McAllister Family Blog - Utah

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.

KaBoom! Goes the Poka Dots!

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:23:00 -0700

The city of Logan maintains a tradition of holding their fireworks celebration on the night of July 3rd. We're not sure of the official reason, but our theory is so that they don't compete with the shows down south in the state. Having the local show the night before has usually worked out well for us, as I have had to be in Salt Lake over the last few years for soccer games on the Fourth. This year, however, Real Salt Lake moved their Independence Day game to the third in order accommodate ESPN's schedule. The result was that while I worked the game in Salt Lake (you can find my story here) Amber and Ashley caught the Logan fireworks with some old friends, the Littles. Our Fourth started with a drive up Logan Canyon where we hiked the Limber Pine trail. We heard that it was not a strenuous route, so we took that as meaning it could handle a jogging stroller. There were some tricky spots, but the stroller totally worked out. Taking an easy pace, we enjoyed the wild flowers that lined the trail, beautiful mountain scenery of the canyon surrounding it, and the majestic overlook of Bear Lake toward the end of the walk. In our last post we mentioned that grilling drumsticks was our favorite summer treat. We lied. Sorry, we'll try not to let it happen again. I had forgotten about another fun creation we learned to grill last summer - pizza. It's a fun meal to make, and yummy to eat.

The day ended with a trip out to Lewiston to partake in their tradition of fireworks. The show was great, and lasted about as long as Ashley cared to watch. She loved to watch the pretty colors in the sky. And when ever there was a break in the action she would ask, "More poka-dots!?"

Sardine Canyon

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:09:00 -0700

Utah is gorgeous. Especially at this time of year, when the mountains are covered with snow. The beauty is priceless and inspiring, yet it has it's downsides. In order to get from one city, say Orem, to another, say Logan, on the other side of these majestic peaks you eventually will have to travel through a deep gorge cut through the mountains known as a canyon. The canyons of Utah strike fear into hearts of motorists, especially in the winter. Take, for instance, our drive today as we travelled home from Orem after spending a fantastic weekend with family and friends. Our drive from Orem to Brigham City was accomplished in fantastic time and with relatively no hazards. Of course, when you gradually descend 338 feet over 97 you wouldn't expect much of a change in climate or road conditions. However, ascending out of Brigham into Sardine we knew our fortunes would change as the highway message board glared down a warning about Snow Tires or Chains being required by all who dared to pass. We dared. The wet roads quickly turned to slush, then wisps of snow increasing to thinly packed snow, and finally to unplowed standing snow on the highway by the time we reached Sardine Summit. At this point I started to think that the sign at the mouth of the canyon may be speaking a bit of truth, so I decided to pull over and grab the snow chains out of the trunk. I fumbled through the snow for several minutes attempting to untangle the twisted pieces of inter-connected metal with no luck, realizing that standing in a blizzard wasn't the most ideal time to be come acquainted with my chains. Watching the dozens of drivers pass safely over the summit, with not a set of chains in sight, I decided that we would be fine. Just as I turned to take the chains back to the trunk the snow plows decided to start working on our section of the highway. I ducked behind car to avoid the wave of ice blocks and powder being thrown over the car by the enormous blade. Two more plows passed before I could get back into the drivers seat, and I was excited to get out onto the freshly plowed road. The problem was that all the snow that was in the middle of the highway was now piled nicely into my car. I hit the gas hoping to claw out of the mess, but it was no use. We were stuck.

Amber and I proceeded to pull the snow away from our wheels by hand, in hopes of creating some room to budge when a nice girl in a pickup pulled up and offered to pull us out. With seemingly no effort her little Toyota pulled our helpless Hyundai out of the deep snow and onto the road.

For the rest of the trip I never broke 30 mph as we crept out of the canyon and across Cache Valley to our home. Now, we're safe and warm with a descent story to tell. Enjoy the photos that Amber snapped during our journey.

Also, here is a link about Sardine when it's not covered in snow. Look at #2 on the list. Apparently, we're not the only ones you appreciate it's beauty.

Merry Christmas 2007

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:45:00 -0700

Snow was falling in large clumps by the time I pulled into the garage on Christmas Eve. Normally I would have felt bad for shopping on the last possible day, but with my recent work schedule I was lucky to get out and shop at all. Plus, I was getting home so that Amber could have the car to head out one last time herself, so I didn't feel too bad. By the time Amber returned from her excursion into the masses the flakes had accumulated a few inches, softening the world with a wintery glow. We prepared a ham, cheesy potatoes, and green bean casserole for our Christmas Eve feast. And, although we missed being close to family, we reveled in the quiet simplicity of being at home. The remainder of the evening was spent watching a short film entitled, 'The Other Wise Man,' and explaining to Ashley what was going to happen in the morning. I think we made progress, as we could hear her excitedly repeat, "Santa's coming", before falling asleep in her crib. We were awakened by Ashley talking happily, and although it would make a great story to say that she was still saying, "Santa's coming", we're pretty sure it wasn't that. Although, we're not exactly sure what she was saying. We started with stockings, with the best part seeing the understanding that would come into Ashley's eyes when she realized that the presents inside the sock were for her. Next came breakfast, and then our gifts to Jesus. Watching our child's reactions was the most fun I've had on Christmas, possibly ever. Ashley was into the whole process. It didn't matter who the present was for, she was there to assist in the tearing of paper or picking off of bows. Watching her was worth every bit of preparation and work that went into the Holiday. Following the presents we made use of the sled that Ashley got me, the snow clothes that Ashley received, and the newly fallen snow outside to give Ashley her first real experience playing in the snow. There is a slight incline in our backyard that provided an ideal sled hill for the first-timer. She laughed with glee as Amber and I pulled her around on the sled. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, and was so peaceful. Ashley spent the afternoon stockpiling all the bows she could find; and then she ran around the house carrying as many bows as would fit in her arms. Amber and I enjoyed the ensuing week off of work, as the university was closed between Christmas and New Years. The beginning moments of 2008 were spent with our good friends the Billmans. Their son Sam was born on the last day of 2005 - which makes him a little more than a month older than Ashley. We partied for Sam's birthday in the afternoon. Then after the kids went to bed we played games until just before midnight, when we tuned in to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Our festive celebrations came to an end this weekend as we travelled down to the Bagby homestead in Orem to exchange gifts amongst Ambers siblings and parents. An added bonus to the weekend was having the privilege of sharing in the joy of Amber's longtime friend April getting sealed to her longtime sweetheart Clint. It's always fun to see two people come together to start a new family, especially when those two are as happy as April and Clint. Family is the string that ties us all together, and Christmas is one of those times where the string is tightened to pull us all that much closer together.

