2,795 miles, 16 temples, 10 days, 4 states

I am home and it is bittersweet. It is always nice to be home, but at the same time I had a blast this past week. Today was a straightforward day... get in the car and drive home. Granted we complicated things by going from Phoenix to Los Angeles via San Diego, but other than it was simple.

The plan was to go to church at my old ward this morning, but I just wasn't feeling it. I slept it in because I was so exhausted from yesterday. I could have slept a lot longer, but Ellie kept kicking me, so I woke-up. We packed the place up, jumped into the car at 9:00, grabbed some doughnuts and started our 527 mile trip home.

We swung by the San Diego temple, took some really cute pictures of Ellie's and then we ended the day at Kim's, where I dropped off Ellie. See... a straightforward day. :)

The Middle of Nowhere

So today started at 5:30 MDT and I am writing this at 11:24 PDT in a hotel in the Phoenix-Mesa Courtyard by Marriott. It has been an insanely long day, and I am worried that I will be so tired I will have a hard time falling asleep. Have you ever had that happen? That's happens to me on a somewhat regular basis. I will be exhausted and just lie in bed for, what seems like hours, before actually falling asleep.

Anyway... I woke up around 5:30, loaded up the car, loaded up Ellie said goodbye to my parents and was on the rode at 5:55. Ellie stayed asleep for the first 200+ miles, which was nice. The more she sleeps, the less agitated she gets on a long drive. I was hoping she would sleep all the way to Monticello, but she woke up about 20 minutes before we got there, but I can't complain.

We got to the Monticello Temple, which was #23 and wandered around the grounds for awhile. It is one of the smaller temples, but there is something I really like about it. I can't put my finger on it, but I really like it. The grounds themselves aren't anything special when compared to Los Angeles, Salt Lake or Vegas, but there is definitely something I like about that place.

Once we left Monitcello, I had a decision to make. Do I drive straight to Snowflake or do I take the hour or longer detour through Monument Valley. This was something I had been thinking about, ever since Mom asked if we were going through Monument Valley. I decided to go through Monument Valley, since I had never been there, and it took under 4 hours to get to Monticello. I think this was a good decision and bad at the same time. Plus my GPS assured me it would only add an hour to my trip. An hour can be a huge deal, when you are travelling with a 2 year old who doesn't like to sit for long periods of time.

The drive through Monument Valley was beautiful. I really love the red rock, and the crazy formations that have been made over time. Getting through Utah wasn't any problem. It only took us an hour or so to get through the rest of Utah. Then we hit Arizona. I swear something happened when we hit Arizona, it was like time stood still. It felt like the hours were lasting as long as days. Part of it was that in many places the speed limit was as low as 45, whereas in Utah, the speed limit was generally 65, unless you were driving in town. Plus the last 60 miles were on Indian Road 612 or something like that. Now I have nothing against Indians or the reservations, but it seems like they don't maintain their roads as well as they could. So that made for some slow, bumpy driving. Add to that, the fact that I had to drive through two heavy rainstorms, and the middle portion of the trip was extremely long. To top it off, there is essentially nothing between Blanding Utah and Holbrook, Arizona, which is about 250 miles. Why is that bad, because Ellie and I were starving and there was nowhere to stop for lunch. We stopped in Holbrook around 2:00 PDT, which is 3:00 MDT. I think Ellie was about ready to eat my hand.



After a leisurely lunch at a truck stop in Holbrook, we drove the 40 minutes to Snowflake. Snowflake is not at all like I remember it. The only other time I have been to Snowflake was when I was 12. It seemed like it was a town in the middle of the forest. It is more like a town in the middle of scrub brush. Anyway... our original plan was to go the temple and then find a playground for Ellie to run around at. We ended up reversing the order, because we couldn't find the temple. The temple address is not in my GPS, and it is not in google. So I had to look up driving directions on the church's website. Those were pretty vague, but we eventually found it.



I think it was ultimately a good thing we went to the playground first. Ellie played on the slides for awhile as well as playing hide and go seek with me, before we drove around Snowflake for 20 minutes trying to find the temple. We eventually did and it is really beautiful. They have some pretty water features that Ellie was intrigued with. So we wandered around the temple for about 20 minutes, before getting in the car and heading to our final destination - Mesa!



