Dan in Real Life

The Resistance

2011-12-31T11:14:00.002-07:00

I flew back to DC yesterday. At the TSA screening area in the Salt Lake Airport I politely told the agents that I wanted to be screened with the wand instead of the new, see-your-naked-body, screening machines. I told the female agent that I've had skin cancer twice already and I don't want any more radiation going into my body. I really don't care about the radiation (or someone seeing my naked silhouette), but I had some extra time before my flight.

Female Agent: "We don't do the wand anymore. You'll have to do a full-body pat-down."

Me: "Ok. I'll do the pat-down."

Female Agent: (With annoying look on her face) "We need a male pat-down."

After walking over to a male agent and collecting my things.

Male Agent: "Before I explain the process to you, you do realize that your cell phone gives off more radiation than these machines do, right?"

Me: "Sure. I guess it depends on which report you read."

Male Agent: "Ok, I'm going to have you lift your arms up parallel to the ground, and then I'm going to move my hands from the top of your body all the way to your feet."

Me: "Ok."

Male Agent: (After going over my arms and down to my lower back) "Now I'm going to go over your backside. Would you like a private screening?"

Me: "Nope."

Male Agent: "Now I'm going to move my hands up your legs until I meet resistance. Would you like a private screening?"

Me: "Nope." (Laughing to myself while thinking, "The resistance. That's how I'm going to refer to the male anatomy from now on.")

Male Agent: (While moving his hands over my body) "How was your Christmas?"

Me: "Great. First time I've been home with the family in three years."

Male Agent: "Nice. Well, that's it. You're free to go. Happy New Year."

Me: "Thanks, you too."

Now I've experienced the pat-down. That was much easier than Army physicals.

Joe's Cafe

2011-12-29T19:52:00.004-07:00

Not the best biscuits and gravy I've had, but it was a fun place to eat.

With Phil, Natalie, and Joe

Joe......pretty friendly guy!

Dinosaur Museum - Thanksgiving Point

2011-12-27T17:18:00.004-07:00

I stayed the night at Sara and Jarem's place. This is the view from their house in the morning.

Today we visited the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Ari and Jude made fossils...

...and played in the sand/water.

Santa Claws

Ari turned his feet into fossils.

Granny loves Obama

2011-12-25T23:01:00.002-07:00

For you, Lizzie & Dan

2011-12-21T23:18:00.003-07:00

Since you aren't here this Christmas, I'll try to bring a little bit of "here" to you by way of the blog. Tonight we drove up to northern Utah, met up with Dad's side of the family, saw some Christmas lights, and ate and chatted at Arbys. Good times. Fun people.

Christmas light show honoring Veterans

2011-12-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

Pre-Christmas dinner with the Fryes

2011-12-18T22:27:00.004-07:00

Denver / BYU B-Ball / MoTab Christmas Concert

2011-12-18T22:07:00.004-07:00

I went out to Denver to visit some relatives this week. Here's Paul with his cute little girl.

And of course we made a visit to the Denver temple.

Yesterday Dad and I took Caleb and Ari to the BYU basketball game against Baylor. Baylor came to Provo as the #6 team in the nation. BYU led most of the game (by 12 or 14 points at one point in the game!), but Baylor ended up winning by three points. We had a great time and BYU has another good team this year.

Last night, thanks to Courtney, I was able to go to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert and enjoy the beautiful performance and the pretty lights at Temple Square.

They've got an awesome new introduction.

And how could I post without including Ari doing/saying something funny? :)

The Good Stuff

2011-12-18T12:08:00.002-07:00

So I tried making crepes with potato flour and rice flour instead of wheat. Mom warned me that potato flour is extremely thick. I didn't listen. My "crepes" were like potato cakes. Dad and Joseph thought they were ok, even with the slightly doughy middle. Ha! What a mess.

I'm cursed!

2011-12-09T22:45:00.004-07:00

Remember the TV show "LOST," about the people who crashed on the crazy island that wouldn't let them leave? I now know how they felt:

Thursday night I went to the airport for my 9:30PM flight. One hour before the scheduled take-off time they came over the intercom and told us the pilot had called in sick and they would give us an update in 20 minutes. An hour or two later they told us the flight crew was not coming and our flight had been rescheduled for 6:30 the next morning, but they didn't tell us what happened. We all had to go to the main desk, re-book our tickets, and get a hotel room for the night. I've never seen such slow service in my life. Apparently there is a big marathon in Honolulu this weekend and they couldn't find very many hotel rooms for us. It was 1:00AM by the time I got up to the counter to see what they could do for me. After standing in line for a while, we the people started to get a little upset. At one point a representative was sent out to tell us that the reason the flight crew didn't show up for duty was because one of them had died in the hotel that night.

I was presented with two options. I could take a 10:00PM (Friday) direct flight from Honolulu to Salt Lake City, or I could stick with the 6:30AM (Friday) flight to LA and then get on a Delta flight later that afternoon for Salt Lake. I chose the latter because I just wanted to get home. They offered to pay for a hotel room, but since I would just have to come back four hours later (and go through security all over again), I decided to wait it out at the airport. I asked for a voucher for a free flight (or a discounted flight). No luck. I asked for a voucher for free food in the airport. They gave me a $15 voucher. So I spent the rest of the night pacing the airport, reading, and trying to sleep on a hard chair or on the hard ground, periodically murmuring to myself about the poor service I consistently experience from US airlines (Southwest and Jetblue are exempted from my murmurings).

6:30AM came around - still no flight crew. At 8:00AM the crew finally showed up. We all applauded their arrival (half mocking, and half out of sheer relief). We took off at 8:30AM, flew five hours to LA (they did give us free food on the plane), and then I found out that my flight to SLC would be delayed one hour. I wanted to punch someone, but if I had punched the guy to my right he would have beaten me up, and if I had punched the little old lady to my left..........well..........you just don't do things like that. At 5:30PM we took off from LA and arrived in SLC about 90 minutes later. I made it, right? Well yes, but come to find out that my luggage did not. Of course it didn't make it! Why would my luggage arrive with me? That would mean something happened the way it was supposed to. I gave the representatives my address and now I'll wait to see if it shows up in the next couple of days or if the island kept it.

Joseph picked me up from the airport, we came home to devour some food, and after almost 48 hours with zero sleep, I'm going to crash. This gives new meaning to the phrase "Home Sweet Home."

Last day in Hawaii

2011-12-08T16:48:00.005-07:00

Quince and I went on a hike this morning and it was as if we were in a little piece of paradise. If only my pictures could convey the experience better. Since I will be freezing my toosh off in Utah tomorrow, this was a nice send-off.

At the top of the trail we found this...

And 20 feet further we found this.........so what did we do?

Kept on going, of course.

After snapping a few pictures of paradise we noticed some clouds moving toward us.

Closer and closer they moved.

Until we were completely engulfed.

