Christmas Day

And now on to Christmas Day. This year Christmas was with the Hines family, although we did sneak over to my dad's house for an hour in the morning to open presents with my brothers and sister. It's convenient that my dad is only a stone's throw away from Brandt's parent's house, so it didn't take us long to get there and back. We got my dad a Sport's Illustrated football book and Lori got an ice cream bowl and topping set. After some yummy cinnamon rolls, it was time to head back to the Hines' where we got to open more presents! My favorite gift: my Dan Brown book (this was the only thing I asked for, and since I was the one who bought it, it wasn't too much of a surprise ;) Brandt's favorite gift: his fly-tying supplies (which was NOT the only thing he asked for, but nonetheless the majority of his Christmas this year; and since he also bought most of it, he wasn't too surprised either. We figure it's better to get what you want rather than be surprised with a bunch of stuff you don't want - makes sense right?)

After presents, we had Christmas lunch. This is still something I'm getting used to. Christmas lunch? With my side of the family, holiday meals are in the late afternoon, usually around 4 pm. This was hard for Brandt to adjust to because his family always eats at 12 pm sharp on holidays. But regardless of the time, it was super yummy and of course we all ate too much. Brandt's sister Sheena and her family came by so we were able to spend the rest of the day hanging out with them and I kicked butt at the electronic version of Monopoly. Later that night we stopped in to see Grandma and Grandpa Manning.

Brandt's other sister Allison came the week after Christmas for a couple of days, and luckily Brandt had those days off work, so we came down to Burley again so we could see her and her family. It's always fun to see family and spend time together.

So now we are back home, the decorations are all put away, and the house looks blah. One of the more stressful things about the holidays is figuring out where to put all of the gifts we've gotten. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our presents, but every year it's very tricky trying to rearrange things in our tiny apartment to make room for the bigger presents we get. Yet once again, I was victorious in cleaning out our pantry and finding just enough room for our huge George Foreman grill - I get a little thrill from making it work - don't judge me for that - I know I'm strange.

And now it's on to a new year. Here's to a great 2009 and an even better 2010!!

Christmas Eve

This year Christmas Eve was with my family. We had planned to go sledding during the day, but it was too dang cold outside, so we opted to just hang out in the warm house instead. I taught my brother Zac how to wrap his presents, tried my hand at Halo (I'm still terrible), watched a little "Monk", etc. Nothing too exciting, but it was a good day! My mom always has the prettiest tree; she spends days and days decorating and getting everything ready and her house always looks great. This year she got her tree flocked with a blue-tinted flock to go with her blue decorations. It looked pretty cool.


My mom and Bryan made a yummy Christmas Eve dinner: salad, ham, potatoes, pie...YUM! Afterwards we got to open presents!


This year for gifts, we got my mom a couple of Richard Paul Evan's books for her collection and My Redeemer Lives, a really good book about the Savior's last days paired with pictures from various artists. I read it before I wrapped it up and now I want a copy for myself (birthday coming up, hint hint ;) We got Bryan a box of goodies from Hickory Farms.


Brandt and I were definitely spoiled this year. Everyone got a pair of PJ's and then all the married kids got portable DVD players. Every year we draw names amongst the kids and this year Brandt and I had Fran and Liz. We got them Have a little Faith and "Miss Congeniality" on DVD (that movie never gets old!). Sydney had Brandt this year and she got him "Remember the Titans" which he's been wanting for awhile now. Kim had me and I got Bath and Body Works lotion and shower gel.


The big family gift from Mom and Bryan this year was a new flat screen for the living room, which considering that the other TV was as old as the hills and couldn't pick up any stations anymore, it was a great gift! Bryan got the "Planet Earth" DVD set so we watched part of that after we got done with presents and Brandt had a great time imitating the British narrator and making everyone laugh.


All in all it was a great day. We enjoyed being with the fam, eating lots of good food, and opening presents!!! Can't wait for next year :)

Book Review: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series

The Alchemyst, The Magician, and The Sorceress
By Michael Scott

I decided to do a review of all three books at once, because my feelings about each of them was about the same. I love getting recommendations from others on what books I should read - thanks Jill for suggesting this series to me!

A little background for those of you who haven't heard about these books. These three books are the first in a 6-book series about twins Sophie and Josh Newman and there adventures with the immortal Nicholas Flamel. If you click on the picture of the books above, it will take you to Shelfari's summary of the first book, which explains it a lot better than I can.

