The Code.

Yesterday. Mid-afternoon. My friend, his sister and I are driving to Home Depot to learn how to build a multi-level tree house (or to get keys cut). My friend tells me that he and his sister learned morse code the other day. Then they started teaching me! At first, I was skeptical that I could memorize all the letters. But they shared their secret with me and by the time we got to the store I had all the letters memorized (more or less)! I was ecstatic. I saw visions of my friends and me using Morse to pull pranks similar to Jim and Pam's in the office. The possibilities seemed endless.

Fast-forward. Yesterday. Late night. My same friend and I find ourselves sitting in a paddleboat watching the stars. Oh and we were with a girl. Just the three of us. My friend says, "Hey Riley, let's test your Morse code skills. What word is this?" He taps out: •-•• • •- •••- •. I don't get it. L E I V E. What? So he taps it out again: •-•• • •- •••- •. It clicks. L E A V E. Ohhhh. Genius. So I make some excuse about getting snacks and head back to where some of our other amigos were watching the stars, leaving the two lovebirds all to themselves. Oh baby. Before you jump to conclusions, nothing more than flirty chatting occurred. 

The applications for this new skill are endless. Obviously.

Adventures

Everyone loves a good adventure right? Last night was one for the books. It was an adventure of astronomical proportions.

I have this unusual obsession with stars and all things space. I say unusual because no one in my family seems to share it with me. My obsession can be traced to my high school days. My friends and I would take dates to the star parties that the Las Vegas Astronomical Society would host. They would have a nerdy presentation about nebulas or black holes or some other cosmic term. Then they would let us look through their fancy telescopes! Some of them were massive! Like the size of a truck. I think that is when my star fascination began; when I looked and saw the moon.

This interstellar passion has continued to drive me to great lengths with the hope of witnessing something majestic. 

Well last night, in the hopes of catching the Perseid shower, some friends and I planned an astronomical adventure. We started at IHOP for some midnight pancakes. Tasty business. From their we all boarded the Creer Family Space Shuttle (AKA the white Honda Odyssey) and launched up Provo Canyon. We docked at a park nestled in the Wasatch Mountains. With blankets in tow we scouted the area for the best star gazing location. We selected this spot that was quite literally off the beaten path and set up shop. We blared some mystical sounding music as we peered into the deep black. Within 20 minutes of settling in we saw the shooting star of a lifetime. It originated on one side of the night sky and steadily streaked across to the opposite side, followed by a burning tail that seemed to stretch on forever. We all gasped in awe. It was incredible.

For the next hour and a half we marveled as each gleaming star shot across the night. Some were lightning fast. Some seemed to take their time as they flew through the black. The turtle and the hare. It never got old though, each meteor ilicited new gasps, prompted more pointing. Finally we decided it was time to go. We gathered our loot and re-embarked the space shuttle. Re-entry into Provo was smooth, no hiccups.

Oh what a night. 

Go adventure.

Home.

Over the years I have called many different places home. All of them very different, from a Vegas street lined with cookie-cutter houses to a quaint 2 story on a Wyoming drive. In each house, whatever the address, there were some commonalities; all were full of love, peace, and warmth. Home has always been a place of safety and refuge.
The other day I decided to explore the city that I now call home. I grabbed my Canon, hopped on one of our motorcycles, and off I went on a leisurely ride through the quiet streets of South Weber/Ogden. Here are some of the photos:

My trusty steed.

Temples remind us where our true Home is.

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older

The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated

Of dead and living. Not the intense moment

Isolated, with no before and after,

But a lifetime burning in every moment

And not the lifetime of one man only

But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

There is a time for the evening under starlight,

A time for the evening under lamplight

(The evening with the photograph album).

Love is most nearly itself

When here and now cease to matter.

Old men ought to be explorers

Here or there does not matter

We must be still and still moving

Into another intensity

For a further union, a deeper communion

Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,

The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters

Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

T.S. Eliot

Virginia

I've been having the time of my life this summer working as an EFY counselor (click here if you don't know what EFY is). It has been fabulous. I spent the past 3 weeks in Virginia working in Buena Vista and Williamsburg. It rocked. In between sessions we would take excursions and see the sights of the Far East (Coast). We went to Washington D.C. and colonial Williamsburg. It was sublime. Here are the pictures I took on my phone while exploring.

Hand Model: Jessica Smith

We spent about 5 hours in D.C. if you account for the travel time. In those hours we walked about 9 miles visiting all the monuments. We were in super tourist mode! Each person in our party could choose one photo stop, no more. If they didn't have to stop walking to take the photo then it didn't count as their one stop. It was hilarious. Because of our super speed we got into the National Archives, saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence and got out in under 20 minutes. Talk about expeditious.

His preferred gospel study spot...

Rootbeer in a bottle is always better. 

Our boy band shot.

I guess he's on break...

Nutshell: The East Coast is rad. All the history there is unbelievable. It was like a shot of patriotism. God bless America.