McAllister Family Blog

Big City Lessons

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:07:00 -0700

It's pretty safe to say that I'm a soccer guy. And, as a soccer guy, it is also safe to say that I picked the weirdest time to relocate and completely change my living situation. The World Cup is something that comes along every four years, and for soccer people it's a time to be completely immersed in the game for a solid month. That month happened to be the same month that I began working for ATG in Seattle. Heading into this adventure I knew that working and living in a metorpolitan area of nearly 4.2 million people would be just a little different than a life working at a great public university amongst a community of 125,000 in rural Utah. During the World Cup this summer I experienced a day that illustrated just how different life can be in the big city, and how much I have to learn about living here. The United States Men's National Team was scheduled to play in its final group match against Algeria, kicking off at 7am local time on a Wednesday morning. The situation was fairly straight forward for the Americans - win and you advance. If the result was anything else then the Stars and Stripes would most likely go home. With such a big match I wanted to be able watch the entire thing while still getting to my desk at a reasonable time. I'm usually expected to be available at work by 9am, so the best solution for watching the game and still making it to my desk was to head up to the office by kickoff and watch the match in the ATG break room. This plan would require catching a bus early in the six o'clock hour, which meant that I had to wake up just after 5am. Surprisingly, that happened with out a hitch. I was up and ready with ample time to make the necessary bus, which not surprisingly had several more open seats than I was used to seeing. The Westlake Center, where I work, was even more empty than the bus. And, that's kind of where the strange things began happening. I got to the elevator just after seven, and was feeling good about my timing. I punched the button for 12 but the light for the floor didn't turn on and the carriage remained still. Someone else got into the elevator and hit the button for the 11th floor and we were off. I tried the floor 12 button a few more times before arriving at 11, but the button was obviously broken. So, I got out at 11 and tried another of the four elevators, which also produced the same result. Now, if an elevator isn't cooperating the next logical step in trying to get to your destination would be to go the old fashioned way and take the stairs, right? This idea sounded reasonable enough. After a little exploring I found a door on the 11th floor that led to a typical looking stairwell. Skipping up the steps two at a time, and feeling I had out smarted the elevator, I reached my floor with out without breaking a sweat. I reached for the door handle to complete my journey and was met by a petrified knob that was securely locked in place. Frustrated, I retreated back to 11 only to find that door also securely closed. As I descending down the tight staircase I learned that the door on each floor was impassable from the stairwell. That is, except for the main floor, where the doors opened up to the coffee shop near the main building entrance. Humbled by the building that had obviously beaten me, I walked back over to the bank of elevator doors resigned to the fact that I needed to ask for help. I approached a security guard who was in the middle of explaining to someone else that this early in the morning - although now not as early as I would have liked - you need a key card to go anywhere on the elevator. I stepped into the car to watch the uniformed man demonstrate swiping a card through an inconspicuous crack, and then pushing the button for a floor. After repeating these steps I reached my floor and entered the break room about 15 minutes into the match. The game was already showing on the tv, which wasn't a complete surprise, although I was expecting more than one person to be watching. As I sat down I looked over at my fellow soccer person and discovered it was Berry, the vice president of software development, and he was on a call. He would remain on the call throughout the entire match, including when Landon Donovan dramatically knocked in the World Cup saving goal for the United States in stoppage time. When Donovan's shot hit the net I joined the rest of the country in celebrating leaping form my chair with pumping fists. I flailed. I jumped. I think I may have even spun around a few times. But, I did not make a vocal sound. Being on the job for only a few weeks I figured it would be poor form to disturb the phone call of the VP of software development, so I channelled my years working in the press box and kept my celebrations silent. For a soccer guy, moments like Donovan's goal against Algeria will not be forgotten. Neither will the lessons learned that morning as I become more familiar with life in the big city.

To the Emerald City!

Thu, 06 May 2010 23:10:00 -0700

In June our family is setting off on an adventure! We're Moving! Scott has accepted a new job in Seattle, WA with a company called ATG. He will begin work around June 7th. As soon as we can get everything squared away with selling our house, Amber will follow with the kids. To fill you in on the process, Scott wasn't exactly looking for another job though always has his resume up-to-date and will occasionally send it out. Two weeks ago His friend, Kyan, from Ricks College asked him to send him his resume, and everything went on from there. Though we are sad to leave the area and the people we love behind, we're excited for this new opportunity and know it is where we need to be at this time. We are glad to live in a day and age of text, IM, email, blogs and Skype and plan on keeping up with you through that. If anyone has any ideas of where to live (or where NOT to live for that matter) in Seattle area, we are up for suggestions.