I have mixed feelings on this series. I liked that Scott uses all real people (with the exception of Sophie and Josh), places, events, etc. to build his fictitious story (similar to Dan Brown with The da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons). You can look up all of Scott's characters on Wikipedia and learn more about them, and the same is true for the locations that they travel. I thought it was fun reading about things I had never heard of before or at least had never studied (i.e.The Catacombs of Paris, Stonehenge, Nicholas Flamel, Alcatraz Island, Billy the Kid). Scott uses these real people and places and twists them a bit to fit into his story which was really cool how he made it all fit together. However, towards the middle of the third book, it started to get a little rediculous to me. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, so consider that when I say that it all was a little much for me - a little too far-fetched (yes, granted Harry Potter is completely out there and I love that series - I'm not sure what makes that series special).

All in all, the storyline is great, but I was never drawn in completely - they were a bit predictable and it wasn't a series that I just couldn't put down - like Harry Potter, Twilight, and Dan Brown's books. The suspense just wasn't there for me I guess. However, they are good enough that I plan to read the other three books when they come out (The Necromancer comes out in May) so I can see what happens to everyone. That is, if Jill will let me borrow her books again ;)

Next Projects:
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (one of my Christmas presents!!)
AND
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (audiobook on my new iPod! - another suggestion from Jill - thanks Jill!)

Happy Holidays!

I thought I'd do a post to catch up with what Brandt and I have been up to before the holidays come and I get behind again. We haven't been up to a whole lot so far this month, at least nothing too exciting. Just hanging out and getting ready for Christmas, which is a lot of work in itself!

My temporary job in Idaho Falls ended a few weeks ago. The girl I was filling in for decided to come back a couple of weeks early, which was a little disappointing for me, but what do ya do? It has been an awesome experience and I have learned so much. I was sad to leave all of the great people I worked with; they were so sweet to me - my last week there they surprised me with a HUGE bouquet of flowers to say goodbye. I'll miss them, but maybe in the future if they are in need of another hygienist I'll get to work with them again.

Lucky for me though, another office in Burley needed a fill-in so I've been able to pick up a few extra days that I wasn't expecting, so that's been nice. Maybe I'll just be a permanent fill-in girl?! Whatever - I won't complain and just take what I can get. I've decided that I need to work, because without it I am quite lazy. I can't even remember what I've been doing the last couple of weeks to stay busy. I need to find myself a hobby.

As for Brandt, he is working hard at Lowe's and keeping up with his millions of different hobbies. He's been considering going back to school to get his master's degree in natural resources - that way he could work for the BLM or National Park Service or something along those lines. I can't believe he didn't think of this sooner - it's right up his alley and sounds perfect for him. So we'll see how it goes.

Other than that, we've just been getting ready for Christmas: decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping, and avoiding Wal Mart at all costs. It's been great fun. Usually sometime Thanksgiving weekend we go up in the mountains with Brandt's family and cut down a Christmas tree. They are always really scrawny, Charlie Brown trees, but we lovingly decorate them - being careful not to decorate them too much for fear the weight will knock the tree over. But they have always been tough little guys - and every year, they have grown while sitting in our warm apartment and sprout new, bright green needles on the ends of the branches. It's pretty cool to see.

Well this year was quite a different experience. We didn't have time to go up and get a tree, so we used Brandt's excellent employee discount and purchased a beautiful, full, thick, luscious Douglas Fir from Almighty Lowe's. So we lovingly wrapped it up and placed it in the Blazer to take home and decorate. Brandt, of course, thought the occasion warranted the use of his Dremel tool that he got for Christmas last year. So he pulled that baby out (along with his nifty safety glasses) and started going to town - as you can see from the sparks in the picture on the left. He thought our star needed some tweeking, and then he thought he would just drill a little hole in the top of the tree so the star would sit better. Needless to say, he had a great time!

And it was a beautiful tree, and other than all of the spiders that came out of it, I was happy with our purchase (see, I guess we'd never experienced spiders in our tree before, because when you get your tree from the mountains, they're all hibernating? Or frozen and dead - who knows?) However, a couple of weeks later, the tree just shriveled up and died. Just like that - no warning that it was sick or dehydrated. One minute it was fine, and the next it was gone. I should have taken a picture of it before I had Brandt return it, but believe me it was a crispy critter! You could just snap the branches off they were so dry. Anyway, come to find out, they shipped the wrong "breed" of trees and this particular type of tree does not do well in our climate (weird, cuz I thought Idaho was the fir capitol of the world - obviously not). It was fun while it lasted, although next year I think we will revert back to our Charlie Brown tree - either that or go fake and get a pine -scented candle and trick ourselves into believing it's real...

