The Dickson's: June 2009

Two weekends ago ...May 16th to be exact, was mine and Jess' one year wedding anniversary!! We decided to go on a little camping/roadtrip adventure and to be honest - we had no idea where we were headed. The Thursday before our anniversary, we packed up a weekend's worth of clothes, food, camping equipment, and his brother's four-wheeler and hit the highway. It was so much fun to go off the seat of our pants and not really have an idea of where we were vacationing - we just looked at the map and picked our next destination.

Our first night we got a little lost, well .... at least I will admit we did. We drove up the Spanish Fork canyon and by the time we got up there, Jess had to look at all of the elk and deer for a good hour or two - so it was pitch black outside by the time he realized we needed to set up camp. So there we were at 11 0'clock at night trying to put up our tent using the headlights from our truck to see our way around. It was stressful, cold, and a little scary... but we laughed the whole time... that is, right up until Jess told me we were in bear country. Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink the first night. Every noise I heard outside our tent, I would wake Jess up to make sure he heard the same noise I did.

We had no idea where we had camped the first night, just because it was so dark and freezing! So when we opened our tent the next morning, this is what we found!

A gorgeous scenery, our tent covered in frost, and a grumpy husband... because SOMEBODY kept him up all night listening to bear noises! =0) Hmmm... who could that be?!?!

***Notice our red-neck camping style! Whoop - whoop! We didn't care, we had a blast together!We drove farther south the following day, through Helper, Price, and into some state park (I can't remember the name) We went four-wheeling, shot clay pigeons, and drove around looking for a SAFE place to camp the second night.

In the picture of me above is the cliff we found to each lunch at; it was so peaceful and beautiful up there to just relax and have a little picnic on the edge of a 6,000 ft cliff!

I was Jess's "assistant" during our camping trip, which pretty much meant that I threw the clay pigeons for him with a hand-slinger thing.... while he had fun practicing his aim! Then it was my turn! Jess set up the clay pigeons in the trees and bushes, and I actually hit EVERY SINGLE ONE! (but not on the first time of course!).... but it does mean that I earned my right to go deer hunting with him this fall,... how exciting!!!!!!

Our favorite part of the entire trip came towards the end, on our actual anniversary day, Saturday. Some of you may have heard that we were planning on being sealed in the Manti Temple on our one year anniversary. Which is true, we were planning on it, until we decided to wait until this fall because my sister's due date to have her baby was only a few days after our anniversary. We were too worried that her labor and our temple date would fall on the same day, so we decided to give everyone the opportunity to see my sister have her baby and wait until the fall to be sealed. It was a rough decision to make - but our anniversary still turned out wonderful and this is why.....

We still made it to the Manti Temple, only it was unfortunate we were not able to go inside. It was such a neat experience for Jess and I to see this temple. As we turned around a hillside and drove into the tiny town of Manti, the temple stood out beautifully and the light that radiated from it was incredible. We took pictures on the grounds and it was truly a testimony builder for us to recognize how badly we really want to go inside.

The entire time I was there I was humming to myself, "I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday." It was a very emotional experience for me and the pictures we took there have helped us so much to remind us of our goal.