Andersonian

2011 Year in Pictures

2011-12-27T09:02:00.003-07:00

Below is my annual "Year in Pictures Slideshow" - it contains 100 of my favorite pictures from 2011. There are about 160 in all that I chose as my 2011 favorites. They can be viewed here -

http://s886.photobucket.com/albums/ac62/bma450/2011%20Year%20in%20Pictures/

NYC Pics

2011-05-17T21:11:00.004-06:00

Washington DC

2011-05-16T21:25:00.007-06:00

At the US Capitol Building reflecting pool

Washington DC Temple - got caught in a downpour getting here.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - very quiet and solomn. They have a changing of the guard ceremony every 30 minutes.

Arlington Cemetery

Mt. Vernon - George Washington's home - overlooks the Potomac River.

They were getting ready to gave commencement for George Washingtom University on the National Mall. Guess we were the first ones to arrive.

At the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.

Washington Monument from the steps of the Jefferson Memorial.

Jefferson Memorial and Tidal Basin.

Viva Las Vegas

2011-03-08T16:11:00.002-07:00

We took a little trip to Las Vegas last weekend for the Best of the West Lacrosse tournament. Taylor was playing with the Bingham girls JV team and Matt for the Bingham 8th grade boys. We stayed at Grammy and Wolfgang's house in Hurricane Thursday night - then they joined us in Las Vegas.

We stopped at Hoover Dam on Friday morning to take in the sites. The new bridge above the dam was amazing.

You can walk out across the bridge for a great view of the Dam and Lake Mead.

A picture of the dam that you used to be able to get only from a helicopter can now be taken from the bridge.

Taylor and Matt each played in four games Friday and Saturday. Here Taylor takes the ball in close to the goal for a shot.

Tay catching and ready to shoot.

Matt takes the ball behind the goal to try and sneak in a shot.

Matt gets whacked in the mid-section while trying to control the ball.

Nicky ready to get in the game....

There were a lot of people there supporting Bingham teams. There were 5 boys teams and 2 girls teams that came from Bingham. Taylor's team won two games and lost two. Matt's team won one and lost three. Both of them were able to score goals for their team. The weather was great - sunny and 70 degrees.

February Birthdays

2011-03-01T20:14:00.004-07:00

We had a little get-together at Jeff and Sheri's house the other night for February birthdays (Matt, Katy, Kath, Olivia). A game of "guesstures" was also fart of the pun.

Ten years old - hard to believe!!!

Katy likes her new tent.

It's my FOOT you guys!! GEEZ

Scratch like a Monkey? No - DEODERANT!!

Bunny hop, perhaps??

C'mon this is an EASY one!!!

STRONG?? MUSCLES??? FLEX??

Becca Ball

2011-02-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

Wanted: Two Front Teeth

2011-01-20T19:23:00.003-07:00

A few days after Christmas, Nick lost the second of his two front teeth. He has now lost a total of 5 teeth. He couldn't quite sing the song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" - but it was pretty close.

2010 In Pictures

2010-12-17T18:55:00.003-07:00

I took thousands of pictures this year. I was going through them and putting some of my favorites in a file (which turned out to be 164 pictures). I uploaded them to my photobucket site and made this slideshow out of them. If you click on a picture as it comes up it should open a new window and you can view a larger image at the photobucket site.

Only 100 would go in the slide show I put below - you can see all 164 of my favorites here.

Becca's New Room

2010-11-21T20:22:00.004-07:00

I've been meaning to blog about this one for a while now. Becca and Nicky have been in the same room since Nicky was born and it's time they had their own rooms. They were outgrowing the room and Becca likes things nice and clean and Nicky, well, let's just say he has a ways to go in the tidiness department. We built Becca a new room downstairs with the big kids - and now Nicky has his own room up by mom and dad.

The project took about 3 weeks and the door to the storage room was moved. Our exercise area had to be moved to the end of the downstairs family room, but we got a new storage closet out of the deal.

Just Dance

2010-11-13T20:19:00.006-07:00

Hard to believe - but Taylor is now a junior in High School. She got her driver's license a few months ago and drives to school every day. She has also gone to a couple of the school dances and I have to put a few pictures of these because they are just so darn cute...

BINGHAM BALL

HOMECOMING

Back to Blogging

2010-10-26T22:22:00.004-06:00

I am going to try and get back to blogging. Every time I think I am going to blog I sit down and have tons of pictures to upload and a bunch of writing to do. Then I think that will take way too much time and I need to get caught up from the last time I blogged so I don't do it. Well, I am going to start fresh and make a goal to write short entries and just a few pictures when I blog. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? I take tons of pictures and I need to share them. I put a lot of them out on facebook and photobucket, but need to put them here, too. So here is to a new beginning to blogging. If I do it this way maybe I can do it once or twice a week.

Random Pics of Summer

2010-09-06T22:23:00.008-06:00

This is Jen with my first blog post! Yeah! I got a new camera for Christmas and I wanted to post some random pics of summer since today is Labor Day and sort of the official end of summer. Blaine has his fancy camera for the big things - yes you might see a blog post from him about our vacation or the first day of school. My camera lives in my purse and captures our every day adventures. We've had a great summer and are sad to see it go!

Isn't summer all about cousin time? Olivia came and they had a blast. Here they are making some great sugar cookies.

We did ALOT of swimming this summer. One thing that we started back in the spring after swim lessons was to stop at Dunford Donuts after swimming. Not great for the waistlines, but sure topped off a day by the pool to indulge in a few of these!

What summer is complete without a trip to the Sno Shack?

We went to IKEA a few times, and even went once just for a Swedish Meatball dinner!

Nick and Becca had fun on the childrens furniture...

Becca's favorite resaturant....

Nick likes it too...

We went on a tour of the Sweet's Candy factory and also Mrs. Fields. Yummy!

Sparklers on the 24th of July

Played a little pretty bird

More pretty bird and hanging out at grandma and grandpa's

We went to a Bee's game and had a great time. The Bee's won with a walk off home run!

The other kids at the Bee's game

Now Blaine has some posting to do. We went on a fun vacation to Lava Hot Springs. Becca started playing soccer and Taylor is an official driver now. The kids are all FINALLY back in school. Nicholas started kindergarten last Friday and is looking forward to the second day tomorrow.

Have a great week!

Baseball Season Coming to a Close

2010-06-02T21:56:00.003-06:00

Baseball is winding down for Nick's team. He has one more game next Monday and then the season will be over.

He got to play catcher one came and put on all the cool gear the catcher gets to wear.

I put my camera in the grass for this shot. Pretty good view with Mt. Timpanogos looming in the background.

Here Nicky has his eye on the ball right before getting a good hit. They played "coach pitch" baseball - the coach would pitch it and if they couldn't hit it after about ten pitches they would bring out a tee to hit it off. Nicky usually hit the first or second pitch. Only one time all season did he have to hit it off the tee.

Photo Shoot for Mothers Day

2010-05-12T09:23:00.011-06:00

I took the kids over to Gardner Village the other day to get some pictures for Jen for Mothers Day. I had them wear their various sports uniforms since that has been the focus of our lives lately.

You can go here for a slideshow: http://s886.photobucket.com/albums/ac62/bma450/May%202010%20Photos/?albumview=slideshow

Here are some of the shots:

First Baseball Game - Finally!!

2010-04-20T21:24:00.003-06:00

The rain cancelled the games last week, so today Nicky finally got to play in a baseball game. The first opponent was the Angels.

