School-most kids cringe at the word.

Yup. It's that time again. The one all kids dread. The time that ends our summer. The time everyone anticipates and hates at the exact same time. The time that requires extra shopping, that includes, but is not limited to, new clothes, new shoes, school supplies, backpacks, etc. The time that, well I assume you know what i mean by now. But, just for you less fast people, I'll add one more. MY MOST HATED TIME OF YEAR!!! Well, I'll start off by saying, I'm going to a new school. Again. My third new school in TWO YEARS! Yeah, it's that bad. Well, surprizingly, this new school isn't new because I moved. This one is because my parents wanted to get my younger siblings out of their old school because of events too elaborate for me to get into right now. So because of my younger sibs elaborate events, I have to go to a charter school. Yeah, the kind where you have to wear UNIFORMS!!! They aren't that tacky, but they do tend to hide my recently acquired prep style. I guess to some they can be a good thing because no one can tease you or be mean because of what you're wearing cause you're wearing the same thing. But then again, everyone has their own style and the charter scool doesn't allow that style to be shown. One plus is that we get to go do extra curricular stuff at my old school, NDJ (North Davis Jr. High). So I will be doing the after school program, Program CARE. Of course the only class I'll be doing is Dinner Theater, which, (duh!) is acting and singing and dancing. So, in conclusion, break out the wallets and get your shopping over with cause you've got three days and counting till the dreaded day! (for kids anyway. I'm sure parents have a party while their kids are at school) Have a good last three days of summer!

GIRLS CAMP 4 YW!!! (for those of u less informed peeps, yw=young womens)

I'm sure most of you already know what this is about, but I will say it for those of you slower people. I am writing about young women's camp that I went to a couple weeks ago. I'll start off saying young women's is an organization by the LDS (Latter Day Saint/Mormon) church. It is for girls ages twelve to eighteen. Now I know what you're thinking. "its just some wimpy religious thing telling you not to sin or you'll go to H*#@!" That is SO not what its all about!!! It's fun! We do games, sports, parties. We go camping every summer! And the best part (well actually the best part for me is the camping, but you know what i mean) is you get to hang out with lots of other teenage girls and you get to BE GIRLS!!!

So anyways, I'm not here to be a preacher. I'm here to talk about the CAMP.
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So a couple weeks ago my young women's group went caming up in Aspen Ridge in Idaho. This year it was just my ward. We did lots of activities there! We went horseback riding, canoeing, swimming, skits, hiking, and there was this thing at the lake (which was so small we called it Pond Josephine) called Pirates of *Pond* Josephine. What we did was we got to make teams and every team went out in a canoe. Then we would rock each others boats until they sunk. Last boat floating won. My wards team won twice out of four times! Everyone else's teams won once or not at all so we were the CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!! Another thing we got to do was this class called the COPE course. What it was was a team building class. It was really really fun! First, we all stood on a log. Then we had to organize ourselves in order of birthdays. But, the tricky thing was, we couldn't fall off the log or talk at all! But, eventually we did it and we felt like we really accomplished something. Our next task was for every one of us to all have one foot on a milk crate and the other couldn't touch the ground. We had to hold that for ten seconds! It took us about a million tries-and about forty five minutes-of everyone trying to balance on it with one foot and the other in the air when we finally realized we could sit on the ground while doing it! We all felt pretty stupid that we couldn't realize that sooner! Our last task was at this huge pole. We had to form a human pyramid and try to get a tire over the pole and down it to the ground. I had to be one of the people on the bottom and so I was supporting the weight of about four girls!!! It was really fun though! The last activity I'll tell you about was this thing called the polar bear plunge. What we had to do was we sat in this bathtub that was in a river under a tube of FREEZING cold water. The water was coming straight down onto our heads! And the worst part was, we had to stay under for as long as it took to say the young womens theme! It was insane!!! But I liked it. I did it three times!!! We got to see them retire a flag, and when they did, there wasn't a dry eye in the house!!! Check back soon and I might get some pics in here! (suckish ones but, hey, nobody's perfect) I'm done now. So that means you can leave. What are you waiting for?!!?!!? GO!!! THAT MEANS YOU!!! GET OUTTA HERE!!!!! Oh just forget it! I quit! I'm leaving now!!!

Breaking Dawn (Twilight book 4) review!

OMGosh!!!!!!!!!! Best book in the whole series, by FAR!!! It wasn't as action packed as the others and not so intense either but I loved it with a love that even the biggest of Twilight fanatics would find odd!!! And for the record, I DID read it before you, Momma so HA!!! IN YOUR FACE!!!!!

ANYWAYS,

It starts with Bella telling you how she broke the news about her wedding to her dad and mom. Then it goes on to the night before when Edward is forced by Jasper and Emmet to go to the bachelor party. Their wedding is so amazing and romantic! I loved every minute of it! Then Edward takes her to the most AMAZING place for their honeymoon. I won't tell you where, that would spoil it now, wouldn't it? I also won't tell you what happened at the honeymoon that is so shocking you will soil your pants!!! Ah ah ah! No spoilers allowed! Looks like you'll have to read it for yourself. Well anyways, then it switches and Jacob begins telling the story. The part he tells is pretty intense. It's awesome! At the end it switches back to Bella but I'm not gonna tell any more than that. Sorry! Like I said, looks like you'll have to read it for yourself. Well, I'm gonna go! SO SHUT UP!

Vacation Pics: Vegas and the Stratosphere

OK. This is part 2 of our vacation pictures. Not sure how many parts there will be, but I hope it will end before you get bored. We start off this edition with a few more pics from the wedding (because I got some pics from my mom and dad and they had some good ones). We then have some from our trip to the top of the Stratosphere and a couple of the rides there.

This is why Chris and Kelly chose this resort for the wedding. Behind that mountain is Lake Tahoe. Beautiful.

Me and the prettiest girl at the whole wedding (sorry Chris and Kelly =).
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...and the kids.

Honey and Grampa were overdue for their afternoon nap.

Annie knows what is REALLY important.

I guess I had better include this one. This is me presenting the Best Man Toast (and me without a toaster...yeah yeah, bad joke but whatcha gonna do? =).

Now...on to VEGAS. Whoop whoop!!

Annie, Honey, and Grampa on the top of the Stratosphere.

View of Vegas from the observation deck of the Stratosphere.

Jordan and Zack...appearing suspiciously not up to something. I got my eye on you 2...

The spire of the Stratosphere...actually a rocket ride called Big Shot, at the top of which you are over 1,100 feet in the air. It is very cool because at the top of the ride, you can't even see the Stratosphere building below you. Wow. I almost peed myself (I think Emily did, but don't tell anyone...shhhh).

Aliens we encountered on the top of the Stratosphere. Gorgeous aliens, but aliens nonetheless.

A view of Vegas at night...1,000 feet in the air.

One of the thrill rides, Insanity.

The third ride, X-Scream.



Notice how overwhelmed they were with excitement...

Next post - video (bad, dark video, but video all the same) of one or two of the rides.

...we'll be right back.

It is taking us some time to get back on the blogging track after Glynna and the kids got back from their vacation/family reunion. Soon to be posted:

Vacation part 2 (and maybe 3 if needed)

Reunion stuff

Picture of finished gazebo

More from the weight watchers front (Chad is down almost 30 now...WOOHOO!!)

Jordans first flash animation (if I can figure out how to post flash animations)

Stay tuned...we'll be right back.

Vacation Part 1: The Wedding

In another post I said we would get some photos of our recent summer vacation on the web. Well, things got away from me and I never did post more photos, but now the wife and kids are out of town (HALLELUJ....cough cough...umm..I mean...gosh, I sure do miss them just to death - whew..nice save Chad..heh heh)

...ANYWAY

Here are the long awaited photos. I am sure that droves and droves of you, our loyal readers (all 3 of you) were checking back daily to find out what we did on our trip. Well, here ya go:

First off, Jordan and Emily went to work with me the day we left.

Here are Jordan and Emily pretending to be useful.

In all fairness, they actually did some work...here Jordan was working on a spreadsheet...Emily was working on her Nintendo DS...hard work to be sure!

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We went to Reno to start out because one of my best friends, Chris Palmrose (here in front) was getting married and asked me to be his Best Man (for whatever reason, I think he may have been drunk =).

(above, from left to right: Tim, Phil, Chad, Dennis I think...can't remember... I am just terrible, Kenny, and Chris)

The kids squinting.

Mom and dad.

Beauty and the beast.

Jordan just heard about the cake! Boy is he excited...

Excited? Not so much..

As you can see, Glynna was very excited to dance, especially since as Best Man I had no choice. You can also see that I am good at faking that I am enjoying it.



Quality father-son time.

Coming soon...part 2...