Conference Season

This is the time of year when there are lots of conferences going on, one after another, and sometimes at the same time.

This week was the joint conference of the Western Museums Association and Utah Museums Association, and it was held in Salt Lake because of the new Museum of Utah. I am not involved with museums, so I did not attend.

However, the Utah Historical Society timed a Utah history summit to coincide with the conference, so if people were in town, they could attend both.

The "summit" started with people briefly talking about their contributions to the Peoples of Utah Revisited. In 1976, the Utah State Historical Society ("State" was part of the name at the time) published a book called The Peoples of Utah. So fifty years later, we did a similar project, but instead of a book, the stories were published in Utah Historical Quarterly and online. It was fun to hear the presenters talk about their projects, since I'd helped edit most of their articles for UHQ. The presentations included GuateMayans, queer history, Deaf history (presented in ASL, with an interpreter), and Samoans.

It was fun to talk to people I have known from different spots of my career, including classmates in grad school and my former supervisor at the Church History Department. One of my tasks in the afternoon was to hold up the sign warning presenters when they had 30/15/5 minutes left.

In the evening, there was a social at the Alta Club downtown. I stopped by, because I had never been to the Alta Club before. But the appetizers were too fancy for my taste, and as an introvert, I had no desire to socialize. So I left after only a few minutes.

I find it annoying that so many conferences occur in the fall, because this is the absolute best time of the year to be outside, and I didn't get to be outside as much as I wanted to this week. Part of this is also because I've been editing a long Wayfare article, and I got behind on that because of Halloween decorating and my visit to Parowan / Cedar City. I did manage to go on an evening North Canyon run. The leaves hadn't peaked yet, which means I have more opportunities for beauty. 

The other conference this week was the fifth annual Restore gathering put on by Faith Matters. I first attended in 2022 at the height of my faith journey, and I have attended every year since, in part because I'm on the team for Wayfare magazine, Faith Matters' official publication. My mom came with. 

This year's format was different. Usually they just had one big session where everyone was there at the same time. This time, they had smaller classes you could pick. This meant they didn't have world-class speakers like they've had in the past, but I think I liked this format more.

Here are sessions I attended on both Friday and Saturday:

• One called "All the Ward Members I Ever Hated and Other Stories About Zion." The couple shared experiences of feeling anger and even hatred toward other people, most notably social workers who forcibly took their kids away at 1 a.m. because they assumed the parents were abusing them because they found a rib fracture on their baby. They talked about how difficult and important it is to love our enemies.
• Matt Bowman and Chris Blythe talked about folklore and faith. Some folklore and urban legends, like hitchhiking Three Nephites, are benign. But some demonize people and even promote violence, such as QAnon.
• Patrick Mason, who devotes his career to peacemaking, discussed four steps on "Peacemaking 101": Normalize conflict; see people as people; reflect intentionally on theory of change; and cultivate inner peace.
• Jamie White, a Presbyterian minister in Salt Lake City, talked about faith deconstruction and then rebuilding it.
• Gen Z content creators talked about responding to hateful, anti-Mormon content online with charity and wisdom. (Good for them, but I just stay away from hateful content for my own peace of mind.)
  
• James Goldberg, a poet, encouraged us to use our imagination. He said that we often do rote things, and rote can be a good thing until we get stuck in it.
• Allison Dayton, the head of the Lift + Love organization (I attend a monthly support group through them), talked about LGBTQ+ belonging. She shared a passage about "same-sex attraction" from the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, saying, "They do not know" what it's like when they wrote it. (I also find that passage to be very condescending and dismissive.)
• Jeff Strong talked about his new book Torn, a study of why people leave the Church. He used the analogy from the Sermon on the Mount about new wine going in new wineskins rather than old, otherwise they will burst. Similarly, a new viewpoint of faith needs to go in new wineskins. He shared a story of a grandmother who would track the Church milestones of her grandchildren (sealings, missions, etc.), but when her family became more complicated, she switched to figuratively making sure there are no empty seats at the dinner table. (He didn't specifically say this, but I think it was in response to some families' admonitions that there are "no empty seats in the Celestial Kingdom.")
• There was a panel about a stake president and a YSA bishop who include their wives in decision-making as much as possible.
• Jared Halverson said that church isn't meant to be easy or entertaining (but that doesn't mean it's supposed to be boring either). I didn't like this one as much as some of the other speeches he's done at Restore, but it was fine.

