Back to school

Hello friends. You, who are reading this blog, are truly my friends. I haven't updated it in months so if you're reading this you obviously care a lot about us...maybe too much.

Here's some news. I've decided to head back to school full time. Yes, that's right, full time. Marla was kind enough to make the suggestion that I should be fully dedicated to completing a second bachelor's degree rather than working and doing school part time, so today was my first day as a student at Utah Valley University. Why UVU? It's close and required no effort to be accepted, that's why. I already have one B.A. from SUU in Marketing, and this B.S. will be in Computer Science. I went to school today very relaxed and sure I would be able to do well in the pre-req classes. After all, I already completed these courses one time, right?


I have always abhored my math classes. To start in the Computer Science courses, a minimum math level is expected. I took one step further back into College Algebra, anticipating that I would be able to re-warm my math skills before jumping into Physics for Computers. Our professor lectured for 47 minutes today and I didn't really understand the last 45, so I have a little reading and catching up to do. I would make this post longer, but I need to bury my head in my algebra book.

Few things more inspiring

Hello everybody;
I doubt many people even bother checking to see if I've updated anything because it has been about 6 weeks since I've added some new content. It hasn't been a slow 6 weeks by any means. Marla and I went to San Francisco to meet up with some old friends who I moved to France with 10 years ago on Sept 19. It was a stellar reunion. We also saw my brother and his cool little family which doesn't happen often enough. And we got to see a 9ers game where the 9ers even managed to pull off a win for us, which is the only victory they've had in Candlestick all season! Good times, good times.

But I'm writing today to let you all know about my latest little adventure in Zion. I like Zion and I have spent many, many hours climbing up or hiking down things. My buddy Nate (from many previous posts) had a chance to go to Vegas over the weekend and so we made an adventure out of it. Beyond celebrating another friend's birthday and catching up with each other, we had a chance to go spend a little time in Zion where we hiked the West Rim Trail, which I had never been on previously.

The weather was great despite being a little breezy. My poor planning skills left me with nothing but a pair of shorts and a polypropylene t-shirt so I'm glad it wasn't too bad. There were some ominous clouds in the morning but they were climbing out of the canyon quickly. We managed to catch up to them about an hour into the hike but they were moving far faster than we could.

Eric at cloud level

The hike was good. I moved a little slower than I wanted to, but sitting in front of a computer screen all day on a padded chair doesn't do much for cardio strength so that's to be expected. Even Nate's uncle, who is almost 20 years older than me and has a bum knee, was moving at a pace that had me sucking wind. I think I would have been miserable had I not been in the most beautiful place on earth. Zion was looking especially good to me this weekend. It might have been the low clouds, the familiarity of the sandstone towers, or the company, but this trip will go down in my memory as one of the best trips I've had to the park. Ever.

Enjoy some more pics:

Behunin Canyon from a distance (the best place to see it from)

The canyon trail up to Angel's Landing

Doug, Troy, and Eric on the switchbacks to the plateau

Doug, Troy, and Nate on small switchbacks up to Angel's Landing

Eric, Doug, Nate, and Troy with Kolob behind

Three Vegas boys with Kolob behind

Nate and Troy with some colorful foliage

I just like this photo, OK?

The classic Zion Canyon view

A little walk up a hill

This last weekend I had a chance to go take a hike up Mt Timpanogos with my good friend Adam. The mountain was beautiful and we had great weather so we had to share the experience with hundreds of other hikers making the trek. It was Adam's and my first time up the mountain so I really didn't know what to expect. We paced ourselves early, per my request, so I wouldn't exhaust my energy before we reached the summit. To my surprise the hike was extremely simple and low-angle the entire time and I wasn't in the least bit tired when we stood on top. I moved a little slower than I would have wanted to above 10,000 ft and I suffered from the same heartburn I always do (you would think I would have learned to pack some anti-acids by now but I didn't and probably won't on my next hike). Adam moved well and for the last couple of hours I felt like I was really holding him back. It's a great mountain and the Wasatch wilderness is a beautiful place to spend a day or two.

The only excitement on the entire hike is when a couple of other hikers started calling each other names and threatening each other. For a moment I thought I was going to have to break up a fight hours away from the nearest car. The disagreement was between a teenager and some guy I took to be in his late 30s. The teenager wised up when he saw the other guy meant business and he and his girlfriend hoofed it down the mountain. I imagine they were on their way to home to smoke pot and play Guitar Hero or Rock Band or something like that, because he certainly looked like the type of guy who was more in his element eking out semi-harmonies on some bastardized version of a "guitar" while a computer program complimented him on how musically talented he was than he was in the backwoods. (My sincere apologies to all of my dear friends who enjoy those games, that was the mountain talking in its disgust of being disrespected, not me.)

