Summer Journeys

It’s been an exciting month:

-Hiking Squaw Peak with Kyra and Kevin

-Grand Canyon with Mary Li and her family

-Thanksgiving Point with Alisha’s family

-California with the Pulsipher family

-BYU’s Paleontology Museum

-Anne’s Birthday Party part 2

-Seven Peaks

And we worked…a little.

Our pictures are a little sporadic and scattered due to the fact that sometimes we forget to take them. Here’s a few we did take.

Alisha: The hike to Squaw Peak was mostly shady, quite steep, and ended with a beautiful view and shaky legs. Stephen even survived being the only non-electrical engineer among the four of us.

Stephen: The next day we began our journey to the Grand Canyon to join Mary Li and her mom and uncle. The journey was stressful due to a lack of maps. It looked so simple on Google Maps that I didn’t bother to print it out and decided to rely on memory. Of course, I know my memory is not that great, but in this case I, well, forgot. Anyway, we made it there and enjoyed a couple beautiful days in one of God’s wonders, the Grand Canyon.

We enjoyed talking with Mary’s mom and uncle and were a little surprised sometimes. Americans love sugar a lot more than Chinese do, but Mary’s uncle love s’mores. And the media gives the impression that anyone outside the US hates Bush, but Chinese people (in Mary’s hometown at least) loved President Bush.

Alisha: We got back to Provo in time to spend a day with my family before Stephen’s family reunion. We all went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. If you know Stephen, you know this was perfect since learning about dinosaurs is one of his favorite things. I have to admit that it was a really cool museum plus it was just so nice to spend the day with my family. I like hanging out with them.

Stephen: I can’t move on without commenting. The Dinosaur Museum was one of the coolest places I have ever been. After walking through a room talking about the age of the earth, how fossils are formed, and describing a dig, all with hands-on exhibits for kids and lots of stuff to read for adults, you walk through a dark tunnel with stars around you and come out to a mural describing how scientists believe the world came to be. Then you go through the different epochs of geologic time, with fossils and dioramas everywhere. There are few things more fascinating that seeing all these remnants of ancient life – fossil upon fossil. If I make enough money, I would love to retire early and become a paleontologist.

Ok, on to what I’m supposed to talk about – California. Due to the lure of Bethany and Brandon driving with us, we got up quite early to drive down. The drive was much easier than the one to the Grand Canyon, though we still managed to miss the exit to the Pearblossom. Alisha’s not going to let us travel anywhere without a map again, though. We loved the trip. I enjoyed introducing Alisha to the Pulsipher tradition of beach camping. It brought back lots of memories and was a lot of fun despite the quite painful burns we both received.

One of our favorite moments was on the second day at the beach when we walked down the coast to a little bay. Here the waves were calmer and we could see bits of kelp floating out in the water. Then the sleek grey backs of dolphins broke the water. We sat on a wind and water sculpted piece of driftwood and watched for the next 20 minutes or so as the dolphins passed by, spouting and occasionally flipping their tails out of the water.

Alisha: Another thing we’ve enjoyed, both on our California trip and scattered throughout the weeks, is the opportunity to be aunt and uncle to some really adorable kids. We love listening to them, and playing with them, and cuddling with them and watching them. We love watching their parents as well, picking up a lot of unsaid advice and trying to figure out how we want to be when we’re parents. We’re so excited for that day and glad to have so many examples to draw from.