journey and circled Lake Tahoe. The water is so incredibly blue and clear. We also learned that Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the U.S. at around 1,700 feet. So pretty though!

We were going to camp the night there, but Tiffani, being in the early pregnant stages, wasn't feeling well, so we decided to make the long trek home that same day. Let me just say, after that drive, I am tempted to unofficially proclaim I-80 as the ugliest, most boring interstate in the country. Nevada is a whole bunch of nothing. Anyway, we made it home safely late that night, glad to be home, but glad to have been able to see so much more of the world.

Part II: Central California, Atascadero, and Highway One

2010-07-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

Will's cousins, the Greens, also put us nomads up for a night in Atascadero. The twins, Jason and Danny, showed us the sights. We went four-wheeling up on this ranch which provided us with a spectacular view. Unfortunately, Will and I failed to take pictures of anyone else but ourselves this trip. Next time, we'll have a group pic with the whole family.

After our brief stint in Atascadero, we took Highway 1 up the coast to San Fransisco.

Will was delighted by the angry waves of the north--here he is acting as King Triton, conducting his symphonic swells.

I was imagining myself on the helm of a great seafaring vessel.

This little guy wanted some food.

And this one's life-thread was cut by the Fates. It's a hard world for starfish apparently.

Part I: Southern California-Los Angelos Area

2010-07-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Even though our stay in L.A. was quite short, Will and I had a fabulous time. Uncle Donny and Aunt Wanda were kind enough to put a roof over our head and treated us to some delicious meals and local sightseeing. After dining at a fun Italian restaurant, we strolled along the Venice canals to admire the rich and the famous' houses. Donny kept saying how we were going to be "peeping Toms". As we were walking along the canals, gazing into the huge open windows of the well-to-do, Wanda and I caught sight of a naked man... no shame, dressing in his kitchen. Donny and Wanda assured us that was the first time they actually were "peeping Toms". We only wanted to see cool houses and we got a little more than we bargained for.

The next day we went up to the Getty Museum, which is really a huge complex of buildings and gardens up on the hill in Los Angelos. Paul J. Getty was a huge oil tycoon in the 1970s with a passion for art. Our pictures do not do the museum justice. We spent five hours there!

This was our hotel in Anaheim . . . yeah right. We really enjoyed looking at the largest collection of French furniture and decor during the nineteenth century.

The gardens were almost as amazing as the museum. Our pictures do not do them justice.

After L.A., we headed to Anaheim for our free hotel. Although we were right across the street from Disneyland, we chose to save our money for Wicked tickets. We opted to spend two days at Newport Beach, relaxing and building sandcastles.

San Francisco Bay Area Adventures

2010-07-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

As you can see, since we are now on post #3, this was an epic vacation with a whole lot packed into a little bitty space of time. San Francisco was so much fun... especially for me since I'd never been before. There were just so many things to do and see.
Fisherman's Wharf

Wicked, definitely worth the money and the scary walk through the streets of San Francisco at midnight.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Muir Woods, the oldest Coastal Redwoods forest in the United States and a haven of beauty.
Mount Tamalpais State Park: camping and mountain biking just fifteen minutes away from the big city

Birthdays

2010-06-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

May is a busy month with Grandma Sally's birthday, Will's, my mom's, my sister Megan's, and Darryl's (Will's dad's birthday). Here are a couple pictures from some of the celebrations. Will was spoiled with surprise tickets to a REAL Salt Lake game. Our friends, James and Tara, and little Ava-Kate accompanied us. The next day, we went to eat at Tucanos with his best friend Andrew, and his wife Kate. Later that weekend, Will's family made him a special dinner.

For Darryl's birthday, we had a good ole' fashioned barbecue on Memorial Day. Here's a lovely picture of him sporting his new ties we got him. Will wanted him to look sharp on the stand since he was recently called as Bishop.

Cruising P-Town

2010-06-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Right before we headed to California, I took the opportunity to spend a lovely day with my dear friend, Elise. No matter how much time has passed between our visits, we can just pick right up where we left off. We biked the Provo River Parkway to Utah Lake, chatting non-stop. (Unfortunately, we only remembered to take pictures of our adventure after we had already gotten off the trail. Hence, the neighborhood photo shots.) After our exercise, we came back to Elise's quaint house and ate delicious curry. Since I loved it so much, we took a stroll to the Asian market to buy the ingredients. Unfortunately, my excitement over curry took over my logical rationale. I fixed it for Will that night... and was eating curry leftovers the next day. Curry for three meals in a row is enough curry for me for three months. Hopefully, I will get my appetite back. After our walk, Ryan came over to sit in the parlor and sip lemonade with us. I had a grand time hearing about his adventures in the past and those yet to come. Hooray for friends!

Graduation

2010-05-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hip Hip Hooray! I made it!
For those of you who weren't aware, I graduated from BYU three weeks ago or so. I've been enjoying the freedom so much since then that I'm just now updating the blog. Thanks to everyone, family, friends, in-laws, etc. that helped and supported me through the years.

It was a double treat for me as well because Tiffani and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary that weekend as well. Rather than drive home Thursday after Commencement, we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast up Provo Canyon in the little town of Midway at at place called Johnson's Mill. We'd recommend it to anyone else needing a romantic getaway. The next day, everyone came down for the Marriott School graduation. Unfortunately, I think the Marriott School has the largest graduating class of all the colleges (around 1,200 I think). So we had to endure an hour and a half of reading names before I walked across the stage, posed with the Dean for a picture, and got my diploma case. That was enough for me. Once I got that thing, we were out of there. We headed to Texas Roadhouse for a celebration dinner. The food and company was fantastic and I even got a free dessert for graduating, although I had to ride the saddle-on-a-stool before they would give it to me. Thanks again everybody!

The Domesticated Man

2010-04-28T13:11:00.001-07:00

Much has been said about the stereotypical domestic housewife who cooks, cleans, and vacuums while maintaining her beauty and poise and entertains her husbands professional acquaintances and friends.

Much less has been dedicated, however, to the exploration of the roles of the domestic househusband. In our modern world, more and more men (such as myself) are taking on responsibilities in the home while their educated wives become the providers, (more commonly known in the common vernacular as "sugarmamas") As I've immersed myself in this new social order over the past year or so, I've created a list that I hope will allow other men to recognize that they too have become househusbands. I hope that by identifying these characteristics, we as men will become more comfortable in accepting ourselves in our sometimes non-conventional roles. From my own experience, I would say that you can know that you are a househusband when you meet two or more of the following criteria:

1. You wear an apron while preparing meals.
2. You are busy in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on special dinners while your wife entertains the guests in the sitting room.
3. You vacuum more than twice a week because the "mess" just simply bothers you
4. You wash and fold the laundry while flipping through afternoon network programming or while watching movies like "Hitch."
5. You ask your wife to identify what chores you have done around the house that day so that she appreciates what you contribute to the family
6. You give your wife a shoulder massage after her long day at work
7. You dust, scrub, mop, etc. on a consistent basis
8. You can give your wife fashion tips because you've seen more than two episodes of "What Not to Wear"
9. You begin to enjoy looking through magazines like Better Homes and Gardens and Martha Stewart Living with your wife to get ideas for decorating your home
10. One of your greatest joys in life has to do with the successful growth of your houseplants

Most importantly, one must recognize that these activities do not detract from one's masculinity. Rather, they help to enhance your ability to empathize with your wife when your roles reverse because you finally graduate from college, get a real job, and start acting like a man! Once this occurs, you may return to your regular manly activities like watching ESPN, making/watching things blow up, barbecuing, and using power tools.

*Authors note--this is meant to be satirical. Do not be offended by my self-mockery.
**Also, sorry for the really long post previously. I was excited about the story of Hole-in-the-Rock, but now realize that the extreme length of the post probably kept most people from reading it.

2010-04-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we borrowed Grandma Sally's truck and together with the Boren Sisters, Sarah and Megan, we headed down to our favorite destination--the cabin in Boulder, UT. Because we had the truck we decided to go some places that we normally can't get to in our car which lack both clearance and four-wheel drive capabilities.

For our first day, we retraced the tracks of the early pioneers that blazed a trail through Hole-in-the Rock. I'm including a brief history of the journey of those pioneers to accompany some our own modern-day pictures.

“Should we turn back or move ahead?” This was the question that dominated the thoughts of the pioneer company on the night of 3 December 1879. Church President John Taylor had called this group of pioneers to settle the San Juan Mission, in the southeastern part of what is now the state of Utah. But at this point in the trek, there seemed to be no clear answer on how to proceed.

The pioneers were camped at 40-Mile Spring, located on a high plateau. Silas S. Smith, the president of the company, realized how serious their situation was. Camped in some 80 wagons were nearly 250 men, women, and children. Hundreds of cattle were also part of the caravan. Winter was upon them, and they had too few supplies and other resources to remain at this encampment until spring.

President Smith sat in his tent and deliberated with other leaders. Turning back seemed impossible. Behind them, to the west, heavy snows had buried the road through the Escalante Mountains, as well as any foliage the livestock could eat. Besides, the pioneers took seriously the calling President Taylor had given them to settle the San Juan Mission, which was part of President Brigham Young’s original plan to establish settlements throughout much of the West. Who among them would refuse such a call?

Ahead of the pioneers, to the east, lay more than 300 kilometers of rough terrain with no road and little water. A decision to go forward would force them to travel through Hole-in-the-Rock—a crevice in the west wall of Glen Canyon at a high plateau above the Colorado River. It was a dangerous shortcut, but the only other trail was more than 600 kilometers long. An exploring party’s report had been pessimistic. Going through Hole-in-the-Rock would mean taking wagons and cattle on a trail that dropped 610 meters, one-third of that drop at a 45-degree angle.

Most felt it was impossible. After much discussion, one of the men made the motion to leave the decision to “President Smith and the Lord.” A unanimous vote reflected the faith of those present that the Lord would inspire their leader.

The next morning, President Smith called a meeting to announce the decision to move ahead. “The miracle of this decision went through the company like an electric shock,” wrote Kumen Jones, a member of the group, “and all was good cheer and hustle.” In the meeting, many bore testimony in support of moving ahead. Someone began to sing. Others joined in, and soon the chilly December air rang with “The Spirit of God like a fire is burning!” (Hymns, 1985, number 2).

“We Did Make Dirt and Rock Fly”

United in their resolve to be true to their call from the prophet, the company headed into the desert toward 50-Mile Spring. Since there was no road, the pioneers cut their own through what one man described as “the roughest country I ever saw a wagon go over.” Mostly rock and nearly void of foliage, the land was a combination of gulches and straight-walled chasms more than 100 meters deep.

(Pictured below is Devil's Garden, a collection of hoodoo formations about 10 miles down the Hole-in-the-Rock road)

(Before the Pioneers reached Hole-in-the-Rock, they stopped and made camp at a place they called Dance Hall Rock, which is pictured below. Here, the pioneers camped and had dances in the natural alcove which provided a fairly large, flat floor and great acoustics to amplify their fiddle music)

(This next photo below provides a small glimpse of the country the pioneers were crossing)

At 50-Mile Spring, President Smith divided the company into three work groups: one to work at the crevice, one to build a road from the crevice to the river 1.2 kilometers away, and one to build a ferry. For the next six weeks, all three groups worked simultaneously. “I don’t think I ever [saw] … men go to work with more of a will to do something than that crowd did,” wrote Cornelius I. Decker of the group who worked to widen the narrow crevice. “We were all young men; … we did make dirt and rock fly.” Two blacksmith forges were established at “the Hole” so that blacksmiths could keep tools sharp as men cut solid rock. Several men were lowered by rope in half-barrels over the 14-meter cliff. While dangling in midair, they drilled holes in the cliff and filled them with blasting powder. Work continued in snow storms as well as in sunshine.

