I stayed behind to work while they paddled down the Green River, but as soon as I could get off on Friday, I hopped in my car and met James, Ethan Frank and Melissa Stevens (pictured to the left) in Monticello, UT. On April 30th, we hiked in Mule Canyon - a beautiful desert canyon near Blanding, UT with Native American ruins and red rock walls. Then we drove to McLoyd's Canyon and camped. On May 1st we hiked down into the canyon and back up the other side to the Moon House Ruin - a huge ruin with obvious white pictographs on the ruin and canyon walls. The canyon is so far south, we had to drive across the northernmost tip of Lake Powell on our way back to Salt Lake!Temple Trips: We are lucky enough to live in the middle of a high concentration of LDS temples and visited several of them together.
April 12, 2005 - Salt Lake Temple - Salt Lake City, UT - We went to a session with James' ward. April 21, 2005 - Jordan River Temple - South Jordan, UT - We went to a session with Jessi's ward.
May 7, 2005 - Mount Timpanogas Temple - American Fork, UT - When we asked a lady to take our picture outside the temple (picture to the left), she asked if we'd just gotten engaged. We told her no. I thought that was pretty fun just to be thought of as a couple. James thought her question was fairly prophetic. He'd just been thinking how it might be possible for this new relationship to progress into one that could last forever.
May 21, 2005 - Las Vegas Temple - Las Vegas, NV - we took a road trip to Las Vegas for James' friend's wedding.
Road Trip! May 20-22, 2005 - We took our first road trip together to Las Vegas, NV for 
Dennis & Megan Rhodes' wedding. On our drive down, we detoured off of I-15 and camped near the Valley of Fire State Park - it was too dark to see much when we drove through the park, but we would like to go back when we have more time. We then drove along the shore of Lake Mead and into Las Vegas. We went to a session at the Las Vegas Temple (pictured above at the left). Then spent some time along the strip - we even rode a couple rides at the top of the Stratosphere tower! We attended the wedding reception in Boulder City and then drove back along the strip after dark to see all the neon and wandering people. On Sunday we attended an early ward at the chapel next to the temple - it was the only building we were certain we could find! And then drove back to Salt Lake City. The only thing we could have wished for was more time!
Summer Break: May/June 2005 - at the end of May, James' brother Brian came to Utah for a visit. We did quite a few Utah tourist 
things - like tour the Beehive House and the Conference Center (picture taken on the conference center roof). We also went miniature golfing and bowling and out to eat and had a good time.
During the first week of June, James and Brian loaded up James' XTerra and another red truck and started their road trip to Alaska. They stopped over near Reno at their Uncle Rod & Aunt Laura's house and got to meet their new cousin, Mathew (born June 7, 2005). They left the XTerra in Reno and completed their trip in the red truck. James lost cell coverage 
about the time they reached Canada. Instead, I got a postcard every day until James called me from his home in Cordova. It was a longer trip than they expected - due to replacing a fan clutch somewhere in Canada and they also missed the ferry they wanted in Valdez, AK, so had to wait an extra day to get home.
James spent the summer working at Eshamy Bay for the Alaska Fish & Game - counting salmon. A certain number of a particular species of salmon have to be allowed to return upstreat to spawn before the fishing industry is allowed to begin harvesting that species. James & his co-worker, Chris, also helped with a study on non-native salmon and had to cut open the heads of a particular species to look for and keep a tiny bone called an otolith. James had to be flown out to the remote camp on a seaplane. The biggest competition for the salmon is the bears - he saw more bears than people! They had a satellite phone that they were allowed to use in an emergency and once a week for 5-minutes each. Luckily, they could send and receive mail on the planes that flew in with supplies. So we exchanged a few letters and a few very short phone calls during a VERY long two months of summer.