Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Betty has been hard at work on the granola, and we had a great day selling.
In the afternoon we hiked the Y. It was very snowy, and we had a great time sliding down.
In the night we listened to the BYU vs Houston game. It was a tough loss, but I’m proud of how they played.
Distance Hiked Today: 3.63km/1.9mi
Distance hiked on trip: 52.97/32.89mi
Monday, January 22, 2024
This morning Betty was up early again to make granola. It’s a high priority for us to get as much of this sold here in Utah as we can. This trip to Europe is going to be expensive.
While I was straightening up our room this morning I listened to an episode of the Faith Matters podcast in which Lisa Miller talked about her book The Awakened Brain. Lisa’s argument is that “individuals who cultivate a strong spiritual core are less likely to experience despair, addiction, and depression throughout the life course, and a spiritual core is correlated with growth and resilience after facing challenges.” Of course it made me think off the journey we are on and the things I hope we can all gain from more intentional sacred travel.
In the afternoon we took a long walk -- first to Grandma’s down in Jamestown and then down to BYU. We stopped at the creamery for some snacks, and we recreated an old family picture in the Bookstore.
River walked all the way there, and I carried her all the way back. When she is awake, it’s OK and I can throw her on my shoulders. When she is asleep, it’s not doable. She just gets too floppy. So I carried her for about three miles in my arms. It was hard work, and it’s not going to work for the Camino. We’ve got to figure something else out.
I’m feeling really worried about finances tonight. Wish there were something more that I could do, but I’m at a bit of a loss.
Distance Hiked Today: 15.39km/9.9mi
Distance hiked on trip: 49.34/30.99mi
Sunday, January 21, 2024
This morning we went to the dedication of the Orem Temple. Because there are so many people around here who want to participate in the dedication, they broadcast the dedication to the stake centers (regular churches) so that we could attend. The service was beautiful. President Nelson extended an invitation to attend the temple, and he extended promises to those who attend: increased measure of the spirit and increased ability to face the challenges of life.
Then Elder Kearon, our newest member of the Quorum of 12 Apostles spoke. He told a really powerful story about a little German boy who was separated from his family while on vacation in Paris with his family. When the frantic parents went back to where they had lost him, they found a woman holding a sign that said they had found Mattias, who lives next to the temple. Apparently, the boy didn’t know his address, but he knew that he lived next to the temple in Germany. It was a powerful message about staying close to the temple, and about our need to search for those who are lost.
Finally, Elder Christofferson spoke, and he said something that has really stuck with me. He said: “Being in church doesn’t make you Christian any more than sleeping in a garage makes you a car,” implying (of course) that our attendance at the temple on its own does not guarantee the kind of blessings that had been promised by President Nelson, Elder Kearon, and the members of the temple leadership who had spoken previously.
It made me think about this pilgrimage that we are on as a family. We have been attending the temple with more frequency than ever before in our lives, and the entire purpose of the journey is to move from holy place to holy place. But I want to make sure we are also paying attention to the right kinds of things and bringing the right mindset to the temple so that we can gain the things that we hope to gain from being there.
And speaking of temples and holy places. I have struggled for the past several months to know what we can and ought to do while we are in Europe during the month of March. Our real purpose has been to hike the Camino de Santiago, but we can’t begin that until April. So we’ve got a month. If we spend that time as tourists, we will run out of money in less than a week. So today as I was running through things in my mind, it came to me that we could do an LDS pilgrimage before we do the Catholic pilgrimage. We could try to visit all of the LDS temples in Western Europe before we do the Camino. With Eurail passes and the help of friends and temple patron housing, we can do it. It has given me a sense of purpose, and made me really excited for the trip. The temples in Western Europe are:
Paris, London, Preston, The Hague, Frankfurt, Dresden, Bern, Rome, Lisbon, and Madrid. I’m not 100% sure we’ll be able to make it to Preston and Dresden, but we’ll do our best :)
My two biggest concerns are housing and finances. This is not going to be cheap, even if we can stay with family and friends and temple housing. So tomorrow we’re going to really get started on selling granola here in Utah to make what we can.