Almost immediately after leaving Snowflake, the landscape changed from the scrub brush to forest. It was a really beautiful drive. About 2-1/2 hours later we made it to Mesa. We swung by my old house, and then we drove to the temple, where we almost missed our chance to get pictures. Ellie was adorable because she had to wear sunglasses in some of the pictures because the sun was right in her eyes. The Mesa temple grounds are huge, and so Ellie ran around on the grass, and put her hands in the water features.

We ended the night by going to Chipotle for dinner, Wal-Mart to get some stuff for tomorrow. Ellie also had an accident, but thankfully it was in the parking lot. (She said, "I have to go wet" until we got to the car, when she said "I mean I have to go stinky"). While that was not an ideal thing, we survived, checked into the hotel and went swimming. Ellie was all excited to go swimming until we got to the pool. Since we had already bought a swimming suit, got into the swimming suit, and went to the pool, she had no choice. I took her in and we played for a few minutes, before heading back to the room, where she took a bath, started watching Monsters Inc. for the fourth time today, and promptly fell asleep.

So today was a good day, but a long day. It took us about 14 hours to get to Mesa, nearly 12 of them were on the road (780 miles). How did Ellie and I survive this day? Well a DVD player with the latest Pixar movies on DVD, lots of snacks, and the fact that Ellie loves to play hide-and-go-seek in the car. When we do that, Ellie hides and I count. Since she is in her car seat, there are only two options for her. She either covers herself with a blanket, or she covers her eyes. I have no idea how many times we played this today. It is also adorable the way she lets me know she wants to play. She will say, "Daddy, let's play hide and seek. I hide, you count!" Fun times.

Tomorrow we are possibly going to go to my old ward for sacrament meeting, before heading off to Pasadena via San Diego. It will suck to say goodbye to Ellie for awhile, but she is dying to see Kim, and I know Kim is missing her a lot as well. I can't believe it is just over 2 weeks before we get to go back east for our second of three adventures. Tomorrow should be better as we are only going about 500 miles and it is all on interstate except for a 30 mile stretch just outside of Phoenix. After that, I am sure Ellie and I will be ready for a break... 1,300 miles in 2 days is a lot.

Biscuits and Gravy

So today was the day I introduced my daughter to biscuits and sausage gravy. Even though I don't eat breakfast very often, this is my absolute favorite breakfast. Mom was kind enough to make it for us, after I got home from golf. (Dad and I went to a different course, and we tied). Ellie isn't a big fan of "sauces" so it wasn't her favorite thing, but I think she enjoyed the sausage and biscuits on their own. When it came to the gravy... not so much.

After breakfast, Mom went with me and Ellie to Costco and the grocery store. I needed to get supplies for tomorrow's trip. The most important thing was 10 loaves of Granny Bread. If you haven't had Granny Bread (aka Grandma Sycamore Bread), then you are missing out. Once you go Granny, you never go back. It is the most fabulous bread in the world, and I got a bunch for me, Kim and my buddy Mike Tolentino.



We came home and I screwed around on facebook, while Ellie and Mom took a nap until it was time to get ready to go to the Thomases. For those of you that don't know, the Thomases are some of my family's closest friends. We lived in the same ward in Orem for nearly 10 years, before the Thomases deserted us. They know live in Ogden. They have 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls. Their 3 sons are the same ages as me and my brothers. So we got along very well, and it was nice to end up with "3 sisters" I could harass. :)


However, I digress. While waiting for Dad to get home from work I went running, then I quickly showered and it was off to Ogden. The drive up was loads of fun, because we had to wake Ellie up from her nap to get her into the car. That is a bad thing, because she hates to be awaken. So she was a grump for 80% of the ride. She was especially upset that Grandma was the one sitting in the back with her, as opposed to me.

As for the Thomas family, it was great to see them again. I haven't seen them in years - probably since my wedding. Anyway, Bro. and Sis. Thomas were there along with Pat and Catie. Their daughter-in-law Lori, who is married to Mike, was there with her two little boys. It was great to get caught up and Ellie absolutely loved Catie and Sean (the oldest of the two little boys). Ellie also thoroughly enjoyed the helium balloon and stick horse that they gave her. She was not thrilled when we told her it was time to go home. So we went home, and had a better drive home. I was chosen by Ellie to ride in the back with her. She proceeded to tell us for the 1st 45 minutes of the drive home that she wasn't wet or stinky. Then she changed her commentary and we realized she was stinky. To my knowledge, this was the first accident she has had in the car. So we got home, changed her and did a bunch of laundry.

