Valerie and Adam Are Engaged!!

Valerie and Adam at Rainbow Bridge

Valerie and Adam Ravitch have decided to get married in December. More details such as date and time will be forthcoming! Congratulations to the future bride and groom. This much we do know, Valerie will take out her endowments in the Los Angeles Temple and they will be married in the St. George Temple following her endowment. Adam is from the San Fernando Valley, near LA. Valerie and Adam met at USC where Adam was attending Law School. He graduated last May from Law School and has taken the California Bar exam this summer. He also has secured a job doing a clerkship for a judge in Las Vegas this fall.

Val and Adam preparing a big Cathedral Canyon smootch!! A passerby boat egged them on by yelling KISS, KISS, KISS, KISS and cheered when it finally happened!

Congratulations you two!

Lake Powell Trip

Beautiful Last Chance Bay at Lake Powell

On August 14th, we took a three-day trip to Lake Powell. Our neighbors and friends the Wades were nice enough to let us borrow their boat...so it was off to Wahweep we went! We put in at Wahweep on Tues morning and drove the boat with all of our gear up channel to Last Chance Bay and found a really nice campsite in one of the fingers of the bay shaded from the wind and main channel. It was really a beautiful spot on a sandy beach.

Camp site in Last Chance Bay

The weather was really great...not too hot and the water was bathtub warm...in fact, I really don't remember the water ever being as warm as it was this trip....truly bath water temperature as evidenced below. The first night however, we experienced a terrific lightning and rainstorm. It was really cool.

Nice polygamist hairdo Val and nice shampoo point Ava!

The next day we took a tour up to see one of natures incredible wonders, Rainbow Natural Bridge. With the water being low, we had a 3/4 mile hike up the canyon from where we left the boat. I am always impressed to see the bridge, no matter how many times I have seen it.

After Rainbow Bridge and lunch, we toured Cathedral Canyon which is just west of Rainbow Canyon. As you can see below, it was really breathtaking up in the canyon. We went as far as we could in the boat, then Maureen and the kids went up further swimming as the canyon walls go more narrow. You can see just how low the lake is....about 30 from the high water mark.

Cathedral Canyon

If you look really close above, you can see 4 swimmers up in the narrow canyon. I stayed back and made sure the boat was ok as there was no place to tie it up.

No Lake Powell trip could be complete without plenty of water skiing! Here is Valerie getting up for the first time on one ski. Adam, Valerie and Ava skied and wake boarded for several hours each day until their muscles dropped off...Even Maureen was coaxed in to ski as well!

There was plenty of shore activity as well, here are the kids and their sand castle at our campsite.

Here I am on the boat before one of our adventures.

Another Lake Powell tradition is cliff jumping. We drove the boat up to the top of Last Chance Bay and went into a side canyon called Twitchell Canyon. There we found a cliff, not too high to jump off of. Here is Maureen and Ava's legs flying through the air!

It took a full 3 minutes to for Val and Adam to decide to go off holding hands or not....they decided to hold hands!

Lake Powell is a great vacation, very relaxing and picturesque. Here is Maureen up in at a beautiful spot in Twitchell Canyon. We had a great time and enjoyed every minute.

Ava and Valerie Return From El Salvador

Ava and Valerie with their friends Adam and Julian enjoying a welcome home meal at Gardunios in Las Vegas after picking the girls up at the airport.

After 3 long months (according to dad) in El Salvador working in an orphanage for disadvantaged children, Ava and Valerie return home having had an incredible experience working with, teaching and helping these wonderful children. We hope that you have enjoyed their blog that they have recorded this summer. They will be posting their final blog shortly. You can view it at: www.elhogardelnino.com. There is also a link to their site in the right column. They feel that their lives were richly blessed working there for three months. Many great friendships and a remarkable program was started. Rachel Nielson, one of the Foundation's leaders said, "You...have built a foundation of respect and professionalism with the administration and the foundation, which is absolutely vital to the program." Well done Ava and Valerie, your work has been wonderful and you will be greatly blessed and enriched from the experience!

Valerie poses with the many gifts from El Salvador they came home bearing!!

Bishop Crump is Released

St. George College 17th Ward Bishopric and Wives
Left to right: Suzanne Kuhlmann, Pete Kuhlmann 1st Counselor, Maureen Crump, Bishop Crump, Nadine Hancey, Kevin Hancey 2nd Counselor.

On August 5th, our bishopric was released after serving 3 years at Dixie State College. The time really flew by. Many bittersweet feelings were felt among us and expressed by ourselves and others. I really need to adjust my thoughts and feelings....I can see things that need to be done, but then I remember that I cannot do it. It is a real adjustment. I had at the time of release a wonderful peaceful feeling come over me. I know that I did my best. I can tell you that I felt led by Divine power many times. It will be a loss, however, I have all of the great memories that were made during my time. Maureen and I will move forward to other things and we look forward to it. Thanks to all of you for your love and support during the time I served.