Adam and I both made it down in great health and the only lasting effects of the mountain are a couple of blisters on my feet and a sunburn. Here are some pics:

Adam on the way down from the summit

Adam at the top of Timp

Doug at the saddle overlooking Utah Valley

Adam and Doug at the summit

Anniversary weekend - friends, fun, and flying out of airplanes

July 16 was Marla's and my 3rd anniversary and she surprised me with a special gift...skydiving. She arranged for us to go in Southern Utah with Skydive Zion. I had been skydiving once before about 10 years ago and I have to say that this experience was completely different and 100% better. Skydive Zion is a small operation, and by "small" I mean the guy that was strapped to our backs was the owner/operator of the company, owner of the plane, sole instructor (in Southern Utah), and videographer. Rick was great and we will definitely be going back to enjoy some more free fall with him in the future. Marla LOVED skydiving and I think she wants to go again sooner than later. You can see our dive videos below.

We did get to see our dear friends Eric and Amie Jackson when we were in Southern Utah and catch Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Eric snapped this shot of Marla and me in front of the Green Show, which is the free exhibition they put on before every play. These guys were doing an awesome, Elizabethan-era version of the comic routine "Who's on first?," how could it get any better than that?

At the Green Show

This was the plane we jumped out of

Bird Falls with the Stewarts...

Oh, no wait, that's Stewart Falls with the Birds. Kevin and Jess Bird were kind enough to show Marla and I Stewart Falls this weekend. It was beautiful scenary on an awesome weather day and we couldn't have been happier. The Birds are wonderful people and I learned the reason Marla and I hadn't been able to spend time with them earlier is because Jess has internal conflicts with setting schedules. Who knew?

Many of you who read this blog may have done this incredibly simple, overused trail to Stewart Falls above Sundance but it was my first time there. Don't get me wrong, the fact that there were many people there didn't really bother me. If I'm honest I'll say I was worried the Birds were going to plan a much more difficult hike and I wasn't in the mood to carry a pack. The trail is just 2 miles each way and is over relatively flat ground, but the falls are awesome and I'm so glad Jess had the idea to see them.

Here are some pics of the trip and a snapshot of my feet after we got back. The trail is extremely dusty.

Marla on the trail with Stewart Falls behind.

The Longs and Birds at Stewart Falls

Scenary from the falls

Stewart Falls

Dusty, filthy feet

A little climbing, anyone?

Many of you know that rock climbing has been a huge part of my life. It started when I was 12 and a brother forced me into rappelling. I was scared to death and it took me nearly 45 minutes to rap down an 80 foot face. I was so scarred that I didn't get in a climbing harness for another 2 years when I told another brother I had tried rappelling and I was scared of it. He looked at me and said "The Longs aren't scared of rappelling." That weekend he brought me up to a modest cliff in Red Rocks on the west side Vegas, handed me a 15-foot length of one-inch webbing, and told me that I would not only rappel down the face as many times as it took so I was no longer scared, but I would tie my own harness to do it in. He offered no instructions but supervised me and made sure that while the harness might be uncomfortable, it was safe.

Well 16 years later I'm trying to get my wife involved in climbing. I brought her up Rock Canyon outside Provo a couple of weeks ago and tried to put her on a route called the Fridge on the Kitchen Wall. The Fridge is a pretty easy route, 5.7, and it's only about 35-40 feet tall. There was access to the top so I was able to set up the rappel and top rope without having to make Marla belay me. I made a bad error in judgment, however, and ended up dropping the rope down an adjacent route that is rated 5.9. I climbed hard for a couple of years before I felt comfortable on a 5.9 and this was Marla's second time climbing, so I set her up for disaster. She managed to climb up the bottom portion of the 5.9 and then moved over to the 5.7 to finish the route. I don't think she really enjoyed the feeling of being put on a rock that she was unable to climb and I can't blame her. My hands still get clammy when I'm sitting on the couch watching a climber on a sick route so I know how she feels.

Fast forward with me to this last weekend scouring through some old photos that had been collecting dust in my mother's garage. I remember the day these photos were taken as I eventually fell from a route and cracked my knee on a rock pretty well. It was one of those many days that Nate and I managed to bum a ride out to Red Rocks but we weren't able to convince a parent to pick us up until much later. I was only 15 and Nate was standing quite a ways back. You can see some graffiti on the rock below me. You can't see the ground in either photo but the graffiti was about 8 feet off the ground, the "artist" had to have stood on a small boulder at the bottom of the route, that's why there's not more graffiti. I was looking at these photos in awe of the fact that I was climbing that. Obviously I wasn't too serious because I was in tennis shoes and socks, and you'll notice I have no rope.

Exercising Democracy

Some of my friends may know that my father-in-law in running for a seat on the Utah State Legislature. One of the benefits of knowing a candidate is that there are usually public events that you get to attend. This last Saturday, nearly all of Marla's family got together to march in the sweet Orem Days parade. Here are some pics:

Marla and her mom in front of the Cadillac
A surprising amount of people turned out
Hailey Jo with Marla