The second group constructed a road over virtually impassable land. The steep upper third of the road was a serious challenge; among the problems the workers had to solve was how to create a section of road along the face of a 15-meter rock wall. First they blasted a ledge along the wall, then extended the ledge outward. This was done by hammering staves into holes drilled parallel to the ledge. Logs, rocks, and gravel were piled into the resulting area to build up a shelf just wide enough to accommodate a wagon.

The third group built a ferry wide enough to carry two wagons at a time across the Colorado River. Part of this group also began work on a road eastward.

Left: To span a vertical drop, pioneers attached a section of road to the cliff face. The ledge they created was just wide enough to accommodate a wagon. Above: This aerial photograph, taken before the creation of Lake Powell, shows the Hole-in-the-Rock crevice (front, center) and the pioneer trail eastward beyond the Colorado River in what one pioneer called “the roughest country … ever seen.” (Photography courtesy of the United States Bureau of Reclamation.)

Hole-in-the-Rock—before and after. The light area is the amount of rock the pioneers removed.

“I’ll Never Forget that Day”

On 26 January 1880, everything was ready.

Elizabeth M. Decker wrote of the first wagons to go down through “the Hole”: “Coming down the hole in the rock to get to the river … is almost strait down, the cliffs on each side are five hundred ft. [about 155 meters] high and there is just room enough for a wagon to go down. It nearly scared me to death. The first wagon I saw go down they put the brake on and … [chained the rear wheels together so they slid as a unit instead of rolled] and had a big rope fastened to the wagon and about ten men holding back on it and they went down like they would smash everything. I’ll never forget that day.”

The wagon of Joseph Stanford Smith was the last of 26 wagons to pass through Hole-in-the-Rock that day. Brother Smith, known as Stanford, had helped others all day while his wife and three children sat on a pile of quilts in the snow and watched. Apparently not realizing that men would be coming to help them, Stanford and his wife, Belle, thought they were stranded. So they determined to bring their wagon down by themselves. Belle sat their three-year-old son on the quilts, placed the baby between his legs, and told them not to move until their father came back for them. Ada, the oldest, sat in front of her brothers and said a prayer.

Belle and one of the horses pulled on the ropes tied to the back of the wagon as Stanford braced his legs against the dashboard and gently urged the lead horses on. As soon as they started down, the anchor horse fell. Belle caught her foot in the rocks and broke free several times before she too fell and was dragged along with the horse down the steep slope. By the time the wagon stopped, a jagged rock had torn into Belle’s leg from heel to hip. Stanford ran to her to see if she was all right. With pioneer tenacity, Belle told him she had “crow-hopped” all the way down. Stanford helped her into the wagon, cleaned her cut, and then climbed back up for the children. As he passed his horse, which was dazed but alive, Stanford took off his hat and waved it in the air as a salute to his wife. They had made it!

The steep, upper third of the wagon road through Hole-in-the-Rock, viewed from Lake Powell. (Photograph courtesy of the United States Bureau of Reclamation.)

(The following photos detail our trip to Hole-in-the-Rock)

(The approach to Hole-in-the-Rock)
(The opening descent)
(Below is a look back up the canyon which shows the path the pioneers came down. This is nearly a 45 degree slope, littered with huge rocks and boulders)

(Below is the view from the bottom of the canyon, which now opens up into Lake Powell)

Hustle and Harmony”

After crossing the Colorado River by ferry, the company still faced more than 240 kilometers of rugged ground. Elizabeth M. Decker described this land in a letter to her parents. “It’s the roughest country you or anybody else ever seen; it’s nothing in the world but rocks and holes, hills, and hollows. The mountains are just one solid rock as smooth as an apple.” Because the land turned out to be rougher than anticipated, the journey took much longer than expected—six months instead of six weeks—making the so-called shortcut extremely arduous. Two babies were born along the way. Supplies had to be brought in to the company by mule train. On 6 April 1880, the exhausted company came upon a few acres of good farmland near a small river. They named the spot Bluff City.

Though travel worn, the pioneers had remained true to their resolve to follow the prophet and move forward, and they had endured the hardships in good spirits. As one member of the company recalled, “In a camp … moving … through extremely rough country, one would naturally look for some trouble and a few accidents, but this was not the case. All was hustle and harmony.”

The road created by this pioneer company served as the major highway in and out of the area for about one year. Westward traffic heading back up the steep corridor through Hole-in-the-Rock required each wagon to have a six-horse team.

By 1882 the road had fallen into disuse, but the pioneers had done what they had set out to do—establish a settlement in a remote area of the proposed state of Deseret. Though the area today remains somewhat isolated, it stands as a legacy of those faithful and tenacious pioneers who cut their way through solid rock in obedience to a prophet’s call. (End of Story)

Our trip was both fun and educational and made us appreciate the determination and faith of our early pioneer ancestors.

We listened to conference on Saturday by sitting in the truck in the parking lot of a local restaurant with my laptop and skimming their free wi-fi. Luxurious, no, edifying, yes.

We also had enough time Saturday between conference sessions to head down the Burr Trail to explore a petrified wood forest. There was one specific section that had entire trees that have been turned to stone. They have fallen and broken into sections, but you can still see their rings that the rings and texture that has been preserved for millions of years.

As you can see above, this tree I'm standing next to was probably around 5 feet thick at one time.

We had an enjoyable weekend, exploring new terrain, relaxing at the cabin, listening to conference and even squeezing in a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Bridges on the way home.

Snowshoe Take 2

2010-03-07T19:26:00.001-08:00

Hello faithful blog followers. Apparently nothing over the last month of our lives has merited a new blog post. Its kind of depressing to think that our daily actions have become such an endless drudgery of work and minutia. But alas, we were able to escape the confining confines of our homes to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Big Cottonwood Canyon near Guardsman Pass.

We went snowshoeing again, although this time we were accompanied by some new friends in our ward, Nate and Ashley Long. Hence, the nicer picture instead of the usual hold-the camera-as-far-as-you-can-from-our-faces-while-trying-to-take-a-decent-though-usually-skewed-headshot.

The snow was fairly deep as well due to the storm we had on Friday. It was probably four feet deep, although with the snowshoes, we probably only sunk down 1-2 feet. Even when we were on more groomed trails, however, Tiffani still struggled to stay on her feet. I wondered if she was sober at times. Anyhow, the deep snow proved to be quite a workout, but also a refreshing experience to get lost in the untouched expanse of winter beauty.

Lake Blanche

2010-02-20T16:10:00.000-08:00

In November, Will gave me a coupon for a snowshoeing adventure and a trip to Starbucks for a caramel apple cider. Over President's Day, I finally cached in on the offer. It was Will's first time experiencing the joy of snowshoeing and of course I didn't take him on a gradual incline. After watching the Olympics the whole weekend, I was feeling fat from being a couch cucumber (I like the alliteration of cucumber as opposed to potato) and the Olympic spirit was pulsing through my veins. Therefore, Will's maiden voyage turned out to be a bit of an epic struggle. At the beginning of the hike, we spotted two moose on the side of the trail. Here is a terrible picture. The mama was laying behind a snowbank and the baby is hidden in the brush.
Because of the snow and steep incline, I seriously doubted if Will would ever consent to go snowshoeing with me again. Fortunately, a European naturalist passed us up on the trail and urged us to go a little further. The lake was just over that ridge. When we got to the lake, Will was uncertain of the actual location. I took a picture of Lake Blanche but it is not blog worthy. The fog was too dense and the snow was too blinding and the lake was too frozen, in other words, the picture is a mass of white. Here we are on the descent. We are both in better spirits because the climbing was over. Will wanted to catch me in action running down the hill. Unfortunately, I am nimble in snowshoes and I whizzed by too quickly, the camera could not capture my grace and poise, so here is a posed pictue. Hooray for fun winter activities!

Return to Snowy Idaho

2010-02-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

After complaining about the Rexburg winters for three years, I suddenly found myself surprised and wanting to return to icy roads and freezing noses. My good friends, Elise and Pam were headed up to BYU-Idaho to recruit for their camp in Maine, so Will and I decided to tag along. We tried to get a big group of Badger buddies to meet up at our beloved home in Tetonia.

On our way to Badger, we stopped by in Rigby to visit former roommate and fellow Badger, Billie Jo and husband, Caleb. We rolled into the Badger parking lot around eleven at night. We didn't know how to find our party, but rumor had it that Sarah Bedke was holed up at the Ashton residence. After meeting the new facilities manager, and talking to Sarah, we decided to knock on cabin doors to see where our friends might be. Luckily, we ran into Elise, Pam, T-Bird, and new friend, Fuzz, on a midnight excursion to the bathroom. It was a joy seeing T-Bird again after a two-year absence.
We spent the night cramped in one of the little cabins playing "Bananagrams" and laughing loudly. Once again, we proved that two people can sleep comfortably on a twin bed. It was a small feat to fit nine of us into the cabin that sleeps six.

The next morning, Will and I set out on cross-country skis to see Badger in wintertime. We had a blast, although we were a little scared going down large hills. Will also had some trouble getting up the steep hills as well.

We joined the rest of the party later that afternoon on the sled hill. It took Will and me a little bit to figure out how to use the tow-rope comfortably, but when we got to the top, we tuckered ourselves out with excitement. Our favorite formation was linking arms in a circle and riding all the way down the hill.

Max somehow managed to fall off his sleigh almost every ride.

Here we are bursting with jubiliance and uncapped energy.

On the way back from Badger, we stopped to visit Janel, a.k.a J-mamma in Rexburg with her husband and beautiful girl, Tasia. Then we trekked down to Idaho Falls for some dinner at the Snake Bite... delicious. Saturday night we spent at Uncle Torrey's and Aunt Wendy's. All in all, it was a great trip, our nose hairs didn't even freeze.

Extreme Winter Sporting

2010-01-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

Before the lovely winter break was over and we had to return to the hum-drum school life, we were able to get out in the great outdoors to enjoy some wild and crazy cross country skiing. We gathered up a whole crew of Badger Creek buddies to accompany us including J.P., Abby, Pam, and Megan & Jordan. We had to find somewhere free to go, so we ended up going down the Union Pacific Rail Trail in Park City. The scenery on the trail was amazing... considering we spent the majority of our time in the median of I-80.
It was my first time going, so it took a little getting used to. I was scared of tripping over myself and falling on my face, but luckily I avoided that embarrassment. Actually, by the end of our journey, I felt pretty comfortable and would recommend X-country skiing as a good cardiovascular exercise activity.

The Snow Angels... ahhhhh

We made it!

Chocolate Factory

2010-01-18T17:02:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions started with my Great-Grandma Ruby. When Grandma was younger, she used to work in a chocolate factory where she learned the great art of dipping chocolates. She has passed this skill onto her posterity. Being able to actually dip the chocolates became sort of a right-of-passage in our family. We pride ourselves in chocolates that not only taste good, but look good as well. This December, Will and I devoted two Saturdays to our chocolate-making expedition. We had to prepare the fondants, the caramels, and the cremes beforehand because dipping by itself takes a full day. This year was super-fancy because Char actually purchased a chocolate-dipping machine that supposedly keeps the chocolate at the correct temperature so you don't have to constantly scrape the marble slabs and re-melt the chocolate. Here's a gander at the final products. Our varieties include: cherries, raspberry creme, mint, lemon creme, bavarian creme, turtles, caramels, toffee, and chocolate covered nuts. This is the whole clan that participated in the chocolate-making festivities. Will is outnumbered by all the lady folk.

