On Thursday night, I went mountain biking around my house again. We went up to some trails around the Bonneville shoreline trail. The ride was really great, and the weather was fantastic! Daylight savings time does not end until after Halloween this year, so I have some had some great times biking after work during the month of October. But I guess this will be the last week of DST, so I’ll have to go biking on Saturday or in the morning from now on. One great thing about the ride on Thursday was that there was an awesome full moon emerging from the crevice of Provo Canyon just as we were ending the ride.

Me on a bike ride on the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Cascade mountain is in the background.

Full Moon in Provo Canyon

On Saturday, I went up to Logan with my friend from my mission for a day. He’s getting married in November, and I ended up spending time with him and his fiancé. We went hiking on the Wind Cave trail, went out to eat a couple of times, and did sealings at the Logan temple. It seemed that there were almost an infinite leaves on the ground in Logan. I enjoy walking through all the leaves on the grass there. It was a great trip!

The Logan temple at the end of October

Today was church. I prepared my Sunday school lesson, went to church, came home from church, did my home teaching, and ate dinner with my roommates. One of my old roommates stopped in today and we went up to Dry canyon and visited some people. One interesting thing about church was that it was the primary program in Sacrament meeting. The children did a great job, but I was a little sleepy during church.

Pictures from June visit to Washington DC

After listening to John Roberts yesterday, I have been thinking about the trip I took to Washington DC with my parents, my brother, and his family in June of this year. We spent one full day in DC and parts of two other days. We did LOTS of walking there, and were able to see several monuments and structures reminding us of important events and people in American history. Washington DC is such an amazing and historic place…many of the buildings have been in use for over a hundred years, some for over two hundred years. I think that in years to come, people will look at this city like we look on Ancient Rome and Greece, as a centerpiece of a great civilization. One theme of the Book of Mormon is that the Lord “raiseth up a righteous nation, and destroyeth the nations of the wicked.” His hand has certainly guided our nation.

The dome of the US Capitol building

During our time there in DC, we were able to visit the Washington DC temple, tour the Capitol building and watch the House of Representatives, visit the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial, the Lincoln memorial, ride the Metro (subway), and visit the White House. On our last day there, just before we left, we were able to eat lunch at a great restaurant. We really enjoyed ourselves. I could spend many days there in Washington DC exploring all the memorabilia there.

Here are some pictures of the old Supreme Court chamber, located in the basement of the Capitol building, beneath the rotunda (also shown).

The old Supreme Court chamber in the basement of the US Capitol building

Another view of the old Supreme Court chamber in the basement of the US Capitol building

Inside the rotunda of the US Capitol building

Finally, here’s a picture of me at the Air and Space Museum. I remember being very tired and drained there. It was very warm, and I sat down on a cool bench at the museum and just took a rest for several minutes. We then relaxed by watching an IMAX film there at the museum. I’m the little one at the bottom of the picture.

Me at the air and space museum

Justice John Roberts at BYU

Location: Home

I attended the BYU forum today. I have not been attending the forums and devotionals regularly since I began working off campus, but Chief Justice John Roberts gave the forum address today. I could not miss this unique experience. So I worked from home this morning and headed down to BYU on my bike at around 10:30 AM so I could make it to the forum at 11. I arrived about 10 minutes early, and there were still plenty of seats available in the Marriott Center, even some of the padded seats on the playing floor were still available. I remember sitting on the second row when Margaret Thatcher came to BYU several years ago, but I decided to just sit in the plastic seats about 10 rows up from the playing floor.

I took my seat and the arena slowly filled up until the devotional began at 11:05. Just before the devotional began, Justice Roberts arrived and everybody stood up to honor him. We sang an opening hymn: “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”. After the hymn, President Samuelson welcomed us, a former BYU student gave the opening prayer, and then President Samuelson introduced Justice Roberts.

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Justice John Roberts (immediately to the right of the flag) sitting before his speech at BYU

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Justice Roberts began his talk by reminding us that President Samuelson had encouraged us to read a book about the constitution earlier in the semester. Then, Justice Roberts challenged us to read some more about the constitution…to read the US Constitution itself. He then covered different aspects of the constitution. He first talked about article one, which explains the powers and rules of the legislative branch. Then, he explained that Article two gives the framework for the executive branch. Finally, he discussed article three (his “favorite part” of the constitution), which defines the judicial branch.