Spring Break 2010

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:33:00 -0700

Our first vacation in a few years happened to coincide with spring break. So, even though none of us were actually out on spring break, we're going to label our trip such because it fits. You might be wondering why we chose Las Vegas as our destination. Several months - may have been over a year - ago Amber and I sat in on a time-share presentation that offered a free trip to hear their pitch. We originally chose St. George, with the intention of taking the kids. However, as time went on we learned that the award company offered very meager packages to St. George and many more perks for America's playground. With prospect of receiving more freebies we moved our destination a few hours south of Utah's dixie land to Nevada. Still, the plan was to experience the trip as a family. In the months leading up to our expedition I took on a second programming job, performing some contract work with a company called Logicalis in Seattle. The work was challenging and fun, but the schedule was brutal. In addition to my full-time day job at the university I was adding an additional 30 hours a week programming late into the night and on weekends. It was during one of these coding spells that I felt enormous gratitude for Amber's support in my added employment. Thinking of ways I could make it up to her, the thought of secretly arranging childcare for the trip and then traveling as a couple felt like the way to go. To help with childcare I contacted Ambers sister Stacy, whose daughter Sienna is close to Ashley in age, and my sister Julia, who doesn't have any kids as small as Andrew and thus I thought would be a good fit. Both agreed to help, although my sister Jenna eventually convinced Julia to take Andrew. I never knew my kids were so popular. Our hotel reservations put us in Vegas during the non-peak time of the week - Tuesday through Thursday. We were already in Orem the weekend prior for the Easter holiday, so we spent time with family on Monday before we headed south. Monday night I met up with some friends in Salt Lake to attend an amazing rock show of a british band called Muse. It was the most amazing concert I've ever seen. I was already a fan of the music, but the attention to detail in the production was astounding. Jenna's family graciously let us crash in their basement on Monday night. This worked out doubly well as they live about a mile from the venue where I attended the show and they were going to be taking Andrew in the morning. Already sleeping there simplified our departure immensely. After packing up and leaving Andrew with Jenna we traveled down to Utah county to leave Ashley with Stacy. Both drop offs were executed flawlessly and we were on the road to Nevada in no time. The first stop on our trip was the In-N-Out Burger in St. George, which is conveniently located next to the outlet malls. Following the consumption of the tasty burgers we made our way around the various outlets, making sure that we weren't missing out on any killer sales. It turns out that we weren't, so our stay in Dixie was short. Upon our arrival in America's Playground we checked into the Riviera, located on the older end of the Strip across from Circus Circus. The rooms were pleasant, however the rest of the hotel was a little dated. This didn't matter too much as most of our time was spent exploring all the different places along Las Vegas Blvd. Our vacation package included some gift certificates to Planet Hollywood at Caesar's Palace. Finding the restaurant was a little tricky, as you might imagine. There are two commercial structures that are designed to keep you captive: shopping malls and casinos. So, when a casino, Caesar's Palace, designs a shopping mall finding your way around such a building can be maddening. After correcting ourselves from taking a few wrong turns we eventually found the place and were able to sit down to dinner. Our only full day in the city started with sleeping in late - thanks to no kids - and going for a six mile run. This brings up the topic as to why we chose to go on vacation while in the middle of training for a race. We're not exactly sure, but whenever we head out on a trip together in the future - probably in another seven or eight years - we don't plan on going while preparing for any kind of race. With the mid-day run we didn't get out to see anything until well into the afternoon. To save some time we drove down to the south end of the Strip and parked at the MGM Grand so we could see everything on that end of town without taking the 2.5 mile walk. After hitting up ESPN Zone - one of my personal favorite stops of the trip - for lunch, we headed over to M&M World before deciding that we wanted to see a show. Following several recommendations we chose to see the Cirque du Soleil perform "O" at the Bellagio. Cirque du Soleil is a company known for mind blowing acrobatics. This particular show was set mostly around water scenes. The stage for the theater was particularly impressive as the floor moved in several places. At one moment the water on stage was deep enough for a performer to take a 50-foot dive off a trapeze. Then, a minute later the same pool would be shallow enough for other performers to be running across the surface. The one drawback to the show was the fact that we decided rather late to attend and the performance was sold out a few days in advance. We took the gamble of waiting for over an hour in the standby line - observing how people played poker in the next room while we waited. When show time approached the usher tried to get rid of the single seats first. Faced with the prospect of not getting in at all we took the chance and accepted to sit on opposite sides of the theater. Once we got inside it was a little disappointing to find each of our rows half-full at best, meaning if we would have waited for seats that were together we would have most certainly gotten into the show. Thursday began with another lazy morning, followed by a run. This one was only three miles, and I think we may have fudged even that. While packing the car, after checking out of the Riviera, Amber decided she wanted to take our chances on the slot machines with the change in our car. After pulling the lever a few times on a penny slot I struck pay dirt - winning 400 credits. This meant I could pull the lever 400 more times, or walk away with $4.00 cash. I chose the later, and do believe I spent it all in one place. Returning to our kids was an entertaining event. While away we had been told that Ashley and Sienna declared one of the days that they spent together as, "the best day ever!" Ashley was so tuckered from three fun filled days with her cousins that she barely opened her eyes when we took her out to the car. The next morning we arrived at Jenna's house only to have Andrew collapse and cry at the first sight of us. He was clutching a cereal bowl, and thought that since we arrived he would loose the chance at some more cereal. We made sure the boy had his fill before hitting the road for a final time to return to Logan.

