Confessions of a Junior High teacher

Fun with Mustaches

2012-01-18T21:47:00.003-07:00

My sons received some mustaches from their cousins for Christmas, so of course we had to use them!

Halloween 2012

2011-11-03T22:33:00.001-06:00

Yellowstone

2011-08-16T21:51:00.001-06:00

For a last hurrah before school starts, we decided to go up to Yellowstone with the Simons for a couple of days.

The bison (not buffalo, learn the difference here) crossing the river.

Camille, Gregg, and Luci getting dinner ready.

Zander and Jorgen posing for the camera.

Looking at the Hot Pots.

At Lake Yellowstone.

Old Faithful before.

Old Faithful during.

Zander and Daddy on a hike.

Playing on a "natural" teeter toter.

Mammoth Springs.

The north entrance to Yellowstone.

We saw a black bear and her two cubs!

Zander posing.

One of the most favorite attractions, the garbage truck!

We saw a bald eagle.

A close up bison.

The lower falls.

The lower falls again, but closer and lower.

The Grand Prismatic.

We had a lot of fun at Yellowstone and with the Simons!

Camping at Nuck Woodward

2011-07-25T20:37:00.001-06:00

This past weekend we went Camping up at Nuck Woodward. This is where Luci's family used to take the sheep for a period of time in the summer. Joe brought most of his family and camped with us. Most of the Jorgensens joined us the next day for a picnic. We also brought the horses to ride!

Like Grandpa, Like Grandson

2011-07-25T20:34:00.000-06:00

Joe's Valley Revisited

2011-06-28T09:56:00.001-06:00

We saw that Joe's Valley was full, so we decided to go have a picnic for Family Home Evening.

The reservoir was full.

Lots of water going down the spillway.

Birthday Time!

2011-06-26T21:52:00.001-06:00

Jorgen turned 6 today! We can't believe it. Yesterday we went to Cars 2 and had lots of fun up in Provo. Today we had his cake and opened presents. Happy Birthday bud.

Our version of the Angry Birds cake

Jorgen posing with some presents.

SLC Conference

2011-06-22T10:40:00.002-06:00

This past week, Luci had a conference up in Salt Lake for two days, so I had the boys. Of course we did the down town stuff.

We went to Temple Square.

We went to the roof of the Conference Center.

They really didn't want their pictures taken.

We had never been to the gateway fountains. My boys loved them, however they did not want to get wet, so they didn't join in the fun. They just wanted to watch. Next time I will get them to go in and get wet. I might have to bring swimsuits, but that's ok.

Golfing at Millsite

2011-06-13T21:43:00.001-06:00

Tonight, my brother-in-law went golfing at Millsite. The water is going over the spillway, so it was a beautiful sight.

Joe's Valley

2011-06-13T17:00:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we took a drive up to Joe's Valley Reservoir to see how high it was.

This is one of the rivers running into it.

With any trip to the water, we must throw rocks into the water.

The water wasn't quite up to the spillway, about 10-15 feet away, but it is expected to do so here in the next week or two.

Memorial Day Week

2011-06-08T10:43:00.002-06:00

It's almost a tradition, but not quite (we don't do it every year, but almost), after school ends on the Friday before Memorial Day we head to Colorado. So that's what we did. We got to Ft. Collins at about 9 pm and we were very tired. Both Luci and I had helped with the High School's graduation party and were out until 2, and then getting up at 6:30 to go to work. The week included some very fun activities. Some of us ran the Bolder Boulder.

Of course we all ran super well. Ok actually, my goal was to be the one millionth finisher in the history of the race. It didn't happen.

We also went to the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum.

The dinosaurs of course were their favorite!

Horsetooth Mountain was also awaiting us, so we hiked it. Not all of us made it to the top, but we had fun flexing our muscles anyways.

The Rockies played the St. Louis Cardinals in Denver, unfortunately it was not the Dodgers, but you can't be picky.

Luci had never been to Rocky Mountain National Park, so we went there as well. Trail ridge road was not open all the way due to snow, but we went as far as we could. We also stopped in Estes Park for some fun.

Along with that, we also did fun little things, movies, BBQ, Casa Bonita, etc. It was a fun trip and good to see the parents and Sara, who was visiting from Maine.

Vacation

2010-08-11T19:00:00.002-06:00

For the past two weeks, our family set out on an exciting adventure, which included 4000 miles of traveling (in a car), and several stops along the way. Some might call this a vacation. Here are some of the wonderful (and not so exciting) events.

DAY ONE
We took off from Castle Dale after church (about 1:00) to head out to Fort Collins. This day was simply driving. We stopped at my brother's house in Longmont to pick up the keys to my parent's house. We got in at about 10:00 that night. (I told you some these events were not so exciting.)

DAY TWO
After picking up some supplies at my parent's house and the local Sam's Club and Walmart, we headed up to Custer State Park to camp for the night. We set up our tent and went around the wildlife loop. There we met some buffaloes or bison (I always forget the difference).

Z-man really wanted to get close up and personal with the animals.

Next on the road were some asses (or as some might call them, burros).

After that fun drive, we went back to our campsite and had dinner.

It couldn't have been that bad.

DAY THREE
The next day we took the needles highway out of Custer State Park. It had beautiful views

and small tunnels (this one is the needles eye where the maximum width is 8 feet six inches and the maximum height is 10 feet something). Our suburban took up the whole thing.

Our next plan was to stop at Mt. Rushmore, but our 5 year old said we only needed to drive by it (which was fine with us because we spent several days in that area just two years ago).

We, and by that I mean I, then decided to make an impromptu stop at Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.

There Luci met a new man. (He has a ten year plan).

We then continued on to Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the world's only corn palace.

All of the murals are made out of corn and are redone every year.

We eventually got to our stopping point that night which was Palisades State Park, just outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was a small park, but very beautiful.

That night we had to keep the rain off our heads because it rained frequently and Luci had to chase away the raccoons in the middle of the night.

DAYS FOUR AND FIVE
We then traveled up to Bemidji, Minnesota and meet my brother there. In Bemidji we met Paul Bunyan and and Babe the Blue Ox.

-picture hopefully coming soon-

We also crossed the Mississippi by walking across it in Itasca State Park where the Mississippi headwaters are located.

-picture hopefully coming soon-

DAYS SIX THROUGH EIGHT
In the morning we picked up our sister who flew into Bemidji and then of course we had to find a place to do bumper boats. My wife got the worst of it by getting pretty wet.

We then drove the next two and a half hours up to Roseau, checked into our hotel and then immediately left for my Grandma's 90th birthday part.

-picture hopefully coming soon-

Then like any good person would do, we had to go swimming in the hotel's pool (which we did a lot at all the hotels that we stayed at). our boys love the pool!

The best time at the hotel was when the fire alarm went of three times during the night!! Luckily there was no fire and management decided to get all the guests that night free, so was it worth it??

With all reunions, family pictures are a must.
This was the first time in two years that all the Robinson's were together.

Some of us showing our better sides.

A not so graceful side

A Kirk Robinson Family pic.

Do you think we could have been on America's Got Talent?

Me and my Grandma.

We also found out what my sister would like our girl to look like when we have one sometime in the distant future.

