Our FIRST Anniversary!

I can't believe it's been a year already! We wanted to do something fun for our anniversary and we ended up getting a sweet deal to stay at the Shilo Inn downtown SLC. Ooooh, big city! Nothing like the Kamas Inn here in the sticks. Anyway, we stayed over Saturday night and Sunday night. They had free breakfast, indoor pool (pretty dumpy), cable, a fridge, a microwave, and all of the $1.50 bottles of water you could drink, sprawled across your room.
The highlight of the weekend was actually going to church at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We were hoping it would be the same ward that the prophet attends, but his was later in the day. Bummer. We'd probably run into Miss Strassburg. This ward was fascinating. They had a few young families that all sat in the back, and all the rich old people sat in the front. Clear segregation. Even the 2 lines of deacons: one old, one young. The speakers sounded as if they had come straight out of speaking in conference. The musical number was a soprano from MoTab singing an Italian Christmas carol... in Italian. Needless to say, we were very impressed with the downtown wards.
Later that night, we went and saw the lights at Temple Square. Same old routine with the talking nativity and thousands of people. Those sister missionaries had their work cut out for them.
We had a pretty fun anniversary. I know we won't be able to be so frivolous in the future, but it's nice to able to do this while we can.




They had these floating balls on the reflecting pond that looked really cool. I can't believe this picture even turned out!

What else do Temple Square sister missionaries do? They make excellent photographers. I think that's about ALL they do.

We posed after sacrament meeting in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building lobby!

Let it snow!

I've decided that I still need to keep up with the blog even though I don't have any cool pictures to post. It is finally December and the snow is falling! I'm back at Deer Valley for a while, because my other job at DCM got cut WAY back. I'll probably spend one day a week working on stuff for next summer, but that's all. Bevan and I are just discovering the joys of budgeting with a smaller income.

It's nice being outside again. I forgot how much I missed skiing, especially when ski patrol just opened up some new terrain for the season. I'm meeting all kinds of new friends and catching up with old ones. I bought a new tube of sunscreen and I'm stocking up on toe warmers (best things ever invented!)

Bevan and I are reaching our first anniversary and we both can't believe how fast the time has gone. Seems like yesterday we were planning for the wedding. They say that the first year of marriage is the hardest, but if that's true... then I'd love to see the next 60! It's been so much fun having somebody to hang out with all the time. Road trip buddy, hiking buddy, ski buddy, and carpool buddy. I know that we haven't even been seriously tried yet in our marriage, but we're just enjoying the good times while they last. Long live the newlyweds!

Tales of the Hunt: The Abandoned Wife

Bevan left on Friday with his "masculine" relatives on the infamous deer hunt. Their tags were for south-east Utah (Huntington Canyon / Fairview area). I opted not to go at the last minute because I still had to work. Last year they were up Wolf Creek Pass (very close to the cabin) so I could've easily stayed the weekend, but Emery and Sanpete Counties were just too far. Bevan's last day on the saw crew at Deer Valley was on Thursday, right in the nick of time. He's been gone now for several days and I don't know when he'll be back. The hunt in general ends Wednesday, so that's some sort of deadline. I really don't know what to do with myself. So, this weekend I went to my parents house and hung out with my brother Paul. We went to the BYU game in the snow on Saturday and had a blast.
I hurried back to the cabin Sunday morning in time for church, only to find out it was stake conference. Tom, Kim, and the kids aren't back yet either, so I've had to entertain myself alone at the cabin, grateful that I did not spend the entire weekend here. I walked the loop this afternoon, scoping the hunting situation. I was kind of disappointed. No echoing gun shots, no big game strapped on 4-wheelers, no groups of orange vests camping out. I saw 2 jeeps (a little ways away from each other) with men inside just sitting. Just sitting? Do they wait for the deer to come to them? Sure they were overlooking the wilderness up by the Doctor's cabin, but is that the essence of deer hunting? I also wanted to tell them that I just saw several bucks on the hillside behind the cabin, right in the middle of all that private property. The deer aren't stupid. The back country is the LAST place they want to hang out this weekend. The deer are all roaming around the neighborhoods instead.

Exciting News!

