Diary of a Sports Fan

I guess I'll cover a couple of topics this time. Today is a big day for both the Utes and the Sox. For the Utes it's the beginning of a new season, for the Sox it might just be the beginning of the end. First, let's talk about some Football. I am so excited to follow the Utes again this year. I think they're going to have a much better season, especially with the return of Brian Johnson at QB. I still have my doubts about Kyle as a head coach, but I think there's too much talent to finish 7-5 again. They may not win on the road tonight, but I really do expect a good season from our Utes. Too bad we won't be watching again this year, since Comcast and Direct TV haven't resolved their pr conflict. I think we only get about 5 games on the tube, so I guess we'll be listening on AM700 - where's Bill Marcroft when you need him?!

The Red Sox finish off their 3 games series in NY today and thus far it hasn't gone too well. The Yanks have taken the first two games and cut an 8 game deficit down to 6. There's a lot riding on the arm of Curt Schilling today. In the past this would have been a good thing, but this year I'm not so sure. With injuries and age, Schill has been very average this season. Even if Boston loses today (60% chance of that happening) the Sox will still have a solid lead in the division. The only problem is, to win the division you'll have to start beating NY. Sure, you can beat up on the D Rays, Orioles, and Blue Jays, but you can't get swept by the Yankees and expect to win the AL East. Still, I've felt all season that this is the year for a division title - first since 1995!

Too Quiet

There may be a problem when you haven't seen your kids in a while. You know there's a problem when you haven't heard your kids for a while. Tara and I were both in the kitchen when she decided that it was time to see what was going on in Kennedy and Alex's room.






It was way too quiet down there. I guess we found out why!

Camping: An Adventure to Remember

Every August we've packed up the family and headed to the Uinta Mountains for a few days in the great outdoors. Each trip has left us with many memories, some good and some not so good. This year was no different. Here are a few of the highlights:

Good things:

• The weather was really great. The temperature was in the 70's during the day and barely into the 40's at night. You couldn't ask for anything better.


• We were all by ourselves. One of the best parts about camping in the West Fork of Black's Fork is that most people don't travel that far up the canyon. It gives you the sense that you're really out there by yourselves.

The River. We spent most of Friday hanging out along the West Fork River. Whether it was crossing the river in the Xterra (a family favorite), throwing rocks and watching the "splash" (an Alex favorite), or floating down the river in a raft (a Kennedy favorite - the second time down) we all had fun spending time in the water.

• The moose that walked right through our camp. It was so awesome to see such an enormous bull moose with her child amble right past us. I tried to get some pictures, but it was too dark to see much. Still, the kids loved the sights of some real animals in the wild. It was pretty cool.

Not so Good Things:

• Sleeping out in the tent. I'm glad that the days are so fun, cause the nights aren't. Thursday night Alex cried and screamed for most of the time. Surprisingly, Kennedy actually faired pretty well the first night - she made up for it on the second night. Around midnight we had a meltdown which included the following lines:
  
  I want the Sun. Daddy go and get the Sun.
  I want to play outside. Take me outside.
  I don't want to take a nap. I want to drink chocolate milk.
  
  After 30 minutes of her diatribe, Kennedy finally gave in and went back to sleep. Even once the kids has fallen asleep, Tara and I were done for both nights. Combine noisy kids with a crappy air mattress and it's a recipe for insomnia.

Alex not being able to walk. He spent much of the trip eating dirt and trying to eat more dirt. We just couldn't keep him out of the dirt, rock, poop, and everything else you find in nature. Still, it's a learning experience and I hope what doesn't kill him makes him stronger. He certainly had plenty of natural minerals over the course of the trip.

• No fires. It just isn't camping when you can't have a fire. One of the best parts of the whole experience is sitting around the fire and sharing stories while looking at the stars. Because of the fire danger across the state, fires have been banned in the Uintas. It totally affects what you do when there isn't a fire. Each night we went into the tents around 9 pm. There just isn't much point to sit in the dark and talk while you're freezing.

Even with some of the down sides to time away from the comforts of home, camping is one of our favorite family activities. The kids really love the time outside and Tara and I love the peace and quiet (nighttime excluded). Each time we go camping I'm reminded just how short our time is with these little ones and I really want to build memories the kids can take with them as the grow older. Camping was really important to my family growing up and I want my kids to have the same experiences I did.

The Office

So, the Simpsons craze has hit our office over the past couple of weeks. Once we got started making caricatures of a few people we couldn't stop until all of Professional Development was Simpsonized. For most of you this picture won't mean a whole lot, but for those who know the people in our department it's worth a laugh.

