Photo of the Day: Before and After

Last year I took a photo of myself in Photo Booth.  Since I had the same shirt on today I couldn't resist doing a "Before and After"shot.  Sorry, but my face still looks the same, only a bit smaller.

Rio Mesa

A few months ago I was sent to Moab for a weekend research project. It entailed camping out with friends, eating great food, and enjoying time in the red rock. Tough duty, I know. Last weekend I was asked down to Rio Mesa (they changed the name of the research facility) for another arduous weekend of "research".

The drive down had me a little nervous as I started out in rain. Drove through the wind. And eventually encountered snow. Nothing like Spring in Utah. I was concerned about weather on Friday, but the rest of the weekend turned out great. In fact, Friday was the only night it rained. I don't know about you but I like lying in a tent and listening to the rain.

Saturday was our big research expedition. Last year we explored the Scarff homestead. This year we looked at the Jones ranch. I'm not sure what kind of data we uncovered, but I can tell you where all the old tires are on the property. I guess this family headed out so quickly they left all their "junk" behind. Well, we documented all the "artifacts" over the weekend for the research site. I think the plan is to document, then clean up. I'm just glad I don't have to be on that project!

It was a great weekend. Fun to be outside again in the warm weather and even better when it's all in the name of "work."

Timber

For the past several years we've wanted to cut down the tree in the northeast corner of our front yard.  It's not that we're tree haters, we just hated this tree.  The tree was getting too large to maintain.  The needles caused us endless grief as they killed the grass and took hours to clear every year.  The roots have overtaken our lawn.  All that ended on Saturday.

A couple of "tree guys" were working the street and gave us a deal, so we jumped on it.  Some cutting, some pulling, and some gravity and the tree was down.  We still have some work to do on the stump, but we've certainly changed the landscape of our yard once again.

Photo of the Day

Tara and I absolutely love Dylan's chubby hands.  Don't you just want to nibble on those fat little fingers?

Testimony

On Sunday I decided it was time to share my testimony in Church.  I haven't done that since leaving the Bishopric last year, not because my faith is losing it's luster, but mostly due to the fact I now sit in the "war zone".  It felt good to stand and publicly share some of my thoughts and feelings.

After I sat down, Kennedy turned and said, "Dad, I think I want to bear my testimony."  I asked her what she would say and she replied she would talk about Jesus.   As we continued to talk, I thought Kennedy was losing her nerve, so I decided not to press the issue.

About ten minutes later Dede asked if I would take her to stand so she could use the microphone.  How could I say no to that?  So, up we went.  At first she was a little nervous when she looked out and saw everyone staring back at her.  She asked if I could help her get started, so I said, " What do you think about Primary?"  She told everyone she liked going to Primary and really liked her teachers.  After the ice was broken, she was off and running.  She talked about her family, Jesus, and and how she knew the church was true.  Short and sweet, awfully sweet.

Tara and I are so proud of our little girl.  I wasn't surprised that she could get in front of everyone and talk.  I was a bit surprised how much she wanted to share her love for Jesus.  Way to go Dede!

BTW - As we came back to our row after Dede was finished Alex said he wanted to share his testimony.  I asked him what he wanted to talk about and he replied, "Dragons."  Love that kid.

Bathroom Project: Finished

We broke ground on the bathroom project on March 1st.  After spending the past five weeks working daily (ok, so we didn't work on it every day) the project came to completion over the weekend.  It's actually been really fun.  Maybe breaking out the concrete wasn't that fun, but pretty much everything else has been a great learning experience.  We came into the project with high expectations, a modest budget, and low skills.  I can safely say we exceeded all three in the course of the remodel.

I can't thank everyone who helped us with this project enough.  Sam was a major trooper.  He dug, nailed, cut, hauled, and showed more crack than anyone.  Gregg, Rob, Willie, Jason, Evan, Alan, Lynn, and Mike each came in and gave up time to make sure I didn't ruin anything along the way.

My favorite part of the project has been listening to Alex's prayers.  He shifted from "Help my dad to finish the bathroom" to "Thank you for my new bathroom" over the course of the past month.  It doesn't get any better than that.

Have fun looking at the finished project:

Boys Night Out

A few weeks ago Tara took Kennedy out to dinner and a play.  Nothing major, but a great chance for the two of them to spend some time together alone.  I decided I needed to do the same thing with Alex.  It isn't often that Alex gets to do a lot of things on his own with the fellas.  So, last night, it was his turn to get some extra attention.  I knew the perfect activity for us to share together - How to Train Your Dragon in 3D on  the iMax screen.  Jason wanted to join in the dragon fun, so our "Boys Night Out" was set.

You may not know this about Alex, but he is a dragon junkie.  He is totally obsessed with them.  If you talk to Alex for 5 minutes he'll find some way to weave dragons into the conversation.  The second he learned there was a new movie about dragons - he was in.

We started out with dinner at the Mayan, or I should say I started out with dinner at the Mayan.  Alex was far too interested in the cliff divers to eat any food.  He kept asking me why they were diving into the water and when would he get to take a turn.  On another note I think the Mayan is totally overrated.  The food is way too expensive for the quality.  I don't need to pay extra for the atmosphere - I'd rather have something good to eat.

After dinner we headed off to the iMax theater.  I was a little worried whether or not Alex would wear th 3D glasses, but he came through like a trooper.  It didn't hurt that I told him they were dragon glasses.  The movie was great.  Lots of action, fun story, and tons of DRAGONS.  Alex absolutely loved it.  And I loved the fact that I was spending time with my son.

Spring Break Fun

I have been feeling a little guilty about not spending much time with the kids the past few weeks because of the all consuming bathroom project. So when Kennedy had a few days off for spring break last week, we made the most of it.

Her first day off was Wednesday, so we headed to Candace's house (my niece) to have some fun decorating Easter eggs.


The kids had a blast playing with all the cousins and decorating eggs in between all the fun.



Alex seemed to have more fun playing with all the cool tool toys and Dylan just liked playing with the crayons and coloring on Candace's table.



Thursday consisted of a very cold snowstorm and a trip to Jungle Jim's. Since none of the kids friends could come with us, we went alone and it was nice to see Alex and Kennedy actually playing together and enjoying riding rides together.



Dylan loved all the rides, even the little roller coaster that honestly made me a little woozy. (Any of you who have been on the dragon roller coaster at Jungle Jim's knows this thing isn't your typical kiddie roller coaster!)



Monday was another cold day, so we went to the indoor swimming pool at the Murray rec center with my friend Natalie and her kids. Kennedy, my little fish, jumped right in and was off playing and swimming like a pro. Now Alex and Dylan on the other hand, took about twenty minutes to finally think the pool might be fun. After a little prodding, they both finally decided to get in the water and they both had a blast. Alex even went down the big slide with me. Kennedy was going down the slide on her own once she realized she could touch at the bottom.

When it was time to go, we had a tough time getting everyone out of the pool. I'm glad the boys decided to like swimming. Alex has asked me about ten times since then when we are going swimming again.

We had a nice spring break and the kids seemed to have fun with some different activities. The problem now is that they think we should do something like that everyday! I'm just glad we took a little break from the construction zone and had some fun!

Easter: Our Weekend in Photos

April Fools' Day

I'm not sure if Mother Nature is playing an April Fools'Day joke or not, but my yard shouldn't look like this on April 1st.....