Nonetheless, we are not completely treeless - thanks to Brandt's "I can build that - we don't need to buy it" attitude, we still have this little guy in our kitchen:
He's a humble little tree, and every year we have to glue different parts of him back together, but it's fun. That's it for now...tomorrow we will head to Bur-town for all the festivities. We hope all of our readers have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year!

Book Review: Have a Little Faith

Have a Little Faith

By Mitch Albom

I've never read a Mitch Albom book before, though he has some pretty popular ones out there (i.e. Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven). But I saw this at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and thought it looked like a fun, easy read so I picked it up.

It's a true story about the author and two very different, but also very similar, men: one is an elderly rabbi (Jewish) that has asked Albom to deliver his eulogy when he dies and the other is an inner-city drug-dealer-turned-pastor (Christian) with a broken-down church with a hole in the roof to preach in. This book is about Albom's interactions with these two "men of the cloth" and the life lessons that he learns from them.

At first I was skeptical. I didn't like the fact that Albom was profiting from these life stories, like he was taking advantage of their friendships, and I didn't like the light in which he painted them sometimes. But the more I read, the more I enjoyed it, and the more I came to understand Albom's writing style - yes, sometimes he writes things that aren't the nicest way you could word something about an individual - but he is being honest about the way he personally felt at that time, and I think you need to be honest in your writing if you want it to be believable.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It's not that long - if you have three hours or so to just sit and read you could probably read the whole thing in one sitting. I like books that inadvertently make me think about my own life, my values, etc. This was one of those books. It is interesting to me that though I belong to a different church than the two discussed in the book and the specifics of our religions are very different, our belief in how to treat others, the importance of service, and the worth of souls, is the same.

Because of this book and The Hole in the Roof foundation that Albom started, donations from around the world came in and they have finally been able to repair the roof. Construction began on November 23 of this year and a celebration of its completion took place just a few days ago on December 9th. There is a short video on the church's website of the occasion that you can view by clicking on the picture of the famous church at the right.

Next Project: The Sorceress (third book in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series)

Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving Feast

Ahh the joys of blogging.

To some it may seem insanity to run 3.1 miles on an early Thursday morning at the end of November, not only run mind you, but pay hard earned American dollars to do so. But, for the 700 or so participants of this year's annual Mini-Cassia Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot it is about more than that. What that more is I am sure varies by the person. For some it is the thrill of competition, for others it is about the good cause and money raised, for others it is about simply finishing. I believe Dani and I fall somewhere between simply finishing and the thrill of competition, but a good cause is nice. But, we must start with the beginning...

So, about a month and a half ago, the wifey found out about this 5K race held every Thanksgiving Day. A fun run I believe they call it. Now there is an oxymoron. Fun-Run? When is running ever fun? Running is a fight-or-flight mechanism programmed deep into our brains to protect us from things that could hurt us, things like bears, police, raging bulls, and Richard Simmons. Anyway, Dani and I decided this would be a good event and motivation to get in shape. So the training began. The going was slow but eventually we were able to get up to a point that we could run the distance without having to walk. We often had to run in the cold frigidness of night because that was when we could run together after work. But that was OK, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or perhaps weaker, oh well. The looming day grew ever nearer and we gathered more and more excited. Eventually the time was upon us and we headed to Burley the night before Thanksgiving. You were encouraged to pick up your racing number, free t-shirt, etc. the night before in order to ease congestion on the busy morning of. Thus was our plan. However the address they provided was rather obscure. We tried Google and we tried Mapquest. We tried the globe and we tried GPS. None provided the solid directions we sought, but undaunted we thought we could "figure it out". Bad idea. we ended up going way too far to the east, and then way too far to the west. Eventually we wound up on some old dirt road driving out into the unknown wilderness with a boding feeling of fear and what may become of us. Was this Turkey Trot some myth devised to get unsuspecting travelers to journey this old dirt road only to have their cars found abandoned up on cinder blocks and never to be heard from again? We should have suspected so, after all it was called a "fun-run". Ridiculous. Well after some phone calls we realized that we had passed the place a long time ago and thus headed back towards the civilization from whence we had come.