A Day to Play

It isn't often that we waste away much of a Saturday. However, I'm really glad today was spent in relaxing with friends. This morning was the draft for my Fantasy Football league, so the fellas headed over and we played pretend while eating breakfast. It was a lot of fun to have so many of the guys here and everyone had a good time kidding one another about their managerial skills (or lack thereof). I know that fantasy is just that - fantasy, but it has helped me stay in touch with friends and bond with guys as we share our common passion, sports.

After the draft ended Chappo and Ian hung around and we started another massive Monopoly tournament. I know, you've read it all before, but it's fun to see how Kennedy is taking an interest in playing with the money and property. Maybe I'll convince her that it's okay to play games with her Daddy. All I know is she kept saying, "I want more money." Perhaps we shouldn't get her too involved with Monopoly yet!

I'm Done!!

Summers in my job are usually pretty busy. Since the teachers are out of school, they want to take a lot of classes to earn points for lane changes and pay increases. I don't know why, but this summer has seemed more hectic than any I can remember. I think I've taught all but one day this month. "So what?" you may be asking yourself, "Aren't you a teacher?" Sure I am. But the problem comes in that, like everyone else, I need a little bit of time to recharge my batteries. I can tell that I'm less patient, more sarcastic, and less interested in helping people.

Take the past 10 days. I've been teaching Dreamweaver to a group of teachers who are trying to cram in a complicated program before heading back to school on Monday. It's been a challenge for most to learn all the various parts of the programs and be satisfied with their websites. I've tried to help each teacher individually, but with 22 students and only 1 me, it's been difficult to provide enough help. This leads up to an exchange from earlier. I was busy helping people and needed some reinforcements so Tim came down to assist a couple of teachers. After about 10 minutes, things were back under control and Tim went back to his desk. From the other side of the room a teacher loudly proclaimed:

Man, I am so glad Tim came down to help.

It's so nice when someone can look at your webpage and fix the problem.

I think I'm going to have to buy Tim a cake or something.

At this point, I couldn't help myself.

"It's a good thing that Tim came down for 10 minutes and I've only spent the past 10 days helping you build the entire site."

Suddenly there was a loud laugh from the other students as they realized I'd made a sarcastic, yet poignant statement. I'm so glad I don't have to teach for a few days. I'm done!

Timber!!!!

Dumpster day was upon us yesterday. As an annual event, Tara and I try to get rid of at least 2 or 3 major items when the dumpsters are left for the day. Unfortunately, everyone else on the block has the same idea. You have to get out pretty early to actually have room for your trash. Even though I was stuck at work, Tara was able to get rid of the left over rocks from the dog run, a lot of old brush, the burned up BBQ grill (it took about 3 hours for someone to take a dive after that treasure), and some rotted out timbers from the backyard. Still, we wanted to get more out of clean up day. Our prayers were answered when Dave from next door said he wanted to work on the the Chinese Elm trees that crossed from his front yard into ours.

I've wanted to tackle this project for years, so when the offered was made I jumped on it. Before you knew I had scaled our pine tree with the sawsall and was lopping off branches left and right. It was a little tricky when I started to cut some of the major branches, but there's nothing like the sound of the crack when gravity takes over and the branch comes down. The first one was a bit scary as it broke and headed right for the roof, but our little pine held up the carnage and the carport remained relatively unscathed. After about an hour, the cutting was finished and we had removed 3 large limbs from our least favorite trees. The rest of the night was spent cutting of the foliage and saving the limbs for firewood. I can't tell you how glad I am we finally cut down those awful trees! It's even better that everything was cleaned up before bed and the dumpsters around the block were full to the brim.

Changes to the Cabin

Friday night we stayed up at the Houtz family cabin as we traveled to Price for the funeral. Nothing major, just a chance to get an hour closer to central Utah. Plus, we really wanted to see how the kitchen turned out. For Memorial Day, you'll remember we spent the day tearing out the old kitchen with Tara's family. Over the past 6 weeks the Houtz' have been hard at work installing: new flooring, new cabinets, new appliances, and even new lights. It looks amazing!

Even though we don't get to the cabin very often, we're always happy when we arrive. Kennedy absolutely loves spending time in the loft. She could climb up and down the ladder all day long if we'd let her (safety means she doesn't go up or down often). This trip Jason and Kristin went with us, so it was a great chance to share the cabin with others. They are great to the kids and it's fun to have an aunt and uncle so involved with their niece and nephew. Alex absolutely loves his Uncle Jason and could spend hours laughing with his buddy. I think this is the first time in years that we've taken someone up to the cabin with us for the evening, I hope it's not the last.