He discussed the importance of the Supreme Court…that an independent judiciary is essential to interpret the constitution and the rule of law. One thing (roughly) he said that impressed me is that the Judiciary neither governs by passion (like the legislative branch) nor by will (like the executive branch), but governs by an impartial interpretation of the law. He also mentioned that, until the 1900’s, the original Supreme Court was located in the basement of the US Capitol. The Supreme Court did not get their own building (the legislative branch had the Capitol Building and the executive branch had the White House, which were the first buildings built in Washington) until the 1930’s. He used this fact to show the relative importance of the Supreme Court during the first years of our country. But then he explained that our constitution and the laws stemming from the legislative branch of government would be meaningless without an independent judiciary. He praised James Madison, the primary framer of the constitution and a president of the United States. He encouraged us to read Madison’s Federalist papers, an important commentary on the ideas outlined in the US Constitution.

Justice John Roberts speaking at BYU

I remember visiting the Washington DC Capitol building in June with my brother. We were able to walk through the original Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol, and I took a picture. I want to put a picture of that chamber on this page tomorrow. It was one of the few quiet places in the Capitol, and there was a reverent feeling in that original chamber.

His entire talk was informative and impressive. During his talk, Justice Roberts mentioned some of the early pioneers to Utah, including Brigham Young. He also spoke lots about President Rex E. Lee, the former president of BYU and former US Solicitor General who was BYU president for several years after my mission. Sadly, President Lee died of cancer a few years after retiring as president of BYU. Justice Roberts obviously had a great respect and admiration for Rex E. Lee. He shared an interesting story about a case he argued in the Supreme Court for his client against President Lee. Justice Roberts lost this case with a vote of 9-0, he says because “there were only 9 justices in the court” (indicating if there were more, they, too would have voted against him). Everybody enjoyed this humorous story. In the end, I felt like Justice Roberts was a humble man and I really enjoyed his talk. I only wished he would have spoken longer.

The first snowfall of the season

Location: Home

I had a surprise this morning! I woke up this morning and looked outside as I usually do and found that it had snowed about 2 or 3 inches in my front yard, and there was more snow in the mountains. All the green grass and still green trees were covered in a blanket of fluffy snow. This caused many trees to be strained under the weight of the leaves and snowfall, and some broke, but all of my trees seemed to hold up well. The white-barked aspens in my front yard had lost most of their leaves, and were covered in a fine layer of snowfall. The first snowfall of the year is always a special treat.

The first snowfall of the year from the front of my house

After preparing my Sunday school lesson on Acts 21-28, I hurried off to the ward choir, where we had a final practice before our sacrament meeting performance. Like I said, my Sunday school lesson was on Acts 21-28, and it was made easier because of a great video put out by the church about the life of Paul the Apostle. The video lasted 11 minutes, and I filled in the missing parts and tried to get some class participation between segments of the video. I wish I could be more courageous and confident in what I am supposed to be doing like Paul was after his vision. He was really a great apostle.

After church, I hurried home and went around to a few of my neighbors to try to collect Friends of Scouting offerings. I was asked to collect the offerings from 4 of the houses around mine. This took a very short amount of time, and then I went down to my brother’s house in Provo where we celebrated my nephew Lincoln’s first birthday (it was also Loren’s brother-in-law’s birthday, so we had a double birthday party). We had so much food that it was like the Thanksgiving holiday. There was turkey, nutty Jello, vegetables, rolls, olives, mashed potatoes, pies, and most everything you could want at a turkey dinner. It was really great and I felt like a stuffed turkey afterwards. In one game I play with my niece, I pretend to want to eat her because I say that I’m hungry. But I was not hungry in any way after this fabulous feast. We then opened presents. I think Lincoln was happy to see his presents from me…a “sippy” cup and a chewable moose that can be used for teething. He will be one year old.

Lincoln ("Linky Love" we call him) at his first birthday party

Location: At my kitchen table

Yesterday after work, I wanted to go and do some mountain biking because there was rain and snow in the forecast for today (Saturday). So I left work a little earlier than I usually do and headed home on my bike. After arriving at home, I changed into my biking outfit and headed out from my house. I did not have much time before it became dark, so I stayed close to my house and took my light with me. I headed up the road to the water tanks just north of my house. There’s one new water tank they are still working on that will be VERY big…I think it’s bigger than all the rest of the tanks combined. After passing the tanks, I journeyed up the dirt road east of the tanks that is part of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail system. Just before reaching the top of this dirt road where it overlooks Provo Canyon, there are a couple of trails that branch to the North. I took one of these trails, but at this point, I was low on energy as well as daylight and knew I would not make it very far on this narrow, difficult trail. Like a worn-out moose, I slowly started climbing the trail, and the sun began to set as I climbed. The weather had a cool snap, but the temperature was comparatively warm for a mid-fall day.

