December 09

Taking the girls picture for the Christmas cardNativity angels
Waiting at the top of the stairs to go down and see if they received any presents#1 and #2 got cameras for christmas so they can do photo blogs.
You can find them right here and right here


This year for Christmas, #3 asked for a real phone to call real people, a real weiner dog, and a collar that her dog could wear that when it barked, it would tell her what her dog was saying.
Instead she got a gun.

She also told me that "Santa lived at Jesus Christ's house"

Photo Shoot and Renewing of Vows or The Cyclist goes 7 Days Without a Bike Ride and Contracts an STD

Last week Megan and i were luck enough to have been invited to go to Kauai while Cousin Long John Leather Couch and his wife Lindsey renewed their wedding vows. He only invited the people he really, really likes.

It was a simple and elegant service performed on the beach.
John works at the Hyatt at Lake Tahoe, so it made sense for us to stay at the Hyatt in Hawaii.

We had all of the employee benefits without having to do any work while we were there.

We were there for a week and the service only took 10 minutes so we had lots of time to kill laying around drinking Lava Flows.

This time of year it can be rainy and on the north end of the island, one of the days, they got 23 inches of rain in one day. I guess that is a lot. We tried to go for a hike to a beach and then up to a pretty waterfall. Lindsey was quite literally a wet blanket and had the trail not been so muddy, at mile 3, she would have sat down in the middle of the trail and refused to go any further. Since the trail was muddy, she eventually stopped and just stood there until she convinced everybody else that the waterfall wasn't really that pretty and we should just turn around. See how happy she is once we decided to turn around. I can't figure out why John wanted to renew his vows to her.

Instead we went and found some surfboards and hung out on the beach for a while. See, Lindsay can't even surf. What does he see in her?

Here is a picture of me jumping out of a tasty barrel.

Megan Paddle surfing in a hurricane Luke being a jerk and making fun of Bunny because she is pregnant.

Megan had a great time doing the ziplines.

The other thing John wanted to accomplish while we were there was to get a few pictures for his portfolio. He is looking to do some more male modeling and was looking for some swimsuit shots.

We tried to fly home sunday night at 9:50 but the plane broke. At 2 AM, we finally checked in to a hotel. We set an alarm to wake up at 4 AM hawaii time so we could call megans mom at 7 AM Utah time and let her know that we would not be coming home and she would have the kids for another day. I guess being stuck another day in Hawaii is better than being stuck for and extra day in North Carolina.Megan taking it easy on our extra day

When we finally got home, i had some inflammation, irritation and infection in a very sensitive part of the body. I was examined by a doctor and told that i have a very painful case of Otitis Externa. Thanks Hawaii, I owe you one.

And now for some interesting educational facts about Kauai:

Years ago, polynesians came to pick sugarcane and brought chickens with them as a food source and for fighting. A hurricane hit the islands in 1992 knocking over cages and freeing many of the chickens and roosters. On kauai, there are no natural predators so these fighting cocks roam the island at will and start crowing at 4 AM. It takes an average of 21 days for a chicken egg to hatch so you can see that in a short time with no predators and only one KFC, there are a lot of chickens.

All but one company producing sugarcane on the islands has stopped and there is no more commercial pineapple growing being done in Hawaii anymore. They can both be grown cheaper in South America. Now the land is either being built on or being used for GMO corn. The locals are very excited about all of the chemicals being pumped into the land and water. THere are still a few small pineapple fields that sell their fruit at farmers markets, but most of the pineapple that you buy in stores today is grown in Ecuador.

A picture of an old sugarcane processing factory that is now converting to corn production.

Halloween '09

This year the girls were out of school on friday so they had the festivities on thursday, then we had trick or treating at my work on friday afternoon followed by a neighborhood party that night and then the real holiday on saturday.
3 days worth of halloween this year.
In years past we have enforced a limit to how much candy they can actually keep and do what they want with, and the rest goes back to work with me.
This year we decided to let them have as much as they want after explaining to them the advantage of moderation in thins like sweets.
After eating more than their share of sugar for three days straight, we thought they would be sick of it.
in the middle of the night, we were awakened to the sound of #1 throwing up all over her bed and then all the way down the hall. She did actually get a few drops into the toilet, but most of it was in her bed.
Luckily for megan we have these.
There was some arguing and some yelling(we tend to do that when we are woken up in the middle of the night to clean up vomit) mostly about how #1 was old enough to know when enough was enough and she wouldn't have thrown up if she didn't eat so much candy.
We finally got back to bed, but were awakened 2 more times by the sound of someone vomitting (luckily into her throw up bowl at this point)
The next morning there was some more yelling about eating too much candy.
It wasn't until her fever of 103 that we figured it might not be the candy.
She was officially diagnosed with the swine flu that afternoon.
The rest of the kids fell like dominos, one after the other.
It is amazing the difference in kids when they are sick.
Some get nicer than usual, some get meaner.
here are pictures before we became a sick ward for the week.