This is the moment I've been waiting for for the last 6 months, and it has been confirmed today...

no I'm not pregnant.

I passed the first half of my L.A.R.E. (landscape architectural registration exam). The picture is us celebrating at the Spring Chicken Inn Cafe in Wanship. It took 4 hours to get through to the scores because the website was bombarded with young bucks anxious for their scores as well. They should just send you an email with your scores on it, but instead they send you an email saying how to get them instead and print them out yourself. It was nuts. Anyway, now all that is left to do is to study for the next (and harder) portion in December. This is when they give you several sheets of paper and tell you to design something. Basically to test you knowledge of "accessibility" meaning ramps, handrails, retard parking, sidewalk widths (so two people in wheelchairs can pass eachother with ease), how big letters have to be on signs, etc. etc. etc. Sad thing is that they don't make you do any planting design, which is the fun part. We'll see how good my crammin' skills are. Won't find out about being a "legit" landscape architect until sometime in February. We should have some awesome snow this winter for skiing... because I'll be stuck inside all winter studying. Blah.

First Snow of the Year!

Winter is finally at our doorstep. The locals are anxious about the snow coming so their businesses will start booming. They're also looking for Deer Valley employees that are willing to share some passes. At the landscaping company I work at, we're picking up the pace so we can get all our jobs finished before winter. After Thanksgiving, I'll stay on for 2 days a week at the office, designing and bidding for next year. The rest of the week I'll be at Deer Valley working along side my husband, Bevan. It's nice to be able to keep up the ski benefits. Here is a picture of a beautiful view from my office. I wish my camera could capture the view of all 3 ski resorts, but The Canyons will have to do.

Here at the cabin, we're prepping for the cold weather to come. We're able to get free firewood from Deer Valley, thanks to Bevan and his "saw crew" comrads. My boss, Dave, lets me borrow the dually truck that can hold up to 4 tons. We tow the wood spliter into the resort and find the piles of "bucked up" wood that Bevan has prepared. A full dually can add probably 3 rows of wood at the cabin. This is good wood too! This is the stuff you pay $4 for at a gas station for only like 6 pieces. Not just scraps and bark. Now that we have all this wood, it'll be the mildest winter in 20 years.

The only way to advertise!

I see a lot of hot air balloons on my way to work, but this one kinda caught my eye!

Do successful couples get a free ride?

House sitting!

Bevan and I had a fun time house sitting for my boss and his wife, while they were out of town. They have 4 Labrador dogs that just love to be played with. They especially love Bevan. I've been around them for months while Bevan has only seen them twice, but because he is the one who plays with them, they totally favor him! They are very well trained bird-hunting dogs that can play fetch for hours!

Instead of stocking the fridge, my boss' wife just gave us a couple generous gift cards to eat in Park City. It was an interesting experience being a part of the Park City social life. We were stuck in traffic with nothing but bumper-to-bumper Audis trying to get to the "brewery". Our waiter didn't notice we were there for several minutes, but he was very apologetic and offered to buy us beers with our meal. Beers? First time that's happened. As we left, I saw an add for children's Yoga. Is that the most efficient way to release their energy? To top it off, we went to Bevan's softball game at the city park, where there were more dogs than children. It made me appreciate my simple life here in Woodland.

Backpacking with the Hawkins!

It used to be a tradition in the Hawkins family that once a year all the men would ditch their wives and kids, wander into the woods, and "fish" for 3 days. I had a hard time believing that any one man could do nothing but fish for 3 days straight. I had to investigate. For this years trip, I invited myself along with "the men". His sister tried to talk me out of it by saying, "Wouldn't like to go shopping instead?" Humm, tough choice.

We left on a Thursday afternoon after Bevan and I got off work. Since we were heading up Wolf Creek Pass, we met Lloyd (his father) and Bryan (his brother) at the cabin. We drove up to Grandview trail head and started off for the Grandaddy Basin in the High Uinta Wilderness. Instead of going into a travel log I thought I would just write specific unique observations from my backpacking experience with "the men."