Mt. Timpanogos from the bike trail

Mt. Timpanogos and the trail

Squaw Peak and Provo from above the Bonneville Shoreline Trail

Utah Lake at sunset from above the Bonneville Shoreline

I stayed on this trail until it branched to the right and began heading back into Provo Canyon and to the Bonneville Shoreline dirt road. After reaching the top of this trail, I slithered down this trail like a snake slithering through a hole in the ground. The ride back to the Bonneville Shoreline road was fast and exciting. From here, I headed east on the Bonneville Shoreline road and took the fun but rocky singletrack trail down into Provo Canyon’s Canyon Glen Park. From the park, I rode the Provo River Parkway home. I have ridden the last part of this route many times, but it was a beautiful day and the trail was great.

This morning, I ran much of the same route…up the Bonneville Shoreline Trail to the Provo Canyon overlook and from there I went down the Provo Racetrack to Timpanogos Park. I ran home from the park. The run was invigorating and the weather was great. The sky was overcast, but the weather was warm. At home, I raked some leaves and did some other yard work. Later this morning, the air really cooled as some wind and rain came through. Bryan and I went to a couple of auto supply shops, Harbor Freight tools (Bryan likes tools and working on cars), and then to TJ Maxx. From there, we headed over to Costco and then home.

I then went to my brother’s house, where I babysat my niece and nephew. We really had a great time pretending that we were riding in a boat downstairs as I pushed them around in a laundry basket full of blankets. Just as I began to get very tired, Lincoln fell asleep and I fell asleep beside him. By this time, Miriam was home and started putting together a puzzle full of cartoon characters. We completed the puzzle and had flour tacos for dinner.

The cartoon puzzle

FHE and a Hike in the Rain

Location: At home

Yesterday, I went to visit my brother to eat dinner and have Family Home Evening with him. We had butternut squash soup with lots of apple-based ingredients and some other stuff. I was going to make it, but my sister-in-law was kind enough to make it instead. I guess I was expecting that it would turn out a little less sweet than it did, but the soup was satisfying. I’m glad we had some delicious breadsticks to go with it. My nephew Lincoln, who is almost 1 year old, will probably start walking soon. Here he is standing up:

Lincoln learning to stand up

Tonight after getting home, I drove up to Dry Canyon and went hiking around in the dark, drizzly weather. It was kind of spooky, but it was a nice hike. I found some new trails that led from the meadow above the Dry Canyon cliffs, over the front ridge of the mountains, and back to the parking lot. After this trail reached the ridge and started heading down to the bottom of the valley, it really turned into a road. It was dark, but the scenery did not seem very good and the road was quite steep, so I don’t think I’ll ever try riding it on my bike. I always love finding new trails and exploring around, even if it is a trail I will probably never use for mountain biking. I’m just glad to know that this trail is there. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures because it was too dark. You would have to be there to understand what a great time I had!

After arriving back at the parking lot, I noticed a few boxes and pieces of trash lying around. I went ahead and picked up the trash, threw it in the back of my car, and threw it away at home. I don’t know why people throw their trash in beautiful areas like Dry Canyon when garbage service is so readily available anywhere you are. We can only do our part to help keep things cleaned up.

Biking at Lambert Park

Location: Home

Yesterday (Friday), I went biking at Lambert Park in Alpine just before dark. Lambert Park is a great place to go mountain biking. I have not been there for about 5 or 6 years, and somebody has really put lots of work into the trail system here since that time. The “park” itself has some fun bike trails that take you all along the eastern border of Alpine, Utah. Some of these trails are built in slalom-fashion and there are lots of whoop-de-doos, ups and downs, and turns. I can’t even say which one is my favorite because the trails are so varied and fun. I’m a person who likes climbing just as much as barreling downhill, but I noticed that the downhill parts of this bike park were built to be a barrel of fun. I arrived at the “rodeo” trailhead at about 6 PM. I knew there would not be much sunlight remaining, so I examined my map of the park, formulated a route, and tried to memorize the first part of the route. One nice feature of this bike park is that there are plastic and wooden posts with trail names mounted throughout the park. These signposts are an immense help when navigating your way around Lambert Park.

A trail signpost at the "Poppy" trail

There was a bike trail exiting from the south end of the Rodeo parking lot. I hopped on this trail and found myself on the Rodeo “Down” trail (there is also a Rodeo “Up” trail that is designed for uphill riding…I get to this later). This was an exciting beginning since I found myself on a trail that wound back and forth down a gulley. It was like gliding down a bobsled track! I then ran into the River trail and went along the entire length of this trail. The amazing thing I remember about the river trail was all the ups and downs. You would be cruising on a fast downhill run, reach the bottom of a gulley, and your momentum at the bottom of the gulley would take you to the top of a little rise, kind of like a roller-coaster. There were also some sections of the River trail that wound through wooded areas. As the river trail turned to the North again, it ran into the “Middle” trail. This trail is a great connector trail for the whole system, a well-built trail with not too much up and down.

A view of the mountains at the Poppy trail signpost

I took the Middle trail to the Poppy trail and climbed the Poppy trail until it connected with “Ziggy”. I rode East up to the top of Ziggy, hoping to catch the downhill section of Ziggy as it turned to the South and West. Toward the end of the Ziggy climb, however, the trail was blocked by a fortress of rocks. Here, I had to dismount my bike and ride along a fence until I found the section of the Ziggy trail that headed downhill. After some searching, I was able to find this trail. The Ziggy downhill was lots of fun as I went down in bobsled fashion until I arrived back at the Middle trail. I took the Middle trail North, passed the Poppy trail, and rode up the Ruin trail until it connected with Ziggy. From there, I rode Ziggy to the Corkscrew trail, planning on climbing to the top of the Corkscrew and then ride the Corkscrew downhill.

Looking up from a section of the Corkscrew trail downhill

However, after riding a half mile on the Corkscrew, I encountered a major obstacle—somebody dug a 6-foot trench perpendicular to the Corkscrew, piling a 6-foot pile of dirt all along my side of the trench. It would not have been pretty for me to try to climb across this trench with my bike, so I decided to find a way around the trench. I rode to the top of Ziggy to the wilderness boundary fence. There was a trail here that went along the fence and around the trench. I arrived at the other side of the trench, where I found a trail that reconnected with the Corkscrew. I then wound my way down the Corkscrew. It was a blast, though I would not categorize the Corkscrew as quite as exciting as the Rodeo Down or the lower Ziggy trails.

Looking down the Corkscrew trail

By this time, it was getting pretty dark, so I turned on my helmet light. From the bottom of Corkscrew, I was able to make my back to the Middle trail, where I rode up the Ruin trail again and then rode down Lambert’s Luge. I hopped on the River trail and made my way up to the bottom of the Rodeo trails. From here, I headed up the “Rodeo Up” trail. The Rodeo Up trail meandered around through some forested areas. By this time, it was very dark, and I had a little bit of difficulty telling where I was in relation to my car. However, I stayed on the trail as it continued to go up. I was glad that I had brought my helmet light so I could see my way around. After what seemed like a long time, I arrived at a sign that pointed to the Middle Spring trail. I looked at my map to try to determine where this fork went, and I could not quite tell from my map, so I decided to take this fork. I meandered through the forest on this trail until I came to a clearing and a sign that pointed to the Rodeo Down trail, just down from the parking lot. I had found my way back in the dark! I biked up the trail to the parking lot, where I found my car and took a picture of myself with the light on my helmet.

Back at the car in pitch dark at the end of the ride

Bike Rides

Location: Home in Orem

Yesterday and today I went on some bike rides after work. Yesterday, as I was riding home from work, I approached the mouth of Provo Canyon and decided to keep riding up to Vivian Park from the mouth of Provo Canyon in my work clothes and with my backpack and computer from work and everything else. I had a sudden burst of energy from the crisp, clear, invigorating atmosphere around me as I approached the canyon. Despite the impending darkness (it was about 7 PM), I rode up the dark canyon and made my way up the trail the 5 miles to Vivian Park. While riding up, the light from the sunset was shining on Cascade Mountain to my right and Mt. Timpanogos to my left. I arrived at Vivian Park at about 7:30, just as it was getting to be completely dark. I turned my bike around, turned on my front and rear light, and zoomed back down the trail. From Vivian Park to the bottom of the canyon is nearly all downhill and it took me about 15 minutes to reach the mouth of the canyon.