So You Think YOU can dance? Check us out

2009-12-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

Click on this link for a wild Christmas ride with us!!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/KkzX1BgaxBswvYpphaBl

Lehmitz Family in Boulder

2009-12-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

If you've read our blog before, you already know all of the details about Boulder, and many of you have even been there with us. So I'll spare you all of the details and just create a quick photo montage of our latest trip with the Lehmitz family over Thanksgiving weekend.

Who is that bad-mother-shut-your-mouth?

I just had to include this picture (above) We found this little cave among some large fallen boulders. The entrance is a little small though, and this picture just reminded me of an oversized birth.
Hickman Bridge in Capitol Reef

The Family

Typical men.
Tiffani starring as Mogli

Calf Creek canyon in all its fall-colored glory

The Family at Calf Creek Falls. We had to trick Mom into going on the hike, but we were glad she made it there and back safely, even if we had to carry her the last mile back to the car.

Bell's Canyon

2009-12-19T16:10:00.001-08:00

This is actually going to be a retroactive post. For some reason, we forgot to put up these pictures, even though we did this hike in early fall, some three months ago. But, I thought the pictures were encapsulating and just couldn't go by unnoticed by our loyal blog audience, so I decided to make a quick post to take you on a tour of Bells Canyon. If you're unfamiliar with it, its the canyon that makes up the northern side of Lone Peak, the largest and southernmost peak in Salt Lake county, Utah. It starts off as a pretty easy hike up to a small reservoir that's part of Sandy City's water shed. The leafs were all starting to change and the scenery was quite beautiful. But you can keep going up the canyon, that is, if you can find the trail.

Tiffani and I actually lost it a little bit, and ended up following the stream that flows into the reservoir until we found a bridge farther up the trail.

Then we followed what we thought was the trail, but soon we realized that there were forks in the trail which had other forks farther along. So, we just kept heading in the direction we knew were were supposed to be going, not really knowing where "our" trail was going to lead. Our ultimate goal was to find the waterfall that's up the canyon. But after hiking for a couple of hours, half of it through a new layer of snow, and getting pretty high up the mountain, we decided to turn around so we could get back before dark.

But we did take a picture at the summit of our adventure.
Eventually, almost through sheer dumb luck, we decided to take another small trail that led off of the main one, and lo and behold, we stumbled upon the elusive waterfall. It was actually very pretty, nestled back in a wooded ravine, engulfed with the colors of autumn.

But such adventures are part of an average day in the life of Tiffani, the goddess of the great outdoors.

Birthday Bash at the Cabin

2009-11-16T20:18:00.001-08:00

For my birthday, I wanted a little weekend get-away to the cabin. Will happily aquiesced to my request. We invited our good friends, Jack and Sausha, to experience the joy of Boulder.
We went to all the best places. Hell's Backbone was our first stop. It's a rickety bridge that spans a deep canyon, used by travelers from Escalante to Boulder until Highway 12 was built. I am trying to coerce Will out of his fear of heights by making him climb on cliffs with me. Will is second-guessing why he came out onto the ledge with me. On the way up to the bridge, the washboard gravel did us in and we lost a hubcap on our car. So the ride down consisted of "Eye Spy" but we were all looking for the same object. Will spotted something to the side of the road, Jack, Will, and I piled out of the car and ran towards the shiny object. Unfortunately, it was a Pontiac's lost hubcap. The search was futile.

After Hell's Backbone, we went on a little stroll to Calf Creek Falls- another popular tourist destination. The view never gets old.
Jack and Sausha at our picnic spot near the falls.

At "The Crevice", Jack pretended to be Mogli on a dead tree. These are a couple of graceful pictures of him. Just a side note, he was about five feet off the ground. Other highlights from the trip included: Team Lehmitz beating Team Christensen at Scrabble, Sausha's hot chocolate, and watching Lars and the Real Girl. If you're in the mood for a black comedy, we highly recommend this sunsational should-have-been blockbuster hit. Hooray for friends and birthday weekends at the cabin.

Photo Journal of September's Adventures

2009-10-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

The Lehmitz family always hosts a Labor Day party. This year was the first time I enjoyed the whole array of festivities-- rides on the swather, tug-of-war over the canal, zipline adventures, and tomato fights. We enjoyed a good-ole' fashioned get-together with all the kin folk. My favorite activity was probably the zipline, just because I felt daring without a harness. Relying on my own brute strength for protection, I held on tightly as I sailed 100 yards to the dead tree. The tomato fight was pretty intense as well. I held my own and protected our flag. Each time I threw a rotten piece of produce, I gained more confidence in my throwing abilities. I will train for next season. Will and I headed up the Temple Quarry trail at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. I recounted my maiden voyage on my bike some four years ago. Of course, the trail was much more difficult than I remembered. We weren't able to make it to the top because of time constraints. Will and I turned around when we were about three-fourths of the way to the finish because he had to get home for work. The most difficult part of the journey was managing to fit our bikes in the trunk. Although we enjoy our new Camry, our bike rack does not fit on it and we had a heck of a time fanangling our bikes into the trunk.

Andrew Jenkins, the BFF of my lover, was kind enough to entreat us married folk with a day out on Utah Lake. The weather was blimey, the lake gross, and the company affable. I was impressed with Will's waterskiing abilities. Although it was his first time, I am sure next summer he will be able to Slalom ski.
The wakeboard was a much easier beast for me to manage. I harnessed the waves as I performed back-flips and aerials in the air. (Okay, I just stayed up and managed to carve.) It felt pretty natural, and by the end of the day, I was looking forward to the snowboarding season.

Weddings Galore

2009-09-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Quick update, August was fraught with weddings (fraught in the most positive sense of the words of course). I especially enjoyed seeing my dear friend, Sammi, end up with her lover, Brady. Whitney and I helped out and threw a bridal shower for her. We had a grand time. Here are a couple pics from that.

Katie Julian, now Fronk married her long-time lover, Blake as well. Her reception was beautiful and it was so fun to catch up with old friends.

Then, of course, my Badger buddy and former running partner, Christine Street, married the man of her dreams, John. As it turns out, Will and John even served in the same mission, albeit years apart. That will help prevent awkward conversation between spouses. She looked beautiful in her wedding gown; a nice change from camping gear and running shorts. We would have loved to make it to the sealing too, but unfortunately I couldn't miss one of the first days of school in my new job.

Will and I were also able to make it to Jared Crossley''s wedding. His little bride turned out to be a the younger sister of one of my friends. (Sorry, no pictures) Besides good food, we enjoyed visiting with good company. Hip, hip, hoorah for marriage!

The Career Woman

2009-09-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

Will and I have recently relocated to Sandy because of my new appointment as Sunset Ridge's most inexperienced art teacher. I have finally launched into my career as an educator. For those that may wonder, Sunset Ridge is in the boonies--there is nothing around but new subdivisions clear out at 6800 W. and 8200 S. The school is really nice since it is only five years old. The faculty members are superb, and the students fantastic. Really, the only thing I have to complain about is my poor time management and trying to fill a new pair of shoes. They (whoever "they" is) say that the first year is always the hardest. I'm putting in a lot of hours, but I constantly remind myself that I'm "living the dream". So when I am downtrodden, I know I just need to watch Freedom Writers, Dead Poet Society, or Stand and Deliver to be sufficiently inspired. For now, I will survive a day at a time--revising my classroom management strategies, creating lesson plans, and putting a smile on my face. I love teaching.

Family Fun at Flaming Gorge

2009-08-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

I should have kept the alliteration going but I can't really change the name of Flaming Gorge. I think it's an appropriate title for an article in Parenting magazine.
Enough about the title, and now a few words about the adventure.

Basically, the trip was rainy and overcast, but we still had a lot of fun. It was our first excursion up to the north country and we never knew it was so beautiful.The first day we went to a reservoir for some fishing. Kell and Ana trailed in the little raft just off-shore. Poor little Kell was fighting sickness, and kept falling asleep in the boat. When we made it to the Gorge, it was about five in the afternoon. Surprisingly, the water was warm. Some members of our family stayed ashore and looked pretty while others braved the water.My family kept telling me to not swim too far. I obeyed since I didn't want to worry my husband.The Gorge wasn't the only place we encountered water. Will and I went on a mountain bike ride around the rim while the rest of the kin was off fishing. The trail was supposed to be beginner, but we overcame many rocks and obstacles, such as flooding.

Here's a picture of what went on most of the time--a lot of fishing. My family was die-hard and the rain didn't deter them.
Ana is a little cutie, but constantly has to be entertained, especially in the car. We could only play "I Spy" so many times. The rain eventually drove us to the car and Will helped Kell get past the start menu on the Gameboy. He was practicing his Daddy skills.

A Return to Girl's Camp

2009-08-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

So I thought I was finished with girl's camp when I graduated high school. I must admit I was a little weary of returning since sleeping in cabins and doing crafts isn't exactly my idea of camping. But I came to realize that the purpose of girl's camp isn't to fine-tune our primitive living skills; rather, it's to help us draw closer to Christ and form more meaningful relationships with our ward. I guess it could be deemed a success, since both aims were accomplished.
Camp was a little tricky since we didn't actually have a camp director, our YW's President got pregnant and couldn't come up, and none of the leaders could stay for the entire time. We managed to pull it off, however. I realized the close bonds that form at camp are not limited to the girls, and I enjoyed heart-to-heart talks with the other leaders. There is something about being in nature, having no showers, and sleeping in the same room with three other women that really makes or breaks friendships. Fortunately, I learned a lot about others' life experiences and developed greater respect for the women I work with. Suffice it to say, sleepovers still exist, even after you're married, you just have to go to girl's camp. I also loved being with the girls and getting to know them better. They were willing to help out with camp duties and did a great job with skits and the service project. The Blind Walk, (for all the Badger Staffers) was a great hit and a very powerful experience for them. Despite the canoeing and the pranks, the best part of camp was hearing their testimonies.
I came home utterly exhausted and humbled. Mostly because I stayed up late and then went running in the morning with Joylynn (who kicked my trash up those mountain hills). The humbling was due to my lack of endurance uphill, as well as hearing the trials that others faced in their lives and recognizing what great examples I have around me.

Attempt at Timp

2009-07-28T10:34:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back we made our first attempt to summit Mt. Timpanogas this year. I say first, because we were unsuccessful in reaching the top and so now, we'll have to hike it again so we can summit later in the season. Anyhow, we took along with us several kids from YHA, which is the youth program Tiffani works at part time. We also invited my little brothers to come along, but since Sterling was busy with a soccer tournament, just Steve came along.While Tiffani has experienced the beauty of Timp many times, this was the maiden voyage for the rest of the group. And, even though we went in mid-summer, there was still lots of snow and plenty of run-off water that we had to get across. It was a trade-off, however. For although the snow made the going difficult at times, it also created a breathtaking cascade of streamlets that flowed down the canyon, forming an enchanted natural marvel.
We had several surprises on our adventure. We had to cross several different glaciers, navigate narrow trails, walk behind a waterfall, bushwhack through some areas when the trail was lost under the snow, and even scramble up a small cliff. We also encountered a mountain goat coming down the trail toward us. We definitely weren't expecting that.
But we were even more surprised when we got to the storm shelter near the saddle to discover several herds of mountain goats grazing on the alpine slopes. They even let us get close enough to snap some good pictures. And of course everyone thought the little baby goats were adorable.

