Relief Soceity Retreat

We had our annual Relief Society Retreat last night. I am on the planning comittee and some of you will remember my griping and moaning about the experience last year. We had meetings on almost a weekly basis for 5 months fighting over what to eat, how to decorate, what kind of activities to have, what the theme should be, and anything else that could be fought over. Our ward had two Relief Societies each with about ten members on the committee so we could never come to a consensus on anything. I was all about doing things as quickly, cheaply, and easily as possible, but my vote apparently didn't count. The retreat was held at a cabin at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The cabin is huge and beautiful, but it was a really tight fit for the 150 people who showed up. Dinner was absolute chaos and we worked feverishly all night to feed everyone and get the place cleaned up.

This year we had only one meeting, which was fabulous. We now have 3 Relief Societies and basically the presidents got together and planned the whole evening themselves. We were asked to be at the cabin as early as possible to help with set-up and preparation. I chose not to take the day off work and I got up there at 5 p.m. I'm not sure why things were so much easier this year, but everything was done by the time I got there. I asked if there was anything I could do and I was told that I could dump a couple of bags of salad into 2 big salad bowls which took me about one minute to do. Then I made my way over to a corner where two teachers from Davis were sitting in the comfy chairs and we chatted for about 2 hours until dinner started. One of the teachers was freaking out that she had to administer the ACT test this morning and she couldn't find anyone to help her with it. Apparently 2 adults are required to be in the room during testing, so I volunteered.

After dinner and a very short speaker the gathering broke up. I helped with clean up for a few minutes but I felt like I was just in the way. I figured since I spent hours washing dishes last year someone else could do it this year, and I was out of there by 9. This morning I headed over to the high school and got paid $75 to read a book for 4 hours while the students took the test. My only assignment was to gather up and count the 29 booklet when the test concluded, so all in all it hasn't been a bad weekend.

This is a picture of the cabin. It is more impressive from the other side, but it is almost completely obscured by trees. It is probably almost as big as the Heritage, but it only has one big gathering room and more bedrooms. Unlike the Heritage it is absolutely gorgeous. The owners are also the owners of Modern Display, so it is beautifully decorated.

PlayStation2

I have been wanting to find a PlayStation, but as you all know that I am so cheap I had not found one that was inexpensive enough for me to justify the purchase.

Denise was kind enough to give me an old PlayStation that her ex-roommate left behind. Unfortunately it was the PlayStation only - no power cord, no connecters, no joystick - nothing. Luckily for me Colton had an old joystick that he was willing to part with, and after searching a few different stores I was able to find a power cord and the connecter cords. The connecter cords didn't have a price tag, so the guy at Game Stop sold them to me for $1.99. I was thrilled with that price since my three options at Wal-Mart ranged in price from $19.99 to $39.99. So for a mere $7.99 I now have a working PlayStation. The only game that I currently have is The Chronicles of Narnia which Steph gave me for Christmas a few years ago. I had never played it because I was too addicted to X-Men, but I broke it out tonight. It is okay, but I'm still going to need to buy X-Men. I also want to get DanceDance Revolution, since I am justifying having a PlayStation by telling myself that I am going to work out on it regularly. I need to find a dance mat and a memory card so I can save my games, and then I will be all set.

Don't bother me, I'm gaming!

Adams Canyon

Okay, I know you guys are probably all sick of my hiking pictures, but here are some more. Steph ditched me today so with nothing to do I decided to head up Adams Canyon. Apparently most of the people in the Layton area had the same idea because I have never seen the trail that crowded.

Hike #3

It's UEA weekend so I'm off work Thursday and Friday. Steph wanted to go up to the mountains above Pineview for a hike hoping that all of the aspens would be pretty and yellow. Unfortunately the aspens were completely bare and the scenery was mostly just brown, but it's still pretty in its own way.

I forgot to take my camera so I had to use my cell phone which doesn't take the best pictures and doesn't allow you to zoom, but I think they turned out okay all things considered.



Since Stephanie is missing in action on the blogs I wanted to take a picture of her to prove that she is actually alive and well. Here she is doing some weak robot moves.

Are we really supposed to be in this area? Do we really care?

This is the dog that Stephanie has basically stolen from her boyfriend. This picture doesn't do justice in capturing how fat Peanut is. I don't ever again want to hear Stephanie make fun of how fat my dog is. (I will admit that Peanut is a very sweet animal, but she is not at all majestic.)

Steph wantede me to take a picture of this sign.

Snow

I'm not quite ready to agree with Alyssa about loving the first snow. Fall is my favorite season and I would like to hang on to it for a little while longer. I did, however, think that the snow next to the green lawn and the red Virginia Creeper made a nice contrast.

Obviously this is not a hiking weekend.

Painting Injury

I don't want to hear anyone else say, "If you don't like the way the paint turned out you can always paint again." My elbow has been killing me since I first started painting 2 months ago. Two weekends ago it hurt so bad that I was in agony just trying to start my lawn mower, and I finally decided that it was time to see the doctor. From what I could gather from his explaination I have hurt a tendon that connects to my elbow and a nerve that runs down my lower arm. (After I left I thought that I should have had him write the names of the nerve and tendon down for Ang, but I wasn't quick enough.) As a result I get to wear these loveley braces for the next 4 weeks. I also opted to get a steroid shot in my elbow now rather than wait a few weeks to see if the braces take care of the problem and risk having to go back. Even though the doctor claimed that he was injecting a pain killer along with the steroid that was the most painful injection I have ever had in my life. I never want to paint again.

Hike #2: The Fiasco

I sat inside all day Saturday watching the rain. By noon on Sunday the clouds had started to break up and the blue sky looked so inviting that I decided to get out and go for a hike. I usually hike Baer Canyon in Kaysville or Adams Canyon in Layton, so I decided to break out of my rut and head to Ogden.


Last year Steph directed me to a trail that I really liked but I couldn't remember how to get to the trail head. She couldn't remember which canyon I was talking about, so she directed me to the trail heads for Waterfall and Taylor canyon. (Looking at the map at the trail head it was Beus Canyon that I had been trying to find.)

I decided that I wanted to hike up Waterfall Canyon, but since I had never been there before and the trails weren't clearly marked, I ended up in Taylor Canyon. That was fine with me. Back in the horse and buggy days there had been a hotel at the top of Malan peak. It burned down years ago but apparently the boiler still sits in the clearing, so that seemed like a good thing for me to explore.

The sky was still overcast in Ogden when I started out on the trail, but it didn't look too threatening. I had been hiking for about 20 minutes when I noticed that the clouds above me had become quite black and threatening. I decided to keep going.

It sprinkled lightly for the next 20 or 30 minutes, but it wasn't anything too bad. Then it started to hail. It hailed really hard and although the hail stones weren't big they really stung. After pushing through that for about 10 more minutes I decided that the smart thing to do would be to turn around.

After a few more minutes the hail stopped and it began to rain quite steadily. I was about 20 minutes from my car when a bolt of lightning hit nearby. I don't think it hit the ground, but the lightning and the thunder were simultaneous, so it must have been quite close. I had my headphones on at the time and when the lightning hit I got a deafening hiss of static through my headphones.

At that point it really started to rain hard, and by the time I reached my car I was completely drenched and my hands were numb with cold. As I sit here typing this about 2 hours later, the sky is completely clear and bright blue. Steph and I might head up to Snow Basin for a hike next weekend, so I will let you know how hike #3 goes.