gratuitous photo posting

last week, or the week before (they all blend together), i picked up nic and her new cruiser to initiate maggie (the name of her new bike) by giving her her first beach ride.

since my ward was also conveniently hosting a beach party, we stopped by for some roasted corn and other goodies before giving the girls a ride.

mostly i'm posting this pic because nic and i agreed that we both look pretty darn good (despite my windblown hair), and wow do my legs look skinny!

kansas city: the church history tour

it's fair to say that i wasn't quite 'on' this trip. now that i've been back for two days and have spent both of them with a miserable cough, runny nose, and headache, i have a better understanding as to why--my body was getting ready to break down. i should be grateful it held off so long, but as i'm back on a plane on monday, all i can think about is how poor the timing is. oh well.

the exhibit setup was rougher than usual. the exhibit hall doesn't usually get air until the show starts, which is sometimes not an issue, and other times downright awful. i do thank my lucky stars that kc was experiencing unusually cool weather while there, but even in the high 70's with the high humidity that rain and thunderstorms brought, it was pretty uncomfortable. both myself and the install team were dripping with sweat. and that was how i spent my birthday:)

the install was supposed to finish up on thursday, but by day's end, there was still a few hours of work to be done. and 'a few hours' is not insignificant when it comes to an install. when you are contracted to pay for 6-8 hours of labor, that's pretty much what it should take. in this case, there was no one reason for the extra time, and i can't even entirely pinpoint it. maybe we were all moving slow in the humidity. there were certainly enough people - it just seemed to take forever.

that was compounded by learning on friday morning that my shipment of materials from our distribution center had been screwed up, and would not arrive until monday - the last day of the show. there was a lot of scrambling to try and figure out how to remedy the situation, and by early friday afternoon, with the booth finally set up, i was in desperate need of a brain break.

in a normal situation, that would have meant sleeping for hours in my hotel room, but on thursday evening, dad had pointed out that i was close to a lot of church history sites, so i decided to take advantage of having a rental car.

the first stop on the list was adam-ondi-ahman.


for those 5 of you readers who are not lds, you can google this or any of the places i'm going to mention, but i'm going to keep it pretty high level.

adam-ondi-ahman is, largely, a giant parcel of land. there isn't much to see other than grass and trees, but there was definitely a special feeling about the place. i must have hit this (and all the other sites) in an off time, because i was the sole visitor. the solitude, the quiet, and the spirit of the place provided an ideal setting for some reflection and introspection.

from adam-ondi-ahman, it was on to haun's mill, the site of the 1838 massacre. there is a good explanation of the events at huan's mill found here. and again, there isn't much to see. the haun's mill site is off the beaten path - literally. in doing my research, i couldn't find an actual address to plug in to the gps - just coordinates. those coordinates took me about 5 miles on a one way dirt and gravel road.

the former rlds church, now the community of christ, has placed a marker there, but truth be told, i never found it. instead, i found a field. the original memorial millstone now sits in breckenridge, mo, so there is no evidence of what took place here. only the knowing of it, which creates a profound reverence for the lives lost.

from haun's mill, it was on to far west:

In August 1836, W. W. Phelps and John, presidents of the Latter Day Saint Church, selected 1 square mile of land overlooking the rolling native prairie, as the site for a new town to be called Far West. Settlement of this and neighboring lands along Shoal Creek began immediately. Far West became the county seat of Caldwell County, a region set apart by the State especially for the Mormons. In Far West the Saints built some two hundred homes, several dry goods stores and groceries, half a dozen black smith shop, two hotels and a printing office. The city quickly expanded to four miles square, eventually becoming the home of as many as 5,000 inhabitants. Residents excavated and laid foundation stones for a temple for worship on the Public Square. They also erected a large school building on the Square for use as a courthouse, town hall and temporary church. By the fall of 1838, Far West was the hub of community activity extending throughout Caldwell- encompassing nearly 2,000 farms comprised of approximately 250,000 acres purchased from the Federal Government.

In October 1838 a Missouri army surrounded Far West. At the end of three days, the Prophet Joseph Smith and other Church leaders agreed to meet with militia leaders outside the city. However, instead of conducting talks, the militia leaders arrested and sentenced Joseph and the others to death by a firing squad. Brigadier General Alexander Doniphan refused the order, stating that it was illegal. Although their lives were saved at this time, Joseph and the other leaders were unjustly incarcerated for five months, suffering horrible conditions.

While the Church leaders were in jail, mobs continued to harass the Saints, eventually driving them out of the state despite an early winter. Church leaders Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and John Taylor led 5,000 suffering Saints across Missouri into Illinois.