I know it looks like Quince is coming up, but we were actually on our way back down.

Umm, about that tan I was supposed to get. :) They sure had some crazy trees up there.

After burning all those calories we decided to stop and get some pancakes with macadamia nut syrup, with spam and eggs.

Twas a fantastic week in Hawaii. Mahalo, Jen & Quince, for being great hosts!

Hawaii - Day 6 - Laie Temple and the PCC

2011-12-08T02:05:00.009-07:00

Jen and Quince dropped me off this morning to do a session at the Laie Temple while they took some family pictures. What a beautiful place!

The flag was at half-staff today for the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

We had lunch at Surfin' Tacos, which was very much like Cafe Rio......delicious!

Then we went next door to spend the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was a highlight of my trip. Here we have Cole and Zane trying to figure out how to make the Shaka sign.

On a canoe ride with my shave ice.

A Samoan demonstrating how to climb a coconut tree.

The Tahitian girls were my favorite of the floating shows. Shakira would be jealous of those hips.

BYU football fans recognize this.

I haven't laughed this hard in a while. This guy was hilarious! He was supposed to copy everything the Tongan guy was doing.

Who's pinching Jen's bum? Wasn't me! The guy next to me needs to work on his tan. Whitey.

Hawaii - Day 5 - Kona Temple and Poi

2011-12-07T00:16:00.004-07:00

I did a session at the Kona temple before hopping on a plane back to Oahu.

Arriving back in Honolulu to a full rainbow.

Tonight we visited Helena's to try out some traditional Hawaiian food.

Cole didn't like the poi at all.

Pork and cabbage (top left), creamed spinach with chicken (top right), and poi. The poi by itself isn't very good (in my opinion), but mixed with those other two items, it was tolerable.

Hawaii - Day 4 - Big Island

2011-12-05T19:56:00.006-07:00

I hopped on a 5:30AM flight from Honolulu to the Big Island, rented the red jeep you see in some of the photos, and drove a couple of hours into the Waipio Valley.

See the sign to the left? It is a 25% grade to get into (and out of) the Waipio Valley. 4WD is a must.....unless you want to hike.

The locals have some pretty wild horses down in the valley.

Check out the waterfall way back there. You can't get there in a vehicle. In fact, you can't get very far at all in a vehicle.

This guy named "Eagle" needed a ride home. That was the only way I was able to drive on one of the private roads.......and through this stream.

And this guy needed a ride back out of the valley. Nope, I didn't force them to ride on the back. Most of the locals (in that valley at least) wander around without shoes, so their feet are pretty muddy. These two wanted to ride on the back in order to avoid getting the car dirty (not that I care about a rental).

Scenic lookouts along the way to Hilo

Akaka Falls

I stopped at "What's Shakin'" to get some food after having read about it in a magazine.

It definitely lived up to its reputation. The smoothie was pure fruit and really good. The chicken tamale was amazing as well, and that fresh (huge!) avocado made it even better. You can't see my piece of pineapple because it fell on the floor before I could take a picture. Besides, pineapple doesn't really come from Hawaii, so who wants it in the picture anyway. :)

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but I'm just not a garden person. I went through this thing in about 20 minutes and was pretty bored throughout.

Some of the plants in the botanical garden.

This strange-looking thing was in there too.

A view from the botanical garden.

Yup, that's rainbow falls. If you've been to the Big Island you may notice I don't have any pictures of the Volcano National Park. I decided I've spent enough time in dry, dead areas of the world, so I spent the whole day on the green part of the island. I love the green! I did make it up most of the way to the observatories at the top of the mountain (almost 10,000 feet!), but the last part is a really rough dirt road and I wasn't comfortable with my off-roading skills (and it was raining), so I decided to drive back down to Kona.

Hawaii - Day 3 - Church & Stroll

2011-12-04T22:58:00.003-07:00

I went to church this morning at BYU-Hawaii

This afternoon we took a stroll.......somewhere. :) I don't know where we were, but it was gorgeous.

With Quince, Jen, and the kids.

Hawaii - Day 2 - BYU football

2011-12-04T00:24:00.002-07:00

The kids playing in the sand the morning after we slept at the beach.

At the BYU football game with Quince

Quince doesn't really care about football, but he is doing his post-grad at the U of H. BYU beat up on Hawaii tonight, so it was fun for me.

I got some Hawaiian fast food at Zippy's tonight, which wouldn't be complete without spam. Apparently spam is very popular here.

Hawaii - Day 1 - Pearl Harbor / Dole Plantation / Sunset Beach

2011-12-02T19:28:00.006-07:00

After a 25-hour trip (with a 9-hour layover in LA because of mechanical problems with the plane) I finally made it to Hawaii. When I boarded the plane from LA to Honolulu, the guy next to me asked if I would switch seats with a girl he had just met, because he was "hoping to get laid in Hawaii." I politely declined because I had the aisle seat on an exit row (for a six-hour flight)....and I'm not exactly in the business of supporting the pursuit of immorality. I befriended the guy and told him all about Mormons. He couldn't get over the fact that for the first time in his life he had met a 32-year-old virgin, and he apologized for asking that I help him get laid. We had a good chat and he ended up watching my movie with me on my laptop.

I picked this up at the car rental location. Look at the very top. Oh, and Dollar Car Rental had to stay open until 2:00AM, when our flight came in. They usually close at midnight.

Pearl Harbor

There were a lot of BYU football players at Pearl Harbor, taking some time off before the big game tomorrow.

Burial site of over 1100 Seamen who went down with the USS Arizona on December 7th, 1941.

I drove over to take a ride on the Pineapple Express and eat their popular pineapple ice cream.

Sunset Beach - North Shore

They had a little surfing competition going on, but you need a fancy camera with HUGE lenses in order to get any decent photos.

Pretty nice day 1. The weather was beautiful. I'm still fighting a cold, but I can't ask for a better place to deal with it. We're off to camp on the beach for the night.

I'm having too much fun with these videos

2011-11-28T16:08:00.002-07:00

Lizzie, I'm still using that program to reduce the size of the videos and then I upload them to youtube, and then to the blog. The only thing I don't like are all the links you can see to other videos after you watch a video. That could be a little scary. This is kind of fun remembering these events. The little guys crack me up!

Reaching back a bit

2011-11-28T03:46:00.003-07:00

This time I uploaded them to youtube and then embedded them in the blog. Better quality, I think.

Random Videos

2011-11-27T20:58:00.002-07:00

I couldn't put these on my blog in the past because they were too big, but Lizzie introduced me to a great program that downsizes the videos without losing the quality. It speeds the whole process up quite a bit. Thanks, Lizzie!

Dad at TOFW

2011-11-27T19:43:00.001-07:00

Not Your Average Thanksgiving Dinner

2011-11-25T14:51:00.004-07:00

Sumaia invited Jake and me over to her friend's place for a feast with food from various parts of the Middle East. This is the first time the three of us have been together since we were in the desert in 2004/2005. The food was amazing and the company was even better.

