One month ago, Seth and I were proud to be able to attend the wedding of our two good friends, Ramona and Gabe. This was not your typical walk down the aisle and say "I do" wedding. No. This was a traditional Navajo wedding. A traditional Navajo wedding on the Navajo reservation near Monument Valley. With the ceremony taking place in an honest-to-goodness hogan. How's that for awesome?
Seth and I were both super excited when Ramona told us that they'd decided on a traditional Navajo wedding and that they wanted us to come. There was no decision to be made. We were going.
Ramona and I have been friends for over 10 years. Seems weird it's been so long. She and Gabe have been together for longer than that so it was only fitting they seal the deal. Seth and I are so happy for them. What a great couple.
Now I won't go into a ton of detail because pictures say it better, but I wanted to show a few pictures of the preceding activities and the wedding day itself. What a cool experience.
The inside of the hogan. I love being in there.
Ramona's family butchered a few goats and sheep for the festivities so Seth got in on the action.
At Goulding filling up the water tank.
Ramona's sister, Joann. Best basket weaver in the West!
Hanging out in the shade house to get out of the heat.
After the ceremony. Aren't their wedding clothes amazing? I think that was my favorite part! (that's the hogan in the background)
Ramona and Sylvie. Best buddies.
Me and Joann. She's such a cool lady.
The amazing wedding cake Ramona's cousins got for her. No I didn't make it... I just got to do the final touch-ups!
My dad got to come along as the wedding photographer. Not a bad gig, eh?
There were a few baby goats around so they got some cute pictures with them (this is one of my dad's pics)
Ramona's mom making some dry bread. (another of my dad's pics).
Those are just a few of the pictures I have. You can see a bunch more from my dad on his Flickr page. It was such a neat experience and I was so glad to have been invited to be a part of it. Ramona even let us participate in the ceremony which meant a lot. She has always been such a good friend to me. What an honor to be a part of something so special. Congratulations you two! We wish you the best in your new life together!
The FourVirgins? Why yes! This post is about four virgins. Let me explain.
Yesterday was my virgin ice fishing trip this winter. It was also my virgin ice fishing trip to Pineview Reservoir. During said trip I caught my first ever crappie AND perch. So there you have it! Four virgins.
My first crappie.
My first perch.
You'd think I'd have spent millions of hours at Pineview Reservoir over the course of my life. I mean, my grandparents have lived in the area for more than my entire life. I've driven by it countless times, but including this weekend, I've only ever been there twice. I've definitely been missing out.
On Saturday Seth and I met up with The Navajos and Eric (that should be a band name), to do some ice fishing. We chose Pineview because of its close proximity to our apartment and the fact that it was completely iced over. Pineview is a little different from most lakes in the area because it's not a trout lake. It's known more for perch, crappie, and tiger muskie. We set out to catch some perch and catch them we did!
We probably showed up later than we should have because the fish were only steadily biting for an hour or so after we got there. The total for the group was 8 perch and 2 crappie. Seth decided he needed more perch so he went out again early Sunday and caught 13 more.
We all had a great time and I'm sure this won't be the last time we ice fish at Pineview this year. It was definitely a beautiful place to be.
Seth was really angry at his fishing poles. Or maybe he was giving them a pep talk. I can't remember.
Eric, Ramona, and Gabe heading out onto the ice.
Woah. That's deep.
Seth showing us the ways of the auger.
Eric tries his hand at drilling.
Seth with his first catch of the day.
If you don't fish, you may be wondering why on Earth you'd want to catch and keep such small fish. I'll tell you why. Those perch are good eatin. Never cleaned a perch? I hadn't either! But we found this great video on YouTube that explained it really well. Also just FYI, these things are like mini catfish in the sense that they DO NOT DIE. Our perch were sitting out on the ice almost frozen solid for several hours after which they were put in a ziplock bag and taken home. I was half way through gutting one when it started flopping around. ALL of them did this. Creepy huh?!
For the record, we took way longer to clean ours than 10 seconds a piece, but this tutorial made it way easier to clean the fish than anything we would have come up with on our own.
Gutting the perch... it takes lots of concentration...
Some finished cleaned perch. That Leatherman Juice knife is the best for gutting fish, especially after being sharpened by Dad Hanson.
Don't know how to cook these guys? Well you're in luck! I've got the best recipe ever for fried fish from the fish cooking master herself.... Mama Hanson. Check it out over at Gravy Training!
This past weekend was our last camping trip of the year (well, as far as we know). The Navajos invited us down to Flaming Gorge for a couple days of fishing and freezing our butts off. We figured, hey, why not?
It took us about 4 hours to drive to the camping spot Friday night so we got there pretty late. There wasn't much time to do anything but set up the tent in the dark and go to bed. Neither Seth nor I slept very well that night... our sleeping bags are getting kind of hammered and the zippers don't work very well for keeping the drafts out. Also, just as a tip, those little disposable hand warmers take a good half hour or more to heat up, so plan ahead.
The next morning proved much better as we started the day with a nice breakfast of pancakes and sausage. Seth and I went over to check out the fly fishing situation on the Little Hole section of the Green River while The Navajos (consisting of Ramona, Gabe, and Gabe's brother's wife's younger brother, Jerry. He was a very nice young man.) went to check out Flaming Gorge.
Sadly, Seth and I didn't do so hot. I got skunked.... which seems to be a trend lately, and Seth caught one and lost another one or two. However, we did have a delicious lunch of Asian Chicken Roll-ups. I highly suggest using tortillas instead of bread whilst camping. Anyway, the river was very beautiful and we had fun fishing anyway.