#1 Men eat WELL in the wilderness. It's not about suffering with bagels, instant oatmeal, and granola bars. They packed in 2 dozen eggs, 1 pound of bacon, pancake mix, syrup, hamburgers + buns, hot dogs + buns, turkey, peanut butter, jelly, 2 loaves of bread, spaghetti and meat sauce, dried mashed potatoes, soup, candy, muffins, and sandwich cookies. We contributed bagels, apples, chopped cantaloupe, candy bars, and granola bars. I thought we'd be living off the lake, like in the old Parent Trap, eating trout for every meal. I think I gained weight on this wilderness trip.

#2 Men really do fish the WHOLE TIME! They wake up at 5:30, fish until breakfast, go back out, fish until lunch, take a nap, fish until dinner, and fish until it gets too dark to see. I wanted to go exploring or something, but the only time we would go hiking was to get to another lake so they could fish some more!

#3 Men don't tell other men where the good fishing is. The lake we camped at the whole time was called Marsell Lake. There's no trail going to it. You need either an excellent sense of direction and a map or a GPS unit. Bryan had the latter. We were the only people at that lake for 3 days. There were sooooo many fish in it! I mean, hundreds and hundreds. Lloyd said that the fish won't get any bigger until many of them are caught. We passed a man and his son on our way out. Lloyd and Bryan rambled off the condition of every single lake we visited EXCEPT Marsell. We'll probably never see this lake again. These men could probably not even find this lake even if they tried to. So what's the harm of telling these two guys? Men have this fear that the sweet spot will get spoiled. The fish will be gone, and never restocked. All experiences will be sub-par from here on out. I, on the other hand, just wanted to be helpful.

The trip ended up being really fun. We ended up catching and eating our own fish. The hike out didn't take as long as I thought (always glad when that happens). I can't wait until next year!

Pioneer Day NOT observed in Park City?!

When I was a kid, I remembered the 24th of July to be just as big as the 4th of July. There were parades, fireworks, rodeos, etc. It's typically celebrated in every city in Utah because, you know, it's a state holiday. In Summit County, it's observed widely. Heber and Kamas both have big shindigs and demolition derbys. What confuses me is the attitude in Park City. The only businesses that observe it are banks and city offices. Nobody else blinks an eye to it. Occasionally some person will complain that their gym chose to observe the holiday by shutting down for the day. This friend I know who moved to Park City said that people in Park City don't care because most of them aren't from Utah. She's been here for 10 years! When do "outsiders" start to observe state holidays? Or is it because it originated from the want of religious freedom for a particular religion? I don't know. I think I'm just disgruntled because I had to work today. Any thoughts?

What month is it?!

Who can believe this weather?! Snow for the last two days?! Isn't it June? Gotta love Summit County. We got home from work yesterday finding the power was out in the cabin. It was out for most of the evening. I was excited to light candles and not to have the Internet or TV working for once. We started a fire, roasted hot dogs and heated up some chili on top of the stove. It works just as fast as a regular stove! We taught Tom how to play Cities and Knights of Catan, which took up most of the early evening. We just got into it when the power came back on. Luckily the Bevan and Tom wanted to keep playing. That game is addictive! As a kid, it was always thrilling to have the power out, like being pioneers or something, but now, I still get that excitement, but am always glad when the lights come on again. Oh, by the way, that picture is the truck that I usually drive at work. I guess we're making up for the spring we never had.

Clumsy Wildlife!

Have you ever wondered if animals are just plain clumsy when no one is watching? Tom said that he saw a deer running when it suddenly tripped, tumbled a little, got up and kept running. My boss and I were driving around Deer Crest the other day, visiting a job site. If anybody doesn't know about Deer Crest... it's an engineering miracle. There are so many retaining walls and concrete buttresses holding up these plots of land covered with McMansions and private ski runs. The ski runs aren't that exciting, except for the thrill of knowing your not supposed to be on them. Anyway, there was a small moose trying to get up a steep embankment that had been cut away with construction of the road. It kept falling and falling, but it would keep getting up and trying to get over the embankment. All these people, mostly construction workers (they're the only permanent residence you actually SEE in Deer Crest), stopped to watch this funny site. After a while the moose gave up and just went around the embankment. Since it was a "teenage moose" and thought it knew everything, it really wanted to get up over this cliff, but fearing the teasing from his friends, decided to step down gracefully. Just another example of the miracle and beauty of nature.