There were good times at Far West as well. While there, Joseph Smith received divine communications, recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 115, that revealed that the Church's name should be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also revealed was the system for tithing Church members and the instruction that a temple should be built at Far West.

from far west it was on to liberty jail. a visitors center has been built around the jail, and the theme for the day - solitude- continued...at least initially. the missionaries gave an an overview of the history, at which point, we were joined by a road-tripping couple on their way home.

after the introduction, we were taken in to the main room, where the foundations of the jail and the recreated upper and lower rooms are. joseph smith was held in this jail for five months before being allowed to escape:

Incarcerated in Liberty Jail with Joseph Smith were other Church leaders: Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Alexander McRae, and Caleb Baldwin. During the winter months in which they were held in the basement jail, they suffered from intense cold and exposure to the elements because of the small slits in the walls that served as windows. The men slept on dirty straw and suffered poisoning attempts and insults. However, Joseph's biggest grievance was not his own condition of imprisonment but the knowledge that the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were suffering untold anguish that he could not prevent.

liberty jail is often referred to as the 'prison-temple', as joseph smith had much time for meditation, reflection, and prayer. this ultimately resulted in sections 121 & 122 of the d&c. you can most definitely still feel a spirit in this place. and it was enhanced by the sister missionary's closing on her presentation, in which, she sang the hymn 'abide with me' in a clear and beautiful voice. it was a perfect example of how music can magnify the spirit. and a perfect finish to the day.

a couple days later, i hit the last stop on the church history tour, independence, mo. currently, there is no temple in independence, though the site was dedicated in 1831 by joseph smith. there is, however, a visitor center where you can learn more about the history of the churh in the area and that of the temple site itself. the visitors center currently has an exhibit on display called 'reflections of christ'. there are some powerful an interesting pieces on display. this was one of my favorites:

we so often see christ portrayed seriously and i love the expression on his face here. i didn't know the title of the piece at the time, but was struck by the joy and love evident on his face. the photograph, fittingly enough, is titled 'joy.'

there were a few other highlights as well, one of the 10 virgins, one of jesus walking on water. all in all, a truly beautiful, truly inspirational exhibit.

i grew up visiting places like palmyra and nauvoo - heck, that's what we did for youth conferences! maybe as a result of having such easy access to those places, i hadn't previously given much thought to visiting others. with my close proximity though, i couldn't miss these missouri sites, and there is something about just being there and seeing it firsthand. all those sunday school lessons and scriptures and stories take on a whole new light when you are standing in those holy places.

more pics here

birthday celebrations

it's official, i'm 33. as lara put it once 'i'm the same age jesus was when he died.' though i haven't accomplished a fraction of what he did, i'm excited to be an odd age again. there are a few who know about my weird quirk with numbers, but for those of you who don't, i HATE even numbers. there is no rhyme or reason, i just don't like them, so i'm pretty psyched to have made it through 32, and planning on enjoying 33!

since i was going to be in kansas city for work on my birthday, this year's celebrations were a bit different than previous years. when my thoughtful roommate asked me how i wanted to celebrate, i told her i didn't want to think about it until after my trip. she was not content to let it go though, and on the night before my departure, surprised me with a wonderful homemade ice cream cake!


it was both a delicious and much appreciated gesture. especially since i had unintentionally thwarted two previous attempts at the surprise. oops!

the celebrations continued in kansas city when i joined my colleague chris and colleague/friend melissa for a yummy meal. melissa was a late addition and a much appreciated one! i wasn't sure that i'd actually get to spend time with her on this trip, as she had other responsibilities to attend to. she recaps the evening here, but between the delicious stuffed chicken, the chocolate cake (of course), and the quality conversation, it was a great way to usher in 33!

the following night, two of my co-workers (the only two who had arrived in kc) took me to a kansas city institution - the savoy grill. the savoy is on the national register of historic places, and has been left largely in it's original condition. unfortunately, i wasn't super-impressed with the food, but linda and julie made for great dinner companions, and i was very appreciative of their efforts and desire to help me celebrate.

bibliophile waxes erratic*

thanks to the significant amounts of airport time, flight time, and drive time i've had recently, several books have made their way from my 'to read' shelf, to my 'currently reading' shelf to my 'read' shelf. note: this is both figurative (this is what i've titled my goodreads.com shelves) and literal (this is also how i organize my physical books). i will comment on a few of the highlights for your enlightenment.

outliers - malcolm gladwell
i am no lover of non-fiction books. however, one author has consistently found his way through the wall of my fiction obsession, first with the tipping point, then blink. some of you may have read them (and if not, why not?), and outliers is his lastest venture.

