One More Day

Only one more day before I graduate from college with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Only one more night (tonight) before my last presentation for an undergraduate class. Maybe I should be sleeping so that I'm rested for my very important presentation? Nah!

Instead I am up listening to the Suns game. They are destroying Portland right now. I may be drowsy tomorrow in my final, but just hearing Al McCoy put the game "In the Deep Freeze" makes it all worth it. The other part that makes it worth it is that Shanna let me stay up and listen to it, which means that she won't be mad at me for making her go to bed alone.

I must say, I'm pretty lucky that Shanna lets me watch/participate in as many sports as she does. She's awesome! and she got a new haircut today that looks really good.

Sorry, boring post. If you want something interesting to read, click here.

Family History

Have you guys seen that new show on TV that's called "Who Do You Think You Are?" I watched one episode of it and I thought that it was pretty cool. If you haven't, it's a show that takes some major celebrities (Emmett Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, etc)I'm and tracks their family history back in time. The reason they use celebrities I'm sure is to get viewers to watch, but to me the cool part wasn't that there were celebrities, but the fact that the celebrities were actually getting excited learning about their ancestors. It kind of reminded me that I should be doing the same.

Recently, my dad gave me a copy of his dad's personal history because I kept asking him for it. I have already read some of it, most of it actually, and I am enjoying re-reading it now. I find it really interesting to read about how his life was similar to mine and the many ways in which it was much different. My Grandma Hansen sent me a thick stack of papers that details many of my ancestors going back well into the 1800's. This was also very interesting, and it was enlightening to read about the trials, joys, and hardships that were experienced in a time without any of the nice luxuries that we have today. I'm glad to have all of these in my possession.

I find many stories in these histories to be very amusing and enlightening. One story that I read tonight in my Grandpa Selin's history was particularly interesting, though it wasn't about him. In the chapter he wrote about his brother, he mentions a time when his brother was on night guard in the Army. He took a grenade and pulled the pin. He then passed the live grenade off to the person who relieved him at his post. The grenade served to keep him and the next man awake and alert while on guard duty, owing to their great desire and attention to not set off the pin-less grenade. Then as grandpa often does, he relates the story to a gospel principle.

I'm grateful for all of my faithful ancestors and the things that I can learn from them.

A Few Things I Know About Calvin

1. He loves his mommy.
2. He likes music. (This gives me an excuse to sing my favorite songs out loud to him)
3. He stops crying when you hold him up in the air.
4. He loves to look at the picture of the temple and our wedding on the wall.
5. He doesn't like taking his bath.
6. He's the best high rainbow arc over-the-head pee-er I've ever seen.
7. He doesn't like getting his diaper changed.
8. His hands get cold easily.
9. He's pretty tough. (Minimal crying at the doctor's office when he got his shot, and minor surgery)
10. His hair gets pretty greasy.(But I think that's also due to Shanna always touching his head)

Anyone Want To Go?

This past week, I've had the urge to go outside and do something. Maybe it's the winter blues or maybe it's due to the fact that I normally spend 8-12 hours a day holed up in a campus basement working on computers. I really wanted to go out and go somewhere or do something that would be memorable.

I remembered hearing about and seeing pictures of a rock formation in Arizona called "The Wave". Once you see it, you kind of understand how it got the name. Anyways, I decided that I really want to go hike out to The Wave sometime.


The only problem with going is that the Bureau of Land Management, in an effort to preserve the formation, only allow 20 people per day to go out to the formation. It's all controlled by permits. You can apply for a permit for a specific date, but to get one, you have to win the "lottery" for the permit. Turns out that there are usually about 100-150 people who apply for a permit on any given day. 10 permits are given away in advance and 10 are given away the day before in a lottery style giveaway. So chances for getting a permit online are about 10 percent and getting one the day before just depends on the day and how many people show up.