Let's see......we had the yummy cheese that is popular in the ME, some hard-boiled eggs, rice, hummus, chips and salsa, garbanzo beans, stuffing, turkey, lamb, mashed potatoes, falafel, bread, and something else (the name escapes me). Dessert was apple pie, pumpkin pie, a dessert from the ME (another name has escaped!), and fruit. Twas a feast, indeed. After dinner we talked politics and religion.......until I had had enough of politics and religion, and then I played with the kids.

The master chefs. Sumaia (on the right), Nada (in the middle), and I have the worst memory in the world. The End. Let's talk about Christmas!

Veteran's Day in Kentucky

2011-11-12T16:18:00.005-07:00

Driving down the freeway at 1:00AM......75mph.......bambi met Chuck Norris' vehicle. There were no winners. Luckily, we were only 80 miles from Lexington, KY, and the car was not disabled.

Veteran's Day Parade in Louisville, KY. This lady wanted a photo with a couple of vets for her community newsletter.

Louisville Slugger Museum

This is my kind of bill. We ate a free breakfast at Denny's, a free lunch at the Texas Roadhouse, and a free dinner at Applebees.

Mr. Mchugh came into the restaurant alone, so we invited him to eat with us. Good conversation and great food. The place was full of veterans.

Churchill Downs - Home of the Kentucky Derby

Churchill Downs

Louisville Temple

What better way to end Veteran's Day than by doing the only work that will bring lasting peace to the earth.

Doing some shooting near Lexington, KY.

Near Lexington

Our amazing hosts in Kentucky. Thank you, Drew and Edith, for making us feel at home. And thank you for asking me to participate in the blessing of your baby. That was a neat experience.

And their cute little girls!

Arizona, California, and #40

2011-11-08T21:45:00.011-07:00

Friday evening I flew to Phoenix to meet up with Dad and Lizzie. While they were participating in the Time Out For Women conference (Dad was a guest speaker at the conference) all day Saturday, I drove three hours east to the Gila Valley temple.

30 minutes into the drive I realized that the 2012 Ford Focus I rented did not have cruise control. Lovely. I didn't know they made cars without cruise control these days.

And what a beautiful drive it was! Mostly cloudy, perfect temperature, and a rainstorm had passed through the night before, which made everything fresh and green.......Arizona green, but still, it was pretty.

Neighborhood in Gilbert, Arizona.

Saturday night I drove back to San Diego with Lizzie and her friend, Megan, and I spent the last four days having a great time with Lizzie, Dan, and the boys.

We ate at one of the best sushi restaurants I've ever visited.

Yep, I'm an American. I eat sushi with a fork.

After sushi we visited the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. I was impressed with the high-tech displays they have inside. Definitely something I recommend seeing, and it's great for the kids.

Can you find the two heads?

Anders and Soren dressed up as soldiers from the Mormon Battalion.

Panning for gold

I'm not sure I could march the 2000 miles like they did. I'm satisfied with my honorary membership and this nice postcard.

Tuesday morning I woke up at 3:00AM and drove to the Los Angeles temple.

"...till the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard."

Love and service......forever!

Then I drove over to the Redlands temple.

If only righteousness were measured according to the number of temples you visit. :) This was number 40 for me.

Tuesday night I took Soren and Anders to the rattlesnake-infested park. Due to our sufficiently-reasonable watchfulness, we were able to avoid snakebites.

There was a group of mothers doing various exercises at the park. The last one they did consisted of hanging as long as they could from the monkey bars. Soren decided to join them. See the expression on his face? He waited patiently as they dropped like.......umm......people who don't weigh 50 pounds.

Sunset over San Diego

Veteran's Day is coming up. Oh how I love that flag. Thank you, Lizzie, Dan, and your cute boys, for another fantastic trip.

We all got our heads shaved. Lizzie likes to put a movie on during the haircuts to keep the boys from wiggling too much. It worked. I didn't move at all.

Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska

2011-11-01T22:45:00.006-06:00

Friday morning I went to Dulles airport to catch a flight out to Kansas. We boarded the plane and waited 30 minutes before they came over the intercom and told us all we would have to get off the plane and board a different plane because the one we were on was having electrical problems. About an hour later we boarded our "new" plane, which was just as rundown as the original one (good old American Airlines still using planes from the 80s). We arrived in Dallas at 10:00AM, the exact time that my connecting flight to Manhattan (Kansas) was taking off. I went to an AA representative and asked about getting on another flight. They didn't have any until the next morning, so they paid for me to stay in the Marriott Hotel with three free meals. During this time I remembered that BYU was playing TCU in the Dallas Cowboys stadium that night. It was the first time in my life that I wasn't completely depressed about missing a flight and being stuck somewhere. I also found other BYU fans in the hotel. One of them lives in Dallas and he offered me a ride to and from the game that night (a taxi would have cost $50 one way). Three of us went to the game and had a great time despite BYU's sloppy performance.

That stadium is very impressive.

I finally made it to Kansas the next morning. Mary picked me up from the airport and we drove up to the Winter Quarters temple in Nebraska.

Howard Egan is my relative. I found this quote in the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters.

We also visited Fort Riley, passing through the town of Ogden on our way.

I hope I can be described like that when I die.

Kansas State Wildcats

When I arrived in Manhattan (they call it the Little Apple) I thought I was coming into a very small town. I didn't realize that Fort Riley AND Kansas State University are both located in Manhattan, which brings the total population of the city to around 75,000 (I think). Definitely not a small town.

Shenandoah (Part 2)

2011-10-22T15:36:00.003-06:00

Another morning trip to the beautiful colors of Shenandoah, this time for a 10-mile stroll through a different part of the forest...

...with a post-hike visit to Sperryville. What a great little place. I love country folk.

Shenandoah

2011-10-15T15:28:00.004-06:00

Went on a crisp, 9-mile, beautiful, Virginia-morning hike through the forests of Shenandoah

First time I've ever seen a bear in the wild

Sourdough bread bowls and JetBlue's pop corners

2011-09-20T14:40:00.004-06:00

Julie and I flew out to California this past weekend to visit her brother (and his wife and cute little girl). Saturday morning we drove to San Francisco to wander around. We had sourdough bread soup-bowls (I had clam chowder in mine and Julie had the tomato soup) for lunch. Wow! So delicious. I had no idea that San Francisco is famous for sourdough bread.

This (Fisherman's Wharf) is where we devoured our yummy lunch.

Aren't those fake owls supposed to keep the birds away? I guess San Franciscan birds are a bit smarter than the rest.

The famous San Francisco trolley that we didn't get to ride. :) Actually, we didn't want to waste a whole hour standing in line to get on one.

Funny bench

Saturday afternoon I drove out to Sacramento to meet Kathy, Luther, Brian, Kelly, and Zach at the temple.

