Hiking Mount Timpanogos via Timpoonoeke

Since we're hiking Grand Canyon rim to rim in October, we want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to hike Mount Timpanogos before hand since it's a good, long, steep hike. So when Kassie couldn't make it a couple of weeks ago when we hike Mt Timp, I told her to let me know when she could do it and I'd go with her. Then when Elisabeth came home, we invited her to join us for Grand Canyon as long as she could do Mount Timpanogos first, so the three of us went together on Memorial Day.  We started hiking around 530am. We used our headlamps for the first hour of hiking. Kassie's goal was to finish in 9 hours, and we ended up finishing in 9.5 hours which was pretty close! 

It was fun to spend the day together with these girls, moving our bodies outside among God's beautiful creations! 

Timpooneke trail is 14.2 miles and has an elevation gain of 4,471 feet. I would love to do this trail again sometime soon and trail run down a lot of it. 

The saddle to the summit is my least favorite part as it gets a little scary if you don't like heights, which I don't. I ran into several people I knew along the trail: Laura who I've done GC with, Sarene who I knew in CO (we were in a singing group together), the Drakes and Janelle from the neighborhood (I knew they were going, but they started earlier), and my cousin's son and his wife Parker and Madi who are in this picture at the saddle, so pooped after their climb :). We made it to the summit! Kassie joined us about 20 minutes later, but she made it! We ate lunch here. Here's the food I packed: 2 mini bagels, pb, waffle stinger, fruit snacks, salted peanut roll (which I shared), protein granola bar (gomacro...it's not melty) and some energy jelly beans. 

There aren't any toilets/bathrooms along this 14 mile trail, and on the way back, I had to go. Elisabeth kept guard while we used nature's bathroom(found a spot behind a tree). I used my Venus to Mars again (like a she-wi) and was successful! There were SO many people on the trail on Labor Day! So many! BYU kids had just gotten in town to start the Fall semester and I'm sure that was part of it. On the way back down, Kassie fell and cut her elbow pretty good on a rock. We had first aid stuff so I helped her clean it up and bandaged it, but it was pretty deep, so we changed bandaids after awhile and then once she got home she went to urgent care and they put in a few stitches. Kassie packed protein drinks in a cooler which we enjoyed on the way home, and I also had my turkey stick on the way home. I like these Chomps sticks and plan to bring one to GC too. I'll probably bring everything I brought on this hike, to GC. 

Back to School, Funeral Luncheon, Speaking in Stake Conference Leadership Session, Elisabeth home temporarily

Tuesday August 20th was the girls first day of school. We no longer have any children at the elementary. Although I don't love that the kids are getting older and moving out, I can't tell you how happy I am to not have to do the elementary carpool anymore! Now all I have is the jr high carpool and it's wonderful. 

Jane was in the beginning of year high school assembly and I was able to go watch one morning. 

I ran out when she finished her routine to give her a hug before I took off for work. I'm a walk-to-read aide again this year. I enjoy seeing the kids progress in their reading. 

We've been home all summer and Penny's been off leash alot more, and this week when I went back to work and the kids back to school, I came home a couple of days and found the mudroom area where we leash Penny while we're gone, looking like this. 

She somehow pulled her kennel out that she's leashed to, and then pulled over 3 stools and a dining room chair so that they're all in a pile and then she couldn't move very far anymore because she was stuck there with her leash attached. I think she just was anxious with all of us gone and wasnt sure what to do. 

We had another member of our ward/neighborhood pass away recently; this is the 4th this summer. Sheryl was unavailable to do this funeral luncheon so it was a good thing I made her let me tag along during the last luncheon preparation so I could see how she did everything and what she got etc. so that I could pull it off this time. The same day of the funeral luncheon was also the day of our stake conference and I had been asked to speak at the 4pm leadership session. So it was a bit of a busy weekend but it all worked out. As we were setting up for the luncheon on Friday night, Scott got a call from our stake president saying that Elisabeth would be coming home monday. She was safe and well. He asked if we could jump on a zoom call that night with her and the mission president along with himself. So at 9pm we were able to visit with her and the president. It was a good conversation and I know this is the best for her right now. She'll be home for a couple of months and then she'll be able to head back out for Ecuador and finish the last 4-5 months of her mission.  

I spoke on ministering; ministering in the savior's way and how we can include our youth in ministering and especially those getting ready to serve missions. 