DAYS NINE THROUGH ELEVEN
On Monday we drove the 11-12 hours up to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where my parents are currently serving a mission.

While up there we made dad drive over the 5 bridges crossing the river.

Found some lost canoes.

Had fun in a little splash park.

And found out the NASCAR had a Canadian series and were racing in Saskatoon while we were there.

DAY TWELVE
We took one of my sisters and decided it was high time to get out of Canada, so we drove 8 hours down to Great Falls, Montana. There we discovered that bridges could only hold six people and the sway a lot.

Great Falls is a dangerous place. If you hear 8 short blasts, you better run!

We found the Great Falls. I wonder what it would be like without the dam?

DAY THIRTEEN
We were going to spend the night in Salt Lake, but circumstances (and us wanting to get home and sleep in our own bed) dictated that we should go down to Castle Dale. So we dumped off my sister with our cousin in Eagle Mountain and continued the 10 hour drive from Great Falls to Castle Dale. As we were driving over the mountain we knew we were home and it was welcoming us back.

URSA Conference

2010-07-19T13:37:00.003-06:00

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I was at a conference down in Cedar City. This is what I did.

Really I did do a little more than that, but I generally go to the technology sessions because there really are not many for PE. So, I go and have some fun while learning a thing or two.

Jorgensen Family Reunion

2010-07-11T18:55:00.003-06:00

The weekend of July 4, the Jorgensen's always have their family reunion. There are plenty of other blogs that have blogged about this so I will let you read them instead of duplicating what has already been said. Many of them can be read by clicking on the links to the right.

J-man's birthday

2010-07-11T18:49:00.003-06:00

J-man turned 5 on June 26. Happy birthday bud!

We don't know why, but he wanted a haunted house birthday cake so this is what we came up with.

Colorado

2010-07-11T18:36:00.002-06:00

We also made a trip to Colorado for about a week. The main reason was to go for a nephew's baptism. It was also really fun. We did a lot of things. We went to the Denver Zoo, The Denver Museum, rode the Fort Collins municipal trolley, went on bike rides, went up to Estes Park and did several fun things up there. I tried Buffalo for the first and really liked it! I love Colorado and wish I could go more.

Las Vegas

2010-07-11T18:25:00.002-06:00

In early June, our family went to Las Vegas for a niece's baby blessing. We went down on a Sunday morning and came back on Wednesday. It was a good time. We stayed at the Grandview, which is a time share. We loved it! Of course we had to have some buffets and visit the strip. Our boys loved the aquarium and M&M world.

End of School

2010-05-31T09:27:00.003-06:00

It is finally here, the end of school. Always a great feeling. It's really nice. This is the first summer in a few years where I don't have any classes and neither does Luci. So we will have a crazy summer. Lots of traveling to be done. This coming week we will be going down to Vegas to see my wife's brother's family. Then a week after that, it's off to Colorado to see my brother's family. There there is a break and towards the end of July and the beginning of August we are off to Minnesota for a Jacobson family reunion. After that we will go up to Saskatoon to visit my parents who are up there. It should be fun.

Here are a few pics of what we've done.

This is up at Joe's Valley Reservoir. It's a fun time.

This is the closing program for the ninth graders at San Rafael JH. They always have a little promenade type thing and speaker and stuff. I am always glad to see because it means that the school year is almost over and the ninth graders are moving on.

Long Overdue update

2010-05-09T20:17:00.004-06:00

In no particular order, here are some things that have happened the last few months.

Now, this really isn't a specific event, just me playing with my boys, making a Z-sandwich!

In February, Z-man turned 2!!

This past Friday, Luci graduated from Utah State University with her Masters of Psychology, with an emphasis in School Counseling. She decided that she want to go up to Logan to the actual ceremony, which was fine, however the commencement was over 2 hours long and with a 2-year old and 4-year old, it was a long time.

Of course if there were any water features around USU's campus, we had to stop and look at it because that is one of J-man's favorite things.

About two weeks ago a deer hit my car. Did some damage. Luckily the car still drives fine, but the driver's side door doesn't open so I have to get in the passenger side at the moment. Thankfully, it is a bench seat so that makes it easier.

Just another fun picture while we were watching the Colorado Avalanche play. I think I have convert my boys (well at least my oldest) into Avs, Spurs, Dodgers, Broncos, and BYU Cougars fans!!!! He always wants them to win

Bogota, Colombia

2010-01-05T21:05:00.004-07:00

This Christmas our family went to visit my sister down in Colombia. It was awesome! It was great to be able to stay with my sister, have Christmas and see around Bogota. I'm glad that we did it. Below is a slide show of some of the things we did. Hope you enjoy because we sure did!!

For a more in depth coverage of what we did, you can visit my sister's blog by clicking here.

Football & Birthday

2009-09-08T20:33:00.008-06:00

For my birthday, my wife got me tickets to the BYU-OU game at the new Cowboy Stadium in Dallas. I went with my brother-in-law and had an awesome time. As you walk in, this is what it looks like.

The screens are huge. Even though we were super far away, we could see just fine and then watch the instant replays on the big screens!

The winning BYU play. For those of you who didn't know, BYU beat Oklahome 14-13.

This is me celebrating with the other 15,000 BYU fans. The 60,000 OU fans were quite sad.

This is Cowboy Stadium at night.

This was an awesome experience and it was made even better by BYU winning. Thank you Luci for an awesome birthday present!

I'm Like Short Round

2009-08-23T13:24:00.003-06:00

is what our 4 year old said when he needed to fit into a little spot to get something. If you have played Lego Indiana Jones, you will understand why I thought this was funny.

Family Reunion

2009-08-15T10:15:00.000-06:00

We had a family reunion on Saturday with my Dad's sisters. The only second/third generationers were my family, my sister Rosann, and my cousin April and her family. So while the older generation talked we decided to go to This is the Place park to see what was there.

The monument.

Tepees

Little train rides.

A bank robbery and gunfight

A petting area.

Pony rides

The Emery County Cabin

And much more.

It was pretty fun, and much better than sitting around!

Race for the Children's justice center

2009-08-15T10:00:00.000-06:00

On Saturday we ran the Children's Justice Center 5K and Teddy Bear 1K Run up in Salt Lake. It was pretty fun. When we ran the 5k is was raining just a little bit, but when our 4 year ran the 1k, it was raining pretty hard. He had a lot of fun and wants to do more races!

Here is a stuffed lobster that J got for finishing the race. He ran the whole thing and didn't stop once!!Afterward they had a prize drawing and everyone in my family that ran the 5k won a prize except for me :( Luci got the best prize out of our family. A sweet glass mug shaped as a boot, steak sauce and a $30 gift card to Texas Roadhouse!

Museum of the San Rafael

2009-08-12T09:47:00.002-06:00

Here is the best museum in Emery County! The Museum of the San Rafael. The best part about is that it is free, however, J and Z do love the dinosaur bones and animals that are there too!

Before and After

2009-08-11T19:40:00.009-06:00

Before:
After a week of a soft cast and 3 weeks of a hard blue cast, J was ready to get it off.