Provo Halloween Half Marathon

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:29:00 -0700

I never knew how mental racing was. Running down the Provo Canyon river trail on Saturday, while competing in my first half marathon, every time another runner passed me I would think, "that's it, everyone is in front of me and I'm now in last place." My feet ached, my calves burned, and due to a technical mix up before the race I was running without my usual GPS watch that tracked my time, distance, and pace. Without my watch, and with no mile markers posted, I had no idea where I was on course, or how I was doing in regards to time. This stretch of the race was very discouraging. I didn't expect to feel so alone and so lost. As is the case much of the time in my life, my music was my cocoon of comfort to keep my mind focused on the positive and distracted from the negative. Each time that I would take out my earbuds to adjust their position the comfortable tones would be replaced by the sounds of footsteps of the other runners approaching from behind. I'm most entirely at fault for arriving in such a lonely situation. The race began high up the mountains above the Sundance resort. Waiting in the crowd of over 700 runners at the starting line I was accompanied by Amber and our friends Eric and Betsy Billman. We all followed Amber, the experienced racer, who jockeyed through the masses to get as close to the starting line as possible. When the clock started Amber got started quickly, weaving around anyone that kept her from keeping her desired pace. Taking Amber's lead, I also started quickly. We stayed together for a few minutes until I felt cramped and split a couple of runners. I heard Amber yell, "see you later," and I was off - letting the momentum of the hill pull me down the coarse. Once I reached the more level area of Provo Canyon the jell-o feeling in my legs told me that I probably took the first five miles too fast. Next came the drudgery of Provo Canyon and the river trail. There were a few times where I honestly felt like stopping because the pain in my calves was so bad. And, although I paused briefly a few times to stretch against a tree I continued on, trotting closer to the finish line. My hopes brightened when I finally emerged from the canyon, although the pain in my legs was still ever present. As I began heading south towards the Riverwoods shopping center I noticed a person with a camera waving frantically at me. She even took a few pictures in my direction. I didn't think there was anyone behind me, so I first thought the friendly photographer had me confused for someone else. But, as I got closer I realized I was the mislead one. The happy person was Amber's sister Jen. At this point, I figured the finish couldn't be that far off. We came to a stoplight and then cut into a commercial development. The spectators along the trail became more frequent as we made the last turn before the chute. While entering the final stretch I heard a, "yeah, Scott!" from my sister Julia who was positioned on a grassy knoll with a video camera. My pace increased a bit with the thought of almost being done. But, it wasn't until I saw the clock that I threw all my energies into a last gasp sprint. Before the race, my goal was to complete the 13.1-mile course in one hour and 45 minutes. When I saw 1:44 on the clock - the seconds were obstructed from view - I knew I still had a chance to make it across the finish line in time. With 14 seconds to spare I finished my first endurance race. In her second race in as many months, Amber improved upon Top Of Utah Half Marathon time by three minutes, coming in at 1:50:33.

