May 18, 2019
Hi Jon!
Sorry I haven't written to you in a few weeks but I've been on the road the whole time.
I start my new job on Monday and it's been pretty hard to think of quitting my life of leisure and doing something new. You cannot believe how incredibly bored I got doing nothing for a year and a half! Everybody dreams of travelling the world, binge-watching Netflix, reading a ton of books they've never had time to read, and re-watching their entire movie collection. I've done all of that and more but eventually it all loses its luster and you end up coming home after crossfit every morning thinking what am I going to do today.
While I was on sabbatical I honed my programming skills, learned some new things, took some online classes, coded and entire software platform I thought Adobe might want to use, went on a ton of vacations and camping trips, backpacked countless miles and climbed a ton of mountain peaks, spent weeks on end in the Tetons, kayaked 100+ miles with Chris and Skylar, volunteered in numerous causes and events, spent a lot of time on my calling as EQ president, and even went on a long drive with you and Javi up to Sawtooth, Stanley, McCall, and Missoula. But I'm still trapped in a big house I have to look after and I have kids still in school that need to be raised so I'm not 100% free to drop everything and hike the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail for an entire year or more. There are a couple of 300+ mile trails through Spain and Europe I wouldn't mind hiking as well but maybe someday.
So I'm going back to work on Monday and I'm not sure I'm going to love it. I have to drive to Park City every day and I think they work pretty long hours so maybe I'll get burned out fast. Or maybe it will be the best job ever, who knows? I'm not needed at home very much anymore. I rarely see Chance during the week or even on the weekends because he has so many activities going on and Javi tends to hide from me as much as possible. Mom also hides out a ton too - always doing something like organizing the craft room or studying for her next seminary class or planning the next big cub scout event. So maybe being gone a lot won't be such a bad thing. Even though certain aspects of this job seem to be not such a great fit for my interests and lifestyle, I was sufficiently interested in it because they have a really cool product, a really cool corporate mission to help the world, really cool technologies they work with, and from the outside what seems like a really cool group of people to work with. This job may last 5 days or 5 years for me.
This past month has been such a whirlwind. I was interviewing a lot - like 3-4 days per week - with several companies and then spring break happened. We made a short trip to hike Angels Landing and Peek-a-boo Gulch and then Aimar's family came to town. After that I immediately left with Maddy and Heber to go to California for a week and immediately after that I left with Grandpa Carr to do a road trip up to the Canadian Rockies. I just got home in time to mow the lawn, catch up on some other personal business, and start a new job on Monday. So I've been really busy but it's the kind of busy I like. I got to hang out with people I love and explore parts of the world I've never seen before. What could be better than that?
Grandpa Carr and I left on Friday May 3 and drove up to Twin Falls, Boise, and McCall Idaho. You'll remember McCall because I went there with you and Javi less than a year ago. Then we drove up the Nez Perce Trail and the Lochsa River to Missoula. We stopped at Jerry Johnson Hot Springs and hiked to the pools. Grandpa had never been to any hot springs in his entire life, much less a wilderness hot spring like Jerry Johnson. That was really fun to do but Grandpa doesn't hike much and had a really hard time doing the 2.4 mile roundtrip. He made it though and we pushed on. We stayed overnight near Lolo Pass and then went to church in Missoula.
By the way, for the entire 12 days we were on the road every night we slept in the Odyssey in the van conversion I completed. It was so comfortable I loved it. Grandpa thought it was pretty cool as well. From Missoula we headed to Kalispell Montana and up into Glacier National Park. The Park was still closed for the winter due to so much snow but we saw both ends of it. Then we drove across the border into Canada, Calgary city, and then into Banff National Park. Banff is absolutely beautiful. Right in the middle is Banff city which has a few thousand residents, a high school, and a bunch of tourist stuff. The city reminded me a lot of Jackson Montana but better and more beautiful.
From there we drove out of Banff through Kootenay National Park which was really beautiful and then up into Glacier National Park (the one in Canada) and then to a town called Revelstoke. Revelstoke was really beautiful between a ton of mountains and has this huge dam and reservoir. It was where my mom, Grandma Carr, many years ago rode a bike from the top of Mt. Revelstoke downhill to the town of Mt Revelstoke and ended up slipping on some gravel and breaking her arm. You were probably 5 years old at the time so you might not remember it but I do. From Revelstoke we drove back into Banff and I did a hike through this canyon where there are 7 waterfalls. It was really cool. All this time we had been seeing tons of wildlife - deer and elk, mountain goats, big horned sheep, birds, coyotes, a white wolf, and two bears. One of the bears we were watching walked up to this tree, turned around, stood on his two hind legs, and proceeded to rub his back against the tree bark for a few minutes. I've since read that bears do this after hibernating all winter because their fur itches. It was really cool to see and I took a few pictures.
Then we drove up into Jasper National Park and through the Columbia Ice Fields where there are a ton of glaciers. After Jasper we left the mountains and drove west through some areas with amazing rivers, lakes, and small towns. There were a lot of fruit farms and orchards and a ton of grape farms and local wineries. We eventually drove back south over the border into Sandpoint and Coeur D'Alene which are between some pretty scenic mountains and lakes. We got back to Missoula and then drove into the Sawtooth mountains. I tried to stay overnight at the same Stanley Campground we stayed at last year, but it was still closed due to high snow. Doing a trip like this in early May is not quite the best time of year to see everything you want to see but it was still cool. If anything we may have seen more wildlife than we would have in summer but a lot of the lakes were still under ice and lots of places we wanted to see were still closed for the winter. That's basically everything we saw over 12 days. During that trip I drove 3,750 miles and Grandpa drove almost 5,000 miles because he started and ended in Wrightwood.
Seeing the Canadian Rockies was a dream come true for me but it was also special because my dad hadn't seen most of those areas either or if he had it was like 35 years ago. I was able to show him all the cool spots in northern Idaho where he had never traveled before. It was also great to spend 12 days with a guy I really look up to and admire a lot. He's 74 years old now and I don't know if we'll ever get to travel like that together again. Travel is hard on him and he has a lot of health and mobility problems. It's not like I see Grandpa a lot or visit him often enough or even call him on the telephone. Neither of us really seem to need that or want that but it sure is good when we do get a chance to spend time together. One of these days Grandpa won't be here with us any longer and all I'll have are these memories. I'm super glad and very lucky to have had an opportunity to take this kind of trip with him before I started a new job and life gets busy again.
It was Aimar's and Maddy's birthday this week. That's the end of birthday season at our house! April and May always seem really busy with all the birthdays we have going on. Maddy starts her internship at Adobe the same day I start my new job at Banjo. I've been able to hang out a lot with Maddy and Heber and they seem more in love than ever. Maddy is growing in confidence with her professional life and skills. I like Heber more and more every time I get to spend time with him. Heber seems to take really good care of Maddy and treats her well.
That's all the news and updates from home. I hope everything is going well for you in Mexico. I hope you are teaching a lot and that your investigators work hard to come to church. You're getting close to finishing your first year out there which is a really big milestone. Learning the language and figuring out how to do missionary work the best way was really hard but now you are fully in your stride. The next 12 months are all downhill. Every day might feel like a year but I promise the whole year will feel like a single day when you look back on it. The only thing that mess things up is if you don't work as hard as you could or if you start slacking in keeping mission rules. Don't make that mistake. Live every day like it's your last day and then you'll never have a single regret.
I love you and am super proud of you. Have fun and laugh a little. Say something nice to your comp and do something nice for him. Cook him a nice meal or shine his shoes or something. Just do an act of kindness for him every day and he will never forget you.
Love,
Dad
Sorry I haven't written to you in a few weeks but I've been on the road the whole time.
I start my new job on Monday and it's been pretty hard to think of quitting my life of leisure and doing something new. You cannot believe how incredibly bored I got doing nothing for a year and a half! Everybody dreams of travelling the world, binge-watching Netflix, reading a ton of books they've never had time to read, and re-watching their entire movie collection. I've done all of that and more but eventually it all loses its luster and you end up coming home after crossfit every morning thinking what am I going to do today.
While I was on sabbatical I honed my programming skills, learned some new things, took some online classes, coded and entire software platform I thought Adobe might want to use, went on a ton of vacations and camping trips, backpacked countless miles and climbed a ton of mountain peaks, spent weeks on end in the Tetons, kayaked 100+ miles with Chris and Skylar, volunteered in numerous causes and events, spent a lot of time on my calling as EQ president, and even went on a long drive with you and Javi up to Sawtooth, Stanley, McCall, and Missoula. But I'm still trapped in a big house I have to look after and I have kids still in school that need to be raised so I'm not 100% free to drop everything and hike the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail for an entire year or more. There are a couple of 300+ mile trails through Spain and Europe I wouldn't mind hiking as well but maybe someday.
So I'm going back to work on Monday and I'm not sure I'm going to love it. I have to drive to Park City every day and I think they work pretty long hours so maybe I'll get burned out fast. Or maybe it will be the best job ever, who knows? I'm not needed at home very much anymore. I rarely see Chance during the week or even on the weekends because he has so many activities going on and Javi tends to hide from me as much as possible. Mom also hides out a ton too - always doing something like organizing the craft room or studying for her next seminary class or planning the next big cub scout event. So maybe being gone a lot won't be such a bad thing. Even though certain aspects of this job seem to be not such a great fit for my interests and lifestyle, I was sufficiently interested in it because they have a really cool product, a really cool corporate mission to help the world, really cool technologies they work with, and from the outside what seems like a really cool group of people to work with. This job may last 5 days or 5 years for me.
This past month has been such a whirlwind. I was interviewing a lot - like 3-4 days per week - with several companies and then spring break happened. We made a short trip to hike Angels Landing and Peek-a-boo Gulch and then Aimar's family came to town. After that I immediately left with Maddy and Heber to go to California for a week and immediately after that I left with Grandpa Carr to do a road trip up to the Canadian Rockies. I just got home in time to mow the lawn, catch up on some other personal business, and start a new job on Monday. So I've been really busy but it's the kind of busy I like. I got to hang out with people I love and explore parts of the world I've never seen before. What could be better than that?
