DONUT FALLS APM HIKE JULY 2015

July our hike was planned by Andrew Pehrson and his fiance, Alex.  They arranged for us to hike DONUT FALLS in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

L to R: Jenny Greenwood, Arianne Holmes, Me,  Jesus Castro, Maria Garcia, Alex, Andrew Pehrson, and 2 of Maria's friends from her YSA. 
As we hiked the trail we came to this intersection...no markings at all and two very probable paths.  So, as in the poem, we took the "road less traveled by" since it was leading UP.  It was a nice trail, but led us away from the sound of water...so we ended up backtracking to make it to the BOTTOM of the falls.  The other trail may have led us to the top, but we will save that for another day :)





   
We came to the bottom of the falls and realized we would be hiking up the middle of the stream to get to the top.  FUN!

It was such a beautiful day, we were up for the challenge!  And we were glad we came early.  It was actually freezing cold when we arrived, but warmed up nicely!







The entrance to where you can see the falls come through the hole in the rock is up at the top and takes some climbing to get down into.  Jenny and I check it out!

We were warned by THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE to watch our heads when we went down in.  I don't know if you can see where my hand is holding jagged rocks here, but Andrew found them...WITH HIS HEAD!





Luckily, Maria had a bandana and we got him tied up for the rest of the hike!




You can see this is not a mere flesh wound.  He ended up with 6 staples!!





 



Perfect engagement photo I think!!










And Christmas card material for us!!

Pres T got down and under and got some cool video of the water coming in. 

 Looking up at where we hiked up.

 Coming back down!

 Enjoying nature!  And each others company!

 Jesus on the balance beam.

 And yet more Christmas card material.

We love these hikes.  Great to visit with each friend and enjoy nature and get exercise all at the same time!

If you have a hike destination you want to lead us on, let us know!

JUNE 2015 ACTIVITIES/VISITORS

We are still serving at the MTC and spend many hours a week there with our great missionaries in our branch!


President Taylor is a great branch president there and I love being with all the missionaries, especially working with the Sisters.
And yes, I am still usually the shortest one of the group:)

 While in New Jersey we ran into a few of those "SMALL WORLD" sort of people.

Serving in our daughter's ward in Freehold area was a missionary from Phoenix Elder Preston.  As we talked, I realized that I had met him in his own home, after he got his call to serve.  I believe I was out teaching with Sister Missionaries Shannon Magee and Rebecca Connell when we went to his home and had a brief discussion and family prayer with his family and his non-member girlfriend that they were teaching. 
He was so excited we just had to get a photo!

And then it was great to find out that his companion, Elder Olbey(?) from Samoa knew our own Molesi Vaoga from the APM.  We love meeting people in reference to our mission!

 The night after we returned to Provo, we were blessed to have the WILLIAMS come over for dinner and to visit! 
We just love these people, they are like family to us!

Last weekend I got to attend the wedding of one of our early APM missionaries, NICHOLAS CARLSON.  He married his sweetheart and I was glad to be there and to meet her.

Nick and Sera on their big day!
I messed up and did not get Pres T the info on when to take the train down from work so I could pick him up on time, so I did this one solo:(

 And last Saturday we also met up with BLAKE MULLENIX and his friend Lainie to hike the Y.
They were down visiting from BYU-I.

JOSEPH BARLEY met up with us for the morning as well, he is always game for a hike and we love that!

It was a beautiful morning and we were so happy to spend it with these mission kids!

And our latest and greatest District from the MTC that left this week!  Since I was in Jersey, we just barely met them for 4 days and now they are GONE!  Amazing how close you can get even in that short a time on a mission!

WE LOVE YOU AND LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU here on the blog page!

PHILLY DAY TRIP WITH RM'S JUNE 2015

TO SEE ALL PHOTOS OF THIS DAY. CLICK ON THIS LINK PLEASE

Sorry I have been so slow posting...it was difficult while we were traveling/visiting Jersey.

I spent almost a month back East with our daughter, helping with their new baby.  President Taylor joined me the last 10 days of the trip and we made plans to meet up with whoever we could find in the area.  We were sad we did not get to see our Washington DC contingency as our plans changed.  NEXT TIME!