After:
Another x-ray to make sure that everything was ok, which was the worst part and J did not want to do it. We think that he associates the x-ray with pain when it first happened. Then they cut off the cast, pulled out the pins, and put on a blue bandage. He will wear this for a day and then he will just need bandaids where the pins were for a week or so. Then he will be almost good. He will get good movement in a month and then full movement in about 2 months. He's got a pretty good rash where the cast was, but I think he can handle that with some cream and ti will be way better than the cast. In one more month we have to go up to Primary Children's to make sure all is well. We hope that we don't have to do this again.

Sorry I had to go the Children's Doctors and Hospital

2009-07-17T10:00:00.004-06:00

is what our oldest son said after having surgery on his elbow. It was dislocated and fractured on Wednesday for no real fault of his own. Many of you have probably heard the story so I won't repeat here. It happened at about 8 in the morning on Wednesday. We went to our little clinic where they x-rayed it, which was not fun. They then sent us up to Castleview Hospital in Price. It was thought that they might be able to set it, but no. We sat there for 2 1/2 hours with nothing. So we told them to let us go and we would be headed up to Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake, 2 hours away. This is our 4-year old on the way up.
After we got to Primary Children's, we had to get better x-rays and wait for a few more hours while a surgeon was able to do the surgery. We are glad though that we went up there. Luckily, when they got doing the surgery that it was better than it first looked and not as complicated. The nurses and doctor's there were so nice and helpful. So our oldest is now in a soft cast and will get a hard cast next week. He wants blue and can't wait for it and for people to start signing it.

Since we were up there, we decided to go to the Hogle Zoo. It was fun.

Afterward we went home and he slept all the way. It's good to be home after a long day.

Thanks to all that came to see him and help us out, especially Grandma and Grandpa J. who watched out youngest while we were gone.

LASIK!!

2009-07-10T20:08:00.003-06:00

I was finally able to get LASIK done on my eyes!!. We had put money into our flex spending to do my wife's teeth, but they decided to do that surgery later and so we had to use the money. We decided to do LASIK for me!! The whole procedure is relatively quick and painless and it is amazing what it can do.

This video is the intralase part. That means where the use a laser to put thousands of little bubbles a certain depth into your eye and then makes a cut around the edge. It is all bladeless and is very crazy. I put the video in triple time so it would go a little faster

After they did this to both eyes, I went and sat in a massaging chair for about 10 - 15 minutes in order for the bubbles to dissipate. After that then it was time for the actual surgery. I had the Lasik with Wavelight procedure done on me. Once again I put the video in triple time and if you are a little squeamish with your eyes, you might not want to watch.

So with my pre-op and scans to the actually surgery, it only took about 5 hours and that was because they were running a little behind. So after all that, I have to put drops in my eyes for quite a while and wear funky goggles at night for a few nights, but worth it indeed. I had an exam this morning and I had 20/20 vision. They expect to even improve a little more with healing. It's also nice that with this type of procedure, they guarantee it so if my vision does fall below a certain level, they will touch it up for free. Very nice.

To have this surgery, I went to Hoopes Vision in Salt Lake. They were very good and amazing. Everyone was very friendly and nice and explained everything before and as I was going through it. I would suggest it to anyone that is a good candidate for it.

J-man's Birthday

2009-06-29T14:08:00.002-06:00

The awesome racecar track cake. However, he would not let us put any racecars on it!

Nothing like dough from the aunties.

Everyone having a good time

Awesome! A Chick Hick's trailer. We were informed that he needs all of them.

Getting ready to blow out the candle.

It's hard to believe that it has been four years. Time really does go by fast!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

2009-06-21T19:28:00.005-06:00

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to go the the Oqquirrh Mountain Utah Temple Open House. Is is a pretty temple. If was fun to be able to take the boys there too.

Later we went to the birthday party for a cousin. Super fun.

This week is J's birthday, so that will be fun as well.

Several Events - One Post

2009-06-11T11:05:00.003-06:00

Puzzle Time with J-man.

A face only a dad or mom could love

Memorial Day 2009
The annual running of the Bolder Boulder 10k

Messing around with the extended fam.

Dodgers vs. Rockies Baseball Game
Go Dodgers!!

A fox that lives in the furrow at my parent's house

Z-man helping daddy mow the lawn

Longtime, no write - Quick update

2009-05-03T22:05:00.005-06:00

On one of our trips up to Salt Lake, we took our kids miniature golfing and they loved it. Our oldest actually got a couple of unassisted holes in one!

Just a cute picture that my wife took of our kids.

Easter!

My commencement happened and although I am not quite done with my Master's, it feels like it is in sight. Only two more classes!!

Here we are on are annual trip to see how high Joe's Valley is and to, of course, throw rocks.

Update on Rollover

2009-03-18T22:44:00.002-06:00

The hospital checked my father-in-law out and it looks like everything is going to be ok. That is amazing for how he was pinned and everything. His cuts on his head weren't bad and they think that the most pain that he will have will be the soreness of being thrown around in the car. Thank goodness!

Rollover

2009-03-18T22:05:00.004-06:00

Some of you may have heard, but most probably not. My father-in-law rolled his truck over coming up from the ranch tonight. My wife and I noticed that he had not come back yet, and we were at the bridge with our sons, and it was getting dark. He is not supposed to drive after dark so we went out looking for him. We drove past Orange Hill and then to Hans Larsens and he was not at either one of those. The we started down to the lower ranches. We came upon my wife's cousin, who said that my father-in-law had rolled his truck. Our cousin had just barely called for emergency assistance. We head down a little further and sure enough his truck was down in the dugway. I went down to see how my father-in-law was doing. His head was sticking out the window, pinned in between the truck and the ground. He had a few cuts on his head, but he was breathing and could move his fingers and toes. There was not much we could do until the emergency vehicles arrived. We did get the truck jacked up slightly so it didn't seem like it was straight on his head. Eventually emergency vehicles started coming in. They had to brace the truck so it wouldn't roll back on anyone and eventually cut off the roof of the truck. They got him out and placed him on a backboard and got him out of there. I never though I would see the "Jaws of Life" in action in a real accident. Since we got there to the time they got him out and into the ambulance, it was about 1 1/2 hours and we think that he might have been there a half an hour before we got there. Right now, I am home with our boys and my wife and mother-in-law went up to the hospital. We are just waiting to see what the doctors say. I will post another blog when I know more. Please keep him in your prayers!

Emery Spartans

2009-03-03T22:05:00.002-07:00

This past week was the 3A state championships for basketball. The boys team from Emery gave a good effort against number one ranked Bear River and was even tied with them with 45 seconds left in the game and then succumbed and lost by 6 points. The girls defeated their first two opponents and was playing in the championship game. My wife and I decided to go up and watch the game, which was on Saturday. Out of all the girls pictured here, I have coached 15 of them. I feel very grateful to be able to help these girls develop into the players they are now. So in the championship game they were leading most of the game, until about 4 minutes left in the game. The final buzzer rang and the Lady Spartans lost by 1 point, 32-31. It was sad to see. To be so close to a state championship and it within your grasp, only to not quite reach it. The seniors I feel the most for, but there were only 3 that played in the game. The rest will be back again next year and will probably have a great chance to achieve the pinnacle of 3A girls basketball in Utah.

Happy First Birthday!

2009-02-22T22:28:00.004-07:00

It's hard to believe that a year ago my wife and I were in the hospital and my wife giving birth to a son. It's amazing how fast time really goes by, but how much has happened in the last year. So our son turned one today and hear are some pictures to capture the event. Obviously, one year olds don't really know what is happening, but it is still fun to watch and celebrate.

