Look Who's Home!

Daniel returned home from his mission in Tampa, Florida a couple weeks ago and David just got his mission call to Adelaide, Australia. The Fitts were in town this last weekend to show off the shiny new RM to the Utah crowd as well as to let them say goodbye to Dave. They had an open house for them at Brad's sister, Stephanie's, house. Her house is on Traverse Ridge on top of South Mountain in Draper, so the views were spectacular. In the photo above, I believe Daniel is using Uncle Garth's spotting scope to view one of his mission areas in Florida.

Here a couple of volunteers who were willing to pose for me to show off the view from Stephanie's back yard.

Ellen mentioned in her last email that she wanted to see some fall leaves so this one is for her. This is the view toward the east of South Mountain.

This picture is just so darn cute I couldn't resist putting it on here. Jill, I will send you my price list for a print :)

On Sunday, we had a family get-together at mom and dad's house. BBQ turkey and baked beans were on the menu on this pleasant afternoon.
Chad and Joey had fun playing ball with Matt, Dylan, and Nicky. Hope there's no grass stains on the Sunday clothes!

Jill and Paula engage in some girl talk on the patio...

While Daniel shares his mission photos with Brandon, Camille, and Joel.

Meanwhile, I was able to get everyone together to take this picture (luckily, I take my tripod everywhere I go). Welcome home, Daniel! And congratulations, David!

Soccer Mania

I'm not a huge soccer fan. I do like to watch my kids play, but I can't say that I have ever sat down and watched a soccer match that I really wanted to see on TV. That being said, I was able to take a tour of the new Real Salt Lake Stadium today because the company I work for built it. We are getting down to crunch time in getting it done because there will be two matches played there in October. It is coming along nicely and I admit I wouldn't mind going to see some games there next year. It is a very nice facility.


This is the view looking South East. By some twist of fate the white chairs spell the name of the team. If you look closely at the word "lake" it looks like some of the chairs in the E need to be switched back to red.

This is the view from the press box looking North East. There are also about 20 luxury suites on the west side of the stadium near the press box.

This is about as wide of an angle I could get on the stadium with my camera lense. This was taken from the south end.

This is the RSL team locker room. Apparently a whiteboard isn't enough to strategize at halftime. The coach probably has little soccer figurines he moves around on the soccer field carpet.

This is the view toward the west. If you look at the open area above the lower seats at the far left, this is the "Club" area. This is where VIP's (who are not in the suites, I guess) go to have food and socialize during the game. It is pretty close to the field, so hopefully the ball doesn't get kicked in there and knock the punch bowl over.

Millcreek Canyon

Millcreek is probably our favorite canyon. Jen and I went up there when we were dating and carved our initials in a tree (BA + JD = TLA). Probably not the best thing for the tree, but it seemed like a fun thing to do at the time. I will have to go find that tree and take a picture of it. The last couple years we have been going to a picinic area called the Terraces that has some nice fire pits and tables. Plus there is good hiking trails and areas for the kids to just play around in the woods.

I thought this picture of Nate, JT and Nick turned out pretty nice. Getting them to hold still for 10 seconds was the tough part of this photo.

I never know whether to use a flash or not when taking a picture in tough lighting situations. So I try to do both when I can get people to be patient with me. In this picture above the sun was low and there were also a lot of shadows. I used a flash so the people are bright, but the scenery behind is darker. Because of the flash, the shutter speed (amount of time the shutter stays open exposing the light into the camera) is faster - 1/60 of a second.

In this picture I did not use a flash, but kept the shutter open longer (1/15 of a second) letting more light into the whole picture so you can see the background better - but the people may be a bit on the bright side. I kind of like the second picture better, but only because I am sucking my gut in a little more than the first. Which do you like better?

Never Forget

I still remember that day like it was yesterday, driving to work and hearing on the radio that an airplane had hit into one of the Twin Towers in New York City. Someone called in and told the DJ that one of the towers had fallen down. The DJ was skeptical and told the listeners that was not confirmed. I thought to myself "yeah, a few bricks probably came down." When I got to work (at RC Willey) there was no one to be found on the floor I worked on. Everyone was on the 2nd floor in the TV display area watching it all unfold before our eyes. I watched in horror as the second tower came down.
In Sandy, near were I work now they have a "healing field" that has 1776 flags displayed today in a long grassy field in front of Sandy City Hall. Jen, Matt, Becca and I went there during my lunch hour today (Nicky and Taylor had school).

Some of the flags, called the "Flag of Honor" had the name of each of the people killed on that day across the red and white stripes.

Some flags had a yellow ribbon attached with the name of a soldier from Utah killed in the war on terror that has been going on since that fateful day. I appreciate and salute all those who have fought for the freedom of this country.

Bear Lake II

I guess I didn't get enough of Bear Lake while at Scout Camp in July, so we decided to rent a cabin there over Labor Day weekend. Jen's sister, Kath, and brother, Jeff, and their families joined us as well. Scout camp was the first time I had ever been to Bear Lake. I never realized how beautiful and nice it is. The water is very blue and there are a lot of beaches. We may need to visit there more.

We arrived Friday afternoon and had dinner at Bear Lake Pizza. Then we decided to go dip our feet in the lake and see what the temperature was like. It was very pleasant and there were not very many people around. We soon found out why - when the sun goes down the mosquitoes come out in force. We were lucky to snap a few pictures in the nice dusk lighting and get out of there before being eaten alive.

Later on we went to Quick 'n' Tasty for some rasperry shakes - they have a little covered wagon that you can sit in and eat. You can't visit Bear Lake without trying a raspberry shake. There are multiple shops along the main drag that sell them. We tried another place Saturday night called the Sweet Shop.
Jeff and his family arrived late Friday night after Jeff had completed his daily triathalon. On Saturday we spent most of the day at the Beach. We got there around 10 and were surprised to see only a few people there. But, by noon the place was packed. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun playing in the water. What made the day even more beautiful was the fact that I was able to sneak back to the cabin in the afternoon and see my Utes take down Michigan in the Big House. The only downer was I got our van momentarily stuck in the sand trying to get off the crowded beach (but still made it to the cabin in time for kickoff).

On Sunday, we took a trip to Minnetonka Cave. We got there at about 12:30 to find the tours were booked until 2:30. So we bought our tickets and went back down the canyon to a nice picnic area, ate some snacks, hiked around a bit, and took some pictures.

When it was our time, we went back up and took the tour of the cave. This is a big cave. The tour took about an hour and a half. There are 444 stairs inside the cave leading you up and down and up and down through the rooms of the cave. There are a lot of stalagmites, stalagtites and other rock formations. I think my favorite was "cave bacon" - I didn't get a picture of it, but it is a type of formation that grows down from a sloping ceiling that looks like bacon hanging there.

When we got back from the cave, it started to rain hard outside. We stayed inside and had dinner, played games, read books and laughed a lot the rest of the evening. Made me very happy we went with the cabin instead getting some tent spots at the KOA. Monday morning it was still raining, but it was time to go anyway. We packed it up and headed home stopping for lunch (along with the rest of the world) at the McDonald's in Evanston.