Memorial Day in Mona

Like any other holiday we've split it up between families. I am so blessed to have my parents AND my inlaws so close to me and Bevan. We can always do a little with both families. Saturday, we drove down to American Fork, met up with Bevan's parents and embarked on the "Tour de cemeteries"! We started in Provo and visited Lloyd's parents grave. Then off to Mona to visit Beverly's kin. I say "kin" because she's descended from the family that settled Mona. She said that they were related to about roughly 90% of the cemetery. Gotta love small towns!

It was a small cemetery. We found the headstones within seconds. I reflected back to my childhood wandering the Salt Lake City Cemetery for hours trying to find our ancestors headstones. I kept walking the Mona Cemetery for a while reading the headstones and trying to find the pioneers. Bevan was in the car listening to the Jazz game. I found the several of the town's founders. What a neat experience.

We spent some time with Bevan's only living grandparent: Grandpa Ray. He still lives in the same house he built to raise his kids in. He owns two cars and a tractor, drives them regularly, and is almost 92 years old! What a character.

We spent Sunday and Monday with my family. The biggest event was the BBQ on Sunday afternoon. I finally got to cook up those ribs that we've had frozen for 3 months. They were a hit! Big meals are always followed with games with Nora, James, Paul, and whoever else. The next day, we went with James, Addie, and Ben to the Kamas Fitness Center Pool! So much fun! The huge water slide was worth the 5 bucks admission easily. Highly recommend it to anyone!

It's sad when weekends are over and you find yourself back at work, ready for another weekend. The Jazz lost again for the last time this season. I'm sorta relieved. The NBA has such a long season! As if 80 games weren't enough, the post season can stretch on for months. It makes me appreciate football more. I can't believe I just said that! Am I now partial to football?! Is Bevan wearing off on me?

Southern Utah Roadtrip

Southern Utah Appreciation Roadtrip

I don't know how to give an accurate account of our southern Utah adventure without making this post 10 pages long. I'll shorten it as much as possible. Feel free to follow along with a road map of Utah!

Friday: I met Bevan in Heber and took off from there. We wanted to get food in Utah Valley since it was cheaper. I took pains searching the food ads for the best deals so I could price-match, but Walmart ended up having everything cheaper anyway. We drove to the San Rafael Swell in Emery County and camped on the rim of "The Wedge". I was surprised how good those dirt roads are! Better than any National Monument or Park we ever visited.

Saturday: We found the dinosaur footprint, saw some new petroglyphs, and tried to make it to Little Wildhorse Canyon. We ended up hiking it during the hottest part of the day. We did this so we could see Goblin Valley in the evening. So pretty! Camped in a slot canyon by Wild Horse Butte.

Sunday: Made it to church in Hanksville and had a great time. The nice ladies in the materials center let me leave my laptop in there to get charged. Gotta have something to watch movies on! We were then off to Capitol Reef! We just sight-seed and followed Dave Michelson's rule: "If you don't break a sweat, then you're not breaking the sabbath". We "mossied" on our "strolls" throughout the park and ended up camping at this sweet spot north of Boulder in the mountains.

Monday: Started off the day hiking Upper Calf Creek Falls in Escalante. We waited to do the lower falls (the longer one) during the hottest part of the day, again. Beautiful waterfall, though! We continued down highway 12 towards Bryce Canyon. We camped that night in Kodachrome Basin State Park. Not much to see, but they had the nicest bathrooms in any campground EVER! Totally worth the $15. Did I mention that the nice, hot showers were free?!

Tuesday: We "did" Bryce Canyon that morning and were anxious to get to Panguich and Ceder Breaks. Major detour because highway 148 was still closed because of snow. Who knew there was still snow at 10,400 ft. So we went down by Brian Head, Parowan, and Ceder City and camped halfway between Ceder City and Kolob Canyon on some dirt road in the hills.

Wednesday: Not a good idea to visit Kolob Canyon for sunrise. The sun comes right up over the mountain so you can't see much. We headed on to the main part of Zion and decided to shove all the hikes we had planned into the next 5 hours! We did Upper Emerald Pools, the Narrows (up past Orderville Canyon) and Angel's Landing all before sunset. We were tired and delirious from hunger by the end. We crashed in South Campground and slept for 10 hours.

