Catching up part 3 - Depeche Mode

Last night we went with some friends to the Depeche Mode concert at the E-Center. They really are a great band to see live because their sound quality in person is just like their CD's (but much louder). Anyways, it was a big treat for Adrienne because she is a huge fan.

Here they are rocking away.

And here we are enjoying the show.

Catching up part 2 - Uncle Larry

I don't remember if I mentioned this in a previous post or not, but my Uncle Larry has been having serious health problems. All of his siblings (my dad's side of the family) and family have gathered as he will be passing soon. He has declined further treatment and feels that it is time to go. They are counting the hours now rather than weeks or even days. Uncle Larry's family was the one that I knew the best growing up. We'd see them every year or so for Thanksgiving or Christmas. He was always ready and willing to spend time with the kids and had a ready laugh. He and Aunt Margaret opened their home to foster children when they couldn't have any more themselves and I think they ended up adopting most of the ones that they had in their care. He is a good man and he will be missed. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Catching up part 1 - Lake Powell

Sorry that we messed up our usual posting schedule last week. We were away at Lake Powell with our cousins (Eric, Machelle, Matt, Rachael, and Sable) and some of their friends from Florida (Mark, Ginger, Brian, and Bailey). It was a wonderful trip and it was great to meet our cousins' friends. Their daughter is starting school at the University of Utah and has a ballet scholarship. We were at the lake for 8 days and did all kinds of fun things.

This first shot has Sable and Bailey getting bounced around on the tube the first day at the lake. Sable was tossed first, but Bailey followed right after.

We took a trip to "Hole in the Rock" and hiked to the top. This is the place that some Mormon Pioneers blasted and dug a path from the plateau down to the river (which is now a lake/reservoir) so that they could cross.
Here is the whole crew. We made sure and got a picture with everyone together and used my camera timer to get it done. From left to right and starting in the back row. Jason (me), Mark, Brian, Matt, Eric, Machelle, Bailey, Adrienne (my wife), Ginger, Sable and Rachael.
We actually did a few hikes this year. This one was up the San Juan at one of Machelle's favorite canyons. Makes Matt look rather small. I can't believe he is a freshman at FSU now.

The new toy this year was the Wake-Surfboard. Wake-surfing is done right behind the boat. You start with a rope. Once you find the groove you toss the rope and surf the wake just like a wave at the beach. Rachael was the best at it in our group so I thought I'd share a picture of her.

Here I am up the Escalante arm of the lake wake boarding. This shot looks nice, but a few seconds later I took a nose dive.

Youth Conference 2009

Hey everyone. It seems I'm always claiming that we are busy...but we really are. Last weekend was our stake's youth conference. It was a great experience. We were there 3 days and each one represented past, present, or future with various activities and learning opportunities. I've included some of the pictures below.


The first day we had the youth take a pioneer trek and do some old fashioned games. This first photo shows a bunch of the youth in their pioneer clothes playing partner tag. That night we had a dance so they would have an opportunity to socialize.

Day 2 we went down to Payson Lakes where the youth swam and went around the lake in canoes. Later in the afternoon we had 4 guest speakers come and take turns talking about different aspects of their future.

Our stake president came up the last day to talk about their lives in the present. Then we dd various service projects around the camp and cleaned up. Right before leaving, one of the ward groups decided to hike up to the overlook into a canyon and I decided to join them. This last photo is a view from there.

My company had our summer party this week. It's always fun, and, as usual, we had it up at a park up Provo Canyon. Great food, good fun, and we even had a little volleyball action.

This weekend we are headed to Lake Powell with our cousins. We won't be able to post or be online until we get back. We can't wait to take this break and enjoy a little vacation with our extended family. I'll have plenty of pictures to share when we get back.

Will's Deployment

It seems we are always busy this summer. Our garden is starting to produce some vegetables. We have one type of pest attacking our garden. I never new about Squash Bugs before now, but I've put some serious time in researching how to kill them. First, some squash are naturally resistant to the bugs (Butternut squash for instance). The only squash I am growing with problems is the Spaghetti squash. I've probably killed 100 of the little guys by now.

Will and Stephanie had a tough goodbye this week. Will is a reservist in the Marines and he's being deployed to Afghanistan. He's already been to Iraq and back, but he's being sent again. We met up with them at Camp Williams and with Will's mom and siblings to say goodbye. He'll be in San Diego for training approximately 3 months, then home for 10 days...then he's gone for about 9 months overseas. I've included some pictures for everyone.

Here's Will's oldest sister holding little Liberty before it's time to go.

Steph and Will just sitting together as we visited.

