Updation

Hello from Todd,

Anna is enjoying her last day off before starting her internship at the VA tomorrow by having me do the blog entry. We bought Anna a bike today from our neighbor so that she has another transportation option for getting to that internship as she has found the bus to be both a blessing and a curse depending on when she gets out of class. I had a great birthday hanging out with Anna and our friends Mark and Jenna. Thank you all for the cards/gifts. My team is getting ready for the region meet Wednesday and Thursday and we are hoping to qualify a few athletes to the state meet. I also got asked to be an assistant coach for cross country this fall as well.

The biggest news to report is of Matt and Holly's visit out this past weekend. We had a great time with them here in SLC and especially down in Zion National Park.We spent two days backpacking and a third day hiking while I played hooky from school Monday (the students were jealous). We saw lizards, frogs, a large salamander, mule deer and wild turkey but the most exciting thing to see was the scenery itself. For our day hike we went up the Narrows, which is essentially a hike straight up the Virgin River with about 70% of the hike in knee to waist water (or deeper). We rented special water boots and neoprene socks to keep our feet warm because the water was about 45 degrees. Everyone else we saw was wearing wet or dry suits but we toughed it out and had a great time. The best parts included hiking up a beautiful side canyon, standing in the wall street section with 2000+ foot cliffs on both sides, and herding some mule deer down the canyon. Anna and I will definitely be heading back because there are some great hikes in Zion that we would still like to do. Thanks for coming out to visit Matt and Holly.

Peace.

View from the top of the mountain that we live on the base of

Holly and Anna

Stopping for a break along the La Verkin Creek Trail in Zion National Park

Dinner at our campsite

Holly and Matt by the Virgin River

Waterfall by the lower emerald pool

Matt and Todd

Holly and Anna wearing their "water boots"

The water was DEEP at times

Anna & Todd

Holly & Matt

Holly & Matt at the Red Butte Gardens at the U of U

Making homemade pizzas

Vegas, Spring Break, Internship, Easter, Etc.

First of all, Grant, I've switched the font for you. Enjoy!
So it's been awhile again. The time between blogs continues to grow. A lot of things have happened, so I'll try to catch you all up to speed on life in Utah.
Shortly after my last blog post, Todd and I drove out to Las Vegas to join his parents for a weekend. Neither of us had been there before. We enjoyed walking the strip, dinner in a couple delicious restaurants, and catching up with Jeff and Bonnie. We also took a side trip on Saturday to the Hoover Dam and Red Rocks National Conservation Area. We took a tour of the Hoover Dam and got to walk around inside the dam. Todd's favorite fact he learned was that there is enough cement in the Hoover Dam to make a sidewalk around the entire equator that is 4 feet wide and 3 inches thick. Wow! We did a short hike in Red Rocks and climbed around a bit. We saw a couple groups of climbers and would have liked to join in, but didn't have gear with us. It was a great weekend!
Last week was Todd's Spring Break. He thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in! He still went to track practice for the athletes who were in town. He even "coached" me during a morning workout for my upcoming half marathon. Todd recently found out that the paper he had published in undergrad after his summer research project has now been cited in other articles. The theorem in their paper has been renamed the Hays-Mitchell Theorem. 
Our nutrition class put on a "$1.50 lunch" at school last week. Our task was to plan, prepare, and serve lunch on a budget--$1.50 per person. We decided to imitate taco cart food, except with a healthy twist. All guests paid $1.50 for two tacos, beans, rice, and mango rice pudding, as well as a short speech about food insecurity, eating on a budget, and nutrition. We set a department record for attendance (which got us out of our last test for food management!).
I have been given my assignment for this upcoming summer internship. After much confusion, I have been assigned to VA medical center. I will be there for the first 11 weeks of the summer (for both my clinical and food service rotation) and then will spend the last 4 weeks with the sports dietitian for the University of Utah athletes (my community rotation). Those 15 weeks make up my ENTIRE summer break. I was under the impression that I would get at least 1 week off--but that's not the case. Bummer! I'm not thrilled about being at the VA, especially because I was originally assigned to the University Hospital and the Huntsman Cancer Institute (a BEAUTIFUL new hospital), but due to some miscommunications and problems I got reassigned.
We had a wonderful Easter these weekend with friends. We invited 4 other couples over to our house for a potluck style Easter dinner. What a blessing it is to have met so many wonderful friends! 

Hoover Dam & the new bridge across the Colorado River

Red Rocks National Conservation Area

Red Rocks

Eiffel Tower Replica

Fountains at the Bellagio

Jeff & Bonnie

Inside the Hoover Dam

Climbing around at Red Rocks

Todd & I in the Venetian Resort

My nutrition class at the $1.50 lunch

The happy chefs :)

Easter Dinner

Spring Break

Spring Break has come and gone. It was so nice to spend some time away from school! Todd's Spring Break is coming up in a couple of weeks--it will be a much needed break.
Last week Tuesday was Olympus High School's first outdoor track meet. I came to watch and help Todd with splits. He has a small team with a few talented kids, but the team is not nearly as competitive as the South Christian team was last year. He is really enjoying it though and is looking forward to their next meet tomorrow. Unfortunately, his knee has been bothering him for about a month now so he hasn't been able to run much with the team. Hopefully it will get better soon!
On Wednesday my parents arrived in Salt Lake City! It was so wonderful to have them visit us for a long weekend. I gave them a tour of the University of Utah campus and took them to see Todd's school on Wednesday. On Thursday, we drove out to Antelope Island State Park. The island is on the Great Salt Lake. We did some hiking and then drove around the island to check out the view and the wildlife. That night we had dinner at the Squatters Pub downtown and watched a very close and exciting basketball game between the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves. On Friday we walked around downtown. We toured Temple Square and got lunch at the new City Creek Food Court. We also went to the new Utah Museum of Natural History. That museum is so unique! We then picked up Todd from school and drove down to Bryce Canyon National Park. Although it was cold (barely reached 40 degrees) and snowy, we had a great time hiking down into the canyon and seeing the beautiful views. Mom and Dad joined us for church and Sunday school on Sunday. What a fun week!
Now we are looking forward to our next visitors--Holly and Matt!

