Summer Vacation: Our August Adventure

All great vacations must begin with a squared-away haircut. This was Joseph's second.


Hiding in a cave on our hike in Snow Canyon near St. George, UT.






















The family in Snow Canyon. Those clouds almost rained us out of Tuacahn's presentation of The Sound of Music the night before. But the prayer of a two-year old availeth much. The rain stopped just in time for the show to begin.






















Eldon and Shaela celebrating their old age (29 and 28 years, respectively) with Shaela's parents in Las Vegas.






















Visiting San Diego's Balboa Park while spending time with Mike before his deployment to Afghanistan.





















Eldon and Mike with Charlotte Rose, Joseph, and Caroline.





















Bobo and Caroline had a tea party with two random boys at Grace Ada Park in Modesto while Eldon and Shaela tossed a frisbee.






















Caroline, Joseph, and Shaela with Snow White at Fairyland in Oakland, CA. Joseph is particularly attracted to Snow White's nose.






















Caroline as the little pig who built her house of straw. I'm huffing and puffing...






















Shaela and Caroline climbing Hyde Street in San Francisco after eating a wonderful dinner at McCormack's. We walked almost all the way back to our hotel, much to Shaela's consternation, because every passing cable car was full... or at least two full to take on two crazy adults with two crazy little kids.






















Eldon and Joseph climbing Hyde Street. Right after doing this, we walked down and back up the famous windy section of Lombard Street.






















Shaela looking at the OIF/OEF Memorial Wall at the Marines Memorial Hotel where we stayed in San Francisco. We found all 16 of the men that 1/5 lost when Eldon was deployed to Ar Ramadi, Iraq from March to September of 2005.






















Caroline and her cousin Neal Pettit playing at the Oakland Temple. We were there for the wedding of Eldon's cousin Valerie Nicolaysen to John Brody. Mazletof!






















Shaela and Joseph on the beach at Lover's Point in Monterey, CA. This was the southern leg of our bike trip.






















Eldon and Shaela on the sand dunes overlooking Monterey Bay from the north end of the city. This was the turnaround point of the northern leg of our bike trip.






















Joseph and Caroline fast asleep with their helmets.






















Joseph and Caroline waking up in the bike trailer. We thought this photo was priceless. Look closely for the moisture seeping out of the mouth and eyes...

Our last stop before returning our bikes was at Dennis the Menace Park. Shaela did a re-enactment of a scene that originally occurred in October 2005 when she was about 8 months pregnant. She had a little more space this time.

Here's Shaela doing the same thing in October 2005, a month before Caroline was born.






















Joseph being cute while back in Modesto.






















Grandma Beck (Bobo) and Joseph playing together in Modesto.






















Neal and Caroline eating watermelon in front of Bobo & Papa's house.






















Caroline and Shaela watching the geese on the southern end of Silver Lake at Plasse's Resort in the Sierra Nevada of California.






















Joseph got tired on our little hike to the lake. Very, very tired. He slept like this for a while after we got back.






















Shaela and Joseph in the kayak on Silver Lake.

Eldon returned to shore with Caroline asleep.

And Shaela returned to shore with Joseph asleep. It was a grueling kayaking trip around the lake's island.






















Our campsite in the background with kayaks and The Beast in the foreground. Old friends from Davis will be interested to know that The Beast is still going strong with more than 260K miles.

Caroline roasting marshmallow's over our campfire.






















Joseph eating dirt and marshmallows. Yum!

Caroline being a ham. She had just been imitating a bear. What is this? Who knows, but its funny.






















Caroline and Joseph playing around the resort's tractor tires.

Summertime!

Our summer apart is now drawing to a close. Fortunately, we will be able to have a few weeks together before the fall law semester starts up. We have quite the trip planned for August and will keep a journal of our travelings and experiences right here on our little blog.

The highlight of July, of course, was when we got to be together at home for four days of the Independence Day holiday weekend. In our case, absence certainly does make the heart grow fonder. We consider ourselves greatly blessed as husband, wife, and parents. We find our greatest joys in the time spent together each day, helping and watching our children learn and grow.

On 3 July, we walked/ran/hiked the Bonneville Shoreline Trail that runs along the mountains just east of where we live. While I have run it several times, it was Shaela's first time on the trail. Now she's hooked, goes several times a week, and is working on reducing the time it takes her to make the trek. From the trail, there is a great view of the This is the Place Heritage Park. Since this is basically our backyard, we made good use of our membership there and spent several morning and early afternoon hours enjoying the park on the 4th. During that time, we got to ride on the mini train that had just opened that day. We even got to watch from the train as they shot an anvil about 30 feet up into the air at noon! Big booms and flying anvils are always fun for the kids and their parents. Of course there was much more to do, such as:

Riding the ponies,





















Petting the calf,





















Feeding the goats,





















Crawling on the grass,





















Making faces on the grass,





















And just sitting on the grass and being content to have it. We even all took an afternoon nap in the shade of one of the trees near Brigham Young's farm house (not pictured, of course, because we were sleeping). During those days we also went to the pool and the zoo, but we mostly just enjoyed the time we had to be together.






