what appeals to me about the author's topics is that they are interesting! (really, i don't ask for much!) blink, for instance, is a book that examines perceptions and biases. how quickly they form, how often we are unaware of our own and those formed about us... there is a great passage in blink about the relationship between height and power, which you can actually read an excerpt of here. trust me, it's interesting.

outliers deals with the topic of success--however not in the way, say, a stephen covey would address the subject. instead he deconstructs recognizable successes -- bill gates, the beatles, the canadian hockey league — and pinpoints the various contributing factors to those successes. by and large the success factors boil down to timing and opportunity, not talent or intelligence. one of the early discussions in the book - that of the canadian hockey team - literally dropped my jaw. it all seemed so simple and yet also had me thinking 'what the heck?!' i enjoyed it immensely as it allows me to blame all my failures on circumstances out of my control :)

hunger games - suzanne collins

this is another book outside my 'norm' - i guess that's the advantage of having a lot of time where i'm forced to sit around and wait...or voluntarily spend days worth of hours in a moving vehicle. i've come to trust trish's literary taste as being very similar to my own, and when i saw her recommend on goodreads, i decided to give it a shot.

i loved loved loved this book. the best description i can think to give it is, lord of the flies, in the future, with girls. but that doesn't even really come close to covering it. it pulled me in and never let me go. and with only a couple of complaints. it was a bit predictable in places, but overall i really liked the nuances of the story. the other complaint was more major...until it wasn't.

when the book ended, i was in shock. it was the worst book ending i'd read in a very long time, and i was seriously peeved. then i found out that there is a second book on it's way and i felt much better about my life. i still think it would have been nice if the author had wrapped it up a bit more cleanly, instead of leaving the gaping wound to fester until september 1st, but at least that wasn't it. i do have a great fear that this is on it's way to a trilogy and i will be equally as peeved after book 2, but i guess i'm going to risk it, because i want to see what happens next!

city of bones, ashes, (and probably glass) - cassandra clare

very much 'in' my norm, a youth fantasy vampire tale, sort of. i'd probably describe it as more closely resembling the golden compass than twilight, although there is a developing love story, which, at the moment admittedly, has gotten a little creepy (i've finished the second, about to start the third). actually, now that i think about it, more buffy the vampire slayer, although to be clear, not a lot of vampire action going on. it's a fun easy read with all the requisite monsters and demon hunting, in which i still feel attached to the characters. i'm excited that my computer is back from apple repair waiting for me at home so i can upload the last book:)

the crowning glory of calla lily ponder - rebecca wells

from the author of the divine secrets of the ya - ya sisterhood...which always makes me a little skeptical. there aren't many writers whose words can keep me entertained indefinitely, and the more prolific an author becomes, the more i know at some point they will break my heart.

this recommend came from an old high school friend, and since southern lit wrapped it's polite little tentacles around me my freshman year of college, i have a hard time turning a blind eye to a recommend falling in this genre. i'm glad i didn't read the reviews first, or i would have been talked out of it, feeling sure that this would be the heartbreak moment. but THAT would have been a terrible shame. this would have to rank at the top of my last 10 reads.

i LOVE the voice of the south. i don't necessarily love personally spending a week in july in new orleans, but i do love reading about it. and i understand. when wells describes the landscape of louisiana - geographically, climatologically, and demographically - i get it, and that draws me in to the story. the reviews, which i read after, were in large part terrible - in one case even citing the author's battle with lyme disease as the probable cause for this disaster of a book. and i honestly don't know what they are talking about. this was a read i just fell into. i don't know why, but i can't get this analogy of lazy rivers (found at various water parks across the country) out of my head.

it took me a little bit of time to settle in to the tube, get comfortable, and force myself to relax. but only a little bit. next thing i knew i was head back, arms out, butt in the water, completely unaware of anything happening outside my little circle of silence. and by the time the ride came to an end, i was wishing the ride guy (i'm sure that is the technically correct term, if not the politically correct one) would let me just stay on and go around again.

*i will be using this as my tagline in the near future. don't even think about stealing it;)

wrapping up

the rest of my vacation was truly relaxing. kelly had departed for a work trip to virginia and dylan to a work retreat outside of portland, leaving me alone in the house for my last day in the city. it was blissful. i slept in, and did pretty much nothing all day....well, almost nothing.

spencer and i enjoyed a delicious breakfast prior to my departure, where he attempted to eat three pizza-size pancakes and earn a picture on the wall of fame. though i knew he didn't have a chance, i was impressed that he made it half-way through, after having also eaten a rather large omelette. impressed, or disgusted...not sure which exactly.

he's still a little green after his adventures in pancakes

i made a quick drive up to vancouver, wa to pickup another stamp at the national historic site, and then left the pacific northwest heading towards northern california to meet julie.