 First up was CRYSTAL TURNER, who lives about an hour from our daughter in New Jersey.  She is working as a nanny out there.
We have been blessed to see her several times since her mission, so this was just like being with a daughter for the day!

Can you tell she is super good with children?  We dragged her along with us to a great CHILDREN'S MUSEUM on our way in to Philadelphia and our grandson Bennett fell in love with her right away!

 They were fast friends all day long!


After the museum, we headed to the historic areas of Philadelphia to check out the LIBERTY BELL.

It pretty much rained all day...and we had looked at weather reports that said it would end around 2:00 PM.  So, we did not bring umbrellas.


We waited in line for a long time to get in, but it was great to be in this historic part of the country!

We stuck around long enough to wait for another arrival, MEG EISELE!

She drove down all the way from Albany New York, about 4 hours away to spend the day with us!  IT WAS SO GOOD TO SEE HER AGAIN!

 We spent the afternoon visiting the Liberty Bell,  then Ben Franklins' Printing Press, watched the historic films about the area and then got to tour INDEPENDENCE HALL.

It was really a great experience!

You can see all the photographers in our group!

We got front row seats in the room where the declaration of Independence was signed.  Very cool!

 We stuck around long enough to wait for our local RMs to get off work and make it downtown to meet us.



RYEN SEAMAN AND HER FATHER took us to an amazing place in the city!  Brother Seaman works in the building where the old FEDERAL RESERVE was housed in the past.  It was so neat to see all the old metal doors, artwork on ceilings etc.  The building is now used for offices for the Jefferson Hospital and houses the well-known orthopedic group offices that Brother Seaman runs.

 This is the board room for the company.  It still maintains the decor from years and years ago, as it is still a historic register building.

You can see that we were also joined by GREG McCUCH who lives and works in the area.
 Greg was joined by our two little grandsons...this was so cute to see them watching a video with him.  They were actually showing him some favorite funny videos!  SO CUTE!

We were privileged to be taken to the basement where the old VAULTS are.  It was amazing to see even just the door!  IT WAS HUGE!
(Maybe Greg will forward me the photo he got of himself by the door for perspective. )

Our little grandsons liked the case with just tools they used in caring for the vaults.

The entire basement was really cool...many interesting ways into the vaults that were all super protective; secret passageways and glass in floors and mirrors in hallways etc.  We got the real personal tour!  THANKS BROTHER SEAMAN!

 After the tour, it was still POURING RAIN and we had been on a hunt for somewhere open to get something to eat, the little ones wanted pizza, so the Dads went out to find a local place and brought back AMAZING pizza for us!

They braved the rain for us!  THANKS AGAIN!

You can see how happy we were to be together!  

 We came, we saw, we ate and we LOVED being together!
How wonderful it is to see our beautiful mission children, how well they are doing in their lives, and the goals they have for their futures!

WE LOVE YOU!  You are making a difference wherever you live across the country/world!

STEWART FALLS

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT!

May 9 we did our monthly APM hike to Stewart Falls.  It was an "iffy" morning, rather cold and we were not sure anyone would show up...but WE ARE FROM THE APM...weather is not an issue!

 It was actually BEAUTIFUL!

Check out the clouds behind us at the start of the trailhead!

 L to R Front: Edgar and Karina Urias (brother and sister), Stephany Uriostegui, Me, Camilee Brown, Andrea Jackson, Matt Bryson.
Back:  Colton Anderson, Jaine and Carlos Arias, Jacob Holmes, Logan Longhurst, Ben Okelberry.  Pres T was taking this one.  Great variety of missionaries from our entire 3 years!


And another scenic view along the trail...it got warmer as we walked, not too bad at all!

We found out that this is where Carlos proposed to Jaine about a year ago...SO ROMANTIC!!!

We got some other hikers to take this group shot at the base of the falls.





Wet and happy.
It was starting to rain as we headed back.

And by the time we met Joseph Barley on the trail coming to meet us, we were even wetter...and when we got to the cars for brunch tailgate...it was really raining. 
We were glad for the hot cocoa this time!!

LOVE being with you on these activities!
We have several more in the making, planned by some of YOU!  Let us know if YOU have an idea where we need to go next!

LOVE YOU ALL!  HAPPY TRAILS!