Nativities

This is our first Christmas as a married couple. It has been fun decorating our apartment with some of the nativities that we have collected and have been given. We also went to see the lights around Temple Square. Surprisingly, we haven't ever gone together to see them before. 

Willow Tree Nativity

 Peruvian Nativity

Mexico Nativity

Mesa Verde Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Adam's extended family in St. George. Adam's aunt Shell and her husband have developed the best system for cooking a turkey. They wrapped the turkey in bacon and cooked it underground. It was so good people were picking off pieces as soon as it came out. The taste was worth burning fingers.

The turkey coming out of the pit where it was cooked.

Here's an example of what it looked like. The bacon off ours was eaten too quickly for any photos.

Friday morning we headed off to camp in Mesa Verde, Colorado with Sam and his girlfriend Carina. It was a 6 hour drive, but the scenery was beautiful. We stopped at Four Corners to be able to stand in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona at the same time. It was cool to see the monument, though we felt robbed when they charged 5 dollars a person just to see the plaque.

Just one example of the beautiful scenery.

Adam and I have been wanting to go camping for a while. Since we have spent the last two summers out of the country we haven't ever been camping together. It's been over two years for both of us. It was fun to make hobo dinners and roast marshmallows. The downside was how cold it got at night.

On Saturday morning, we toured Mesa Verde National Park with the Anasazi cave dwellings. Most of the sites we went to were 90 percent original with very mild restoration work. There are over 600 cliff dwellings in the park, as well the remains of Mesa Top dwellings that pre-date the cave dwellings.

The Spruce Tree House: they believe it was a home site for 60 to 90 individuals. 

The Cliff Palace--home for the royalty

The Sunset House

The Spruce Tree House allows for self-guided tours while others are more restricted.

This is an entrance to a religious kiva. The wood and stone are original. They are still used by the Hopi Indians as religious site.

The inside of a kiva. The pit is used to house a fire.

How We Met

Adam and I met at a party in a cabin in Sundance two years ago this month. That's what I normally tell people while Adam enjoys telling the following details of how we met:

I was at the cabin party with my friend Brooke. The owner of the cabin, Brother Clive, was Adam's Seminary teacher. He came up and told Brooke that she should marry Adam because he was the best guy she would ever meet. He then turned to me and asked "are we cool?" because he thought I was jealous. I responded with "yes why wouldn't we be?" Brother Clive then said "you seemed jealous because I offered Adam to Brooke and not to you, but hey this is America you can fight each other for him." To which, I replied sarcastically "I would love to wrestle for him." We all laughed and Brother Clive walked away.

We continued talking, little did we know that Brother Clive was in the next room making space for a wrestling match. We were deciding to leave, when Brother Clive announced that we would be having a wrestling match. He then dragged me and Brooke into the center of the room and we had to wrestle for Adam.

Here's a picture sense I can't seem to get the video off Facebook.

Favorite Holiday

A friend recently reminded me that Halloween  and Day of the Dead used to be my favorite holidays. I do love how you can celebrate Halloween all month long. We have been pretty busy this month and didn't do anything to celebrate until this last week. We went to a costume party with Adam's cousins the day before Halloween and another with some of our friends on Halloween.

Since I already had a blue dress from our costume last year, I just made some ruby slippers from shoes we found at DI to be Dorthy. Adam loved how little he had to do to be the Cowardly Lion. Maybe I can use the dress again to be Alice in Wonderland next year haha.

Dorthy and the Cowardly Lion for this year.

Last year's costume, Belle and Gaston since Beast was much harder to pull off.

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We also have been working on changing our Room of Requirement into an office. For those you have seen our second bedroom, it was full of any and everything you could ever need hence the name Room of Requirement.

Saint George Adventure

This last weekend we spent some time with Adam's extended family down in Saint George.  His Grandpa had set up quite an ATV adventure with their old Sunday school teacher.  It was incredible and a lot of fun.  I'm not sure exactly where we were, but we went up on a ridge and Joe (the guide) showed us that we could see Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. The trail involved 21 river crossings, a slot canyon, and some dinosaur tracks.

Here are some pictures and videos.

Here we are nice and clean before we left.

The convoy getting ready to roll out.

Poppy with his grandchildren.

We joked a lot about how it looked like we were driving around at the end of the world. 

One of many dinosaur tracks.

Here are some from the slot canyon:

The best part was driving through the river:

Here's some videos, sorry for the quality.

Fall

Adam and I went hiking up Provo Canyon yesterday and drove the Alpine Loop today. Fall is so beautiful--if only it could last until spring. I would be so happy if we could skip past winter.

The Provo Temple is also beautiful in the fall.I work right across the street and love how often I get to see the temple. I flexed time this week so Adam and I could go to the temple during the day. I really enjoy being able to do that. We also did the same to be able to play tennis for the first time in over 6 months.

This district is piloting new language programs and I meet with them each week.

We also saw Meet the Mormons.The stories of service are very inspiration. My favorite quote is by the humanitarian from Nepal who says "I am far from perfection, but I am perfect at trying." 

General Conference

General Conference weekend always provides the opportunity to hear inspiring messages, receive revelation, and to spend time with friends and family. The older I get, the more I appreciate and learn from Conference. I love the opportunity to hear from the Prophet and the Apostles and to receive answers to my questions and divine inspiration. It was a great way to recharge after a the stress of this last month. Here are some of my favorite quotes from Conference:

We recently attended our mission reunions. I was able to meet Brother and Sister Hansen, Adam's mission president and his wife. They are going to serve in Lima, Peru and are very great examples of being willing to serve how, when, and where the Lord requires. We also were able to attend the wedding of one of the Adam's friends from his mission. Spencer and Emily looked wonderful and so happy. Luckily, there were no passport issues like the when we were getting married :)

We attended the Panama Mission Reunion too. I knew those who had served with me, but not that many others. Surprisingly, Adam knew more people since he knew a lot of the more recently returned missionaries since they had served with his father. I felt really old since someone I had taught when I was a Spanish teacher at the MTC has already returned from his mission. Yeah, I'm that old haha and back at the MTC. I am doing research and evaluation of their language and technology programs.

Saturday we went up to Kaysvilles to watch conference with the Hardys.  They were in Adam's ward growing up and good family friends.  It was cute that their youngest daughter Madison knows exactly how many days Danielle, their oldest daughter, has been on her mission.

Top of Utah

Adam and I went to Logan this week for the Top of Utah marathon. It's been my goal to run a marathon for almost three years. Three years ago in November, I got hit by a car while on a crosswalk and tore my ACL and MCL. During the recovery process, I decided that I want to do something I had never done before--something that I hadn't been able to do before the accident. I had never run more than a 5k so I decided to train for a marathon. The goal took longer than I thought it would due to graduate school.

I knew a marathon would be difficult, but I did not realize how mentally difficult it would be. I thought it wouldn't be much harder than running two half marathons. The first 14 miles were down the Logan canyon and were not that hard. I started feeling sick and was wondering if I could even finish. Luckily, Adam met me at mile 17 to encourage me. Adam, Chase, and Brooke met me at several other times throughout the race. The spectators cheering for the runners really helped too. I don't think I could have done it on my own. The last 9 miles of the race were really difficult, but I finished. I did not get the time I was hoping for, but I made it :)

The marathon really related a lot to life. Some parts were so difficult that I was only able to keep going with the help and support of others. Along the course, I noticed other runners having a hard time as well. Focusing on them, made running the marathon more meaningful and easier for me. In the end it didn't matter if I took longer than other runners or that I had some problems along the trail, it only mattered that I made it to the end.

Home Again

We have been in Provo long enough that it has become home. It's so nice to be back in our apartment and back home. Belize never really felt like home, more like we were long term tourists. We knew we would only be there for four months and we lived out of suitcases the whole time. We went to visit Oregon on our way back to Utah after Belize to see my family. We were still living out of a suitcase so it felt like a vacation. When I first left home, I never thought that Oregon would cease to be considered home, but now Utah feels like our "real" home.

My brothers and sister were visiting my parents when we went so we were all together. Adam went to his first State Fair and of course tried various fried foods. We also hiked around North Fork River. It's changed so much since I used to go there in high school. The road has been paved up to the trail head so the trip was much easier than usual. The water was much colder than I remember. Belize might have ruined me.

We hiked to this remote swimming area. It was beautiful and very cold due to the shade.

It's been very busy since we got back to Utah. Adam taking his last class and I started working at the World Trade Center Utah. It's been tiring enough that I fell asleep on the train and didn't wake up even after we arrived in Provo. Luckily, someone work me up so I didn't end up back in Salt Lake City where I started.

Adam and I are adjusting to spending way more time apart than we are used to. Since we got married 6 months ago, we were both students and then both working the same job in Belize. Some couples don't spend that much time together until they serve a mission together. We have already spent that much time together so adjusting to real life has been hard. 

We have also enjoyed having a temple so close. We made it back in time for the Ogden Temple Open House. The temple was so beautiful. and peaceful.