Trip to Utah

So I (Jordan) haven't written a blog posts in months! Christina's written a few to keep people updated on Jackson. But tonight's the time to catch up!

Last month Christina and I went on a trip to Utah for some Ernst & Young recruiting events. It was a very busy few days, but a lot of fun! The recruiting event on Saturday was called "The Ernst & Younger Games." It was pretty much an enhanced game of capture the flag up at Aspen Grove. The weather turned out to be ideal for it. Then Christina came up for the lunch afterwards.

Bwood and Sarah watched Jackson while we were at the lunch. They said they needed some practice before their baby came. Jackson had a fun time with them. Afterwards, we went to Sammy's for some pie shakes. Yumm!

We also visited my brother Ryan and his wife Karin that evening. They were on their way to a ball at BYU. They took the pictures for that one and haven't sent any too us yet! So no pics there.

We also tried to go swimming with Jackson but were very disappointed to find the pool was closed for maintenance. Jackson was so sad.

On Sunday we visited my Grandma and she got to meet her great-grandson for the first time. 

We also stopped by Christina's brother and sister-in-law's place. Jackson had fun and got to see his younger cousin.

While I was back at recruiting for most of the day on Monday Christina met up with some friends, including Tiffy. They went for some Kneader's french toast, but didn't even take full advantage by getting seconds.

Trip to Utah

Three weeks ago I traveled to Utah to do some recruiting for my company, Ernst and Young. I left for Utah on Monday evening and got back Thursday morning, but went straight to and from work.

On Tuesday, I participated in the Ask EY Booth. I basically talked to students about EY and answered any questions while they got some of the free stuff we had at the tables (ice scraper, USB key chain, pens, and donuts and cookies while they lasted). It was amazing to me how few people I recognized when I was there all day. Have I really been gone that long? It'll be two years since I graduated in December, and it's almost a 1.5 since we left Provo. Crazy to think that place I love and spent so much time at is full of almost all new people. A few more years and the people there will be completely new and so young! They already seem young. 

That night I went to an EY dinner in SLC with BYU and Utah students interested in EY. After coming back from the dinner I met up with Bwood for a late evening tour of the new BYU Broadcasting facilities! I'm pretty interested in that stuff, since I love BYU sports, and watch other shows on BYUtv as well, on occasion. Plus, I have always been into film production. I took the following photos with my iPhone from parts of the tour (Bwood was the one giving me the tour.)

The main entrance

One of the control rooms when something is being filmed.

The set for one of my favorite shows, True Blue.

One of the studios--where the pre-game football shows are filmed.

Wednesday was a nice day because the only recruiting event was a dinner at night. So I worked a little bit, but was also able to reminisce by visiting some places and going around campus. I stopped by the Provo Tabernacle.

I'm very excited that this building that I have very fond memories of is going to be a new temple! I can't wait till it's finished! I performed in the Tabernacle at least ten times while in college--usually with Men's Chorus and the combined choir. It is a little sad that performances like that won't be able to happen anymore with that great organ. But turning it into a temple after the tragic fire is an amazing plan.

I also drove up the canyon hoping to see some beautiful colors--unfortunately most of the leaves had already fallen. Which is quite different from California, as the leaves just starting falling in the last two weeks--and there are still many different colors on the trees. I guess I had forgotten that about Utah. I grabbed a bite to eat at J-Dawgs, my favorite is a polish dog with secret sauce and sauerkraut. Before the dinner that evening I stopped by Men's Chorus to see the rehearsal. I was surprised to run into a friend from back home, Chris Williams, and am glad that he's in the choir. It was also great to talk to Sister Hall and see the choir. 

I'll leave you with a totally unrelated photo in case none of the above stuff interested you. Here is a picture I took this morning of Mommy and Jackson. She brought him into our bed since he was being fussy and she was really tired and wanted to sleep. 

A Quick Stop in Utah

This past weekend my older brother, Tyler, was sealed in the Oquirrh Mountain temple.  Jordan and I especially enjoyed visiting this temple.  When we first started dating we attended the open house.  It was like a short trip down memory lane.

The ceremony was beautiful...along with the bride.  After the ceremony we all gathered outside for pictures.  Although not snowing, the wind had a bite that went right through our coats.  But in the end we were still all smiles :)  Below is a picture of my immediate family that Jordan took on his iPhone.