The view at the saddle made the trip worth it though. To the north, you take in the majesty of the Wasatch Mountains and the backside of Lone Peak (which we plan on climbing in the next few weeks as well)
To the east, you could look out over Deer Creek Reservoir and the Heber Valley, as well as take in the beauty of the mountain below.
Unfortunately, the snow at the base of those cliffs is where the trail goes, which made it too dangerous for us to continue to the top without the proper equipment.
But, the snow also provided us with some fun on the way down. In fact, we used it was our way down from the saddle. We either slid down on our butts, or crouched in skiing position to make our way down the snowy hill.
Our last surprise came our descent, when out of nowhere, a large rock fell onto the trail below and cut open Jeremy's (one of the youth in our groups) head. By the time we got to him, his head and hands were covered in blood. We followed the Scout motto to "be prepared" however, an quickly cleaned and bandaged him up. He later had to get 8 staples put in his head to help mend the nasty wound.
After that though, the climb down was uneventful, but made for a wonderful day hike and a time to enjoy the splendor of God's handiwork.

Positive Reinforcement

2009-07-26T22:32:00.001-07:00

Please let us know we actually have an audience and comment occassionally on our posts if you enjoy them. Will is doubting his writing skills and ability to entertain people through the written word. Shout out to Elise, our most faithful blog commenter.

4th of July in Alton, UT

2009-07-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

Over the Fourth of July, we headed down south to Alton, UT, a tiny, rural farming town of 150 people, nestled between the Utah Dixie's metropolises of Panguitch and Kanab. Every year my family gets together for family reunions and a patriotic Fourth of July in Alton. We turn Granny and Grandpa Andersen's home there into a lively family bed and breakfast.

The first night we got there, siblings and cousins were anxious to play. They taught us a new game called Kubb, an old viking pastime, in which you must use large, wooden dowels to knock over the small wooden blocks of the opposing team. The first team to knock down all of the oppositions blocks, wins.

We spent the whole first night playing all sorts of games with all the cousins.

The next day was our day for adventures. We all piled in Uncle Lance's 12 passenger van and headed for the Arizona border. An hour and a half later, we piled out and started a hike down Wire Pass Canyon, a small, easy-to-hike, slot canyon. At the end of the 1 1/2 mile canyon, we all posed for a family picture.

While half of group turned back and hiked out Wire Pass Canyon, Tif and I were extra curious about an adjoining canyon that met up with another trailhead a little ways up the road. So we took a few of the cousins with us, and hiked 6 miles up Buckskin Gulch. Unfortunately, Buckskin Gulch turned out to not be much of a canyon. Instead, we hike 5 miles through a wash in the hot sun. Blah! Amazingly though, we still beat the rest of our group out and were waiting for them along the road when they came along to pick us up.

The next day was the actual 4th of July, which is a big deal in Alton. Tif started the day by running the 4 mile fun run. She's still trying to convince me that fun run isn't a paradox. After a quick shower, we ran out to watch the town parade. The greatest part about a small town parade is that there are more people in the parade then there are watching.

After the parade, the town program started, which consisted of patriotic tributes and lively music. The biggest crowd pleaser was a family of fiddlers that played some bluegrass tunes. The greatest part was that they gave all of the kids in the family fake fiddles to play along with the adults, and one little boy took it very seriously.

The afternoon provided a little more downtime, with a town lunch, games, and then a classic rural dinner of roast beef and mutton. I think Alton is the only place I've ever had mutton. Maybe that's why I like it.

And I almost forgot... We all took a ride in Grandpa Andersen's famous train! Using his first name as an acronym, Grandpa single handedly created A.R.T'S. (Alton Railess Transit System).

Grandpa built his lawn tractor powered train by putting seats in barrels that he cut in half. He also built a few large cars to accommodate bigger people. When running the train, he sets up an entire train station, including a loading platform and a train engineer uniform. Oh Grandpa... living the dream.

After dinner, we headed over to the town hall for some boot-slapping country dancing. Too bad Tif and I are dancing retarded. Luckily for us, there were a few slow dances too, which allowed us to slowly spin in circles together.

When the time came to leave, we crammed five adults into our little '92 Dodge Shadow named Franc, and with the air conditioning belt screaming, slowly made our way back home.

Canyoneering Expedition

2009-06-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it back to Boulder once again, but this time with a whole new crew to accompany us on our adventure. Elise, Ryan, Jake & Chelsea all came along. Luckily, Jake & Chelsea were kind enough to bring their Ford Explorer which allowed us to get to trailheads that would be completely inaccessible to my little Pontiac.

We stopped in at Capitol Reef National Park on our way down so everyone could see it. That's where these pics are from, including this one, with only Elise posing, as well as this fascinating shot of Ryan trying to take a picture of himself on his phone.

The group wasn't too impressed with the petroglyphs left my the ancient inhabitants. In fact, Elise is still skeptical of their authentic origin, since the National Park Service just left them on the cliffs rather than putting the images behind glass. We also checked out Hickman Bridge, a large natural arch within the Park. We tried scrambling up some boulders to get on top, only to be hindered by a large drop off that prevented us from getting right on top of the arch. But it did make for some sweet pictures (which are, unfortunately, on someone else's camera).

The next day was the trips real adventrue. We hiked a two different slot canyons off of the Hole-in-th-Rock road near Escalante--Spooky and Peek-a-Boo canyons. Round trip it was probably 10 to 12 miles, which took most of the days. We wente down Spooky first. After hiking through a gorge with for a while, we had to bust out the rope and repel down a 20 foot drop to get into the actual slot canyon.

Like the guidebook said, this was definitely not a canyon for the claustrophobic or obese. There were a lot of tight squeezes and technical parts in which you had to stem, or in other words, jam your body between the cliff walls and move forward while suspended in the air. There were even a few drop offs with some rank pools of water waiting for you at the bottom. I tried stemming across one in particular, but after realizing the the walls were two far apart, I just dropped in. It was in this same pool that our hiking mate Elise slid right down in. Unfortunately, she panicked and didn't realize that it was only waist deep until she was swimming up to her neck.Like I was saying though, this slot definetly wasn't for those with extra poundage. And Jack, if you read this, I would have to say, you would probably excel in these parts of the canyon.

And here, Tiffani stemmed up above us to take a cool shot.

As we got close to the end of Spooky canyon, the slot got windy, which created some exquisite rock formations in the red sandstone.

Unfortunately, after we hiked down one canyon, we had to go back up the other in order to get back to the car. We were almost out of water, even though most of us brough three liters a person, but we made it up okay. We realized later though that we took a wrong turn heading back to the car and ended up hiking in between the two canyons, but we made it back fine all the same. If you're looking for a cool, short hike, you can just do the bottom ends of both of these canyons and you'll still have a lot of fun.

The next day, we were all pretty wiped out from Friday's hike, so we took it easy. We went on a 1 mile hike to the beautiful Upper Calf Creek Falls. It's nice because its less well-known than the Lower Falls, and has a couple pools of water above the falls that you can jump into and swim in.

After the falls, we, like all manly man, got some testosterone pumping by pushing a 400 lb. rock down a mountain. Man must move rock... grunt.

Finally we took a trip down the Burr Trail to play around in a large crevice in the canyon wall. there we climbed on rocks, posed for pictures, and practiced slack-lining. For those of you who aren't familiar with said sport, its like tightrope walking on a piece of webbing (and its really hard at first like I found out).

After all was said and done that, we have another cool story to add to our increasing collection of summer adventures.

And P.S.

Make sure when you wear Chaco's or any other sandal, use sunblock, otherwise your feet will end up looking like mine!

Stewart Cascade Falls

2009-06-25T18:23:00.001-07:00

Here's a handsome couple, a little too preppy for a hike, but we survived.

The coolest thing about my job is that I can get paid to hike, play tennis, and go on bike rides. Basically, I am a mentor to youth that are in the state's custody. Granted, I have to do some community service and help them fill out job applications and such, but it's worth it. I really like the kids I work with and I enjoy spending time with them.

A couple of weeks ago, Will and I took one of my girls on a hike in Provo Canyon. Stewart Falls is great because it's only about two miles to get there. We had a nice little picnic beforehand and then we burned off the oatmeal cream pies on the trail.

Mt. Olympus- A Mythical Adventure

2009-06-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

So, the title was a bit cheesy--maybe climbing Mt. Olympus wasn't exactly mythical, the only demon we encountered was a baby rattlesnake--but it certainly was memorable. A couple of weeks ago, Will and I convinced two of our single friends, Abby Stevens and Pamela Porter, to hang out with us for a day. Since they are former Badger buddies, they couldn't pass up the chance to be in the mountains. Since most of the peaks on the Wasatch front were still fraught with snow, we had to settle for one of the lesser mountains. Mt. Olympus is only about 9,000 feet high, and the trail to the summit is just a little over three miles; however, there is a 4,000 foot elevation gain in those three miles. Basically, it's stair-stepping most of the way up. Suffice it to say, I was sore for two days afterward. Although it was a little crowded, we found that the hike was definitely worth the view.Abby is sitting right at the saddle. Behind her is a beautiful backdrop of Twin Peaks.
Here we are trekking up to the summit. It looked much more daunting in real life. This picture was taken somewhere during the final ascent. (I like that phrase, "final ascent" it makes me feel like we climbed Mt. Everest, instead of just scrambling up rocks for a couple hundred feet.)When we got to the top, we took a little lunch break. We struck up a conversation with a stranger and as I was busy listening to his road-tripping tales, my foot fell asleep. It took me about a half hour to get the circulation going. Will was anxious to get to some shrubbery so he could take a little break. Here we are posing like Greek gods and goddesses. We figured out why Mt. Olympus is so named. On top, it looks like a god had a temper tantrum so he just hurled down rocks from the sky. It literally was a mound of boulders, one piled on top of another.
That pretty much wraps up our adventure. I would encourage everyone to take a hike. Literally.

First Anniversary

2009-06-09T10:32:00.001-07:00

We can't believe it's already been a whole year. And some people say its the hardest! Ha! Obviously they aren't nearly as in love as Tiffani and me. This past year has been, well, blissful.

So, to commemorate, we basically replayed our honeymoon. We drove down to Manti and stayed at the quaint little bed and breakfast we stayed at on our wedding night, the Yardley Inn & Spa. The mistress of the inn was so cute. She has her husband carry your bags up the stairs for you while she takes you on a tour of pioneer home that's been converted to a little hotel. She stopped us in one hall to point out a painting on the wall that symbolized our celestial journey and to make sure that was still our goal. The place is so rustic and homey, with pictures of the temple and Book of Mormons scattered throughout the home. They even habe a library with all sorts of novels, a grand piano, DVD's and romantic music that you can use during your stay (luckily the music collection didn't include the Osmond's). Before we left, she gave us both and hug and gave us a talk about being heart to heart. Legend has it that if you press your hearts together, eventually they will synchronize into a steady, unified rhythm. Isn't that dreamy...sigh.

Before we left town, we did a session at the Manti temple. It looked so majestic on top of the hill overlooking the valley and the spring flowers surrounding its base popped with a myriad of vibrant colors.