Both Jamie White and Jeff Strong talked about the paradigm of shifting faith: that something triggers a faith transition, which can be very painful, but then those that experience it can build up faith again. This is a very common narrative that matches my own experience. What frustrates me is that so much of the rhetoric from the Church as an institution does not prepare people for this kind of experience. In fact, much of the rhetoric makes people feel like they are doing something wrong. But reconstructing faith is normal, common, and even healthy. Jamie White also said that the opposite of faith is not doubt but rather certainty. Yes—the book of Alma teaches that faith and knowledge are not the same thing. But so many messages in the Church, both from the top and from the membership in general, say that you need to know and be certain. For example: On his death bed, my grandpa recorded a video to send out to the whole family. In the video, he said that he used to believe, but he no longer believes, because he knows. I did not like Grandpa's video. (There, I said it.) It's so important to have these voices acknowledging that faith often is messy and uncomfortable and evolving.

Anyway, it was fun to see various Wayfare people, some of whom I hadn't met before. They even had a wall of enlarged versions of all the Wayfare covers, and I have helped out with all of the issues! 

And I got my copy of the special Advent issue, which I worked on this spring and the end of August. 

I always like attending Restore. But since I'm in a better place than I was four years ago, it's not the balm it once was. And that's a good thing.

***

Here's the second installment of pumpkinundation roundup for 2026!

My mom brought me home this Hug-Hes pumpkin cookie. Unlike many cookies of this type, it did not have chocolate chips. But it was nice and soft, with great cream cheese frosting. 8/10.

Pumpkin Spice Premier Protein is totally drinkable, which is more than you can say about many protein products, though I'm not sure I would recognize it as a "pumpkin spice" flavor. 7/10.

Favorite Day is Target's brand now, but it used to be Archer Farms. I'm guessing these Favorite Day Pumpkin Spice Tortilla Chips are the same as the Archer Farms version released back in 2015. (I have been doing this a long time!) They are a little sweet but not overwhelmingly so, and they are made with pumpkin powder. 8/10.

I have had this Dove Cinnamon Pumpkin Pie Body Wash for a few seasons now; it doesn't go fast when I only use it seasonally. It smells fine, but I can't say it actually smells like pumpkin pie. 6/10.

I feel the same way about the Dove Cinnamon Pumpkin Pie Deodorant. 6/10.

I got this Beloved Pumpkin & Tonka Shower and Bath Gel on clearance after the holidays in 2021, and one day I'll get through it. The scent is better than you would expect (though I have no idea what "tonka" is). The gel seems less luxurious than more traditional body washes. 7/10.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these Kraft Milk Chocolate Caramels Pumpkin Spice Cups. Caramel and chocolate is great, and the added spice flavor doesn't seem fake or excessive. 8/10.

It annoys me that Peelerz brands itself as "peelable," when it's actually hard to peel the candies. But the Peelerz Caramel Apple is tasty. 8/10.

I think Thomas' Pumpkin Spice Bagels have been around since I was in college, and I'm glad they keep coming back. They're the best pumpkin bagel I've had. 9/10.

My mom brought me these El Pollo Loco Pumpkin Churros. They actually have a pumpkin filling. They were great! 9/10.

The Dairy Queen Caramel Apple Cheesecake Blizzard is kind of an odd combination, but I enjoy it. I just don't think it's that cohesive. 8/10.