All was well after that and after a good night's rest the big morning was upon us. The time was close and so everyone lined up at the start. The countdown began and Bang! we were off. Well sort of, because of the massive crowd it took awhile to finally get out to a decent pace. Eventually we got going and things went well. Dani and I separated and each tried to make our own best time. I kept a steady pace and thanks to some "motivational" music (aka Eminem "Till I Collapse" - I found it rather fitting as that is what I wanted to do) I was able to do well considering it being my first distance run ever. As for Dani she had a nice run as well; she thought there was a lot more to go when she came around the last turn and thus was pleased to know the finish was close but didn't quite pace it as she had hoped. At the finish line we were happy to enjoy the sweet taste of victory and knowing that we had completed our task. Overall it ended up being quite the fun-run!

Here's Dani chugging along coming up to the finish!

Here we are after the race along with Dani's cousin Amy.

And here we are with Lucky the Turkey

Now we just need to find another race to keep us motivated and in shape. Dani's time ended up being 34:16 and mine was somewhere around 28:30 (not sure as I forgot to look at the clock while crossing the finish line). Not bad for our first race. We stuck around to watch everyone else come in and see the presentation of awards. They also had a drawing and gave away a brand new mountain bike and a pair of running shoes. We weren't the winners of anything cool, but we did get free vitamin water and fruit just for participating!

After a good run we enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday...

It was nice, we journeyed to the land of the in-laws, mine that is. We went to Dani's home and had a good time. The morning and afternoon were spent making preparations. The kitchen was all a hubbub. Trying to let in some holiday cheer, I decided to turn on the glorious event that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Alright, it's not that glorious but it was nice to have some holiday tunes in the background. While the women cooked, the men headed downstairs to pay homage to the mighty X-Box and celebrate this day of thanks by condemning alien foes to a bountiful butt whooping! At least Dani's brothers did. I made a measly attempt with my pink controller (thanks again guys), but always seemed to end up in the negative. That is my kill-to-death ratio (I believe the gaming world calls it) was always heavy on the death side, and not the good kind in that I died more than I dealt death. In other words it would have been better for my team had I and my pink controller coward and hid from others rather than go out and get shot. Oh well. What's the fun in that?

Anyway, eventually the feast was ready and we emerged from the darkness of the basement with bloodshot eyes and cramped thumbs eager for sustenance. We were not disappointed. The food was grand and delicious, many thanks to the cooks. Here are some pics:

Here is half the table...

here is the other half....

here is the cheesiest half of the table...

and here is the most important part of the table. I LOVE pumpkin-ish things: pies, breads, cookies, cakes and shakes. Dani made this specially for me, the picture doesn't even do it justice, it was delicious!

That was the gist of our Thanksgiving Holiday. The rest of the day was spent napping and playing with family until we had to journey back home in order for me to work bright and early on Black Friday.

New Moon!

Of course I had to go see New Moon as soon as I could. As I've said before, I was disappointed by the first movie, but the trailer for this one looked pretty intense so I was pretty excited for it to come out. So on one of my weekend trips to Burley, a bunch of my family got together to go see it. It was interesting that out of the eight of us in our group, only two or three had actually read the book, so it was fun watching the movie with them and seeing what they thought.

And now for my movie review:

WOW!! This movie was AMAZING! Sooo Sooo SOOO much better than the first one. I was nervous about how the animation would be with the wolves and how they would do it without making it look cheesy, but I thought they did a great job. And I don't know what it was about the characters, but even their acting seemed better and more believable. I liked Kristen Steward and Rob Pattinson a lot more in this film compared to Twilight. And Taylor Lautner!...enough said.

I also liked the screenplay to New Moon better than Twilight; it seemed to stay truer to the book. However there were a couple of parts they changed and a couple of cheesy parts that I didn't like - but not enough for me to not enjoy it. I couldn't believe how fast the time went by - I easily could have sat there for another hour and not have noticed. I've heard that the next movie should be coming out next June so that will be exciting - not too long to wait!

So now I have a dilemna: Team Edward or Team Jacob? I've ALWAYS been Team Edward before, but now I'm just undecided. Good thing it's not a make it or break it decision right? :) Here's a pic of some of us in attendance that blessed night: Jill, Me, Syd, Jamie, Kelsi and not pictured: Linds, Tysi, and my momma (she sure got a kick out of it!)

(Photo courtesy of Jill - thanks Jill!)

