Base Camp to Adventure

One weekend I had the opportunity to go to Blanding, UT with my grandparents. Blanding is where my Ponkey (dad's dad) was born and raised. Blanding is a small town in Southern Utah, recently claimed to be the base camp to adventure. These first two pictures are at the Edge of the Cedars Anasazi Museum and State Park. The ladder goes down to what I think must have been a kitchen. Grandpa warned me that the indians might get me if I went down the ladder. I believed him, but I went down anyway. It was pretty dark, but it was just a small room with what I thought was a fire pit and a vent.

They took me on the scenic byway that goes through Natural Bridges, Goosenecks, Hovenweep (Indian ruins), Twin Rocks, Muley Point, etc




This jail is in Bluff. I liked what it said "Dedicated to Justice Obedience to Law Means Freedom"






I thought this little volcanic spurt was pretty neat.

This is the house grandpa was born and raised in. While we were in town we saw the first bank of Blanding, which is now an ice cream shop. My great grandpa was the first banker in town. I had such a great time traveling with my grandparents. It was fun to see the country that my grandpa grew up in. We also stopped to visit with his two sisters. It was fun to see them interact together. It was a great get away before Lance and I had to start packing all of our stuff and get ready to move to Cali.

Enjoying Natural Bridges National Monument.

Hidden Treasure

We finally found it! This is the cave we were looking for in the Fall, but there was snow all over the ground. We all had a very triumphant feeling when we found the cave.

The cave's opening was kinda small, but once you got inside it opened up. There was some water on the cave floor so here are a few pictures of us trying to keep our feet dry.

Here is the treasure we found! There were all kinds of fun things inside, a my little pony, a horn, ear plugs, a YW book, etc. Unfortunately we forgot to bring anything to add to the treasure chest.

Elephants

So my new project is (was) making stuffed elephants. Thanks to my mom I actually finished them. This was one of our projects over the week I was in Viriginia. We gave one to Heather's boy and one to Natalie's boy. Here are the cute kids with their new (and favorite I assume) stuffed animals. ;) What handsome boys!

A Visit Back East

The week before Easter I went to Great Falls, VA to visit my family. They moved back to Virginia in September of last year and this was my first time to go out and see their new place. They live in a beautiful area. We had a lot of fun visiting. One of the first nights in town we went to a Nationals game. We headed downtown to see all the cherry blossoms first. We had a nice walk down to Hains Point to see the Awakening and cherry blossoms planted on both sides of the point. The Awakening was one of my favorite places to go as a kid, but I remember the sculpture being a lot bigger back then. Although the Nationals played a horrible game that night we still had a lot of fun. We got these Nationals hats for $4 outside the stadium. Here we are at the World War II memorial sporting our new hats. Unfortunately this picture doesn't represent how beautiful this memorial is at night. This was the first time I had seen this long overdue memorial. If you ever get a chance to go see it make sure you read all the quotes. It was really interesting to look up grandpa redd and his brothers on a computer that tells you about many of those that served in the war.

We also had a chance to go hiking at Harpers Ferry. We had a great time. One of the highlights was seeing a large turtle playing around in the water. It has been so long since I've been to Virginia I forgot how many history lessons you can find all around you. Even on a hike in the middle of the forest you can find a plaque about General Lee or some other general in the civil war.

This picture of some deformed animal has a funny story behind it. This sculpture was sitting on one of the book cases next to some art work by Trevor. I thought to myself man that is probably the ugliest thing Trevor has ever made. (Trevor is a great artist so I was suprised this was his work.) I picked it up to examine the hideous creature and found my own initials on the bottom. Man i felt stupid. This was one reason I stuck with science and not art. ;)

Easter was a great day for many reasons. One reason it is a perfect time to reflect on the Atonement, Christ, Resurrection, and forgiveness. Another reason why it was so great this year is that I got to be with my parents and siblings. I think it has been about 6 or 7 years since I've had an Easter Sunday with them. Church was great, dinner was great, and the company was great. We had my friend Danii and her husband Jess over for dinner. They just moved to Reston and are in my parents ward. We also had Taylor join us for Easter. He is home for a little bit while he gets his ankle better. It was fun to be with him and hear all his missionary stories. He has had some great experiences and it was fun to listen to them on Easter. So what I'm trying to say in this long post is that I had a great time with my family! It was a great vacation!

Elder Preston Redd

I thought I would give everyone a little update on Preston. He is doing great, if you can't tell by these pictures. This first picture reminds me a lot of my mission in Thailand, hot & sweaty everyday!



The field is white already to harvest in Brasilia, the other week the mission had 77 baptisms.


This is Preston with his LAX buddy, Elder Wheatley.