the drive was a little longer than expected as a result of numerous and large fires raging through that part of the state. the road i would have originally taken was closed and i was forced to go around. the timing still worked out quite well as julie, her mom annette, her 3 kids and her niece were driving up from a couple hours south to meet me at our home away from home for the next couple of days.

the neighbor

that 'home' was the cabin of a family friend who had agreed to host us in her secluded retreat. and a retreat was right up my alley. with no internet and two tv channels (both of which were pbs), we actually got the opportunity to disconnect a bit from the outside world, and enjoyed the time sitting around just talking and laughing.

it wasn't all talking and laughing though - there was some eating too. :) in addition to the talking, laughing, and eating, there was another motivator for the excursion. annette had suggested that i might enjoy burney falls, and after checking them out on google, i thought she might be right.

gorgeous. the falls ain't half bad either!

teddy roosevelt once called these falls the eighth wonder of the world, and though quite beautiful, one does have to wonder how much of the world roosevelt had seen at that point :) that being said, i was actually pleasantly surprised. the falls exceed the expectations the pictures i'd viewed had created. julie and i left baby taggert with her mom and friend, and she and i headed down to the base of the falls with madison, cooper, and caitlyn.


once at the base of the falls we decided to do the 1+ mile loop that winds up around the top. though not much of a hiker, i wanted to see the top. unfortunately, it wasn't one of those moments where you think to yourself, wow, this was so totally worth it. it was more like 'so, um, WHERE are the falls?' sadly, you could not see them from the path through the brush at the top. but, it was a beautiful day - unseasonably cool for this time of year (80 degrees instead of 115!), the company was good, and the scenery was still quite pretty!


after burney falls, we headed back to burney for lunch, after which, annette took cooper and taggert back to the cabin, while julie and i headed to the subway caves with madison and caitlyn. the drive to the caves might have been boring, but for the fact that we were driving on the road that had been closed due to fire on the previous day. the landscape was blistered and black and still smoking...and in some cases, still burning. we saw more than a few flames close to the road, though none significant.

the charred remains

we stopped at the ranger station near the caves and were told that they were closed. in a conspiratorial manner, however, the ranger suggested we park outside and walk in. things that are closed are so much more interesting than things that are open, don't you think?

we had purchased flashlights before arriving at the caves, and it was a good thing. there were places that, had we not had light, would have been impossible to see your hand in front of your face.

girl time, wandering around in cold dark caves

the tunnels were formed from lava flow and very much resemble your average subway tunnel - hence the name. as the majority of the tunnels (though not very large) are completely dark, the girls were a bit nervous to begin with. but after they adjusted, the darkness and our aloneness somehow turned into a great adventure.


on the way back from the caves, i asked julie to make a small detour to lassen volcanic national park, where i, of course, picked up a few more stamps. the final trip stamp tally was 13 :)

the following day was d-day. departure day. mostly a driving day, i had two stops to make. the first was in grover beach, about 3 hours north of home, to see some very old friends whom i haven't seen in a decade. their oldest, 11 now, was 1 the last time i saw her. as you might imagine, she had changed a lot! ;)

i am often pleasantly surprised at how easy it can be to begin again right where you left off, even after 10 years. we slid into natural rhythms and patterns almost immediately while catching up on the last 10 years! we did so while enjoying some tri-tip bbq, which is not insignificant.

tri-tip is HUGE out here. people love it. LOVE it. i don't recall ever having seen it on a menu before my move here, but it's difficult to find one here without it. and only then usually chinese or mexican ones exclude it. i'm not particularly adventurous when it comes to food and several months ago, i had decided to give it a shot. it was terrible. oh my goodness i wanted to throw up. i was eating with some coworkers and one of them had also ordered it. i asked him what he thought of it (a more regular tri-tip eater) and he called it delicious.
so i counted myself out for tri-tip.


imagine my dismay upon arriving at tim and holly's and learning that we were having bbq tri-tip for dinner. that would be a great way to make a second first impression - throw up the meal they had made for me.

but i sucked it up--a little green as i went to take my first bite--and shock of all shocks, it was delicious. it must be texture or flavor or a combination of both, but this was a great meal, accompanied by great conversation. after dinner, and after getting a blu-ray education from tim, it was time to be on my way.

my last stop of the trip went longer than anticipated in santa barabara with jesse. i had initally debated about staying the night as it was already very late, but i decided i was ready to be back in my own bed. so at 3am, i was. and i've been there ever since. well, not consistently, but every night since my vacation, i've been able to relish being HOME. reminding my dog of my existence. reminding my roommate of my existence. reminding myself of my existence in my own life and actually getting to experience it for a little while!