The Office

You've got to be excited for the next season of The Office. Hopefully they'll keep it clean this season.

Beijing 2008 - Link to 4x100M mens free relay video

The Olympics have been really great this year. It's been fun following Michael Phelps, but just watching the high level of competition has been awesome. Swimming, beach volleyball, it's all been great. But you have to enjoy when the French say "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." for the 4x100m free relay. Down by a full second on the last leg against the most vocal of the French, beating the world record by almost four seconds...

Enjoy the awesome replay here.

Hiking Utah

Lisa and I just started a new Hiking/Backpacking (if you count backpacking the kids) blog (found here) for all our recent adventures. We’re hoping you’ll want to go hiking soon and join us. We’re looking to be up in at Brighton and Cecret Lake (yes…it’s stupidly spelled with a ‘C’), in the next two weeks. Hopefully you’re up for some fresh air and great exercise.

Let us know.

Dogwood Lake and Donut Falls

Hike: Dogwood Lake and Donut Falls
Location: Big Cottonwood Canyon
Company: none

On Sunday after church and dinner, we packed everyone up for another hike up the canyon. I can't get enough lately as there's nothing like fresh air, a little exercise, and enjoying God's creations. We were driving up towards Donut Falls and decided to try out the hike just before the Donut Falls turn off. We're pretty sure it was going up to Dogwood Lake. It was really pretty, but got pretty steep after about twenty minutes in. It had rained somewhat recently, and we were concerned Sydney wouldn't make it down if it started to rain. We turned around, then went a quarter of the way up Donut Falls and turned around as a potty break was needed. I love backpacking the kids up the canyon. Tanner fell asleep on the way back down, and Natalie does great as long as we keep moving. If we stop to look at the scenery, Natalie keeps us in check. We're looking to do Cecret Lake (yes...it's spelled with a "C") this weekend and Some Albion Bason (Brighton) hikes the following week. We've looked up some more local hikes and are excited to see what Sydney can do. She never tires...Lisa calls her our mountain goat.

Star Lake

Hike: Star Lake
Location: Uintahs
Company: Lisa's dad

We were up with Lisa's family at Trial Lake in the Uintahs on Friday. The sun came out during the afternoon which we were all very happy about because it often rains all day up there. So we took off for a little hike up to Star Lake. The trail is very difficult to find so you just sort of go and hope you're heading in the right direction until you find some trail markers. Sydney got very good at pointing out every pile of rocks for us.

Sydney did a little "fishing" once we got there.

Natalie found a rock that she thought was pretty cool.
Doesn't she look kind of like a little monk in her sweatshirt?

Tanner and Grandpa are just enjoying the scenery.

The great outdoors

Every year for as long as I can remember my family has gone camping up in the Uintah's. Here is the beautiful Trial Lake where we have most often camped. It's not the warmest place to be in the middle of August so my little family has not slept over much in these last few years. Sydney headed up on Thursday afternoon with Kim and Nick and Josh, Tanner, Natalie and I went up just for the day on Friday. I just love the smell of it up there, the fresh air and campfires. We were not up there for the whole time so if you want to see more pictures from the trip click here and here. We weren't there for Sydney's exciting fishing excursion so that's where you can find those pictures.
Natalie was obviously very excited to see Grandma. Sydney said her favorite part of the trip was roasting marshmallows which she did a lot.


While the twins were taking a very short nap I took part in a little sudoku challenge that my parent's always like doing. I was the big loser of the game I'm afraid. I think it is because I play on the computer and it tells you when you've made a mistake. The old fashioned pencil and paper way just doesn't work like that.

During our sudoku match Josh did a little photo shoot with Sydney and got some great pictures. Our camp site was right next to a field of wildflowers and made for some beautiful shots. Cute stuff huh?

Sydney even picked a boquet of flowers for me. She seemed to really like the white ones. And she included the roots with them so I could have brought them home and replanted them!
The sun came out during the afternoon which we were all very happy about because it often rains all day up there. So we took off for a little hike up to Star Lake. The trail is very difficult to find so you just sort of go and hope you're heading in the right direction until you find some trail markers. Sydney got very good at pointing out every pile of rocks for us.


Sydney did a little "fishing" once we got there.

Natalie found a rock that she thought was pretty cool. Doesn't she look kind of like a little monk in her sweatshirt?

Tanner and Grandpa are just enjoying the scenery.

Now here's something you don't see every day at the lake. Adam and Eric did a few dives while up there. I don't imagine the marine life really compared to Cozumel but hey, they looked good!

Lake Powell

Every year my mother's extended family has a family reunion in Lake Powell. We haven't always been able to go since we keep having kids just before the trips, so we were very excited to go this year. My cousin Jeremy and his wife Sharla hosted the gathering on their cruise ship, I mean houseboat. Seriously, this thing is almost twice the size of my house. We are incredibly grateful to them for giving up their master bedroom to our family so we could fit 2 portable cribs in the same room with us. They are so generous! Above is a lovely picture of Peps I when Jer's helicopter was about to land on the top. He was getting just too many of those pesky tickets for landing his helicopter on the shore so now he lands on top of his own property.

Here's a picture of Animal House, Jeremy and Sharla's second houseboat. I guess it was decided that Peps was getting a bit crowded with the 40 of us so this one arrived on the second day of our stay. It's very stylish and appropriately named. It has cheetah patterned carpet and all sorts of animal patterns on the curtains and decor.

Sydney loves hanging out with her 2nd cousins since there are several girls close to her age.

My mom took charge of doing their hair every morning with these cute little hair clips and scrunchies she got them. Here they are all done up before going out to swim.
Sydney spent almost every spare minute outside and went through a lot of sunscreen. She has some pretty good tan lines now!

Natalie loved swimming in the lake which is funny because, as I mentioned in the last post, she has been afraid of swimming.

Tanner was a little unsure about swimming in the lake at first. Usually, he is my brave one when it comes to swimming. After a little while they were both loving it though.

The twins especially like being put in their floaties and passed around a circle.

My aunt Linda bought all the young kids fishing poles to play with. They spent many hours pretending to fish with them. Don't worry, they didn't have real hooks, just little plastic pieces. Here is a picture of Sydney being the fish.

The party just kept getting better and better when Jeremy offered a friendly little game of black jack with and $100 bill sitting on the table for the winner. Gambling with somebody elses money does tend to make it more fun! I snapped a picture before taking the kids out to swim again.


I was really glad we brought these booster seats for the twins. Here's a picture of them eating bananas which they do every morning. It's pretty entertaining because they don't take them out of their mouths. They just push them farther and farther in while chewing and swallowing until they're gone.