Hiking

So here are some pictures from earlier in the summer when we went hiking. We took the Mill B South trail, which is located in the Big Cottonwood Canyon. The trail was short, shaded, and followed a stream.

I thought this was a cool bend in the stream.

What a stud.
I loved hiking next to the water.
The sound of water running in a stream is one of my favorite sounds in the world.
The shade was nice, too.

There was another trail that branched off of the Mill B South trail and led to Lake Blanche. We decided to try it, or at least go a little ways along the trail.

We didn't even make it halfway to the lake before we got tuckered out and decided to turn back. But it was still fun.
The trail took us up higher, though, and the views were really pretty.

We might go hiking tomorrow. If we do, I promise to post some pictures, and I'll try to do it sooner.

First Wedding Anniversary

Earlier this month, Jeff and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We spent the Friday before (July 31st) at Johnson's Mill, the bed and breakfast in Midway where we spent our honeymoon. We were planning on going hiking on Saturday, but it turned out to be a pretty hot afternoon, so we just came back and relaxed at home.
This is the Mount Timpanogos room, where we stayed last year and this year.

Here's a side shot of Johnson Mill.

You can walk around on the grounds and see sights like this. There are also deer on the grounds, but I didn't get a good picture.

This is the porch where they serve you breakfast in the morning.

As gifts, Jeff and I gave each other pictures. Jeff painted a picture of the Bountiful Temple. It is pictured below - I apologize that my computer chose to rotate it. Isn't he amazingly talented?

I hired Jill Buckmiller, the art teacher at La Europa, to draw the picture below. It is based on a photograph (also below) taken at our wedding that Jeff and I both love. But, as you can see in the photograph, there were several things in the background that detracted from the picture. So I thought it would be cool to have the picture drawn of just us. It turned out really well.

All in all, it was a wonderful first anniversary, just like it's been a wonderful first year.

Catch-Up

Well, the official summer is coming to a close, and I realized that we haven't really blogged about what we've been up to lately. So this will be a hodgepodge catch-up post.

The summer term at La Europa went pretty well for me. I got to teach my NUMB3RS class again, which was my favorite. The Da Vinci Code class that I team taught with the English teacher Kelli also went well. It was fun teaching the girls about different kinds of codes. For their final project, we sent them on a scavenger hunt throughout the school. My favorite clue that I came up with read (after it was decoded): You seek the median on the left side of the place where you can find what it means to be disliked, disgusting and dismal. Think about it for a few minutes - I'll post the solution in a comment.

For Jeff, the second half of the summer came with unique challenges at work. This was due to the fact that about 6 weeks ago he developed an odd bump on his right wrist. In addition to a sore wrist, the pain sometimes traveled up to his elbow and down to his fingertips. He went to see a physical therapist. While it helped to relieve some of the pain, the bump remained. At first, we thought that it might have been caused by over-using his mouse at work. In an attempt to relieve the pain and avoid problems in the future, he went through several different mice, tried out three new desk chairs, changed his desk, got a wrist pad, and got a new keyboard. After all that, his bump still wasn't going away, so he went to go see a doctor. He found out that he had a ganglion cyst (cause unknown - possibly an old injury from volleyball or playing the piano that was aggravated by work). So last week the doctor drained the cyst and he's wearing a splint for a few weeks to help it heal and avoid injuring it further. If it ends up coming back, he'll need to have surgery.

My brother Kenneth came home from his mission last month! I was really excited for him to meet Jeff. He was home for a few days, then went to Virginia to visit with friends for a week or two. He got back in town this past week. He'll be going to BYU this fall, and I look forward to having him close by.

In addition to my brother being back, my sister Marie is also in town this week with her two kids Evelyn and Edison. On Wednesday I went to the airport when they flew in. On Thursday Jeff and I drove down to Provo and went to a few classes at Education Week (which were awesome!) with Marie and Suzanne. On Friday we went with my mom, Marie and her kids, and my sister Suzanne and her kids to the Children's Museum (I think it's called Discovery Gateway) downtown. I had a ton of fun, and so did the kids. Then yesterday we got together for family pictures, lunch, and an afternoon session in the Provo temple. It was the first time our entire family was able to go through the temple together. And then tonight we're getting together for a dinner.