Marketside Pumpkin Spice Granola is chewy, rather than crunchy, and it does have a tiny bit of pumpkin puree, not just pumpkin "spice." 7/10.

My mom loves putting Torani sugar-free syrups in water, so we had some Torani Pumpkin Pie Syrup on hand. It does make water more interesting, but I cannot say it tastes remotely like pumpkin pie. 6/10.

Clorox Harvest Apple and Spice Scent Scentiva Multi-Surface Cleaner has a stronger scent than I'm used to from cleaning products, but maybe that's because I usually dilute them. I do smell apple and spice, but the dominant scent is a woody smell that my parents used to tell me was cedar. 7/10.

These days I feel the same way about the Beloved Apple & Cinnamon Bark Shower and Bath Gel as I do about the pumpkin version. 7/10.

Parowan Getaway

As I continue to work on the Utah Independent Bookstore Crawl, some of them are far. It is unreasonable to go on a long trip just for a bookstore, but I can use the opportunity to do other things as well.

One of the bookstores on the map is Bookdom Apothecary in Cedar City. But there are two other things I've wanted to do in the area, so I was able to do them as well.

On Friday evening, I headed out during a monsoonal storm to drive to Parowan. In 2018, I went to all twenty-nine county seats in Utah. But I erroneously thought Cedar City was the seat of Iron County, not Parowan. The freeway goes through Parowan, but I'm not sure that counts. So I wanted to stop in Parowan so I can truly say I've been to all the county seats. 

Traffic was horrendous, so I got to Parowan around 9 p.m., even though I had adjusted my schedule this week so I could leave a little early. I think I got the last hotel room in Parowan, and I had to go to the more expensive hotel to get it. Oh well, I don't have a lot of expenses. This hotel did have really nice potatoes and mini omelettes with the continental breakfast.

Then on Saturday morning, I stopped at Parowan's grocery store and drove through the town, where I saw the 1866 church. It's a Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum now, but it was closed, as DUP museums usually are. I always enjoy seeing little towns.

Next I headed over to Parowan Gap. I drove past the dry Little Salt Lake, which I have heard about for years but never seen. Before I got to the Gap, there was a BLM site with dinosaur tracks. They had a small trail with some signs identifying hadrosaur tracks. 

Here's a three-toed footprint, except the middle toe has been broken off.

Then I kept going down the road to Parowan Gap, a natural spot where there's a gap in the mountains. 

What makes this Gap especially important is there is a lot of Fremont rock art, which I think is around 1,500 years old. I expected just a few bits of art, but there was a lot! And I might have left without checking all of it out. This was the highlight of my road trip. By coincidence, my dad's YouTube algorithm gave him a video about Parowan Gap while I was gone, so now he wants to go too. It's not far from the town, so I definitely recommend checking it out. There's no hiking involved.

Then I drove down to Cedar City. I eventually hope to go to all the state parks in Utah, so I was able to check off one from my list: Frontier Homestead State Park. This museum starts with an indoor exhibit with old carriages, sleighs, and wagons. I was a little disappointed at first.

But then behind the indoor museum is a large back area with lots of old farming equipment and buildings that have been moved there, and I was no longer disappointed with the museum, though I'm still not sure why this is considered a state park. I had thought about visiting this place in July for the Pioneer Day season, but then we had the record-breaking temps. That was a good decision; the outdoor area surely would have been too hot in July (even with regular July temperatures).

This is a replica of an iron furnace. Parowan and Cedar City were settled to mine iron, and this state park was originally called Iron Mission State Park.

They had Southern Paiute replica structures

On the left is a sheep barn. In the back is an 1860s home that was moved a few miles to the museum. I got to go inside, where a woman in period clothing gave information, but she spoke fast and not very clearly.

