Best Everyone Ever Was at the Best Wedding Ever

Last weekend . . . no, the one before it . . . I was in Utah and, among other things, had the tremendous opportunity to go dear friend Cindy's wedding luncheon and reception.  Do you know when I met Cindy?  Fall 1995, when I was a freshman at BYU.  As the wedding approached I realized there were going to be so many people there that I had known for 17 years.  Or less than 17 years.  But a load of people from my Provo days.  Not only was this a big fun wedding, it was also a major class reunion.

Here I am at the luncheon at Rock Canyon Park, as photographed by Jared.  I was so busy enjoying being reunited that I didn't take too many pictures.  And can you believe I didn't get a picture of the bride at the luncheon?  That's how excited I was to be there!

But I did get a picture of Carl,

And Nathan,

And Rebecca!

And Erin!!

And Jared

The groom's father hopped up on one of the tables and delivered a fine and rousing and entertaining and sweet speech and welcome.  More talks like this!  Less make believe poetry language!

And here's a big reuniting: Shane!  (No pics of Jen, because I am a fool)

Then a few hours it was down to the Rose Park Stake Center with me for the reception.

Ferguson design touches abounded.

You know what I didn't do?  Leave a note on the note string.  Sorrry.

But here, finally, is Cindy the Bride!

And her much-coveted bouquet.  

You know who else was there?  Dave!  Can't believe we only took one class together at BYU.

And I still can't believe I never lived with Shane . . . but the numbers check out.  Mathematically, it was impossible for us to have ever lived together.

Kristin.

Derek (Rebecca's husband)

ME! (again photographed by Jared)

At the reception we feasted on hot dogs, potato salad, and vintage sodas as we admired the much Instagrammed, much Pinned centerpieces.  I don't think a single can of paper roses was left behind by the end of the night. 

Exploring a little, I found a hall with portraits of all the Presidents of the Church.  Nice touch, but not terribly surprising.

But what I was NOT ready for were the portraits of all the Stake Presidents.  Now that gives the stake a a real sense of community, pride, and history.

Oh and you know who else was at the reception?  Starla.

Partiers.

Lights.

Emily and Mark

Mary and myself

Elaine and Hitchin' flag.

So yeah, those are all my pictures from the two parties.  Things I did not photograph?  All the pulled pork I ate at the luncheon.  Tom the Groom.  Cindy and Tom cutting the cake.  Me eating cake.  Me eating hot dogs.  Me meeting and reuniting with even more people.  Cindy and Tom making their exit.  Girls grabbing all the centerpieces at the end of the night.  Me grabbing two centerpieces.  The list goes on and one, but let me end by saying this: these gatherings were so wonderful.  The left me feeling like some things are right in this world.

Best Go Take a Hike!

So.  California.  On the day after Universal Studios and the day before Rebekah's wedding I went up to Chantry Flats to hike to Hermit's Falls with Collin, Mallory, Jeff and Noelle.  When Grandma heard where we were headed she said "Oh, that's a good hike for thirteen year old girls!"  And I don't know if that was meant as an observation or a burn, but I took it as good news . . . listen, I'll go on a hike, I'm not scared, I hiked Philmont.  But some days, you want to go on a thirteen year old girl's hike.

And also, it's not like I'd never been to Chantry Flats either.  I'd definitely been dragged there a few times as a kid.  The parking area even looked familiar.

But if we're going to talk about parking areas, lets start with everyone assembled in Grandma's driveway.  Collin was playing us out with his air flute.

And now we drive! (imagine photos of a not too long drive to the mountains after this)

Okay!  Now that we're at that familiar Chantry Flats parking lot, everyone put on suntan lotion!

We don't want any burns!  (This isn't comedic foreshadowing to some serious sunburns.  Everyone made it out fine.)

And here's me.  Take a good look, because this is the only photo of me in this whole post.

The trailhead!  1.2 miles to lovely Hermit Falls.  (Now imagine 1.2 miles worth of mild hiking photos)

And then we arrived at the apparently famous Hermit Falls swimming hole and jumping cliffs.

It tickled us just to watch the youngsters leap.