Beautiful place. I'm up to 36 now. Watch out, Dad. I'm catching up. :)

I stayed the night at the Zufelts where we ate some amazing fish tacos (special Zufelt recipe) and watched the worst BYU-Utah football game I've ever seen. By the way, the reason for the second part of the title is the fact that we flew JetBlue to California and they had some really good chips called "Pop Corners" (the Kettle variety). I ate four bags of chips there and another four on the way back.

Bedford & Charlottesville, VA

2011-09-10T19:07:00.005-06:00

Julie and I took off early this morning and enjoyed a beautiful drive down to southern Virginia.

Our first stop was the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA.

380 ROTC cadets showed up to take the tour.

In downtown Bedford there is a memorial to the 19 "Bedford Boys" (there's a good book called "The Bedford Boys") who died on D-Day, the most per capita of any US city on that day.

Julie loves cats.

This is in downtown Charlottesville. Have you ever seen a bike frame make out of bamboo?

I took this picture because this theater is on Charlottesville's list of attractions, but I'm not exactly sure of the significance of the place.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-05T19:09:00.009-06:00

This is what happens when I go into a paper/supply/writing store.

National Symphony Orchestra Labor Day Concert

Wandering around Georgetown University with Julie

We drove up to Valley Forge, PA early Saturday morning and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the spirit of the place. These are the little barracks where the Continental Army soldiers stayed during that winter.

I think soldiers today are slightly more comfortable.

I took this one for you, Dad. Can you tell me what scripture that is? This is a test.

What a beautiful place!

The visitor's center at Washington's headquarters

Washington's headquarters building at Valley Forge

Requirements to be in General Washington's guard detail.

Then we drove a few minutes over to Philadelphia. We were told that the "O" is crooked because love is not perfect.

Of course we stopped by the Rocky steps and statue

One of Julie's brothers is affectionately known as "Moose" because he is bigger than the other brothers, who are by no means small.

We had Philly cheesesteaks at Sonny's

This is the "before" picture. Julie's stomach didn't like the cheesesteak as much as her taste buds did.

Here we are at a Washington Redskins game. There's a funny story of how we got our parking pass for the game, but it's too long to tell here, and I need to use my hands and my voice to tell it, so ask me about it later. :)

This wasn't Labor Day weekend, but I didn't want to create a separate post for it. A couple of weeks ago we drove down to Williamsburg. We devoured a delicious meal at this BBQ joint.

They just opened the MLK Jr. monument near the Lincoln Memorial

Family Reunion

2011-08-09T14:13:00.009-06:00

On the way to Cody, WY

Rolling through Yellowstone

Fitting name for the boys

And this car over here......

Old Faithful

Sign at the entrance to my aunt's property

Buffalo Bill Dam

Mural inside an LDS church building in Cody

Getting some ice cream on a hot day

At the range

Getting some photos with the whole family

More Yellowstone pics

Dad at Lower Falls

Ari knows how to chill

When you can't paint, draw, or sculpt......

Daniel & Julie

2011-07-30T11:46:00.007-06:00

One night near the end of May I was lying on a bed in an apartment in the Middle East reading Gerald Lund’s book, Divine Signatures, in which he shows, by telling various true stories, how God’s hand is in our lives. The following is one of those stories. I never could have guessed then the impact it would have on my life.

Selling a Home

The next example happened much later in my life. Lynn and I were married and our family contained six of our eventual seven children. Our house was bulging at the seams, and we decided it was time to move into a larger home. We had a friend who was both a general contractor and a real estate agent. When he learned that we were thinking of moving, he made us an attractive deal. If we would list our current home with him as our agent and also let him be the general contractor for the new house, he could offer us some significant savings. It was a good deal, and so we decided to do it.

This was in the mid-seventies when things were much different in the home financing business. When we spoke with the bank about our plans, they offered to finance both the construction loan and the new mortgage. In addition, they said that they would lock in the current interest rate for a period of six months. However, they warned us that if we didn’t close within six months of signing, we would have to accept whatever the current rate was at that time.

Our friend assured us that he could have the new home done in six months and that half a year was more than enough time to sell our old home in the current housing market. That made sense, and so we moved ahead.

I do remember feeling slightly uneasy. It was not that it felt wrong. It was knowing that if we didn’t sell our current home—or if the new one wasn’t finished on time—we would be in a financial crisis. I would then have three mortgages to pay—the old home, the new one, and the construction loan. My salary and benefits were good as a Church employee, but my resources were hardly sufficient to handle three different house payments. Nonetheless, we signed the papers in early March.

At first, things went well. Construction moved along smoothly. We had numerous prospective buyers coming through our home. The one downside was that interest rates began to shoot up. By early summer the rates had climbed by more than two points. We had to close by the deadline or our house payment would be a couple hundred dollars more per month.

Then other things began to go wrong. By June, the number of people coming through our home had dwindled to a trickle. By early July, no one was looking at our home. My uneasiness turned to open anxiety. We renewed our efforts to make the house an attractive purchase—I mowed the lawn every three days, put new floor tile in the kitchen, repainted several rooms. Lynn and I prayed earnestly every day for help in selling the house. We lowered the cost, not once, but twice. It made no difference. By the end of July, we had not had a single person look at our house in more than five weeks. By mid-August, we were not sleeping well. What were we going to do?

It is interesting to me to think back on what we were feeling then. My wife and I didn’t question that God could help us sell our home. The question in our minds was, would He? It seemed like He had abandoned us, and we began to wonder why. Had this all been a terrible mistake, and this was our punishment? Were we being too worldly for wanting a bigger home for our family? What was wrong? It wasn’t just that He wasn’t answering us. Things were actually going downhill, and fast.

Then I remembered a story from the New Testament about a man who brought his son to Jesus to be healed. From the descriptions given, it appears the boy had what we would call epilepsy. He was having seizures, which caused him to foam at the mouth and sometimes threw him into the fire. The father said he had asked the disciples to heal his son, but they could not. Jesus took the boy and immediately healed him (see Matthew 17:14-21; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-42).

Afterwards the disciples came to Jesus and asked why they had been unable to heal the child. Jesus bluntly told them that it was because of their lack of faith. But then he added, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). That was it. The Master was saying that some problems are of such magnitude that it takes both fasting and prayer to solve them.

That was on a Sunday afternoon. That night I told my wife that beginning the next day I was going to start fasting. I decided that I would fast for one day and then go off my fast for a day. Then I would fast for another full day, and so on. I told her I had determined in my mind that I would keep up that pattern for as long as it took to get an answer.

I can remember saying something like this to her: “Perhaps the Lord’s answer will be, ‘No, I am not going to intervene on this one. You’re on your own.’ But if that is the answer, I want to know so we can prepare how we’re going to cope with it.”

