Toon Town, that is...
I know, I'm way past due for a new post. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while. Over Halloween, I actually left Gary for three days and met my family in Disneyland. That was the first time Gary and I have been apart since we started dating!!! Gary has never been to Disneyland and refused to come! He had too much school stuff going on to miss a few days of school. I just couldn't bring myself to miss out on the Disneyland experience. I'm excited to hopefully go back with Gary someday soon.
Needless to say, I cried as I left him. But it didn't take long to get over that :)
For Thanksgiving Gary and I drove down to Arizona to spend the holiday with his family. It was so nice to have the warm weather again! About two days before we left, I was sitting on the couch doing some work and watching TV. I came across the BYU Television channel and the show caught my attention. You know how sometimes they record a professor teaching their class? Well, that's what this was. This teacher had taken his class out to the woods somewhere (during the day time) and proceeded to tell the class a story about how he was in that very same spot a year ago and got attacked by a Grizzly Bear. Well, of course I watched the show and basically, this guy is more than lucky to be alive and experienced many many miracles during the 'attack' that allowed his life to be spared-BARELY. Anyhow, good story, told Gary about it that night, and then sort of put it out of my mind and moved on with other stuff.
So, the plan for our trip was to drive down to a place called Jacob Lake that is located somewhere around the halfway point between Provo and Arizona. All I know is that it is somewhere around 8000 feet in elevation. Well, it just to happened that it was about 1:00 am when we rolled into this SMALL, DEAD, "can hardly be called a town" town. We turn into the camp ground where we are going to be staying the night and what do we behold? Oh, a big metal fence and a sign that says "Closed for the Season!" So we drive to another camp ground and same thing. It never occured to us that it could possibly be closed for the winter. Duh! By this point, Gary and I are totally tired and so we decide to drive off the road into the woods a little bit and park the car and sleep in the back. It was kind of scary. Oh remember how I had just watched a show about a grizzly bear a few days earlier? Needless to say, I didn't sleep much. I kept having these nightmeres that a bear was going to smash in my window or pick up the jeep and basically attack us anyway he could!
The next morning we woke up and drove out of the woods just in time because all the loggers showed up. We weren't sure if what we did by parking into the woods like that was illegal or anything. About an hour into our drive we passed this place called "Cliffdwellers" (I think) - I had to have Gary turn around so we could get out, and take pictures and eat our breakfast there!
The story goes like this. Back in the 1930s, a lady's (can't remember her name) car broke down right there. She was forced to stay over night in this location. After spending a night there, she decided that she liked it and purchased the property and built a stone home like the one you see in the picture. If you walk around this area, there are about five or six of them stll standing today but no people live there anymore. Kind of cool eh?
The night we got to Mesa, we were given two 3rd row tickets to the NHL Hockey game that night. The Phoenix Coyotes and the New Jersey Devils. Yes, I LOVE hockey and it's been years and years and years since I've been to an NHL Hockey game. The best part about it is that the goaltender from the Toronto Maple Leafs now plays for Phoenix. He's all I heard about through my whole mission and I never got to see him play (obviously) but now I have! Another neat thing is the coach for the Phoenix Coyotes, is Wayne Gretzky who I remember playing for the Edmonton Oilers while I was growing up and living in Canada. So, it was kind of cool to be there and really fun to watch!
Thanksgiving was fun. We celebrated two birthdays, had a family variety talent show, had Thanksgiving Dinner, watched the BYU/Utah game, went to a baby blessing, went to the Temple for the lighting of the Christmas Lights, did a session in the Temple, and last but certainly not least, went to QT's about every single day to satisfy my Horchatta Smoothie craving! EVERYONE needs a QT in their town for that reason alone! Pretty much that's really the only reason I go to Arizona! - I must be honest! Sorry Hall and Fears families! :) For one of the birthdays we had a pinata. Of course my husband, the grown man that he is, dives in for candy as soon as it bursts stealing it from all the little children. Ahh, joy!
I wanted to share some neat pictures of the recent trip Gary and I took to the Arctic! It was SO cold but the sunset was so pretty. I do not know much about photography or I would have maybe done better at capturing the sky, but look at all the cool ice chunks! OK, so maybe this arctic is like five miles away from our house. It's called Utah Lake but it was still cool and really pretty. For any of you who actually live in Utah, you'll be able to agree with me...it hasn't been this cold in YEARS! I honestly remember when Utah Lake used to freeze over the way it has this season, and it was at LEAST fifteen years ago. Really! We actually walked across the lake to get to this pile of ice chunks. I guess the wind and waves have caused some 'colliding' of ice or whatever the propper term is for this. But it has pushed large piles of thick ice chunks up against the shore. Is this like the plates under the earth but on top of the earth? The pictures are neat, but not nearly as neat as it really is!