But soon we leapt ourselves.  Here Jeff exhibits his trademark Spider-Man jump.

Collin.  Pure altitude.

This is a guy that I called Shayne all day but that wasn't his name.  Later on you'll see why I thought his name was Shayne.

Shayne was certainly the most daring diver at the hole.

Here Jeff laughs after another jumper slipped off a rock, slid down to another rock, caught himself, and jumped the rest of the way.  For a moment we were all pretty sure he was going to tumble all the way down the cliffs.

That there, that would be the guy that had the slip.  Not the guy in the foreground.  The background guy.

What other jumpers may have had over them in acrobatic skill Collin and Jeff made up for with their artistry.  Here they perform a synchronized dive known as "the Tandem."  Because, as you can see, it looks just like they're on a tandem bicycle together.

Mallory and Noelle performing a tandem jump of their own.  Your welcome to give it a name, if you'd like.  Like in those New Yorker cartoon captioning contests.

Can you see that Jeff is holding a bag of Doritos?  He wanted to have some Doritos, but he did not want them on the top of the cliff.  He wanted them down by the water.

Unexpectedly (or not), the Dorito bag burst upon impact.  Jeff emerged from the water hollerin "How'd all these chips get in the water?!"

"Shayne" performs another fine flip.  The crowd goes wild, every time.  Surely Shayne was the king of the hole that day.

Well, that was until this guy showed up, smoked a bowl with his buddy, took off his shirt, and climbed the highest rock there was, a rock I don't think a single soul had even thought to leap off of yet.

And shut

the show down.

And by "Shut the show down" I mean "inspired a new level of recklessness amongst the other jumpers."

Wow'd by the guy that had stolen his thunder, Shayne began to plot a jump of extreme lunacy.

But the thought of doing a backflip off the rocks where you have to jump out really far to make sure you don't hit rocks on the way down gave even this daredevil pause (look close and you'll see why I called Shayne "Shayne."  I think he had the only tattoo I've thought was legitimately cool)

We recognized it as our duty to help Shayne to decide not to accidentally kill himself that afternoon.  Here Jeff and Shayne are a moment after closing the No Deadly Backflip agreement with a handshake.

Behind the high jumping cliffs there was a calm little swimming hole.



Here we encountered the sage of the mountain who shared great wisdom and familiarity with all of Southern California's cliff jumping locations.  He was like the Yelp of cliff jumping.

After a few hours, we hiked back.  Collin found a stick.  People with nostalgic memories of Collin might be feeling extra nostalgic right now.

World Exclusive!  Here's a sneak peak at Jurassic Park 4.

Post-hike we replenished our energies with chili burgers and cheesebreads the Boat.

And after that?  The necessary pictures with the boat.  Hey Cathey!! (inside joke, don't worry about it)

Best I Love Horses? I Love Horses!!

Because I really dig John Jeremiah Sullivan (right now I realize I might not have ever blogged about his essay collection Pulphead), I read his first book.  It's called Blood Horses and it's about horse racing (I link to Amazon so you can learn about it, but hey, buy it from a real store?  Even if it's a Barnes and Noble.  Those are going away, too).  It also tells the history of horses.  And is a lot about Sullivan's relationship with his father.

At first I figured I'd read the book because I'm down with Sullivan but wasn't so crazy to be learning about horses.  But predictably, just like Infinite Jest made me love tennis, Blood Horses has made me love horses.  I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes learning and likes things that are well-written, but I leant it to my Grandma (a former Rodeo Queen, for real) because she already loves horses.

This would be a good time for me to throw in something I learned about horses from the book.  But I'm first-thing in the morning blogging right now.  My brain can't think of anything.  Plus, Grandma has my copy of the book.  But let me just say: Boy, horses have had it rough.  And they're so obedient.

I absolutely don't want to give away the ending, but this nonfiction book has one of the best endings I've ever ever read.  Another similarity to Infinite Jest, I guess, up until the second it ends you're not sure how it's going to end (like, literally, you wonder if the book could actually stop) and then you get to the end and say "Perfect."

Also, I read this book while I had no internet access in Utah.  But it made me want to watch Secretariat YouTubes so bad.  You'll see!