Mike

Mike ran the St. George Marathon on October 4, 2014.  He needed a ride to St. George, so we picked him up on Friday afternoon at Boart Longyear, where he works as Financial Manager for the U.S. and Mexico.  We stopped at The Red Barn in Payson for ice cream cones, and then continued south to our St. George house. 

 We were in the stands watching as Mike passed the finish line.

 

 

Mike spent time with his friends after the race, and then joined us for matinee and evening plays at the Shakespeare Festival.  We saw Boeing, Boeing, a 1960's spoof on love in the fast lane, with stewardesses from several airlines who had schedules just separate enough to keep them from realizing that the same man was dating them all.  Until....

 We had supper at Rusty's, a favorite restaurant up the canyon with steaks, salmon, and moose heads on the wall.

 The evening play was "Sherlock Holmes."

Museum Prowl

 "Frightmares," the Lagoon collection of spook alleys, was our scheduled Saturday entertainment for September 25, 2014.  Alas, it was a cold, rainy day.  We decided to explore a couple of Salt Lake City's museums, and then have lunch at The Garage.  Jonny, Jenny, and I were evicted from The Garage last summer because it is a bar and we had baby Sam with us.  David and I, both solidly overage, enjoyed salad and fried onion rings at this gritty café on Beck Street, near the refineries.

 We enjoyed the exhibit on "The Horse" at the Natural History Museum.

The exhibit was full of facts, history, and art.  We saw depictions of the prehistoric ancestors of the horse, sculptures and photographs of horses, and descriptions of the use of horses by man for transportation (ex. stagecoaches), sport (polo) and war.

 It is a treat just to walk in the beautifully designed museum building.  The entry leads into the "canyon," a towering atrium sculpted to look like a Utah canyon.  The building itself fits snugly into the hills behind it, and has a spectacular view over the Salt Lake Valley.

 We also visited an exhibit of paintings depicting Bingham Copper Mine at the Utah Museum of Fine Art.  Some were traditional and some modern.

We drove, in the evening, to the cabin.  The changing leaves were shellacked vibrant shades of green, orange, and red by the rain.

New Things and Old Things Made New

 Throughout the fall, construction continued on our house.  We began remodeling in January 2014 and the estimated completion dates of June 1, July 15, and September 1 passed, one by one.  When we dropped off  our 100+ family photos to be reframed at Brushworks Gallery for the remodel, Dave spotted this water color by Ian Ramsay and fell in love with it.  It captures a rural scene from Tooele, Utah, but represented for David his love of all rural Utah, from Callao to Dugway to St. George.  Dave bought the painting on September 21, 2014, and placed by his bed.

What We Believe

The Eberts gave the Sacrament Meeting program at their Holladay ward on August 24, 2014.  Camille, Steve, Emilie, Jono, and Annelise all spoke.  Camille talked about preserving and using family history and Steve talked about ridding ourselves of the "baggage" that keeps us from Gospel service.  Emilie was asked to speak on preserving standards while dating, but pointed out that she is really not an expert, since she has just turned 16 and has only been on three dates!  Jono talked about staying strong in the face of peer pressure, including telling stories of challenges he had faced with friends with different values while living in Boston and Columbus.  Annelise talked about being conscientious.  As examples, she used the best and worst babysitters she has had!  The highlight for Gretta was that someone mistook her for Camille's sister....  Dave told Emilie he had learned a lot from her talk on dating and would apply it on his dates with Emilie's grandmother. 

Send-off to the Philippines

 Ben Moreland, the son of Dave's sister, Janice, will serve an LDS mission in the Philippines.  On September 14, 2014, we attended Ben's farewell speech in Janice's Centerville, Utah, ward, and the lunch in the park afterwards.  Ben looks a lot like his mom.  He is an adventurous, interesting guy.  As we sat in the park, he pointed to two posts nearby and said he went "slack line walking" between them.  That is a version of tight rope walking, but the rope is slack instead of tight.

Janice is both vegan and an excellent cook.  A vegetable curry was the entrée, with lots of fruit and Janice's signature kale salad.  A few non-vegan items slipped in, such as frosted cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies.

 Dave's sister, Nancy Moench, lives next door to Janice in Centerville and is also close to Janice emotionally.  Several of Nancy's children and their families were at the dinner, such as Jared Moench and his wife, Megan.  Our daughter, Camille, came to Ben's farewell speech at the church, and our son, Michael, was at the lunch.  It is hard to juggle everyone's own Church responsibilities with family events.

 David sat next to several of Ben's friends.

 Janice's children Joshua (with wife Ashley) and Charlotte (with son Jet) were at the party.  Ashley and Charlotte are both expecting babies.

 Nancy was tending her daughter Jennifer's children, including this cute girl who looks very much like her Moench grandfather.

 Jacob Moench was at the party with his wife, Melissa, as was Jill Moench Clark's son, Austin.

Jill's daughter, Kaehli (or is this her sister, Jessica?) came, too.

Red Pine Lake

"This year, I want to go on a hike while we're at Snowbird," David said.  We chose Red Pine Lake.  The trailhead was a few miles below Snowbird, in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  It wasn't a particularly long hike--five or six miles round-trip--but we forgot that the trail went straight up.  

We followed a creek for much of the way.

 There were spectacular views down the canyon as we rose higher and higher.

We walked back and forth along the creek on both formal bridges and logs.

 The wildflowers were still blooming.

 Finally, we were hiking along rock, near the treeline.

Red Pine Lake was gorgeous--a lone green jewel framed by granite.

 Dave ranged ahead of me on the hike, but we rested together along the shore of the lake.

 

The hike down was as beautiful as the hike up, and incomparably easier.  

 

 As soon as Dave got back into cell phone range, he had people to meet, calls to make.