Sunday, May 23, 2010
Gila Valley Temple
So last week I had the opportunity to travel out to the Gila Valley Temple to visit the open house for the newly constructed Gila Valley Temple. It's always an amazing opportunity to go and see the temple. I love that with all the temples that are built the personality of the surrounding area are built into them. It was really pretty to see it all. Than today I had an even rarer opportunity. Today was the dedication for the Gila Valley Temple. I love that the church has now gone to broadcasting dedications to regional areas. It use to be a once in a life time opportunity to attend a temple open house. It still is something that not everyone will be able to experience in their life, but it's more common. President Eyring said something that really hit home to me today. He said that the temple is love. That's what I feel every time I am there. Not only do I feel the love of my Heavenly Father, but I feel love for all the people that are there with me. I am so thankful not only for the opportunity that I had last week to visit the temple and the opportunity that I had to be at the temple dedication today, but I'm so glad that I am able to attend the temple on regular basis and be able to feel the love of the Lord in my life.
Havasupai- Part 3
Saturday we woke up took our time getting ready and just hung out around for camp before we decided to head down stream. The first waterfall we passed was Mooney Falls. 
It's the tallest of all the falls that we saw. To get down next to Mooney Falls you have to climb down the canyon wall through the rocks. It's kind of a fun, little scary but fun. 
The pools at the bottom of Mooney have changed a ton too. You use to have to swim out to a rock to even get close to the falls. Now you can practically walk out to the bottom of the falls. It was crazy, because it was really windy and wet at the bottom. The hike down the canyon is really pretty there are patches of the canyon that are just filled with ivy. It's really pretty to have everything green in the red canyon. 
Than you add the teal water and it's even better. We had to cross the river a few times before we reached Beaver Falls (our end goal for the day). It was kind of fun to find the trail down the canyon. I think we might have lost it a couple times, but I guess as along as we followed the water we would be able to get where we were going. 
Beaver Falls is kind of cool. There is a ton of water coming over the different levels in the rocks. There is even a place that you can swim to and sit under the waterfall. It was kind of cool. We hung out at Beaver Falls for a while before heading back up the canyon towards the campground. 
When we back up to the campground we decided to stop by Havasu Falls one more time. We had just some time to relax. We even found a hammock that someone had set up in one of the pools that we decided to sit in for a little bit. It was a very relaxing place to just sit and enjoy the water. 
We also found a bunch a cacti that were flowering. The pink flowers are so pretty, it's funny to see the contrast between them and the cactus.
Sunday morning we woke up and picked up camp and than headed out of the canyon. The hike out wasn't too bad. The worst part is the last mile and a half out, because that is where most of the elevation is gained. We survived and made it back to the car. Than from there we had a five hour drive back to Phoenix. That's probably the worst part of the whole things, because after hiking 10 miles there is nothing like sitting in a car for 5 hours to let your muscles stiffen up. :) Overall it was an amazing trip. So fun!
More pictures if you are interested are here.
It's the tallest of all the falls that we saw. To get down next to Mooney Falls you have to climb down the canyon wall through the rocks. It's kind of a fun, little scary but fun. 
The pools at the bottom of Mooney have changed a ton too. You use to have to swim out to a rock to even get close to the falls. Now you can practically walk out to the bottom of the falls. It was crazy, because it was really windy and wet at the bottom. The hike down the canyon is really pretty there are patches of the canyon that are just filled with ivy. It's really pretty to have everything green in the red canyon. 
Than you add the teal water and it's even better. We had to cross the river a few times before we reached Beaver Falls (our end goal for the day). It was kind of fun to find the trail down the canyon. I think we might have lost it a couple times, but I guess as along as we followed the water we would be able to get where we were going. 
Beaver Falls is kind of cool. There is a ton of water coming over the different levels in the rocks. There is even a place that you can swim to and sit under the waterfall. It was kind of cool. We hung out at Beaver Falls for a while before heading back up the canyon towards the campground. 