Running Diaries: Training for a Half-Marathon

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:30:00 -0700

Several weeks ago, after completing her first half-marathon, Amber convinced me that I wanted to train for a 13.1-mile race myself. Not to be completely outdone by my talented wife, who obliterated her target time by seven minutes in her first endurance competition, I committed to train for a race in St. George on the first Saturday in November. This was back in August, and believe it or not, I have not missed a single training run. Amber and I take turns each morning running through the chilly Cache Valley air. Both of us have found that we enjoy the regular exercise, and especially having something to work toward. My favorite part about training with another person is the motivation gained while challenging each other with times and increasingly more difficult routes. When the training schedule called for a six-mile run Amber introduced me to a horribly hellacious hill in Hyde Park that ascended nearly 500 feet in just about a mile-and-a-half. What made the Hyde Park hill the most daunted is the three false peeks that make you think you're almost there, but you're not. The St. George race included a two-mile stretch of trail running. This thought made me want to include some similar trails during our preparation. The Bonneville Shoreline trail, a 1.8-mile roller coaster path spanning between the Green and Logan Canyons, seemed perfect. My initial attempt worked me over like no other run had. And, for good cause as the route required climbing twice as much altitude as the Hyde Park run. Never backing down from a challenge herself, Amber had a go and agreed that adding the high-altitude trail in our regimen gave training a new challenge. This past Saturday we needed to find a route to accommodate 12 miles - the longest training run of the circuit. As I thought about it, one thing became clear. This not only had to be the longest run, but it should also be the hardest. Once that was decided, there was no choice but to combine the Hyde Park hill run with the Bonneville Shoreline trail. We even got a babysitter to watch the kids so that Amber and I could go together. Our pace was consistent, the hills were challenging but conquerable, and we climbed 1,529 feet (but also descended 1,567) en route to the longest run I've ever taken in my life. On a side note, we have decided to move our race date up a week and run in the Provo Halloween Half instead of St. George. If you're in the Provo area on October 31st the race ends at the Riverwoods Shopping Center. Come see us!

Masma Roadtrip: To the coast

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:54:00 -0700

Before jumping into the details of the second day of our trip I should mention that Florence, aka Masma, was cremated, much like her husband Jim, aka Paspa, when he passed on nearly ten years ago. Seeing her remains as a mass of ashes really brought meaning to the scripture, "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." All of the events of this day include Masma being with us. The second day of our road-trip of rememberance began with a trip out to picturesque Donner Lake, where our Truckee based group of McAllister men gathered to remember Florence. Nate led us to a quiet spot close to the eastern shore of the lake. Memories and laughs were shared. The feeling was very light and enjoyable. Nate remembered Masma's lemonade, and I talked about Masma's dedication to keeping her mind sharp - always completing the daily crossword in the newspaper. Brent offered a prayer while uncle Peter led us all in a buddhist chant. The chant that Peter taught us said, "Nam myoho renge kyo." I don't remember what each word meant, but I remember that he mentioned that it had something to do with devotion. After snapping some pictures and exchanging farewells, we let Nate get back to his workday while the rest of us descended the western slopes of the Sierras, on our way to the coast. We didn't take the most direct route to our destination. While passing through Sacramento we stopped off to see the temple that was built since the days I served there as a missionary. Once we crossed the Bay Bridge into San Francisco we exited the Interstate and drove along the Embarcadero to see the city and the piers along the bay. We made our way through the north side of the city, up by the Golden Gate Bridge, and latched onto scenic Highway 1. This is a stretch of road that hugs the Pacific coast, and is considered one of the most beautiful drives in the world. We started in Pacifica, just outside of San Francisco, and made our way south toward Pigeon Point. The fog overtook the Golden Gate bridge and covered our drive down the coast. It wasn't until we came to Pigeon Point, where we could see our destination at Franklin Point, that the sun brooke through. The timing was perfect as the sun lit the beach where we were heading and little else. Bill and Peter were waiting for us at the head of the trail that led out to the point. Bill's older son Joe pulled up moments after our arrival. We trekked through the sand and dune grass out to the point where we had laid Paspa's ashes nearly a decade earlier. We shared a similar moment as that morning in Truckee with prayer and chanting before Peter - the youngest, and probably most nimble of the three brothers - scampered out onto the farthest rock point and laid his mother's ashes to rest in the sea.