Snowy Bryce Canyon National Park

Antelope Island

Mom and Dad at the top of the hike on Antelope Island

Bryce Canyon

Buffalo on Antelope Island 

Dad and I at the Great Salt Lake

Temple Square

Bryce Canyon

Mom and I on campus

Spring?

It has been SO nice lately in Salt Lake City. We've had temperatures in the 50's (and once in the 60's) fairly regularly. I love it! Todd misses the bitter cold winters in Minnesota--but I'm not complaining!
We are counting down the days until my parents come visit SLC. They're planning on coming for 5 days during my spring break in a couple of weeks. It will be great to have company again!
Despite fairly hectic schedules throughout February, we've managed to slip in some fun things! We both got the day off on Presidents Day so we went hiking with our friend Jenna. We hiked up to "the Living Room", which is located on the mountains right behind the university. Rocks have been used to set up living room furniture--sofas, love seats, armchairs. When you sit in "the Living Room", you get a great view of the valley, lake, and mountains on the other side.
Todd had parent teacher conferences a couple weeks ago. He saw parents of 88 students! After a couple of long days, he got to relax with a 4 day weekend.
I've been chipping away at my volunteer hours lately. Last Saturday, I spent 9 hours at a diabetes expo talking with diabetics about reading nutrition labels and making diabetic-friendly decisions when grocery shopping. It was a very educational experience and I'm glad I did it! Tomorrow I am teaching sports nutrition in Park City to a group of middle schoolers who are pre-professional skiers.
Last night, we had a 5 course progressive dinner with all of our avenues friends and a couple others. We started with appetizers at Laura & Jordan's, then soup at Jenna & Mark's, salads at our house, main dish made by Caleb & Amanda, and desserts at Nate & Lina's. We started at 4:00 and didn't finish until 9:00! We were able to walk between each house since we all live so close together.
Here's some pictures from our hike and progressive dinner:

View from "the Living Room"

Todd, Jenna, & I

Sunset behind the Capital building

Yummy appetizers

Nate, Todd, & I enjoying pumpkin soup!

Hanging out at our place after eating salads

Lina & Ju enjoying their Chicken Marsala

Mini peanut butter pies

Todd LOVED the peanut butter pies!

January

It's been a LONG time since I've updated this blog. Life has been full of activity lately (I guess that's a better way to say it than "busy"...). Todd's second semester has begun, and he's happy to have slightly smaller class sizes. He has had a few meetings with the track team and it looks like he'll have a small squad of distance runners. Their first (and only) indoor meet is this weekend. He was excited to get an iPad from school which he will use as a teaching device but also for personal use! I'm adjusting to a much fuller schedule this semester. I spend a lot of time in classes! I have some opportunities coming up that I'm really looking forward to. I'm teaching sports nutrition to a middle school class in Park City and also working at a Diabetes Expo as an educator.
Last weekend Grant came to stay with us for a while. We had a lot of fun skiing, playing games, checking out the Tanger Outlets in Park City, and Todd and Grant played indoor golf. We skied at Alta ski resort since they have "free ski after 3". The conditions were great. There was even enough powder for me to get buried in (thanks for getting me out Grant!). It was our first time skiing on "real mountains". Each run is A LOT longer than the runs in Michigan :).
A few weekends ago Todd and I went out to the Dodo Restaurant to celebrate our 6 month anniversary. We had spotted the restaurant earlier that day on our run and decided to check it out. It was great!
Here's some pictures from Grant's visit and our 6 month anniversary:

Heading out to Dinner on our 6 month anniversary

At Alta Ski Resort

Grant and Todd

One of our long rides up the chair lift

At the top

Christmas!

We had such a great time with our families during the past couple weeks! We are so thankful for loving families.  The first stop was MN. We enjoyed playing games, going to Sherlock Holmes 2, many games of pool, baking cookies, spending a couple days in Sheldon, Iowa (where Todd's mom's family is from), and hanging out with some of Todd's high school friends.
Next, we drove to Michigan. We were thankful for clear roads, especially since Mom & Dad and Holly & Matt were also traveling to Michigan that day, from Georgia and NJ. We played lots of games, made a few puzzles, spent an afternoon with Jake and Alissa, celebrated NYE with the Haagsmas, and enjoyed seeing Grandma and Uncle Bruce on New Year's Day. Since Todd had to go back to teaching and Holly and Matt to work, I stayed a bit longer and was able to see some more GR friends. I even ran with the Calvin XC girls--and learned that I am not in the shape I used to be :).
Now Todd is in MN again. He is a groomsman in Travis Schultz's wedding which is tonight. He'll come back tomorrow night. It's strange being home alone for a few days after a couple weeks of many familiar faces.
I start school again on Monday. This semester is looking to be more demanding. I'm taking a few more credits and some more challenging courses.
We got several inches of snow last night and it's continuing to come down. It's very pretty!
Here's a few pictures from MN and MI.

Todd, Allison, and Skip

Grant and Todd searching for the pickle

VanWyk family

Dad's gift from Matt and Holly

The girls

The boys