pie and beer day

I imagine most states have some sort of holiday significant to them... or maybe they don't since I've never really heard of many state holidays. But Utah has it's own state holiday and it is taken quite seriously. In fact, it's right on par with Independence Day celebrations in Utah, though you could argue Pioneer day has better fireworks. Pioneer Day is celebrated in Utah every year on July 24. It signifies the day B. Young brought the Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and proclaimed "this is the place". And it's not just any old pioneer day since lots of different folks were pioneers, this is really in honor of the first Mormons making the trek to Utah in search of religious freedom and etc.

However, there is a portion of the population happy to have a day off work but does not fit into the pioneer and/or Mormon category. Davis and I fit neither. So what are we to do? We had our time to celebrate freedom on the 4th of July. So, all of us non-pioneer day residents celebrate Pie and Beer Day. It is definitely not meant to stir up strife or create negative feelings, we just want something to celebrate too. On Wednesdays we usually have small group anyway, so this week the theme was pie and beer.

peach pie

quiche

a fourth of the beer selection

There was a great turn out. We had quite a selection of beer, way more than we needed. We also had several dessert pies, a cheese cake, three quiches, and two types of pizza pie. We sat on the warm front porch talking and celebrating with our food and beverage. When the sun set, the fireworks started. A few people brought a variety of fireworks to enjoy. So we set those off on our street. Our neighbors came out to enjoy them as well. Ingrid did not enjoy the fireworks at all. She hid under the bed inside most of that part of the evening. She did enjoy all the plate licking earlier though.

these look like we are casting spells
in harry potter :)

she refused to enjoy the fireworks but wore a festive glow stick

When the city's fireworks started, we walked down a couple blocks where there is a large hill and less trees with our friends and a few of the neighbors. We had a great view of the Salt Lake valley and all across town fire works where going off over the lights of the city. The best, biggest and the brightest were coming from Liberty Park which are the official city display.

happy pie and beer day!

We live in a area where a fair amount of people were opting to celebrate pie and beer day. After the grand finale, we all hoorayed together for pie and beer day and went back to our own celebrations. Over all, it was a successful and fun first pioneer/pie and beer day for us.

more than surviving

wide open spaces in wyoming

I am having hard time putting my thoughts into writing. Therefore, I am distracting myself by looking at pages of skirts, dresses and shoes. Super cute but not practical for someone who spends a large portion of my life in scrubs. Okay, moving into what I wanted to write about.

We went on a quick weekend trip back to Fort Collins. It was lovely and relaxing. So many friends took time out of their lives to see us. We ate some of our favorite food, walked familiar streets, caught up on lives, and hugged necks of dear souls. I was afraid visiting would produce discontentment in my heart. Both Davis and I were surprised to find, although we had great comfort in familiarity of friends, we are starting to look at life differently. What I mean is this: so often we spend most of our time merely trying to survive and safely navigate and control all ups and downs of life. We both could logically say we loved our time in Fort Collins and it would have been desirable to stay there. Circumstantially, it was not for us to stay in Fort Collins. But there was more we realized in our hearts than just the logic of the situation. God is doing something in our lives.

(I'll try to break this up with pictures)

road trip buddy

pit stop for cheap ice cream at Little America

There was a sermon given by Ryan Baker over a year ago in Fort Collins that has been on my mind and heart for a long time. It has begun to really change the way I think about life and overall what on earth does Christianity/Salvation/Trinity/Love/Truth/Bible has to do with our daily struggles. The point that rings in my heart is Jesus loves you, what are you so afraid of? I often live in fear while trying to survive with self preservation and self glorification. I am terrified of letting go of the illusion of control, safety and importance. Why is it so hard to let go and be loved? God is calling us to let go and rest in him. He loves us, do not be afraid.  Take a  listen if you have the chance. I am listening to it as a write this.

More recently, Bryce Hales, the RUF director for University of Utah preached at church here in Salt Lake City. He spoke from a hard passage in the Old Testament where Moses goes to Pharaoh and says "let my people go". Instead of setting Israel free, he doubles the workload required of them. Of course, the Israelites are thinking, oh geez thanks for saving us (not). He stopped there and didn't go into the fact God brings plagues to Egypt, parts the Red Sea, provides all their needs in the desert, gives them victory over their enemies, and provides the promise land. Instead, his point was in our lives, God is at battle with the idols and false gods in our lives. In this example Pharaoh had made himself a god over these people. Therefore, the true God must deliver his people from captivity to him. He created us in love and is righteously jealous for us. When things are hard and they hurt, many times it is God turning our hearts towards him by removing these idols and false gods. A lot times we miss the bigger picture of God's hand in our lives as Israel did in this situation.  I am no expert on understanding suffering and hardships. It is by far one of the hardest subjects. Life is hard, oh my goodness and sometimes it flat out sucks beyond comprehension. His intention was not to gloss over the difficulties and pains we often feel.   But for us to know we have a God who loves us and fights for us. What are we so afraid of? God gave up everything to make us his children. And as long as we live this side of eternity, he will have to continue to be at war with the idols and false gods we often cling to.  (I would put the link to this sermon up but it's not available yet, plus my summary is probably really pathetic)