Goodbye Doris

I've been waiting to write about Doris' death for the past two weeks, since they were waiting to have her funeral until yesterday. I wrote about Doris and her battle with cancer last year during one of our visits down to Southern Utah. After four years and a lot of treatments Doris returned home on July 28th. I have to say that I'll always remember her kindness to my family. She and Dean have been so nice to my kids and they were excited anytime we dropped in for a visit. Doris was a great woman and I'm happy to say that he career as a teacher is truly inspiring to me. For 41 years she taught students and always went the extra mile. I only hope I can do the same.

The funeral was a simple, graveside service. I was asked to offer the invocation. Jason, Evan, and my dad all served as pallbearers. My mom gave a wonderful tribute to her friend of 40 years. I know it was difficult for my mom, since she really loved Doris and it's hard to say goodbye to such a friend. She really did a nice job though and I know everyone was touched to listen to my mom recount many of Doris' qualities that made her such a great person. In the end, I want my mom to know that Doris was a wonderful woman and she really meant a lot to me and my family. We loved her and are glad that's she's finally free from her pain. Goodbye Doris.

Park City with my Pals

Last night I was able to get together with some long lost friends, Bryan and Chappo. Yes, I know I've seen each of them in the past eight months (I saw Chappo less than a month ago), but it's been two and a half years since the three of us have been together. Somehow, everything worked out that everyone's in town at the same time.

Chappo is in Park City for a conference, so Bryan and I drove east to hang out in the high life. We had dinner at the Wasatch Pub, Chappo's choice, but the beer was great. I mean the beer battered shrimp were great. After some heated political conversation - some things never change - we headed out on the town to cruise Main Street and talk about the exciting world of 30 somethings trying to cope with kids, marriage, work, church, culture, and ball. We may not have solved the world's problems, but it was a lot of fun to see some of my best friends and recapture some of our high school memories.

Kanarraville Falls

There are a lot of great things about life down in Southern Utah: days go slowly, the country never seems to end, there's always somewhere to explore. For our family it's been a lot of fun to go down to New Harmony and visit my parents. We like to think of it as a way to escape the city and enjoy the desert landscape. we found another great thing about Utah's Dixie last weekend: Kanarraville Falls.

I guess the secret came out about a month ago when the Spectrum (Cedar's newspaper) published an article about this fun little slot canyon just east of town. Sure enough, there were plenty of people in the canyon last Saturday when Tara, Big Al, Vaughn (my dad's friend), and I went in search of some adventure.

From the spot you park your car it's about a mile walk to get to the mouth of the canyon. At that point the countryside changes from a desert landscape into a slot canyon oasis. The walls are about 15 feet apart in some points and there are two separate waterfalls to enjoy along the hike. The problem is to continue the hike you've got to climb each of the falls.

The first fall had a log ladder which helps you climb the 15 feet or so to get on top of the water. It wasn't too bad, just go slow and hold onto the rope. All four of us made it up in no time, but it's a bit trickier going down. I know going down was the whole reason Coleton didn't come with us on the hike. It's a bit scary to look down about 20 feet while holding onto a skinny rope.

The second fall was an awesome climb. We had encountered some 20 year old boys while in the canyon and as we approached the second fall they were debating about whether or not to go up. Knowing that we were in search of a geocache above the fall, there was no debate for me. I grabbed hold of the rope ladder and pulled myself up rung by rung. Once I got to a certain height, I was able to climb a log the rest of the way. Sure, I wasn't very graceful, but I was the first one to the top. You can only imagine that boys quickly followed me to the top, once a "old man" had made the climb first. It took a little more of an effort for Tara and my dad to make it to the top, but we realized that the log had several knots which made the climb manageable for everyone.

Kanarraville Falls was a great hike and I'm really glad we went. I've really enjoyed going through various slot canyons around the state and it's good to know there's one only a few miles away from my parent's house. I'm sure we'll hike to the falls again soon, maybe next year we'll get Coleton to come with us!

See how I really made it to the top:

Click To Play

A Rush to RUSH

Yesterday I started the day on the road at 6:30 am headed towards Manti to teach a class. I knew that I was going to need to leave around 4 pm in order to make it to the Usana Amphitheater for the RUSH concert. At 4:30 I was still in Ephraim, waiting at the Maverick while trying to get some gas. I don't want to get into small town stereotypes, but I had four people in front of me: all wearing tanktops, all ordered cigarettes, and one with tattoos supporting "White Power." Needless to say I was in a hurry to get out of town.

