Manti Temple Open House

We were so excited for the Manti Temple Open House! Because the temple has been closed for renovation, our kids have never been to the temple Dad grew up with. So, we made a reservation for Monday after school.

On the Saturday before, we heard lines wrapped all the way from the north entrance down the hill to the west and all the way around the temple grounds to the southeast gate. People with reservations were waiting 4.5 hours! We weren't sure what we were in for. When we arrived at 5pm, we got in line and the people around us told us it would be about 90 minutes from the west gate by the cemetery. We were just above that, so we settled in for a long night.

Luckily, Mom noticed the Lewis children playing on the hill above us. After a few texts, we moved forward about an hour in line, which wasn't really fair, but it sure helped! Soon, we were headed through the doors. 

Can you see the moon?

21.5 years ago we were sealed at this temple.

The day was perfect, and the temple looked really clean and white in the late afternoon sun, but it was even more beautiful inside. The halls were narrow, and the route snaked all through the interior, which led to the long wait times, but it was worth it. We went up the hanging spiral staircase. We walked through the Assembly Hall with podiums at both ends. We walked through all of the ordinance rooms with their amazing paintings and high ceilings. Mom even found our sealing room slightly off the beaten path. We asked if we could peek inside and they told us if we were sealed there, we could have a look. It was much smaller than we remembered, and tucked back in the corner of the first floor, because Grandma Ockey couldn't do stairs. We loved being able to stand in the sealing room with our boys and tell them this is where it all began!

It was wonderful to be in the temple as a family. We talked a little about progression in the temple and how our family had been sealed. Mostly, we just enjoyed the beautiful building. Then we took a few pictures outside and headed to Ephraim for pizza and pasta!

We made it through the long line.

Such a handsome boy!

We love this temple!

And we love Roy's, too!

Capitol Reef Day 2

We woke up to a surprise on Sunday morning. There were 2 inches of snow piled all around the apartment. Worse, the wind was still blowing steadily with occasional big gusts. We had several stops that we needed to make, but luckily, we done almost all the hiking on Saturday, and most of our day would be spent driving. So, Mom made eggs and bacon, and we got cleaned up and checked out by 10 o'clock.

Our main adventure was driving up scenic Highway 12. We'd never done this stretch of road, and it rose steadily, which made the snow even deeper. Luckily, the roads had been plowed. As we climbed, we looked back over Capitol Reef, and we could see the folds and ridges that make up this national park. The drive was really nice, and when we reached the top of the pass, we could see out forever.

 The overlook views were awesome.

You really could see forever.

Back in town, we picked up Mark's van, and he, Dax, and Seth followed us back into the park. We took a very short hike to Sunset Point. It was windy and cold, but not so nasty as having the sand flung at us the day before. We enjoyed the hike and took plenty of pictures.

The snow on the red rocks was so pretty.

The boys really were good troopers on this trip.

This was honestly the nicest part of the trip. Not much wind.

Seth was even taking his coat off.

This is such a pretty spot in Capitol Reef.

The boys climbed a little bit!

We survived.

We had one more idea for a hike, which required a short drive on a dirt road. We made it easily enough, but the snow was over our shoe tops, so we had lunch at the trailhead instead. Mom made sandwiches and we ate in the vans. Then we started on the way home. It was earlier than we'd have liked, but another storm was rolling in.

Both vans made this trip!

The storm was coming from the west, so we decided to go up through Levan rather than over the mountain to the freeway. This turned out to be a good idea. Still, by the time we reached Gunnison, the snow was really pounding down. It took us a long time, but Mark did a great job driving his van, and we made it without incident. 

It was quite the weekend!

Capitol Reef Day 1

Mom planned a weekend to Capitol Reef during the first weekend of March. Everything conspired against us going on this trip, but we made it happen anyway. First, Mom was sick for the week leading up to the trip. Then, Lehi won the state semifinal basketball game despite being behind by 7 points with 55 seconds left. Of course, the Championship Game was Friday night. A massive statewide storm was predicted to blow in. There was even a funeral in Idaho for a member of the Daniels family. Luckily, we pushed through all these obstacles. Mom went to the doctor and got some medicine. Mark and Dad came down late Friday after Lehi won the title, and the funeral was scheduled for Monday when we'd return home. We lost our Friday in southern Utah, but we were looking forward to a full Saturday and Sunday. The storm did blow a lot. We were awake listening to the wind howl for much of the night. It howled through much of our hiking and both scenic drives, too. Fortunately, the precipitation held off.

We woke to a beautiful sunrise.

We got up and moving early. By 8 o'clock we'd finished breakfast and left the small apartment in Torrey. Because of the weather, we wanted to hit our longest hike early. This was a steep one that we'd never done called Chimney Rock. The red rock was really beautiful in the early morning sun, and though there was some serious climbing, we spent much of the hike reminiscing about our favorite vacations, moments, and national parks. The views were gorgeous and so was walking among the red rocks.