And some of them looked...like angels :)

Nicky eyes the ball and makes contact.

Nick and a teammate run to pick up a ground ball...

...and meet the rest of their team to form a Dodger dogpile.

All these years he has watched his sisters and brother get treats after ball games...and now it is finally his turn to reap the rewards of a hard fought game.

It's going to be a fun season!!

Baseball Season starts next week

2010-04-09T15:48:00.003-06:00

Nicholas is on the Dodgers and pretty proud of his new baseball uniform. He wanted to sleep in it last night...

The season should be fun. He is excited and ready to go!!

Sports Sports Sports

2010-03-23T20:23:00.005-06:00

Ah, Springtime. The tulips are starting to push up through the ground. Daylight savings has started so it's no longer dark at 5:30. And spring sports are in full swing.

Nicky has been begging to play baseball for a couple of years. Today he had his first practice with his team. They are the Dodgers, much to Jen's delight. We have been working with him the last few weeks and he is getting pretty good at throwing and catching with his mitt. The hitting is coming along pretty well, too.

Becca wants to try her hand (or should I say feet) at soccer this fall. She was kicking the ball around the field while Nicky's team was practicing this afternoon. She played on a Junior Jazz basketball team over the winter.

Taylor is playing on the Bingham JV lacrosse team. The team has been working out since late January and the games finally started last week. The picture above was March 6th when they had four mini-games. They showed up to the field and there was snow on it from the night before. But that didn't stop them - although sometimes they got snow in their net and thought it was the ball.

Matt just finished up basketball season and he is now on a lacrosse team, too. He had his first practice today (no pictures of that yet). It should be a fun spring going to all these games!!

That's Not Flying...That's Falling With Style!

2010-02-22T22:04:00.003-07:00

Becca got a digital camera from Grandpa Anderson a while back and she likes to take creative pictures with it. This morning before school she set up a photo session with Nicky to see if she could capture him flying. Below are the results:

Pretty amazing shots for an 8-year old with a little cheap digital camera. She figured out when to press the button to allow for the delay in the shutter.

(I'm happy to report that no kids were injured in the making of this blog post)

After the photo session, she decided she wanted to see what she looks like with her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Mirrors are useless in this situation, so she had Nicky take the above picture. Good to see some 3rd grade activities never change.

Weekend in Southern Utah

2010-02-19T17:00:00.010-07:00

We spent last weekend in Hurricane and St. George visiting Grandma and Grandpa and Grammy and Wolfgang and celebrating Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary and Matt's 13th Birthday. Jill and her kids joined in the fun as well. I took a ton of pictures so I am just going to post a bunch of them on here.

We stayed at Grammy and Wolfgang's house in Hurricane. Grammy likes to buy the National Enquirer and Jen was apparently shocked that Dr. Oz is a fake (or maybe the fact that Jen rejected Brad).

Matt, Becca and Nicky waiting to get soaked by the big bucket and the Washington Rec center pool....

And they were not disappointed

Matt got Super Mario Brothers for the Wii for his b-day. Because he's just not spending enough time playing video games. Actually, I can play this classic game with him - good father-son bonding time.

About a week before he turned 13, Matt received his Life Scout rank. He has now officially caught up to his dad in scouting advancement.

We had a little time to go him some balls at the sky mountain golf course (10th fairway is in Grammy & Wolf's back yard). Beautiful red rocks surround this course.

Wolfgang came and gave us a few pointers on how to make the ball go straight.

Later in the day we had a picnic at the park. The tempurature was mid-60's and sunny.

There was plenty of time to play on all the fun features at the park. Here Jill helps Dude climb up to the slide.

Dylan chillin'

Kinlee climbs the rock wall.

Kaitlyn takes it all in and soaks up the sun.

The Golden Anniversary Couple.

Matt lights his own birthday candles. I think there is a Merit Badge for that.

Jen shows fine form throwing the Frisbee.

Not quite 50 years, but coming up on 19.

The kidlins posing in front of the rock wall.

Posing in front of Sand Hollow Reservior.

Golden Anniversary

2010-02-05T06:11:00.006-07:00

Happy Anniversary to my parents who were married 50 years ago today in the Manti Temple.

50 Years, 4 Kids, 15 Grandkids, 1 1/2 great-grandkids later their marriage is still going strong. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for being such good parents and a great example of what a marriage should be.

Have a great day and we will see you and celebrate next weekend!

Scenes from Sanpete County

2010-01-28T11:46:00.003-07:00

I was on a little road trip a few weeks ago and took my trusty camera with me.

Seeing is Believing

2010-01-11T21:28:00.006-07:00

At Nicky's 5-year check-up a couple months ago, the pediatrician suggested we get his eyes checked. Last week we took him to the eye doctor and, well, he is now a proud owner of new glasses...just like dad's.

He was actually pretty excited to get them. It took a few days for them to come in at the Dr.'s office and we finally went and picked them up today. He even got a case and some cleaner with them.

He picked out some Op frames with a surfer on the side. (I didn't even know Op was still around - they made great shorts in the 80's).

His eyes got a little tired on the first day. He had to take them off tonight while he was playing Wii with Matt and Becca. But he can't wait to wear them to school tomorrow - maybe he will be able to see the board now (plus the glasses really attract the ladies).

Catching Up

2009-11-14T13:50:00.007-07:00

Long time no blog. We have been busy - but today it is snowing outside and we have no football game so I guess I will try to catch this thing up.

We went on vacation to Southern California the end of September. Disneyland was all decked out in Halloween decorations. We had a great time. Soarin' over California is still the best ride of all time, but the Toy Story Midway Mania ride was really fun, too. Lines were pretty long, but not as long as last time when we went over a spring break.

The beach was nice. We drove down to Newport twice and dipped our toes in the sand. The kids love the ocean. Too bad we don't get to see it more often.

We also visited Universal Studios and Sea World while we were there. Not sure why we posed with Dora - but this is one that we are all in.

Taylor has been playing on a fall 7 on 7 Lacrosse league and practicing with the Bingham team. One of the funnest games was when they played against the boys team. They (the girls) were ahead at halftime, but the boys ended up barely beating them.

They played their 7 on 7 league games on Wedneday nights under the lights. That made for some cold games. Taylor will be playng on the Bingham JV team in the spring.

Matt's football team has had games every Saturday since the end of August. They went 7-2 in the regular season. They barely lost to Alta (8-6) the first game, and lost 28-6 to East in the last game. East was undefeated and we were only one of two teams that even scored on them.

Then we had to play East in the first playoff game. This time we came out ready and scored on them first. We had them beat 7-0 until the middle of the 4th quarter when they tied the score. We had a chance to win on the last play of the game from the 11 yard line, but couldn't get it in. We finally lost 26-20 after 3 overtimes in a gut wrenching game.

It was a fun first year of football.

We had a combined Halloween / Birthday birthday party at our house. Above are this years Haloween costume entries. I think the chick in the 80's workout outfit wins the prize...but Tigger is a close second.

Even Grammy and Wolfgang got into the act with their cool costume hats.

Finally, I had a Birthday. Although no one blogged my birthday (until now), Becca did make me a poster. I have made a "Happy Birthday" poster for all the kids on their birthdays since Taylor was little. This year Becca and Nicky made one for me and I loved it. "42 years old woo-hoo!"

I also got a Utah Snuggy or Snugli or whatever you call those blanket things with arms. For the Utah fan who has everything!!