Champions!

2009-02-20T20:33:00.007-07:00

Yesterday we had our championship game. My girls came out and played a very good game, probably the best that they have played all year. They defeated Mont Harmon 55-46 to finish the season and tournament undefeated. I really love working with the girls for basketball and am happy that we were so successful this year. Next week we will see how well our JV does. The following pictures of us with the trophies (one for being the regular season champs and one for being the tournament champs) and of us cutting down the net.

Pics of the boys

2009-02-08T21:36:00.003-07:00

People wanted me to post some pictures of my boys so here they are.

Long Weekend = Fun Weekend!?

2009-02-08T20:24:00.007-07:00

On Thursday we had another basketball game and this one was against our in-county rivals, the Canyon View Cougars. I don't know what was going on, but we were not playing the way that we should have. However, our girls stuck it out and won by three. It was way closer than it should have been. My girls always get nervous when the play Canyon View. It's weird. I don't know if I will ever understand a girl's psyche. I had to leave after the Varsity game, but I learned a little later that our JV team, who had lost to Canyon View's JV the first time, also won by 3. This week we have our biggest threat, the Mont Harmon Pirates. The girls always seem to get up for that game. That will then conclude our regular season and put us into tournament next week.

After the varsity game, my wife and I left to go up to Salt Lake City. My wife's sister just had a baby boy, so we went to visit them and to see how everything was going. There was quite a funny story that went along with the birth, but the gist of it was that when all was said and done, the baby was born about 15 minutes after my sister-in-law go to the hospital.

Then on Friday, My wife had to have bone block extraction and placement in her mouth for preparation of an implant in a few months. I took her in at about 9:30 am. She was out of it. They gave her some medications that would help knock her out for the surgery.
Well, it worked very well. She fell a sleep in the car and was out of it until I picked her up at 2pm. She does not remember that day very much. She really like where she goes for that. It is called Redwood Periodontics and they do a great job. My wife thinks that Dr. Summerhayes is one of the only doctors in the state the could have done this surgery since she is a very extreme case. Needless to say, she can't eat any hard foods for a while. I can't wait until all this for her mouth is done because than I can get my eye lasered. That will be a good day.

On Saturday we went to my wife's uncle's funeral. There was a service held down in Provo and then he was buried up in Salt Lake. He was a great man who finally succumbed to Alzheimer's. It is comforting to know that we will be able to see him again, along with all those who have passed before us and that families can be forever.

On Sunday we went to a baby blessing for another sister-in-law and then drove home. It was interesting, during the weekend we saw the whole spectrum of the earthly life. Although there was not a whole lot of "fun" this weekend, it was still a good one, being able to see family and friends, but in the end, it is always good to be home.

Still Undefeated!

2009-01-29T21:30:00.002-07:00

Tonight our girls had a game against the Helper Rams. It was a pretty easy win and our team looked pretty good. All of our Varsity members scored, which is good. It was fun. That meas that our Varsity is still undefeated with tournament coming in a few short weeks. Our JV had another tough loss. They are coming along though. We just need to go work on the basics and if we get those down, they would be allright. Our next game will be against our in county rivals, Canyon View Cougars.

Pinewood Derby!!!

2009-01-24T15:46:00.002-07:00

I am the Cubmaster for two packs here in our area and today was our pinewood derby. You can read more about it here at our Cub Scout blog!

Girls' Basketball

2009-01-24T14:11:00.002-07:00

If you didn't know, I am the head coach of the Girls' basketball team at San Rafael JH. With the high school taking several of my girls, I was left with 2 ninth graders and then a handful of 8th graders to make up my varsity team. I knew that we would still so well, but how well I was not sure. As of now, about half way through the season, we are still undefeated at the Varsity level. Our last game was against the Mont Harmon Pirates, who until our game was also undefeated. It was a very interesting game. Our team came out strong going up 9-0 to start and had a 15-6 lead at the end of first quarter. Mont Harmon started to come back and then took the lead in the 3rd quarter. By the end of that quarter Mont Harmon had an 8 point lead. My girls fought back and won the game by 3. It was a very entertaining game.

Our JV team is very young. All are 7th graders except for when we play some 8th graders down. It is tough. It is like on the job training for many of them. There are a lot of things that we need to work on, but they are coming along. They had their first win Thursday night and the won again on Friday. It was good. Hopefully they will keep coming along and developing and do well in the tournament.

Now I will step on my soap box for a quick minute. The district and school board really need to move ninth grade athletics up to the high school. It is hard to run a program when you don't know how many ninth graders you will have. I do encourage all my girls to go and try up just so the high school coaches know that they are interested. Then at the Junior High there needs to be strictly and 8th grade team and a 7th grade team. That would help even things up in athletics in the junior highs

Holiday Time

2009-01-11T21:18:00.003-07:00

I love the holidays for more than a few reasons. For one, I love getting a week and a half off of work. Really, it would have been better if it had been two weeks, but our district thought that it would be great to have school on Monday and a half day of school on Tuesday. Not a great teaching environment on those two days. Oh well, the district knows best I guess. Another reason I love the holidays is all the great food. Nothing like gaining 10 pounds in two weeks. The third reason is being around family. This year we stayed here and had my wife's family around. It was good. I miss being with my family, but we've got to have equal time. Now, those are only three reasons why I love the holidays. There are plenty more, but that is good enough for now.

Jib Jab

2008-12-13T21:57:00.002-07:00

If you've ever seen those jibjab cartoons on Jay Leno, you know they are quite funny. What I didn't know until tonight is that you can do a lot of things with your own faces on their website. Check it out.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Elf Yourself

2008-12-13T21:30:00.001-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Surprise - Las Vegas Bowl

2008-12-07T21:16:00.004-07:00

So, is it any surprise that BYU ended up at the Las Vegas bowl for the fourth straight year? Nope, however they will play a weak Arizona team. They had better beat them easily. Now to Utah, they will actually give them a challenge in Alabama. This is good, it could give the MWC a little more respect.

Helper light Parade

2008-12-07T21:03:00.002-07:00

On Friday night we decided that we would go up to the Helper light parade. Our oldest son loves parades and Christmas lights, so what could be better than this? It was cold, but not as cold as it could have been and it was still enjoyable. Ok, there were only about 20 floats or so, but all of them had lights and it was entertaining.

Yearbook yourself!!!

2008-11-27T20:10:00.008-07:00

So I don't know if you have ever been on yearbook yourself, but it is pretty funny. Here is me, my wife, our two kids, my mom and a sister. So if you want a laugh or two, spend some time on that website.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T20:08:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a good day. I just give thanks for my family, my health, our country, and many other things that I take for granted everyday.

Tape Job

2008-11-25T23:07:00.003-07:00

Today, myself and two other teachers got taped to the wall as a reward for raising so much money during the penny drive. It was sort of fun. However, to the demise of the kids, the duct tape did not hold us to the wall for very long. The paint that is on the walls does not like anything sticking to it. So instead of being up on the wall through both lunch periods, I was only stuck to the wall for about 3 minutes. When we do this again, we will have to think of another place to hang us up on. Well, it was fun and I still think the kids liked doing it. I wonder what I will think of next year.