This is huge, glorious and deep story I am touching on. All that I wanted to say, with more clarity but writing is not a particular gift of mine, was to explain why this trip to Fort Collins didn't stir up sadness or discontentment in my heart. Lovingly, God has been teaching us to see life in light of these truths just discussed above.

new puppy friend, Layla

We have been praying a lot about this move. We do not just want to merely survive while preserving our illusion of control and safety. While our living in Colorado was a huge blessing relationally, we spent most of our time being safe. We moved from one island of safety to another, minimally engaging in non-safe surroundings like at work. Moving to Utah, although we have not left our native country, we have left the comfort zone we worked to build and maintain. Instead of doing the same in Utah, we want to really be salt and light for Christ. According to wikipedia, in 2000 about 7% of Utah's popular claimed to be Evangelical Christians. Coming from the south and then Colorado where nearly all our friends were originally southern and/or we met them at church, this is very different. There is so much to do in the work of restoration and redemption. We do not want to be lazy and safe, okay yes we idolize that still, but we are seeking to not fall back into that lie. Instead we are clinging to these truths: Jesus loves you, what are you afraid of? and God is our God and is fighting  against the idols and false gods in our lives to give us true love and freedom. 

Davis and I do not want to be lazy. We do not want to just survive. How do you live in light of the gospel? How does a Christian live in truth and love? It is easy to become unloving with concern only for truth. It is easy to let go of truth when only concerned with a more worldly definition of  love. We aren't looking for an epic life or to be all stars on the Jesus team. How do you live radically in the mundane life? Maybe it is as simple as believing God loves you and fights for you and living as though you believe God loves you and fights for you. Davis and I will fail at this, we already have. Thankfully God is much bigger than the summation of all our failures and He indeed will have final victory. Additionally, if you read this you might think y'all are crazy. We do not want to be afraid of not having answers for all the questions, no human can. Neither one of us is perfect nor are we omniscience. We do not want to put up a facade that we have it all together because we don't and pretending to always be right or happy despite where your heart is is exhausting and not helpful.  Both of us desire to grow, be challenged and challenge, and daily lay down the notion of surviving and comfort for the joys of living for Jesus.

the most honorable lucy

Even though we miss our friends and will miss watching their children grow up.  We are content because there is so much more than meets the eye. We cannot cling to earthy things to give us eternal satisfaction. Although we aren't sure yet why and what God has in store for the Wares in Utah and maybe we won't ever know fully, we at peace in our hearts. Of course, this doesn't stop us from bugging (or encouraging) friends to move here.

sign of promises He has kept and will keep

I realize if you did read all that, many will not agree. We are open to any and all questions. And of course, we are always open to visitors!

Sun Day on a Sunday

Due to the heat of the summer, I've been asking around about swimming holes. The amount of swimming locations around the whole of Utah is significantly less than a single neighborhood in Florida. I'm guessing on that, I have no statistical evidence to back me up. I am eagerly searching where to go swimming, hopefully for free, because free is nice. Yesterday after church we got a text from some new friends who asked if we wanted to join them on a trip to Pineview Reservoir. It's about an hours drive from home and the afternoon was running out. However, we said yes because I need a swimming hole.

And of course we are glad we did. We found a free, although a tad crowded, swimming hole. Dogs and people were enjoying the sunshine and water on a warm and sunny Sunday. We are planning a trip back to spend the day.

beach in the mountains

drive home

One the best things about Utah is you can almost guarantee the drive will be pretty. Even if it was an hour away, it didn't seem like it. So much to look at.

