Hello!
I forgot one huge thing in my email last week...trying to remember the last seven weeks is hard! Ha! Ever since BYU announced their new medical school last summer, Richard has wanted to be involved. He immediately emailed Shane Reese within a day or two of the announcement, but never heard back. He emailed Shane Reese again several weeks later, but again, no reply. We are sure that man gets hundreds of emails a day! Well, several weeks ago Richard saw an article in the Deseret News about BYU's medical school and the hundreds of people who are volunteering their time and talents. He put his detective skills to work and found an Intermountain email for the new dean of the medical school. Within 24 hours he had a reply from Dr. Mark Ott, who said he has stopped using his Intermountain email, but happened to just randomly check it and found Richard's email! He gave him the nicest reply and told Richard when and where they will use him. Richard's name is now on an official list kept by Dr. Ott and to expect a follow-up around September. He was SO excited! I am very happy for him. Literally a dream come true for Richard.Go Cougars!
Okay! Back to our week! It has been Spring Break for the kids, and although I have literally been pining for London, we still managed a great week! Richard, bless him, had to stay home and work, but he does have the BYU Cruise in the very near future, so he has not complained about working while we have been playing! Anyway, on Monday morning, all five of us were in the car, suitcases and all, by 9:00 am. We stopped at the Teerlink's house and picked up Cambria and Naomi and all of their things. Then we were on the road bound for Heber! We met Grandma Becky in the Lee's parking lot in Heber and got all five girls (Bridget, Rachel, Gretchen, Cambria, and Naomi) moved over to her car. After a quick stop in Lee's for the bathroom, snacks, and donuts, courtesy of Grandma Becky, they were off to Vernal. We have not been to Vernal since the summer and the girls have been begging to go back. Richard's parents are beyond kind and without hesitation said yes to taking our girls, and two friends, on for Spring Break. The girls have been SO excited and I am very happy that this worked out for them. They got to Vernal around 12:30 in the afternoon and were immediately in heaven.
Marshall and I left Heber and drove south to Page, Aritzona! We stopped for lunch in Beaver, got back on the road, missed our exit (completely my fault!) and added on 40ish minutes of driving time. So lame, and totally my bad. Thankfully, Marshall was kind about it. We got off the freeway in Cedar City and took a mountain road that was both nerve wracking and incredible. Only nerve wracking because we did not have phone service for about an hour and there were hardly any cars in either direction and while the roads were perfectly clear, we were surrounded by literally feet of snow! Haha! But, I will say it was incredible because some of those views were stunning! We were so high up and at times were just met with these majestic views of red rocks, snow, pine trees all spread out before us. It was amazing! I would have been able to take it in more if I wasn't driving, but I could tell that at times Marshall was pretty awed. I was so happy when we were back to a main highway and once again had phone service! Also, thankfully, we got an hour back once we crossed into Arizona, so we pulled into the hotel in Page right around 4:30 pm. We took a little downtime after we got into our room, and then Marshall met up with his good friend, Dex, who's family is also down there for Spring Break. Those cute boys went on a long run around Page and I am so glad they could run together. After that, Marshall and I went and got dinner at a fantastic Mexican place. Marshall got a massive burrito, on a massive plate-it was huge! Haha! It was such a fun setting and really great food. When we got back to the hotel, we watched some Instagram, laughed a lot, finalized our plans for the next day, and then hit the sack.
Tuesday morning Marshall and Dex met up for another run, I grabbed breakfast from McDonald's (breakfast of champions!), we got ready and were out the door for our mid-morning tour of Lower Antelope Canyon! It was just a short drive from our hotel, we got checked in, and just had to wait for a bit before our tour left. The next 90 minutes were magical, completely magical! We had a bit of a walk through the Antelope Wash (basically red sand that floods when they get their monsoon rains in the summer) and then we made our way down to the canyon, and down is exactly what we did. We had to go down a series of metal steps, and one very steep set of stairs (more like a ladder) before we were down in the canyon. I was behind Marshall and I could tell he was quite nervous, but he did great. He told me later he was scared of falling, which was a legit concern! I thought back to how there was no way ten year old Marshall would have done this, and I am very glad that 16 year old Marshall, while slightly nervous, carried on just fine! Anyway, once we made it down all of those stairs, we were down in the canyon and it was incredible! Our tour guide was amazing and had so many great facts for us, and he pointed out all the awesome sights to see and took loads of pictures for us. The lower canyon is narrow, so we were always walking single file, and sometimes we could just eek one foot in front of the other. There were occasional bigger openings, where our group could gather and listen to the guide, but just a few of those. Those canyon walls are completely stunning. Their formations and color variations have been created by water and wind for thousands of years. Our guide said the last time the entire canyon filled with water, all the way to the top, was 2013, and those walls are TALL! But he said every summer, multiple times, they will get monsoon rains and there will be feet of water rushing through that canyon and eventually makes its way to Lake Powell. During our time in the lower canyon, we were so lucky because the sun was out and the sky was blue. So the sun's rays just burst through the top of the canyon. It was also windy, and in a few places, you could see bits of sand being blown down through the sun rays that were filtering through. Seriously magical. I took over 160 pictures in that canyon alone! Haha! Throughout the canyon, we did have to make our way up and down a few more metal stairs, and then at the end we had to climb quite a few stairs to get out and we literally emerged through an opening in a rock. Just incredible.