In the sheep barn was this wooden sheep with the names of different state parks

Next I went to Bookdom Apothecary, which is why I timed this trip for now—but I can't say it was even the main reason for the trip, since I also wanted to see Parowan and the state park. This was typical of a lot of stores on the crawl—left-leaning, witchy-adjacent, women's stores. None of the books interested me; there were some nonfiction books, but none I care to read. (My to-be-read list is still big. I'm currently reading America's Public Holidays and volume 2 of The Diaries of Carol Lynn Pearson. The new book Cats: A History is on my radar. And this week I learned about an upcoming book called When All the World Was Irish: A Global History of Saint Patrick's Day, which I simply need to buy.)

Anyway, when the cashier stamped my map, she correctly identified that I just have Midway and Moab left, so she was evidently aware of where all the stores are. I'm going to Midway in two weeks, and then I'll probably go to Moab in November or December.

Then I was done with my time in Cedar City. As I headed north, I drove through the town of Paragonah (also spelled Paragoonah, the way it's pronounced) just for fun. I stopped in Beaver to get gas, where the attendant washed my windshield. I always hear people talk about the Creamery there, so I made a stop, but there were no seasonal ice cream flavors, so I wasn't impressed. I got dinner and groceries in Nephi. And then I got home!

***

Another noteworthy thing this week is that September 15 is the arbitrary day I begin the Halloween season, ever since I was in first grade. It's just such a looong dearth of holidays after the July holidays are over!

I try to buy less, and I ask people not to buy me gifts, because I get overwhelmed with too much stuff. I try to only buy things I love. And there are several things I have bought for the Halloween season that I love.

I love this It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown shirt because it's directly from the TV special. I don't love most Peanuts merch because it's just stock images in different settings, but this one is special. (I am annoyed, however, that the animators gave the bats fingers. The wings are bats' fingers!)

I have figures for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Nightmare Before Christmas, so last fall I preordered figures from Over the Garden Wall, which did not come out until this month. I somewhat regret it, since I feel guilty about everything and these figures take up a lot of space. But they are super cool. This was a limited-edition set with extra figures; the large Enoch figure and the skeleton are not available in the regular version, which is part of why I felt compelled to order the set last year. These are from the second episode, and I find them charming but also a tad off-putting, which really aligns with the feel of the episode.

I have some Easter/spring decorations from Target that are little anthropomorphic things holding hands, and I love them so much that sometimes I imagine other versions when I go running. So I felt like I needed the Halloween versions—I especially like the book and flashlight, since they're pretty unique.

And I bought this skeleton hat for running, since I love these washable Sprints hats. Halloween is a Saturday this year, so if it hasn't snowed yet, a long Halloween trail run sounds like a lot of fun.

When I started observing Halloween in mid-September back in the 1990s, I was one of the first, if not the first, to do so. But these days, there's a good number of people who put out their decor even before me. And haunted attractions open in mid-September, and Halloween Baking Championship premieres in mid-September.

***

And with the start of Halloween season is the return of pumpkinundation roundup! I started this back in 2015 where I document the various fall-flavored treats I have. 

Flipz Dunkin' Pumpkin Spice Donut Covered Pretzels only somewhat taste like donuts if you concentrate. There's a bit of spice flavor. Covered pretzels are always great, but I've had better. 7/10.

I get Special K Pumpkin Spice every year because I love it as cereal, but it's not that interesting as a pumpkin spice product. 8/10.

Startup Candy Co. Pumpkin Spice Hard Candy Drops are OK; they're close to the line between candle and candy. (Startup Candy is a Utah-based company that has been around longer than Utah! Startup is the name of the family that started it, but it's very much not a startup.) 6/10.

Favorite Day Roasted Peanuts & Candy Corn uses mediocre candy corn, but peanuts and candy corn is a winning combo that is greater than the sum of its parts. 8/10.

I put Chobani Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer in Pero, since I don't drink coffee. My cup was bitter, either because I put in too much Pero powder or not enough creamer or both. I'm sure I'll have a firmer opinion as the season goes on, but for now I give it 7/10.

Favorite Day Pumpkin Spice Mini Rice Cakes have a candy coating that I find a tad off-putting. They seem more decadent than other rice cake snacks. 6/10.