When we back up to the campground we decided to stop by Havasu Falls one more time. We had just some time to relax. We even found a hammock that someone had set up in one of the pools that we decided to sit in for a little bit. It was a very relaxing place to just sit and enjoy the water. 
We also found a bunch a cacti that were flowering. The pink flowers are so pretty, it's funny to see the contrast between them and the cactus.
Sunday morning we woke up and picked up camp and than headed out of the canyon. The hike out wasn't too bad. The worst part is the last mile and a half out, because that is where most of the elevation is gained. We survived and made it back to the car. Than from there we had a five hour drive back to Phoenix. That's probably the worst part of the whole things, because after hiking 10 miles there is nothing like sitting in a car for 5 hours to let your muscles stiffen up. :) Overall it was an amazing trip. So fun!More pictures if you are interested are here.
Havasupai- Part 2
So Friday afternoon we spent some time wondering around to see the waterfalls. Things have changed since the last time I was down here. There was a big flash flood that went through the canyon in 2008. The flash flood was so powerful that it totally destroyed one of the waterfalls and created two new ones. It also changes a lot of the limestone pools. It totally destroyed the Navajo Falls, creating what they have named the New Navajo Falls and Rock Falls. The New Navajo Falls has water trickling down lots of rocks. 
The Rock Falls is much bigger and has lots of water flowing over it. It has a much bigger pool at the bottom of it. So much so that there were some people jumping off of the top of the water fall into the biggest pool. 
Havasu Falls has also changed since I was there a few years ago. Havasu Falls use to fall over both sides of the rock and now just flows over the one side. When the flood washed through it destroyed most of the limestone pools at the bottom of the waterfall. So they are working on rebuilding the pools. It's a slow process, but they build up dams to speed up the process. 
Even with all the changes, the water is still a beautiful color blue and very refreshing after a long day of hiking.
The Rock Falls is much bigger and has lots of water flowing over it. It has a much bigger pool at the bottom of it. So much so that there were some people jumping off of the top of the water fall into the biggest pool. 
Havasu Falls has also changed since I was there a few years ago. Havasu Falls use to fall over both sides of the rock and now just flows over the one side. When the flood washed through it destroyed most of the limestone pools at the bottom of the waterfall. So they are working on rebuilding the pools. It's a slow process, but they build up dams to speed up the process. 
Even with all the changes, the water is still a beautiful color blue and very refreshing after a long day of hiking.
Havasupai- Part 1
So I'm still working on getting caught up. Maybe someday I will get caught up. So a couple weekends ago I headed up to the Grand Canyon to hike down to Havasupai. My sister and her roommate flew in Thursday night and I picked them up from the airport and drove up to the rim. We got there late so parked in the lot and rim and set up our tents in the parking lot so we could get a little bit of sleep. Friday morning I woke up to this amazing view.
Seeing the sun reflect off of the canyon walls is amazing. It's probably one of my favorite parts of camping on the rim. In the morning we found that we had picked up an extra friends over the night. We had what we called our "watch dog".
The dog stayed close by as we packed up our bags and got ready to start down the trail. The trail down in the morning wasn't too bad. The first mile and a half down is where you take most of the elevation down. It's not too bad on the way down the hill. The hike down isn't too bad, the worst part is that we are walking through gravel most of the way. 
There isn't much but canyon walls to see on the way down. It isn't til about a mile out of the village that we start seeing trees and water. That's the end of the hike so it's kind of nice.
From the village it's about 2 miles from there til the campground. It usually feels like the longest part of the hike, but that's because it's the end of a 10 mile hike.
Seeing the sun reflect off of the canyon walls is amazing. It's probably one of my favorite parts of camping on the rim. In the morning we found that we had picked up an extra friends over the night. We had what we called our "watch dog".
