The Epic Game and a trip to Goblin Valley

 Oh hi sir Jacob!

Wow, what a week. I’m sure it was for you too. 

Of course the big news was the game. I sent you updates and recaps, and I understand that your brothers sent you stuff too. For most of that game I took some comfort in the Utes losing because I thought that at least you weren’t missing much. But wow, just wow. What a comeback. In the last minutes when the Utes were driving down Ben was worried because time was running out. The whole crowd around us was so tense, I told your brothers that if someone had told me at the end of the first quarter that we’d be in that situation at the end of the game I’d be thrilled. I felt that we’d win. I was emailed you when they scored and when I saw rising line up rather than the kicking team I knew we were going to win. This game was the exact opposite of the Rose Bowl, from beginning to end. A lot of people are complaining about the Utes defense, it’s probably deserved, but usc was fantastic. The amazing thing was that the Utes offense answered all the way. They played so tight and disciplined, the never gave up. I missed you during that part of the game. I really felt your sacrifice. As much as we love the Utes, I know that you do too. I wondered if you went to bed while the utes were still behind. How fun it might have been to wake up to all of that. I was so tired by the end of this weekend, but it was one to remember.

I took Thursday and Friday off of work to spend time with Ben for his fall break. We had been working on grandmas deck as you know. We finished sanding Monday night. I honestly can’t remember if anything happened on Tuesday. Wednesday night there was a painful activity for young mens. It was a date night thing at the church hosted by the young women. But with all the loud mouth priests it was just another unorganized obnoxious activity. I felt bad because I really emphasize that I wanted Joe to participate because when I was a kid we did it and I remember actually having positive memories of it. Not this. We fed the kids, gave them no expectations, and the leaders in charge were not prepared. I apologized to Joey half way through. In my mind, it made dating seem horrible. 

Thursday ben and I went back to grandmas to throw a first coat of stain down. I don’t know how he did it, but ben didn’t get a single drop of paint on him. I was worried about that because he had to go to work that afternoon. I decided to take him to hires for lunch because of all the help he gave me. Oh man Jacob, there’s nothing better than a double big h. But I had sticker shock when I went to pay the bill, I’m not used to paying $40 bucks for lunch for two people for burgers. These times are interesting. I took Ben to campus and came back to put down the second coat of stain. The second coat always goes faster. As I was cleaning up, grandpa came down to the garage looking for his level. He was telling me that all of his army buddies have died from cancer. He’s sure he has it too, even though his doctors say he doesn’t. He’s starting to talk about dying more often, which makes me sad. I hope he’s not giving up. That will be a really sad day, more sad than I think your mom and uncles are prepared for. I’m not telling you that to make you sad or worried, I think grandpa’s pretty tough. But we shouldn’t take him for granted.

Friday morning we got up early to go to the temple for the second time this week. On Tuesday morning mom and I did initiatories, it was really good. Friday the four of us did baptisms. I really needed the temple this week. Sometimes I need to feel those connections with stuff that’s eternal than the trivial stuff that fills my mind most of the time. After the temple, we came home and changed. Mom wanted to go to breakfast at McDonald’s. After, she went to work and me and your brothers headed down for a day trip to goblin valley. Ben asked if we could take a day trip since we didn’t have time to camp, for his last day of fall break. We got going before sun up and spent a good three or four hours in the park. It was pretty crowded but it seems like most people stay within about 100 yards of the parking lot. We headed down to the south end of the valley, I’d never really explored that before. We were all but alone down there. We came back to the car for water after a while and ben and Joey wanted to go to the cave from the hunt for treasure. I was pretty sleepy from all the early mornings and didn’t want to drive home drowsy, so I set up a chair slightly away from the pavilion and took a wee nap. While I was dozing I could hear all the bossy moms threatening their children to take them back to camp for whatever reason. I heard one guy screaming at his kid to never push someone off a cliff or rock again. I chortled a little bit with that one. I imagined a 4 year old pushing his two year old brother off of a one foot rock and the guy having a cow over it. People are dumb. I got a nice boost to my sun tan and woke up refreshed when I heard your brothers talking nearby. We were hungry by then so we drove up past little wild horse canyon to find a spot to eat our lunch. I think the trail we were on was on the other side of the river where we drowned our Jeep. So we drove down that direction for a while until we came to several forks in the road. I hadn’t mapped a route for this ride so we decided to head back. The ride home through Price canyon was gorgeous as the colors were still bright. We stopped at two jacks on the way home. The cheese bread was as good as I remember, but the pizza, while good, was borderline average.

I have to go into the office tomorrow, but my afternoon so far is free for your call. I’m planning on coming home before your call, but I’ll keep you updated. It was nice to hear from your mission President, I really appreciate his reply. I’ll not make it a habit to contact him though.

Jacob, I hope that you are doing well, that you’re taking this transfer like the experienced elder that you are. I hope you have a good companion and will have the opportunity to teach. Mostly, I hope you are finding joy in your service. You are sacrificing a lot to be there, you should expect a reward. That reward is most often finding that joy in your service. 

I sure love you my fine boy. I think of you always.

Pops