Unfortunately, since the photo was taken by Jordan on his iPhone, he's not in it.  (I forgot our camera in California)

After pictures were taken, stomachs were needing to be filled.  The luncheon was at a nice Brazilian buffet called Rodizio's.  The meat was great and the pineapple superb! Here's a photo of a waiter serving the cooked pineapple on a sword:

Jordan and I have both voted Tucanos as the superior of the two restaurants, but still found it a fun place to have lunch.  Visiting with family and friends, taking more pictures, and eating more food than we should.

Below is a short video clip to give you an idea of the atmosphere and introduce you to a few people.

Later that evening, we attended the wedding reception.  There was more food (which we only picked at, still being stuffed from the buffet).  And of course, there was a bit of dancing.  My friend, Tiffany, was so great to come to the reception and visit with Jordan and me!  And one of the best parts of the night was car decorating.  I had some amazing pictures - but they're still in the process of making it to my computer.

Cleaning didn't take too long.  And soon Jordan and I were on our way to Denny's in Lehi, UT to meet up with Nathan and Courtney Sharp.  We all enjoyed some dessert and lots of chit-chatting.  It really made Jordan and I realize how much we've missed our great friends and double dating couple.  Thank you Sharps for a wonderful end to the day!
  

Here's Nathan and Jordan right inside the restaurant.

We both loved our short vacation to Utah!  A wedding and visiting friends and family all within 2 days was quite hectic, but well worth the effort and time.

Farewell Provo Tabernacle

Yesterday afternoon I was amazed to hear the awful news that the Provo Tabernacle had caught on fire over the night. I quickly looked it up on the news and couldn't believe my eyes. From what I have read they believe that it will be a complete loss. I hope they rebuild it though. It might not be the same as having the one's the pioneers built, but it would be a travesty to have something else there (especially if it is NuSkin's expansion). I was surprised how sad I was over this building burning. Here are a few of the experiences that I've had in the Tabernacle over the years.

I spent two and a half years in the BYU 1st Stake and we often had our stake conference meetings at the Tabernacle. That's about five stake conferences with both a Saturday night and Sunday meeting. I also remember one particular meeting--it was a stake music fireside we put on. One of my life goal's was to direct a large choir in a hall like this with a big organ. Well, our ward had already supplied a musical number that evening, an octet singing Have I Done Any Good? I talked to the stake president and offered to have our ward choir sing Guide Us, O Thou, Great Jehovah arranged by Mack Wilberg, a song we sang in church earlier that day. We were a little low on numbers since it was impromptu, but it was an amazing experience to conduct a choir in there with that great organ.

As a side note, that same evening I was asked to give the closing prayer. Right as I got up to the pulpit to say the prayer the organ started playing behind me (it's behind and above, so I couldn't see it). I jumped in surprise and many people in the congregation were laughing or smirking. I quietly sat back down in a chair behind the pulpit to sing the song with the congregation (so still in plain view of everyone). I had looked at the program and there was no song listed, but I guess they had announced it at some point. People still remember this for some reason. Nathan brought it up yesterday when I was talking to him about the Tabernacle without me reminding him.

Many of the BYU Combined Choir concerts took place in the Provo Tabernacle. For this picture we were in the actual choir seats, but Concert Choir and the Singers usually sat here with Men's Chorus on the north balcony side and Women's Chorus on the south. It was always a great experience to sing there.

 

Lastly, Christina and I took a lot of our engagement pictures at the Tabernacle. We chose it because, for one, it's a really cool looking building, but also because the memories I already had there. Provo has lost one tremendous landmark.

Final Days in Utah

We originally planned on hiking the Narrows at Zion National Park August 2-3, but because of rainy forecasts and high possibilities of flash floods, we thought it wouldn't be the best idea. Hopefully we can still do it some other time. Here are some of the things we did instead . . .

We went to the Jordan River Temple. The only two temples I (Jordan) haven't been to in Utah are Vernal and Ogden.

Monday we went to Park City to the outlet mall and the Alpine Slide. Christina had never been and was really scared. Here we are on the lift.

Here is Christina at the end of the slide. We started at the same time, yet I was able to get out of the sled and take a picture before she reached the bottom. She rode in the designated slow lane and warned the boy behind her of that.

