Wish I was there.

The Big Hike

Another adventure we went on is to Mount Timpanogos Cave. We hiked the trail that was 1 1/2 miles and 1400 elevation ft. The kids did great. Mom had to stop and rest a bit. But I made it. We had a great time. We went with our friends who also had an exchange student with them. It's something that we have wanted to do for years and now we can say that we have.

Bear Lake Outing

It seems like July went past in a hurry. We had a lot of fun this month showing Emmanuel some of what Utah has to offer.

On this day we had just finished watching Shannon and Tali at the Parade and decided to take a drive to Bear Lake for lunch. You know one of those famous raspberry shakes. So we did. After lunch the kids decided it wouldn't be complete without a dip in the lake.

I should mention that July has been kind of like having two extra's. We have enjoyed having Tali (Shannon's friend) with us for a few things. Life would not be the same without her here.

Hyrum Parade

This year Shannon is part of the "Miss Millville's, so she gets to ride on a float a few times this summer.

Girls, are Crazy, Camp

Shannon and her friends had a great time at girls camp. Curt got to go with her. As you can see you don't want to mess with these girls.

Happy Birthday Mon

It was great to have everyone here for mom's birthday. Even though that wasn't the reason we all got together. It's been so quiet here now and I wish we could have some of those babies back. You all are going to have to live a lot closer together when all of these sets of kids start to have family events. Can you imagine graduation time? Wow

Camping Simpson Springs

So Eric and I set out to go camping, doesn't he look good behind the wheel. Ok so I didn't let him drive there, however I did surprise him by turning over the truck to him for a 10 mile jaunt on a dirt road inthe middle of nowhere. I think he had fun. We went to Simpson Springs, out inthe west desert, south of Dugway, where I lived in my early years. It is part of the Pony Express. We went with some friends from work, Brad Franke and his family and his parents.

And who said that the desert isn't pretty. If you look closely you can see the sleeping aligator in the mountain.

And yes I made Eric cook. He did a prettygood job too. Actually he and I shared the duties and we ate pretty darn good.

Brad's parent brought the Razor, that red buggy just behind Eric. It was a lot of fun to drive. Some day I wouldn't mind owning one of those, when I am too old to ride a real bike.

Yep I can still get up the hills. It is steeper than it looks. We all pounded these sand hills. They are fun.

And so can Eric. He is now riding the TTR 230 that I bought for Mike. Little bugger is growing up and he is a great rider. Keeps up with his dad pretty well. He didn't even crash this year which is good I had to do a bit of repair work on this bike from our trip out here last fall.

Look at the rooster. That's the dirt being thrown by the rear wheel for you lay people.

Eric and Braden Franke, Brad's son, age 17, did a lot of hiking around. I think Eric had fun with that older brother figure. I think he misses his older brother. Eric and Braden got along very well. He's a nice kid.

Look I fit. We only went into a couple of mines, ones that looked very stable and we didn't go into far. Besides over the winter a woman in West Valley was murdered by her husband and it is believed that he dumped her body in the Simpson Springs area. Since Brad and I are both cops we thought we should check some of these areas out. Unfortunately we didn't find her body. They did an organized search for her body on Saturday with a bunch of professional searches, they had dogs, wheelers, ultralights but they did not find the body either. Sad deal...

We determined that the miners had some pretty rough lifes. Most of these mines are from the late 1800's and early 1900's. It was amazing what they did.

Yep we found snow. The weather was actually very nice. We wore light jackets and mostly sun. Not bad for early April.

Eric thought he was king of the mountain. He was all over the place.

And for those that can remeber this place. This is White Rock in Skull Valley. I remember climbing all over this rock as a kid. I went to a Father and somn outing here once. It was fun to see this again and to show it Eric. We didn't spend much time here, more just took a looksy.

The Dance Shop on Tour!

Well.... what can we say about this.... Lot of work, long two days. Hey! Lets do it again next week!!

