2222

Matt got a pogo stick for Christmas a couple years ago. I remember that Christmas day him telling me "Dad this is kinda hard." Then he got excited when he could do 3, then 5, and then 8 bounces without falling off. A day or two later he was bouncing around on it like he was born with it attached to him. At one point he decided he was going to count to 1000 bounces and that was his record. Well, Tuesday he decided to shatter his record and got up to 2222. He could have gone longer, but he decided to stop on a number he could easily remember. Maybe his name will be here someday!!

14 Years Ago Today...

Happy Birthday Taylor!!! Just a handful of school days left and she will be a big 9th grader - a freshman but not in the High School Scene quite yet. Being the oldest, there are literally dozens upon dozens of pictures of Tay. Every gift she ever got for Christmas and birthdays, her first day of school every year, all her Halloween costumes, the famous "Jammies Wall" picture with her cousins taken every year on Christmas Eve at Grammy's house - just to name a few. I had to limit the number posted here, but if you are ever at our house and want to see the full Taylor collection, I have them in a folder in the computer.

Taylor - You are a great girl and we love you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Can't Believe She's Seven

Happy Birthday Becca!!! Hard to believe it's been seven years since she was born. She got a new bike and some new shoes, shorts and a shirt. I can't wait to see her ride that bike. Too bad it is rainy and cold today - just yesterday she was out running through the sprinklers in 90 degree weather. Here is Becca on her new bike, plus some bonus shots of her over the years.

Just more scenes from New Orleans...

The Big Easy

Jen and I spent the last few days in New Orleans. I had to go there for a work meeting and we decided to make a little getaway out of it. We had a great time seeing the sites. There are so many interesting things to see I took about 500 pictures with my itchy shutter finger. Below are just a few of them.


These pictures are in the French Quarter - the top is at Riverfront Park with the Mississippi River and Greater New Orleans Bridge in the background. The bottom picture is in Jackson Square with the St. Louis Cathedral in the background. This is the oldest Cathedral in the U.S.

This guy told us his name is "Marzipan". He paints himself silver and hangs out in Jackson Square pretending he is a statue. If you put money in his donation can, he comes to life and plays his guitar. We found out that he also comes to life if you try to steal his guitar.

One of the stops on our tour was the New Orleans Botanical Garden. There were a lot of beautiful plants and flowers there. I don't remember what kind of plant this is, but I thought it was worth posting here.

This is a house that was flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. You can see the brown mark on it which is the point the flood water reached and stayed for a while until it was able to be pumped out of the city. Some of the houses in the lowest areas had the watermark on the pitched roof. The marking on the door shows the date that the house was reached by the military rescue unit and (9/22/05), the unit number that searched the house (1340). R2 means they recovered 2 people and the zero means there were none dead.

Since New Orleans is below sea level, graves are above ground. We went to St Louis Cemetery. In the top picture the tour guide is pointing out the rusting on the iron surrounding the tomb. This is how high the water was in this cemetery when the city flooded after the hurricane.

We went on a tour of the Oak Alley Plantation. There are 28 huge oak trees that extend from the mansion to the Mississippi River. I've never seen oak trees get this big in Utah. The trees were planted in the early 1700s and will apparently live another 300 years. The mansion was built in 1837. In addition to the big oaks, there are beautiful gardens that surround the mansion.

The Evolution of a NICKname

When Nicholas was first learning to talk, he tried to call himself "Nicky" - since that's what we all called him. But it would come out "Ninny". So then we started calling him Ninny, too. Then his cousin, JJ, started calling him "Ninny Muggins" - a reference from the movie Elf when Buddy gets called a "cotton-headed ninny muggins" by the other elves. So now it has evolved to just "Muggins".

Muggins with his new cool shirt

Dancing in the Challenger School spring program. Check out those moves! He's got all the ladies mesmerized.

Happy Mothers Day

Hope all of the mothers had a great day yesterday. We appreciate all you do.

The Two Temples

Matt' soccer games are played in the shadow of what will be the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. The temple is under construction, and the steeple is sitting on the ground next to the temple. We drove over there after the game and took a few pictures. This will be the 2nd temple in the city of South Jordan. The Jordan River Temple is a few miles east. There is a place along the drive home from my work where you can see both temples from a hill. I went there later in the day and took a picture of the two temples. Where else in the world can you get two temples in one photo?

Mix of Pix

I have been experimenting with my new camera and having fun making banners for the top of this page by cropping some of the photos from our files. It is interesting what you can come up with by taking just a strip (about 750 x 150 pixels) of a photo. I will put some new ones up there periodically. If I have ever taken a picture of you, don't be surprised if your face appears up there. I have been taking a photography class so hopefully the quality (both technical and artistic) will improve over time. Here are a few recent pics of the kids: