Saturday Night Sledding

The kids talked me into taking them over to the sledding hill across from our place last night. Here are a few pics of our chilly good times. . .

I love this shot of Megan. I wanted to create the look of an action sledding shot, so I slowed the shutter speed down to 1/4 of a second. Now it looks more like she is rippin' down the hill.

What is with the goofy arctic hat - you are wondering? Tracey had to buy that sucker for me. She says it is my new 'shoveling snow hat'. Apparently there will be no more excuses when the wind is blowing 80 mph.

A'right it's getting a little dark - everyone back to the house. . .

Spanish Fork Hot Springs

Last Saturday I went with Joshua and a group of deacons up Spanish Fork Canyon. We hiked a couple miles into the infamous hot springs. Rumor has it they are a nudey attraction in the summer, so we purposely took the young men in December. It was the same day of our first major snowfall - so by the time we hiked out it was snowing pretty heavy. Other than a few 12 year old boys mooning nature, there was no flashing up there that day. . .

The hot springs are hot tub warm, which is kind of cool up in the mountains - especially while it's snowing. A little bit of a sulfur smell in the air, which was probably partly created by the hot springs and partly from the deacons. I hiked around and took some pictures while the boys soaked. Good times.

"It is good for us to be here"

Sunday evening I heard that Elder Richard G Scott was speaking at a fireside for portuguese speaking members and returned missionaries. Our neighbor also served a mission in Brazil - so the two of us drove up to the Tanner Building at BYU to listen in. It was a cool thing to see an apostle in a small fireside setting - speaking portuguese and cracking jokes.

Afterwards he asked if everyone would take a minute to come over and shake his hand. That is when Larry snapped this photo of me and Elder Scott. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening. Laura and I went to a CES Fireside last month at the Marriott Center and saw Elder Jeffrey R Holland.

I've heard a number of good people say that they would not consider living in Utah. They have lots of reasons. However, I scratch my head when a Latter-Day Saint says they won't live here because there are "too many Mormons". That logic confuses me when I think of all the Mormons that will probably be in the Celestial Kingdom. I don't know. . .

We are surrounded by great mountains - with good hiking and awesome skiing. We are in the presence of prophets and apostles several times each year. Our kids go to school and play with friends that share the same values - although there are a couple in our neighborhood that need a good swift wedgie. We have season tickets to BYU football. In an hours drive from home we pass 6 temples and 17 places that serve fry sauce. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems there are worse places we could raise a family.

Understandably, not everyone can live under the Wasatch Mountains, but to borrow a New Testament phrase, I am thinking - "it is good for us to be here". . .