The rest of the evening has been spent packing, and getting ready for the 5:30 wake-up call tomorrow morning. Ellie and I have had a blast and it sucks that we are going home tomorrow. I wish I could just stay up here indefinitely. I love Utah, I love Provo-Orem, I love BYU and there many things I don't mind about the "Bubble." Alas, Los Angeles, and all of its craziness are calling me back. :)

Why Does Moroni have a Black Arm?

So the day started off with me smoking Dad in golf. At least I was for the first 7 holes, where I was up 2. Then I gagged away my lead and lost by a couple. What's up with that? I am out for revenge tomorrow.

After that, we kind of putzed around for the day. Dad had to go into work. So Mom took us to AAA to get all the guidebooks for the states I am taking Ellie to visit next month. Then Mom had a doctor's appointment. So Ellie and I did some errands ourselves. These errands were very exciting - dropping off the Terminator DVDs at Blockbuster and mailing a package at the post office. Then we came home and waited for Mom and Dad to get home so we could go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house.

While waiting, I decided it would be a smart thing to have lunch. About the time Ellie and I were finishing our 6th taquito, Dad showed up and asked why we were eating since we were going to a Philly Cheesesteak place in West Jordan. I knew nothing of going out for lunch, so I just told him these were appetizers and by the time we got to West Jordan I would be hungry again.

Anyway, we all get dressed to go to the open house and we drove up to West Jordan. Since the Jordan River temple is 3 miles from the new temple, we swung by there and got the obligatory photo of Ellie and the temple. Then it was off to the cheesesteak place for some lunch. Lunch was great, but these were the largest 6 inch sandwiches I have ever seen in my life. Needless to say I was stuffed, and we still had Bombay House to go visit that night. So I was a bit worried about my appetite.

After that it was time to start our epic 3 mile drive to the new temple. We got there just as they were starting a tour, which was nice, because Ellie has never been a child to sit still. Today wasn't any exception. We watched the 10 minute video, which felt like an hour due to Ellie running here there and everywhere. Then we got to go inside and see all the rooms. Open houses are the only way a guy gets to see the bride's rooms. Granted, I have never wondered about them, but it was interesting to see one, as I will never be in one myself. I thought the changing rooms were tiny, but the other room, which I daresay is the make-up and hair room is quite large. Once the tour concluded, we got some cookies for refreshments, took a ton of pictures and went home.

One interesting thing about the Moroni on top of this temple is that it was struck by lightning earlier in the week, so his right arm is black as is part of the trumpet. This was the first Moroni I noticed that has a lightning rod on it. I wonder how long they will leave it like that? Maybe forever...

Anyway, we got home, I ran and then we went to Bombay House for dinner. Time for me to get some Chicken Tikka Masala. I loved the stuff and Ellie enjoyed it as well. She was cute. As she ate, she would tell us how spicy the food is and then she would proceed to eat some more. I love that she is such a good eater. Once dinner was over, we went to a gelato shop and I ate gelato for the first time. It wasn't bad, and my favorite was the pink grapefruit stuff they had. That was essentially how the night ended, because we came home, put Ellie to bed, and I fell asleep on the couch shortly thereafter. It sucks I only have Friday left before hitting the road to go home. Hopefully Friday will be a good one.

Nothing says fun like a garden hose

I woke up this morning to the sound of Dad getting ready to go to work. I slept downstairs on the couch so I wouldn't wake up Ellie when I went to bed. I went upstairs to where Ellie was sleeping and experienced a moment of panic because Ellie wasn't in bed. After a second I realized she was hiding under the covers. I am not a fan of starting off the morning with a moment of sheer panic.

Since Mom and Dad both had to go to work, I didn't have any plans for the day. The weather wasn't great, so we didn't have a lot of options. However, today started out like Monday did. "Daddy I want to go to a temple." Since Dad was going to be gone until about 1:30, I decided we had enough time to drive up to Logan. So we packed up and got in the car to make the 120 mile drive to Logan.