Masma Roadtrip: To Tahoe

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:35:00 -0700

Everything happened so quickly. Just over a week ago, while spending the morning at home with a fever-laden baby, I received a call from my mother. She informed me that my paternal grandmother, known to us as Masma, was not doing well and was only expected to live another 24 hours at the most. That was a week ago Tuesday. Looking at the big picture, this shouldn't have come with much surprise. Masma was 92, and she had lived a life that was full and memorable. She was moved from a facility near her home in the San Francisco Bay Area to a very comfortable place in Provo, Utah six months ago. Reasons for the move were two-fold: she had a large concentration of grandchildren in the area, and the cost of living was considerably lower. We enjoyed having her more accessible in Utah, and I would like to think that she enjoyed the attention she received from the extended generations of posterity that came to visit her. By Tuesday night I was driving south to Utah county to meet with my mom and sister Julia, who were sitting with a mostly unconscious Masma. We sat and reminisced late into the evening before my dad arrived from the airport at about 11pm. I ended up sitting next to my dad, at Masma's bedside for the rest of the night. Dad and I talked quietly at times, but mostly sat in silent thought. We noticed her breaths grow increasingly farther apart, and at 2am I watched the life drain from her face as she passed peacefully into the next life. Now, a week later, I find myself sitting in a motel in Truckee, California. My dad and I departed from my sister Jenna's place in Taylorsville this morning and picked up my brother Brent at the Reno Airport this afternoon. Our journey across Nevada was highlighted by an audio book by T. Boone Pickens and the occasional Cat equipment sighting. We met up with my dad's brothers Bill and Pete and connected with Bill's son Nate, who lives in Truckee, just before he left for work at the Drunken Monkey. Dad, Brent, Bill, Pete, and I drove down to Lake Tahoe from Truckee and explored the area surrounding the lake before skipping rocks off of its banks. We finished the night by enjoying some decadent sushi rolls at the Drunken Monkey with Nate as our server.

Quarterly Update

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:07:00 -0700

Among the major highlights of the last quarter is Ashley's third birthday. We celebrated by taking her to a local establishment called the Cache Valley Fun Park. This facility has an enormous play-land area. Large enough for myself to climb around the tubes and shoot down the slides. I didn't even get stuck once. Although, my knees were grateful when it was time to grab some chicken stars and head home for cake. In the days leading up to Ashley's birthday Andrew embarked on the whole new world of solid foods. As you would expect from our posterity, Andrew likes food. He embraced the solid stuff from the first slurp, and is still eating like a horse. I feel fortunate to still be employed as the economy is taking it's toll at Utah State University. Work started getting weird when the university issued a mandatory week-long furlough for all employees during spring break. After getting over the idea that I was getting a cut in my salary for the year, I was grateful that USU gave us the time off for the missing compensation. We decided to take full advantage of the week together as a family. Our main activity was a day trip to the exotic land of Ogden, Utah. We descending from Cache Valley to visit the Treehouse Children's Museum on tip from a friend at work. Ashley loved the place. We arrived early in the day and stayed to well into the afternoon. Ashley was on the young end of many of the activities and exhibits, but she still enjoyed herself. And, I see us going back for many years to come. A price we pay for living in the paradise that is Logan is the occasional spring snow storm, of which we've had a few this year. Spring break, the first week of March, actually opened with a hefty snowfall. There was enough fresh powder to build a snow princess in the backyard. Today was actually the first time that our entire yard was vacant of snow this year. It was a nice day. Another nice day was a few Saturdays back when we met the rest of the McAllister cousins in Salt Lake for a free Real Salt Lake soccer game. The team opened up the stadium and invited the public to watch the final preseason match between RSL and a second division side. The weather cooperated perfectly, so that our three families - mine, Jenna's and Julia's - combined to nearly take over a section of the soccer stadium. On a somber note, we enjoyed gathering relatives on Amber's side of the family as we honored the life of her aunt Mary who passed away this last month. Mary always liked to have fun, and thoroughly enjoyed life. She will be missed, but we know she is much more comfortable without having to deal with the pains of mortality any longer. That's about it from us. Pictures of the described events will follow soon in shutterfly. As always, if you don't receive our shutterfly emails and you would like to please let us know and we'll get you on the list.