BYU 10-2

2008-11-23T18:24:00.002-07:00

Well, that was a bad game played by BYU last night. Some people say that Utah just played better and was the better team. I still don't think so. Max Hall had 6 turnovers. That was the difference. 4 of his 5 interceptions he threw right to the defense and his fumble was just carelessness. Other than that, and BYU's not-so-good defense, BYU could drive the ball almost at will. Now we just have to sit and wait to see what bowl they get invited to. Probably some crap bowl. Oh well, I guess that is the way it goes. I think that BYU will be better next year. Although I am a BYU fan, I hope Utah does not get screwed with a bad opponent in a BCS bowl like they did 4 years ago. Give them a true test of how good they are. If the BCS truely wanted the best teams in their bowls the would take the top 10 in their own poll and have them play each other. Instead Utah will probably play a 18th ranked team or something and beat them horribly. The BCS needs to be fixed.

Penny Wars FInal Total

2008-11-21T17:45:00.003-07:00

Our Penny War ended today at the Junior High. It was funny, the seventh graders finally caught on how to work it and started quite a stash of their own. For the most part, the eighth graders were out of it, and the lost pretty bad. The ninth graders also had a pretty big stash. In the end, the 7th and 9th graders tied. It was pretty amazing. Over $500 in pennies were brought in. On top of that $1000 in other coins and bills were brought in. The grand total was $1498.32. About $800 of that was brought in just today. Boy, it sure is a lot of fun to count and roll all those coins. The $1500 was more than double our goal. So that means that me and another teacher are going to be duct taped to the wall. We haven't set a date for that, but it will be in the next couple of weeks and I will definitely post pictures and maybe a video of that. The $1500 means that each student brought in just over $6. Now we know that not all kids brought in money and others brought in a lot more than that. . This total was also the most money that was raised in any given fundraiser ever at our Junior High. I would just like to thank everyone that helped out with the Penny Wars. What a great community that we have here. The money raised will definitely help out with our faculty member's medical bills and I'm sure that he will appreciate it greatly.

Our Land!!

2008-11-20T20:59:00.004-07:00

Well, we finally got the land that we are going to build on. It's about .40 acres and not too far from where we are now. Here are some pictures of it. Hopefully, In the next two years we will get to build!! We are very excited!

Girls' Basketball

2008-11-20T20:23:00.002-07:00

This week I held tryouts for the girls' basketball at the junior high. That just means that it is time for crazy. For my wife and I it just becomes a very busy time for us. This year is going to be even more crazy due to my wife's schedule. However, I am still excited for this season. Tryouts are always hard to do. There are plenty of girls that love to play basketball and some think they are really good. The thing is that there have to be cuts and in junior high, it can be the end of your life. As a coach it is hard to make cuts, but it has to be done. One thing that makes me laugh though is when the girl tells me that I am mean and that I don't know what I am doing. I tell them that they can call me mean all they want, but if they want to grow up and talk about why they didn't make the team, we can do that. I am just glad that tryouts are over and we can get down to playing basketball.

Penny Wars

2008-11-17T20:29:00.005-07:00

Since I am in charge of the student council at school, I am given the task of doing one fund raiser per year. A normal fund raiser that we do involves a penny war. If you don't what a penny war, here is a brief explanation. At school we divide the school by grade levels. One wants to put pennies in their own jars, for pennies count for you. All other money is put into other's jars, because they count against them. Which ever grade has the most money (when all the other money is subtracted from the pennies) is the winner. Now what some of the student don't quite understand is that every grade will be in the hole. The point is to be less in the hole than everyone else. It is sort of funny to see how students react to winning or being in second or third place. Each grade has its own strategies as well. Now we are about a week into the two-week drive. The seventh graders are almost overly excited and bring in tons of pennies and the don't really understand that to win, you need to put money into other jars. Eighth graders are sort of weird and don't participate a whole lot, so it is whatever money they have, they might donate. Ninth graders have to prove that they are the best and usually win. However, it is done by trickery. They usually store up their money in a classroom, while putting in money here and there to make it look like they are trying. Then on the last day, they bring all the money up and decide where the silver coins and dollars go in order to give them the win. All the students usually get pretty involved. Our cause this year is really personal to the school. One of the staff member's son got injured in a car accident and has major brain trauma. The money raised will go to his family to help pay for medical bills. I love when we can raise money for the people we know around us. Our goal this year is $750, which isn't too bad for our small school of 200 students. If our goal is reached, the winning class officers will get to duct tape myself and another teacher to the wall for about 2 hours. I hope they can do it. I don't mind doing things like this if it is for a good cause.

BYU 10-1

2008-11-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Well, they beat Air Force. I thought that they might have a problem with that one, but they did okay. I didn't like some of the play calling, but it worked out in the end. BYU is now ranked 14 in the BCS poll. They still have an outside chance of getting into a BCS bowl. I doubt it though. They face the hated rivals Utah this Saturday. Now I think that they can beat Utah, but it is going to be another nail biter. It might be whoever has the ball last will win. If the beat Utah the will rise in the rankings, but it still probably won't be enough to get into a BCS bowl. That would just take a miracle. I don't think the BCS would take a non-BCS-conference school, with one loss, to a big bowl game. Instead they will take a team that has a lower ranking and match them against another team with a lower ranking, but both teams will be from BCS conferences, and therefore they are better. I normally don't like Utah, but I am thinking back in 2004 when the Utes played Pitt (who was ranked 22, I believe) and decimated them. I think Utah should have gotten a better team to play against that year and who knows what they could have done. Really, college football needs to go to a playoff and not just 8 teams. At least 16 and maybe 24. Now that would really give us a national champion.

BYU 9-1

2008-11-09T19:20:00.002-07:00

Well, I was sort of see this game come and go. It ends BYU home games this season. It was fun to be able to go to most of the games and unfortunately I had to miss two of them. I love going to the games. Next season will be a great season to have season tickets. The Y will be playing Utah, TCU, Florida State, Air Force, Utah State, and Colorado State at home next year. That will be a good season to watch BYU football. Now to yesterday's game. Although it was against the MWC worst team, BYU seemed to get out of its funk of fthe past few games. The defense started to look a little better and the offense was just fine. Now they need to keep building momentum because they will have a big game next week against Air Force. They cannot overlook AF to Utah because they will get beat if they do. Hopefully, they can keep it together for AF. Let's see what they can do.

GO OUT AND VOTE!

2008-11-04T17:06:00.004-07:00

It is finally here. Election Day. Although I am very happy to see it finally end (after 18 months of politics and all that stuff), it is a very important part of our country. Everyone should go out and vote. I think that if you don't vote, you get deported or something like that. Even though they are expecting huge turnouts and everything, a doubt that half or even a third of USA's population will vote. It's sad that is the case. We actually have the opportunity to voice our opinions and people don't take advantage of it. So, get off that couch and computer and go vote if you haven't.

BYU 8-1

2008-11-01T21:19:00.002-06:00

Well, BYU was able to pull out another win against CSU scoring with only 22 seconds left in the game. They have not looked very good the last few weeks. At least the offense looked pretty good. There were two big mistakes, Hall's fumble for a touchdown and his interception towards the end of the game. I think it was lucky the CSU scored so quickly after that, that it gave enough time for BYU to go down the field and score. Their defense still needs some help. They really do need to pull it together. Next Saturday they are playing San Diego State at home. Their last home game. That will be sad. I like going to their games. I will have to watch the rest on TV.