After we left Manti, we stopped in to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bridges in another town in central Utah, Monroe. It was fun to visit with them and hear some of the life history. They took us to lunch at a little diner in town, and Tiffani and I agreed it was perhaps the best meal we have ever had. Tiffani had to ask what a filet mignon was exactly. She knew how to pronounce it, but also knew it was something more expensive then we could ever pay. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bridges! We enjoyed the visit and the tour of Monroe.

After that, it was time for more family history. When we arrived in Torrey, we stopped to check out the art gallery there. We also noticed that the old churchhouse in town had been torn down in order to make room for a newer chapel. While I'm sure the new technology will be great, we were sad to see the old redrock chapel gone, especially since Tiffani's pioneer ancestors had helped to construct it. We did take a picture of the very first chapel/schoolhouse that still sits along mainstreet, preserved by the DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers).

Our last stop was, of course, at the Cabin in Boulder, UT. Although I've only been in the family for little more than a year, it's already becoming one of my favorite destinations. The surrounding area is so amazing.

For our first adventure, we hiked along the Escalante River trail and up Phipps wash. We had to ford the river a couple of times, which wasn't too bad since the water was knee high at most.Our ultimate destinations included Maverick Natural Bridge... (seen below)

And Phipps arch, a little farther up the canyon.
It was a great day hike with a nice variety of terrain. We also took a few minutes just to take in the beautiful desert landscape. It also gave me the opportunity to try out my new Chaco's that Tiffani gave me for our anniversary. Thanks wife. I was a little worried at first because my feet have been sheltered in close-toed shoes for nearly 20 years. I was also a little embarrassed about my golf club toe (thanks for that one dad) and my black toe nails (they turned black and fell off after being squished inside bad-fitting shoes playing basketball). But, despite my self-consciousness, they Chaco's ending up being great.
The next day was more lazy. We were a little tired from our hike and possible rainclouds surrounding us, we decided to check out Hell's Backbone, accessible completely by car. It's a really cool little bridge, built during the Depression in the 1930's, that connects two mountain tops while spanning the deep canyon below. Tiffani still makes me nervous when she stands by the edge...
On the way home from our drive, we stopped along Highway 12 to take a nice shot of the little town of Boulder.

We love it there and will be headed back soon!

The Art Ball

2009-05-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

As a little birthday celebration for me, and as a feigned attempt at being cultured, we attended the Springville Art Ball together with our friends, Jack and Sausha Christensen. There, dressed in our formal apparel, we paraded about nibbling eclairs and sipping water with a hint of lemon, extrapolating about the symbolica and profound meaning of the art. From oil-on-canvas to bronze-cast statues, we mingled with the Utah elite, dazzling many with our extensive knowledge of the humanities.

After our fine dining experience and stroll through the many galleries, we gathered in the main auditorium in hopes of taking home one of the coveted door prizes. Unfortunately, there were only 4 prizes given away, and I had not given a large enough tip to the door man in order to have my ticket considered in the ultimate drawing. So instead, we stepped out into the enchanted garden courtyard where we danced together under the stars, amidst the spring flowers, the gleaming waterfall, and picturesque statues. Finally, as the evening waned, we slowly made our way home through the cool, summer night.

13 Miles Later...

2009-04-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

Provo city's annual Half-Marathon, 5k and Walk for Autism took place on a rainy Saturday morning, right before Conference. I dragged my little sisters, husband, and brother-in-law out of bed at five-thirty in the morning to participate int the grand event. With the promise of free t-shirts, Sarah and Will were somewhat willing. Megan and Sterling had high aspirations to pr in the 5k, or just help out for a good cause.
The proceeds from the run went to help my school, Clear Horizons Academy, and the students I work with. I begged for donations from strangers the week before, roped family and friends into the event, and enlisted the help of teenagers from my other part-time job. I was grateful to the Provo girls' group home for arriving at six in the morning to help with set-up. They did a fantastic job cheering on the runners and providing much-needed beverages.
Now, for the part you all care about--the race. Megan and Sterling put forth a magnificent effort in the 5k. Sterling ended up getting third place in his age category, running the race in a little over twenty minutes. Hooray for Sterling!
Christine, Tanis, Nate, and I all ran the half-marathon. I made a new friend while running. Crystelle and I kept pace for the first nine miles and encouraged each other on. I finished in one hour, fifty minutes, averaging an 8:30 min mile. Hopefully I can keep the same pace for the upcoming marathon.

Here I am dragging myself across the finish line.

Tif, Nate, and Tanis at the finish. (We couldn't find Christine.)
The family: Sterling (he's wearing his cool medal), Megan, Sarah, me, Will--all sporting our shirts from the run.
Thanks for all the help and support family and friends!

Badger Bash

2009-04-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Over Conference Weekend, we had a little Badger Reunion to commemorate our tw0-and-three-quarters year mark from when we started out at Badger Creek. Unfortunately, I was too excited to see everyone and I completely forgot to take pictures. (Hopefully Jill will post some on her blog soon.) Hopefully, these older photos will bring back some good times. Part of the gang during a hike to the wind caves. I'm the odd one out since everyone else is wearing some form of Badger apparel.

2006 Staff PictureKissing Christine (T-Bird and I are not shy about showing affection)
The Anderson family performing their famous "Big-Rig" song

At the Spud Drive-In to see Pirates of the Carribean II

The Badger Reunion was a big hit with Bradford and Mike making their first appearances since the mission. Brad is planning on installing alarm systems for the summer and is currently the CFO of Clearlake Bed and Breakfast. (He even has a business card.) After he makes his millions, he is returning to BYU-Idaho to study mechanical engineering. He brought along his friend, Cameron, who makes a living climbing. They were both determined to hit up some routes in the Cottonwood canyons. We hope they didn't freeze to death.

Mike has been home from Argentina for four weeks and hasn't changed a bit. He sported his riding boots and a Badger t-shirt to the reunion. Brother A talked him into returning to Badger for the summer to work as their head rangler. Way to hold onto the legacy, Mike!

Ryan Taylor just graduated from BYU-Idaho and is going to pursue a doctorate degree from BYU in Bio-Chemistry? He's still on the look-out for his mate, but recently set a two-and-a-half month record of a relationship.

Raechy is working at Michaels craft store and going to USU. She's majoring in Elementary Education and thinking about Special Education. She brought a man-friend to the reunion, Brandon, who made a great impression. Brandon is in the Master's program at USU studying mechanical engineering? and is a rugged, outdoorsy sort of fellow, perfect for Raechy. We're eager to hear the outcome of that relationship.

Jill and Tevya put out a delicious spread of snacks and welcomed us into their beautiful four-plex for the evening. Tev is working at Wells Fargo and is in the process of starting up a wholesale online meat business with Jill's brother. Jill is enjoying her job with the city Parks and Rec department. She is caught in a web of doggie training, lesbian love-life, and soccer schedules. She said her job is a combination of The Office and Desperate Housewives.

Christine showed up very tardy to the party, but we accepted her nonetheless. She brought along her man-friend, John, who graduated with a degree in English but is currently working at a bike shop. Christine is working at Tahitian Noni and training for a marathon. Unfortunately, I must give the approval on John at a later date because we only had about two minutes of interaction.

As for everyone else, we are sorry you couldn't make it to the bash. It wasn't as wild as in times past, but very enjoyable regardless. Here's a one-sentence update on our no-shows.

Chillie Willy- is still in NY on his mission--another reunion will happen when he returns

Brittany- is bringing souls to Christ in Tokyo.

Elise- putting phonebooks together in Seattle and currently cannot decide what to do with her life (turned down several nanny jobs, but wants to return to Maine for a couple weeks in the summer).

Josh- going to school at the U, nothing else is known

Aaron- working at Aspiro, a wilderness therapy camp for troubled teens

Andrea- taking care of her baby and husband in Rexburg. (Berrett just graduated!)

J-mamma- returned to Rexburg with baby, Scott is going to school.

Billie Jo- finished student teaching and is graduating in May. Caleb is still going to school in Rexburg

Ryan Middlemiss- in California, happenings unknown

T-Bird- working exceptionally hard to bring people to the gospel in Tennessee, returning in August.

Whew! It takes a while to update eighteen people's lives. Words to live by: You must be wealthy! Mosquito!

The Big Leagues

2009-04-01T21:31:00.001-07:00

The Lehmitz Lovers finished their winter round of sports this past week. The Utah Jazz of South Jordan suffered a defeat in overtime. With two minutes left to go in the game, one of the opposing team's key players committed a double foul with Andrew Jenkins. The ref was persuaded by the opposing team that their was no foul. If a foul would have been called, the outcome of the game would have been drastically different. The opposing team would have had to play with a man down, giving the Utah Jazz the advantage. Alas, games are not won on "would have's" we were sorry to see the season end on a bad call.

As for Tiffani's Relief Society basketball team, they made it to the championship region game. Although Tiffani felt like a star strutting onto the court when the announcer called her name, her legs were a bit jiggly from the nine mile run that morning. Earlier exercise must have influenced her performance. The Cherry Hill stake was ahead of Park for the first half of the game, but after they started taking outside shots, the other team quickly caught up. The Relief Society basketball team walked away with a second-place title, losing by five points. The Park stake was so proud of their victory, they cut down the nets. I guess church ball is the big leagues now-a-days.

Religious Outings

2009-04-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was the Young Women General Broadcast. Since I am an advisor in Beehives, I figured it was my duty, nay obligation, to go. Our ward was fortunate enough to receive tickets to go to the Conference Center. So I headed down to Salt Lake with my little sisters and my mom to be spiritually fed while Will set out with our friends, Jack and Sausha, to the Festival of Colors at the Hindu temple in Spanish Fork. I can really only tell you about my end of the story, and hopefully the pictures will tell you about Will's adventures.

This is a small portion of the crowd that came out to celebrate the arrival of Spring.
Jack was a little appalled that Will chose to desecrate his Utah Jazz t-shirt by wearing it to the festival.

The colored chalk dissipates in a cloudy haze after the crowd exhuberantly throws it in the air.
Colored Will (this is not a racial term, it's quite literal.)
A couple of rainbow children.
I could have taken a picture with Will like this if I was there.

Although I missed the festivities, the Young Women General Broadcast did not let me down. I loved seeing all the sisters pour into the Conference Center to hear the words of the President Monson and the Young Women General Presidency. I came away with a resolve to be a better person by living more virtuously. President Monson encouraged the young women to have courage in three areas: courage to refrain from judging others, courage to live a chaste and virtuous life, and courage to stand for righteousness and truth. The General Presidency challenged all young women to do three things every day: say their prayers morning and night, read the Book of Mormon for at least five minutes, and to smile. I really loved President Monson's challenge to refrain from judging others. Sometimes passing judgment is just a simple as not saying something to change the conversation when others are gossipping. I'm grateful for those little reminders to be more Christlike. Hooray for the gospel!

Touched This

2009-03-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

Will and Tif ended their dramatic racquetball career with a resounding defeat. They put up a noble fight against Dowman and Willmore, losing the first set 14 to 15 and the second set 11 to 15. They battled bad-attitudes as well as wicked backhands. The male opponent struggled to put on a happy face when the Lehmi'tz's were ahead. Despite the nasty glares, and under-the-breath comments, Will and Tiffani managed to have a good time and were pleased with their performance.
As far as basketball goes, the Jazz walked away with another victory under their belts, winning their last game by a margin of 16 points, with no subs. Elder's Quorum basketball finished their first regional game this last Saturday and are continuing on in the tournament, and Tiffani's Relief Society team won a double-header this past Friday. Thursday's game will determine if they will go into the Region tournament as first or second seed.
Will and Tiffani are saddened to report a loss for their soccer team, 3-1. After their goalie was taken down by an opposing player, the ref awarded a pk to the other team, resulting in a non-deserving point. Nonetheless, the 99th ward's standings were affected by this loss and the team will be playing in the upcoming tournament.