I began my fast that night and went without food all of Monday. I ate normally on Tuesday, then fasted again on Wednesday. I ate Thursday, fasted Friday. When I started the process, I fully expected that I might have to follow that pattern for as long as two weeks to get an answer. But on Saturday morning—after fasting only three times—we got a call from our agent/builder. A real estate agent had just called. We had an offer on our home, and they wanted to close as soon as possible!

Lynn and I were ecstatic. It had worked! We had our answer, and it was more wonderful than we had dared hope. We set an appointment for five o’clock that afternoon to meet with their realtor and review the offer.

So imagine our stunned surprise when a couple of hours later our agent called again. As soon as I heard his voice, my heart plummeted. The buyers had changed their mind, I thought. Not so. “You’re not going to believe this,” our agent said, “but I just received a second written offer from another realtor.”

That afternoon, Lynn and I, still half-dazed with wonder, sat across the table from two different realtors. Both buyers they represented were so determined to purchase the home that they actually bid each other up, and we ended up getting fifteen hundred dollars more than the asking price!

I shared the story with Mom and Dad during one of our subsequent conversations over Skype, and Dad decided to do something. Here’s the June 22nd entry from Dad’s journal:

Daniel mentioned in a Skype conversation with me that he had read in Gerald Lund’s book,Divine Signatures, about how the writer had fasted for something very important every other day for a whole week—with extraordinary results. Well, I’ve done a lot of fasting during my life, but not that frequent. Nevertheless, I am willing to try anything reasonable to help Daniel get a wife! This week I am fasting every other day, and while praying one night an impression came to me that I should enlist the help of many friends in identifying some potential marriage candidates for Daniel. Here’s the e-mail I sent out to approximately three hundred persons the next day to help find marriage prospects for Daniel:

Okay, this is highly unusual, but our wonderful son Daniel (who divides his time between Washington, D.C. and the Middle East—translating Arabic materials for our government) is coming home to Provo, Utah, for the next two months. He’ll turn 32 during the months he’s here, and he’s still single. Therefore! Any of you who may be acquainted with a young woman in her mid-20s to early 30s, having accomplished something already in her life (mission, university degrees, work—something!), and being kind, loving, pretty, smart, ambitious, desiring marriage and family . . . if you’re acquainted with a potential candidate that fits the description (hey, Daniel fits all that, too—except “pretty”), then send a photo (or Facebook site) along with a brief description, including name and phone number, back to me to pass on to him. He’s quite willing to phone, text, and/or visit all real potentials. Don’t tell Daniel I’m doing this (though it wouldn’t surprise him; he knows I’m his most ardent advocate—especially having to do with eternal things).

Had I known about his email I would have advised him against sending it out to so many people. It almost seemed like desperation, and although I’ve always wanted to marry, I’ve never been desperate to do so. Now I’m glad I didn’t know about it. One of the responses was from Linda Archibald, a good friend. Her message was as follows:

Hi DKO. Your message re: Daniel arrived this morning, I didn’t intend to follow up on it and try to play cupid. I haven’t had much luck with that sort of thing in the past. (I even asked Daniel once about putting him in touch with someone I knew. He said to send a photo, but she got engaged before anything could transpire and is now married.) But a name kept coming into my mind today—for whatever reason—and I decided to at least reply. Only thing is, she is not in Utah. She is in D.C. Her parents are in Cedar City where she grew up. She will turn 27 next week and is the only sister to seven brothers who are all older than she is. Dallas and I met her parents at Thunderbird Graduate School in Arizona way back in the ’60s. Her father has been a stake president, regional representative, and area authority seventy. She has a degree in political science, and is finishing up a master’s in Culture, Communication, and Technology. She works for Exxon Mobil in D.C. and is a current temple recommend holder. In the past, she has traveled with study abroad programs, especially in Europe. If this bio is appealing, I have pictures I can send. Julie is cute/attractive/darling/etc [I’d like to insert an “Amen!” here J]. If there is continued interest [Oh, there most definitely is], I can get contact info for her in D.C. (or put you in touch with her parents). If it gets to that point, I think we should let Julie know what’s going on—and send her a picture of Daniel. I have several good photos of him in my archives. Let me know what you think, Matchmaker.

Dad called me on the night of Saturday, June 25th, at midnight (EST), to tell me that he had a girl I needed to check out. I thought, “Dad, it’s midnight and you want to set me up again? Been there, done that…..a lot!” He said he was emailing some pictures right then and I should take a look. I did, and I was pleasantly surprised. As you can see from the above email, Sister Archibald only provided a first name. Now I needed a way to contact Julie. I emailed Linda the next morning and asked for a phone number. When I returned from church that afternoon I had the phone number waiting in my inbox. How she was able to get the phone number is a pretty funny story in and of itself, but I’ll let Julie comment on that if she wants to. I called Julie that night (Sunday night) and told her that I wanted to take her out on a date, but that I only had three days before I would take off for a two-month vacation to Utah.

She agreed to go out with me the next night. We went to a Thai restaurant and then back to her neighborhood where we walked and talked for another hour or two. I was hooked. I loved talking to her and I loved looking at her. However, I was also frustrated because I knew she had plans the next night, she had a temple shift on Wednesday night, and I was flying out early on Thursday for Utah. The next night I told her I wanted to see her again before I left. I told her that if she would let me I would drive up to the temple (the following night) to see her after her shift. She probably thought I was a little weird (or too forward), but she agreed. On Wednesday night I drove up and waited for her to come out of the temple. We chatted while we walked around the temple grounds for a bit and then we had to go our separate ways because it was late. I gave her a few gifts (her birthday was the following day), gave her a hug, and headed home. I kept thinking about her while I packed my bags for the trip. Even though we had just barely met and we hardly knew each other, I didn’t want to go two full months without seeing her. Hoping that she felt the same way, I emailed her that same night and told her how I felt. I offered to fly her out to Utah. The next day I was thrilled when I received her response telling me that she would be happy to come out to Utah.

We Skyped and talked on the phone over the next few weeks. I liked her more and more with each conversation. She was finally able to fly out on the 22nd of July, which seemed like forever since the first time we met, and we spent a perfect weekend together. I picked her up from the airport and we went out to lunch with her brother, who is blessed with a great sense of humor, and his wife. That afternoon, despite Julie’s lack of interest in the Harry Potter series, she agreed to watch the last HP movie with me. That evening we attended the Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day concert.

Saturday morning Jarem’s Dad took us out on Utah Lake for a fun sailing lesson. The water was calm, the temperature was just right, the breeze was…….breezy, and the company was excellent.

Saturday afternoon we went to the movie theaters, this time to watch 17 Miracles. I highly recommend it for those who haven’t seen it.

After the movie we met up for a birthday dinner at Mimi’s Café (Mom, Dad, Jarem, and I have birthdays within a week of each other).