Since it's Old Spice, I expected the Old Spice Pumpking Body Wash to be a bit more masculine. It definitely smells like a baked good, but I wouldn't put it as pumpkin spice. 7/10.

I have had the Squatch Drunk'n Pumpkin Deodorant since last fall. When I smell the stick itself, it smells like cream cheese frosting, but when I'm wearing it, it has a weird scent I can't describe. (I didn't photograph the stick with the lid off because it had lots of armpit hairs stuck to it.) 6/10.

Pumpkin Spice Softsoap has a vague scent, but it's pleasant enough. 7/10.

I like Pumpkin Pie Spice Frosted Mini Wheats mostly because I like Frosted Mini Wheats. They do have an autumnal flavor. 7/10.

I actually first tried the Wendy's Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion in August to see if I wanted to review it for The Impulsive Buy, but I didn't want to. On that occasion they gave it to me in chocolate, even though I said vanilla; this time they just gave me vanilla without asking me. The cookie bits remind me of ginger snaps without the strong ginger flavor. The syrup is weird and artificial. It's not bad, but it's not great. 6/10.

I don't quite understand what Made Good Pumpkin Spice Organic Granola Bites are even after eating them. They're like granola bars shaped like balls with little candy chips. They're decent. 7/10.

Peelerz Apple Cider Donuts are funny in two ways. First, I got a brick of gummy candy instead of individual pieces. Second, the back calls them apple cinder donuts. They taste like apple cider, not like donuts. Real apple cider donuts don't taste like apple cider. Still an enjoyable candy. 7/10.

Drizzilicious Pumpkin Spice Bites are smaller than the other Drizzilicious rice cakes I've had. They have a strong spice scent. I like them, but I liked the summer flavors more. 6/10.

I bought Mr. Clean Spiced Harvest last fall, and because of that, the scent does remind me of fall now. Since I dilute it and try to restrict it to the fall, this bottle will last me a long time. 7/10.

I don't think I'd ever had Pocky until last Christmastime. Honestly, I eat so many pumpkin spice products that these Pumpkin Spice Pocky don't really stick out as special to me. They're fine. 7/10.

I got the BeeMax Pumpkin Pie [White] Chocolate at Five Below, and it's much more sophisticated than I expected for something from that store. It's actual white chocolate rather than white confection. 8/10.

The Prime Bites Glazed Pumpkin Spice Protein Brownie has the distinct, off-putting flavor of whey protein. It is better than other protein products, but it's not great. 4/10.

Old Spice Apple Crumbro Body Wash is more masculine than the Pumpking scent, and yet it still smells like apple cider. 8/10.

The Old Spice Pumpking Deodorant is similar to the body wash. 7/10.

I like Built Bars, especially since they're a Utah company, so I was happy to try Built Puff Pumpkin Cookie Chunk. Despite the orange color of the filling, I didn't find it reminiscent of pumpkin, but it's a decent protein bar. 7/10.

The Nebo Queen Apple Cobbler Shake is Nebo Queen's shake of the month (along with a Dolly shake). It has apples, wafers, cinnamon sugar, and whipped cream. Tasty! 8/10. 

The Nebo Market Cinna-Apple Bomb Donut isn't really much of a "bomb" in the explosive sense, but it was a pleasant enough donut that it is also not a bomb in the derogatory sense. (AI strikes again for that illustration.) 8/10.

I'm glad that Franz Pumpkin Spice Donuts actually have pumpkin powder instead of just pumpkin spice. 7/10.

Barebells protein bars are the best-tasting protein bars on the market. (I'm not a gym bro who cares about gains, I just like having snacks on hand that aren't full of sugar.) I can't say the Barebells Pumpkin Spice Protein Bars are groundbreaking as a pumpkin spice flavor; in a blind taste test, I might not know that's the intended flavor. But these bars taste like a candy bar, even though they're not. 9/10.