On the Navajo Loop Trail
Narrow part of Angel's Landing Trail
Narrow trail from above. hang on tight!
Beautiful Zion Canyon from the top of Angel's Landing.
Mama's well-used Quad.
Beautiful Eva
Wall walking in Spooky Canyon south of Escalante.
Rappelling into the narrows. i am belaying from below.
i am glad i do not have any extra pounds!
Fabulous adventure.
I have just arrived at the bottom from self-belaying into the Canyon.
Helping the sister of one of the scouts. she fell into knee deep water just after this shot.
More Wall walking.
great view looking to the henry mountains.
more from Zion Canyon
i would love to do some base jumping.
we saw this before.
Too beautiful not to see a second time.
November 20, 2011
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
I have just finished watching an exciting and quite well-played MLS Cup final – the LA Galaxy are the champions! David Beckham did not score on a free kick. Donovan scored on a brilliant run and outside-of-the-foot flick into the goal. Beckham and Keane got assists on the goal. I hope you get a chance to watch the game.
First, let’s talk about activities for Thanksgiving. We know we want a wonderful Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. That will be great. So Abraham, Eva, Jonathan and Rachel, let’s hear your ideas. We are inviting Mark Goddard over for Thanksgiving dinner. That is a given. Here are some other ideas. Hike to the top of Mt. Baldy on Friday. We might find some snow, since it will be snowing up there today. The forecast is for showers on Thursday. We could go rappelling in the local canyons. We could do that Thanksgiving morning – if we all work together to get dinner cooking for us all to go? We could go rappelling on Saturday morning, as long as we are back for our soccer game at 3:00 pm Saturday afternoon. We could also go see “Breaking Dawn” (Jonathan, isn’t that what you have been pining to do?). Let me know what you think.
The forecast for today included showers, but we have had steady rain since about 11:00 AM this morning. I am not complaining at all. I like rain on Sunday, it is my preferred day. We have also had the furnace on most of the day. It seems like winter, although it is not winter yet. Yesterday was actually a wonderful day, in the 60s, a bit overcast most of the day. It was perfect for working outside and playing soccer.
Yesterday, I replaced the plastic on the louvered windows in the library. Now the room feels much more air tight. I also did a few little fix-it things around the house that had been accumulating.
Yesterday, mama said she was leaving to do Thanksgiving Dinner shopping. After a while, I drove over to FIS to make sure the field had been striped for our soccer game. Then I decided to drive to Big Lots to get a couple of small plastic bowls to use as a mold for cement bases for soccer flags. I couldn’t find them in the house wares section, so I was walking to the other side of the store. As I passed the candy aisle, I saw a pretty woman there. I walked up behind her without her seeing me and put my hand on her shoulder with a gentle squeeze. She jumped a bit and turned around surprised. Then I kissed her. It’s not often that I surprise Mama in the candy aisle.
We had a fine soccer game Saturday afternoon. We had about 18 players, but we played with the small goals on a half field. I must admit I was responsible for about 3 goals the other team scored. Whitman really got me on one of them.
In the evening, Mama and I drove to Santa Monica for the Southern California Vocal Assn honor choir concert. Eva sang with the women’s choir, directed by Ann Hamre, Sue Hamre’s sister. Her choir sounded great, very polished. Eva looked radiant in her red Chamber Singers dress, which she wore with a black velvet jacket. We enjoyed each of the three groups. I told Mama that I do not like these “last of” moments. We have been doing honor choir concerts now for about 20 years. Perhaps I should take Mama on a date next year just so we can hear really good music.
I had my High Council talk this morning. The Stake President asked the High Council to speak on Missionary Work in November. He has asked Stake Members for the last two months of the year to seek a missionary opportunity each week, hand out pass along cards, etc. That means that I had to write a new talk, a process that can take 10-12 hours to get it the way I want it. So I worked on it Saturday, then further Saturday night after the Honor Choir concert. I did not get to bed until after 2:00 am. Then I was up at 5:20 am, and went to the Stake Center for High Council meeting, only to discover that I did not have a meeting. So I came home and worked another couple of hours on my talk. The problem is that to do any topic justice, it takes a lot of work, research, distilling and writing. Any topic is too small to treat in 20 minutes. But I finally got an okay talk. I started out telling of my own missionary moment during last weekend’s canyoneering trip to Utah. Then I quoted the first verse of Mark, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Then Mark describes John the Baptist’s preaching and baptizing. Mark ends his gospel with Christ’s commission to go in to all the world to preach the gospel and baptize. The final verse describes the Apostles going forth and preaching everywhere. I then showed the same report from Matthew and Luke. Then I went forward 1,800 years and described Sections 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16, which all deal with missionary work. Mama said I should have included Section 3 as well, John the Baptist’s visit. Then I transitioned to a discussion of what great message we have to preach. I then described how the understanding of the nature of God had been distorted and lost, and how the understanding of the actual nature of God is such joyous news. I then ended with Joseph Smith’s stirring exhortation in Section 128.
This afternoon, Jonathan and Johanna Nelson came over. Brigham, you remember Jonathan as a classmate of yours. They are expecting their first baby in January. They wanted to interview Mama and me about successful parenting. They brought a couple of pages of single spaced questions to ask. Mama gave them a lot of good advice.