After dinner Julie and I drove straight down to Cedar City to spend a day and a half with her family. I got to meet her parents, three more of her brothers, their wives, and their cute kids. On Sunday, after church, we had a delicious lunch and then they all sang Happy Birthday to me. Barbara (Julie’s Mother) had made two cheesecakes and she didn’t even know that I’ve always had cheesecake on my birthday. Little Claire helped me blow out my candles and open my presents.

Sunday night Julie and I went up to Cedar Breaks to watch the sunset. I wanted to kiss her there, but I wasn’t feeling it, or maybe it was too windy, or maybe there were too many people around. Ok, so I was a little nervous and I didn’t work up the courage to do it there.
We went back down to the “C” on the mountain to finish watching the sunset, and yes, that is where we had our first kiss.Monday morning we said goodbye to Julie’s parents and headed north again. We stopped at Mom and Dad’s house to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat, and then we drove to the airport for Julie’s return flight. I had mixed feelings driving back home after I left her at the security line. I was excited and happy at having just experienced one of the best weekends of my life, but oh how I missed (miss) her.

This must be what love feels like.

Monticello Temple

2011-07-30T07:38:00.002-06:00

Dad and I decided to drive down to Monticello, Utah, to visit the last of the 13 Utah temples in which we had not done temple work. We left around 1:30PM, drove the four hours down, did some work in the temple, and drove the four hours back to Provo that same evening. I enjoyed spending some quality time with Dad.

Alaska

2011-07-30T02:23:00.015-06:00

With my bro. We're about to board the Golden Princess.

With Mom and Dad at one of the formal nights.

We had church in Skywalkers Nightclub.

Because I signed Joseph up so late for the cruise the only room they had left was a room for disabled folk. It was twice as big as the regular rooms!

Arriving at Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier

One of the many salmon hatcheries in Alaska

Coolest dog I've ever seen!

Very friendly too. :)

At the salmon bake

Small LDS chapel

Panning for gold

Way up near the border with Canada

Coming into Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay

Lumberjack show in Ketchikan

Our guide in Ketchikan, standing next to a skunk plant.

Bear-proof public garbage cans

Totem Bite Park

Bald Eagles

Sign on a restroom door

Butchart Gardens

Victoria, BC

Uncle Daniel

2011-04-10T21:40:00.003-06:00

Six nephews in one house!

2011-04-06T21:13:00.011-06:00

I flew in to Utah toward the end of March. Sara and Jarem (with their three little boys), having recently moved back from Oregon, are in Mom and Dad's house until they find a place to live. Lizzie (with her three little boys) drove in from San Diego. We've had six little guys in the house for almost two weeks. What a riot!

We took the boys to Rock Canyon for a little hike one afternoon, stopping at a bridge along the way for a race.

Never leave a man behind!

We raced over and over again.

Who knew that Lizzie and Dan would produce a Chinese baby.

Yep, always setting a good example for the young ones.

And then I took the camera to photograph the photographer. Lizzie chastised me for getting too much trail. It's a beautiful trail. :)

Ok, less trail.

As usual, there must be rain and/or snow on conference weekend.

Five inches of the white stuff!

I played ping pong against Susan Easton Black. Should be easy to beat a little old (ok, not so old) lady, right?

Not so!

She beat me two games in a row. I was ahead by 7 points during the second game and she came back to win.

Gideon's laugh

Your New Diet

2011-01-10T02:26:00.003-07:00

One of my resolutions for the new year is to read the entire Old Testament. I just finished Exodus and now I'm a few chapters into Leviticus. There is some pretty.....um......I'll use the word "interesting" (you can decide what that means).......stuff in these chapters. For those of you whose resolutions have something to do with changing your diet, I refer you to Leviticus chapter 11. Ready? Here's your new diet:

Don't eat:

Camel

Coney (Wikipedia tells me that a "Coney" is the English word for rabbit, but it also says that it's a translation of a Hebrew word which would mean "rock hyrax" in modern English.)

Hare

Swine

Eagle

Ossifrage (Now called the "Lammergeyer" or "Bearded Vulture". The old name - Ossifrage - means "Bone Breaker". It gets that name because of a curious eating habit. It lives on a diet that is 90% bone marrow found in the bones of dead animals. It will take a heavy piece of bone, fly up to a higher elevation, and drop the bone on rocks down below in order to split the bone into smaller pieces, which it then swallows whole. It has stomach fluids that are more acidic than battery acid, which break down the bone for digestion. Funny coincidence: I just watched another episode of the BBC series "Life" this morning. I watched the one on birds, which included the Lammergeyer.)

Ospray (Now spelled "Osprey". Wikipedia says that it is classified as a large raptor approximately two feet in length, with a wingspan of two meters. It is sometimes called the "Sea Hawk" or "Fish Eagle," because it feeds primarily on fish.)

Vulture

Kite (Another large raptor, like the hawk and eagle. There are many varieties of Kites, which is probably why the Bible says "...and the kite after his kind.")

Every kind of raven

Owl

Night Hawk

Cuckow (We call them "Cuckoos" now. There are many species throughout the world.)

Hawk "after his kind"

Little Owl

Cormorant (There are a lot of species of these birds too.)

Great Owl

Swan

Pelican

Gier Eagle (Wikipedia: Translated into English from the Hebrew word "Rachamah". Commonly known as the Egyptian Vulture.)

Stork

Heron

Lapwing (Wikipedia: "Noted for its slow, irregular wing beat in flight and a shrill, wailing cry.")

Bat

[Poor chicken. He didn't make the "don't eat" list of birds.]

Weasel

Mouse

Tortoise

Ferret

Chameleon

Lizard

Snail

Mole

Verse 20 says, "All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you." Can you think of a bird that goes on all four?

You can eat these:

Anything with fins and scales in the waters

Locust

Bald Locust

Beetle

Grasshopper

So, what do you think? Yummy, right? There are other rules in chapter 11 about the kinds of animals that can/cannot be consumed, but I mostly included the ones mentioned by name.

Veteran's Day 2010

2010-11-12T12:33:00.005-07:00

Alan (one of my roommates) and I drove down to Arlington Cemetery on the morning of Veteran's Day to watch the wreath-laying ceremony.

It was a gorgeous day!

Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Getting ready for the wreath-laying ceremony

VP Biden

Alan, Lee (my other roommate, who met us there), and myself

Beautiful November day in Washington DC

Visiting the gravesite of the Kennedy family

Alan and I went to the Washington Capitals hockey game that night. What a game! The Caps won the game 6-3, and that included a Hat Trick (3 goals scored by one person). Check out my Facebook page to see a short video from the game.

On the drive home we were entertained by a car full of drunk guys honking and swearing at everyone they could see. It was actually just one of the guys doing the swearing. Obnoxious? Yes. But since we were sitting in traffic at least it gave us something to watch. At one point the guys pulled up next to a truck (whose occupants might have also had a little too much to drink) and persuaded one of the occupants of the truck to drink his entire can of beer without taking a breath. He did so, and then he proceeded to throw his can of beer through the driver's side window of the other vehicle. Oh my, what alcohol can do to people.

