Dave's Personal Space: 005 - Fifth Weekly Update from the Utah Ridleys

(click photos for larger shots)

View from the ski lift.

Cool item in one of the Sundance Lodge stores.

Sweet Cars parked outside the Lodge
(we had to take this shot to show Nathan and Matthew)

Maybe rather than focusing on a shallow detail level across a whole week (or so) of activity, it would be fun just to go deep on a couple days.

Emily and I recently took a holiday:

On Friday night, Emily was invited to drop her preparations for dinner and go up to the BYU campus, ostensibly to watch a foreign film presentation with Becky and Matt. As soon as she was out of the driveway, I told the kids to hastily grab their shoes and get in the car. I packed their pajamas and other necessaries into a suitcase and drove them to Thanksgiving Point and swaped cars with Aunt Christa so the kids could spend the night with their Aunt Christa and and Uncle Steve in Salt Lake.

Back at BYU, I retrieved Emily from the theater and she and I went quickly off to dinner at Cafe Rio. Following our very satisfying meal, we wandered all over the BYU campus visiting a few buildings that had been erected since our graduation. We laid out on the little "molehills" and looked at the stars, talked about memories of the place, etc. As the icing on the cake, we came home and watched part of the presidential debate...I know, we're sooo romantic. Let no one say that we don't know how to get the most out of our date time (gag).

We got to sleep in a little the next morning and, as Emily got ready for the day, I proceeded to gather our lunch into a backpack. I wouldn't tell Emily what we were up to. That was fun - for me at least.

We drove up Provo Canyon. If you haven't been up the canyon lately and are in the area, go soon. It was SO beautiful at about 10:00 in the contrasting shade and sunshine - so beautiful, in fact, that I missed the turn off for Sundance Ski Resort because I was looking at the mountains. I thought it was further on (who knew the resort was so close??). Once we made it up to the lodge, Emily was pleasantly surprised by the ski-lift: a one hour round trip (we timed it, one way takes about 28 minutes), very quiet and peaceful, for only $8 per person (cheap is of the essence until my first paycheck arrives). It was an excellent ride with a very nice view. ¡Que romantico! So, I think it makes up for the presidential debate lameness the night before. We stopped at the top and hiked a bit. Beautiful landscapes of the valley opened up suddenly around corners in the trail. The back side of Timpanogos is worth visiting.

Emily, looking unsure about the Ray's Lift.

Me, enjoying the scenery

Emily calmly ascending the mountain
at 10:51 am (you can read her watch)

It was a little steep in spots

I appreciate the dark contrast of the shady sides of the trail and the ferns growing quietly in little patches. We saw 3 deer, which made our wilderness experience complete. Back at the lodge area, we had our picnic on a bench by the stream. Very nice. We saw some shiny old cars. We stopped in a cool shop or two. We checked out photos of famous people who visited Sundance. Then we went home to romantically install a dishwasher…(Again, what sort of fuddy-duddies install a dishwasher during date time?)

Uncle Tom was the master installer. We did half the job at that point, and since it got pretty involved (we had to install a new electrical outlet in the wall, drill holes for pipes, etc.) Uncle Tom agreed to come back late that evening to finish the job and Emily and I sped off to Salt Lake to get the kids. Emily attended Women's Conference with my sister Christa while I made a fine leftovers dinner at my sister's apartment. Then we came home and finished the install once the kids were down. Anyway, that's our trip. We took pictures . We had a good weekend.

- Dave Ridley (with slight editing by Emily)