Christmas Lesson of Present Precedence

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:15:00 -0700

Amber and I learned a valuable lesson this year. Christmas morning we were so excited to watch Ashley as she opened her presents. So excited, in fact, that we were the ones waiting for her to wake up before we could start! We started with the stockings, where Ashley would say, "ooooh! I'm gonna share that one," to every present that she saw - no matter if it came from her stocking or not. When we moved to the tree we were still getting situated while Ashley was already diving under the tree ready to pull all the paper she could see. In the rush she opened two presents before we could really get started. The only problem with that was the second present was a DVD with Ashley's favorite character in all of existence, Sleeping Beauty, on the cover. After looking in awe at the glossy packaging for a few seconds, Ashley stood and requests to put on a dress (preparation for nearly all activities) and watch the movie. We asked if she wanted to open any of her other presents, to which she repeatedly answered, "No!" It took a lot of coaxing, but Ashley finally sat and enduring unwrapping all of her other less important presents - hardly ever taking her eye off of Sleeping Beauty. We now know which present we should have let her open last.

Christmas Day and Daddy's Funny Haircut

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:27:00 -0700

Somewhere between between opening presents, and learning the valuable lesson of present precedence (more on that later), and kicking back for a lazy Christmas day I decided I needed a haircut. Eager to facilitate this wish, in fact a little too eager, Amber offered to pull out the clippers and recreate the short-haired look of last summer. For the most part I enjoyed the look, but especially the feel, so I agreed to such a style. In our haste to remove the fro we got our fractions a little mixed up. We knew that in August we used a guard that had an 8 on it. Amber was almost certain that it was the 1/8" guard. I wasn't positive, but I also didn't object. As the hair began to gather on the the bathroom floor we both thought it would be funny to leave a stripe of curly hair on the top of my head. So proud of our creation, we called up Ambers parents on Skype get their feedback on my new look. They were less than impressed. Ashley, on the other hand, thought my new due was a riot. She would look at me, point, and laugh while exclaiming, 'Daddy's got a funny haircut!' Even after cleaning off the mohawk Ashley still looks at me and laughs, simply saying, 'Daddy's got a funny haircut.' So, now we know to use the 3/8" guard when cutting my hair, not the 1/8". In the mean time I'm getting reacquainted with my collection of hats. Not necessarily because I'm ashamed of the look, but that Cache Valley wind on my scalp is COLD!

True Blue Ashley

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:05:00 -0700

[DISCLAIMER: The general idea of the following story is true. However, the precise details may be slightly inaccurate as I received the bulk majority of the proceedings second-hand. Plus, this whole thing took place over three weeks ago. But, with so many of you who pledge your allegiance to the school with the Y, I figured this story must be told.] In between Thanksgiving and Christmas we gathered up the family and headed down to Salt Lake for the USU-BYU basketball game held at the Energy Solutions Arena, where the Utah Jazz play their home games. Rather than make the kids sit in a crowded arena for the entire night, after sitting in the car for much of the afternoon, and thanks to the kindness of Jenna and the Perego kids, Ashley and Andrew spent the evening with their cousins while Amber and I went to the intense game. Since Jenna is twice a graduate from Brigham Young she also had interest in the game and had it playing on the radio during dinner. Her kids were already accustomed to cheering for the Cougars and they were trying to get Ashley to do the same. But, our first born held strong. The closest she got to saying 'Go Cougars' was 'Go Coogies!' Then when she heard the radio announcer say Aggies Ashley threw both fists into the air and shouted 'Go Aggies!' Jenna's oldest child, Joshua, was perplexed as to why anyone related to him would cheer for a school other than BYU. Jenna explained that Ashleys parents were Aggies from Utah State, and they didn't cheer for the Cougars. Apparently this touched Joshua and the other children as they all began to cheer for the Aggies. By the end of the night Josh was even disappointed when the Aggies lost the game. Thanks to Ashley's influence we should be expecting Joshua in Logan when it's time for him to start college.

Go Aggies!

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:41:00 -0700

We took the whole family to the Utah State basketball game last week against Weber State. We had mixed results with Ashley and the boisterous atmosphere of the basketball games last season, so we weren't sure what to expect this time around. To our surprise Ashley sat in her seat for most of the game, watched the action on the court intently, and even clapped with the crowd every time the Aggies scored. She eventually got bored, after all she is only two, and began to fidget around our seats. What brought her attention back to the court every time was the music over the loud speaker. Of course, it wasn't so much the tunes or the beat, but the Aggie Dancers that got Ashley's attention. For most of the second half, when ever the dancers were out performing Ashley could be seen mimicking their actions from her seat. So cute.

