Labor Day Hike

We miss San Diego a lot. We miss the beaches, and the weather, and normality. But one thing San Diego does not have is pretty mountains. I have never really liked mountains, but I have a new found appreciation for their beauty since Labor Day.

We decided we would go on a family hike since we had the day off, and the weather was reasonably warm. We were going to hike Timp, but we decided that, seeing as we had only recently moved up to Utah and were, therefore, still getting used to the altitude, it might be a bit of a tall order. Not to mention that fact that the trail would be swarming with BYU students. We wanted something that was long enough (and short enough at the same time), hard enough to get a good workout (but yet easy enough that we didn't kill ourselves), and, of course, with views worth our going.

The trail we ended up hiking was in Alta, and it was perfect. When we got there the skies were threatening at the very top of the mountain, but it was dry and cool, and the sun was fighting back. So on our way up (when we are all hot and sweaty from exerting energy holding baby the whole time) it was nice and breezy with no sun to bake us. Then when we reached the lake at the top and went down again, the sun broke through and kept us warm. Couldn't have picked a better introduction to hiking.

And did I mention it was absolutely beautiful? The trail took us through mountain meadows, and while the flowers were at the end of the season - drying up - it was spectacular.

The trail linked up with another that heads up to a lake hidden at the top of the mountain. It is called 'Cecret Lake'. Ingenious. Must have been an accountant that came up with that name!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was excellent, and we are going to hike it next summer when all the flowers are out. And (what you are really all reading this for) we got some pretty good pictures! (My personal favorite is the one where baby is holding up a twig that Evan gave her at the beginning of the hike like a trophy.)

Life in Happy Valley

Well, it has been a while. We are still trying to get into the swing of things. Evan has got so much on his plate with his full-time commitment to both school and work. I'm not sure how he does it, but somehow he manages. I have a feeling we shall need a vacation soon.

It has been an interesting month for us. I think Provo is a different experience when you are married, but I am still trying to work out if that is a conscious choice that we have made or whether that really is the reality. It definitely seems, judging from a lot of the people in our soon-to-be old BYU married students ward, that there are people for whom the whole BYU experience is exactly the same, married or not. (Sadly, I think those people fall under the category of things we didn't like about BYU in the first place.) So, the question then becomes an issue of whether they have made the conscious choice to keep it the same, or if they are living in 'fake-believe'. I would like to think that I am the one slightly more in touch with reality, but this place is so overrun with strange people that I am beginning to be filled with self-doubt. It's rather akin to the main character in Orwell's '1984', although, I hope, less sinister and I pray the ending will be different.

Oh well. It is all rather odd, and at the end of the day all I can say is I am glad I have someone who has the same outlook on life as I do, and I am so glad I never have to go to a singles ward again... I makes life here more bearable.