This hike was perfect for the morning.

We hiked up above chimney rock.

The views of the park were stunning.

The boys were good troopers on this steep hike.

Mom loved this view right here.

We kept finding other spots to overlook.

Capitol Reef has the steepest walls.

The colors of rock are beautiful, too.

Mom is always bringing up the rear.

We had a lot of hiking to do, and our next one was Hickman Bridge. This hike is also steep, but quite a bit shorter. Both trails were almost empty, in sharp contrast to when we had to wait our turn to take photos at the natural bridge on our last visit. It was much nicer, and though we had aching knees by the time we got back to the van. Mom made lunch in the van, and we drove down the road to our third, and final hike.

We also stopped at the petroglyphs.

The kids were excited to find Mike Wasowski. 

It was so windy! We were really bundled up!

We love this little bridge on the way to Hickman Bridge.

Dad made sure to get lots of photos of Mom this trip.

Everyone on top of the small natural bridge.

Hickman Bridge is a great hike.

We were lucky to have the bridge all to ourselves.

Grand Wash is the most famous hike in Capitol Reef, and we'd done it before, but we enjoyed the walk up the narrow canyon. We were a little slower, but the boys were great, and we finished by around 2 o'clock. By the end of the day, we'd put 10 miles on the pedometers with the other, shorter walks we did in late afternoon.

I love hiking the Grand Wash.

The walls area amazing!

Our boys have loved climbing in the holes since they were little.

This hike was our favorite.

It was a great day!

We drove east out of the park to check out a few scenic spots. The first was at the Mars Desert Research Center. According to Mom's research, this is the site that astronauts train for missions to the moon or Mars. The landscape is mostly flat and there is no life at all. Boulders strewn across the valley floor do look a lot like the surface of another planet. It was a lot like the badlands, but even more barren. Farther along there were purple striped hills that were really pretty in the late afternoon light.

The hills were so cool.

It really felt like another planet.

Only Mom and Dad got out of the car at this stop.

Next, we drove some really ugly roads to a similar viewpoint. The first stop was to see a massive rock structure called Factory Butte. It was a really massive, soaring rock, similar to the Temple of the Sun that we saw on a prior visit. We didn't stay at this stop for long as the wind was whipping up the dust and visibility was low.

After another drive, we came to an overlook called Moonscape Overlook. This was a massive, open valley that stretched out in front of us. It was a straight drop to the gray, rock-strewn floor. Again, it was just an overlook, but it was such unique landscape that it was worth the difficult drive.

The view was stunning!

Once again, only Mom and Dad got out due to the wind.

The boys were excited for their favorite restaurant in this area, which is called Slackers. We had burgers and fries, and then, because they'd been such good sports about the 10 miles hiking in wicked wind, we let them get shakes, too. It was a great Saturday!

We love this spot!

The Best of Basketball

Dad got to coach three basketball teams this year! Seth's team was up first, and we were lucky enough to have a few of Seth's friends on the team and a few kids we'd played with in years past. This was also the first year with real referees and keeping score. Seth was a serious star, and we won 7 out of 8 games he attended (he missed 2 for trips). He especially liked to pass and rebound, but he was the only kid on his team who made a three-pointer this year, and he made several. Seth also enjoyed practice where the coach gave away $1 to the person who won some of the games. Seth walked away with a lot of dollars this season!

Seth got to shoot some free throws, too.

Seth had a hard game, but he was always glad Dad was his coach.

Such a fun team!

Dax still had to play in the Bantam League, and it was a tough season. He had all of his friends return, and we practiced at Highland again, which was nice. A lot of the players on Dax's team had made good progress since their introductions to basketball last year, but the other teams were better, too. Worst of all, Dax struggled with a knee injury. He played in every game, but he often looked hobbled, and he had difficulty getting open shots as he struggled to drive off the dribble. Still, he was a good team leader, and it was nice to see other players step up. He and Dad will be happy to get back to Lehi next year.

Dax was a good leader on his team.

And he is so fast!

This is a great group of boys!

Mark had the same team, plus we added a friend who chose to leave the high school team. This really helped our team get better, but we also moved to the A League. Still, we did pretty well, and we drew some big crowds of high school girls. In Mark's best game, we had the baseball players gone, and Mark rallied the five people we had at the game from 22 points down. He ended up with 41 in a big win. In the semifinal, he ran into the same team. Despite being down 9 with an under two minutes to play, we stormed back with intense defense. Mark drained a very long three to put us ahead by two with just a few seconds. Unfortunately, Mark's friend on the other team hit a miraculous three to knock us out of the tournament. It was a great ending to our season! "And we were all depressed!" ~Mark

This is the only picture I have of Mark. 

We missed a team pic with Mark's friend, but here are a bunch of them.