A Tribute to Friends

Nearly three years ago, Chace and I had the good fortune of moving into a tiny little apartment on 500 North in Provo, Utah. One day shortly thereafter when loading up about 8 loads of laundry to take to the Laundromat, we were shocked to discover that our brand spanking new car would not start. After tinkering around under the hood for about 30 seconds, Chace was approached by a handsome young man who introduced himself as Thomas Griffiths, our new neighbor. He had seen us from his living room window and wanted to offer his services. In a matter of minutes, Chace learned that he and Thomas had a lot in common. They had both been having difficulty settling on their majors, and at the last minute had both decided on engineering. The only trouble was that they had waited until the 'drop' deadline two weeks into the semester to change all their classes and were now scrambling to catch up on the missed course work. The tender mercy was, to their surprise, that they had enrolled in all the same classes! And thus began the friendship of Thomas and Chace.

I, though feeling a little left out, was happy for Chace, who now spent every waking moment between classes studying with Thomas at their more spacious house. What about me? Where was my study buddy? We were soon invited to dinner and I was to meet the wife. I wondered if she would be a complete weirdo. And much to my satisfaction and delight, SHE WAS! We were meant to be friends.

That semester we dined with Thomas and Melissa at least thrice a week and became the best of friends. We have since enjoyed all manner of adventures with the Griffithses, a few of which are documented photographically:

We've celebrated birthdays together.

Thomas has taken us to his hometown of Orderville, Utah
and shown us the little-seen beauties of the land in his trusty old Suburban...

...sometimes making us wonder if we'd get off of this bumpy road alive...

We've explored Zion National Park.

Melissa has saved me from certain death at the foot of a treacherous cliff.

We've enjoyed weekend getaways in Aspen Grove.

We've relay raced up to the Y, taking turns with the stroller.
How could I forget to mention that they have provided our first god-daughter! Macey Pauline Griffiths is the sweetest, most clever little lady around, and we are already arranging the wedding between her and our first son.

Chace and I are pretty good friends with a lot of shared interests, but once in a while, I just can't be man enough. That's when I'm glad that Thomas and Chace can fulfill their hunter needs and do manly things together, like climb stuff...
We've gotten so much more out of this friendship than we've given. Thomas and Melissa are some of the best people we've ever met, and we've learned a lot from them about who we want to be.

Back to School

During our summer in Michigan, we acquired a taste for the finer things in life, such as bathro doors and full-sized ovens. So we returned to Provo in style, toting our belated wedding gift, the scooter, and excited to move into a… (drum roll please)… ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT! Let's do a little before and after to give you a better idea of what a step up this was for us:

This is how we roll!

Our old bathroom. So convenient! No door to hassle with, and great for multitasking. You can sit on the toilet, wash your right foot in the sink, and shave your left leg in the shower all at the same time!

Old entry/family/living/bed room.

Old kitchen.

New kitchen.

So much space! I didn't even know what to do with myself.

But Chace is loving it!

We've loved having a place to entertain and watch movies with our friends. I used to be a little awkward having people over. And movies were almost absolutely out, unless we felt that we were close enough with our friends to have them snuggle in bed with us to watch something on the laptop! The burrow certainly had its advantages, but we sure like having room to leave the kitchen table up all week and not just for Sunday dinners.

Niagara Falls/Palmyra NY

Well... this posting has been sitting in our draft folder for the last um... couple months or so... I've tried pawning it off on Rivka to no avail. She is a loyal subscriber to her sisters' blogs and is convinced that in comparison we have nothing interesting to report. I told her she doesn't need crazy kids running around saying funny things when she has ME! But alas, my efforts have been fruitless and you all have to put up with me as the official Wilcoxson blogger for now. My condolences...


Niagara Falls is breathtaking! I don't care how great an artist is, God will always have the advantage in producing beautiful works of art; and that is what Niagara Falls is, a masterpiece! I wish I could say the same for our hotel... Priceline.com is great but there may be a limit to what we're willing to subject ourselves to in terms of quality (or lack there of)... but we have yet to find it! We went with a few friends and I was in charge of the dwelling facilities (dunh Duhn DUHN!) I think they'll rethink that next time!


After gawking at the falls and riding the "Maid of the Mist" boat ride up to the falls (way cooler than we would have thought; highly recommend it!), we headed off to Palmyra, NY to see the LDS church historic sites and see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. My favorite was spending a few hours Sunday morning in the Sacred Grove. It was a great little trip. I guess there are pretty places outside the Great Northwest! Go figure!

Washington DC

Although Rivka and I are essentially apolitical, we do have a certain deep rooted patriotism within us, as I believe all Americans do (or should). As the 4th of July approached this summer we couldn't think of a better way to spend it than heading to the nation's capitol. I'm mean, it doesn't get much more patriotic than pushing through mobs of sweaty tourists in the museum of natural history...




















Rivka's aunt and uncle, Karen and Kent respectively, were kind enough to open their home to us for the weekend. It was wonderful to get to know them better and get some insider tips. We got there Thursday afternoon and headed straight to the Washinton DC temple. What an amazing sight that is! From the freeway it just seems to float above the trees, and inside is just as beautiful. That evening we went on the LONGEST walk around the monuments! However, it was nice to see them all lit up at night.





Friday morning we hung out with our boy George at his pad, Mount Vernon, and in the evening, fighting both rain and crowds, we sat in the shadow of the Washington Monument and watched the most amazing fireworks show on the planet. It was nearly 30 minutes of chest thumping eye candy!

























Saturday we hit the museums. We tried to be realistic, selecting only two main museums to explore. However, I got us side-tracked in the botanic gardens (I love botanic gardens) for a few hours. We spent most of the day in the flight and space museum (another of my lesser-known passions) and had a good few hours in the museum of natural history.






Sunday: church and lots of driving...

There was simply too much to see and do for just a couple of days! We'll be back for sure. Watch out Karen and Kent!

Going the distance...

To all of you Granite Persons:

Although not present physically, we were there in spirit. You know when you hit that mile incline and you were really cursing Miriam for coming up with this whole thing... and you felt this, like, I don't know, presence whiz past you really fast, yeah, that was totally our running spirits wasting you up the hill! How did we get our spirits in that shape you ask? Well you know it wasn't easy but to see you all behind us (I mean way behind us) it was totally worth all the stretching and stuff.

As you can see our training regimen was simple:

Stretching...

More stretching...

Totally wearing our "game faces"...

The key to our success was of course looking good! And there's really no better way to do that than to have matching workout suits.

(Attention: no animals were harmed in the making of this chest hair).

Last word...

Peace!

(Note to non-Mikkelsen family: Rivka's entire family just competed in a 10 mile mountain run called the Granite Man this weekend in southern Oregon. Fortunately for them we were unable to attend... "in body" due to our present relocation to Michigan.)