La Gran Aventura Day 41: The Eagles and The Music Man

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

La Gran Aventura Day 40: Kneaders

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.

La Gran Aventura Day 39: Winnie the Pooh and Grandma Neubert

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

La Gran Aventura Day 38: Provo City Center Temple

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

La Gran Aventura Day 37: The Temple and The Peanut Butter Burger

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!

La Gran Aventura Day 36: Birding at Utah Lake

Monday, January 15, 2024

This morning I went on walk with Betty -- and we even did some jogging. Her leg is feeling a bit sore still, but she’s doing better. It was good to get out with her again.

After doing a bit more writing I took Kimball and Ian and we went birding with Lamon again. Today we went down to Utah Lake. We saw some hawks and some mallards and coots and a heron, but it was absolutely bitter cold. I think too cold for many birds to be out and about.

I was able to get this picture of West Mountain.

For family night Andy and Marybeth came over and we played a bit. We had a really rousing game of spoons.

Things are just kind of moving along. Anahi is feeling better. Betty feels a bit weird to just be in this holding pattern. We’ll try to make the most of our time here.

La Gran Aventura Day 35: Grandmas

Sunday, January 14, 2024

This morning we went to church with Lamon and his family. It was a good day. River was not thrilled about going to primary, but she stuck it out and did pretty well by the end. Kimball and Ian were able to help administer the sacrament. It was Ian’s first time passing. He did a great job. I’m grateful they let him do it in this ward.

After church, I spent a nice and quiet afternoon blogging.

After that, we went to visit Grandma Neubert. She lives down in Jamestown, and she’s just the best. She and I have been good friends for many years, and I try to call her every week to chat. When we got there, she was practicing the piano and singing to herself. She started singing a song that I had never heard, but then she got to the chorus and started up with:

“Waste not, want not is the maxim I would teach.”

It’s a song my mother taught me when I was in homeschool, so I started singing with her:

“Let your conscience be your guide, and practice what you preach. Do not let your chances, like sunbeams pass you by. For you never miss the water ‘till the well runs dry.”

When we finished she was so surprised that I had known that song. It was such a fun moment.

We spent some time asking Grandma questions like: did she know any of the pioneers? (yes) and which prophets had she met? (David O. McKay and Grandpa Kimball). It was a fun visit.

Then she gave the kids their Christmas present -- beach towels :)

After a bit we came home and had dinner and played card games with Grandpa. For dinner we had Grandma Mack enchiladas, which I always thought were unique to our family, but apparently they came from the Mormon colonies in northern Mexico. They are made by dipping a corn tortilla in a kind of tomato-soupy sauce. Then you put shredded cabbage and cheddar cheese on top of that tortilla and then put another dipped tortilla on top of that. And it’s all topped off with a dippy fried egg. I love them, and many people in our family do as well. Alicia is not an egg-lover, but she did her best with it.

Then Lamon and his family came over, and we watched The Way. It’s a film with Martin Sheen that’s about the Camino de Santiago. I higly recommend it.

La Gran Aventura Day 34: 300 birds!

Saturday, January 13, 2024

This morning I woke up and was totally fixated on the idea of going birding and catching the sunrise. So I hopped in the car and drove down to the Provo River Trail on Geneva Rd. It was a really nice walk -- very, very cold. There weren’t a ton of birds out, but I saw a few and went over 300 birds on my life list. The new birds I saw today were the Pied-billed Grebe, the California Quail (#300!), the American Widgeon, and the Gadwall. It feels like quite an accomplishment. I tried to get a good shot of Timpanogos, but the clouds wouldn’t clear, and the light wasn’t right. I’ll get a good one before I leave town. I did get the sunrise and clouds over Mt Buckley, and I ran into the BYU men’s distance running team accompanied by my good friend Dustin Bybee and followed by my other good friend, Coach Ed Eyestone. It was fun to see them.

I spent a bunch of time during the rest of the day trying to figure out how to focus stack, which is when you take two photographs that are focused on two different things, and then you blend them together in Photoshop. For some reason it wasn’t really working for me for a while, but now it is.

In the afternoon we went to Lamon’s house to watch the BYU basketball game. They played UCF on the road, and they picked up their first Big 12 win. It was fun to watch the Cougs play well again.

After that we came back to the house and played spoons together. It’s such a fun game.

Then I took Kimball to get some new pants -- the ones he brought are worn out now.

In the evening we watched the film Sound of Freedom. It’s one that has been recommended to me many times. It was tough to watch, but I’m glad I did.