One reason we like to play on the grass is that it just doesn't grow in some places. For those who have asked or been curious, here is a glimpse at the Marine Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms where I have been working for the summer. This shows the middle section of mainside, but mainside itself only takes up a tiny portion of the land that constitutes the training center. It stretches out for miles to the west and north, with massive valleys and mountain ranges where Marines can come together in full-scale combined arms exercises to develop their capabilities as Marine Air Ground Task Forces (MAGTF). Though most of my time is spent indoors in an office with no window, it has been a great experience. Working as trial counsel has been a superb learning experience. After all, how many first year law students get a chance to represent the government ("The Big G" as we call it) in court by prosecuting their own cases?





















I have also fallen in love with the desert, or at least this quiet, rugged portion out here that forms the bridge between the Colorado and Mojave deserts. Having adjusted to the dry heat, I love to run for miles here along the mountains, especially on Friday evenings and Saturdays when no one else is out. Sometimes the beauty and majesty of the Lord's handiwork is breathtaking. I will miss the rugged expanses, the warm and clean air, and the salt-of-the-earth non-cityslicker people here. I have attended church meetings in lots of places throughout the US and the world, but this is the only place where someone says "good morning" from the pulpit and gets a rousing chorus of "good morning" back from the congregation. The hearty independence, hard work, genuine neighborliness, quiet dignity, and unequivocal physical and moral courage of the great American west still live on in places like Twentynine Palms, California. I am grateful that I have been able to spend a wonderful summer here.

Another Four Months: Spring Greetings

Life goes on, even when the blog does not reflect it. And, as usual, our last four months have been full of change, challenge, and excitement. Here is our attempt to sum things up.

February and March were fairly routine as I spent most of my time on schoolwork and Shaela did almost everything else. However, we had one significant accomplishment in the spring when we completed our long-term food storage, something we had been wanting to do since we got married. After deciding to get it done, we took some time during my Spring Break to purchase appropriate amounts of bulk food items, borrow the #10 can sealer from a local Church cannery, and package everything up. It was a long, all day project but we really enjoyed doing it. Since we did everything in the garage, even Caroline was able to help prepare the cans for sealing! The boxes now take up the entire lower portion of the closet in our study, but they realistically contain enough food to keep us going for a year.

During our self-sufficiency surge, Shaela also got into sprouting. She has become quite the advocate of sprouts and is continually coming up with new and tasty ways to use them. We have had a lot of fun getting back to basics in the way we live (except for Caroline's fancy dresses) and feeling the stability of preparedness

April was finals month, so I spent many long days studying. Fortunately, the time was well spent and I performed well on my exams.

On Cinco de Mayo, we had an appropriate celebration with law school friends and their children, the Whites and the Barons. It also doubled as a celebration of our successful completion of our first year of law school! We had an outstanding feast prepared by James White and a wacky pinata made by Eldon. The little ones had a great time smacking the pinata with some help from their dads.

That evening, Tulan and Caroline played their way into the Grimm's yard next door and ended up on their playground. During a chat with Pete Grimm in his office/museum, I had occasion to don a WWII era dive mask that he has amongst his relics. It is as heavy as it looks.

During May, we moved out of Anne Pinnock's home to make way for her daughter and their family, Andrea and Rob, who will be buying the house and staying with Anne until she wears herself out enough to rest for good (with a name like Action Anne, that is not likely to happen soon). As a result, we spent May moving in to our new home in the East Village of University of Utah's student housing. We love it there. Caroline and Joseph especially benefit from having a park/playground as our front yard. Our old family van, The Beast, was a real benefit that allowed us to move everything by ourself and at our own pace. Since many of our things have been in storage since last July when we left California, it was somewhat like Christmas as we unpacked some boxes, especially as we uncovered some of our nice wedding gifts that have remained in their boxes due to lack of space. As shown below, Caroline had fun drinking out of the enormous ceramic stein from Austria (for those who are familiar with John Wayne's McClintock, she even knows the meaning of "down the hatch"). We were able to feel properly moved in by the end of May when we hit the road and headed west to begin our summer adventure. We like our new home. In the words of one visitor, "you guys know how to make cinder block walls look good!"

After a brief stay with Shaela's family in Las Vegas, we pushed over to Simi Valley for the baptism of Chad & Amy Pettit's second daughter, Madeline. The cousins had lots of fun playing with each other.

Nicole and Madeline are particularly good examples, helpers, and playmates despite the fact that all their other cousins are under the age of three.

Of course, where there is a trampoline, Shaela (our amazing gymnast with her new short hair) has to do some tricks. It is much easier for her to jump now than when she is nine months pregnant ;-)

Joseph also enjoyed the company of cousins, especially his new pal, Charlotte Rose Darracq.