We got lunch at a burger place called Slackers. Fantastic fries, Marshall kept eating my sweet potato fries! Good burgers too. Yum. We got a little bit of downtime before we left the hotel again to go tour Upper Antelope Canyon. This was a completely different experience, but still very cool. The upper canyon required quite a ride through the Antelope Wash before we made it to the entrance, it almost felt like a roller coaster experience! Ha! But then we literally just walked into the canyon. Upper Antelope is significantly wider than the lower canyon and you just walk into the vast canyon walls from ground level. Unfortunately, the clouds were back so we did not have the sunlight illuminating those beautiful red rocks very well, but it was still really amazing. Again, our tour guide was great and pointed out all the amazing features and took pictures with our phones. The "dragon eye" picture came from him, and is amazing! He also played his wooden flute two times for us! I should mention that these canyons are on Navajo lands and the guides we had for both canyons are Navajo and helped us learn many things about their culture and the importance of the land to them. Normally, with the upper canyon, you go in one end, make your way through and then leave through the other end. But, because we were the last tour of the day, our guide let us walk back through the canyon, so we were able to go through it twice, and on our way through the second time, he again played his flute for us! A very neat experience.
We got dinner at Denney's that night. So lame and totally my bad! I just wanted hot chocolate (we were cold!) and just some warm, comfort breakfast food. Turns out they were out of hot chocolate and the service was SO slow. I think we spent over 90 minutes there for very sub-par food and no hot chocolate! We didn't let it ruin our night though! We made a quick stop at Walmart to get some pants for Marshall and another sweatshirt for me for Wednesday's activities and then we played Skip-Bo before going to bed.
Wednesday morning we were up and out of the hotel by 8:20 am. Picked up more breakfast at McDonald's and then drove to our next tour...kayaking on Lake Powell, through a portion of Antelope Canyon, and then a hike. It was chilly! I had three layers up top, and Marshall had two layers on top and bottom. We really could have used some beanies, but couldn't find anything at Walmart, but we survived! This was our first experience at Lake Powell for both of us, so it was exciting. We met our tour guide and waited for the rest of our group to gather. There was a couple from New York City, a family originally from India, who now live in London, and then another couple, and me and Marshall! Our guide helped us get all set up in our kayaks, two people per kayak, and we were off! It was cold, but not windy, and occasionally the sun would peak through. The water was calm and while Marshall and I weren't the best at moving in any sort of a straight line, we were doing good! The water looked black with the overcast skies and red rocks...I'm not going to lie, that was slightly eery to me. After kayaking on the lake for quite a while, we made a turn and headed into the canyon. It was SO quiet. And that was actually really cool to experience. The canyon was wide, but it was very neat to be surrounded by these red rock walls shooting over one hundred feet into the air. Marshall and I did manage to hit the canyon walls three times with our kayak (I was in charge of steering and clearly not the best at it!) We eventually made it to the "beach" and did have to make our way through a narrow opening, but Marshall helped me navigate it without issue. We then got out of the kayaks and hiked about a mile in and a mile out through the canyon. This portion of the canyon was at times wide and at times narrow. The canyon walls had some very similar elements as the portions of the canyon we had done the day before. Just amazing to think about feet of water rushing through that space with each monsoon. When we got back in our kayak, I told Marshall the goal was to hit the canyon walls less than three times, and I am happy to report that we hit the walls zero times! It was actually so leisurely getting out. I felt like we were moving with the current, it was great weather, we talked with our guide as we paddled along, and we didn't hit any rocks! Once we made our way back onto the lake, it was a different story! We were the last kayak in our group, and while everyone was sticking fairly close to the edge of the lake, we kept getting pulled to the center. It was honestly maddening after a bit. We would steer back in the direction we wanted to go and within 30 seconds we were being pulled toward the center again! By this point we were tired and just kind of wanted to be done. Then it started to rain, though