Sundance Trip

For work, Todd was scheduled to do a Covey Training Conference on the book, "The Speed of Trust."  It's a book on trust in leadership.  The conference took place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from June 6th to the 8th.  I lucked out to be able to travel with Todd this time.  While Todd was in the conference during the day, I explored a little and waited to meet up with him in the evening.  

Upon arrival, the first thing we did was visit the Whole Foods Market in SLC.  It was AWESOME!  They told us we're getting one in Boise next year, which will be nice.  It just had a great energy to it.  We had a hay day.  We got some great groceries, a couple supplements I have a hard time finding, and even had dinner there at their yummy healthy buffet.  

The first full day in Utah, I looked up a CrossFit gym in SLC to work out in.  Some well known CrossFit athletes train in this gym and I was hopeful to be inspired or pushed or both by working out with some of them.  I enjoyed being able to workout and to meet new people, but the class was small and none of the people in attendance at the times I came were any more experienced than myself.  I think most of the well-known athletes had already left to Denver for the CrossFit Regionals competition coming up that weekend.  The owner of the gym, Matt Clark was still there, though.  He showed me several techniques for rope climbing which was exciting to me.

  Growing up, my dad built my brothers and I a tree-fort about 15-20' up between several mature birch trees.  While building it, he found a sturdy, long, 2" thick rope abandoned in the forest and used it as our only means for getting up to the fort.  I've always had a strong upper body and could get up it with my arm strength.  But my friends couldn't ever climb it to the top.  So I usually had them sit on the knot at the bottom and pulled them up, or they'd climb as far as they could and I pulled them the rest of the way.  After learning the first rope climb technique at this gym, I wished I had known about it way back when.  I'm sure my friends would have very easily been able to get up there on their own doing it that way.  It was so simple.  I love how CrossFit is not just about getting strong, but about being efficient at functional practical things we may need to do/know/use in real life.  You never know.  I might climb the fort rope again...

After working out I did some shopping while in SLC and meanwhile tried to get ahold of my dad.  He and my youngest brother and sister (Marty and April) were down in SLC visiting.  But I couldn't ever get through.  So I headed back to Sundance.  On my drive, Todd called and said that John Covey, Steven Covey's brother (Steven wrote Seven Habits of Highly Affective People), was at the conference and had invited us to dinner.  The time they set for dinner didn't allow me to change my casual clothes or do my messy after-workout hair.  But I arrived at the restaurant in Sundance just in time and met a very gracious host.  Another older couple was joining us for dinner.  

My first instinct was to watch everything they did- what fork they used when and where they put their napkin, etc.  But I couldn't help noticing how relaxed and normal Todd was behaving.  I don't get to see him hobnobbing with the people he tells me about, but clearly he was used to this.  So I followed his example, relaxed a little, and tried to just be myself.  It was good conversation.  All three of the others were such amazing people.  I thought it was really sweet of them to ask all about CrossFit when I got there- Todd had obviously told them why I had gone to SLC.  They seemed interested but I really wanted to hear more about them.  John has been on the Covey committee most of his career researching for the books that his brother and nephew have written.  He was on several important committees for the church serving with general authorities throughout his career.  He was a mission president.  He now spends most of his time researching ways to strengthen the family for future books and conferences.  He was incredibly humble and curious about everyone else.  He was definitely on our level and easy to spend the hour with.

After dinner, Todd and I went to Orem to see the late showing of the new X-Men movie.

The next day started out the same.  Todd went to his conference, I went to CrossFit and shopped around until I could get ahold of my dad.  We set up a dinner apt. at the Montage Hotel in Park City where my brother plays nightly in their nicest restaurant.  While at his conference, John asked Todd to lunch again, this time one on one.  He said he just kept feeling impressed to talk with Todd and even asked if they could eat their lunch outside on the porch steps next to the creek rather than inside where it was crowded.  Todd said it was incredible conversation.  By the end of it, John got Todd's card and set up a time for him and his son to come visit their office in Fruitland.

That night we drove to Park City to the Montage Hotel where my brother, Scott plays in their nicest restaurant.  We had dinner and then Scott gave us a tour of the hotel.  It was off the charts.  Apparently, it's the #1 ski hotel in the world right now and the 10th nicest general hotel in the world.  He said their cheapest room costs almost a thousand dollars a night.  And it's just a hotel- not an all inclusive resort.  That's just for a room.  It all looked like Sultan's Palace.  I forgot the camera on the tour.  These pics are of the restaurant area.