Grandpa Carr and I left on Friday May 3 and drove up to Twin Falls, Boise, and McCall Idaho. You'll remember McCall because I went there with you and Javi less than a year ago. Then we drove up the Nez Perce Trail and the Lochsa River to Missoula. We stopped at Jerry Johnson Hot Springs and hiked to the pools. Grandpa had never been to any hot springs in his entire life, much less a wilderness hot spring like Jerry Johnson. That was really fun to do but Grandpa doesn't hike much and had a really hard time doing the 2.4 mile roundtrip. He made it though and we pushed on. We stayed overnight near Lolo Pass and then went to church in Missoula.
By the way, for the entire 12 days we were on the road every night we slept in the Odyssey in the van conversion I completed. It was so comfortable I loved it. Grandpa thought it was pretty cool as well. From Missoula we headed to Kalispell Montana and up into Glacier National Park. The Park was still closed for the winter due to so much snow but we saw both ends of it. Then we drove across the border into Canada, Calgary city, and then into Banff National Park. Banff is absolutely beautiful. Right in the middle is Banff city which has a few thousand residents, a high school, and a bunch of tourist stuff. The city reminded me a lot of Jackson Montana but better and more beautiful.
From there we drove out of Banff through Kootenay National Park which was really beautiful and then up into Glacier National Park (the one in Canada) and then to a town called Revelstoke. Revelstoke was really beautiful between a ton of mountains and has this huge dam and reservoir. It was where my mom, Grandma Carr, many years ago rode a bike from the top of Mt. Revelstoke downhill to the town of Mt Revelstoke and ended up slipping on some gravel and breaking her arm. You were probably 5 years old at the time so you might not remember it but I do. From Revelstoke we drove back into Banff and I did a hike through this canyon where there are 7 waterfalls. It was really cool. All this time we had been seeing tons of wildlife - deer and elk, mountain goats, big horned sheep, birds, coyotes, a white wolf, and two bears. One of the bears we were watching walked up to this tree, turned around, stood on his two hind legs, and proceeded to rub his back against the tree bark for a few minutes. I've since read that bears do this after hibernating all winter because their fur itches. It was really cool to see and I took a few pictures.
Then we drove up into Jasper National Park and through the Columbia Ice Fields where there are a ton of glaciers. After Jasper we left the mountains and drove west through some areas with amazing rivers, lakes, and small towns. There were a lot of fruit farms and orchards and a ton of grape farms and local wineries. We eventually drove back south over the border into Sandpoint and Coeur D'Alene which are between some pretty scenic mountains and lakes. We got back to Missoula and then drove into the Sawtooth mountains. I tried to stay overnight at the same Stanley Campground we stayed at last year, but it was still closed due to high snow. Doing a trip like this in early May is not quite the best time of year to see everything you want to see but it was still cool. If anything we may have seen more wildlife than we would have in summer but a lot of the lakes were still under ice and lots of places we wanted to see were still closed for the winter. That's basically everything we saw over 12 days. During that trip I drove 3,750 miles and Grandpa drove almost 5,000 miles because he started and ended in Wrightwood.
Seeing the Canadian Rockies was a dream come true for me but it was also special because my dad hadn't seen most of those areas either or if he had it was like 35 years ago. I was able to show him all the cool spots in northern Idaho where he had never traveled before. It was also great to spend 12 days with a guy I really look up to and admire a lot. He's 74 years old now and I don't know if we'll ever get to travel like that together again. Travel is hard on him and he has a lot of health and mobility problems. It's not like I see Grandpa a lot or visit him often enough or even call him on the telephone. Neither of us really seem to need that or want that but it sure is good when we do get a chance to spend time together. One of these days Grandpa won't be here with us any longer and all I'll have are these memories. I'm super glad and very lucky to have had an opportunity to take this kind of trip with him before I started a new job and life gets busy again.
It was Aimar's and Maddy's birthday this week. That's the end of birthday season at our house! April and May always seem really busy with all the birthdays we have going on. Maddy starts her internship at Adobe the same day I start my new job at Banjo. I've been able to hang out a lot with Maddy and Heber and they seem more in love than ever. Maddy is growing in confidence with her professional life and skills. I like Heber more and more every time I get to spend time with him. Heber seems to take really good care of Maddy and treats her well.
That's all the news and updates from home. I hope everything is going well for you in Mexico. I hope you are teaching a lot and that your investigators work hard to come to church. You're getting close to finishing your first year out there which is a really big milestone. Learning the language and figuring out how to do missionary work the best way was really hard but now you are fully in your stride. The next 12 months are all downhill. Every day might feel like a year but I promise the whole year will feel like a single day when you look back on it. The only thing that mess things up is if you don't work as hard as you could or if you start slacking in keeping mission rules. Don't make that mistake. Live every day like it's your last day and then you'll never have a single regret.
I love you and am super proud of you. Have fun and laugh a little. Say something nice to your comp and do something nice for him. Cook him a nice meal or shine his shoes or something. Just do an act of kindness for him every day and he will never forget you.
Love,
Dad
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