The evening finished with a huge family dinner at my parents’ house. Betty made Mole, and she also made these amazing candied jamaica (hibiscus) flowers. We invited our Jonesville friends Chloe and Izzie Leonard to come as well. They are studying here in Utah Valley, and it was awesome to re-connect with Jonesville a bit. Betty’s dear friend from Empalme, Laura, also came with her kids.
The evening was peaceful. One of my favorite things in the world is when the lights in the house are down, and I can just sit with my kids and visit. This trip has been a whirlwind, and we haven’t had too many nights like this. It’s the best!
Saturday, January 20, 2024
This morning Lamon texted me and asked if I’d like to go birding with him and his friends Bill and Joann and some of their friends. So we went down and hiked four miles of the Utah Lake Shoreline Trail. It was really, really cold, but we were rewarded with some beautiful birds -- especially a couple of bald eagles who were waiting for us at the Marina. When Betty asked why they both didn’t have white heads, I told her that the dirty looking one was an adolescent. We both laughed when we thought that even the great Bald Eagle, one of God’s most majestic creatures, looks kind of a mess when it’s a teenager. It gave us hope for our kids ;)
In the evening, we drove down to Ephraim to watch my niece Savannah perform in The Music Man, and to have a family dinner at the house of my brother Spencer.
On the drive down I listened to two really amazing podcasts. The first was an episode of Faith Matters, that featured a conversation with my friend George Handley -- one of the great Humanities professors at BYU. He’s a committed disciple and he speaks and writes beautifully about discipleship and the environment.
The other podcast was an amazing episode of Optimal Work about How to Get Energy from Tiredness. The host of Optimal Work, Dr. Kevin Majeres, spoke at Hillsdale College a couple of years ago, and his podcast has been hugely influential for me since then. It’s the best therapy I know of.
In this episode, Majeres introduces the idea of dynorphins, which are the thing in our brain that make us feel so uncomfortable when we are hot or cold or hungry or tired. They are the opposite of endorphins, which make us feel good. What scientists are recently finding out, however, is that when we do things that produce endorphins, we have a dynorphin rebound that makes us feel tired and sluggish for a significant time after. But when we do things that cause us to feel dynorphins -- the hard things -- we actually get a rebound of energy and good feelings (endorphins) that can last for days.
You should listen to the episode.
Well, the last part of the drive down I spent listening to the BYU vs Texas Tech basketball game. The first half was as good a half of basketball as BYU has ever played. I felt great about their chances to win the game.
Savannah’s play was awesome. She did such a great job playing the role of Marian the librarian. Her voice is beautiful, and she and the rest of cast just did awesome.
When we got out of the play, we realized that BYU had blown their huge lead, and that made us sad. But we’ll learn from this, I’m sure. And it didn’t really even bother me because we got to go to Spencer’s house and have an awesome family dinner. This is the one thing that I miss more than anything else in Michigan. Family dinner. I am so grateful for it.
Betty stayed home through the evening so that she could get the house put together and make granola for us to sell tomorrow.
Distance Hiked Today: 6.6km/4.1mi
Distance hiked on trip: 33.95km/21.09mi
Friday, January 19, 2024
This morning I woke up with really tight hips. I did some yoga to try to stretch out a bit. It felt great. I haven’t done yoga in forever.
After that, I did a bunch more writing, but I’m still way behind on writing about this trip.
In the afternoon, we took the kids for a 10k walk from my Mom’s house to the Riverwoods. Ian identified a Woodhouse Scrub Jay, which was really fun. He’s becoming more aware of the birds around.