Can't Touch This

2009-02-25T21:40:00.001-08:00

I figured that I had better write about our sports activities while we are still in the limelight. The couple featured above is BYU's most threatening up-and-coming amateur racquetball players. With their deadly kill shots and devilish backhands, they are a lethal combination. Records indicate that the Lehmitz Lovers have only suffered one defeat thus far and are headed for the championship round. Tonight's match was a hard-fought battle. In the second set, Tiffani Lehmitz returned a line-drive serve, solidly connecting with the ball, but ignominiously rolling her ankle. Despite the injury, Tiffani hobbled through the next match and the Lehmitz Lovers finished the tie-breaking set, winning by a solid seven points. Updates will be forthcoming regarding the championship.

Will Lehmitz, featured above, is also on of the star players of the Utah Jazz of BYU intramurals. He's campaigning for "The Sixth Man of the Year" award with his phenomenal game-changing performance coming off the bench. Recently the Jazz have terminated Lindy Lou, (name has been changed to protect the actual identity) the "Team Mom" and rumor has it that Tiffani Lehmitz is being considered for the position.

The Jazz are 3-1 with their most notable victory occurring this past Saturday. With a 79-29 blowout against the T-Wolves. Their star line-up is featured below. For more in depth coverage, see their facebook website, the Utah Jazz of BYU Intramurals, for a game-by-game analysis.

Top Row: Andrew Jenkins, Brad Norman, Bryson McCleary, Mike Williams

Bottom Row: Will Lehmitz, Marc Harrison, Devin Knight Barrett

Along with racquetball, Will and Tiffani are also playing on a soccer team. Currently the 99th Ward's standing are two wins and one tie. The rest of the season looks promising as their last game resulted in a 6-0 victory.

Tiffani's Relief Society basketball team's record is prodigious as well, with six wins and one loss they are headed into the Stake tournament tomorrow. Will is also playing on the Elder's Quorum basketball team. He is their leading scorer, dropping eggs in the basket as if it were Easter time.

During the off-hours, Tiffani is training for the St. George marathon in the fall. Hopefully the recent ankle injury won't hinder any upcoming runs, matches, or games.

California, California, Here We Come

2009-02-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

This last week Tif and I headed out to sunny San Diego, together with our friends Jack and Sausha Christensen. Since Jack's dad was nice enough to let us use his hybrid Toyota, we proudly adopted the name Team Prius for our traveling expedition. For me, the trip was like a journey through a fairy tale fantasy land, since it had been around 14 years since my last visit to California. And I took it all in...

I had my first experience with In-n-Out Burger in St. George. Mighty fine cookin'. If Jack would have had his way, we would have eaten there for every meal, but the ladyfolk's wisdom prevailed on that issue. Las Vegas is quite an interesting city, very shiny anyway. Nevada sure is ugly though (at least that part of I-15). After Vegas, we stopped in Primm to fill up on gas. Maybe it's just me, but Terrible's just doesn't seem like the best name for your hotel/casino; but what do I know. I took over driving from there, and navigated the busier freeways in California until we reached our destination--San Diego.
Luckily our friends the Wankier's had gotten some free time share and allowed us to stay with them, which I suppose was a little for comfy than the back seat. I'll have to figure out when the next time-share meeting is to see if we can get some wining-and-dining treatment to try and get us to buy a vacation package.
Unfortunately, the reason we were in California was for my mission president, Jim Weipert's funeral. He passed away after a four month struggle against an advanced lymphatic cancer. It was wonderful to see so many of his missionaries at his funeral and to realize how loved and respected he was as a man. I know that he was definitely powerful influence on my life. He helped me to understand my locus of control--that is, helped me to realize that with the Lord's help, all things are possible if I put forth my greatest effort. He also taught us about accountability and getting things done, no matter what. No hay excusas. President Weipert was a spiritual icon for so many of us missionaries on a personal level and he will be missed. But, he also taught us to be spiritually self-reliant, and so even now that he is gone, we can all continue moving forward in the work that he was so dedicated to. His wife, Sister Weipert was such an example as well, a true stalwart considering her situation. I'm glad we could be there to attend the funeral and support the Weipert family.
But, what better way to get over the sadness of a funeral than to enjoy the 75 degree weather on the beach. It was awesome. We played in the waves, laid in the sand, chased the gulls, and even built a sandcastle. It wasn't just any sandcastle either. It was an architectual masterpiece, a diorama of the feudal ages. We also got to visit with Grandma Sally and Aunt LeAnn, Tiffani's relatives that are vacationing as snowbirds for the winter. Unfortunately, the day only last so long, and soon dusk came and we went home. Featured below, we have Jack and Sausha, Captains of Team Prius, then the Lehmitz's in their beach togas, and finally, the ocean at sunset.
We headed out Sunday morning, stopping for Church in San Bernandino. It was a splendid trip, and I must say, California is quite beautiful. What I really liked about San Diego were the green hills that rolled on for miles. And even though San Diego is a large metropolitan area, the hills give it a smaller, more intimate feel. The weather and the sights were great--I hope we can head back soon.
The drive back seemed to take forever, but traveling with Jack and Sausha was quite enjoyable. We've already decided that our children will get married so we can continue our friendship forever,
But, I can't finish this post without giving a shout out to Beaver, Utah. We stopped there to get gas and so that Jack could show us his grandparents house where he created so many of his childhood memories. We got to create some of our own, however, when we stopped for dinner at the local Wendy's. I call it the incestuous Wendy's, because most of the workers looked like products of an inbred relationship. One guy imparticular was kind of creepy, having his head shaved except his greasy ponytail poking out the back. It took like 20 minutes to get our food (there were only like 3 customers in the store). And lastly, as we went to leave, we got to witness an employee wrestling match right outside the men's bathroom. If you ask me, not the ideal place to be on the floor, much less when you're working. But hey, we're in Beaver, and when in Beaver...
So that was our California adventure. It was super.

Snowshoeing Photo Shoot

2009-01-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Being unemployed has its perks. It's not often that I get to go snowshoeing with two of my best Badger buds. I am thrilled that Christine and Elise are nearby. Christine has become my running buddy and Elise encourages me to work on my gourmet cooking skills. (Today we attempted pumpkin rolls. Needless to say, they weren't worthy of a blog post. Will termed it, "a baking disaster.)

Back to the adventure . . . it was an overcast Friday morning. Three girls were just aching to see the mountains and this is a travelogue of their journey.

This is base camp, Mount Timpanogos trailhead. Destination: Stewart Falls. Actual course: Somewhere along that mountain yonder. (Good thing we never found Stewart Falls. I learned today from Elise that we would have crossed two avalanche zones to get there.)

We had an individual photo shoot at the amphiteater. Surprisingly, snowshoes grip rock walls pretty well. Elise looks stunning in her hot-pink snowcap.

Christine is sporting a side ponytail so she wouldn't "look like a boy". Secret: She was wearing boys snowpants. Elise and I are just too good at looking tough. The hoods are intimidating, I know.

Even though it just looks like we took pictures, we fit in a fair amount of snowshoeing. I got to hear all of Elise's love confessions, and relive my days of being single. Hooray for friends!

A New Year Makes a New Man

2009-01-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

For New Year's Eve, we babysat my almost-niece, Ana. She was eagerly watching out the window for us when we came to pick her up. We took her over to the Lehmitz's to hang out with all the cousins. After about an hour of playing with Barbies, she was ready to go to our house. We stuck it out until midnight watching movies, playing games, and eating treats. Like Ana, I was ready to go home at ten, I definitely felt old.

Will and I pretended to be parents for a little while. We woke up and made banana pancakes, gave Ana a bath, drew pictures, colored Disney princesses, and for the grand finale--we went to the park.

This is Ana as a little cook, mashing the bananas for the pancakes.

Will threatened us with snowballs, but we called a truce and he quickly rekindled his friendship with Ana.

For the New Year, we made a new man. Since I was the only one with gloves, the structure of our human was up to me. After careful deliberation, we decided that we would stick with the basic anatomy of a snowman, three balls stacked on top of each other. Ana was very adept with the detail work. Since we are eco-friendly, we used all found materials. Leaves were obviously the best choice for hair. To keep the leaves fashioned to his head, we had to devise a yammukah for him to wear. So our snowman quickly evolved into a Jewish snowman. Naturally, he had to have a beard, and pine needles were the perfect facial hair.

Unfortunately, our Jewish man lasted for a short time, he met his untimely death when Ana started pulling his beard out one strand at a time, and poking his eyes out with her pudgy fingers. No memorial service will be held.

After the snowman's demise, (I regret that we never named him) I introduced my mom, Ana, and Will to Tim Tam Slams. Basically, you take a fudge-covered grasshopper cookie, bite off little tidbits of the opposite ends, and suck hot chocolate throught the cookie until the inside becomes a supple mass of yumminess. What better way can you think of to kick off the new year?

The First Christmas

2009-01-07T20:13:00.001-08:00

Despite being very poor, Will and I had a grand old time celebrating our first Christmas together as newlyweds. It was fun establishing some of our own family traditions. In an effort to focus on Christ throughout the month of December, we decided to read the words of latter-day prophets. Talks by President Monson, Hinckley, and Benson were pretty easy to come by, but when we reached Harold B. Lee, it got a little bit harder to find accesible writings from the earlier prophets. Nevertheless, it was fun to read their testimonies of our Savior and learn a little bit more about each prophet.
As part of our nightly ritual, we lit two candles and then expressed why we were grateful for the Savior that day. Lighting the candles and bearing our testimonies about the Savior was a really neat experience that I hope to share with our children. I enjoyed the chance to ponder about the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the many roles He plays in our lives.

As far as the as the actual celebrating goes, we headed up to So Jo to spend Christmas Eve with our families. It was kind of helter skelter trying to get my family on the same schedule, but we made do. Even though Justin and Mya were spending the holidays in Wyoming, we were able to see them right before Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with the Boren's and Christmas with the Lehmitz's.

We gave the gift of practicality to my dad--he loves clean cars, so he was thrilled about the detailing tools we gave him.

Sarah drew us a beautiful picture of the Manti temple, and being the art teacher that I am, I gave her a drawing book to help fine tune those skills.
We really enjoyed being with Dad, Jenifer, Jess, Megan, and Sarah on Christmas Eve. We had a delicious meal and played a rousing game of dominos. We only wish that Blake, Jasmine, Ana, Justin, Mya, and Kell could have been there with us.

The Lehmitz celebration was equally entertaining. Christmas morning was filled with presents, presents, sweet rolls, and more presents. It took us three hours to open them all! Sterling and Steven looked dashing in their new pajamas. I think I'll have to make a pair for Will next Christmas so he doesn't feel left out.
Santa was good to us as well. We finally got a dvd player so we can watch movies on the tv instead of Will's laptop.

And Will got a drill so he can feel like a real man.
My coveted present was Adobe Creative Suite 4--Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat. Just when all hope dissipated, I opened up the last present. Will definitely spoiled me. Now I just have to re-teach myself how to use them. I'm really excited to create our wedding album!