The little swimming hole getaway is really making us look forward to our family trip to St. Augustine Florida coming up. We are going to eat our weight in seafood every day and play in the ocean. And of course, we are excited to see our families.

hope y'all had a lovely weekend.

the great southwest colorado adventure

4th of july weekend harvest
(welcome home from our garden)

I may have mentioned this before here but Davis has little time off, especially this first year of work. The 4th of July turned into a four day weekend and we had to seize the opportunity to explore. The whole time we lived in Fort Collins, we wanted to check out Mesa Verde where the Ancestral Puebloans built incredible living structures into the cliffs of southwestern Colorado. Additionally, some Fort Collins friends would be spending the holiday in Telluride, another location we wanted to check out in Colorado. Lucky for us, they are closer to Salt Lake City than Fort Collins. The west is just so big. To help make our little adventure cheaper, we camped and basically couch surfed with a friend of a friend. We had a grand time exploring. If there was anything we wanted to go out of the way to see, we'd ask ourselves why not?! and if no good naysayers spoke up, we did it. Therefore we saw quite a bit of fantastic Colorado countryside and unique towns that are spread throughout southwest Colorado. Colorado has a special place in our hearts now, the trip was somewhat bitter sweet since we have not quite settled into the Utahn mindset.  It was somewhat humorous driving home Sunday to see a long line of Colorado cars coming out of Utah back to their state. Both are awesome places, we just miss Colorado. Enough words, I'll just show pictures and make comments as needed. If you get the chance, come check out this area. It will not disappoint and we barely scratched the surface in our whirlwind tour.


We stayed in the Mancos Valley, very close to Mesa Verde National Park. I took a million pictures of the trip, but I'll spare y'all some.

Driving in...

we passed by arches and moab, saved it
for another adventure!

from camping, down into Mancos Valley

up into San Juan Mountains

little fishing in the evening

dinner of champions, we had some veggies too

he is wonderful
(and not mad I took this)

On Friday, we went to Mesa Verde National Park. We enjoyed it very much. Davis was taking mental notes on how to grow crops in dry aired places since the ancestral puebloans seemed to have a handle on it. The structures they built during the same time castles were built in Europe are mind boggling. You can't help but think why? It is an extremely interesting place to visit.

they went up this mesa and spread out on top and in the canyons

before they went into the cliffs

every place had a kiva
(a circular room built into the group)

stopped for some non-primal indian fry bread before our tour

the cliff palace, the largest cliff dwellings

multiple stories

survey the ruins

before the tour, for perspective

not a window, it's their door

another view

There were several stops you could see much smaller but still mind boggling places they chose to live.

see some doorways across the canyon?

home sweet home

up close

If you can tell, same dead tree in the middle of two picture above is straight across
it's the same place just without zoom :)

top of mesa verde

top of mesa verde

top of mesa verde

After all the Cliff Dwellers, we had some time before needed to make dinner. We saw a sign for Durango, about 30 minutes down the road, so we said why not?! It's super pretty where ever you drive so even that made it worth while. Turns out, Durango is a cool town. Reminded us of Fort Collins, with very little suburbs.

Downtown Durango

cooling off with fro-yo :)

The next day we headed North-ish to Telluride. Telluride is so idyllic and beautiful. However, the price of real estate is obscene. People live in these cute little tool-shed sized homes "worth" a million dollars. They do have a free gondola and some of the best mountains anywhere. Plus we saw a few familiar faces.

My best of all friends, Viola

Little charlie rocking his hat

Emelia, proof that Rich and Anna were around too

I forgot to get picture of the adults, oops. Kids prove there were probably adults around.

telluride, colorado

Telluride in the valley from the gondola

We spend Saturday with friends relaxing and exploring Telluride. It was a wonderful adventure. The next day we got on the road again to head home but the scenic way. We stopped in Ouray and Ridgeway Colorado.

Ouray, Colorado
Telluride's not as uppity twin(ish) town

breakfast in Ridgeway

Ridgeway breakfast spot

Between Telluride and Ridgeway

road into Ouray

We had to drive through Montrose on our way and just about 15 miles outside of Montrose is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Naturally, we stopped there too.

Black Canyons, south rim

Gunnison river down yonder

crusty road trip campers

 After the canyons, we made stop in Grand Junction for some libations not so easily obtained in Utah. We enjoyed our trip so much and miss the culture of Colorado. We made mental notes of places we need to return to for visiting.

back to utah!

I kept complaining about Utah the entire trip. Then we pulled into the Salt Lake Valley, with the Wasatch range welcoming us back. We both exclaimed man! it's really beautiful here too! We so often take for granted the beauty around us. Contentment is important, it helps us to be thankful for the many earthly blessings so generously given to us. Realizing our contentment should not make us complacent or lazy, but gracious and grateful.

driving down the interstate in salt lake city