MTB and Mt. Tuk

After work one hot evening, Dani and I rode one of the trails out by Klondike Bluffs. This blazing weather must have scared the tourists away, because we only saw one other couple out there. We had a nice ride on the Jurassic trail singletrack.

My sexy, hard-core, mountain biking woman

For dad's last weekend to train before his hike, we went to the mountains to hike Mt. Tukuhnikivatz (or Tuk for short, I sure can't pronounce the full name). The trail was only about 5 miles round trip, but we were at 10,000 ft elevation and we hiked to the summit at 12,482 ft. The last quarter mile to the peak was a lung-busting 45 degree angle climb, but at the top we were rewarded with views in every direction forever -- we could see the entire Moab valley, Arches and Canyonlands, the San Rafael Swell, the Henry Mountains, and even the peaks near Telluride, CO. We enjoyed lunch up there before the controlled burn on the other side of the range clouded the sky over with smoke.

Looking back on the approach to the ridge

The beginning of the ridge to the peak

Just snow and scree

Dad lung-bustin' up the 45° ascent in the snow with Mt. Peale in the background

At the summit! 12,482 ft, Moab valley behind us

I'm afraid that these "training hikes" have been more fun than they have been training. Dad will have to hike over twice as much as he's hiked in one day when he treks the Grand Canyon. It's hard to find somewhere with the long distance without getting bored of walking.

The Men in My Life

Chris put in some 12 hour shifts at the office this week to try to catch up from our week-long hiatus, and he also agreed to fill in for one of Doc's assistants in Springville this Friday. We both had Wednesday off, so we spent the day mountain biking the Bar M - and considering it was my first time ever mountain biking I feel like it went really well. Chris is definitely the mountain biker, and I've always said it was the one adventure that looked too scary for me to have the desire to get into. However, Chris is convincing and after he bought me a used bike, it was impossible to tell him no. And I quickly realized that I actually love it! I definitely have a ways to go before I can do some of the crazy trails that Chris enjoys, but he's patient with me so I think this will be a lot of fun for us as I learn.

Work was a blast for me on Thursday because I got to go on the river! There was a family in town who wanted to go on a day trip, and since I was in town my boss asked me if I was willing to go, and we did a daily even though the company technically isn't open yet for the season. It. Was. Perfect. I sure have missed the river, and am excited to run it all summer long.

On Friday, Chris left at 4:30am to drive up with Doc to the Springville office to see patients. Although the staff in the Moab office do a great job of involving Chris in working with patients, most of his work is on the computer and on the phone. So Chris really enjoyed working directly with the patients in Springville as he checked them in, took their vitals, gave IVs, and took blood draws. By the time he goes to nursing school he will be showing his peers how to do this stuff!

Chris and I were lucky to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Andrew, and were even luckier that my dad had plans to fly in for a few days. We had a lot of time to spend with him and my brother Jacob. Saturday morning Chris and grandpa worked on fixing their Suzuki while grandma and I did some gardening in the front yard. After our busy morning, my dad landed and met us for lunch. We enjoyed grandma's yummy spaghetti, and then had the pleasure of having grandma and grandpa play tour guide for us. They took us to Thanksgiving Point and rented a golf cart to give us an amazing tour of the beautiful flower gardens, and after that we went for a drive up Alpine Canyon. Following our drive we left the Andrews to drive down to Provo to meet Jacob for dinner at Red Lobster. We then made it a really late night when we spontaneously decided to go to the dollar theater and see the new Star Wars movie in 3-D. It was a super fun night and was worth the lack of sleep.

On Sunday we went to church with Jacob. The reason Dad flew out in the first place was to give Jacob the Melchizedek priesthood, and Chris was honored when Jacob also asked him to stand in the circle. It was a really sweet moment, and I loved seeing my favorite men worthily using the priesthood. After church we had lunch and just spent time talking before Chris and I drove home.

While driving home we took a quick detour to drive around Price, as it is an option for nursing school. Price has been our first choice because their insanely cheap tuition and cost of living, but as we drove around the town, it just didn't feel like home. We arrived in Moab to an acceptance letter from Weber University (which we hadn't expected to get accepted to - here's a lesson in needing to have more faith!). Now we have a whole lot of praying to do as we have big decisions to make.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew