Family pictures

We took some family pictures and had a lot of fun doing it. Nobody got hit by the train. (However some boys got themselves scolded for screwing around and would have rathered the train over mom's wrath!)

Nice Mellons

I finaly did it! I grew some good mellons in Utah. This is actually quite a feet for me. I had 2 watermellons that actually made it to being fully ripe. I seem to allways do good with the Cantalope but this one in the picture was huge. It was as big as a full size football. The watermellon was an "icebox" watermellon. By desighn it is small. Next year I am going to go for a full size seedless watermellon.

Scout camp with girls.

This summer Kenneth worked as a life guard at Camp Steiner in the high Uinta mountains here in Utah. It is the highest elevation scout camp in the world and they have the ice cold lake to prove it! Our family got invited up for a full week. We got to stay in a cabin and were fed all of our meals. There were a few things we did by way of PR but that was about the only chores we did. We could use all the facilities there. We went out on the canoe, fished, shot the bows, fished and all kinds of other things. It was a great deal of fun.

We went fishing most everyday. We did not catch a lot of fish but we did catch some. They were very good eating and Lisa had fresh fish for the first time and liked it. Fresh trout out of the lake are very tasty, especially when I am the one cooking them.

Daniel earned a fist full of merit badges. He had a lot of fun and was busy all day long. This is a picture of him making a pen that looks like an arrow.

Lisa did this while we fished. It is always nice to sit on the edge of a beautiful lake and read. I like to sit and fish but we all have our thing. For me it is not so much the fish I catch as the view and peaceful setting.

Adam was a counselor for Basketry and this is a picture of him in action. Kenneth was a life guard and taught canoeing. You can see a picture of him teaching canoeing on the previous post about him turning 17. They were both very good counselors and were spoken of very highly by the staff at the camp.
I took this picture while we were out on a hike one day. The place was beautiful and made for some great memories. I have lots of other cool pictures but All I can put on here were these. Maybe I will put up another post with some more.

Pioneers, well sort of.

Lots of things happened this summer. One of them was a youth confrence for our stake. Both Kenneth and Adam were able to attend. They pulled handcarts around our area for three days. Well I am sure there was more to it then that but in a nutshell they got to reinact the handcart experiance. They did have portra-johns and 4 wheelers but hey it's all good. Ask them about it some time or just check out the video that will be on the http://www.lds.org/ website soon.

This one is a Rant!

I received an email from Orin Hatch, The Senior Senator from Utah. I sent the following letter to him. I would suggest you do the same.

I just received the following in an email.

"I think there might be three things that almost everyone can agree upon; first, most everyone dislikes paying taxes; second, most everyone thinks the tax system is too complex and unfair; and finally, most everyone agrees that when it comes to taxes, Washington needs an attitude adjustment.

"What many do not realize and liberals refuse to acknowledge is that fully half of the income that would be taxed at higher rates under the president's plan is income earned by small- and medium-sized businesses that report their taxes on individual tax returns."

That is just a piece of what was in the email but it is enough to show my point. Does it not occur to you that YOU ARE WASHINGTON! You have a senior position on the Finance committee. When George Bush was president and with a republican majority in both the house and the senate none of these things you are now talking about got fixed. John McCain talked about immigration in his last campaign but what did he do about it when you guys had a majority. He screwed America right along with all of you republicans. He was a calling for amnesty! It does not matter who is in power the American people are getting raped everyday. You say you are fighting for us but with a majority you did not cut government spending you grew it. You did not create meaningful reduction in taxes to the middle class. I would like some real answers not just rederick about why things are still out of control after both parties have had a chance at control of the government. I will be voting the incumbent out regardless of party in the next few elections unless I hear an apology for being a liar and a thief to the American people. On your watch we are spending our children's money. Without a complete and total break down and disolvement of our Government I do not see a way out. Like a large number of irresponsible Americans bankruptcy is the only way out. The numbers are there to prove it and you do not walk in ignorance. You are not the solution to the problem and you have been the problem for many many years. Senator Bob Bennett was run out of office on a rail and I think you are on your way there as well. Come clean and repent of what you have done to this country. Show us that you can take the blame and that you are willing to make great sacrifices in order to fix what seems by all accounts to be an unfixable problem.

Show us that you can turn off the spicket to everyone, including Utah and then I may consider sending you back. If not, I guarantee you that you are as good as out at the next election.

Kenneth turned 17!

Today our oldest son Kenneth turned 17. It's hard to believe. It doesn't seem that long ago he was sitting on the floor playing with his trains and blocks. The years have shaped him into a fine young man. One that we are very proud of. He is currently working on his Eagle project. He is building doll houses to donate to our Stakes annual HEARTS for the holiday's. These doll houses will go to some little girls for Christmas. He spent the summer as a life guard and canoing and rowing merit badge councilor at the boys scout camp, Camp Steiner. He worked there for 8 weeks coming home on Saturday's for 24 hours. Long enough to wash his clothes, take a shower, eat a good meal and sleep 12 hours. We missed him while he was gone but were so excited he had that amazing opportunity.

Wow an actual post!

If there is anyone out there who still hits this site from time to time I am back ... well I hope so anyway. My aunt sent me an email and told me she misses my blog so since I have a fan club, I decided I would start up again. , To bring you up to date, I have been studying to become a software engineer. It is consuming my time and the time I don't spend at that has been used up with projects around the house and a few family trips. The blog has had to sit on the back burner and will continue to play second fiddle but I am going to try to keep it up a little better.

Krislyn just started kindergarten and so Lisa has expressed an interest in posting stuff from time to time on a blog. I told her she could use mine. That means that if you see a post that is in good taste and non offensive in any way she posted it. If it is mumbled jargon and rants of all different kinds it is probably from me.

Stay tuned for some posts of what we did this summer. It was a fun summer for my family and I.

New Ice Cream Flavor.

My friend Aaron sent me this. I could not help but post it. I am assuming that some people have already recieved it in an email but here it is just the same. It made me laugh.


A NEW ICE CREAM FLAVOR

In honor of the 44th President of the United States , Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream has introduced a new flavor: Barocky Road.

Barocky Road is a blend of half vanilla, half chocolate, and surrounded by nuts and flakes. The vanilla portion of the mix is not openly advertised and usually denied as an ingredient. The nuts and flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow, and the cost is $100.00 per scoop.
When purchased it will be presented to you in a large beautiful cone, but after you pay for it, the ice cream is taken away and given to the person in line behind you at no charge.

You are left with an empty wallet and no change, holding an empty cone with no hope of getting any ice cream.

Are you stimulated?

Random Ketchup

Due to the last few comments on my last post I figure that I should put up another post. Kind of random and loosely joined but here goes. I turned 39 years old on Feb 9th. It was nothing different but made me reflect. People say that 40 is the hump but that is based on the assumption that you will live to 80. Since I am only planning on 70 I crossed the hump 4 years ago. Nothing to worry about it now.

I am the assistant coach on Troy's basketball team and having fun with him on that. Had an incident with some crazy parents this weekend. Some parents are just way to out of control. I was embarrassed for them and their coach. Poor kid has to accept the fact that his parents can't behave. Lisa pointed out a fact to me. She said "no wonder these kids have such horrible behavior, look at the way their parents act." Seriously folks lets all take a look at our behaviors. If your kid is doing something stupid there is a good chance you need to do a re-evaluation of your example.

I recently to a trip to Arizona and found it to be very nice down there. I am past ready for the snow to be gone. Lisa and I left the kids for 4 days and they didn't so much as set off the smoke alarm. The only thing that got broken was the mixer and Kenneth had it replaced before we even got home. I am impressed with them. Lisa and I had a lot of fun visiting our families that live there. I am thinking we need to take these kinds of trips more often.

Ps. Yes, I spelled it ketchup and not catch up. Just thought I would drive the spelling Nazis nuts.

Heads up!!!

I came across a statistic today in an article I read.

CNBC estimates that pornography is a $13 billion industry here in the U.S. Every second, according to CNBC, $3,075 is spent on porn; more than 28,000 Internet users are viewing it; and 372 Internet users are using search engines to find it. And every 39 minutes, a new porn video is produced.

Most kids are more plugged in then their parents and savey on technology. If they have an Ipod you can bet the option has most likely been presented to them to put porn on to it. When I was a kid you had to get an older looking friend to go to the 7-11 and try to buy a magazine in another town because the clerk knew you in your own town, or find someones dad or brother who collected them. (Not that I did that stuff I am just saying that is the way it was.) With $13 billion to spend don't think for a minute they are not trying to get stuff to your kids. It is there and it happens.

Often times I think, "my kids are good kids and I am not worried about them going out and finding it." I am that way with my kids a lot of times but now days you do not have to go looking for it, it comes looking for you. This post is just a reminder to all of us to be involved with our kids and their technology.

Wow, how do you like them Apples?

Apple released the Ipad and I am impressed. I am by no means a techno junky, I rely on Jason Barker and Jimmy Anderson to keep me up to date on the techno geek world. However I am impressed. This little gadget brings all the gadgets into one. The way I see it, is that all of your devices are now wraped together in this thing. Look out gadget companies this one is going to be hard to beat, especially at $500! I think I will wait for version 2 but this one is on my list. Lisa and I are betting Jason will own one by the end of February.

click here for more info.

Jazz Vs Heat

Troy is playing basketball this year and as a player he gets a ticket to a Jazz game. As the assistant coach I got a ticket as well so we went to see the Jazz play the Miami Heat. They did not bring much heat as it was very cold but we had a lot of fun. We were so high up I thought I was going to fall in. I am a little iffy on the whole heights thing and that did not help. I would prefer to sit on the couch and watch the game however it is fun to actually go and watch it live. It is exciting and load along with the charged atmosphere. I also don't have kids or neighbors distracting me from the game. All in all I think it is something to do at least every once in a while.

The Jazz won 114 to 89 and so our spirits were up. My friend Aaron Ball took the credit. He said that the Jazz have never lost a game when he is in attendance. For this reason I am thinking of taking up a collection for season tickets for him so that they can win every home game.

The Blind side.

It is a busy month but I needed to put up a recommendation. The movie "The Blind Side" is a definite must see. If you have not seen it yet, get out and do so. It is well worth it. Sandra Bullock redeemed herself from "The Proposal" with this one.