Halloween

2008-10-31T20:11:00.006-06:00

You've got to love Halloween. It's a day where you can dress up and no one ever really cares what you look like. I like it because I get to dress up at school. I am one of the few teachers that actually dresses up. Sometimes our faculty is lacking in the fun department, but oh well, I do my best. About a third of the kids dressed up. Also at school, during the last hour of school, the kids got out and we had a Halloween Dance and a movie. It wasn't too bad. Hopefully the students like it. Out student council, which I am the advisor for, does a good job of planning activities.

As you probably can see in the pictures, our whole family dresses up. I was Indiana Jones. My wife was a kitty, our oldest don was a dragon, and our youngest was a puppy dog. They were all so cute! Our oldest son loved going Trick-or-treating. This was the first year that he really relized what was going on. He got a lot of candy. Then when we got home, he loved answering the door and giving candy out to all the trick-or-treaters. It has been a fun day.

Body Worlds 3

2008-10-29T22:28:00.002-06:00

Yesterday the Junior High took the student body to the Body Worlds 3 show up in Salt Lake. It was 10 hours worth of fun, 8 on a bus and 2 in the exhibit. I don't know if you have heard of Body Worlds, but it is a exhibit of real human bodies that have been plasticized. Some were split up a others you could see organs and stuff. It was all very interesting. I was really surprised at how well the kids behaved. Obviously some thought that it was good and interesting and others not so much. However, I think that it was a good experience for all involved.

BYU 7-1 & USU

2008-10-29T22:16:00.002-06:00

Well, BYU won again and it was closer than it really should have been. I hope that they can really start to pull it together and finish the season strong. Unfortunately I was not able to go this game either and I had to send my wife in my place. I had to go up to USU in Logan and do a six hour lab for my grad school class. Not quite as fun, but sometimes that's the way it goes.

Nephews, Niece, and my Own

2008-10-22T18:53:00.005-06:00

This past weekend, we had a few of our nephews and a niece down to our place. It was a fun weekend with several activities. This included fun and games in the back yard, Wii tournaments, picnics, and geocaching. It was a fun weekend and it always good to see famile. Here are some pics from the weekend.

BYU 6-1

2008-10-21T21:15:00.002-06:00

Well, this past Thursday was an unfortunate loss for the BYU cougars. They had a horrible game and lost to TCU. Give credit to TCU, they did play well and held BYU in check. I do think it is unfortunate the BYU is in a non BCS conference. There would a little leway if they were. If they win out, they could still be ranked high enough, but due to the fact that are not in a BCS conference, it almost impossible to be able to get into a BCS bowl. There will be several teams from BCS conferences that will have one loss and still get into a major bowl. There really needs to be a better way to determine a national champion.

UEA

2008-10-16T10:43:00.002-06:00

You've got to love being a teacher or student in Utah. Every year there is a small break for the UEA convention. So I never go, but it is nice to have a few extra days off. I wonder how many other states have a convention like this every year. Growing up in Colorado, I don't ever remember getting a few days off so our teachers could have a convention.

Chorus and Volleyball

2008-10-16T10:31:00.003-06:00

On Tuesday night our school had a chorus concert and then they performed it again in front of the school on Wednesday. The picture is from the school concert. The theme was "A night of Broadway." They performed songs from many of the Broadway shows. The drama department also performed selected scenes from each of the Broadway shows. It was very well done. For a bunch of Junior High kids, they sounded excellent. The chorus teacher getting in the act.

Later that day, we had our annual faculty Vs. 9th grade volleyball game. Once again the 9th graders talked a lot of smack, thinking that they will beat the faculty, but once again, the faculty mopped the floor with the ninth graders, winning in three games. It's always fun to play with the faculty and against the ninth graders. Maybe one year they might be able to beat us, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Hoodie Boy

2008-10-12T21:48:00.002-06:00

We were upstate this weekend, one for the BYU game, and another for a baby blessing. Some of my wife's family got together and had dinner. I just though that this was a cute picture of my almost 8 month old son.

BYU 6-0

2008-10-12T21:38:00.002-06:00

This was the coldest game of the year so far, but really not too bad. At least it didn't rain or snow on us. The good news of the game was that BYU is still undefeated, the bad news, they really didn't play all that great. They are going to need to clean some things up before TCU this Thursday. It is sort of funny that the week that BYU had a bye, they jumped in the polls 3-4 spots, but for the past two weeks when they have won (and other teams in front of them have lost) they have either dropped in the polls or remained the same. Very interesting. You can tell how the Mountain West Conference is viewed by the voters.

BYU 5-0

2008-10-04T10:43:00.004-06:00

Last night BYU played Utah State and beat them 34-14. It was sort of funny to watch because there was a lot of chippiness going on. I guess that is what happens when you are ranked 7/8 in the nation and playing an instate team. Next up: Vs. New Mexico

Yellowbrush

2008-10-04T09:00:00.004-06:00

Last weekend we went up to Yellowrush. That is where my in-laws spent plenty of time during the summer while herding sheep. It was a beautiful day to go. The weather was nice and the leaves were turning colors. It was good to have lunch up there and to take my parents-in-law as well.

Final Demise of the Escort

2008-10-04T08:52:00.006-06:00

The escort is finally gone, but not without a little fun first.

BYU: 4-0

2008-09-21T08:14:00.003-06:00

Unfortunately I was not able to go to yesterday's home football game. We had a surprise 80th birthday party for my father-in-law. It was all good. However, I love having a DVR so I could still catch the whole game! BYU is looking good. Maybe they will be able to crack into the top ten soon. I hope they continue to roll.

Car Bashing

2008-09-18T16:57:00.009-06:00

Yesterday we played our rivals, the Canyon View Cougars, in football and volleyball. So to have a little fun, we bashed a car. I had a car that didn't run and so I donated it to the cause. Students could buy tickets to smash the car with a sledgehammer. It was a good fundraiser and those Junior High students did a little more damage than I though they would.

The car before:

The Car After Painting:

The car after smashing:

Now if you want to watch the video we made, here you go:

Video

2008-09-16T22:57:00.002-06:00

This is a funny video that they showed at the beginning of the BYU-UCLA game. It pretty much sums everything up.

UC-What?

2008-09-13T22:07:00.002-06:00

I went the the BYU-UCLA game today and it was awesome!! Against what several "experts" thought, BYU would either lose or when by a very small margin. Well, I guess 59-0 proved them all wrong. All I have to say to the critics is "neener, neener, neener." I knew the offense was that good, but what really impressed me is that the defense held UCLA to 0 points. Next up, Wyoming.

GO BYU!

My Birthday!

2008-09-10T20:39:00.005-06:00

On Saturday, it was my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!!! My wife took this video and couldn't help but laugh. I was trying to pose for her to take a picture and then ran out of breath. Oh well. I had a great birthday!