At the beginning of June, I began my work ("summer fun") at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC, also referred to as the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Center, MAGTFTC) in lovely Twentynine Palms, CA. I qualify that statement with the caveat that it is lovely to anyone who appreciates the desert. While somewhat desolate, isolated, and hot (at this time of year), it really is a neat place.

As a summer funner, I work in the military justice section here but have also taken on responsibility in the administrative law section. I will be handling several guilty pleas ("dives") by acting as Trial Counsel in the next few weeks, but that is about all I am allowed to do in the courtroom at this point. However, my past experience at Camp Pendleton as an Adj continually proves to be invaluable, not just for helping me understand almost everything that goes on, but for being able to apply that expertise in ways that helps the other lawyers here and the units here. Despite my involvement, having limited responsibility and sometimes experiencing some fairly slow days is difficult for someone who is much more comfortable being significantly over-tasked. However, I take advantage of the quiter moments and study things like the Military Rules of Evidence, which will not only help me out in my future work but will also put me ahead of the game next year in school.

Shaela and the kids spent the first part of June in Modesto with "Bobo & Papa" along with Suzanne who is now a Navy wife learning what it is like to have her husband gone on deployment.

Before going to Leavitt's gradutation in Las Vegas, Shaela et al stopped by my temporary desert home and we were able to spend some time together in Twentynine Palms over the weekend.
We had a great time riding the carousel at the Carousel Cafe,
swinging on the playground of our condo-like hotel,
and exploring the Mara Oasis at Joshua Tree National Park.

Should any of you want to visit, we now have two convenient locations to serve you better: Salt Lake City, UT and Twentynine Palms, CA. Hurry, though, because this exclusive offer expires at the beginning of August.

Four Months in Review

It has been a busy four months. Here is the brief version of our recent family history.

October brought the burial of Grandpa Beck, our third wedding anniversary, and the birth of Joseph all on one day: 15 October. Joseph spent five days in the NICU because of his mysterious hypoxemia. We finally got him home though, he remains on a small amount of oxygen when he sleeps. Hopefully he will grow out of it soon. November brought a lightning-fast voyage in the Beast out to Modesto for Thanksgiving with the Becks. December was finals month and Christmas in Vegas with the Wells. January was the month of sickness; when we were not sick at home, we were spending five days in the hospital with Joseph (thank you, RSV). In February, we are simply enjoying being a happy family. On 15 February we celbrate our 40th monthiversary!

Best wishes to all. Enjoy the photos.

Caroline with her new baby brother.

Great Grandma Nicolaysen visits.

Daddy dancing with Caroline and Joseph.

A monkey, an angel, and an Iraqi couple.

Caroline's 2nd birthday and Thanksgiving in Modesto, CA.

Enjoying late autumn at Heritage Park.

A December Sunday afternoon.

Caroline thanking Anne ("Nana") for her Christmas present (a dress).

Eldon and Caroline riding the train (UTA TRAX) while Mommy and Maju take care of Joseph at the hospital.

Our early February family snowshoe trip in the wilderness of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Eldon and Caroline breaking trail.

Shaela the motivator wearing Joseph and enjoying the beautiful, soft, treacherous powder.

Grandpa Beck - In Memorium

Any thought of Grandpa Beck brings to mind a few choice words that are worth preserving for our posterity. He understood the value and necessity of work, family, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He possessed an unwavering testimony and eternal family perspective which inspired dozens of children and grandchildren to be strong links in the generational chain. His life reflected the knowledge that "this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God . . . ." He entrusted to us a legacy of faith, family, righteousness, and work that we must now preserve, improve, and instill in the rising generation.

I'm working on a list of Grandpa's Gems: witticisms, observations, counsel, declarations. I think a well compiled list could serve as a humorous, inspiring, and compelling eulogy. This is only the beginning. Please send me any concise additions that would help make this list an accurate representation of the patriarch we knew and loved.

On Work
- "Man was made to work. When I stop working I will die."
- "People are like concrete... when they stop moving, they set up."
- When a job was satisfactorily completed: "Just like downtown" or "First class"

On Marriage
- "There are two kinds of women: work horses and show horses. Get yourself a work horse. Of course I was lucky enough to get both!"
- "Marry a pretty girl. You're going to be looking across the table to her for a long time."
- "Marry a pretty girl. The last thing you want is ugly kids."
- "President Packer once addressed a group of missionaries and asked them who they would marry when they had the choice between an unattractive girl with a strong testimony and an attractive girl with a weak testimony. The missionaries predictably replied that they would marry the girl with the strong testimony. Pres Packer surprised them by responding that a testimony can grow, but a girl is not likely to become any more beautiful than she is when you marry her!"

On Family
- "People who don't have kids don't leave many footsteps to follow."
- "What you learn in this life you learn by raising children. Those who choose not to have kids never really learn anything."