Know any German swear words?

For those of you who are not mechanics you may not get this one. It is kind of like fishing, you either get it or you don't, not much middle ground. So, while Lisa is gone I have a number of projects and one of them is the Volkswagen. On Monday I spent the whole evening, 4 hours, trying to get the shaft on the transmission to go into the clutch plate on the engine. It would not go. Now with most cars mechanics know that if you swear at them they obey. It is a matter of respect between you and the car. If the car does not bloody the mechanics knuckles the mechanic never has respect for the car. It occurred to me on Monday that I did not know any German swear words and that is why the little piece of *^&@#* would not work for me. The oil cap says "OEL" on it not "OIL" so it occurred to me that I was swearing at it but it did not understand and therefore did not reciprocate with respecting me. I finally got the engine bolted in last night and in the process I bloodied my knuckle, so I now have respect for the car. However the car needs some respect for me so If you know any good German swear words It would be great to have a few just in case. It is going to be Kenneth's car so he will needs to know them as well. A good "@#$(#" or "%$&(*#@" would be nice to have on hand, like tucked under the visor for those special occasions when you need to demand the cars respect.

Home alone

As many people know Lisa leaves me for 3 weeks each year just to make sure I appreciate her. Lisa, it's working. I have been 10 days alone now and I do not recommend it to anyone. The first day or so the peace and quiet is nice but that gets old real fast. I have lots of honey do's to get done so that helps keep my mind off of the great big silent void at the house. The good news is that I only have 9 more days till the family comes home! It is amazing how tied we can become to each other. When I served my mission I went and did not look back. I loved my family but I was ready to go. I would see elders who were homesick and wonder what the heck is up with them. I am home but still very homesick. Until I was abandoned I did not understand homesickness, but now I truly get it.

To scare a Mom

Kenneth made a funny video where he scares Lisa. You should all go look at his blog. It will make you laugh. I am trying to figure out how to put the last part of the clip into a ringtone.

http://www.theprivatei.blogspot.com/

The Great Hike

The last weekend in June I took a friend of mine, Kelly W., and our boys up to Island Lake in the Uintah Mountains. It was awesome. We hiked in just shy of 5 miles with a 1,500 foot ascent and about a 1,000 foot decent. At the very end there was a climb of about 5 to 7 hundred feet that we thought might kill us but everyone survived. The snow was there in patches but overall it was not an issue. It rained each night and the boys who didn't want to share a tent with Dad got wet. Me and Troy stayed nice and dry. The fishing was not very good but we managed to catch some nice ones and the fish fry was awesome. Kelly knows how to cook fish. This is a hike that is hard but worth the effort. Just do it in mid July or August.

This was taken at the trail head. Everyone was excited and happy. The backpacks were still light and the feet were not worn out or tired.

On the way in I carried a second pack almost the whole way. It was much harder then I had anticipated and some of the boys just were not able to carry the kind of weight we had.
On the way out I decided I didn't want to carry anyones pack so I loaded it all in mine. It was about 70 pounds or so. Are those mule ears I am growing?

Behind Troy you can see the lake. The picture does not show the grandeur of the whole thing. Behind him is a cliff that drops off a good 5 or 6 hundred feet.

This one is from way up where the last picture was taken from but that is our campsite down below. Kenneth is fishing from the shore.

Floating in mid air!

The sears tower has added glass balconies that you can go out on and look down at the city. Yeah I would not be getting out on that thing. No way, no how. I could not handle looking that far down with seemingly nothing under me.