As we were driving up there, the weather deteriorated quickly. By the time we got to Logan we were in the middle of a downpour. I told Ellie it was raining and I asked her if she still wanted to take a picture with the temple. She said she did. Since we didn't have an umbrella, I decided to use my red blanket as the umbrella. So we got to the temple grounds, and tried to find a place to take a picture. Logan is very much like Manti, in that it is set up on a hill. However, there is no easy to get to the bottom of the hill for a good picture. There is a huge fence around it, but there is no opening. That meant if you want a picture at the bottom of the hill without the fence, you have to go to the top of the hill and walk down. That really wasn't an option due to the rain, so we did the best we could. I am not really thrilled about the pictures we got, so we may go back to Logan when we are here in August.

After that we drove home in the pouring rain, stopped for lunch, and were home just after 1:30. Somehow I managed to convince Ellie to help me clean up our room, then we played catch outside before taking a little nap.

When Ellie woke-up, Grandma got home, and Ellie and Grandma spent the next couple of hours making cookies, gardening and making dinner. They had a blast together. I think Ellie's favorite part was the gardening part. She would take the hose and put it over her head, so she was completely soaked. If there is only thing I know about Ellie it is that she loves to be outside... I don't even think she cares what she is doing outside.



So that's all for today. Tomorrow we are going to a temple open house, I am playing golf with my dad... hoping to avenge my loss, and eating at Bombay House. We didn't get to today, because my little brother is a wimp. Actually he is sick, but I prefer to call him a wimp.

What Do You Mean You Locked Yourself in the Bathroom?

So today started off at 7:00 in the morning. At least it did for me and my dad. We went golfing at good, old Cascade golf course. The round started off horribly, but I ended up playing pretty well. The bad thing was the fact that my dad hit a 15 foot par putt on the last hole to beat me by one. Aargghhh. I hate to lose, but I had an absolute blast golfing, and hope I get to do it again. However, that has nothing to do with the adventures that Ellie and I are having. So in otherwords, I digress...





After I got back from my crushing loss to Dad in golf, I came back to my parents house and hung out with Ellie and Mom for awhile. Then we decided to go to Thanksgiving Point, so we could go to the petting zoo and Ellie could reach Chief. For those of you that haven't heard the story, Chief is the little horse, that Ellie rode back in September. Around the end of October I was trying to remember the name of the horse. So I asked Ellie in case she remembered. She not only told me that the name of the horse was Chief, but she demonstrated how he rode him. Instead of holding the saddle horn, she just placed both hands on top of the saddle horn. Anyway... back to the events of today. So we made the decision to go Thanksgiving Point and then go see the movie Up. However, we weren't just going to see the regular version, we decided to go see the 3-D version. After that we were going to go to the baseball game. All in all a full day of events.


Before going to Thanksgiving Point, my mom decided that we needed to go get Ellie some sunglasses. However, Ellie couldn't just have any sunglasses, Mom had to get her sunglasses from the Disney store. That meant a quick trip to the mall. Since it was only 9:45 when we got to the mall, we pretended to be mall-walkers and walked around the mall for awhile. Anyway, we went to the Disney store. We went in for to get a pair of sunglasses, but ended up leaving with a plate, bowl, silverware and a pair of sunglasses. I think it is safe to say that Ellie has Mom wrapped around her little finger. :)

After that we finally made it to Thanksgiving Point. We got to see lots of animals, including a baby calf, a colt and a 6 day old lamb. Ellie is still a little frightened by the animals, and it was hard to get her to pet any of them. Although she would pet the baby horse, but that is about it. We went over to ride the horses, so Ellie could ride Chief. However, we were told that Chief was taking the day off. I think Ellie would have ridden Chief, but she wasn't about to ride another horse. We couldn't even convince her to ride Nutmeg, who is Chief's best friend. Anyway, we wandered around the petting zoo and saw all sorts of different animals, before heading home to eat lunch and take a nap.

Going to the movie, ended up being the last big adventure that was planned for the day. We decided against the baseball game, because it was in Salt Lake City and it looked it was going to rain. We didn't want to drive all the way up to Salt Lake only to have to come back home. It sounds like we missed a good game, but what can you do. Anyway, Up is a fantastic movie. It may very well be my favorite Pixar movie, even though the first ten minutes made me want to cry. It was really cool to see it in 3-D. I haven't ever seen a movie in 3-D before, it is a completely different experience. Ellie also enjoyed the movie, and she managed to sit through the entire movie. My guess is having a gallon of popcorn helped, but whatever works... right?