First Tooth Lost

2009-09-19T22:18:00.002-06:00

After turning five only about a month ago, Nicky lost his first tooth today. I guess it makes sense that he would start losing them early since he started getting teeth when he was only 10 weeks old. It also helps if you bite on a blanket and your sister yanks on the blanket.

Notice he also got a new spikey haircut. Spikey when the gel is in, but I call him "fuzzy' when it's not spiked up.

The official season begins

2009-09-08T23:04:00.002-06:00

Matt's football season officially began last Saturday. A couple days before the game they got their game uniforms and had their picture taken before they got them all dirty:

The first "real" game was against Alta. It was a much tougher test than the practice game against Copper Hills. Alta won 8-6. Matt's team had the ball near the goal line for a touchdown that would have won the game, but fumbled the snap between the center and the QB and Alta recovered. I'm sure they will learn from their mistakes.

Matt did catch a pass that scored the one touchdown for his team. It was caught on video and Matt put together this little production of the play (if playing pro sports doesn't pan out for him, he could go on to TV and film production):

Kickoff Football Season

2009-08-30T09:27:00.014-06:00

Matt is a football fanatic and has been for several years now. He will watch whatever football game is on...College, NFL, Arena League, Canadian....you get the picture. So this year he decided to actually play football. He has been working his butt off practicing and conditioning with his team for the last 5 weeks. He plays for the Bingham Midget (that's what they call the 12-year old league - midgets) Bronze Team.

Yesterday they had their first game - a practice game against Copper Hills. Above they are warming up before the game. Matt (#87) plays tight end and wide receiver on offense. On defense he plays corner back, linebacker, and defensive end. He also kicks off and returns kickoffs.

Here he is practicing catching kicks. On the first play of the game, Matt recieved the kickoff and ran it all the way to midfield where he got tackled hard right in front of Jen. She got a little emotional about that, but luckily Matt jumped right up.

Here Matt helps the center work on his long snaps. His team doesn't have a ton of really big guys, but they are athletic and fast so when we saw the Copper Hills team they were about to play yeterday, we were a bit worried because they had some really big kids on the team.

But once the game started it was a ton of fun. Matt's team was awesome on defense and didn't allow the other team to move the ball much. They did not allow them to score at all.

Here Matt is chasing down the Copper Hills QB. That kid was running for his life the whole day. Matt's team won the game 36-0. The offense was awesome moving the ball down the field pretty much at will. Matt caught two passes and ran them both in for touchdowns. I think he is having a really good time with this.

At the Bingham complex there are 6 fields and 6 games going on all the time. Needless to say it is crazy there with all the people. Parking is a nightmare. This little team form Kearns was warming up right next to Matt's team and I couldn't resist snapping a picture. I guess I really am a Cougar at heart.

The Squashmore and the Sevey

2009-08-27T21:02:00.005-06:00

Big events this week at the Anderson household. Taylor started 10th grade at Bingham High School. Matt started 7th grade at Elk Ridge Middle School. This is the only year all 4 kids will be at different schools with Becca in 2nd grade at Elk Meadows Elementary and Nicky as a Redshirt preschooler at Sunshine Square. Lots of schedules to juggle.

Here is Tay on her first day. She catches the bus at 6:45 am. She is on the block schedule where she goes to 4 classes a day for an hour and a half and then the other four classes the next day.

Matt is out the door at 7:30 and has all 7 of his classes every day. So far I think his favorite subject is lunch. No more recess, but he does have a gym class every day.

Becca is in 3rd grade and has Mr. Lovell as her teacher. He is one of the students' favorite teachers in the school. He is a joke teller and Becca comes home with a new joke or two almost every day.

I didn't get a picture of Nicky's first day of school. But here is a bonus shot of him on his Birthday in his new Utah football jersey. He has Miss Kim again this year and has been doing really well. He is the oldest in the class and is setting a good example for the younger kids.

Nicky is 5!!

2009-08-12T08:18:00.005-06:00

Five years has gone by really fast - our baby boy is growing up. Below are some pictures from the last quick 5 years. For more click here.

Nicky with his sisters and brother the day he was born

Nicky just a couple weeks old with Matt

Nicky and Becca playing in the family room

Having a laugh with Tay

Easter eggs with mom

Say Cheese!!

At the Utah football game

Wearing Matt's football stuff (Go Bingham!!)

Shepherd in the Christmas play

At the zoo

Big boy bike

On Traxx with dad

Happy Birthday, Nicholas! We love you

Daredevil Daughters

2009-08-08T15:06:00.003-06:00

Last night we were picking up Matt from football practice at South Jordan Park and they were having something called the "National Night Out" there. They had a helicopter and police dog demonstrations, and well, some snakes and spiders were there for some reason, too.

Becca held a Burmese Python

Taylor held a Tarantula spider.

Pretty brave girls!! I didn't have my camera with me (which is fairly unusual), so I snapped these with my cell phone camera. Not too bad for a little cell phone...

Daniel and Jessi Get Hitched

2009-08-05T11:22:00.008-06:00

Congratulations to Daniel and Jessi!! They were Married this last Saturday August 1st in the Jordan River Temple. The Fitts were in town from Oregon as well as a Jessi's family. Below are just a few of the 850+ photos I took of the event.

24th of July

2009-07-25T14:40:00.002-06:00

Shoot the Moon

2009-07-11T15:13:00.003-06:00

Ever tried to take a picture of the full moon and all you get is this big glowing ball?

Above is what you get if you just shoot with your camera's regular settings.

But if you set the camera to manual and use an aperture of anywhere from f/5.6 to f/11 and a shutter speed of about 1/200 of a second you can get see the moon's detail.

In this shot I used a flash to make the house/patio show up in the picture and the same manual settings made the detail of the moon show.

Summertime...

2009-06-27T15:11:00.002-06:00

Looks like summer is finally here after having the rainiest June I can remember.

We set up the kiddie pool and Becca and Nicky are having a blast...even though it won't hold air. Maybe it's time to get a bigger one.

The kids got their faces painted at the zoo the other night at Jen's company summer party. It was cool because we got the whole zoo to ourselves for the evening.

You know it's been raining a lot when...

2009-06-18T21:19:00.002-06:00

Not only are there tons of mushrooms in your lawn, but they also start appearing on your trees...

Imitating a Legend

2009-06-15T21:57:00.005-06:00

Jill and I were at Lagoon the other day with our families and saw one of those photo booths that take really bad black and white photo strips. So we decided we would try to create an image that would attempt to live up to the greatness of the classic masterpiece photo of our two older siblings that has apparently been banned from ever appearing on any blog.

Below is the result. A feeble effort, I know. Yes, that is Jill whose face you can see half of there on the right. We didn't exactly get it centered properly (although we were centered in the little thingy you look into). Maybe we should have had mom and dad there to help us do it right.

I, for one, would like to see the true masterpiece come forth and show its greatness to the world.

Becca's Day

2009-06-07T23:05:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Becca was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a very nice day. She was the only one in our ward with an eighth birthday last month, so we got the whole program to ourselves.

Posing with mom right before she was baptized. The water was a little cold!!
With dad in all dressed in white ready to go.

Most of us got to participate in the program. Taylor played the piano, Matt said a prayer, Jen gave a talk, and Nicky watched from the front row. Thanks to Grandma Anderson for giving a talk, Grammy Zander for saying a prayer, and Aunt Kath for leading the music.

This is today right before we left for church. She got to go up on the stand with the Bishop during sacrament meeting and be introduced as the "newest member of the ward."

Congratulations, Rebecca, we are proud of you.

Happy 15th Birthday Taylor!

2009-05-26T00:13:00.006-06:00

She will be celebrating her birthday tonight with another Taylor - Taylor Swift! She got tickets to the concert tonight as part of her birthday fun. School is out in 8 days and she will be free as a bird for the summer and preparing for big things - High School and driving!! The last year has gone fast, but there has been a lot going on - it was tough limit it to the pictures below from events in just the last 12 months. (See here for some older pictures going way back).

First day of 9th Grade

Facebookin'

Oakcrest Camp Summer of 2008

Teaching Becca and Nicky the fine art of coloring Easter Eggs

With cousin Sarah on Grandma and Grandpa's front lawn

In the Play "Cinderella" at her school

Evading would-be tacklers for a touchdown in the Turkey Bowl

Chillin' with some tunes

Watching the Utes whoop Alabama in the Sugar Bowl

At grandma's trying on her dress for the play

Enjoying a rasperry shake at Bear Lake

Going down the bouncy slide with Nicky

Enduring those annoying zoobies

Happy Birthday, Taylor. Hope it is a great one. We love you very much!!

8 is GREAT!

2009-05-21T06:42:00.008-06:00

Happy Birthday, Becca!! This is a milestone day - 8 years old. Becca is a very sweet girl. She is like a second mother to Nicky and always has a great attitude and a smile on her face. Here are some pictures just from the last year: (And click here for last year's blog entry with older pictures)

With her cousin, Olivia on Halloween. Dorothy and the Princess
Under the mistletoe with Nicky - woo hoo!

Glamour shot on the basketball court. Jr. Jazz never looked so cute.

Two beautiful sisters with their hats Grandma made

With mom on a trip to Bear Lake

Card game with Kinlee and Grandma & Grandpa

Christmas morning with Matt and the Cat

She seems pretty upset that she got plastered with silly string

With Grandma Davis at Christmas

Dipping her feet in Bear Lake

Shoveling in style

Ready to ride the Rocket with Dad

Happy Birthday, Becca. We love you!!

Wicked Weekend

2009-05-19T23:45:00.004-06:00

As part of Jen's 40th Birthday Celebration, we planned a little getaway in San Francisco last weekend. It was a lot of fun - lots to do and see in this crazy city.

First item on the agenda was to see "Wicked." We couldn't get tickets in SLC, but they were not that hard to come by in SF. Everyone talks about how awesome this musical is so I was sure it would not be as good as I was imagining. But it lived up to the hype - it was amazing!! For those who may not know, it is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. Yes, the main character of the story is green. In the end it is revealed why she is green and who her father is. I was betting on either Kermit the Frog or Yoda, but neither of those is correct. I won't spoil it - you'll have to see for yourself!!

We took a tour of the city in a big green bus that stopped and let us take pictures in several spots around the city. The above shot was taken from "Twin Peaks" - one of the highest hills in the very hilly city.

Another stop was the Golden Gate Bridge which was covered in fog except for the bottom near the water. The last time I was in San Francisco I was a young kid and really excited to see the famous bridge. We crossed it in the car but it was also covered in fog back then and I didn't really get to see it.

Later in the day when we were up on Twin Peaks, the top of the bridge was poking up through the fog. So I guess I got to see it all, just not all at once.

We also visited Alcatraz Island and took a tour of the prison. All the rows in the prison have names like street names. We were surprised not to find "Iron Gate Road" in there with all the well, you know, iron gates around. But, we did find Michigan Ave.

The local mall "Westfield Center" is home to the world's only spiral escalators (at least that's the line the tour bus driver fed us). It was an extra special treat going up and down these believing that they were the only ones in the world. I later found out they are not the only ones in the world. But they were the first ones in the Western Hemisphere.

Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 had a lot of fun shops and restraunts. We rode the Trolley (cable car) from our hotel to Fisherman's Wharf. That was a lot of fun. We walked or used public transportation the whole time - renting a car is useless there. There is nowhere to park. We also visited Chinatown - which is HUGE. All kinds of trinket shops, restraunts, and camera shops for just blocks and blocks and blocks.

We even went to a SF Giants vs. NY Mets baseball game - my first ever Major League game. The game was sold out and we didn't have tickets (a friend at work who is big into baseball told me we could easily pick up cheap tickets to the game at the gate because "the Giants suck") so we had to turn to the scalpers. Luckily, we got there a little late and the scalpers were getting desperate so we were able to get seats right behind 3rd base for below face value. The Giants lost 8-6 after leading 4-1 so maybe my friend was right about them. But the baseball park is beautiful and a very fun environment right on the edge of the bay. In fact a home run hit hard over the right field fence splashes into the San Franciso Bay.

Fantastic Forty!

2009-05-07T22:35:00.007-06:00

Today is a milestone Birthday for Jen - the big 4-0! She is taking it pretty well passing into the "Over 40 Club."

I made her a Birthday Cake. This is the first time I have ever tried this - I thought it turned out pretty good for my first try. Maybe I will be into making pies AND cakes now. But I'm not going to quit my day job.

Jen has been into the exercising lately. She goes to classes with some neighborhood friends at the Rec. Center three mornings a week (5:45 am!!) and the other two mornings she runs with her sister, Kath. I got her some new excercise clothes for her birthday.

She got to tend her 2 month old niece, Katelyn, for about an hour today. Just long enough to curl her hair.

Blowing out the candles was harder than it may look. Those are special "decade candles" on the cake :)

Jeff completed the exercise theme by giving her a water bottle and a yoga mat (yoga class is every Wednesday). Kath got her a candle warmer and candle, Mom and Dad Anderson (click here for Mom's post and a classic picture) got her a new waffle iron (we tried it out this morning and the waffles were great!)

Dad and Wendy got into the "over the hill" action and got her some old Doris Day movies and a book - "How Not to Look Old." It has some pretty good ideas.

Happy Birthday, Jen. I love you!

Pics From the Weekend

2009-05-06T23:29:00.005-06:00

Big Boy Bike

2009-05-06T21:14:00.004-06:00

Nicky has been begging me to put training wheels on a little bike that we have. I was a bit hesitant to do it because they get so used to the training wheels it makes it harder when it comes down to actually learning to ride a bike for real (yeah, the part where Dad has to run behind them down the street).

I am a strong believer that peer pressure is the best bike riding teacher. Matt begged me to take his training wheels off when he saw kids across the street riding around with no training wheels. He learned that same day pretty much on his own (after a few falls).

Nicky and I went to the store and found some training wheels and he is riding around happy as can be. His best little buddy, Eli (a couple months younger than him), rides a two-wheeler without training wheels. Doesn't seem to bother Nicky a bit. Guess I better get in shape for the running.

Back To Soccer

2009-04-18T22:20:00.004-06:00

Matt joined a competitive soccer team this spring. He played recreation soccer for several years, but didn't play last fall and missed it. His friend, Cody, asked him to join his comp soccer team this spring. We get to go to further away places with this league other than just around South Jordan, Herriman, and Riverton.

Last night he had a game in Tooele. We took the whole family on a Friday night family night. The game was at 7:oo so the second half was under the lights. We were bracing ourselves for the cold, but the weather was quite pleasant.