The dog stayed close by as we packed up our bags and got ready to start down the trail. The trail down in the morning wasn't too bad. The first mile and a half down is where you take most of the elevation down. It's not too bad on the way down the hill. The hike down isn't too bad, the worst part is that we are walking through gravel most of the way. 
There isn't much but canyon walls to see on the way down. It isn't til about a mile out of the village that we start seeing trees and water. That's the end of the hike so it's kind of nice.From the village it's about 2 miles from there til the campground. It usually feels like the longest part of the hike, but that's because it's the end of a 10 mile hike.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Las Vegas
So I realize that I'm a little behind... but here in an effort to try to catch up. :)
So two weekends ago I decided to take a kind of last minute trip up to Las Vegas for the weekend. My cousins and Aunt and Uncle live up there, so it's always nice to get away to visit family. My cousin had a baby girl recently and wanted to get some new born shots before she got to big. So I decided to go up for the weekend, take some pictures and bum around with them. Saturday morning we headed out to Boulder City and spent couple hours in the morning at the Boulder City Spring Jamboree. Most of the time was watching Jaxon enjoy all the rides. He got to go for a fun little train ride. I think by far his favorite was the roller coaster. I'm not sure who had more fun on the roller coaster... Jaxon or his dad. He's a crazy little kid, but totally fun!
We spent the afternoon at my Aunt and Uncles house just hanging out. We had a little bar-b-que and I spent some time trying to get some pictures for my cousin. Olivia really wasn't too happy, but once she finally calmed down I think I got some good ones. I got some with just Olivia, Olivia and her parents, Olivia and Jaxon, just Jaxon. When we tried to get everyone together for a picture Olivia decided she was done and pooped on mom. Kind of funny, but glad we still got some good shots. I'll probably post some more of them to my photo blog once I get around to editing them. 
So two weekends ago I decided to take a kind of last minute trip up to Las Vegas for the weekend. My cousins and Aunt and Uncle live up there, so it's always nice to get away to visit family. My cousin had a baby girl recently and wanted to get some new born shots before she got to big. So I decided to go up for the weekend, take some pictures and bum around with them. Saturday morning we headed out to Boulder City and spent couple hours in the morning at the Boulder City Spring Jamboree. Most of the time was watching Jaxon enjoy all the rides. He got to go for a fun little train ride. I think by far his favorite was the roller coaster. I'm not sure who had more fun on the roller coaster... Jaxon or his dad. He's a crazy little kid, but totally fun!
We spent the afternoon at my Aunt and Uncles house just hanging out. We had a little bar-b-que and I spent some time trying to get some pictures for my cousin. Olivia really wasn't too happy, but once she finally calmed down I think I got some good ones. I got some with just Olivia, Olivia and her parents, Olivia and Jaxon, just Jaxon. When we tried to get everyone together for a picture Olivia decided she was done and pooped on mom. Kind of funny, but glad we still got some good shots. I'll probably post some more of them to my photo blog once I get around to editing them. 
Monday, May 3, 2010
Mormon Messages: The Blessings of the Temple
Our lesson in Relief Society yesterday was about the blessings we receive from the temple. We have enough sisters in our ward that we were able to split into two groups, those who have yet to receive their endowments and those who have. In my group (those who have received their endowment) we basically just talked about the strength and blessings that we have seen come to our lives because of regular temple attendance. I love the knowledge that I have of eternal families. As I sit in the celestial room I always feel surrounded by the love of the Lord. To me the love that I feel there is the love that we should have for our families and since we are all members of the Heavenly Father's family that is the love that we should have for all people.
Testimony of the Book of Mormon
I love Elder Hollands testimony of the Book of Mormon. It's so powerful and strong!
Happiness
I was reading from this Ensign this morning and ran across this quote. Thought it was just a good thought.
"Happiness does not depend on what happens outside you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems in life" -Harold B. Lee
"Happiness does not depend on what happens outside you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems in life" -Harold B. Lee
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