  

Our view from our table, before it got dark.

My dad, my sister (April), another brother (Devan) and his wife, Maura all came and met up for dessert and to hear Scott play.  It was great to see them all.

The game playing in the background was game 4 of the NBA finals.  The Mavericks won.  17 seconds before the game was over, I walked to the waiter at the bar there and asked him for change so I could tip my brother.  Oops.  The waiter slurred and slowly asked me, while eyes completely glued to the screen, if I could wait just a mooooooooment.  I saw the time on the screen and did feel bad.  Who asks a question during the last 17 seconds of a game?!  Me.  It's a game.  He shouldn't be watching it!  Everyone was though.  The other people left in the restaurant (we stayed so late that by this point it was almost closing time) were all gathered there watching it.

This pic didn't turn out, but looked interesting.  Devan... possibly  being taken up in the "rapture"....

The next day my dad and April drove to Sundance to go hiking with me around there.  My dad grew up in SLC and knows all about the area and places surrounding it.  It was one of the first warm days they'd seen yet in the summer and the rivers and creeks were expected to flood that day from the snow melt.  Here was April exploring the sand bags along the banks.

This was the Sundance check-in lodge.

We got tickets to go up the ski lift hoping to then hike into the waterfalls, but the trail from that point was closed from snow.

Admiring those mountain bike trails.  I could tell my dad was itching to ride!

The trail was closed but no one tried to stop us from exploring it a little bit.  We hiked up a ways and had a picnic on the mountain top.  It was pretty obvious the trail to the waterfall wouldn't be very fun to try to hike on or even to be able to find much of the path since the snow was so deep in parts.

Dad makes a great Elk.  The sticks behind his head might be a little hard to see...

We watched an avalanche from just above our picnic area.  That was the end of it where the snow is still falling.  It sounded pretty cool.

Dad and April framing a shot of the water falls in the background.

Blue bells!  I love mountain flowers.  I love hiking with my dad because he finds them all and knows their names.  He notices ALL the little things around in nature.  From a bird miles away that's flying remarkably faster than normal, to different kinds of clouds, to random things about the terrain.  He's lived his life a passionate mountain man and makes for a very cool wilderness guide.

My dad and April playing Pooh Sticks.  Winnie the Pooh's little game where they all drop something over a bridge and rush over to the other side to see whose item made it under and beyond the bridge first.  You can use whatever's around- pine cones, sticks, leaves, shot gun shells lying around as debris.  We used to play this game at Hatcher's Pass all the time as kids.  We'd go up in those mountains frequently as a family in the summer for picnics by a particular stream.  My brothers and I would drop items in and follow them down stream to a designated finish line and see who won.  I wish my kids were so easily entertained.  I miss mountains more than I can stand right now.

My dad skiing without skis.

We never made it to the falls, but we had a great time hiking and spending time together.  Now I'm itching to go up to Alaska and hike with my dad some more.  And I have to say, it was nice to be able to spend time with my little sister, April.  I normally have my children with me when I'm around her.  So either my kids take most of my attention, or they take most of hers wanting to play with her.  It was nice to have fun together for a while.

I left Utah still in a bit of a daze- stunned from how pretty that area is.  I'd never been back in that part of the mountains behind Provo.  And I remembered how much I LOVE hiking on this trip.  I used to love hiking up what we called "Stuck Bronco Road" (so named for obvious reasons) which was up Government Mountain in the Chugiak Range just behind our house.  The point I always stopped at was about 2 hours up it with a giant boulder to sit on and gaze out over the valley and see even Anchorage and the ocean off in the distance.  There were blueberry bushes all around to fuel up on (in the right season) and run back down to the bottom.  This just filled me with extra life being up in the mountains again like it did growing up.  I like where we live now, but it's desperately void of nearby wilderness.

Our kiddos were able to stay home and sleep in their own beds and continue with their own routines with Becca Davis babysitting.  She's back home in Fruitland between semesters of college. We had her use the guest room to stay at the house the full 4 days and watch the kids.  She did an excellent job of taking care of the kids and providing them lots of fun things to do too while we were away.  This is the little gang with their banner they made for us to come home to.   The trip was very enjoyable, but we sure missed our cute children!