The game in Tooele ended in a blow out with Matt's team (USA) clobbering Tooele 6-1. In the shot above you can see Nicky running up the hill behind Matt; and Jen and Taylor watching the action off to the left.

Today the game was in Park City. They have artificial turf on the field so it was cool like playing at Rice-Eccles Stadium. However, it makes the ball roll very fast - (good thing Matt is fast like a Gazelle - NL).

The weather was a bit chilly in Park City - mostly beacuse of the wind. Jen and Taylor watched from the car (the parking lot has a great view of the field). Matt's team beat Park City 2-0. After the game we went to Granny's in Heber only to find that they don't open until May 8th! So we did the only thing we could do - went and bought a BB gun and forced granny to open the store and make us some shakes and burgers (and ride the rides, too). Just kidding - we went to plan B - the Dairy Keen in Heber with the cool train in the ceiling. They have pretty good shakes there, too.

A Frickin' Okapi

2009-04-17T21:49:00.003-06:00

For a couple of months, Becca has been working on her big "Africa Report" for 2nd grade. She chose to report on a very unique animal that dwells in Africa - an Okapi (pronounced "oh-copy")

Today they had all the parents come and see the projects. She drew a picture of an Okapi all by herself and wrote the report all on her own as well. She also made an Okapi's tongue (12 inches long) out of modeling clay. The Okapi cleans it's eyes and ears out with it's long tongue.

Here is a close-up of her drawing. She found a tutorial video on the internet that helped her draw this animal step-by step. Good job Becca!

Cinderella, Cinderella

2009-04-05T22:22:00.009-06:00

All three nights of the play came off wonderfully. Taylor had a great time participating again this year. I think one of her favorite parts is going to the cast party the last night after the play is done.

Here is Tay with one of her cast member friends showing off their flowers.

The whole family went Friday night, plus Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came with us that night, too. Grandpa Davis, Wendy and Lizzy came and saw the show on Thursday night.

Cinderella Story

2009-04-01T10:32:00.014-06:00

Last night Jen and I went to see Taylor's dress rehearsal of the musical "Cinderella" at Elk Ridge Middle School. This was the night for parents to show up and take pictures and videos. For the occasion, I rented a lens for my camera that is supposed to be good in low light without using a flash (I could have bought it for only $1,700). You can be the judge from the pictures below as to if I should invest the money to buy it:

All the peasant girls are thrilled when it is announced "The Prince is throwing a Ball"

At the Ball, Taylor dances right next to Cinderella and the Prince. Notice the dress Taylor is wearing - this is mom's (Grandma A) high school prom dress that she altered for Taylor to wear in the play. Thanks for all the hard work, mom - it turned out beautiful!!

Taylor takes center stage in this scene right between the Prince and Cinderella.

All the girls get a chance to try on the glass slipper. While waiting in line, Taylor is coming up with some "calculations" showing that the slipper will fit her foot.

Here she is showing her calcualtions to the prince and his royal glass slipper fitter guy.

She tries on the shoe and her calculations are not quite what she thought.

But she does end up with some royal guy that works for the King :) Not too shabby...

The performances are at 7pm tonight, Thursday and Friday. She has spent a lot of time and worked really hard and the play has come together very nicely. We are very proud of her. I will post some videos on another blog entry.

The Tin Grin Is IN!!

2009-03-16T18:36:00.002-06:00

Just a second - gotta update my facebook status

2009-03-14T10:57:00.001-06:00

"Nate is taking family pics, lol"

Why So Serious??

2009-03-14T10:54:00.000-06:00

Toothy Times

2009-03-05T13:48:00.004-07:00

It has been obvious for quite a while that Matt would need a bit of orthodontic work done. Well, that time has finally arrived. A couple months ago the orthodontist put a "spreader" in the roof of his mouth which we had to crank one notch every night. This spread out his top teeth so that they would have some room to work with. About three weeks ago he was done with the cranking and the braces went on the top teeth last week:

As for Becca, her teeth have some challenges as well. She is going to do a "phase 1" and also had to have the spreader put in her mouth to create room. We have been cranking it every night for the last few weeks and Monday when she went to in for a check, the orthodontist said, "Uh, yeah, we're done." She now has a gap between her front teeth that David Letterman, Michael Strahan, and Spongebob would be proud of:

Her braces will go on in a couple of weeks. She will wear them for a while and get them off until she is older when they will go back on again (I guess that will be "phase 2"). All this is supposed to correct her underbite (and make her teeth straight and pretty, of course).

Matt turns the big 1-2

2009-02-14T10:34:00.015-07:00

Matt was born at 12:03 am on Valentines Day 1997. Jen has always called him her Valentine baby. This year is a big milestone - he is excited to be in the Young Mens and officially in Boy Scouts (he has already earned his Star). I have a ton of pictures of Matt - here are a few of them over the years:

Happy Birthday Matt - we love you!!

I love a parade!

2009-01-17T17:39:00.004-07:00

Actually, I'm not really much of a parade goer. They are usually way too long and too hot and I have no tolerance for bagpipe music. But if the Utah football team is involved it is a different story.

Matt, Becca and I went downtown yesterday afternoon to the Utes Victory parade. You Coogers may mock, but hey they won every game. What more could they have done? Doesn't the only team that wins every game win the championship? See this article if you have any doubts.

The day was a bit brisk, but the sun was shining on us. King Louie was high-fiving and signing autographs.

Brian Johnson holds up the hardware, as coach Kyle Whittingham looks on. I have a really good, sensitive camera and I swear when I went back to look at my image that trophy was in Brian's hand. Guess it was meant to be Heh Heh...

Confetti flew at the City / County building where they held a rally after the parade. A bunch of boring politicians spoke along with coach Kyle Wittingham, Brian Johnson, Louie Sakoda and the U President Michael Young and Athletic Director, Chris Hill.

Football is over until September. I know I have posted a lot about the Utes, but wow it was a fun year.

Are the Holidays Over?

2009-01-14T14:09:00.007-07:00

I have been a slacker the last few weeks as far as blogging goes. Just haven't felt like it. Guess it was all the ham, toffee curls, crackers and cheese, ham, chocolate oranges, sparkling apple juice, numerous types of candy and ham that made me sluggish and not want to post. But the Holidays have come and gone and they were a nice break. Getting back to the reality of work, school and actually having to get up in the morning before 8 am is tough. Here are few items to catch me up:

A parent likes to see the kids hugging after giving each other a gift. I think these two adore each other. Nicky was heard to say the other day: "Becca, how do you know everything?" after she helped him do something on the computer.

On Christmas Eve afternoon, Mom and Dad treated us to a meal at the Golden Corral buffet. Afterwards we went to their house and exchanged gifts. Christian was all over the wrapping paper.

Jen makes a really good breakfast on Christmas morning. Even this monster Christmas storm wasn't going to keep people from showing up.

The kids were happy when they got a Wii. As you can tell, Nicky really gets into the boxing (back away form the TV!!). Becca kicks my butt in bowling almost every day. Matt and Taylor get more into the tennis and baseball.

At the annual nativity play at Grammy and Wolfgang's house, Becca was Mary (with Baby Alive playing the part of Jesus). Nicky was a Shepherd.

It can't be Christmas without the famous "Grammies Jammies" picture. I guess Nate was too hot to don the jammies for the picture.

The day after New Year's the Utes took Alabama, yes, Alabama to the woodshed beating them 31-17 in a Sugar Bowl that was not as close as what the score reads. They are the National Champions. The BCS can go suck on an egg.

