Utah Reception

Gil and I decided to have the big party in Utah, where a lot of his extended family live.  The second weekend in March, we headed to Provo.  It was nice to separate the two events; we spent all of Saturday setting up and decorating the gym of the chapel where my brother attends his church meetings.

Gil, who has inherited his mom's artistic ability, made the room look spectacular.  There was string lights and tulle crisscrossing the room and draped all over.  We had three panels of quotes and pictures and a panel for advice.

 Gil's mother really liked one of our engagement photos and painted her own interpretation of it for us.  She is very talented.

 Gil and I with his mission president and his wife, Brother and Sister Cannon.

 My dear friend Ruth.  She wasn't able to make it to our Texas festivities so she came up to Utah.  She was a willing soul when it came to getting the room decorated.

 Adam was our MC.

 Gil and I had quite the dance.  We started with some hip-hop...

...then some bollywood...

 ...some swing, salsa, and then a nice slow dance.

 My dad, dancing for the first time in his life.  He did great.  What a sweet man he is.

 Gil and his mom after their dance.

 Our mutual friend Aubie Evans and her little guy James.  Aubrie is the one who set us up.  Thanks, Aubrie!

 Um... are we doing this correctly?

 We played a game where we each hold one of our own and one of the other's shoes.  We sit back to back (so we can't see each other) and a third party asks questions.  We answer those questions by raising the shoe of the appropriate person.  "Who is the better cook?"  (We would both hold up Gil's shoe.)  I couldn't find my shoes so was in my sneakers all night.  I still haven't found them...

 Two smiling mothers!

 And, because this is my blog, my dear, wonderful, handsome, brother.  

...who our photographer had a crush on:

Snow Surveys

I do not like being cold.  I do not like snow.  I am therefore not a big fan of winter.

The last few years the Sierra have had terrible snow packs, almost non-existent.  Winters have been mild.  Somehow I knew if I took this job, there would be more snow than had been seen in a long time just so I would have to deal with it.  The Sierra saw above average snowfall this winter.

California, eh-hem, you're welcome!

Our apartment is low enough that we didn't have snow, but my office was high enough to get plenty on a few occasions.  A friend from my summer at Carlsbad Caverns got a job in the same office as me and started the first of the year.  She stayed in my apartment for the first six weeks of the year until she was able to find her own place.  I took advantage of her growing up in Wisconsin snow savvy-ness and her 4-wheel drive vehicle to get me to work for quite a while (and when someone kindly totaled Gil's truck for him and he was using my car to get to school).  

The picture below was a particularly heavy snow fall day.  The power ended up going out at the office and we were sent home early anyway.

 The State of California likes to monitor the snow pack to know how to regulate water flow out of flumes and dams in an effort to conserve water and prevent flooding.  One of my tasks this winter was to go to the highest elevation points in our district and measure the depth and water content of the snow.  These numbers are then reported to the state water board.

This is my coworker Nancy after shoving the pole into the snow.  The goal is to push this massive hollow metal pipe all the way down to the soil.  With layers of ice in the 11ft snow pack... yeah right, but we did the best we could.

 We would snow shoe in to our survey transects, walk the transect and sample the snow about every 50 feet.  I took a turn at shoving the pole in a few times but mainly I was recorder and quality control.  The pole was weighed empty, then shoved (hopefully) to the dirt.  The height of the snow was recorded (there were inches marked on the outside of the pole), then the pole was removed with the snow core still inside.  The height of the snow within to tube was recorded, then the whole thing weighed to get the water content.  Then the really fun part of the whole process began, trying to get the snow core out of the pole so you could take your next survey.  

All this was done on unwieldy snowshoes and on less than solid snow surfaces.  It was an all day task and I always came home worn out.  Our office was responsible for completing four of these surveys and I helped out with two of them.

Getting the pole in.  Notice how bundled I am compared to Nancy.

 Measuring the height of snow.

It was an interesting experience.  Our office has snow survey records going back to the 1940s which is pretty neat to look through.

Galveston

Gil and I spent two days in Galveston.  We had a hotel room across from the sea wall.  The water was quite chilly and very choppy.  Unfortunately, our timing was a little off too in that it was Mardi Gras weekend.  We drove into town just after a big parade had finished and the traffic was awful and there were beads all over the road.

Monday we headed to Moody Gardens.  All my years in Texas and I had never been.  We got tickets to see a documentary on Africa which was quite enjoyable.  Then we spent a considerable amount of time wandering through the Rainforest Pyramid.

 We admired the butterflies...

...got this handsome chap to pose for us...

 ...watched the bats for quite a while...

 ...were amazed at how brilliantly red the scarlet ibises are...

 ...and finally tracked down the sloth.  I was particularly excited about this one.

 We found a gumbo place in downtown Galveston for a late lunch.  I talked Gil into ordering and then trying his first oyster.  Delicious!  The gumbo was decent but Gil's recipe is still my favorite.

We had a semi-early flight back to Sacramento Tuesday morning but that didn't keep us from finding a Whataburger for a late dinner.  I love that place!

We flew home Tuesday and it was back to work for me and a calculus test for Gil on Wednesday.