Finally, just a quick note on how the note ended. I was getting ready to go running, and so Ellie asked Grandma to give her a bath. Grandma said yes, and so Ellie went upstairs to the bathroom. I was finishing getting ready downstairs, when all of the sudden Dad realized that Ellie was the only one upstairs. So I went upstairs and my fears were confirmed. Ellie had locked herself in the bathroom. I tired to get her to unlock the door, but all she kept saying was she can't. Well she said that, and that she was stinky. You can only imagine my horror. We ended up having to take the doorknob off so we could get into the bathroom. My fears were confirmed, but thankfully Grandma took care of everything and that is how the night ended.

I am not sure what we are going to do tomorrow. Mom and Dad both have to work and Zach isn't feeling so good these days. We have talked about making cookies and/or pretzels. We may even drive up to Logan in the morning if Ellie wakes up and asks to go to a temple. Visiting Grandpa on campus is also a possibility. It is kind of nice to not have to worry about what I am going to do on a given day.

No Accidents Today!

Day 3 of our Utah adventure was pretty simple. I woke up around 8:00-ish and let Ellie keep sleeping since she didn't get a nap on Sunday. When she woke-up she asked me if we could go see a temple. I hadn't really planned on going to one, since the nearest temples we haven't seen are 150 miles away. However, since my parents had an appointment in the morning, I decided what the heck. I have never been to Vernal, we may as well, drive the 2+ hours on the windy highway that runs through the middle of nowhere.

So we quickly packed up and got in the car and drove to Vernal. The trip didn't start well, as less than a mile from my parents house I was pulled over by a Provo City cop. I was speeding as I drove down the hill from Orem into Provo. I was even thinking I was speeding as I started to slow down. Alas, it was too little, too late. Thankfully the guy was really nice, and I was let off with a warning.

After that close call, we resumed our trip. Ellie watched Sleeping Beauty and I dreamt about driving on a freeway instead of a 2 lane highway. We finally made it there, and although I love small towns and Utah, I have no desire to live in small town Utah. We got to the temple, wandered around the grounds for a few minutes, and took some pictures of the Vernal Temple. For those of you that don't know, the Vernal temple is the only temple that was built from an existing building. It used to be the Vernal Tabernacle, and the leaders of the church decided to modify it so that it could be used for temple work. Let's just say it was much more difficult than originally thought. I think it is safe to say the Church will be building all future temples from scratch. Anyway it is the 19th temple Ellie has visited, and the first orange-ish one.

After spending about 20 minutes there, we hopped in the car, filled up with some gas, grabbed some McDonald's and started the drive back to Orem. It took us about 2:15 to get home. We could have made the trip a little faster, but due to construction and a semi that thought 30 mph was the appropriate speed to go on the highway, we didn't have a chance. At least Ellie took a nap on the way home, so that was good. She slept for about an hour, and would slept longer, but she woke up when I took a left turn pretty hard. When she woke-up, she announced that was not very nice for me to wake her up.

We came home and Ellie played with Grandma, while I watched the U.S. choke against Italy in the Confederation's Cup. That is soccer for those of you that don't know. We then had soft pork tacos for dinner and strawberry shortcake. After that Ellie took a bath and I went running. When I got home, Ellie announced it was time for bed, and she went right to sleep. It is amazing how pleasant she is, when she gets a nap. :)

On tomorrow's docket is going to Thanksgiving Point, seeing Up and/or going to a baseball game (weather permitting). So much stuff to do, so little time. I also get to go golfing with Dad. With my luck I will lose to him by 1 stroke, as he hits a long putt to win.

2:00 Church is Not Ideal for a 2 Year Old

Today was a pretty chill day. We woke up at 8:00 and were out of the house by 9:00 with my mom. The plan was to go and see 3 temples before heading off to church at 2:00 in the morning. That is the worst time ever, but more on that later. Anyway... the plan was to start with the Ogden temple, since it was the farthest away, and then work our way back south to Bountiful and Salt Lake City.

