Tuacahn and Zion's National Park

We took a weekend trip down to St George and stayed with some old friends. When I say old, I've known them since I was 9 years old. I was even at their house when my little sister was born. We stayed with Allen and Tammy (the parents) but most of the kids live down there now as well.

Friday night we went to the Tuacahn Theater and saw Tarzan the Musical. It was amazing, fantastic, exciting, phenomenal....you get the idea. Just imagine an outdoor amphitheater surrounded by beautiful red rock cliffs with a natural river that can be diverted to flood the stage. Apes swinging all over the place, people singing, dancing, fun for everyone. I think I was most impressed with Turk. Imagine swinging upside down, while spinning, and STILL SINGING ON KEY. It truly was impressive.

Saturday was a free pass day at all National Parks. We drove up to Zion's with my friend Brad and we (Adrienne, Brad, and I) all hiked Angel's Landing together. The guy who named the peak said that to get to the top someone would need "angel's wings". Here's a couple shots from the hike.

This first shot makes it look much worse than it is. This shows approximately the last fourth of the hike (time wise). You have posts and chains to hold onto and the footing is very solid.

This is one of the views from the top. Absolutely gorgeous. If you look closely you can see the buildings at the start of the hike waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below.

Here's one with Ade immitating the warning sign. I've even got Brad looking on behind her to the left.

Last, but not least, here is Brad on a part of the trail that is called "Walt's Wiggle". It's a series of small, but extremely steep switchbacks at about the halfway point. I've seen pictures of it from above and it looks kind of like a zipper. I had to include it in honor of my dear Grandpa (who's first name was Walt).

New Furniture

It took quite a bit of effort to finally get all the furniture in the house and assembled. We didn't realize how much work it was actually going to take. But the furniture is in and pretty much all of our stuff is moved over. It is so nice to finally have bedroom furniture that we picked out ourselves. We had been using furniture that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was 5 or 6.

We stayed with Andrea and Brent again in St. George on our way to and from the tournament. While in Vegas we stayed at the Rio and even made time to hang out by the pool for a little while. It wasn't quite warm enough to swim in the pool, but we did take a dip in the hot tub.

On the basketball side, BYU lost to UNLV in the semi-finals. It was a tight, hard-fought game. I hate it when I feel this way, but I truly feel the refs decided the game in the final minute. They weren't great during the game, but were even worse in the deciding moments. On the other side, BYU played their first round NCAA tournament game today and won...99-92 in double overtime. They fought hard and we able to come out victorious over some adversity.

Busy Times

I really will get better at posting. We're headed down to St. George and Vegas this weekend for two purposes. We are going to St. George to pick up the furniture we ordered last month. We're then going the rest of the way to Vegas to watch some of the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament. BYU has a tough road this year. Assuming we make it to the semifinals, we'll face UNLV on their home floor. If we make it through that game, then we'll most likely have UNM in the finals (just the #8 team in the country).

While we're down south I hope we get to see Lauren and Jimmy's new baby boy (Julian). It always seems as though we are running too and fro. I'll be sure to make more time to write moving forward.

St. George Weekend/Valentine's Day

We had a great trip down to visit our friends in St. George. We stayed with Brent, Andrea, and little Gabriel. He has become such a cute kid. When Ade and I would eat cereal for breakfast, he would alternate between us asking "please" in sign language to give him a bite of our cereal. It was adorable so how could we resist?

Part of the reason for the trip was to finally use the $250 gift certificate for Ashley Furniture we won last year. We finally (after 10 years of marriage) decided on a bedroom set that we both liked the style and the price. We also got a couple of end tables and a coffee table for the front room. We'll have to post some pictures later when they make it to our house.

Sunday was Valentine's day. After going to church with Andrea and Brent we headed over to the Todds' house. It was great catching up with everyone there. Tiffany and Colby's kids are getting so big, as are Tyler and Brooks. Lauren is due with her third on the 2nd of March and Jimmy was gracious enough to take some photos for us. I think I'll end with some photos that he took. Keep in mind, these are the unadjusted versions. He was going to send us some touched up later.