Good Ol' Family Bonding

November has been a busy month for us. My sister, Lindsay, and her daughter, Katelyn, were here visiting from Chicago for three weeks. Sadly, I had to work (actually I shouldn't say sadly, because I feel very blessed to have a job at the moment), but I drove to Bur-town every weekend that they were here so I could spend as much time as possible with them. We had lots of fun! We went out to eat, played TONS of games, went shopping, watched movies, went to the movies (NEW MOON!!! Don't worry, this event will have its own special post), taught Kate some of Michael Jackson's "signature" moves (Linds wasn't too thrilled about that part of her visit), and all in all had a great time. I miss them already. Here are some pics from our activities.

Me and Brandt with the little stinker at Syd's basketball game. Kate likes
to put her arms around two people and say "Cheeeeeeese!"

Linds, Kate, and Brandt playing "Ticket to Ride"

Kate and Grandma singing "Popcorn Popping"

Aunt Nada, Brandt, me, Jill, and Linds playing "Five Crowns"
(photo courtesy of Jill) This was my first time playing this
game and it is tons of fun.

The Girls

The whole family; this is a terrible pic, but due to the fact that my
brothers are retarded and like to screw up photos, this is the
best-looking one of about 20 that we took.

Me, Kate, and Grandma at Cafe Rio. YUM!

Me and Kate sharing a popsicle and playing Phase 10
(I wasn't kidding when I said we played LOTS of games!)

And Rex - All of our playing was a little too much excitement for him!

Book Review: War and Peace

War and Peace

By Leo Tolsoy

This has definitely been one of the hardest books I've ever read. Four months later and One THOUSAND three hundred eighty-six pages later, I'm finally FINISHED! Woot! I'm patting myself on the back for this one :)

I've always wanted to try reading this book, mainly because it's such a huge classic that I wanted to know what it was all about. For those of you who aren't familiar with the novel, it was published in 1869 and is classified as historical fiction, my favorite genre. It covers the Napoleonic Wars with the French invasion of Russia, starting in 1805 and continuing through 1813 and an epilogue in 1820. The novel is seen through the eyes of five aristocratic families and chronicles their struggles and connections mingled with the history of that time period. Just this year War and Peace was #1 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books of All Time. So of course I have to read the #1 Book EVER written right?

So here is my opinion: I can see why this book is a classic. Tolstoy is brilliant in the way he describes his characters and events. He goes into so much detail that you really understand people's motives, feelings, etc. You meet hundreds of characters throughout the novel, so for the first half of the book, I had to write everyone's name's down so I could keep them all straight and figure out which ones were important enough to remember. However, I personally got lost in the details of the book. He goes on for pages and pages about war strategy, or describing a battle. And in the second half of the book, Tolstoy dedicates SEVERAL chapters to essays on the subject of war and Russian history, and I didn't care for these parts of the book at all. But I think the majority of the problem was that it is Russian history, which I don't really care about. If I were a Russian, and understood more about the war and the places, events, etc. that Tolstoy describes, I would probably appreciated the book more. Or if the book was centered around our own Civil War or Revolutionary War (something that I understand), I would be able to follow it better. But, I did learn a lot about the Napoleonic Wars that I didn't know before so I guess that's a plus.

As far as the fictional story of War and Peace, I really enjoyed that part. I grew to love certain characters, but even in that aspect Tolstoy disappointed me. He kept killing off my favorite characters and the book didn't end at all like I wanted it to. Consider Twilight for a moment (Tolstoy would probably roll over in his grave knowing I'm comparing his classic to a vampire love story) - How would you feel if Bella ended up with Jacob? You'd feel cheated right? Because she's SUPPOSED to be with Edward. Well, in War and Peace, Natasha ends up with Jacob...and Edward dies. At least that's my opinion. I always thought of Pierre (aka Jacob in this analogy) as kind of a dipstick, so I hated that Natasha ended up with him. But I guess she went a little nutty herself so I guess they were perfect for each other. And I cried when Prince Andrey (aka Edward) died (sorry, kind of a spoiler there but I figure nobody reading this - if anybody does end up reading this - will actually read the book- so no harm done!). ANYWAYS, So given all of that, I have to say War and Peace is not on my personal list of Best Books of All Time. I'll probably never read it again, but I am glad that I took the time to work my way through it.

So after I got done reading the book, I thought I'd rent the movie version and see how it measured up. There are a few movie versions out there; I rented the 1956 version starring Audrey Hepburn as Natasha. I have to say this is the first time in my life (that I remember at least) that I thought the movie was better than the novel - but don't read too much into that because the movie wasn't outstanding by any means. I liked that it captured all of the best parts of the book and it was fun to see the characters brought to life. Reading the book definitely made the movie much easier to understand.