Thursday: Zion Nat'l Park is the only place I've visited that ALL the hikes seem longer than they are. Why is that? We did the short Watchman hike and discussed our next stop. We were planning on the North Rim, but decided to follow Highway 89 to Lake Powell and camp at Lone Rock. Best decision ever. We had a blast with some new friends camping next to us. A Navajo man taught Bevan how to catch fish in the lake and his girlfriend just couldn't stop telling stories. It was so much fun!

Friday: When camping in Arizona, beware! The sun rises at like 5:30 AM! The sun was blazin' in our tent and I thought it was time to get up. Huh? We went swimming again and I "blew out my flip flops" (according to Jimmy Buffett) so we went into Page to get some new ones. Then off to the South Rim! There was a rehearsal dinner BBQ at the Thunderbird Lodge. We got totally stuffed and decided to take the shuttle back to the campground. When the bus dropped us off and drove away, we were left in pitch black! It's like we got locked in a closet. Couldn't see the road, the trail, the trees, etc. We stumbled around feeling our way to our site, waiting for a car to drive by so we could see for 15 seconds! Next time bring a flashlight.

Saturday: The wedding was beautiful! The ceremony almost gave me acrophobia! We all thought the photographer was going to tumble over the canyon, trying to get his perfect shots. After a wonderful dinner and reception, we decided to drive back to the cabin. The south rim was a little too crowded for us, and it wasn't even the busy season!

The road trip was a total blast, but we were glad to be home!

Graduation!

I'm typing this a little behind. Graduation was on May 5th. Of course it was raining/snowing, like all graduations have been up in Logan. Mom and dad had to split up for the day because Paul was graduating the same day. Dad rode up with the Hawkins, who ended up bringing Bevan's brother, Bryan and his Grandpa, Ray as well. Luckily, the graduation was not as long as it has been in the past. They've gone back to individual college graduations. Whew! It was only an hour and half. Me and the other girls in the program were all sitting together (all 3 of us!) and couldn't be more rowdy. Our attention span was short as always. Good times with Hayden and Krista!

After graduation, the Hawkins had to get Grandpa Ray back home, so Dad rode with us (after a stop at Aggie Icecream!) It was the only time EVER that the attendents at that place were quick. Whenever I was in a hurry to get a project done, they would take 10 minutes to make a sandwich. Now that I'm graduated, and I'll probably never eat there again, they had my ice cream in 20 seconds! Figures. I should be grateful. If it weren't for Aggie Ice Cream kiddy corner from our building, all of the Landscape Architecture students would starve!

With my degree in hand, I was ready to pound the pavement seeking gainful empoyment! Thankfully, no pounding was necessary since the perfect job fell into my lap about 2 weeks earlier. Lucked out on that one. It's a landscaping business and we do mostly high-end residential in Park City. I get to design landscapes and water features for mansions and condos. Lots of opportunity in Park City since the latest "housing crash" hasn't even touched Park City and probably won't. Some say it's degrading for a Landscape Architect to stoop to private residential design without benefitting the public good. To that I say, I love my job! Besides, the money is a whole lot better that I would ever get paid designing plazas and parking lots. Bring on the affluent second-home owners!

Gettin' on the bandwagon!

Bevan and I have decided to get with the program and create a blog of our adventures and other everyday things that happen. We're starting with a brief history:
We met at Deer Valley Resort during the winter of 2004-2005. He was my supervisor a couple days out of the week. He finally asked me out towards the end of the season and it's all history after that! He had to put up with my commitments for summer jobs and semesters left at Utah State. We finally got engaged in August and married this last December. We're living in Woodland right now in my parent's cabin. I've never permanently lived in the "great outdoors" but this is somthing I could get used to! Bevan loves to spotlight the deer and I just enjoy the hike to the mailbox. We always love spending time together, but we have been talking about reaching out and making some "friends". Ya know, to play games with and stuff. But for now, we're focusing on graduation and planning out our summer. We wish the best for our families. Congrats Nora on your announcement, and also Trisha! We're so happy for you!