I used a few slides and we went to the scriptures and found all sorts of examples of the Savior ministering when he was here and learned from him. He observed, listened and discerned (a phrase Elder Bednar used multiple times when he came to do a training with us last year). 

President Bradshaw with Hermana Smith at the airport in Ecuador. 

We were so happy to see her and gave her long hugs. 

Her besties Emma and Alyssa joined us at the airport. 

She brought home some treats and souvenirs for the family. 

I loved seeing her shoes. Brand new when we sent her out there and now they're so worn! She did a great work for the Lord in those shoes over these past 14 months.  

This week we went to the adult education center where we learned about service opportunities there with spanish speaking immigrants (she wants to keep up her spanish), she came to work with me one day and helped, she went to soccer practice with scott and nora, and she went with me to a woman's house in our neighborhood that we helped pack up for her move. So a week filled with family and service. We're waiting on her phone to arrive still so she currently doesn't have a phone number but is just using an old phone with wifi and texting through email. It'll all work out. Scott and I went to the temple one night this week to do initiatory and the girls all came with and studied outside the temple and took some pictures (Charles was in Lake Powell with a friend). 

 

Hiking Mount Timpanogos

Saturday August 17th, a group of us (neighbors mostly, who will be hiking Grand Canyon together next month) hiked Mt Timponogos. We took the Aspen Grove trail because Timpoonoke now requires a permit and they only give out so many and we were not lucky enough to get one. I will be hiking Timpoonoke on Labor Day (tomorrow) so then I can compare the two since I'll have hiked them just a few weeks apart. So far, I know Aspen Grove had a large rockfield that we had to hike over for probably 15 -20 minutes, which was hard because of balance and having to slow down.  I don't remember Timponooke having a large rock field to cross when I hiked it a few years ago.  

Mount Timpanogos via Aspen Grove is 14 miles with 4,901 feet of elevation gain(Timpooneke is 14.2 miles and 4,471 ft elevation gain). We finished in 8 hours and 55 minutes which was a little longer than we'd hoped, but we also didn't expect the rain/thunderstorm that hit us about 2.5 hours before we finished the hike. It poured on us for about an hour. The trail got all muddy and that slowed us down a bit. 

One thing I loved about the Aspen Grove trail were all the little waterfalls throughout! So beautiful! And it'd be a great place to stop and fill up a filtered water bottle if you ran out of water. 

As we climbed, I thought about climbing mountains and how there's a great gospel/life application there.  We all have mountains to climb in our lives, some we climb because we choose to, and other mountains just happen to come along our way. Sometimes those mountains are really big and steep where we find ourselves in pain (calves burning) and discomfort (heavy breathing) and we might wonder why we're climbing this mountain and how much longer the climb will continue. Hopefully we learn to pray for strength as we climb, and as we do, we always get it. We don't ever have to climb alone. But sometimes we forget and we try to do it alone and it feels even harder. And then we get to the top. We made the climb and we look back down along the trail and realize how far we've come. We did that. We made it through. We will be stronger for it (our calves/back/quads everything). The way back down feels easier, even though we still have miles to go. 

The next time we climb we have those experiences to fall back on. We remember that we prayed for help and got it and so we do it again, and hopefully sooner this time(' not slow to remember the Lord their God in this their time of affliction'-Alma 55:31). Hopefully our prayers began before we even started our next climb. Our capacity increases as we climb more and more mountains, although it never gets easy, and eventually we're able to give enouragement and strength to those who climb beside us, just as Christ did, and continues to do for us. 

There's a shed at the summit. We stopped there for a few minutes to rest before heading back down. 

There was still a little bit of snow, but not much at all. We walked through snow for maybe a minute or two. On the way back down it started to pour! And the thunder was SO loud, it sounded like a huge crack! 11 year old Gavin and I were trailrunning part of the down, and when the thunder began, he turned around to look at me and waited for me to get to him. I think he was alittle concerned. I just said we should probably keep moving, although if he wanted to wait for our group to catch up, we could. We kept going for awhile and then we took a break from pouring rain under the shelter of a tree and decided to wait there for them. We probably waited about 15 minutes before they caught up. We did this a few times during our jog down. And then the last couple of miles we stayed with the group. During the last hour, the rain stopped and the skies cleared. Even though we got poured on, it was still so much fun. It made it more of an adventure to remember. 