I'm glad that I stuck with it and finished this book through (All one THOUSAND three hundred eighty-six pages of it :) but I'll probably never read it again. There are too many other books out there I need to get to.

Next project: The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott (should be interesting :)

Palisades

Last Friday, Brandt wanted to go on a day trip to Palisades Creek (up past Idaho Falls). So all week leading up to Friday he was trying to talk me into going with him. Neither one of us had been before. I had no desire to go; I just wanted to veg on the couch all day (I'm quite lazy on my days off). But he said we could go on a hike up to this pretty lake where he could fish while I read my book, the weather was going to be really nice, the leaves should be changing colors so it would be really pretty, etc. etc. So finally I consented to go.

The first half of the day was pretty great. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking and everything was so pretty. Here are some pics we took along the way...

I think Brandt said it was about a four-mile hike to the lake. But after hiking for about two hours, we were hungry so we stopped on this flat rock and had lunch before turning around. Not ten minutes later, we see this...

And I'm thinking, "Great. It's going to snow." And sure enough, it did. And it snowed hard. And we still had an hour and a half of hiking before we could get back to the car. At this point, I am just loving the fact that I came along on this little adventure. I'm walking pretty quickly so as to get out of the storm as fast as possible. We walk across this bridge and I turn around to make sure Brandt is still with me and he looks at me with these puppy dog eyes, looks down at the creek, and then back at me.

"You want to fish, don't you?" I ask him.

"Can I?" He asks me back.

"Do you not see that it is SNOWING out here?!" I throw back at him.

"Just 20 minutes and if I don't catch anything, then we'll go," he tries to persuade me.

"Fine." So I find a spot under the bridge to hide and keep dry while this crazy man does his thing...

(You can click on the pics to enlarge)

Lucky for me, he didn't catch anything and 20 minutes later we were on our way. Here's some pics of us as we trudge on through the snow...

That's me making the expression "normal" people make when there 57 degree perfect hiking weather suddenly drops to 35 and snow comes crashing down when you still have three miles to go. And, of course, there's Brandt giving his take on the turn of events.

Oh well, It's Idaho right? What more can you expect from this state? But even amidst the snow and sleet I still had a good time and was glad that I tagged along. Brandt didn't get to fish as much as he had hoped, but we still had fun. And, looking on the bright side, it could have been worse. It could have rained and we would have ended up a lot more wet than we did with the snow. And Brandt could have ended up catching a fish in those 20 minutes and we would have had to stay there all day while he tried for a second :) So it turned out pretty good for both of us. It was so pretty up there and so quiet and peaceful. If any of you have the chance to go up there, it's worth the drive, especially now when all the leaves are changing. Just check the weather forecast before you go and pack warm clothes. Just in case.

Polly-Dent

The ADHA (American Dental Hygienists' Association) hosted a YouTube competition for hygiene students where they had to create a short video that teaches 5-year-old kids how to properly brush their teeth. The general public then voted on the videos to select a winner. This was the winning video, and Brandt and I thought it was pretty funny (I think Brandt got a bigger kick out of it than I did). It's definitely better than the "fish porn" Brandt posted last week :) So enjoy!

p.s. You can go to ADHA's YouTube Channel to view other videos. We didn't really like the 2nd place video, but the 3rd place one is pretty good also.

The Obsession

Dani has informed me that it is my turn to update the blog of Hines. However, there has not been a lot of excitement around the home these days. I am quite excited that now it is October and officially Halloween season (my second favorite holiday after Christmas). That almost seems like an oxymoron. But, thus it is. But I am getting side tracked. I did think of a post I could publish and so here it goes.

A few posts ago I mentioned the love and appreciation I give my dear wife for a sometimes obsessive hobby. Fly fishing. The obsession began when I was a wee lad. I loved to fish but never actually fished the fly, instead I dunked the worm. I am not sure why, perhaps because I was young and intimidated by the beauty of the cast or the complexity of the sport. As I grew up I lost the loving feeling and became enveloped in other things such as school, sports, girls, and The Lord of the Rings. But the thoughts and feelings, though suppressed, lingered still and waited patiently for a time when life and decisions were more my own.

