Daniel's Summit

Greg and I took the bike to Daniel's Summit this past weekend.  Daniel's Summit Lodge is a wonderful place, complete with a great restaurant and general store.  Located directly off US 40, close to Heber, it is a great place to enjoy nature both in the warm months and in the winter.  It is famous for its snowmobiling trails!  I would love to do that sometime.  I'm permanently afraid of ATV's because of a freak accident a few years back, when I shattered my nose and de-gloved it from my face, requiring extensive surgery to make it look OK.  But I think I could muster the courage to get on a snowmobile and ride it.  And what about those Rhino's?  They look like miniature jeeps, but have all the get up and go of an ATV, except you can carry passengers and cargo!  Then I wouldn't have to drive!  I got a picture of one as a couple came in from off the trails.  They left their friend outside with water and food.  He was as good as gold!

We ate at Daniel's Summit Restaurant. Greg had the Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich and I had Southern Chicken Salad with sugared pecans, red onions and avocado!  Delish! 

The leaves were just beginning to turn and should be in full force by this weekend!

This Little Boy Has Some Potential!

I went to my nephew's first soccer game of the season recently. He's a precocious 4-year-old and has lots of energy and he left it all out there in the field. for sure.  He got at least 3 goals and led his team to victory!  Right, Mom, isn't that how it went?  Pretty sure he was the star player! Ha Ha!

Setting up the next kick!

In Thoughtful Contemplation

Going off the field for a drink of water

Can't Take my eyes off the ball!

Hey Guys!  I've got something here!

I THINK it was this ball that's in play!

Team Support!

The Miss United Nations Pageant!

This past weekend I attended the first ever Miss United Nations Pageant at UVU (Utah Valley University) in Orem, UT!  I went at the invitation of my friend, Patti, who knows one of the contestants personally!  I had actually met Nilli once as well.  Her full name is Nilufur Sherzod and she is from Tajikistan.  She lived with Patti as a renter for about 2 years! She is very talented and absolutely gorgeous!  As one of the main drivers of the UVU International Modeling Club, she was a very prominent part in also getting this pageant started. 

The two MC's of the pageant were KSL radio personality and Mormon Tabernacle Choir member, Nikoyo Iyamba and popular performer/singer and also Tabernacle Choir Member, Alex Boye'.  They were great together and their rhetoric was sometimes very funny, as Alex can get very animated!!  He did some hilarious comedic interpretations of pageant contestants, black audience members, as well as poking fun of himself a lot!  Ms. Iyamba has her own line of couture clothing, Nkoyo Bridal, which was modeled during the program. Mr. Boye' performed and handed out copies of his new CD!

It was really fun to see the 9 contestants walk out in native costumes!  I wondered what Miss US would wear!  Unfortunately, she wasn't represented b/c of a personal tragedy.  It must have been a truly tragic event for her to miss out on a chance to win the first Miss United Nations at UVU!  I hope everything goes well for her.

Here are some of the fun native costumes!

 We were then entertained by each of the contestants in the talent competition and they were very talented!  I loved some of the native dances!  We saw Flamenco, and various dances from Brazil, Africa, Japan and others.  There was one pianist and one singer.  They were very brave!  Many of these young women had only just learned English within the last few months.  They were truly international, coming right from their countries of origin.
Voice of Africa performed some riotous dancing and drum solos!

And the winners are:

Miss Congo Republic wins 2nd Runner-up!

Miss Japan is 1st Runner-up!

 AND THE WINNER OF THE $2000 SCHOLARSHIP FROM PAUL MITCHELL SALON IS:

         Yes, it was Nilli, Patti's friend from Tajikistan!  What a fun thing for her! 

Her mother came all the way from Tajikistan just to see her participate in the pageant! I think she got her money's worth!  I know I did!

Our Hike To Dog Lake

My son Eddie and I took a hike (roundtrip 6 miles) to Dog Lake, actually a watershed area located in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  First of all, I don't know why they call it 'Dog' Lake, because no dogs or horses are allowed because of the watershed status.

I almost quit towards the first part because this was meant to be a leisurely hike, nothing major.  It was on a Sunday after all and I really try not to do hard physical labor on that day. However, on other days, all my efforts to do hard physical labor are mostly in vain as well!  But what do you know, after the first 100 feet, we ran into a very steep incline and it seemed to go on forever.  I panted and gasped and stopped for air and of course, Eddie was ready to bound up the hill like a gazelle.  But he was a nice son and waited for me.  He asked some hikers on their way down if it was uphill all the way and they basically said yeah.  I told Eddie I would go for 15 more minutes like this and then if it didn't improve, our hike was over.  Fortunately, it did improve and it actually was very mild from then on out! 

During the incline part of the hike, we had to stop often, due to Mom's lack of physical stamina and energy.  But we had a diversion and that was my camera.  We took quite a few silly shots.  I had the idea that we could pose in some beautiful ferns.  I hope that the difference between my pose, and  Eddie the Yettie's pose is vastly different....

The scenery, as we wound our way now more gradually up the incline, was truly beautiful!

The leaves were just barely starting to turn!  I couldn't believe it, one older man when we asked about how far the lake was, actually thought that Eddie and I were brother/sister, girlfriend/boyfriend, husband/wife.  Poor Eddie.  I don't think he took that too well!  I told Eddie that he looks a lot older than he really is, and that the poor man must be losing his visual clarity in his declining years.  Plus, I am really immature looking.  What else could I tell him?  (I was secretly loving it!)

We ran into some Moose (or is that Meese?) grazing along the trail.  I was kind of nervous because I've heard that Moose are dangerous animals known to charge annoying people hiking by in their territory. But Eddie the Yettie welcomed the opportunity to get as close as possible to take a few shots.  Believe me, I had some trees sighted in to run behind just in case things got dicey!  We even saw a Mother and Baby moose quietly grazing in the forest!

We finally arrived at Dog Lake and it is certainly not anything to brag about.  I might even be tempted to say it's a real dog!  It's just a tiny little body of water with a sandy shore on all sides. But we were excited to have reached our destination and be on our way back.  Of course we took a few more pictures because that's what you do when you have a blog to put them on!