The Polar Express

2008-12-24T09:07:00.002-07:00

Okay, so it wasn't the Polar Express - it was Trax and it was packed last night. No one danced in the aisles and served us hot chocolate. I haven't ridden Trax for a few years - I thought public transportation was supposed to be cheap ($4.50 each for a round trip ticket downtown - luckily we could buy the family pass for $16.50). Last time I rode it was like $1.50 for a round trip. Oh well, it was fun - the kids loved it (especially Nicky). We rode the train all the way to The Gateway and had dinner at Rumbi. Then we ventured over to Temple Square to see the lights.

There were a lot of people at Temple Square. The temperature was cold, but not bone-chilling. We saw the Nativity Program and then went up to see the Christus Statue and the Luke 2 movie. They were shuffling people through pretty quickly so they could accomodate everyone.

The tabernacle was open so we went in and sat down and listened to a guy playing Christmas music on the organ for a few minutes. I don't think the kids had ever been in there before. I remember going there for General Conference when I was a kid and getting packed in there like sardines. That place seemed huge back then, but last night it seemed pretty small compared to the new conference center. It was a pleasant Christmas Eve eve (or Christmas Adam as the kids call it). Beats doing last minute shopping!!

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

2008-12-23T15:09:00.003-07:00

Nicky gave his first talk in Primary a couple weeks ago - all dressed up in his suit and all. We wrote his talk down (so dad could remember), but he didn't really need any help. He was able to give the talk based on the pictures we would hold up. Before he gave the talk, Taylor asked him what his talk is on and he said "paper".

He got some "Hulk Hands" as a gift at the Davis Christmas party. We figured he wasn't hitting people nearly enough and needs some incentive to do some wallopping of his siblings and parents (at least it is softer now).

Jingle Bell ROCK

2008-12-14T16:05:00.008-07:00

Becca had her Christmas tumbling program yesterday. Her group did their routine to the song "Jingle Bell Rock". It was a great performance. Becca had her moves very polished - any time we heard the song she would break into her routine. I understand the people waiting in the waiting room at the dentist's office got a little preview earlier this week.

Here are a couple of video clips. Thanks to my wing man, Matt, for running the video camera for me (I'm too much into the still camera these days). Nice shooting, Mattman.

Happy Holidays!!

2008-12-12T16:08:00.004-07:00

I have been to New Orleans 4 times in the last 5 years, but I can't quite swing a trip down there for New Years to watch the Utes play in the Sugar Bowl. I regret not making the trip 4 years ago when the Utes went to the Fiesta Bowl, and vowed that I would go the next time they made it to a BCS Bowl. Well, I was hoping for Arizona again this year - maybe "once in a lifetime" will happen for the third time in the next few years. New Orleans is 2000 miles away and the flights are over $1,000 round trip (they were about $500 each time I went there on business - those airline price gougers!!) I guess I could always hop on one of the charter buses to the Big Easy and spend 50 hours on a bus with a bunch of drunk strangers (cue the drunk Ute fan jokes).

Well, I hope the Utes do well against the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide. It will be a huge challenge for them, but I think they are up for it. It will pretty much be a home game for Alabama, since it is about 300 miles from the Alabama campus (Tuscaloosa, AL) to New Orleans. That's about the equivilant of driving from SLC to St. George.

And good luck to the Cougars of BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl and TCU against Boise St. in the Poinsettia Bowl. Holiday cheer all around!

Turkey Bowl 2008

2008-11-30T22:21:00.003-07:00

Another Thanksgiving tradition is the annual Turkey Bowl. Usually it is the Cougars vs. the Utes but we all know how one-sided that would be so this year we picked teams with Matt and Jake as Captains.

In order to avoid injury, we use flags instead of playing full-on tackle football. In the above scene JJ drops back to pass (with his Hannah Montana Jersey on). Jake is pretty open on the right side, but do you think he would throw that way?

Emotions can run high in this hard fought battle and sometimes we have to remind certain people to just pull out the flags and stop the body slamming. Oh, and by the way, if you have the ball and come anywhere near Raini, you can take it to the bank that she got your flag. She has perfected the two-handed flag grab.

The game ends when it is too dark to play anymore and we go in and eat pie. This year's game featured a fumbled kid, several pick-sixes, and even a hook and ladder for a TD. I'm sure Jake and Matt are already going over the films and scheming for next year.

Pie, Pies, Pies, Yeah

2008-11-30T21:51:00.004-07:00

Making apple pies on Thanksgiving Eve is a tradition at the Anderson home. It started before Taylor was even born. One Thanksgiving I decided to see if I could make an apple pie. I peeled and cut up the apples by hand and made a pretty good pie that first year.

Over the years I have gotten better at it and even added a dutch apple pie a few years ago. These are this year's entry along with the cookie turkeys we made this year. We got the cookie turkey idea last Thanksgiving from Brandon and Camille (who just had baby Luke a few days ago - congrats).

These days I don't have to peal or slice the apples by hand. And I have plenty of helpers. All the kids enjoy taking turns using the apple peeler/slicer/corer thingy.

After an apple has gone through the machine, you end up with skinny apple peel about 4 feet long. Becca and Nicky like to play with and eat these long peelings.

Hard to Resist

2008-11-25T15:36:00.004-07:00

It's just too easy to make fun of BYU in the wake of the game last weekend, I wasn't going to do it, but since most of these things were emailed to me by BYU fans I figure, why not!!

Someone got their hands on one of the "magic coins" Bronco Mendenhall had made for each of the team members at the beginning of the year. I guess "The Quest" was accomplished after all!

My cougar brother-in-law sent me the above image. The Ute defense enjoyed a full box of them Saturday and highly recommend them.

Last year BYU receiver Austin Collie caught a pass on 4th and 18 that basically won the game for BYU and later was quoted as saying "If you're living right, magic will happen." Well if that is the case, his QB has some big-time repenting to do this year.

Utes Rule...Coogers Drool

2008-11-23T18:21:00.010-07:00

Yesterday was a great day for a football game. Temperature in the 50's. #7 Utah (11-0) vs. #14 BYU (10-1). Never a bigger game with so much on the line in the 112 year history of this rivalry.

You could tell it was going to be intense when the teams started brawling before the game even started. Shortly after the above picture was taken, BYU players started to do their pre-game "Haka Dance" and Utah players would have none of that on our field - so they ran over to stop it and the refs and coaches had to pull them apart. Maybe the Coogers should have saved some of that fire and emotion for the actual playing of the game...

When we took our seats of course we had a bunch of Zoobies behind us. Anytime BYU did something good the whole section behind us would get really loud. Luckily that didn't happen very often. Toward the end of the game they of course brought out the 1984 national championship smack. C'mon BYU fans - live in the now!! (and cut that mullet).

The game was close until the beginning of the 4th quarter when BYU QB Max Hall decided to start throwing the ball to the guys in red instead of the guys in white. 5 interceptions and 1 lost fumble doomed the kitty-cats. After the last 2 years being ahead only to have the game ripped away from us at the last minute, it was nice to have a big cushion at the end so we could relax and have fun the last few minutes and chant BCS! BCS! over and over again.

With the win, the 12-0 Utes are going to a BCS bowl for the 2nd time in 5 years! We are no longer BCS busters - we are regulars. Sorry BYU, maybe next year you can have "The Quest II" but for this year the quest belonged to the Utes.

It's ON!!!

2008-11-10T15:11:00.006-07:00

I was going to wait until next week to do this, but when I get "GO COUGARS!" as a comment on my innocent little snowman post it's time to roll out the rivalry talk. I guess we can do this for two weeks instead of one. The Coogers have a tough game on Saturday vs. Air Force before they can even think about the storm that is coming their way on Nov. 22.

White Out

2008-11-09T16:08:00.004-07:00

The other morning we woke up to this...
The kids were pretty excited to get out and shovel the snow. Hope that excitement is still there come January / February.

Luckily, we got JUST enough snow in the back yard to make this snowman. Becca and Nicky had to use every last flake to get it done.

BLACKOUT!!

2008-11-07T13:40:00.008-07:00

Last night was a very unforgetable night if you are a Utah Football fan. The Utes had a "blackout" and asked all the fans to wear black to this game instead of red. The team was wearing black uniforms for the first time ever. There were a few fans who didn't get the memo, but for the most part everyone wore black - it looked pretty cool and everyone was pumped up for a big game with #11 ranked TCU (the Utes are #10).

For most of the game it looked like the blackout might turn into a funeral for the Utes hopes of getting into a BCS bowl game. TCU scored 10 points right off the bat and things seemed pretty bleak for the Utes as they struggled to move the ball on offense. But the Utah defense buckled down after the 1st quarter and shut down TCU the rest of the game.

Up 10-6 deep into the 4th quarter, TCU missed 2 short field goals. With under 3 minutes left in the game and after the second missed field goal, you could feel it in the air that Utah was going to go do something they hadn't done all game - score a touchdown. They drove 70 yards and scored the winning TD with 47 seconds to spare. The crowd went crazy. We were high-fiving and hugging people we didn't know. That was the loudest and craziest I have ever seen it in Rice-Eccles Stadium.

After games like these, they let fans go down onto the field (they have no choice because the student section storms the field as soon as the clock shows 0). So we went down on the field to take in the fun atmosphere and bask in the glow of being 10-0.

The U might want to find out who these two houligans are - because I believe they pulled down the goalpost. I hope they don't make their parents pay for that!!!

WHAT A FUN NIGHT!! Unbelievable win by Utah. Now we just have to take care of that pesky team down south.

Historic Day...

2008-11-05T10:52:00.004-07:00

Yesterday the USA elected it's first African American President. As I walked up to the the voting machine I still wasn't sure who I was going to vote for. A very tough decision. I usually align myself with the Republican Party, but am pretty unhappy with the position our country is in right now with the wars and the economy in the toilet. I won't say who I voted for but I will say that I hope now that Obama has been elected that everyone can get behind him to pull our country out of this mess. I hope his leadership is as dymanic as his speeches are.
I think both he and McCain gave great speeches last night and both were aware of the historical significance of this election. McCain was gracious in defeat and vowed to be an American first and foremost and to support Obama. Obama praised McCain as a great American war hero and worthy opponent.

My only regret is that "Superdell" didn't get elected as Utah's governor. What a wild ride that would have been... Maybe instead of calling Jon Hunstman the anti-christ, he should have promised everyone a ride on his Ultralight or whatever you call it. That probably would have gotten him more votes.

Halloween Part 3

2008-11-01T14:57:00.005-06:00

Friday, for the third day in a row, we were celebrating Halloween. This time it was actually Halloween. My work always likes to have employees' kids come in and trick-or-treat at the office - its' s a chance to take in a large amount of candy in a short time. The kids are always very eager to come.

Here is the Princess, Batman, the Hobo, and the Hip-Hop farmer after the first round of trick-or treating of the day.

Just as we were leaving this guy showed up at my work. I think we left just in time. He did look at Nicky in his Batman costume and say something like..."Why would I want to kill you? You...you complete me." Whatever that means...

Well after getting a good amount of candy at my work it was time to get down to the main event - MORE TRICK-OR-TREATING late into the evening. After all the candy-getting was done the haul was counted and we got... A LOT of candy. There goes my diet or (any resmblence of being on one) for the next couple weeks.

Halloween Part 2

2008-11-01T14:36:00.003-06:00

On Thursday night, we had a little Halloween / October B-day party at our house. Grammy, Jake and Raini all celebrate their birthdays in October. The weather was incredible - the temperature reached almost 80 that day and it was pleasant in the backyard late into the evening.

What's Halloween without a rousing game of Halloween Bingo? Candy corn is perfect to play Bingo with - nobody wants to EAT those nasty things.

" Eat the donut off the String" is a challenging game we like to play at Halloween time. The mini donuts can be eaten in one bite if you line your mouth up just right. Maybe next year we will try bobbing for french fries.

Josh has grown his hair out a bit since we saw him last. Maybe he's waiting to cut it until his Dallas Cowboys win a playoff game. That may be a while - can you say Rapunzel?

Here are all the kiddies in their costumes. 1 hip-hop farmer, 1 lacross player, 2 princesses, 2 batmans (or is that batmen?), 1 Witch, 1 Tigger, 1 Dorothy, 1 Hobo, 1 Nerd, 1 Little Mermaid, 1 Peapod, 1 Ladybug, and 1 JJ.

Halloween Part 1

2008-11-01T14:24:00.002-06:00

Wednesday night there was a primary Halloween party at the church hosted by the Youn Men and Young Women. There was a lot of different things to do at the party...

For example, Becca played super-sized game of "Whack a Mole" (or maybe it was whack a deacon with a painted face).

Nicky, I mean Batman, did some "pumpkin bowling". Those things don't roll very straight. After a few tries he was able to knock down some pins.

Taylor and a few of her fellow Mia Maids hosted a pumpkin patch for the little kids to find treats in. A hip-hop farmer, a bee, a lacrosse player and spider girl can be found in many pumpkin patches I guess.

Out with the Old...

2008-11-01T12:48:00.004-06:00

Taylor spends a fair amount of time doing homework. Not much time playing with barbies. So a little trip to IKEA a week ago was a great time to get a desk to replace the barbie house that has been in her room forever. The only time the Barbie house got any action is when Becca and some of her friends play with them.

Here is Taylor doing homework at her new desk. Her room is quite large... she now has a desk, full size bed, dresser, fish tank and still enough room for ballroom dancing in the middle.

The barbie house has been relocated to the play area in the basement. Probably a better place so Becca and her friends don't have to hang out in Taylor's room anymore.

The Utes Good Luck Charm

2008-10-18T22:40:00.002-06:00

We have season tickets to Utah Football games. Nicky goes with us a couple times a year when we know the weather is going to be good and the game won't be too late. Every time he has come, the Utes have taken their opponent to the woodshed. Last year he went when we beat UCLA 44-6 and when we beat San Diego State 23-7. Today we took him to the game and the Utes beat Colorado State 49-16!! I think we need to take him to the TCU and BYU games next month...

The only problem is about halfway through the 1st quarter he starts asking "Is the game almost over?" By halftime he is fit to be tied and really wants to go home. That is when we head to the ice cream stand. That gets him through the 3rd quarter and somehow cheers him up to stay to the end (we don't go home early - ever. Matt doesn't allow that).

Today was a great day for a football game. Mid-70's and sunny. We actually got a little sunburned.
Oh, and Cooger fans - this is what 8-0 looks like :) As we were driving home from the game we went past Deseret Industries and there was a big line-up of cars - they were in a lane that said "Drop off "The Quest" T-Shirts Here".