Overall, Christmas was fantastic. Blizzard conditions persisted Christmas day, and we risked our lives driving to Grandma Sally's to see some more family. Poor Will was white-knuckling it the whole way home. Our car was splattered with ice fragments and we were crawling at 35 miles an hour on the freeway. We were snowed in at the Lehmitz's and got to spend an extra day hanging out with them. Will's extended family spends a lot of time together over the holidays so their house was filled with cousins and aunts and uncles. I enjoyed getting to know them better and spending time with the family.

Oda a Paraguay

2008-12-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

This post is a tribute to Paraguay, the beloved country of my missionary service. I have gotten really nostalgic about it lately since I just finished reading a novel by the paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos called Hijo de Hombre (Son of Man). Also, my cousin David just received his mission call to the Paraguay Asunción North Mission, the same mission that I returned from just over a year and a half ago. I love the country and especially the people. I would go back in a second if could to visit all of my friends there and to show Tiffani that little piece of my life.

Esto es un tributo a Paraguay, el querido pais de mi misión. He pasado mucho nostalgia recien por dos razones. Primero, hace poco terminé de leer un libro por el autor paraguayo Augusto Roa Bastos que se llama Hijo de Hombre. Tambien, mi primo David apenas recibió su llamamiento misional a la misión Paraguay Asunción Norte, la misma misión en que yo serví. Asi que, al va a poder conocer el lugar, la gente, y el idioma que ya conozco. A mi me encantaría volver para que pudiera visitar a todos mis amigos de allí y mostrar a Tiffani esta pedazito inolvidable de mi vida. Para todos mis amigo de Paraguay, les quiero mucho y espero verlos pronto.

THE PEOPLE (LA GENTE)

Elder Hernandez, Inocencia and her children, Ramona and her 4 children, and me, Elder Lehmitz

Me at a little birthday celebration with Gordo, Osvaldo, Jenny, Jasmin and Cintia

The baptism of Benigno and Irma, accompanied by family and neighborhood friends

PLACES (LUGARES)

The LDS temple in Asunción (el templo)

Difficult, not impossible

Some statue along the highway near barrio Molino, Luque, Paraguay

Just in case you get the hankering for some pool in the middle of the jungle

Coco trees, beautiful

Sugar cane! And check out the cool straw hat and Indian bag. La cana, y mira el sombrero piri y la bolsa
This is one of my favorite places in Paraguay; barrio Salado in Limpio. I love those hats too!

WILDLIFE (LOS ANIMALES)

Toucan (although I don't think it's Sam)

Monkey! Don't worry, he's chained up. Don't tell PITA

Parrot

FOOD (COMIDA)

Empanadas--they come in beef, cheese, ham & cheese, corn, chilean, etc. (carne, queso, jamon y queso, chocla y chileno)

CULTURE (CULTURA)

Paraguay, especially in the town of Luque, is known for its hand-crafted guitars and harps. I never say anyone else wear a poncho, but I thought it was cool anyway. The orange and black centerpiece on our kitchen table below is called nanduti, which translated would be something like "spider lace."

This is a bag made by the indigenous peoples. There are actually a ton of different Indian tribes in Paraguay with lots of different languages and dialects. Thes bags are mostly a tourist souvenir; the people don't hardly ever buy them.

These are some more souvenirs from Paraguay. The three cup things in the middle are called guampas and are used to drink the most common beverage of Paraguay, terere and/or mate. Terere is drunk using ice water, whereas mate is made using hot water and mixing it with yerba, which is a combination of dried herbs that when mixed with water, makes a kind of tea. The guy on the right is a figurine made of a wood called palosanto, which is native only to Paraguay. It smells goods too!

This shot includes some bracelet trinkets and the currency of Paraguay. Their money called guaranies are highly inflated and come in sets of 1000 units. The small bill, similar to the U.S. dollar in its usage is the 1000 bill, which is call a mil. They also have 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, and 100,000 guarani bills

This is a brick kiln that they use to cook a special kind of bread called chipa, which is similar to a bagel. I can't remember the exact name they use for the oven though.

In this picture I'm sporting my Paraguayan shirt made of a material called aopoi. They do some pretty cool embroidery with them and come in long and short sleeve in a variety of patterns and colors. I'm also showing off Jorge's Mission Fund. I baptized him the last day of my mission and we still maintain contact. We currently donate $10 a month to help fund his mission, which he plans to serve as soon as possible. If anyone else would like to contribute, just contact me.

Well, that gives you a little glimpse of Paraguay and the wonderful treasures that it has. Hopefully someday we'll return to see more.

New Media and Processes

2008-12-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

While student teaching, I had the opportunity to try out some new processes in art. Ever since I went to the Springville Art Museum last year, I wanted to try doing a collograph. I made two templates, and a bunch of prints. Here is one of my favorites.Although this piece is non-representational, the floating organic forms kind of remind me of outer space. As I was creating it, I kept thinking about the band, Brave Saint Saturn, and their strange, ethereal theme. My favorite thing about collographs is the layers of intricate texture that can be created.

The other piece I created is an oil painting of my Great-Grandma Ruby who recently passed away in September. The painting is a Christmas present for Grandma Sally, Ruby's caregiver and daughter. It's just a copy of a picture of Grandma Ruby in high school, but it was a great starter piece to introduce me to oils. Oils are great because they take longer to dry, so each time I revisited the painting, I could just get it a little wet with turpenoid and pick up where I left off.

Since I used a monochromatic color scheme, painting Grandma Ruby was a great exercise in value. It's funny how our eyes deceive us sometimes. At first, I had some of the shadows way too dark, and then I had to go in and lighten some things up. I really enjoyed working on this piece, but now I want to try something that will challenge my creative abilities by producing a more conceptual piece.

Chocolates, Devil's Garden, and the Slot Canyons

2008-12-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

Last year, Will was introduced to Thanksgiving at the cabin. This year, he reaped the benefits of being one of the family. Instead of sleeping on cots, we got a "married people bed." As part of our new role of grown-up folk, we also assumed some responsibility for the Thanksgiving feast. I was a little ambitious and decided to make orange rolls in addition to crescent rolls. We ran out of flour. Needless to say, bisquick is a great substitute.

After the feast, we embarked on our long-time tradition of making chocolates. Will and I decided our contribution would be the caramel. Unfortunately, we struggled with the "hard-ball stage" to say the least, our caramel turned out to be toffee. Thankfully, Wendy and Torrey, my aunt and uncle, came to our rescue and made some more. We're now enjoying a vast array of chocolates and getting much closer to becoming diabetics.

We got a little cabin fever after Thanksgiving, so in the middle of chocolate-making, we took the kids to Devil's Garden, a vast aray of hoodoos found near Escalante. These are some pictures of the gang.

The kids loved crawling in all the little caves and passages. Contrary to popular belief, I think I will be a cautious mother after all. It's one thing when I go rock-climbing and another thing when little munchkins are scrambling around.

To the right are some hoodoos. (I just really like that "hoodoo" doesn't sound scientific at all.)

And here's a little hoodlum. (She's wearing a hood. . . silly)

The next day, we decided to go to the Slot Canyons with the little Widget. Canyoneering with a two-year-old poses some unique problems. I think Will was more concerned about the dangers of the car ride than the actual expedition. He got a little car-sick from Justin's off-roading.

Kell insisted on wearing the "pack-pack" but could barely walk around with it since it was just about as heavy as he was.

See that little white speck sandwiched between cliffs--that's me!

All in all, Thanksgiving weekend was a grand adventure. It was fun to relax, eat food, be with family, and explore new places around the cabin.

Fear of Failure

2008-12-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

My parents bought us poor folk a Christmas tree this holiday season. I had high aspirations to make a tree skirt, especially after I saw the ridiculous prices of tree skirts on retail. Unfortunately, my fear of failure prevents me from doing so. I don't think it would be that difficult because basically it's a circle, but the task seems overwhelming. Just getting out the sewing machine is a hassle! Designing my tree skirt is even more intimidating because the tree is garnished with gold, but is juxtaposed with natural elements like pinecones and moss balls. I think I will just keep filling up the floor under the tree with presents so observers don't even notice that our tree is naked.
P.S. I have yet to make my own pie crust--that is another fear--my last attempt was in eighth grade foods class.

When does it get hard?

2008-11-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

I feel like we've really stepped up in our blogging efforts these last few hours. In fact, with our third post in one day, we've exponentially increased our output. Instead on once-a-month entries, we now do three-a-dayers.
So, ever since we got married way back in April when we got married, we got all sorts of ominous warnings about the first year of marriage. "If you can get past the first year, you'll be okay." "Yeah, the first year is always the hardest." Blah, blah, blah.... we're still waiting.
The past six months have been the best of our lives and we don't plan on changing soon. Granted, we aren't begging for marital trials either, but so far the recipe for happiness hasn't been extremely difficult to produce. So, based off a suggestion from my one of my favorites of Tiffani's friends, Elise, (yes, she's one of my favorites... she gave me a leather friendship bracelet to show her allegiance to me... so for all of you not mentioned on the favorite friend list, Christmas is coming up...) we concocted a Halloween costume to quiet the critics. We named it. "Marriage: A Pair-a-dice (Paradise)."

And of course, we brought home the prize for best group costume for our meticulously crafted boxes and our flawless performance as we skipped down the aisle and sealed the deal with a kiss at the family Halloween party.
So, while some may feel unlucky or unsatisfied with their rolls, we feel like our dice are stacked for success.

Fall Decorating Skills

2008-11-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

Since we've moved into our little apartment, I have developed this urge to "nest." One night, while Will was watching football, I decided to make fall floral arrangements. I made two as gifts to friends, but then I wanted one for myself as well.

I found an idea online, but mine turned out entirely different. The candle thing was supposed to be with real flowers, which probably aren't as susceptible to fire. Even though the candle isn't really practical, it adds a nice aroma. The arrangements were fun to make, and hopefully they will just increase in quality. Believe it or not, I have had no formal training in flower arranging. My stepmom, Jenifer, is really into that stuff, but I didn't show her my poor attempts because I am afraid of judgment.

Sydney, the Cockatoo, and Other Adventures

2008-11-09T16:29:00.000-08:00

Over UEA weekend, which was around the middle of October, Will and I decided to take off for the weekend and head to Moab. We arrived there Friday night and went to several campsites in search of a spot to lay our heads. The only one that seemed to have vacancies adjoined a trailer park. We went to the manager's office to pay our dues. I was a little confused when he told me I interrupted "Daddy's cuddle time." Since I didn't know how else to respond to this statement, I gave a nervous laugh. I was curious about what sort of creature he was hiding under his blanket. As we were filling out the necessary information, the secret was unveiled. He introduced us to his "daughter," Sydney, the cockatoo. During the next couple of minutes I met the rest of his family--Worthless--the cat, and a dog, whose name I didn't quite catch.

Will and I were relieved to get out of the messy trailer. We found our campsite, which would have been really cute if it wasn't two feet away from some other campers. Underneath the twilight, we set up our two-man tent (compliments of my brother) and settled down to rejuvenate ourselves for the grueling mountain biking that was to happen the next day.

We decided to bike Slickrock because our options were limited since we had to do a loop trail. We felt pretty tough with our hardtail bikes. Everyone else had padding, biker jerseys and full suspension bikes. I didn't want people with expensive gear to show me up, so I attempted the first steep decline. Needless to say, there was sand at the bottom and I flipped over my handlebars. Will, being the sweet husband that he is, didn't laugh, but was very concerned about my well-being. Thankfully, the rest of the ride went much smoother. Although Will and I had to walk our bikes up the steep hills a number of times, I am proud to say that I rarely got off to walk my bike on the downhills. We were exhausted by the end of the ride, but it was totally worth it! Here are some highlights.