After a hour drive, with Mom sitting in the back seat with Ellie, while watching the Black Cauldron, we showed up at the Ogden temple. My mom and I had both seen the Ogden temple from the freeway, but neither of us had actually been to the grounds. We got there and were amazed at the grounds. They are beautiful. The Ogden temple looks virtually identical to the Provo temple. The only difference is some subtle differences on the spire. In fact, it looks so similar to the Provo temple, that Ellie told us we had already been to this temple.



Our next stop was Bountiful. I had been thinking of driving the 45 minutes north to Logan, but I decided I will wait until August when I come back from Idaho Falls. So we drove the 30 minutes south to Bountiful. We were very disappointed when we got there to find out that the grounds were closed. It was stunning because it is in the middle of this gorgeous neighborhood, but what can you do. We were still able to get some decent pictures.



Next stop was the most historical spot of the trip - Temple Square. Ellie had a fun time running around the grounds. She especially loved the reflection pool on the east side of the temple. It had one of the endless edges, and so Ellie went to put her hand on the edge, and she was startled when her hand got wet. Anyway, we went to get our pictures taken, and all of the sudden, my mom says that the camera has turned off. The battery ran out. I decided to have some faith that we had pictures to show Ellie at this temple. We got to the car and put my spare battery into the camera, before we left. I turned the camera on, and learned that our endeavor had been successful. There were some pictures of Ellie and the temple!

So it was time to go home... or was it. The weather in Utah has been very rainy for the last several days. This morning, the weather was nice. There were scattered clouds, but generally it was a nice morning. Mom thought we should go see one more before heading home, so we decided to hit Draper since it is on the east side of the freeway, and we will be on the west side on Thursday.


We drove to the temple in Draper, which is up in the foothills, snapped a few pictures, and headed home. Once at home, we had enough time to eat some lunch, upload some pictures and go to church. Now in California, my ward meets at 11:00, which I think is a dumb time. However, I would take 11:00 every day over the 2:00 that my parents' ward meet at. What makes it worse, is that Ellie normally takes a nap around 1:00 PT, which is 2:00 MT. What does that mean? Ellie didn't get a nap today. However, she managed to get through church and then we went home.

Ellie helped Mom make chicken pot pies for dinner. Once dinner was over, the meltdown occurred. Ellie got a little bossy, a little fussy, a little tired. This progressed until I finally made the executive decision that it was bedtime. Things got worse from there, and after a phone call to Kim, and an hour long battle, I was able to get Ellie to lay down and go to sleep. The secret weapon... turning on a slideshow of all of her pictures on my computer, while listening to Enya. And so Day 3 of our vacation comes to a close...

I want pancakes? They don't have pancakes? I want chicken nuggets then.

Day 2 of our adventure could have started better. Out of me and Ellie, one of us had an accident in bed. Having survived that adventure and both of us getting bathed, Ellie proceeded to go and get Grandpa so we could go to the park.

Our first stop was the Provo Farmer's market. Dad and I both agreed it was more like the Provo Craft's market. It is still so early in the season, that about the only thing the "farmers" were selling was radishes. However, we were able to get Ellie a sample of a Belgian Waffle, so all was well in the world. The great thing about this Farmer's Market is that it was at a park, and they had a nice playground for Ellie. So we let Ellie run around and play on the slides and swings. Both my father and I had our cameras at the Farmer's Market. However, being the smart, intelligent men that we are, neither of us used our cameras at the park. So the only pictures we have of this, are the ones that are in our head.

After awhile at the playground, Ellie uttered her favorite phrase, "Daddy, I'm hungry." Dad wanted to go to IHOP for pancakes, and when Ellie heard pancakes that sounded great to her. So we started driving to IHOP, and that didn't sound so good to me. So I mentioned McDonalds, and agreed to go to McDonalds. As we were pulling into McDonalds, I realized that it was after 11:00 and therefore there would be no pancakes. I braced for the worst. However, my father being the smart man that he is, asked Ellie if she wanted Chicken McNuggets. Ellie looked at me and said I don't want pancakes, I want chicken nuggets. Disaster adverted.

We had lunch, and sat across a couple that said how all three of us look alike, then it was off to the hospital. Illness and injury were not the cause of our visit. We needed to go visit Grandma Debbi at work. So we did that, saw a couple newborns and impressed the labor and delivery nurses of Orem Community Hospital with Ellie's extreme intelligence. Then it was off to Temple #1 for the day. Mt. Timpanogos.