Slickrock Mountain Biking with #2

While we were in Moab, we went over and spent a little time at slickrock. It was the girls first time riding there but both #1 and #2 had a blast. We did the practice loop.....in jeans. I only thought #2 was going to die 2, maybe 3 times.
This instructional video was made with T-Dub in mind but could not have been made without a generous contribution from Andee & Amy, my biggest fans.

The Other Half Marathon in Moab

There are typically two different trains of thought when you here the words "Stake Conference".

The first is, "Well golly, what a wonderful chance to be spiritually fed."

The second is " Hell yea, a vacation without having to find a substitute to teach my 14 year old Sunday school class"
Last weekend, we went to Moab.
Megan ran The Other Half Marathon.
It was not a personal best time, but she loved the course, even if it had a difficult profile.
God put the uphill sections in just the right places, and the scenery was beautiful.
She posted her fastest mile for the last mile and was excited to finish strong.
After we gave her enough time to take a quick shower, we went and hiked around Arches for the rest of the day.
The next morning, we woke the kids up at 5:45 AM and hiked in the dark up to see the sun rise over Delicate Arch. When i proposed the idea the night before, i was expecting a lot more resistance, but everybody was in for it. Sure we paid for it on the drive home that afternoon with some tired kids, but it was worth it. They even asked if we could "Race the Sun" again when we went on our next vacation.

Heber CX Race

#1 dusted off her bike, put on some bling and threw down for her first cyclocross race of the season.
She pulled off a podium finish even though she doesn't do it to win. She just does it to have fun.
Big foot showed up wearing vans slip-ons and handing out the washingtons to the junior racers.

Human Pinatas and Home Grown Produce

CX season '09 begins with a painful bang

I was not first and i was not last
Moving up a category and doing 60 minutes instead of 45 is A LOT longer. At about 45 minutes, i started feeling some fatigue and started getting sloppy through the barriers. I made a little bobble and the guy right behind me ran up my back with his front chainring finding my calf.
Does anybody know how to tell if a wound is infected?We need moisture because breathing dust for 60 minutes can't be good for the respiratory system.
Fox was there handing out the Washington's and making it fun.
The Dr. strategically dropped off the back of the pack a little bit so it would be easier to grab the bills. He has heard that weddings are expensive so he is doing what he can to cash in.
Tip of the week: Don't change to a different kind of pedal right before a race. DC, shown here leading our pack, broke his collarbone in 3 places when he wasn't able to get out of his pedal coming into a barrier.

Daddy Daughter, Daughter, Daughter, Daughter Date

Megan left us this weekend to go and spend a relaxing weekend in lake Tahoe doing things like getting sagebrush and dirt-pack spa treatments.(Thanks for rushing over to help her up Lindsey)

Me and the girls were left here in Utah to fend for ourselves.
And by fend for ourselves, i mean, Megan had all of our clothes picked out, all of the meals planned, and our schedules laid out to the minute for the whole weekend.
We did deviate slightly from the schedule, but everyone is still alive, so i count it as a win.

Megan has only been away from our family for more than 24 hours, 2 times since we have been married. At one point or another during the weekend, all of us cried a few tears because we missed her.

I got the girls off to school without missing the bus.
I did the girls hair.
We went up to Snowbird and hiked around with cousin Kevin, who's wife also left him for the weekend.
We were only 3 minutes late for church. My mother told me she was surprised and that she wasn't expecting me to show up until church was half over.

#4 proved that although she may look like the nieces and nephews from my side of the family, she acts more like Megan's side.
I think that Megan is entitled to a weekend away from us once every 6 years, and i look forward to the challenge again in the year 2015.