On Tuesday we tried to use as much of our Starving Student Card as possible. We were staying at my Grandma's in Salt Lake City, so we went to a mini-golf place for free.

This is after I scored a hole-in-one!

It's been fun Utah! We'll be back to get our things in a little bit! P.S. Christina helped with this blog post.

Leaving Provo

The 5 years I have lived in Provo have been amazing. There are a lot of fun things to do here and many of my closest friends have been made while at BYU. I will miss this place and this view.

Some things have gone unanswered though while I've lived here. I will never understand/know:

• How the traffic/drivers are so bad.
• How on earth has "The Ozz" stayed open? I drive by all the time and never see anyone in it.
• Where is the BYU Info (422-INFO) call center located?
• How will we get by without a Dollar Theater?
• Why do some people go to BYU if they don't want to live the lifestyle? or the Honor Code they signed up for? Of course it's a great education, but there are a lot of great educational institutions.
• Which grocery store is cheaper in the long run, Smith's or Macey's? (I actually have a small opinion on that.)

If you know the answers to any of these questions or have questions of your own, let us know.

We did it!

We conquered Mt. Timpanogos! Christina and I agree that it was probably the hardest physical thing we've ever done in a single day, but it feels good to have done it.

We got up at 4am and made it to the Aspen Grove starting point shortly after 5am. We had the hardest time finding the self-pay envelopes. Then after finding it we realized we didn't have a pen in our whole car. This was very frustrating. They check the lots often, so we needed to pay the $6 fee to avoid a heftier fine. Finally someone else showed up around 5:45am and we asked to borrow their pen. So always keep a pen in your cars!

We started around 6am. I don't think either of us had any idea how tough or long this hike is. It seems like so many people have done it and we looked it up online. One guy said it takes about 8 hours total. That's what I was going off of. The problem is he's probably hiked it many times and is an avid hiker. Christina and I like the outdoors a lot, but we're not avid. Here we are near the beginning. Still very happy.

We passed many waterfalls and streams. Here is Christina behind one of them.

Here is the snow field (most people call it a glacier) we had to go across. At this point we didn't know how much further the hike would be. I had to help Christina want to keep going. And she helped me on the way back down when every part of our bodies ached.

Here we are at the quasi-summit. We thought we were almost there and people were resting and eating lunch, but it was really another hour hike from this point to the summit (shorter for some people). We stopped and ate our lunch here.

This is part of the hike up the last stretch.

View from the top (Elevation: 11,749 ft.)

The lake down there was only about a 1/4 of the way back down.

This shelter is proof that we were at the very top.

Christina and I agreed we're not doing it again. We're glad to have done it though. Our bodies are just aching too much. It's now the day after and we're doing better. Last night I could only walk like Frankenstein's monster. Our thighs, knees, calves, and feet hurt a lot. And we got sunburned even after being careful about applying 50 SPF sunblock before and during the hike. One positive is that it wasn't as hot as I was expecting. Cool breezes and shade from the mountain or clouds helped. We took much longer than 8 hours. We didn't get back until 6pm, so 12 hours. Yes, we took a wrong turn at one point which added a half hour and rested when necessary. That is a lot of hiking in one day!

But if you're wanting an adventure and some beautiful scenery, hike Mt. Timp. It would be a good idea to do some shorter hikes in preparation.

Happenings

Just an update on what's going on in our lives:
-Christina worked for about three weeks substituting in the Provo School District after her student teaching ended.

-She then decided to accept a summer job from APX Alarm in their call center. Not the most enjoyable work, but a lot more consistent than substituting, which would have ended in 2-3 weeks anyway.

-I'm still working 1-5pm at a small CPA firm. If I ever put it on a resume I'll write down "Office Assistant," but I'm really the secretary.

-I have taken 2 out of 4 sections of the CPA Exam. I finished the second one, Business and Economic Concepts today and am pretty sure I passed. I took Regulation (covering tax and business law), and have no
idea if I passed. I may not find out for another month. I hate the suspense! You can retake sections individually if you don't pass. Each section is between 2.5-4.5 hours.

-We will be leaving Utah the end of July and going to Washington for three weeks, then to Brazil.

-I'm playing intramural racquetball and softball. I won my first racquetball game this week. Somehow I got on a really good softball team, and we have won our first two games 26-2 and 29-4.