Pre-Holiday Flop

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:45:00 -0700

After so many wonderful grilling experiences this summer, you'd figure that some bad outings were inevitable. This weekend was one of the biggest busts I've ever had with fire and meat. In my confidence of such a successful grilling summer, I decided that I was ready to graduate from grilling parts of animals and move on to whole beasts. This time of year suggests an ideal creature: a turkey. I read through a few recipes and felt that I could handle the challenge. Just before 3pm Saturday afternoon I lit the fire, separating the coals for indirect grilling, placed our bird on the grill, and shut the lid. Now, I'll admit that I didn't follow all my instructions exactly, but my sources also conflicted on how I should go about accomplishing the task. After six hours of flip-flopping techniques, the meat thermometer read 180, and felt good about bringing the bird inside. All accounts say that you are supposed to let your bird rest for several minutes before carving, this was no problem as it gave me time to prepare a quite yummy gravy. The gravy was the best creation on the night. The meat was another story. Excited by the taste of the gravy I began slicing the turkey, eagerly awaiting what I would find inside. To my dismay, it was exactly the opposite of what I expected. The meat was stringy and dry, in the places that it was cooked, and it was even pink in some spots. The pinkness was nothing a little time in the oven couldn't fix; and the dryness was cured by the gravy. There are a lot of things I need to think about before trying to grill a turkey again, possibly Thursday? (hi Bagbys). But, at least I got the gravy right.

A Wasted Bottle of Virgil's

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:24:00 -0700

For the last several weeks I have had a bottle of Virgils Cream Soda sitting in the bottom of my fridge. The idea was that I would use it as a small reward for some accomplishment. But, when ever I thought about grabbing the bottle I would second guess whether my current accomplishment was worthy of such a reward. This thought process repeated itself on several occasions until finally, in a moment of weakness, I sipped the stuff down along side a plate of Pizza Rolls just because it sounded good. I open with this story because it's a lot like my blogging habits recently. After skipping the birth of our son in September, no other event since has felt worthy to write about in comparison. Well, now I'm over that and getting back into the habit. Plus, I even fixed some of the colors on our blog site. What do you think? As mentioned, we have doubled the number of minors in the house with the birth of Andrew in September. He's fantastic and adored by not only his parents, but his older sister as well. Of course, we figure this admiration will last about as long as Andrew keeps his hands off Ashley's stuff. Once he starts to get grabby, we foresee that the love-fest will be history. Or not. Maybe they'll be perfect children, right? We take lots of pictures and post them to Shutterfly. If you feel you are not on our email list for receiving access to our shutterfly albums - and you would like to be - please leave a comment on this post with your email address.

Weights and Measures

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:18:00 -0700

This story doesn't have much to do with the family, except for that I was there. What I'm about to share occurred while fulfilling my church responsibilities. I work with the youth, and last sunday while all of us were gathering for a lesson one of the young men cracked open a window as he declared that he was hot. As the nearest person of responsibility I didn't see anything wrong with it, except for the young man's train of thought as it was much warmer outside than in. Laws of temperatures withstanding, I didn't say a word about the window being open. That is until a wasp floated through the open space. The buzzing creature created quite the silent stir - didn't want to interrupt the teacher. While the boys immediately surrounding me were completely focused on the bee, I motioned to the one closest to the window to shut it so that others wouldn't fly in. Our visitor hovered around a bit before camping out on the ceiling for much of the class time. Most of the guys had turned their focus back to their shoes until the wasp took flight again. Quietly, each boy prepared himself with what ever weapon they could find. It was the lad directly to my left who was the least frantic, even though the wasp was lowering right in front of his face. Just as the bee reached chin level, the boy calmly raised his open scriptures and then closed them, crushing the bee inside. Once the class was over all of us familiar with the situation huddled around him to inspect the damage as he opened his scriptures. As he pulled back the pages we found the lifeless bee crumpled in the boys Bible Dictionary. The definition that was smeared with the bee-guts, 'Weights and Measures.' That was enough to make me chuckle.