We got a little lost on our way back to camp (we were distracted by a gigantic pair of binoculars, missed a turn, and started heading to Wyoming...) but finally made it back about an hour late. Dinner that night was a combined effort and consisted of delicious authentic Navajo Tacos. Having Navajo Tacos has become a tradition on our Flaming Gorge camping trips. I didn't get a picture of them this year, but here's some photos from 2007. Doesn't that fry bread look delicious? The key is to have a real Navajo make the fry bread ( you HAVE to use Bluebird brand flour) and you HAVE to use Hormel chili, otherwise, they won't be any good. And don't ask me for the fry bread recipe because there isn't one. You just know what it looks like. Which is why I've never personally made fry bread.
That night we took a tip from Jerry and heated up some rocks by the fire to put in our sleeping bags. We also made sure to give our hand warmers plenty of time to heat up. We did not get cold.
The next day we had another pancake and sausage breakfast and then we all headed over to the Gorge together to do some more fishing. We were all using "the bling" this time and did much better. For all of you fisher people out there, The Bling is the only lure that consistently works on lakes. Never caught fish on any other lure (silver and gold both work). Seth and I caught 6 Rainbows and the Navajos caught their fair share as well. Ramona caught the super fish of the day... a 21", 3 lb. Rainbow. It was huge! Of course Seth and I knew she'd caught a big one just from the whoops and hollers we heard from her as she landed it.
As usual we had a great time camping with the Navajos. They've become some of our favorite fishing buddies. I guess freezing your butt off on a camping trip isn't so bad after all.
Before you get all huffy and try to be politically correct, my Navajo friend, Ramona was the one who referred to her kind as "Injuns." The first time I heard her say it we were on break at work and she had picked up a newspaper. I was preoccupied looking at something else when she declared that there was an "Injun" on the front page. I thought she had said "engine" as in "car engine" or "train engine" so I sat there puzzled for a moment, wondering why she would bother to mention such a thing. Then after looking up and seeing the picture of a dancing "Indian" wearing his feathered ceremonially garb on the front page, I realized what she meant. Since that time Ramona has taken to saying "How" in a stearn voice when she greets people. All of us "crackers" at work get a kick out of it and wish we could all be cool Navajo Injuns too.
I wouldn't ever want to cross Ramona or any other Navajo for that matter. For some reason they have superhuman strength. While staying in her hogan on the Navajo reservation last Thanksgiving, I watched Ramona split a stack of wood with an ax. She would swing that ax way up over her head and bring it down on the wood so hard and precise like it was no big deal. Assuming I could actually hit a log with an ax is one thing, but there's no way my puny little arms could ever split a log like that with one whack, let alone a whole pile of them.
Seth and I moved into a bigger apartment just after we got married so we could fit all of our stuff in one place. The apartment is in the same complex as the old one, but I was a little concerned about the move. The new apartment had stairs going down to it meaning we would need help to move my piano. I called around to a few movers and found that it would cost several hundred dollars to have it moved professionally. After hearing this, Ramona insisted that she and her boyfriend, Gabe, would help us, along with another fellow Navajo or two. I felt bad making her help me because I know from experience that pianos are not fun to move, but accepted her offer knowing I had no other choice.
Seth was working in Colorado during that time and though he came home on the weekends, he didn't usually get home until later Saturday evening. Ramona said they'd be up to help out at 7:30 pm the day of the move, but we told her to come a little later as Seth probably wouldn't be there until 8:00pm. She insisted they come at 7:30pm, so true to her word she was there on time with Gabe and his brother, Darren.
We loaded the piano onto the special dolly I'd rented and proceeded to push it across the parking lot to the new place. On our way there, Seth sent me a text message saying he was just leaving Salt Lake. That meant it would probably be another half hour or so until he got up to Layton. It only took us a couple minutes to push the piano to the top of the small flight of five stairs that led down to the apartment and I figured we'd just wait for Seth to get there. Not so. Ramona, Gabe and Darren said they thought we could move the piano ourselves and proceeded to position themselves for the job.
The dolly I'd gotten had four handles for lifting the piano, two on each end. Gabe and Darren took the handles on the bottom end and Ramona and I took the top two. After starting to move the piano, Ramona quickly realized I was just in her way and took both handles on our end all by herself. To my surprise they lifted the several hundred pound piano down the stairs and into the apartment with seemingly little effort. I was amazed.
Not only did the Navajos move the piano, they went back with me to the old apartment to help load up the rest of the big items. They threw the top half of the mattress on top of our XTerra and lifted the TV into the back. Then they all jumped onto the outside of the vehicle and held onto the mattress as I slowly drove to the new place. I'm sure it was quite the sight.
They unloaded the mattress and then Ramona and Gabe came back to bring in the TV. I offered to help with it as it is also very heavy, but they declined my assistance. I had tried helping someone lift it on my own one time and narrowly escaped crushing my leg when I couldn't handle the weight for more than two seconds. Once again they used their super powers and carried the TV across the sidewalk and down the stairs.
Just after Ramona and Gabe moved the TV and first half of the mattress in, Seth showed up. He wasn't too disappointed to learn that he'd missed moving all the really big, heavy stuff and was just as amazed at their strength as I was.
The Navajos all stayed and helped us move the rest of the mattress and our five piece sectional couch, all items Seth and I could have easily moved ourselves. I think they all just liked to ride on the outside of the car. Seth and I were both very grateful for their help and though I still feel like it wasn't payment enough, we took them all out for pizza when we were done.
It's great to have a friend like Ramona. If you ever get a chance to get to know a Navajo, I strongly recommend it. You won't find anyone better to have on your side.
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