100 Laughs A Day

2008-09-10T20:20:00.004-06:00

There is a teacher at school that told me that she heard that 100 laughs is equal to 15 minutes of exercise. First we were deciding what was considered a laugh and how long of a duration should it be. We still didn't really come up with an answer, but everyday now, we try to make each other laugh, to get in our 100 laughs in the day. I hope that you get 100 laughs a day, not just for exercise, but it simply makes you feel better. I hope that video gave you at least one laugh for the day. Only 99 more to go.

Volleyball

2008-09-02T22:38:00.003-06:00

The unit that we just finished in PE was volleyball. I don't know why, but sometimes when students get hit with the ball, it is funny. Of course you make sure that the student is ok, but after that, I go ahead and laugh. Usually all the students are laughing, along with the student that got it. It can be anything from not paying too much attention and the ball hits them in the head, to a teammate hits the ball into one of their own players and everything else. That is one thing that you have to look for while teaching. Being able to laugh, not at the expense of anyone, but laughing at good, clean, humor.

Nuck Woodward

2008-09-02T22:26:00.003-06:00

Since we were not able to do our annual picnic on the 24th of July up Nuck Woodward Canyon, we decided to do it on Labor Day. It was pretty fun. We took my wife's parents up with us. It was a nice cool day, but at least there was no snow or rain, just some wind. We were thinking about going up on top to Yellowbrush, but we figured that it was probably snowing up there. We will have to do that another time.

The Quest

2008-09-02T22:13:00.003-06:00

BYU's Quest has started and of course I have season tickets. It was a pretty fun game except for the third quarter. They have a few kinks to work out before the Orange Bowl. All in all, they did fine and now they are ranked 15th in both polls. Next home game is versus UCLA. Go BYU.

While the Cats are away....

2008-08-27T20:35:00.002-06:00

...the mouse cooks dinner.

So everybody is gone and I am home alone for the evening. My wife thought that I was just going to go out to eat or cook a pizza or something. But what is better than making your own dinner? Sure, it is a total guy thing, but I can't resist a 15oz. rib eye steak cooked medium well, with BBQ corn, picked fresh from the garden, and steak fries. Mmm, mmm, mmm. It sure was good.

Beijing in Review

2008-08-26T22:02:00.004-06:00

Unfortunately I cannot embed the NBC video directly here on the blog, but click here to see a sweet video review of the games.

Olympics

2008-08-24T23:13:00.003-06:00

Like most of you, I lost plenty of sleep these past two weeks staying up and watching the Olympics. The Olympics are just awesome. I know that some of the athletes think that they are the greatest thing in the world, but there are plenty the show the true spirit of the Olympics. It is fun to watch all the competitions and the high-level of play that there is in the Olympics. Plus it gives my a chance to watch sports that are not normally shown on TV, like team handball, water polo, volleyball, etc. I can't wait until the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 and the next Summer Olympics in London in 2012. Maybe there will be more live events that are not as late since the time difference will not be as great.

Cub Scouts

2008-08-24T22:45:00.003-06:00

If you didn't know, I am the Cubmaster for our cub scout program. Yesterday, we had a Pack Meeting. It was pretty fun. We did a little service project of clearing branches from a yard in the neighborhood and then we went to the park and roasted hot dogs and played water games. It was quite fun!

1st Day of School

2008-08-19T22:16:00.002-06:00

So do you remember when it was the first day of school and your mom wanted to take your picture?It was usually by a tree or something that would also grow through the years. Well, my wife still likes to do that and since I am a school teacher, it only fits. However the tree that we take my pictures by, won't really change that much between the years.

Yep, today was the first day of school at SRJH. As a teacher it is always interesting to see the dynamics of the grade levels. The ninth graders come in thinking that they are the best in the world and nothing is going to stop them. The seventh graders come in and they are scared and not sure what to think about this whole junior high thing. Then the eighth graders are just weird and not sure where they fit in just quite yet. Through my few years of teaching I have noticed that the eighth graders are usually the ones that are just in that weird stage. They get past it, most of the time, by ninth grade. It is always interesting how the class dynamics turn out. It's always a good time

Thanks For...

2008-08-17T22:14:00.002-06:00

Kids can be very funny. Our 3-year old is getting potty trained. He does ok, but there are always accidents. Also, whenever he listens, my wife says "Thanks for listening." So I had to go to the bathroom and asked my son if he needed to go.

He said "No thanks"

"Well, I need to go potty."

"Go right now."

"Ok, I'll go."

So as I am headed off to the bathroom, he says "Thanks for listening."

Happy Birthday!

2008-08-14T23:21:00.003-06:00

Today my wife celebrated her birthday. What a week for her. First she has surgery on our anniversary, and then a few days later is her birthday and she has some swelling and bruising from her surgery. My son loved wishing and singing her Happy Birthday all day long today. I think that he was just as excited as my wife. I hope that she had a good day!

Anniversary

2008-08-11T22:09:00.004-06:00

Well, today was my wife's and mine 7th wedding anniversary. I still can't believe that it has been seven years. We look back and see all the things that have happened since we have been married. It's crazy. We now have two kids, living in Castle Dale, both going to school to get our masters, and many other things. I have loved being married and it gets better everyday. I love my wife very much and that grows deeper and stronger each day. Today is not a typical anniversary day. We did drive up to Salt Lake, but not for anything too special. My wife had to have surgery on her mouth to get ready for some implants. So today was a skin graph to add some more bulk to her gums to get ready for a bone graft. So that was a great way to spend our anniversary.

Let the games begin!

2008-08-09T22:18:00.005-06:00

There is not too much to say except that the Olympics have started. You have got to love them. It is amazing at what people can do and the stories that are shared at the Olympics. It's just awesome. I know what my time is going to consist of for the next 2 1/2 weeks. Too bad school starts and will get in the way, but that is the way it goes. You can check out the medal count in the column to the right. Go USA!!

Some other news:

Our 5 month old now has two front teeth.
We are now the nursery leaders in our ward.

Registration and Memorials

2008-08-06T22:12:00.009-06:00

You know when summer is almost over when Junior High registration is occurring. Although I did not need to go, I was there for most of the day watching the kids come in and they were also realizing that their summer is almost over. It is also funny to see the seventh graders come in and they are a little overwhelmed. It is quite a transition from Elementary School. There is less than two weeks until school starts. August 19 is the day. Should be lots of fun.

Today is also the one year anniversary of the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse. I can't really believe that was a year ago. My heart and prayers still go out to the 6 that died in the collapse and the 3 that were killed in the rescue. I also hope that those that were injured while trying to rescue their co-workers are also doing well. It always reminds me of my brother-in-law who also died in a mining accident 4 1/2 years ago. It was not an accident like the Crandall Canyon mine, but it still took the life of a loved one. We still love and miss him.

Here is a video about the memorial and sorry about the ad that precedes it.

Parades and Fairs

2008-08-04T13:10:00.008-06:00

This past week here in Castle Dale was the Emery County Fair. Not as big and glamorous as some other fairs, but still fun. You can find all sorts of things to buy and there are a lot of activities to do. However, my favorite, as well as my sons, is the Parade on Saturday morning. They throw tons of candy and it is lots of fun.
My son got more candy at the parade then he does trick-or-treating on Halloween with less work. It's great. Along with the fair, there is the Castle Val ley Pageant. This is the last year that the pageant will be every year. From now on it will be every even year. If you have the time you should come down and see it. It continues next week, from Tuesday 'till Saturday. You can also have some lamb at the lamb fry that is held on the fairgrounds. Very Yummy!!