March Update

Life lately seems to busy for pictures, so there are none. Maybe there should be. But the reality of it is that they are all in my head and not in the camera. Which makes it hard to upload to blogger.
The costumes are done for another performance season, on to revue. We are getting ready for the event this weekend. We are taking the store to a dance competition. It is our first experience at this and I hope it turns out good. Actually more than good, we need great. So crowded in my head this morning are questions of how to display things and what to take and how to track it and who will work it and will we have enough or did I buy to much, will the stuff I bought show up on time. Not as many answers as questions, but I hope as the day goes on the answers will come.
My baby is a teenager! Yes this happened over the weekend. All the sudden! Why was I not warned that this was coming. We had a house full of tween age boys to bring in the event. Feed them spaghetti and cake.
Heard from Mike yesterday. He says that he is good and keeping busy. They have a baptism on Sunday, Tia. And a new investigator they are teaching. He promises to send pictures soon.
Shannon went to school yesterday, one day at a time. She's taking a photo class. Maybe there will be pictures soon.

Sweethearts/Girls Choice

Shannon and her date, Brett Adair, aren't they cute. Gaaaaaaaggggg!!!! But wow how bout that dress, Michele made it for Shannon, finished it Friday night, dance on Saturday. Woman works great under pressure. It was really great cause it left glitter everywhere so I told Shannon's date he better not have much glitter on him.

Oh look at the cute group. They are so adorable sitting on those roles of carpet. Yep they are in a carpet store case you were wondering. This is where they ate their dinner. Curt was the hamburger cook on the grill. It was great grilling outside in the winter. Can't wait for summer.

Table for 12.

Nice photo on the forklift. Not often you get to take your dance photo on a Hyster, just hangin around.

Still hangin............

Just a few of the kids, Shannon's good friend Sarah Hardy on her right.

That Brett, he's such a monkey, eet, eet,eet, cuchy cooo

Now we all know that dates aren't just at night, they have to have day dates as well. So the idea was that they would go to a Zumba class, that's a latin exercise that's become popular around here. The lady that teaches it is in our ward, Pam Waldron.

Oh look the boys on the bar gettin stretched out. Isn't that a masculine site. That would make a Dad proud. Shannon told me that these boys did not know what they were going to be doing. They were great sports and had a great time.

So here they are getting some instruction. And below is a short video of the 30 minute exercise class they took. Wow they got talent. They should go on a show or something.

Snow Cave is about READY!

So Jake, I think we have enough snow for you to come see us now. We have not had a lot of snow storms, but the few we have had, have left there mark. SO . . . we have been stacking snow on one side of the driveway to build a snow cave. And I think we are just about ready.

Mike's Transfer

Mike has transferred to the Webster Groves area near St Louis. He is sad to leave Sikeston and his companion but excited for the new area. He said that it is in a more affluent area of St Louis. His new area uses the same church building that Jan and Joe go to church in. So we are sure that they will see Mike at some point. He would love to hear from any of you.

His new address is:

3243 A Morgan Ford Rd
St Louis MO 63116

BRRRRRRRR Polar Plunge for Special Olympics

So it went like this, "hey Eric, do want to go to Hyrum Lake and jump in it, sure Dad that sounds like fun!?????? We did this for Special Olympics, I have a Sergeant that works for me, she is very involved in Special Olympics so I wanted to support her in this endeavor. Several of us from my department went in. My new Chief, two Captains, me and another Lieutenant. Couple of us brought our kids. When we left the house it was foggy and 22 degrees. We arrived, they were scraping the water for the ice that had built up, they said they have to do that every 15 or so minutes. The ice on the lake was over 13 inches deep and the water was a balmy 33 degrees. That made me feel better, at least it wasn't freezing.

Here's our group, don't we look nice!!!!! and DRY!!!!!

Dad are you sure that we should do this don't you think your taking this father son bonding crap too far? Son when I have ever gone too far? Besides this is for a good cause. It will be fun!!! Actually neither one of us hesitated at all we just.....

Ran and jumped in.

Cowa bunga dude........

HOLY $%*&^%#$#@$% THATS FREAKIN COLD!!!!!!!

I can't feel my body, my legs won't work, I can't get a breath, probably because of the lumps in my throat.

Almost there, BRRRRRR. Now we ran off to the heated tents to dry off. Eric and I had a great time. It was fun and I plan on doing it again next year. Shannon is going to join us. We'll try to talk Michele into it also. I'm sure she'll go in, she loves the cold.