Thankfully Dad was there and he was able to get some good pictures of Ellie, and I was even in a couple of them. :)

After that, we came home, took a really long nap, and then it was off to the Provo Temple with Grandma Debbi and Poppa Jim. Then it was time to go home and eat pizza and watch some tv to end the night.



Ellie has now seen 14 temples out of the 116 that are out there. The plan is to see 10 more before we go home. I am hoping that even though Ellie is so young, that going to see them will help to give her an appreciation of them when she is older.

1st Stop St George... Wait, I Mean Orem

Well I was up at 6:00 this morning, planning on only driving about 400 miles today. However, Ellie wanted nothing to do with that. For the first two hours of the trip all she talked about was how she wanted to go to Grandma Debbi's house. So I let it go for a couple hours, and decided to wait until after we got to Vegas, before asking again.


So our first leg was 277 miles and lasted about 4 hours. We stopped at the Las Vegas temple. I was surprised at how beautiful it is. Don't get me wrong I think temples are inherently beautiful, but I have never liked the pictures I have seen of the Vegas temple. Anyway, this temple is at the base of the hills north of Vegas and is gorgeous. The grounds are incredible as well. It is this little oasis in the middle of the desert. So we took pictures for a little while before discussing what the plan for the rest of the day was going to go. Ellie decreed that we would go get lunch, go get gas and go to Grandma Debbi's. Sorry Kari and Jessi, we aren't going to get to see you on this trip. Maybe when we are coming home from our trip to Illinois in August.

Anyway... we got back in the car, ate lunch got gas and started driving. It took us 4-1/2 hours and 335 miles to get to Manti. What is really neat when you come to Manti from the south, is that you can see the temple for quite awhile. As we were pulling into town I saw a sign for the pageant they hold there every summer. I was worried that twas going on today. Thankfully it wasn't, because it would make getting pictures difficult. However, they were holding rehearsal, and that is what is going on in the background of this picture. I was hoping I could let Ellie run up and down that hill a few times, so she could use up some of her energy. However with the rehearsal going on that wasn't going to happen. That was okay, the lawn is huge, so she ran around for a little while, before heading off to Orem.

It took another hour and a half to get to Grandma's house, and as you can tell from the picture. Ellie was worn out. She did really well today, despite the fact she hasn't slept well for the past 2 nights, because she has been so excited to go on this trip, and we spent 10 hours driving today. It helped to have a DVD player and some movies.

Due to the fact that we made it here tonight as opposed to tomorrow, we will be able to relax with Papa Jim. I think we are going to the Provo and Mt. Timpanogas temples, and up Provo Canyon. Papa Jim needs to take some pictures of Ellie.

Anyway... it took 10 hours of driving plus an hour spent at the Manti and Vegas temples, 1 Chicken Selects Meal, 1 Happy Meal, 3 Pixar movies, 716 miles, but we made it and are glad to be here. It should be a fun week!

Adventures of Ellie and Dad

To start off, I have to say I have the most amazing daughter in the entire world. Granted, I am biased, but I have never met such an amazing 2 year old girl. This girl remembers everything - from the name of the horse she rode 6 months ago, to the fact she can differeniate her sports (lacrosse, soccer, hockey, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, golf, etc.) Plus she is so sweet and has been an amazing source of strength to me, especially over the last several months.

Well I have been told by several people that I should be writing a journal of sorts - especially with all of the fun things that Ellie and I have done over the past several months, and especially since we are going to be going on 3 big trips in the next two months. We leave for a week in Utah tomorrow, get to spend 10 days back East, next month, and finish up the summer with a 2 week vacation (1/2 will be a tour of the Pacific Northwest and the other 1/2 will be in Chicago with Grandma Debbi.)

In the last 6 months, Ellie and I have done the following-

• Christmas in a very snowy Portland
• Weekend Trip to St. George
• 1st Trip to Disneyland
• 1st Trip to California Adventure
• Trip to Sacramento to visit Kathy and Barry
• Trip to Disneyland and California Adventure
• Go to an Angels game
  
• Los Angeles Zoo - Can you say "hippo-po-motamous?"
  

Fun times. At some point, I will probably write a little bit about each of these, but it is about time for me to make dinner, and watch the Lakers win Game 4.