 

Suttons, Bear Lake, Cheering for football season

Krissy and Wade and their family came to visit us from North Carolina from August 11-15. We had so much fun spending time with them. And everyone wanted to hold baby Bailey. We went to Wardle field park to play. Some of us went for a hike in Yellowfork canyon. Thursday we drove to Bear Lake and stayed the night. 

We set up our shade, brought our two paddle boards and rented a Sea Doo (jet ski) for a couple of hours. 

We ate out for dinner and got shakes since Bear Lake is known for their shakes. They took off for Idaho to visit friends Friday morning and we took off for home. Except we woke up to a flat tire. So we put on the flat spare, drove to the closest gas station that had air and filled it up, and then drove very slowly (because otherwise the car would shake) to the closest car repair shop which took us about half hour to get there. They were able to repair the tire within an hour which we were so grateful for! And then we drove home, through wyoming this time since it was closer. 

And we made it home in time for Nora to go work at Usana with Megan and for Jane to get to her football game on time that she was cheering at. The first football game of the season. Since she is cheering this year we'll go to all the home games so we can watch her. It's been a few years since we've been to a game because last time we went was when Elisabeth cheered. Jane's a flyer. Here she is:

July/Beg of Aug- Nora hiked Mt Timponogos, Oakcrest, Emma's wedding

Nora's friend (and soccer teammate) Ally, invited Nora to hike Mt Timponogos with her dad and her and some friends from their neighborhood. It's 14 miles and Nora has gone on maybe a hike or two this summer that probably totaled 2 miles. So I didn't think she'd say yes, but when they threw in that she'd need to sleepover since they were leaving at 4am, she was all in! We don't often let the kids do sleepovers. They're more of a very rare thing. 

They hiked the Aspen Grove side, since the Timpoonoke side now requires a parking pass/permit that they only give to so many each day. They did great. Once they got to the saddle, they decided to stop and skip the summit (it's only another about 1/2 mile to the summit from there). They ended up getting back to Riverton around 8pm that night. They did stop for dinner before they got home, but it was a long day. 

I'm glad she was able to have that experience with them. Charles also hiked Timp in July, and then Scott and I hiked it in August with some friends we're doing Grand Canyon with next month. 

The first week of August Nora went to Oakcrest. It's a church camp for girls that are going into 7th grade. 

I was one of the chaperone's on the bus, so I got to ride up with them (it's about an 1.5 hour drive; it's near Kamas). 

Elisabeth attended a leadership conference in Quito since she's an STL (sister training leader). She was there for one night. When they make the trek out to Quito from the jungle it's an overnight bus ride, which she's done before, but now that she's in the mountains it's only a 2.5 hour drive so she can do that in a day. 

August 8th Emma was married. She's one of Elisabeth's best friends and we're very close with her and her family who live in our neighborhood (her brother is bff's with Charles and her dad is our bishop). Me, scott and Charles went to her sealing at  9 that morning in Orem and then Scott and I drove from their to pick up Nora a day early from Oakcrest so she could play in one of her soccer tournament games that week and so she could come to Emma's dinner and reception. 

We got her around noon, grabbed some lunch(and one of their famous giant Fritters they sell at a Chevron in Kamas that we love) and drove home. She slept for most of the car ride and didn't feel like eating. When we got home she laid down again. She felt warm. I took her temperature and she had a 101 fever. Good thing we picked her up. She had thought it was from their hike that morning, maybe heat exhaustion. We thought she better stay home. We gave her some ibuprofen and took off to the dinner(4pm) and reception. Kelsey put together a really cute cookie tower. They had four cupcakes on the top that they could still feed eachother. 

Friday morning Nora played in her game. But she wasn't feeling great. But she still wanted to play. So scott put her in goalie. Which wasn't a great idea since she had no energy to get anything. We lost. We came home and took her temperature again and she still had a fever. During the game I talked with Jessica, Olivia's mom (they're new, just moved from Indiana) and she said that covid was going around. I decided to test her for covid since Krissy was coming soon to stay with us from NC and they have a baby plus 3 more kids. It came out positive. Krissy wouldn't arrive for another day, but we let her know. They still wanted to come on time and were fine with it, so no worries there. Scott and I hiked Yellowfork again Saturday morning. This is a nice once because it's close and it still has lots of green and shade. 

Nora was feeling better by Saturday afternoon. Scott and I let her join us for dinner that night since she was home all day not doing much. We didn't have her spend time with friends for several days. They say to wait to be around people for 24- 48 hours since the last time you had a fever, which for her was Friday evening.