Today after work, I drove up to a park near the end of the South Fork of Provo Canyon and did some mountain biking. My favorite trail in this area travels south out of the park and up a dirt road for a mile or two. There are some amazing views of Timpanogos and the mountains to the south and west from this trail. At one point, as I looked to the Cascade Mountain saddle to the west, I was able to see the bright yellow hues of the Aspens, the deep reds of the maples, and the greens of the evergreens. The top of the Cascade saddle was covered in snow. The air was crisp and clean, and the skies were clear. This trail drops down and connects with the main fire road to Big Springs. I took the fire road to Big Springs and then bombed down the singletrack trail until it forks, took the right (straight) fork, intersected with and crossed the fire road to the singletrack on the other side, flew through a meadow, and was back where I had started in about 15 minutes from the top to the bottom (it took about 30-40 minutes to climb to the top of the trail). The ride was sublime. I wish I had some pictures to show you the great views. Maybe I’ll have to go again tomorrow and take some photos!

At Dad and Carol's House

I came to visit Dad and Carol yesterday night. They live in a small town near Tulsa, Oklahoma. After getting here, Dad and I went to the Priesthood session of General Conference at the Tulsa East Stake Center. As usual, it was really great! After priesthood, we went to Carol’s son Mark’s house and had some fajitas and German chocolate cake. Then, we came home, played with George, and went to bed. This morning, we ate pancakes, bacon, and sausage for breakfast.

George the Boxer
Dad and Carol
Dad and Carol's House

We have been watching General Conference most of the day today, but in between sessions, we were able to go out and drive around in their Prius. This was a fun experience since I have never been in a Prius before. After conference, we went for a 2 ½ mile walk with George (or he took us for a walk) around the neighborhood. We saw some horses, a cow and calf, and lots of other barking dogs. Now we’re at home with some extra time, so I thought I’d put in a little entry about what I have done so far today.

Birds, a Scuffle, and Internet Access at the Phoenix "Sky Harbor" Airport

Today I am going to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit my dad, who lives there. Today is also the first day of the LDS Church General Conference. I have a flight on Southwest airlines from Salt Lake City to Tulsa through the Phoenix “Sky Harbor” airport near downtown Phoenix. I had an experience once before with this airport during the last Christmas season. At that time, I became stranded in Denver for three days because of a blizzard that dumped up to 4 feet of snow in some parts of Denver. My first chance to leave Denver (I was supposed to go to Kansas City, but I just wanted to get out of Denver at this point) was to go to the Phoenix airport. So I took the flight out and came to Phoenix. However, after arriving in Phoenix, I discovered that it would be nearly as difficult to leave Phoenix as it was to leave Denver because of the holiday crowds. So I ended up spending another night in the Phoenix airport. I went downstairs and began waiting in the line at the Southwest ticket counter at about 2:30 in the morning, sleeping on the floor until the ticket counter opened. Eventually, that day, I was able to catch a flight to Kansas City and was home later in the night.

One great thing about the Phoenix airport that helped me during that time was that it had free internet access and I had my laptop computer with me. So although I am tired of this airport, it has some good qualities. This airport also seems to have few problems with weather delays.

Today, when I first came here and began waiting at my gate for my plane to leave, I thought I would download the first session of General Conference and start listening to it. As I was listening to it, I noticed two BIRDS fly in front of me. Of course, this airport is indoors, and so it was funny to see some birds in the airport. I was able to take a couple of pictures of one of these birds, which was going around eating crumbs on the floor. I put the pictures below. You can see the small bird next to a chair in the center of the pictures:

A bird at the sky harbor airport (1)

A bird at the sky harbor airport (2)

After taking pictures of this bird, I finished downloading the first sessions of conference. As I was listening to conference, there was a minor scuffle at the gate ticket counter. I didn’t hear what happened, but a man came to the counter and began to get very mad and to rant about something. I then noticed that two security personnel came to the gate to assist the Southwest employee should there be any problems. I kind of understand whatever this man’s problem was…he had probably missed his flight. He also had a wife and two children with him, and I’m sure this added to his troubles. Some other Southwest employees came to the counter to assist this ticket agent as this man continued to be angry, and hopefully everything turned out OK with all parties. So now I am continuing to listen to General Conference. I’m excited to learn that Elder Henry Eyring will now be in the First Presidency. It will be good to hear more of him. He came to our Stake Conference two weeks ago and it was a special experience to have him there. I will always remember the words he shared about praying and submitting our will to the Lord’s will. After writing this, I think I will find something else to do for the remainder of my time here, perhaps focus a little more intently on the words from the General Conference.