Hoop it Up

We finally got around to putting in our baskeball hoop this last week. This was the part Matt has been waiting for since we moved here six years ago.

Digging the hole for the concrete and the pole to go in was easy enough. Maybe we should have just left the hole there. It was pretty fun to play in.

Then after mixing seven 80 pound bags of concrete in wheelbarrows and dumping it into the hole, we had to get the pole level while the concrete was still wet. Not too hard of a task, except the pole wanted to lean south and west.

The tough part was putting it together. After I discovered one of the main brackets was the wrong part, I had to make a little road trip to Clearfield to get the right piece. Don't try and make it from Sandy to Clearfield and back on your lunch hour. It takes two hours with the nasty Davis County traffic - even in the middle of the day. It finally went together after a trip to Home Depot and a lot of interpreting very vague instructions.

We got it up and running this morning. Matt had been trying to make this 45 foot shot from the front of the house. As soon as I pulled out the camcorder to record (thinking I would be there all day waiting for him to make one) he nailed the first one!

Bend it like BECCA

Becca is our little gymnast. She was in dance for a year and really liked it, but two years ago we switched her to tumbling because it was taught a lot closer to our home and it was a great move -she really loves it.
Last night she was in a program with the "mini team" she is on. They did a routine to the song "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves (a song that was popular when I was in high school). It was really a cute routine and they all performed their moves well.


After one year on the mini team, Becca just found out last night that she is being promoted to the "Junior Team" next year. Way to go Becks!!!

Piano Recital

Taylor and Matt have been in piano lessons for several years now. This last week they played in a recital and both did very well. We are very proud of them for putting in the time and effort. Sometimes it is difficult to get them to practice, but it sure pays off come recital time. I think we are going to try and get Becca in lessons in the fall.

Matt played "Best Friends" by Robert Vandall and "The Final Stretch" by Randall Hartsell.

Taylor played "Prelude No. 3" by Carolyn Miller and "Afternoon at Cooper's Rock" by Robert Vandall.

Patio almost done

The patio project is almost finished. The only thing left is the rain gutters. Of course I still need to put in the basketball hoop (Matt keeps reminding me of that), and I am also going the replace the stairs coming off the back door.
Tuesday and Wenesday they put in the brick columns.

The soffit and fascia were installed over last few days. And notice we already got the pool put in, too :)

Happy Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and what a great day it was! I got to sleep in, then I got to eat breakfast casserole (eggs, hasbrowns, ham, cheese) and apple cake. Taylor and Matt made the apple cake. It was all delicious.

I got some napping glasses as a Father's Day gift. I need to take these things to church!

Later in the day we went to Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's for a BBQ. The Fitt's had driven down from Oregon on Saturday. Chad and Joey and Brandon and Camille also joined us.

We are not the only ones with a new back patio. Mom and Dad have recently added one in their backyard as well - and nice new patio furniture, too.

Everyone had a great time visiting and enjoyed each other's company.

Taylor and Sarah rest after a rigorous round of croquet - Which grandpa won of course!!!

There's only ONE Lagoon

My work had it's summer party Saturday at Lagoon so we took the family and made a day of it. We ate lunch when we first got there and during the lunch there was a prize drawing. The grand prize (32" LCD HDTV) went to.... BRIAN Anderson!! I had to go make sure they they didn't really mean me...too bad.

Becca made some huge strides this year as far as courage to go on the big rides. She started off with the Rocket and didn't stop there. Colosuss, Wicked, and the Spider were also conquered by the girl who just turned seven!! What about that rickety white (brown) roller coaster, you say? She rode that last year! Way to go Becca.

As for Nicky, he was pretty brave, too. He didn't cry on any rides - but he knew the limits of which rides he didn't want to go on. He liked the train the best.

The power went out for a couple hours while we were in line for the Wicked. There was nothing else to do but wait or go home. You can tell by the picture that Matt was totally okay with it and extremely patient during the outage. We waited it out and were pretty much at the front of the Wicked line when the power came back on. Now we can go again for free before the end of June. I'm not sure I'll have full function of my legs and back again by then.

Who looks like the biggest chicken in this picture?

As the day wore on, Nicky got very vocal about wanting a plastic blow-up hammer he saw a lot of people carrying around. We found that in order to get one, dad would have to be able to swing a sledge hammer hard enough to win one. Dang, maybe we should have tried this at the beginning of the day...but dad had just enough left in the tank to get it done. Now I'm his HERO!!!

Patio is taking shape

Well the framing didn't start last Friday because it looked like there might be rain. But it began on Monday in a big way...


They showed up early Monday and started cutting a big hole in our roof.

About noon a crane showed up and started lifting beams over the fence and into place.

Next came the trusses...

By the end of the day Monday the beams and trusses were all in place.

Today they showed up again and are finishing up the framing. The roofer is supposed to show up this afternoon and get it sealed enough that if it rains (40% chance today) we will be okay.

We have concrete now

Tuesday the concrete went down on the patio project... and not a moment too soon since it rained all day Wednesday and is a bit rainy today. Tomorrow they should start ripping into our roof and framing up the covered patio. Hopefully the rain is about finished for a bit.


When the patio is done, the whole back side of our house will be re-roofed. You may notice that there are some shingles missing up there (as well as a few that don't quite match thanks to my mending jobs). Every time we get a wind storm shingles come flying off of the back side of the house. So that is going to be fixed while we are at it.

One of the concrete guys is quite an artist. He carved a picture in the wet concrete for the kids and now Scooby-Doo is immortalized in our back yard!

Father & Son Outing

Friday night Matt, Nicky and I went on a Father and Son Outing with our ward to the Burraston Ponds near Mona, Utah. It was a great time - we cooked tin foil dinners, played games, skipped rocks in the ponds, and roasted marshmallows on the campfire. Of course there was the typical things that happen at this sort of event - like the kid yelling at the top of his lungs until 1:00 am and the birds that start chirping at about 4:30. Plus the air mattress loses just enough air that your back and butt are dragging on the ground all night. Good times.

Matt teaches Nicky the fine art of dragging a marshallow in the dirt before roasting it. Now that's the best kind of seasoning.

Nicky was the most excited to sleep in the tent. If you click on the picture to see the larger version you can see the punch mustache he sported the entire camp.

After the campout was over, we met up with Grandpa Anderson on his land near Fountain Green, Utah to ride the 4-wheeler and shoot guns!! We invited him to sleep over with us at the Father & Son Outing, but for some crazy reason he thought he wouldn't get much sleep. Boy, was he right.

Matt takes careful aim and it pays off...

He pretty much destroyed this Bud Light can with the .22 rifle. We had a great time!!

Backyard Project

This last Tuesday, we started a little project in our backyard. We tore down that ugly looking trellis and are going to put in a covered patio and basketball court.

The first casualty was the snowball bush. I think Jen was sad to see it go, but I say good riddance. I swear that thing grew six inches a day. It had to be trimmed more frequently than the Bulloch boys need to shave.

As of today, the pad is about ready to be poured. The concrete will go north to the fence and tie in with the concrete pad on the side of the house. The covered part will extend from about where the concrete is now on the left (north) side of the picture to the line where the grass is torn out on the right (south). The concrete is supposed to be poured on Tuesday. I will update as the project continues. Hopefully it will be done in the next two weeks or so.