Will is a Sergeant in the Marines. He's assigned to an anti-tank light armored unit in the C (Charlie) company. Here's what it looks like. The one they will train in is an older model. The ones in Afghanistan actually have air conditioning.

This was their final goodbye before Will had to get on the bus to head out. It's tough to see loved ones separated like this, but I'm so proud of my brother-in-law. He's a good man.

This weekend Ade and I are headed up to Youth Conference for our Stake. We're taking all of the youth between 14-18 years old up to the camp. The theme for the year is from 1 Timothy 4:12. "Let no man dispise thy youth; but be thou and example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." We're going to try to have them look to the past for examples and reflect on how they can use those examples to guide their lives moving forward.

Stewart Falls

Well, we were going to hike Stewart Falls AND go swimming, but we sorta ran out of time. But here's a couple photos from the hike. Since it is Pioneer Day weekend, there were tons of people around. This first photo had the fewest people people of all the ones I took.

And here's one with Adrienne. It was a little awkward to stand in the melted glacier water while we took the photo.

Lamb Days and "Singin' in the Rain"

Last Friday we went to the Community/High School production of "Singin' in the Rain". We knew 3 adults and 3 kids in the play and sat in the 3rd row with several friends from our neighborhood. It was a blast and we were both really impressed with how well it was done. It's always amazing to me to see the amount of talent that can be found in one community. I loved watching the tap-dancing and they were really good singers.

Last Saturday we headed down with the Dan and his kids to enjoy a bit of Lamb Days in Fountain Green. Part of the various celebrations was a Co-ed 4's volleyball tournament. Our team consisted of Adrienne, Dan, Bryce (as a sub), and Kasilia (Dan's neice). We had a great time and took second place overall. The only team we lost to the entire day was the eventual champs. We lost 25-22 and 25-23 so they were really close games. Here are some photos from the event.

This first one is Dan's youngest, Tyson. He's a cute kid and surprisingly strong.

Here we have Adrienne getting ready to play some volleyball.

I am setting Adrienne so she can hit the ball.

And Adrienne delivers the big smash with Dan watching.

Finally, Kasilia is serving another ace (at least that's how I want to remember it). Bryce wasn't playing in this game so he graciously took photos of the rest of us.

I saw the SWAT truck!

Last night I rode down to Fountain Green with my friend Dan. He was participating in their annual Lamb Days coed softball tournament. This tournament is interesting because you don't sign up teams, you just sign up in pairs (one guy and one girl). Then you are randomly assigned a team. It's just a fun event for the whole event to come out and enjoy everybody's company. An interesting thing happened on the way back.

When we got on the freeway, we started seeing cops going the opposite direction with their lights flashing. Between Nephi and Payson we saw 18 emergency vehicles. Most were Utah Highway Patrol or unmarked SUV's, but we saw a Fire Marshall, an ambulance and even the SWAT truck. It's basically a mini-sized semi. Needless to say, we were curious what was going on, but I didn't find out for hours. I guess there was a domestic dispute followed by a police standoff in Nephi, but there still aren't very many details available. Sounds like a sad story, but nobody got hurt. I had never seen anything like that before. 18 random emergency vehicles spaced a mile or two apart, all going the same direction, but no two together.

Catching up

I'm finally up and about again. I got sick Friday night, July 3rd, and haven't really been very coherent since then. My neighbor is a doctor and he decided that I had Bronchitis. It's pretty sad that I missed all the 4th of July celebrations, but I was lucky to have friends and family to look after me. I'll just have to find some other fireworks celebrations to see since I missed the 4th. I was excited to try the "fireworks setting" on my camera.

Facebook is an amazing website. It is fascinating to make contact with old friends that you haven't seen in years. One such friend is going to stop by in about 10 minutes. Mike is moving from North Carolina back to Washington and decided to make a stop in Utah to catch up. He's a great guy and I can't wait to meet his three stepkids (his wife is in training in Missouri). He'll be stationed in Ft. Lewis.

We found out that our case worker at LDS Family Services is quitting. Her husband was accepted to graduate school in Philadelphia. We wish her all the best and can't wait to meet our newly assigned case worker. I guess our profile is shown regularly and we seem to match well with lots of birth moms...it's just a matter of time.

More photos

Here's some additional shots of our tournament. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of my sweet tan-line from wearing the bandanna all day long. I've got a pretty solid line in the middle of my forehead. In this first one, Dan is showing his passing form. Notice he has his right foot forward and he is completely focused on the ball.
I'm getting ready to serve another winner.
Emily set up Adrienne for this perfect spike. They won the game soon after this play.
Emily's form is even better than Dan's. Of course she's been playing volleyball a lot longer.
We always have a blast playing in these tournaments. I hope we find time to do another one soon. We might even play "B" next time (next level up from Novice).