Will is going about 25 miles an hour here. His face exhibits the intense concentration he employed while handling technical manuevers down the trail.

Notice how my bottom is hanging over my back tire; it is not perched above the seat. If I would have used this technique earlier, I don't think I would have face-planted.

One mountain bike excursion was enough for one day. After we finished the ride, we headed over to Canyonlands to do a little sight-seeing. Since I was terrible at drinking water while on the trail, I downed about two nalgenes afterward. This did not eliminate my headache; rather, it gave me a full bladder. The visitor's center at the park was under construction, but I noticed some new outhouses and decided to try them out. I was immensely impressed by their fragrance. Overall, it was a pleasurable experience. Other than the outhouses, the highlight of Canyonlands was probably "Upheaval Dome" also known as "The Salt Dome." The name attached to the formation corresponds with the theory. Upheaval Dome theory basically maintains that the huge dome was caused by a meteor. Whereas, the Salt Dome theory states that it was caused by a huge deposit of salt that formed when the ocean was over top of that particular region. When the salt was exposed to the surface, erosion caused a depression to occur. (Don't quote me in this simplified explanation, just enjoy the picture.)

Here I am contemplating the geological phenomenon.

Will should be in a "got milk" commercial.

This was just an amazing view of the White Rim. At one point in time, this land was just a flat surface.

Both Will and I went on separate occassions to Moab last year. Even though we went with friends, it was much more fun going together. We were able to bike, hike, camp, and use all of our cool camping equipment from the wedding. Even though our campsite was less than ideal, it gave me a whole new perspective on cockatoos.

Badger Creek 2008

2008-10-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

For all of you who don't know what Badger Creek is, let me explain. It is the outdoor learning center of BYU-Idaho. Kids and families sign up to use the facilities which include high ropes courses, horseback riding, canoeing, rafting, as well as spiritual instruction from the staff. So, it's similar to EFY, although with more outdoor adventures involved.

This is the dangling duo. You have to climb up a 40 ft. ladder without using the cables on the side. All you can us is your partner.

Our Cozy Little Log Home

We even got our own little cabin in the woods. Of course, like our families love to rehearse, we also lived in a tiny one room cabin with only bunk beds for a week and a half. It was definitely an interesting time, especially for two newlyweds.
But apart from that, Tif and I took full advantage of our time there to work and play. Tif worked as the Program Director for Badger Creek and I got a job with Three Peaks Plumbing, Inc., where I worked mostly in Driggs on the Colter Building.

This is the lovely Colter Building where I spent my summer. Featured in the front is little ol' Debertito, my working compadre.

But, when we weren't working, we were enjoying all of the activities offered by the camp and playing with the staff.

You probably didn't know i was so skilled with wild beasts. I kept him tied up while I was riding just to make sure nobody around me got hurt.

My wife even made me try and tackle my fear of heights. Unfortunately, they still scare me to death, although a feel a lot safer being in a harness.

Anyway, summer was awesome!!

The Cliffs Notes Version of Summer

2008-08-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

Although our summer was incredibly busy with both Will and I working full time, we managed to go on a couple summer adventures. On our first expedition, we set out to bike the course that the participants take for the pioneer trek. What started off as a four-mile ride turned into twenty-four miles of varied terrain, four of which were fraught with snow.

After the grueling climb up the hill we were encouraged by the lush greenery, so we kept going despite some warnings from some ATV enthusiasts.

And we trudged through the snow for two hours, just thinking that it would dissipate around the next bend. Overall, it was an amazing feat and we had sore bottoms and wet shoes to show for it.

Our next major snow adventure occurred over the fourth of July. Will and I decided to embark on his first backpacking trip. We chose a route in the Tetons that would take us by Green Lake. We never made it to the lake because snow disguised the trail.

Well, this whole time we were living in Tetonia, Idaho at the base of the Tetons. We had our own little cabin and were always surrounded by nature and we loved out time at Badger Creek!

It's Better in Boulder

2008-07-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Our first night as a married couple was spent at Yardley Inn, a cute little bed and breakfast right near the Manti temple. Will chose well. The Inn was decorated with antiques and was filled with pioneer heritage. A little, old man greeted us at the door and carried our luggage upstairs. He was very accomodating and it was fun to have a scrumptious breakfast of eggs, pecan waffles, and orange juice served at the great table.

After the reception, we spent the night at Castle Creek Inn, in the Romeo and Juliet Suite, very romantic, but not quite as homey as Yardley Inn. The next day, we took off for an exotic get-away in Southern Utah. Going to my cabin was the perfect honeymoon. We made delicious food, slept in, and went exploring near Boulder. I introduced Will to Capitol Reef National Park, Upper Calf Creek Falls, Chris Lake, and attempted an ascent to Blind Lake. We made the pilgrimmage down to Happy Valley, to look at the old homestead. Much to our dismay, my great-grandmother's home was surrounded by multi-million dollar cabins, but it was still standing. Will and I also learned about the Anasazi Indians when we went to the museum, and we tried out the local cuisine at Hell's Grill, a very organic, expensive restaurant in Boulder.

Capitol Reef

The Old Homestead

Hiking to Blind Lake

The Reception at Le Jardin

2008-07-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well, although this was probably the most expensive party of our lives, we both thoroughly enjoyed our reception. We had it at this greenhouse in Sandy, Utah called Le Jardin. The best part about the place is that almost all the decorations are already incorporated into the surroundings. Tif's step-mom Jenifer did a bang-up job with the other decorations and the food as well.

And, if you thought that the greenhouse was beautiful, you mustn't have stuck around long enough to see the bride, because compared to her, everything else seemed to dim in comparison. No, honestly, look at that picture. I am one lucky man.

Anyway, we both enjoyed our time there greeting friends and family, many of whom we hadn't seen for ages. Thanks to all of you who were able to make it out to celebrate with us. Hopefully you had as much fun as we did enjoying the superb food and exquisite cake.

The Cake--carrot, italian and chocolate, and oh... they were incredibly delicious

It was a happy, fun-filled night. We were glad we could have so many loved ones with us, especially our families who helped pull everything together to make it possible. Hopefully, I'm not overwhelming this post with pictures, but it's just so hard to choose which ones to put on that I just end up choosing a ton of different ones. So here's a just a last few of our favorites.

Will's Family

Tif's Family

The Maid of Honor, Alyssa, and the Best Man, Andrew

Grandma Lehmitz

That's my adorable little cousin, Heidi. Isn't she just a doll.

And then last, of course, they somehow managed to get a copy of my keys in order to trash the car. They even rigged up the electric system so that every time I hit the brakes, a little siren would go off. Luckily they were merciful and called me after a few minutes to let me know how to turn it off.

Having Their Hearts Knit Together in Unity

2008-07-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

After four years of striving to maintain a long-distance relationship, April 29, 2008 came none too soon. Tiffani and I had started dating in the summer of 2004. I lived in Provo and she lived at home in South Jordan. Our relationship was built on instant messaging, phone cards, and weekly visits. Then, I left on my mission in May of 2005. While I was gone in Paraguay for two years, Tiffani was busy preparing her mind and furthering her education at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. It was funny to watch the pattern of letters. We wrote each other faithfully each week for about a year, then the letters started coming every two weeks, once a month, and so on. When I got home I wanted to pick up where we left off, but Tiffani was hard to find with her new job working in the "wilderness" of western Utah with troubled youth. By the time she figured out that she was still interested in pursuing a relationship, we had to go our separate ways once more, Tiffani went back to Rexburg and I returned to Provo. By this time however, cell phones were the hot mode of communication that enabled to have daily contact. We would see each other every few weeks, but that made for long trips and lots of gas money. But, we were determined to be together, and on December 22, 2008, we became engaged. And finally, after four very long months (as those of you who have been engaged know) and lots of planning and preparation, we were sealed together as husband and wife for all eternity in the Manti Utah Temple.

I've never experienced something so fulfilling as the day we were married. And, after being apart for so long it felt so good to finally be together. Being in the temple was wonderful , and being able to share that occasion with our loved ones made it even more special.

Y para todos mis amigos que no entienden el ingles, quiero incluir un parte para ustedes. El día de nuestro sellamiento en el templo fue una experiencia inolvidable. Nunca he estado tan feliz como fui en el momento en que yo y Tiffani fuimos sellados para siempre. Espero que todos puedan experimentar este mismo gozo algun día. Desde el principo, cuando empezamos a salir, nunca estabamos juntos. Asistíamos diferentes universidades, yo fui a la misión, etc., pero ya no nos pueden separar. Me encanta estar con mi esposa cada día. Les quiero mucho.

To Craft an Eternity

2008-06-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

The cat’s cradle, now entangled
Once carefully embossed
Lay quiet in the shadows,
Fortuitously lost.

For once upon a yesteryear
The threads were tightly strung
Through the fingers of a youthful heart,
A heart that had been won.

T’was a vict’ry of patience.
Wisdom gathered in the mind.
Hands freed to weave a pattern,
Leaving all mistakes behind.

All arrogance was vanquished
And selfishness suppressed,
Tamed and tempered to appeasement
By the gentlest caress.

Yet, the game now lay abandoned,
For “t’was but child’s play.”
And as the years march onward
We put childish things away.
But as the string doth wind and weave
And weld two hands to one,
So the circles of our lives
Are not so eas’ly undone.

For what was lost, has now been found;
The dust brushed from its face.
The deft hands restring the cord
To its once familiar place.

The knots are tied with increased care
Gleaned from maturity.
Two hands apart, now interlace—
To craft an eternity.

The Beginning of Us

2008-06-16T20:44:00.001-07:00

This blog is dedicated to my new life with my husband, Will. After four years of knowing one another, we were sealed in the Manti temple on April 29, 2008. For all those that don't know our story, it all began with bloomers, bonnets, and handcarts...

In June of 2004, Will and I became a family. A trek family, that is. We were destined to end up in the same group during our stake pioneer trek, "Remnants of the Past Build Faith in the Future." Both he and I were reluctant to go. Will had just graduated from high school and was a little too cool to be hanging out with the youth. I wanted to spend time up in Montana with my cousins. Fortunately, however, the Lord saw differently. I was called to the stake youth committee and ended up planning the trek. During one of the planning meetings, I jokingly told my friend, Ali, that I was probably going to meet some hot boy in my group and hook up with him.
When I saw that Will was about my age, I decided to strike up a conversation with him. My first impression was that he was stuck up because he gave terse replies. Later on, I just discovered he was extremely shy. After pulling the handcart for ten hours straight, we discovered we had a lot in common. We both went to the same schools growing up, had the same teachers, the same classes, and even some mutual friends. We shared many interests, but had just never really noticed each other or had the opportunity to associate with one another. Come to find out, we even lived in the same ward when we were little.

After pioneer trek, Will started to pursue me and eventually won out against all my other love interests. We dated for about a year before he left on his mission to Paraguay. Shortly thereafter, I went up to college at BYU-Idaho and had many great experiences that shaped my life. I was a dedicated pen-pal to Will, for the first year of his mission. The latter half, I was just too involved in my own life.

When Will got home last summer, I was too reluctant to date him, mostly because I was too scared of what might be. I told him that he needed to date other people and adjust back to a non-missionary lifestyle. At the end of the summer, I came to my senses. We had a long-distance relationship for eight months before we were able to get married.

It seems trite to condense the whole history of our relationship into a couple paragraphs, but it's probably only interesting to a select few anyways. For those few, I hope you enjoy looking at our adventures together.