Klondike 2014

Here are some scenes from our 2014 Klondike trip.  We had 14 boys and 4 leaders.  The local Klondike charges $20/person (food not included), which adds up for a group our size, so we decided to create our own.  We left after school on Friday and I took a wrong turn along the way, so we hit the trail head around 7:00.  We hiked in about 1/2 mile- all uphill through snow and ice.  After several trips, we had everything in and the tents set up, just in time for a wind storm to start.  I ended up tying several of the tents to the trees, to keep them in place.  The next morning, after a traditional breakfast of pancakes, we spent the day playing in the snow.  We had a great time and headed home after lunch.

 "Midnight cobbler"  (This was dessert at 11:30 Friday night.)

 Our only tent casualty

 Warming up in the morning around the fire.

 Breakfast

 Our sledding jump

The aftermath

 

Here is a video of Ty sledding down the hill over the jump.

-Brant

Grandma Jacobs

Grandma passed away this morning around 2:30 am.  I don't have a lot of details yet.  She had pneumonia, and both lungs were filled with fluid.  The funeral is this Saturday, Feb. 1st at 2:00 pm in Lindon, Utah.

This quick video is about the chapel where we have church. The stake president who speaks in it is our stake president (we just know him as the guy with the nice suit) and the ice cream man at the end is out there in his truck every time I walk by.

Spring hasn't sprung yet

Another normal week has come and gone here. Kelly is still in NY looking after her mom. For anyone who doesn't know, her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer again and opted to go for a double mastectomy. She had the surgery on Wednesday and it looks like the cancer had not spread into any other parts of her body, so she won't need any further treatments. She just has to recover from this surgery and then get a rebuild in a few months. Other than the usual post-surgery pains, she seems to be doing fine and Kelly will be there for two more weeks helping out. 

We've had a couple of interesting visitors at church in the last month. Linda S. Reeves attended our ward a few weeks ago. I chatted with her about her trip and asked where she was from and the usual. She conveniently neglected to mention that she is the second counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency and I didn't recognize her and as far as I know, no one else did either. Good thing she was greeted and welcomed by about 15 people, so she can report to Salt Lake that we're doing it right over here. Some of you who listen/have listened to KSL may recognize the name Duane Cardall. He was the editorial director and used to read a weekly editorial on the radio when I lived in Utah. He and his wife are the new directors of the visitors' center at the chapel near Hyde Park here. They previously served a mission in DC and six weeks after they got home, the Church called them and asked them to go to London for two years.

A confused tree in the park near our house

I thought this was some kind of sweets, but it's not. Any guesses?