Enter marriage. Now, it may seem that this would be the least likely time when decisions and life are more your own and more than ever belong to someone else, usually the wife. For me, this is not true. A few years back, I am not quite sure how or when, I was hit again with the memories and passion for fishing that had evaded me for most of my high school career. I distinctly remember asking my dear wife one day if I might purchase the necessities and gear required for the adventures of such an activity. I also remember her asking if this would be a hobby I would keep with (I often have many a dream and daily change of interest in hobbies. Thus part of my problem choosing a career, but that is another story for another time)I assured her it would be worth while, and thus began the work of becoming a fly fisherman! (Little did she know what she was getting into.)

Now I am no professional but I do enjoy the occasional outing. This is what brings me to the obsessive part. Such as last week when I had to work all night from 10 pm to 5 am and still went fishing the next day without any sleep.
Did I have to slap my self in the face while driving to stay awake? Yes. It hurt too.
Did I suddenly become wide awake whenever stepping into the water? Yes (not only because it is around 50 degrees.)
Did I get sunburned on half my face and neck? Yes, and only half. Due to the sun strangely only shining from the east early in the morning.
Did I have to eventually sleep in the car with windows that don't roll down? Yes.
Did I wake up not only an hour later with a pounding headache and a smell that can only be described as un-showered sea otter baked in a 100 degree car? Sadly, yes.
Am I thinking of making that smell into a cologne? Perhaps.
Did I have to work at 6 am the next day? Yes.
Did I catch any fish? No.
Was it worth the sleep deprivation, sun burning, headache bringing, new smell sensation day? You bet.

I was going to try again a couple days ago but sadly succumbed to the 30-50 mph winds, rain, and occasional snow, and getting up at 5:30. After finding this video trailer I was disappointed in myself. Such videos and images are romantically known amongst anglers as fish porn. Watch it and perhaps you t0o will understand the obsession. If not, it's your loss. Enjoy.

The Shortest it Has Ever Been...

I'll miss you Ponytail. You have been my friend for a long, long time.

Get Excited!

I will admit it, and I am not ashamed. I am a huge Twilight fan. Notice that I used the word "huge" and not "obsessed." Because I am not obsessed. At least I don't think so. The books are great, but I wasn't a huge fan of the first movie, but movies based on books I love rarely live up to my expectations (example: Harry Potter). But this next movie looks awesome! Watch the newest trailer for "New Moon" posted below and you will be excited too.

Awesome right?! I have always been die hard Team Edward, but I don't know...with this next movie I may be switching over to Team Jacob. I'm not a big fan of Rob Pattinson as Edward, and Taylor Lautner seems like the perfect Jacob, and it helps that he is a hottie (don't worry Brandt, you're still my Number 1). So...November 20, 2009...mark it on the calendar...and Get Excited!

Island Park: In Search of The Big One

For Labor Day weekend we had the pleasure of attending a Hines family reunion. It was a lot of fun. Dani has asked that I author this post as it has been a while for me and as it is my family. I would also like to take this opportunity to let you all know that I most likely will not be writing the post about my trip to New York and my cursed travels across the country. It seems the moment is gone and not fresh enough in my mind. Thus, try as I may to put humor into the tale, I find it lacking and my desire to write it dwindled. Therefore, you will have to make due with this one.

My parents rented a very nice cabin up in Island Park for the weekend and Dani and I had the opportunity to go up a day early. We left Thursday morning and headed up to get in contact with nature and the natural man. The first day was fun. After unloading the car and taking a little break Dani and I headed off to fish the famed glory of blue ribbon trout fishing that is the Henry's Fork. My emotions were high and blood pressure higher as we got into the car and headed for said river. My plan was to try a spot I hadn't been to before. Thus, Dani had to trust me as we headed off some dirt road away from the main path. We saw a sign for a campground and Dani said something about "Shouldn't we be turning here?" (I don't really know what it was I had visions of trout dancing in my head much like sugar plums) "No." was my reply. "We are taking a different path look here at the map." I said, pointing to the map I printed courtesy of Google. "We want to skip the turn and keep going straight until the road ends." "That is where we are going to find our trophy fish." "OK" she replied. So, we continued down the dirt road and soon it came to an end. But, not the kind of end I had expected. Instead there was a stop sign and a paved road crossing our path. "Well this is unexpected" I thought to myself. But, acting as if I knew what we were doing I continued on and took a left. (If unsure always take a left. Trust me.) Soon we passed a sign that looked quite familiar advertising some real estate company. "Didn't we pass that sign earlier?" My wife asked. "No." I said confidently." "It must surely be another advertisement."
We quickly discovered that it was not a different one but the same; and that I should have taken the first turn as the dear wife suggested. What I had managed to do was send us in a big circle and back very close to where our cabin was when we had first left to go trout hunting. But, don't feel bad for us. Oh no! On the contrary this was quite a useful shortcut in the future. (just not so much the first time around) Anyway we finally made it to where we, or I, wanted to go and this is what we saw...