Monticello (Pronounced MontiCHello), VA

2010-11-06T15:20:00.004-06:00

I woke up at 4:00 this morning to get ready for a little drive down to the home of Thomas Jefferson. We drove two hours south, met up with a few friends, and spent most of the day touring TJ's home and grounds. It's November, and it's a little cold outside, but it was a beautiful day at a beautiful place.

TJ's place of burial

He was 6 feet 2 1/2 inches tall

3 days, 6 temples, 1084 miles

2010-10-22T22:25:00.006-06:00

Tuesday morning I drove to Vernal to meet my good friend, Jon, and visit the Vernal Temple.

It has a different look to it because it was converted from a tabernacle.

Thursday morning I got up early and drove to the Ogden Temple.

The Ogden Temple is going to be closed for two years for a massive makeover. I guess they finally got tired of all the complaints that this temple looks exactly like the Provo Temple. :)

I then moved on to the Logan Temple.

Beautiful

And following the Logan Temple I drove a couple of hours west to the Twin Falls Temple, where I had the good fortune of doing sealings with Brother (Doctor) Petersen, another great family friend.

Twin Falls

I spent the night at the home of my cousins in Pocatello. We had a wild game of Apples to Apples before getting some shuteye. You girls are awesome! Annalee was kind enough to give up her bed for me Thursday night. It was the first time in my life that I slept in pink/purple sheets. :)

Uncle Craig is awesome too. Here we are at the Rexburg, Idaho Temple Friday morning.

With Aunt Audrie at the Idaho Falls Temple.

I rented a small, environmentally-friendly vehicle for my temple trip.

Nope, this has nothing to do with temples. Jessica and I met up with Chris and Stacy Wednesday night for some good Lebanese food and a fun haunted house in Salt Lake.

This is what happens when I'm driving alone in Idaho with nothing to distract me.

Spruce Goose

2010-10-15T19:53:00.004-06:00

Today I went with Sara to the current home of the Spruce Goose, in McMinnville, Oregon.

It has the longest wingspan of any plane

Howard Hughes thought his plane might sink on the water so he put a bunch of beach balls in it just in case.

Da Vinci knew how to write backwards and upside down. I wish I could do that.

Twilight and Seattle

2010-10-14T23:39:00.010-06:00

Monday morning I flew to Portland where Sara, Jarem, Sadie, Ari, and Jude picked me up for our little adventure to Washington State.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the trip, but I had to insert it here because it made me laugh when I found out Granny has a grabber.

I like Southwest Airlines even more after seeing this

Sara found an amazing place for our two-day stay in Forks, Washington. The people we rented this house from did a great job.

Ari was extremely happy about his little room

Our first stop was the Hoh Rainforest

Phone booth at the Hoh Rainforest

Sara, Jarem, Sadie, Jude, and Ari in the Hoh Rainforest

We met Alice in the rainforest and she accompanied us on our trip

Ari and Jude decided that taking their clothes off made things much more fun

Alice and Sadie visiting Charlie Swan

We left vampire territory and went over to visit the werewolves in La Push

Ari, Jude, and Sadie on the beach at La Push. Ari was showing off his pouty face.

Then he tried to hide his pouty face

Daddy and son at La Push

Sadie reading to the boys before driving over to Seattle

The beautiful mountains of northern Washington State

Tired of driving!

Just plain tired

We stopped in Port Angeles. This restaurant is supposedly where Bella and Edward had their first date, or first meal together, or something like that.

Check out the pink sign. I think there might be a few people in this country who feel that way.

Sadie and I visited the Space Needle in Seattle

EMP (Experience Music Project)

Stylin'

Pike's Place Market

Jarem says this streetlamp resembles Brother Brigham.

And here's Brother Joseph upside down

The wall of gum

Ha! What a great feeling when Uncle Daniel outlasts the nephews.

Jarem and I paid a quick visit to the Seattle Temple on Thursday morning

Another great trip and more fun memories!

Manti Temple, Alpine Loop, Bargaining, Hiking the Y, BYU Homecoming Spectacular, Clark Planetarium

2010-10-08T07:05:00.013-06:00

Home Sweet Home. I love being back in Utah with family and friends, and the beautiful Fall weather too! I flew in last Saturday and enjoyed a weekend of General Conference (even though I was very distracted by my cute nephews).

On Tuesday Dad and I drove to the Manti Temple. What a beautiful place!

Doing a little scripture reading with Soren and Anders

On Wednesday we all jumped in the van and drove the Alpine Loop. These mountains are majestic. Even more so in the Fall. This is granny (my Mom) with the newest little man in the family (Karsten).

Fall colors on the Rocky Mountains

Lizzie with her baby boy. He is such a happy, smiley boy.

Anders tells me that "you have a hole in your hair."

Soren brought some of his art to sell to Uncle Daniel, so I taught him the art of bargaining.

He started out offering me his pieces of art for 7 cents, 25 cents, etc, so I taught him about starting high and then bargaining from there.

He definitely went high. 79 Dollars?! That's a little too much for me, my friend.

How about $1.50? Nope, not gonna do it.

Ok, maybe $3.27?

Here are the names of Soren's pieces of art and the final prices he gave me:

The Funky-Looking Picture - 10 cents

The Crazy Eyeball Lion - $2.00

The Mommy-Head Balloon Bomb - 9 cents

The Soccer Crazy House - 7 cents

The Colorful Space Bomb - $7.00

Sticky Space Marble - 50 cents

Hard Roll Ball - $1.60

Stick Wood - $3.22

Hit Me Bunny Mustard [my favorite!] - 41 cents

Super Sun - 36 cents

Amyy Gun [He meant "Aiming" Gun, but he told me it's spelled "Amyy"] - 41 cents - Soren started out by telling me that this drawing was 41 dollars. I offered him one dollar. He countered with 41 cents. Deal! :) Obviously I didn't teach him how to bargain very well.

Delling (Design Yellow Green) - 16 cents

Celojungle and Ladder a Blue Path - 45 cents for both of them!

Different Strands ("Strands" stands for "Street Mans") - $2.20

Best Mist Nest - $1.55

Fancy Shmancy - 32 cents

Longest & Tallest Person With Noodles In His Hand - 75 cents

Knock How - Free gift!

Total: $21.19

I should mention that the weather here has been pretty crazy this week (heavy rain, thunder, etc.), but only when we weren't on our little outings. We've been lucky. On Thursday we hiked the Y. Soren made it up and down all by himself. Lizzie carried the little man the whole way! Anders made it most of the way by himself . . .

. . . and when he couldn't keep his little legs going any longer, he got a ride.

We did it!

Dangling our feet off the edge of the world. Lizzie got some great shots.

Happy to be a Cougar fan!