not a heavy rain, and there was wind! And this wind was enough to make small little waves in the water-not waves that were cresting by any means, but significant ripples in the water! Given the cold temperatures, and that we were both fully clothed in many layers of clothing, and being further away from our guide than I wanted to be, I was kind of a wreck! I mean, I kept it together, but I was literally terrified of flipping the kayak. I can't tell you how many times I thought of Elder Renlund's conference talk during this ordeal! Ha! It was honestly a harrowing 15ish minutes for me and Marshall. We just tried to never stop moving and we fought hard against that water to finally make it to shore. I was so relieved to get out of that kayak, and if I ever find myself at Lake Powell again, it will be in the summer on a full size boat! Haha! When we finally got out and made our way back to the car, I told Marshall that was honestly in the top five most scary moments of my life! I knew that I wasn't going to drown or anything, but the thought of being dumped out into cold water, on a cold day, fully clothed, and being far away from the guide who could help me, had me nearly undone! Marshall told me he wasn't scared at all, but just yesterday he let it slip that he was never going back to Lake Powell because it was scary! Vindicated! I am probably making this sound much more dramatic than it was, but I think I will just say I will stick to summer kayaking!
After that ordeal, we did have a delicious lunch! By the time we left Lake Powell it was 2:00 and we had kayaked six miles, and hiked two. We were tired and hungry! Our guide recommended The Birdhouse to us and it was the best food we had down there, and other than Dennys', we had eaten well! The Birdhouse serves fried chicken and it was delicious! We both got the buttermilk topping, Marshall had fries, I did mac and cheese and then we got these amazing donut holes for dessert, dipped in nutella and strawberry jam. Oh my word. That whole lunch was delicious.
We gave ourselves an afternoon respite back at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. Marshall did force himself to get out on a run, good for him! After he showered, we went to Horseshoe Bend, where the Colorado River does almost a complete circle on itself. And that was Marshall's turn to be scared! You observe this wonder from a cliff 1,000 feet above the water! Marshall was a good sport though and managed to look at it from a safe distance and take a few pictures with me. It was a 1 1/2 mile walk round trip, and we had great conversation as we walked to and from. By this time it was 7:30 and we were hungry for dinner. Our first stop was a BBQ place, but their wait was almost an hour, so we opted for Mexican, it did not disappoint. Once we got back to our hotel, we played Skip-Bo again and then called it a night.
We were on the road by 8:00 am Thursday morning. This time, I did not miss any turns, but we did drive through snow, hail, rain, and a lovely wintry mix. Not fun! We stopped for lunch in Beaver at Loaded Burgers and it was well worth the one hour we spent there. Great food! Wonderful recommendation from Danny and Stacie. We pulled in at home right at 5:00 pm and were so happy to be reunited with Ziggy. Richard went out to dinner with a colleague that evening, so he didn't get home until 8:30ish, and we were also very happy to see him!
Now, back to the girls! Becky was so kind and drove the girls all the way home on Friday morning. They got home about 12:30 in the afternoon. It was so good to see them. They spent a good hour telling me about all the fun they had, so here's a recap in a nutshell. All five of them slept in the same bedroom and had a ball. They played Parcheesi. They played outside. Bridget and Cambria did as much horseback riding as they could, despite not so cooperative weather. Rachel rode Fred, while Bridget led him around. And Gretchen sat on Fred for about one second. :) They watched Heartland. Bob and Becky took them bowling and Gretchen got the high score...praise be for bumpers! They also went to Freddy's and another one of the girls' favorite restaurants up there. Grandma Becky made them great food, including make your own pizza, and they are still raving about it. It was good for all their souls to be out there and Richard and I are so grateful to Bob and Becky for taking on five girls!
The rest of our weekend was lovely. Lots of General Conference, doing puzzles, kids playing with friends in the evening, basketball watching, and just time together.
We are very much back to real life this week. Only seven weeks of school left! We have almost made it through a most bizarre/stressful/busy school year! Haha!
Love each of you.
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)
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