Oh yes! Our tyrant of trout, our ruler of the rainbows, the king of cutthroats, the baron of browns, the sultan of salmonidae would definitely be found in these waters. I was sure of it. All we had to do was hike down the canyon and it was ours for the taking. The climb was steep and treacherous but we made it and soon I was waist deep in cool clear water and on the trail of "The Big One."

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my dear wife for her unending support of my sometimes obsessive hobby. She makes a great companion. While I wade in the water she sets up the camping chair, holds the camera at the ready, and reads her books. It works out quite well for both of us. She is the perfect river and stream-side cheerleader that every angler needs. But back to the story...

So, I try my luck and have a few attempts. The fish are definitely there but I have yet to hook one of them. After quite some time (and more bites and chances than the normal fisherman should be allowed without actually catching a fish) I had decided to move up river a little and try my luck there. Dani was following and as we went along the trail I was struck frozen. There before us in the shallows of the river was the one we were searching for "The Big One" if you will. Shhhh! I said to the wife and pointed to "The Big One" in the water. Hands shaking I readied the fly rod and and stripped off some clothes. (Just kidding. I couldn't resist. Just making sure you're paying attention) I readied the fly rod and stripped off some line. Then very sneakily I crawled up on a large boulder behind "The Big One" and attempted to cast the fly to it. He went for it twice but my over excitement caused me to not be able to catch him and "The Big One" swam out a little further but didn't quite swim away. "Ahh, a game of cat and mouse." I said in a sly tone. "I accept the challenge." At this point Dani was laughing at me and probably frustrated that I had two opportunities and didn't catch "The Big One." So I climbed off the rock and got ready for a new attempt. At this point the wife asks "Can I try?" "Ha!" I think to myself while handing her the rod. "Why not let her try, what harm could be done?" "No way she can out-fish the great angler."

She did.

After a few casts "The Big One" went for it and Bam! he was on. It was exciting Dani exclaimed "What do I do?!" What do I do?!" "You don't lose the sucker!" I thought to myself. "That's what you do." Instead, I wisely suggested she reel it in. But, in the excitement, she wasn't sure which way to reel it in. Thus, it ended with me reeling in her fish but let the record show "The Big One" was caught by her....

You will have to ignore the cheesy expression. Though I did not officially catch this fish it was still very exciting for me.

However, I did officially catch this one (that is if you take officially to mean walking toward the bank with the line drifting behind you and then reeling it in to surprisingly find a small fish attached)...

Yes, you may have to zoom in but there is a little fingerling there, I promise. And, yes, it was my finest catch of the day thank you!

It was an exciting experience and a good way to close the day. As for the rest of the week we had a lot of fun with the family. We enjoyed "Footloose" at the Playmill in West Yellowstone, rafting the river, spending time with the family, being spit-up on by babies, playing games, and overall being out in the fresh mountain air. The following are some pictures of the our weekend. Enjoy!

This is Dani and me at Johny Sack's Cabin and Big Springs.

Here is a moose we saw while floating Big Springs.

This is my poor family having to pull their raft through the more shallow parts of the river. Dani and I were in our own little kayak and thus had the pleasure of watching these scenes play out from a safe distance.

This is one of our funny little nephews. He wanted to take a short ride in the kayak. However, when we stopped to see the moose the rest of the family couldn't quite maneuver the raft in time and thus kept on floating down river. Needless to say we did not catch up and his "short" trip in our kayak ended up being almost the "entire" trip. But, we didn't mind it was fun and he did good all the way to the end. Even when he suddenly got hit with nature's call he was brave enough to hold it. Or at least try. Eventually we had to pull over and have him water the plants along side the river. (Dani thought we could make it to the end but she wasn't the one upon whose lap he was sitting.)

And, here is the gorgeous lady-captain of our ship. This was taken on the reservoir. It was quite picturesque being on the water with blue skies and tall mountains in the background.

This is a picture of the parking lot at church. This was the busiest meeting I have ever been to. There were over 1200 people there just for sacrament meeting. We had to sit on the floor in the hallway. It was actually a pretty neat experience.