Pumpkins and Paint

2008-10-18T22:17:00.004-06:00

Every October, our Ward has a "Chili Cook-off" which includes a pumkin decorating contest. This year, we entered three pumpkins and one pot of chili.

Nicky and Taylor made this Frankenstein pumkin and it won the prize for "Freakiest". Nicky was pretty excited and got a candy bar for his prize.

Matt and Jake had the great idea for this "Joker" pumpkin. This one one the prize for "Scariest". If you've seen the movie, the pencil holding the "Why so serious?" sign might tip you off as to why it won this particular prize.

Becca and Olivia made the Witch pumpkin. It didn't win a prize, but I think it is the cutest one of the bunch!

Is It Halloween Tommorrow??

2008-10-10T17:31:00.002-06:00

That is the question we keep hearing from Nicholas. He has no concept of "in three weeks". If it's in the future it must be tomorrow. We bought him his Batman costume about a week ago and he is constantly putting it on and taking it back off ('cause it gets hot). It's gonna be worn out by Halloween - it's already made a trip to Grandma's house for repair work.

Becca is going to be a Princess. She's pretty excited, but she is able to refrain from putting her costume on all the time.

Look Who's Home!

2008-09-30T14:06:00.004-06:00

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

2008-09-17T16:09:00.004-06:00

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

2008-09-15T08:46:00.004-06:00

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

2008-09-11T14:08:00.005-06:00

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

2008-09-02T20:59:00.008-06:00

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.

Kendall Family Reunion

2008-08-19T20:16:00.007-06:00

The Kendall family reunion at Provo Park last Saturday was a successful event. We ate, played games, had a little talent show, and Bert played the Banjo and told jokes.

One of the more shocking scenes was Chad and Joey showing up in the new "The Quest" BYU Football shirts. All I can say is Joey must really be in love to agree to wear that. The real question is does Chad show up at Joey's family reunions wearing Ute gear? I have a picture of a young (3 or 4 year old) Chad wearing a Utah shirt. I would post it on the blog, but I can't find where I put it...I sent it out to a few people in an email a few years ago. Maybe someone saved it and can email it back to me.

Bert and Sharon put together this fun game in the spirit of "Where's Waldo?" There are 22 pictures of Grandma and/or Grandpa on this sheet - can you find them all? Also try to find Elvis, Miley Cyrus, Zach Efron, Abraham Lincoln and various other famous people.

Here is a picture of the whole group. We had a fun day and enjoyed each others company.

Matt's First Swim Meet

2008-08-19T20:04:00.002-06:00

Matt joined a swim team a couple of weeks ago and Saturday he had his first swim meet. He did pretty good for his first meet, just figuring out what was going on and getting a feel for it.

He swam two events - backstroke and freestyle. Here he is getting ready to start the backstroke race. Look at that awesome form. Michael Phelps, be very afraid.

Yes, he realizes the goggles go on his eyes, not his cheeks. In the freestyle event, he had a little "goggle malfunction" - when he dove in off the platform, his goggles came off - he couldn't stop and put them back on. Just a bug that needs to be worked out and chalked up to experience.

Snowbird in the Summer

2008-08-19T19:53:00.003-06:00

We went up to Snowbird last week for Jen's work's company party. The zipline, alpine slide, bungee trampoline, rock wall and Tram were a lot of fun. The dinner was pretty good, too.

You ride the lift up to where you can get on the zip line and the alpine slide. I think this is known as the "bunny hill" in the winter.

Jen and Taylor conquered the rock wall. Matt and Becca did, too. I was pretty much just the photographer on this event. I didn't want to pull the rock wall over onto it's side.

At the top of the Tram (about 11,000 feet above sea level) it was FREEZING!! We pretty much just got out of the Tram, took the picture walked around for a minute and headed for the "warming hut" until it was time for the Tram to take us back down.

Nicky's Big 4th Birthday

2008-08-12T15:43:00.006-06:00

Happy Birthday Nicholas! Today is his big 4th Birthday. He has been counting down to this one for quite a few weeks and it is finally here. We bought our first digital camera right before he was born so there was no going through old photo albums and needing to scan the older pictures. Here are some of the favorites:

Happy Birthday, Nicky. We love you!!

Scout Camp at Bear Lake

2008-07-26T15:41:00.004-06:00

The first week of July, Matt went to Scout Camp at Camp Hunt on the west side of Bear Lake. Since Matt is not 12 yet, I got to tag along as well.

Here is Matt with his friends Kason and Harrison working on the Environmental Science merit badge. They had to do observations in two different areas on three separate days. This is a nice little spot right by the beach.

One morning they did what is called the "Polar Bear". They went to a spot where a mountain stream connects into the lake. Then, they have to say the Scout Oath, Law, Slogan, and Motto while up to their chins in the 45 degree water. When they are done they dunk their heads under the water.

Part of the Woodcarving merit badge requires a "Totin' Chip" which shows you can safley handle an axe. Woodcarving is one of 7 merit badges Matt earned at camp. The others were Indian Lore, Basketry, Leatherwork, Geology, Environmental Science, and Pioneering.

For Pioneering, he had to learn some lashings and build a tower by lashing some dowel sticks together with string.

Here are the tower and baskets he built for the merit badges. It was a fun week full of activities. I liked it, too because I got to play golf every day while the scouts were at merit badge classes!!! (Jen teases me that I went to Golf camp.)

Taylor's Oakcrest Adventure

2008-07-16T21:14:00.004-06:00

This is my counselor Teva, my friend Jacey, and me. We were waiting for our turn at archery and decided to pose for a picture. This is one of my favorite pictures I took at camp.
Here's me in action ready to hit the target. I'm really not that good at archery, but it just looks like I know all the answers. Actually I was pretty much the worst aim out of all the girls in my group. But one time it did go over the fence (which I wasn't to happy about) and went between these two rocks on the other side.
This is proof that I really did do something productive, and it wasn't just a princess camp. Here I am cleaning the floor in the bathroom, after about 200 girls took their one and only shower of the week. There was so much hair in the drains, it clogged them up. So we had to put on gloves to pick them out. Ick!!! :( Not to mention all the dirt, tissues, paper towels, and mud (at least I think it was mud) on the floor.
So, the week I went to Oakcrest it was the 4th of July week. And every week has a theme, and that week it was Red, White, and Who week. Kind of a mix between Fourth of July and Dr. Suess, and my group decided to be the Star-Bellied Sneeches. So I asked my friend Shannon to rat my hair, and I guess she ratted and hair-sprayed a little bit to much. Cuz, when I looked in the mirror it looked like someone had cut almost all my hair off and put it all on the top of my head. You can imagine how much of a nightmare that was to comb out.

Hoop it Up

2008-06-28T13:11:00.005-06:00

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

2008-06-21T18:24:00.005-06:00

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

2008-06-21T18:11:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-21T17:45:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-16T23:41:00.002-06:00

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

2008-06-16T23:07:00.004-06:00

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

2008-06-10T14:25:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-05T13:29:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-01T22:47:00.004-06:00

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

2008-06-01T22:10:00.004-06:00

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.

2222

2008-05-29T00:02:00.003-06:00

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...

2008-05-26T00:23:00.005-06:00

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

2008-05-21T08:25:00.006-06:00

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...

2008-05-19T23:51:00.002-06:00

The Big Easy

2008-05-18T22:12:00.014-06:00

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

2008-05-14T10:52:00.007-06:00

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

2008-05-12T09:27:00.004-06:00

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