Tram Ride

2008-07-30T13:08:00.004-06:00

Here are pics of us going up the tram. Had to get home to scan them in

No Place Like Home

2008-07-29T22:28:00.004-06:00

So after a week of touring the Black Hills of South Dakota, we have returned home. There is no place like it. It's so good to be able to sleep in your own bed, eat real food, and other such luxuries. Yesterday was spent mostly driving. We did go to Mt. Rushmore one more time. My wife wanted a family picture so we did that before really moving on. I think that we hit a decent time to travel because we are able to fill up on gas most of the time for under $4 a gallon. The cheapest that we got it was $3.75 in Cheyenne, WY. We arrived home and it was still about 50 cents more a gallon than that. Why are we so behind? Also on our way to Ft. Collins, where we spent Monday night, I discussed my conspiracy theory of the Hall of Records behind Mt. Rushmore. I think that it would be cool to be able to go up and see the hall, however, it is off limits to the public. I am wondering why? Why wouldn't it be open for people to see. Supposedly it is unfinished and some things have been placed there, but I think that it really did get finished and there are very important or mysterious things in there and that is truly why the public can't go and see it. I was very tempted to go off the path and hike up and see what is really there. Well, I guess I will never really know. Then today we drove the rest of the way home from Ft. Collins to Castle Dale. This was also quite uneventful, but very nice to be home. My wife made in time to take a 2 hour break before she had her graduate classes for five hours. Awesome.

Slidin' and Drivin'

2008-07-27T22:04:00.005-06:00

Today was the last full day that we are going to be in the Black Hills. It has been fun. We went to the President's Alpine Slide. That was pretty fun. We all went up to the top and from there you had a pretty good view of the valley. Then my wife, my oldest son, and I took the alpine slide down and the rest went back down on the gondola. After that we had a quick lunch. Unfortunately, when we got back out, we realized that we had a flat. So I changed a tire and we decided that we should get it fixed so just in case we had a problem driving back, we would still have a spare. So back up to Rapid City to get it fixed. Of course when we get there and the look at the tire, the hole was in the side wall, which means we had to get a new tire. Bummer. So that took a few hours. We drove back and picked up the rest at the hotel and went back to Mt. Rushmore for another quick glance. After that we went on Iron Mountain Road and came back to the hotel. Then we went for a quick dip and that was the evening. Tomorrow we are going to leave and drive back to Ft. Collins. It has been a fun Vacation.

Helicopter Rides

2008-07-26T22:32:00.010-06:00

So today's activities started of with 99 cent pancakes for breakfast. What a deal. After breakfast it was decided that we should go for a helicopter ride. My father-in-law really wanted to go, so me, my wife, and him did. It was about a 10 minute flight around keystone. Very awesome.

We got done with that and decided to go for a drive and went and saw the Crazy Horse Monument. It has been in process for 60 years already. It doesn't seem like they have done much when you look at it, but when you watch the little video that they show you, they have actually done quite a bit. My wife asked me when it's going to be done and I told her 200 years, however I don't know anything and they won't say. It just depends on how much money they have and stuff. It was cool and when if ever it gets done, it will be very cool. After that we got lunch and went for a drive through Custer State Park. That took pretty much the rest of the day. It was good. A buffalo came and licked our window and we saw other wildlife. The road leading out of the park back down to Keystone was pretty cool. We never really got any good pictures, but we will because we are going back up tomorrow. Well, that about does it for another day of vacation.

Hill City and Rushmore

2008-07-25T22:43:00.010-06:00

So like all good vacations, plans change. Well, some of them. The first thing my son saw, on our first full day in the Black Hills, as we walked out of our hotel were some wild turkeys. Man was he excited. Then after that we took an 1880's train from Keystone to Hill City and then spent some time in Hill City and returned back on the train. Unfortunately, the steam engine that should have been pulling us had some maintenance issues so a regular diesel pulled us pulled ways. That was quite a bit of our day. We were sort of planning to go to Crazy Horse today as well, but that plan got axed. My mother-in-law forgot some medicine for my father-in-law and the nearest pharmacy is in Rapid City. So off to Rapid City her and I went. Once again plans were foiled and to make a long story short, there were complications and we could not get the medicine that was needed. Hopefully everything will go okay. We came back to our hotel and ate a wonderful dinner of bread, salad, and steak and cheese chimichangas. The chimichangas were supposed to be a rotisserie chicken that you can get at SAM's Club, however, they are not available at the one in Rapid City. Oh well, you make do with what ya got. After dinner we dedicided to go up to Mount Rushmore for their evening program. We stayed up there a couple of hours and saw the lighting of the memorial. It was pretty exciting. I'm not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but if it was half as entertaining as today, we are all instore for a wicked awesome day!

Keystone, South Dakota

2008-07-24T20:51:00.006-06:00

So today we made the 2nd leg of our trip from Ft. Collins, up to Keystone, SD, home of Mt. Rushmore. Keystone is a huge city of 311 people. We were planning on seeing Mt. Rushmore tonight, but there were a few obstacles. One, it was raining pretty hard when we first arrived and two, we had few ornery people, our oldest son and my autistic brother-in-law. We'll have plenty of other time to do that though. Before we left Ft. Collins, we went and saw the Clydesdale horses at the Budweiser plant. Man, those things are huge. I would have pics, but you're not supposed to take them. So after a few hours of driving we got here. We got a pretty nice suite at one of the hotels here (Rushmore Express)and ate and got a quick glimpse of Mt. Rushmore, we did drive by it on our way here though. So here are a few pics and then tomorrow it will be a fun filled day of train riding and seeing Crazy Horse.

Road Trip, Baby

2008-07-23T19:58:00.003-06:00

About three weeks ago we decided that we were going to go on a road trip. We agreed upon Mt. Rushmore. So today was our first leg and we went to Ft. Collins, CO, where my parents live. Along the way we stopped at Bair Ranch, which is towards the top of Glenwood Canyon on I-70 (this is where the picture was taken). It was pretty interesting. It took a little longer than normal to get to Ft. Collins because we had my wife's parents with us and they needed to stop a little more often. However, it was very nice way to go. I didn't mind it at all. I don't know if I would do that all the time, but it was a good change.

Taking A Ride

2008-07-19T21:52:00.005-06:00

Today I decided that I would go for a nice little ride. I do it every once in a while and it's not too far of a ride. It's 20 miles in distance, but it raises 1500 feet, about half of it on this hill. From where I took this picture to the top is about a mile. It's a pretty steep hill. However, when you get to the top, there is quite a nice view. Coming down is really fun. You can get up to 35 miles an hour. Wouldn't be so good if I wiped out, but I didn't so no worries. If you are every in the area you should do it.

Bones and Stones

2008-07-18T14:03:00.003-06:00

There is a museum about a half mile from our house called The Museum of the San Rafael. What's great about it is that it is free and there are quite a few cool exhibits. My oldest son loves the black light rock art display and of course the dinosaur bones. Many of the ones that are displayed were found here in Emery County out on the swell. If you are ever in the area, the museum and the swell are two good places to go!