We stopped for a pit-stop at Kneaders, and we bought a loaf of chocolate bread. Then, while we were eating, they brought us out another loaf and told us it was on the house. A while later, the manager came out and said hi. He told us that when he saw us come in he thought there was no way we could be OK with just one loaf, so he gave us another one.
6.2 miles is pretty far for these kids to hike, and River was really sleepy. But the other kids did great!
Distance Hiked Today: 9.93km/6.17mi
Distance hiked on trip: 27.35km/16.99mi
When we got home, the kids wanted to go to the temple. So we got dressed and drove to Provo. It was packed! In Detroit, we’re used to each baptism session being a separate “event.” In these bigger temples, they don’t even check if people have had an appointment. They just keep the thing rolling. You get dressed, and you get in line in the chapel. And they just work through everyone who is there. It’s pretty awesome.
Thursday, January 18, 2024
This morning we loaded up our backpacks and headed out for our first real training hike of the trip. River was very distracted by the snow. She just wanted to kick it and throw it and eat it. It made for very slow walking. She’s going to have to get used to just walking and putting miles under her feet.
We hiked to Grandma Neubert’s place. It happened to be lunchtime, so she sent me down to Domino’s for some pizzas. Then we ate pizza and watched the old Disney Winnie the Pooh. I had forgotten how beautiful that film is -- and clever. I had not realized how self-aware it is. It’s Disney at its best.
The whole afternoon was just perfect.
Distance Hiked Today: 8.14km/5.05
Distance hiked on trip: 17.42km/10.82
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
This morning we woke up to go to the Provo City Center Temple. Unfortunately, Kimball has got a tummy ache, so he wasn’t able to come with us.
The Provo City Center is so beautiful, and it was great to be there. I’ll have to go back on a different day to get a good photo. Today we just focused on the baptisms.
After the temple, I took the kids to Krispy Kreme for donuts. They’d never had them. At first the kids were skeptical about getting plain donuts, but when we got home and put them in the microwave, they changed their tune. It’s one of Utah County’s great treats!
When I got home I reached out to my friend James Krause, who teaches Portuguese and runs the language lab at Utah Valley University. They are currently in the middle of a huge upgrade for their language lab. I think it will be pretty great when it’s done. And we ate Kolache, which is another of Utah County’s great treats :)
When I left there, I ran down to my Mount Timpanogos lookout to see if I could get a good picture with the clouds, but they never cleared enough.
In the afternoon, Betty, Kimball, Anahi, Ian, and I went for a four mile hike -- just down 800 S and up to 400 S and back home. It was a good start to our more serious hiking.
In the evening, the kids went to youth activities with their cousins. And they loved it.
Distance hiked today: 6.44km/4.0mi
Distance hiked on trip: 9.28km/5.77mi
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
This morning I woke up and posted to the blog again. I’m trying to get caught up.
Betty and I went on a walk/jog again. It was a beautiful morning, and we had a great chat about what we want out of our later years. While we were walking Betty looked at me and said: “I want to die walking like this.” I couldn’t agree more, but I hope that day doesn’t come for a long, long time. We’ve got so much to do together before either of us checks out of this life.
Anahi sometimes gets a strange infection in her mouth. It’s flared up a couple of times in the past several months, and today it flared up again. Thankfully, we were able to get some medicine, and she should be feeling better soon.
In the evening, Betty and I went to do a session in the Timpanogos temple with Zack and Annie. It was great to do an endowment session after so long. We’ve been really focused on baptisms for a while, and I love the Timpanogos temple. It’s where I served as a temple worker for so long.
After dinner, Zack and Annie took us to Chubby’s for dinner. When I saw that they offer a peanut butter burger I had to try it -- not because I love peanut butter but because when you see something to eat that you know you won’t find anywhere else, my philosophy is: try it out! This burger had peanut butter, bacon jam, cheddar cheese, and candied jalapeños -- and it was really good. I definitely recommend it.
We finished off the evening by watching BYU beat Iowa State in what is probably our best win of the year so far. They played great!