Thursday night Granny and I went on a date for her 96th birthday (which was actually Friday). We watched an amazing two-hour program (the BYU Homecoming Spectacular) featuring the BYU Ballroom Dance Company, Contemporary Dance Theatre, Cougarettes, Percussion Ensemble, Philharmonic Orchestra, Women's Chorus, and the Young Ambassadors. Stephen Jones (remember the guy who did BYU's copy of the Old Spice commercial?) was one of the emcees, along with Brad Wilcox. They were really funny together.

My hot date

Dan (my brother-in-law) flew in Thursday night. On Friday we went to the Clark Planetarium.

We played on the moon

Then we went to Mars

We watched "Black Holes" in their little dome theater

I have to mention that Lizzie (my sister) took most of these great shots and they'll probably show up on her blog too, but I'm preempting her.

Next Week: Oregon and Washington

Montreal Canada

2010-07-14T13:49:00.004-06:00

Monday morning I drove about five hours to JFK Airport in New York City to pick Dad up. From there we drove another three hours to some place called Glen Falls (or something like that), in upstate New York, where we stayed the night. Tuesday morning we drove the rest of the way to Montreal, straight to the temple, where we met President and Sister Galbraith. After everyone left for the afternoon they gave us a little tour of the temple. We went to a Lebanese restaurant for lunch (yum) and then visited a farmer's market. We all attended the 7:30 session at the temple and I went through the session in Arabic. That was fascinating to me. After all these years working with Arabic in the context of politics, military, religious extremism, terrorism, etc, the celestial Arabic was amazing. After the session we all went back to their place, had a very late (and tasty) dinner with ice cream and strawberries for dessert, and then fell sound asleep.

Montreal Temple

A crow talking to Moroni

Me (or is it "I"?) :)

Dad

Looking out at the St. Lawrence waterway from Pres. and Sis. G's apartment.

Wednesday morning we got up, helped clean the temple (that was a first for me), and then wandered around Montreal a bit. This is the Olympic Park. They had the Olympics here back in 1978.

The view from the tower at Olympic Park

And of course we had to try some local food. This is "poutine." It's French fries covered in gravy and that delicious cheese that almost squeaks in your mouth while you chew it. I had mine with pieces of chicken too.

Then we walked to a little place to eat the Queue de Castor (Beaver Tail). It's like a long, flat scone with cinnamon and sugar on it.

I had the one with cream cheese, little pieces of Score bar, and chocolate on it. It was really good, but oh so sweet!

At the temple with Pres. and Sis. Galbraith

Capitol 4th of July

2010-07-05T06:41:00.005-06:00

At about 12:30AM on the 4th I was lying in my bed trying to decide what I wanted to do for the 4th. Because I really enjoyed the Capitol 4th concert last year I decided to do it again, so Sarah and I went to a 9 o'clock Sacrament Meeting and then we went down and waited in line (sweating like crazy in the 95-degree heat) all day in order to save seats for our friends. We both went through six or seven bottles of water/gatorade throughout the day, but it was worth the suffering. We all enjoyed the concert/fireworks and we made new friends.

This was what I wore to keep the sun off me. I got a few funny looks. :) One cop asked me, "Are you ok?"

The man in the front is Dallas. He sat down next to us while we were waiting in line and we chatted with him about Louisiana (his home State), his floral business, his trip to DC, etc. He became our friend and he spent the whole evening with us.

Me, Emily, I'm bad with names, I'm bad with names, Jessica, and Dallas

Miriam, Dustin, Melinda, and Sara(h)

Lee, Miriam, Dustin, Brock, Melinda, Me, Sara(h), Sarah, DeAnna, and Lauri

Tired little guy

The Marine Band

Reba

This is Charles (Chuck). He and some of his family sat with us in line. He's from out west. He told us that he has watched this concert on TV for many years and he finally got out to see it in person.

World Cup 2010 - USA vs. Ghana

2010-06-26T21:47:00.002-06:00

Well, the USA's run in the World Cup came to an end today. I was pretty bummed about it (and this coming from someone who only watches soccer during the World Cup). I got my hopes up that our team could do something big this time around. Well the truth is, they did do something big. Sure, they didn't win the World Cup, but they definitely played hard. They had some great chances against Ghana and they made the game exciting. Despite the early end for the team, I'm proud of our guys. I think they did a great job and I'll cheer them on again four years from now.

I went to Champs 2 1/2 hours before the game to make sure I got the best tables in the place for our group.

Focused......very focused

Last night I went to a sporting goods store right next to Champs. I wanted to see if I could find any USA apparel for the game. I found this shirt and wore it to Champs. When this nice, young lady saw my shirt she asked where I had purchased it. After finding out that I got it next door, she went and got one too.

Med Cruise - Day 12 - Venice

2010-06-10T15:27:00.008-06:00

My favorite breakfast on the ship

Cruising into the port in Venice

Of all the cities we visited, this was my favorite.

We went out to the balcony with the Martinez family to watch us dock in Venice

The Judd family. Amazing people!

Megan and Nicole were picking up on the older dudes by the end of the cruise. :)

Med Cruise - Day 11 - At sea

2010-06-10T15:20:00.005-06:00

Our little cabin on the ship

Sara and Lyvia

Wandering around the ship after our formal dinner

This is what happens after you've been on a cruise for a while. You eat....and eat....and eat a little more. I gained seven pounds during the 12 days! Others in our group told me they gained around 15 pounds.

Med Cruise - Day 10 - Athens

2010-06-07T20:12:00.006-06:00

We stopped by the Corinth Canal and lo and behold........most of the Athens missionaries were there too (there are only about 30 in the entire mission).

Corinth Canal

This is what we should have done. :)

Sitting in an ancient chair

Ummm

A cool bridge at the Corinth Canal. It lowers into the water when the boats need to pass through.

Our appetizer for lunch. Squid (with tentacles), shrimp, sardines, etc. Yuck!

We drove by the track where they had some of the 2004 Olympic events.

The Parthenon

View from the Parthenon out over the city of Athens

Playing in the wind at the front of the cruise ship.

Med Cruise - Day 9 - Kusadasi

2010-06-06T18:24:00.006-06:00

We docked at the port of Kusadasi

Went to a house where they say Mary (the mother of Jesus) resided for a while after Jesus was crucified.

Mom in front of Mary's house

A wall of wishes at Mary's house

We've had to pay to use the bathroom throughout Europe

Our guide (Seyhan) at Ephesus

Nike - the greek goddess of victory

Ephesus

Seyhan in front of the Library of Celsus

Dad teaching us about Paul the Apostle at the Great Theater in Ephesus

Mckenzie following along in the scriptures while Dad teaches for a few minutes near the Great Theater at Ephesus

I love this sign!

Went to a carpet-weaving store near Ephesus

This is their $85,000 award-winning silk rug.

Turkish boys collecting something when dad knocks it out of the tree.

The ancient temple of..........I forgot. The pillar is the only thing left. Check out the birds making their nest on top of the pillar.