This is a place I can't wait to take my wife to

It's lake Tahoe, but specifically, this area is on the western shore and it's called Emerald Bay. Not sure if you can see it, but there is a "Vikings Castle" on that little island you can see out there. A boat will take you out to the island and you can tour the old castle. I'm pretty sure real vikings didn't build it, but it's an older, authentic castle that someone built a long time ago.


Lake Tahoe is a beautiful place to visit with so much to do.

Brighton snowboarding December 2005

Went with Alene, her sister April, her Brother Brian, and her Cousin Joey. It started to snow right as we arrived. I normally don't care if it's snowing when I board, but the snow was HARD and it pelted your face as you picked up speed. It made it somewhat miserable and my beard froze a few times :-). In addition to that, my board needed to be waxed badly. It was so bad that I'd get some good speed going down a hill, then it would feel like someone was literally pulling me down from behind. Not good. I got my board waxed yesterday, so hopefully that will help.

Here is Alene and April on the lift



Here is my frozen beard

Las Vegas Bowl & Red Rocks State Park December 2005

I went to Las Vegas with Alene and my parents on December 21, 22, and came home on the 23rd. We went to see BYU play Cal in the Las Vegas bowl. BYU lost, but put up a good point, losing by one TD and being in position to score a tying TD with around 1:30 left in the game, but our QB was hit as he threw a pass and it was intercepted. It was fun while it lasted I guess.

Vegas is alright. I've been there about five times and every time I go, I'm reminded why I don't care for it much. I mean, it's cool and all the lights are definitely exciting to see, but it kind of wears off after a while. The best part about our trip was our excursion out to Red Rock canyon, which is west of the city.

The bellagio had this cool set-up in their garden room that had this fountain full of cranberries (it's behind us).



My mom and dad at the bellagio



The Bellagio fountain in full-effect



My mom and Alene with blue streaks in their hair before the game



Me and Alene before the game



BYU Offense (check out those OL splits and the TE up in a two-point stance. Insane!)



BYU Defense



Alene at Red Rock Canyon



I found a "throne" for me to lead my kingdome



Me and Alene at Red Rock



I found a cozy little place to sleep



Red Rock Canyon



Red Rock Canyon



Red Rock Canyon



I got some grease on my hands and decided to plaster them all over these rocks. Just kidding. These are some of those ancient paintings the natives did around thanksgiving time. They were trying to make turkeys with their hands



Yeah, don't let this happen to YOU!

Big Cottonwood scenic drive to Sundance - Oct 2005

We took advantage of an actual day of nothing to do (it was a Sunday). We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon (home of Brighton, some of the best Snowboarding on earth!) and over the mountain down into Heber Valley, then on over to Sundance where we visited some of their booths they had set up, then rode the ski lift up and hiked over to Stewart Falls. The trees literally looked like they were on fire:

Selfie at Guardsman Pass




The fall colors



We stopped at Cascade Springs





We also did a short drive along the Alpine loop before heading down to Sundance



Getting close to Stewart Falls



Stewart Falls







Looking down from Stewart Falls



Heading down the ski lift

Bakers Pass - Wasatch Mountains August 2005

This is a 6 mile RT hike up behind the backside of Mt Raymond in the Wasatch Mountains. We had originally intended to do the hike up to the top of Gobblers Knob, which is the highest point between Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, but I was really sick on this hike and just didn't have the energy to push to the summit, so we ended up just hanging out at Baker Pass to check out and awesome sunset. From Baker Pass you still had an awesome view of the great salt lake as well as an awkward view of the valley (it looked like you were looking down on another city). We started the hike around 6pm after work and made it back down to our car at 9pm. We brought headlamps for our return route.

On our way up we passed a couple who looked like they didn't hike a lot and seemed a little lost. They had a long hike back toward Dog Lake, then down into Millcreek (we started on the Big Cottonwood side), so we gave them one of our headlamps for the return trip as they did not have any sort of light with them.

The trail winds works its way up through the mountain, passing several small streams and run-offs like this.





Just in case we didn't know where we were



We were getting kind of hungry so we ate these red berries and rolled around in the vegetation (kidding)



Selfie along the trail



Alene in the middle of telling me a story (view behind her is where we came from)



Some of the trees up here were very large and took quite a beating from the wind



Looking back on Big Cottonwood Canyon



Sunset view of the Salt Lake Valley from Baker Pass. As I said, I couldn't quite make out the valley features from here other than the GSL; couldn't see downtown, etc. so it looked different





Self Portrait



I REALLY regret not pushing through and getting to the top of Gobblers Knob, but I know it's not going anywhere and we can do it again. Can't wait to do this hike with Alene again.

Nebo Loop Aug. 2005

After having visited this area last month we decided we wanted to do a quick get away back up to camp along the Nebo loop again. We headed on up on Saturday morning and found a campsite relatively close to where we camped last time. As we drove in we saw a LARGE group of camping trailers 1/2 mile or so up from us, lots of "cowboy" types with horses and LOTS of kids running around. We figured we were far enough away to not be bothered by them, but we didn't realize until much later it was a big mistake.

We set up camp and just kind of hung around. We didn't really have an agenda for this trip as I had always grown up knowing camping as "hanging around close to the campsite". Alene got a little agitated sitting around so she took her bike and went for a nice long ride along the highway. April and Bill showed up a bit later to hang out for dinner and get some tent time as well. I also had a couple of my brothers (Russ and Jeff) and my sister Amanda and her husband Brock on the trip as well. We hung around the campfire talking about Star Wars for what seemed forever and as we went to bed, that's when the fun began.

The Cowboys up the way had been literally yipping and yapping all night and we figured by bed time it would stop, but it didn't. Around 11pm or so when we all went to bed we could still hear them around their campfire going "yip! yip! yip! yap! yip!". It was the weirdest thing, but mostly annoying. Finally as Bill climbed out of his tent and in the direction of the cowboys he yelled, "SHUT THE F*** UP!!!". It became dead silent, then about 20 seconds later we heard one more "Yip!", then nothing else. Weird.

On Sunday morning Bill and April headed back home and we all decided to drive down the Scenic byway to check it out. We stopped and saw the Devils Kitchen, which is a VERY miniature version of Bryce canyon (like 3 spires). We then pulled off and hiked a small section of the Mt Nebo trail for a bit until we got tired and turned around (I think only Alene was interested in actually doing the summit hike). Somewhat uneventful, but it was nice to get away.

Our campsite



Stoping off at the Nebo scenic view



Devils Kitchen







Hiking on the un-known side trail off the highway





Jeff was ready to survive on nature if he had to



Amanda and brock and our nephew Wes (he and Jeff joined the same tribe)



Russ (love his shirt "Democracy: We Deliver")