Catching Up

We've been running all over like usual. A friend gave me a couple tickets to the BYU basketball game against TCU. Ade couldn't make it but Dan came and it was a blast. The seats were way up high, but we had the whole row to ourselves so we could spread out and be comfortable. The best part? BYU won by 20.

Too bad they ran into a buzz saw last Saturday. UNLV whooped us pretty badly. They hit their first 9 three-point shots. Even their center was draining shots from down-town. BYU is a good team, but there are just some nights when the other team just can't miss.

Thursday night we are heading down to St. George this weekend to have a little getaway. We won a $250 gift certificate to a furniture store last year...and just haven't had time to use it (since it is in St. George).

MWC Tournament and Hike

Last week our friend Henry invited us down to the Mountain West Basketball tournament with him. We decided to head down and watch the BYU game on Friday and stayed the night at one of his other friend's homes. BYU lost that game, so we didn't really want to go to the Final on Saturday. Instead, we decided to go for a hike. This first photo is at the far end of the trail.

Adrienne was so excited to go that she climbed all over the place. You can see her better if you click on the photo and blow it up. I climbed around some too. This is on the way back.
Windows Live has a really neat feature with their photo gallery. You can take a large group of photos and it will make it into a panorama for you. It does a really good job as you can see below. The area to the left of the rock outcropping is Las Vegas. In the full size photo you can really zoom in. After the hike we headed back to Utah. Saturday night we watched a movie with Brent and Andrea and stayed up late talking. I wish we could hang out with them more often.

Sunday, we made it back for Church and had dinner with Sarah and Austin. They are just about finished with all the plans for their wedding next month. In fact, Tuesday they head down to get their bridal photos taken.

This week is going to be crazy. We are leaving Thursday to go to Arizona for Heather and Nic's wedding. I hope we get some good photos and get the chance to catch up with friends and relatives down there. We just don't seem to make it down more than once every couple of years. Flights have gone up in price, and it's a pretty long drive.

Back in Town

Last weekend was great. It was so great to see all our friends in St. George. It is always nice to get away and catch up with everyone. We had a birthday party for Eden, a blessing for Gabriel, and a "fancy shmancy" dinner for Valentine's Day.

The Valentine's Day dinner was wonderful. There was live entertainment with singing and piano, dancing, games, even a drawing at the end for prizes. It was put together to benefit the Dixie Care and Share. Adrienne gave me a hard time during the drawing. She asked what was wrong because I usually win something any time I'm involved in a drawing. I told her to be patient because we'd win the very last and, of course, the biggest prize. Sure enough our number came up and we won a $250 gift certificate to Ashley Furniture.

Nothing new to report on Adoption. We hope the young women we met with gets the answer she is seeking. We know that Heavenly Father will answer her prayers and let know know what is best for the child. There was an article in the Ensign (the monthly magazine for our church) for February that told the story of adoption from 4 different view points. We read it as we drove back last night. If anyone is interested, here is the link: The Gift of Adoption

Back from St. George

Last week was tough at work for me. Not much going on with any of my clients. It was great to get away for the weekend to St George and recharge. We stayed with the Todds and hung out with all the kids and grandkids all weekend. It's great when all the little ones just pile up on us and play.

Also, our good friends Brent and Andrea just had their baby (Gabriel) a week ago so we spent time with them too.

I thought I was keeping in pretty good shape with basketball and volleyball each week, but a little game of two-hand touch football has shown me new levels of soreness in some areas that I haven't used in a while. It was still fun no matter how much I'm paying for it now. I do wish I had brought cleats though. It would have been that much better.

Sunday it was tough to leave. There was great food and some great times just relaxing on the couch. We didn't get home until close to midnight.

Well, I'm back to work today and I feel much more energized than last week...so mission accomplished.