I'm hoping to get a permit sometime this year, late summer, early fall. Sometime before school starts I guess, so more likely late summer. Anyone want to go? The largest permit you can apply for is 6 people. It's about a 1-2 hour hike in to the wave, then there are places called "Hamburger Rock" and "The Wave 2" that are in the general area also. It's pretty much just a day hike, but it's right near the Utah-Arizona border, so it'll more likely than not take 2 days. (1 traveling and 1 hiking) Anyways, let me know if you want to come so that I can get in touch with you to get this thing planned. See ya later.

Old Narocut

I've been reading through some family history information that my grandma gave me, and I had the idea to make blog posts that tell some of the stories I've come across. This one is one of my favorites. The story takes place in Grantsville, Utah. It is a story about my great-great-grandmother (I think) Genevieve Wrathall Orr, who is referred to as grandmother in the story.

"One particular warm Sunday afternoon, Grandmother had been left at home to care for Aunt Eva [her sister, I think] who was the baby at that time, the rest of the family being at church, when an old Indian named Narocut knocked at the door. Narocut was known to be very mean, and the children had alwas been told to give him what he wanted, so as not to arouse his anger. Grandma was horrified when she saw him standing there. He started asking for food, which she gave him. She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was almost time for church to be out, for which she was very grateful. The Indian asked for other things, and then he demanded that she give him the baby. Grandmother was terrified but she remembered the counsel her father had given them, and realizing that the Indian couldn't get far before church dismissed, she gave him the baby. He started going West and of course passed by the [church] meeting house. The man who was standing at the pulpit saw old Narocut hurrying down the street with the baby. He notified the people in church, and Grandfather with other men there, hurriedly overtook the Indian and the baby was soon resting safely at home again."

I like the story because it's so foreign to me to think that just an old Indian man would walk up to somebody's house while the parents weren't home and demand to be given a baby. A person who does that today goes to jail. I guess that's something that people just had to deal with in the last 19th century West.

Ding and Dang....

Recently, Shanna and I went camping near Goblin Valley State Park in the Utah desert. Goblin Valley itself was very impressive and interesting. I can't say that I've seen anything like it before. There are so many goblins, it's hard to believe that it was all formed naturally. And actually, in my thinking, it wasn't all nature. There had to be some divine artist behind this beautiful valley. Very neat. Aside from Goblin Valley though, we did a lot of hiking in some canyons in the area. This was my favorite part of the trip.

Despite staying overnight only Thursday night, we hiked 3 canyons: Crack Canyon and Ding and Dang Canyons. Ding and Dang form a loop that connects two larger washes and features extremely narrow portions as well as impressive vertical walls on both sides. Especially in Dang Canyon(the canyon we descended through), there were a few very high vertical drops which we had to navigate. One or two were a little bit creepy, but all of them were really fun and exciting to climb down.

Crack Canyon was also mucho fantastico. While the climbing and hiking wasn't as challenging as Ding and Dang, there were a lot of fun portions. The best part of the hike was the huge crack towards the end of the canyon. Very narrow, it rises the entire height of the canyon walls. I would guess that it was only about 3-4 feet wide. Once inside of it, we could shimmy up and down pretty much at will. About 15 feet up (I would guess, because I didn't go that high) the walls close in and get very narrow. The cool thing was that you could look straight up and see the sky outside.

At night, we camped in a wash which is generaly not a smart idea. Another camper decided to point out the obvious to us as he was passing. We thought "duh!" but since the sky was clear and chance of rain was nil, we took our chances. We had some delicious boiled hot dogs for dinner and breakfast burritos boiled in ziplock bags for breakfast. The rest of the trip we ate granola bars and my personal favorite, Finding Nemo fruit snacks.

All of the pictures from the trip are located on my brother in law's(Bruce's) picture album website at: http://picasaweb.google.com/bruckie There are four albums. Each begins with "San Rafael Swell" and were posted on April 24th or 25th. Enjoy glancing through them.