This evening, mama and Eva went to the arcadia mission home for a good-bye evening for Sis. Barnes, who has been in our ward for quite some time.
Wednesday evening, mama taught another wonderful lesson. It was the last lesson until next January.
I will put this letter on the blog, together with some pictures of last week’s canyoneering.
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
I have just finished watching an exciting and quite well-played MLS Cup final – the LA Galaxy are the champions! David Beckham did not score on a free kick. Donovan scored on a brilliant run and outside-of-the-foot flick into the goal. Beckham and Keane got assists on the goal. I hope you get a chance to watch the game.
First, let’s talk about activities for Thanksgiving. We know we want a wonderful Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. That will be great. So Abraham, Eva, Jonathan and Rachel, let’s hear your ideas. We are inviting Mark Goddard over for Thanksgiving dinner. That is a given. Here are some other ideas. Hike to the top of Mt. Baldy on Friday. We might find some snow, since it will be snowing up there today. The forecast is for showers on Thursday. We could go rappelling in the local canyons. We could do that Thanksgiving morning – if we all work together to get dinner cooking for us all to go? We could go rappelling on Saturday morning, as long as we are back for our soccer game at 3:00 pm Saturday afternoon. We could also go see “Breaking Dawn” (Jonathan, isn’t that what you have been pining to do?). Let me know what you think.
The forecast for today included showers, but we have had steady rain since about 11:00 AM this morning. I am not complaining at all. I like rain on Sunday, it is my preferred day. We have also had the furnace on most of the day. It seems like winter, although it is not winter yet. Yesterday was actually a wonderful day, in the 60s, a bit overcast most of the day. It was perfect for working outside and playing soccer.
Yesterday, I replaced the plastic on the louvered windows in the library. Now the room feels much more air tight. I also did a few little fix-it things around the house that had been accumulating.
Yesterday, mama said she was leaving to do Thanksgiving Dinner shopping. After a while, I drove over to FIS to make sure the field had been striped for our soccer game. Then I decided to drive to Big Lots to get a couple of small plastic bowls to use as a mold for cement bases for soccer flags. I couldn’t find them in the house wares section, so I was walking to the other side of the store. As I passed the candy aisle, I saw a pretty woman there. I walked up behind her without her seeing me and put my hand on her shoulder with a gentle squeeze. She jumped a bit and turned around surprised. Then I kissed her. It’s not often that I surprise Mama in the candy aisle.
We had a fine soccer game Saturday afternoon. We had about 18 players, but we played with the small goals on a half field. I must admit I was responsible for about 3 goals the other team scored. Whitman really got me on one of them.
In the evening, Mama and I drove to Santa Monica for the Southern California Vocal Assn honor choir concert. Eva sang with the women’s choir, directed by Ann Hamre, Sue Hamre’s sister. Her choir sounded great, very polished. Eva looked radiant in her red Chamber Singers dress, which she wore with a black velvet jacket. We enjoyed each of the three groups. I told Mama that I do not like these “last of” moments. We have been doing honor choir concerts now for about 20 years. Perhaps I should take Mama on a date next year just so we can hear really good music.
I had my High Council talk this morning. The Stake President asked the High Council to speak on Missionary Work in November. He has asked Stake Members for the last two months of the year to seek a missionary opportunity each week, hand out pass along cards, etc. That means that I had to write a new talk, a process that can take 10-12 hours to get it the way I want it. So I worked on it Saturday, then further Saturday night after the Honor Choir concert. I did not get to bed until after 2:00 am. Then I was up at 5:20 am, and went to the Stake Center for High Council meeting, only to discover that I did not have a meeting. So I came home and worked another couple of hours on my talk. The problem is that to do any topic justice, it takes a lot of work, research, distilling and writing. Any topic is too small to treat in 20 minutes. But I finally got an okay talk. I started out telling of my own missionary moment during last weekend’s canyoneering trip to Utah. Then I quoted the first verse of Mark, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Then Mark describes John the Baptist’s preaching and baptizing. Mark ends his gospel with Christ’s commission to go in to all the world to preach the gospel and baptize. The final verse describes the Apostles going forth and preaching everywhere. I then showed the same report from Matthew and Luke. Then I went forward 1,800 years and described Sections 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16, which all deal with missionary work. Mama said I should have included Section 3 as well, John the Baptist’s visit. Then I transitioned to a discussion of what great message we have to preach. I then described how the understanding of the nature of God had been distorted and lost, and how the understanding of the actual nature of God is such joyous news. I then ended with Joseph Smith’s stirring exhortation in Section 128.
This afternoon, Jonathan and Johanna Nelson came over. Brigham, you remember Jonathan as a classmate of yours. They are expecting their first baby in January. They wanted to interview Mama and me about successful parenting. They brought a couple of pages of single spaced questions to ask. Mama gave them a lot of good advice.
This evening, mama and Eva went to the arcadia mission home for a good-bye evening for Sis. Barnes, who has been in our ward for quite some time.
Wednesday evening, mama taught another wonderful lesson. It was the last lesson until next January.
I will put this letter on the blog, together with some pictures of last week’s canyoneering.
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