The drive back proved to be uneventful and I was at the concert on time. I saw RUSH a few years ago, but it was good to go again. A couple of the guys from the neighborhood are huge RUSH fans, so I was happy they invited me to go to the show with them. In the end, Rob, Ross, Lauretta, and I all had a great time and I'm glad they included me in the posse.



The music and stage show were very engaging, almost as much as the people in the crowd. The one thing I can safely say about the fans at a RUSH concert, they definitely cross a wide age demographic. There were way more 50+ in the audience than 20 year olds. I don't know many shows that had as many old hippies since the Dead were around.

RUSH has always been a favorite of mine and it really takes me back to my teenage years. It seems like they are a pivotal band in the lives of many adolescent males and I was certainly no different. Many of their songs struck a cord with me and I still enjoy listening to a little Canadian rock today. Even if I don't want to admit that I'm starting to resemble the RUSH crowd more every day, I'm glad I can go out every few years and listen to some classic music.




Neal Peart Drum Solo

Swimming Lessons

Kennedy started swimming lessons a couple of weeks ago with Liam and her friend Saydi. Let's just say that she wasn't too fond of her teacher, Roger. Roger is one of those tough love guys. I tried to convince Kennedy that he was a good guy since he is a Red Sox fan, but she didn't care much. Roger is an excellent teacher but doesn't put up with much from the kids. I can't tell you how many times he asked Liam to sit down and listen.


Liam spent most of his time under the water. Kennedy was a little scared of Roger. When I ask her if she wants to go back to swim lessons, she says "NO!" She was so excited that swimming was over that we had to celebrate with ice cream.

I have to say, though, that Kennedy learned so much from swim lessons. When we went swimming in St. George this week, she was so much better in the water. She kept going under the water (on purpose) without any prompting from mommy and she jumped off the edge of the pool without anyone catching her. She still needs to work on the blowing bubbles when under the water part, as she drank so much water that she threw up on the deck. That was fun. Anyway, even if Kennedy didn't enjoy Roger, she learned more about swimming than I expected.

Fun Days in New Harmony

The past few days have been filled with me working, while Tara and the kids go and play. Until yesterday that is. We took advantage of my day off to spend time having fun in Southern Utah. We rode ATV's all morning, as Kennedy and Alex both decided that they love the open air. Maybe they'll want to join a biker gang or something, who knows? The helmet was a little big for Alex, but I'm sure he'll want to grow into it.

The afternoon was spent on a long drive through the country. We wanted to go in search of some geocaches into Kolob Canyon and ended up driving all the way to Kolob Reservoir. What a great spot. The temperature dropped down into the 60's and the kids had a great time playing in the water. We even took a trip out to Paradise Island. Okay, because the water was so low we actually walked out to the island. On the ride home we went through Kanarraville Canyon, where you would have thought we were in the Uintahs - not Red Rock country. Everything was green, with Aspens and Pines being the main trees we encountered. There was hardly a sagebrush to be found!

It was a great day and we've really had fun during our trip down to Nana and Papa's. There's so much to do down here and the kids absolutely love the country lifestyle.

Movie Review: The Simpsons Movie

I have to say that I didn't expect to get to see The Simpsons Movie until it was on my pay per view, but our little trip down south has provided with a chance to go the movies. Before going to the movie Tara commented that it was silly to pay for watching the Simpsons when we can see them everyday on TV for free. This leads into a great line at the beginning of the film.

I'm glad they actually made a movie version of the Simpsons. Lately, it's been a challenge to watch the show on TV, but having a movie version gave me some incentive to get back into the lives of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. While I agree that's there nothing in the movie you haven't seen on the TV show (minus a couple of adult words and a little more skin by Bart), the movie provided a bunch of great lines - particularly by some of the minor characters. The intro with Ralph is a classic.

I really liked the movie. It was geared for people who already like the show, but anyone can sit back and enjoy this 90 minutes with America's favorite family. Take a sneak peak at the Movie with the new trailer from YouTube.

Lightning Crashes

Well, we're back in New Harmony again. I am training in Cedar City for the next two days, so we're staying at my parents through the weekend. While driving down here last night we decided to do a bit of caching to pass the time. As we left the car in Beaver we encountered the quick hitting thunderstorms that Southern Utah is famous for. Still, we were undaunted in our search for the caches, even in the rain. That is, of course until the lightning and thunder started in enter the scene. In fact, one bolt of lightning had Coleton and Ross both scared enough to run back to the cars. We finished our caching, but we might need to check the shorts of a couple of startled cachers!