-Christina and I have started hosting a games' night every Thursday at 8:30pm. Let us know if you're interested in coming. So far it's only married couples, but it doesn't have to be.

Manti Temple

(I didn't take this picture, but I couldn't find a copyright.)

On Saturday Christina and I went to the Manti Temple. It is a beautiful place. We even got to see the spiral staircases they have there afterwards. I'm not sure exactly why they're so special. Something about them being big and each step supporting the weight of the one above it. It was cool.

We forgot our camera. But here is a picture taken of us with my phone as proof that we actually did go.

Wreck on I-15

If you were driving Northbound on I-15 around American Fork on Saturday afternoon, sorry for the delay. Ok, I'm not really sorry, because the accident wasn't our fault.

I was driving and Christina was in the passenger seat heading up to Salt Lake to play games with my parents before they headed back to Washington and go to the Salt Lake Temple. We were in the lane to the right of the carpool lane. For some reason they are removing the carpool lanes for a big stretch of the freeway. There were signs and now cones telling people to move over. Well, a big SUV decided they didn't want to merge over until the last second. I remember seeing an SUV crossing the double white lines into our lane as cones were already starting to appear in their lane. Since he was trying to suddenly work his big vehicle into a very small space, people began to slam on their brakes, including me. Unfortunately I must have been a half second too late, because we weren't going to stop in time. I veered into the carpool lane (in that short time period the cones had already pretty much blocked off the lane) and went in between the giant cones to get out of hitting anyone. I had my foot all the way down on the brake. We were coming to a stop. A moment of relief came over us as we had avoided something catastrophic. Then we were suddenly jolted forward. Even though we had our seatbelts on, I was jolted forward and hit my forehead on the window. It hurt, but wasn't that bad at all. Christina's neck and upper back hurt. It seems that a car behind us had tried to do the same thing as us, only they didn't stop as fast. They actually hit us and pushed our car into the barrier (thanks goodness for those, otherwise it could have been a lot worse). So there is damage in the front and back. There was even a third car that hit the car that hit us.

So we were not at fault. Christina's aunt came to pick us up and we went to the hospital here in Provo to get everything checked out. Christina had some X-rays done as she felt more pain. They said we looked okay. Now we just have to go through the hassle of insurance companies. Even though we weren't at fault, we're bound to not end up with as much as we started out with.

We are very glad though that neither of us was hurt really badly. We have so much to be thankful for, including that. It could have been A LOT worse. Unfortunately there were two accidents behind us on the freeway, probably caused front ours.

Trip to Arches!

Christina and I decided to take advantage of the fact that I had Friday off. We took a trip down south to go camping and hiking at Arches National Park. Neither of us had been before.

Our first plan was to take a slight detour and visit the Manti Temple on the way down. Luckily, I remembered to look it up online before leaving, and we found out it was closed for maintenance. So, we decided to drive an extra hour past Moab to visit the Monticello Temple, in honor of the apartment complex where we met.

Monticello is a really small town. The temple was also really small. We were able to go through it (we brought a change of clothes).

We then drove back up to Moab to find our campsite. Christina and I are both used to camping in Washington where you get a big, secluded campsite the places we have both been to. This was not that way. You get a narrow strip of land. It was a lot of fun though. We roasted hot dogs (well, we had to share cause mine fell in the fire), marshmallows, and had s'mores. This picture is of me in the morning taking down the tent.

We then set off for Arches National Park, just two miles north of Moab. Here we are at the beginning of our journey, the trail to Landscape Arch.

Here is Landscape Arch. It looks like it's about to fall apart (a large section of it did break off in 1991).

Here we are right before getting lost on the trail to Double O Arch. Christina was proud of this picture because she used the timer on it.

We then visited several other smaller arches, including Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Sand Dune Arch, and this one, Broken Arch (this one is actually pretty big).

After all of that we were so tired, we almost decided to skip the 3.0 mile round trip hike to the famous Delicate Arch. We're glad we decided to do it! It was much bigger than I imagined.

Much cooler than the St. Louis Arch (sorry Jason, but it's true).

Our last hike (it was a small hike of 0.4 miles total) was to the Double Arch.

Here are few more pictures for your enjoyment of us at Balanced Rock.

It was a very fun trip! We recommend checking out Arches National Park if you haven't already.