Hey, Look! We skipped November!

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:01:00 -0700

What started as a weekly email has now degraded to a bimonthly blog. We last wrote just before Halloween, where Ashley masqueraded around the neighborhood as a bumble bee. It didn't take long for her to understand exactly how Trick-or-Treating worked. Before we realized what was happening our quick visit to immediate neighbors turned into a trip around the block with Ashley running from house to house in search of more candy. That same night was the start of the USU basketball season. As mentioned in our previous post, we sprang for season tickets thinking this was going to be a special season. So far, it has appeared that the basketball team has been hanging out with the football team. But, the games are fun to attend. After her initial first game jitters Ashley has settled in to the whole basketball game routine. She'll now clap when the crowd does and knows the name of our star player, Jaycee, our coach, Stew, she can make the sound for "woosh" when ever the Aggies make a free throw, and most importantly, her favorite phrase is, "Goo Aggies!" Thanksgiving brought family together from all over the northern part of the state. The first annual Family Soccer Game was organized at the Bicentennial Park, just behind Jen's (Amber's sister) house in Provo. Representatives from both Amber and Scott's families were in attendance, and fun was had by all who were there. The day concluded with an extremely pleasant meal at the Bagby homestead, surrounded by family and friends alike. One major difference from our celebrations of previous Thankful weekends was the omission of Black Friday observance. In years past, we would get up before dawn with the rest of the bargain crazies and stand out in the cold to get get some nifty gadget for next to nothing - after completing the mail-in rebate, of course. No, this year we decided to sleep to a normal hour. Amber went out to the stores after they opened and was still able to get all the deals we were remotely interested in. Feeling rested for the remainder of the weekend was welcome change, and helped to keep all activities pleasant. As the Christian-American population is aware Thanksgiving signifies the formal start to the Christmas season. Each year the Holidays get more and more exciting as Ashley learns more about them. This year will be remembered as the time when Ashley learned about the Christmas Tree. A couple of weeks ago, while Amber was visiting with a neighbor in their kitchen, Ashley was playing with a couple of the neighbors kids in the front room. The oldest of the neighbor kids came into the kitchen, where the ladies were talking, to get some food. At that moment there came a loud crash from the front room, followed by Ashley erupting into tears. Running into the room, the reflex of the mother of the two children was to yell the name of the child still in the room where the crash was heard, and the crying was still pouring from. However, the adults found that said child was fast sleeping on the couch while the balling Ashley stood next to the festively decorated tree - now lying on the carpet. Embarrassed by the destruction that our child accomplished, Amber excused herself and Ashley after helping to pick up pieces of some broken ornaments. After such an experience, we really don't mind that according to Ashley all brightly decorated trees are called, "kiss-mass tree. no touch!". -------------------- In case you receive these messages via email we've done a little fixing up of the blog's layout. Check it out: http://www.twincreekdesign.com/blog/mcallisterfamily

December: The Month of Driving

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:10:00 -0700

Monthly seems to be about the pace I can handle for updating the world on our family. Christmas is the most exciting time of year. With this being Ashley's first go round with the unwrapping frenzy, Amber and I started feeling the familiar build up of anticipation that was common during our childhood years. Only now, we dwelled on the thought of watching Ashley discover the Holiday, rather than worry about which packages had our names on them. Three of the four December weekends were spent in the happy confines of the Utah Valley (known as the Provo area to most of the world). The excessive driving has meshed into a blur of taillights and overpasses, with only warm memories of moments spent with family and friends left to enjoy in our minds. As a new father my thoughts repeatedly touched on the carpenter Joseph this season. Something struck me while watching a short film depicting the story of the Savior's birth. I had seen this actual rendition several times. But this time, after Joseph was rejected by the inn keeper, and just before he turns back to his very pregnant wife, he paused to express a look of utter frustration. He wanted nothing more than to provide comfort to his wife and unborn child. Yet, he seemed to be failing miserably. The fatherly role of doing everything possible to comfort a wife who was large with child was something I could relate to this year. We stopped by the Perego's - home of my sister Jenna - while traveling down to the Bagby's the day before Christmas Eve. We caught the Perego's at a bad time as they were all sleeping with the exception of Ugo, who was freshly home after spending several weeks in his native Italy. After chatting with him other family members began wake up one-by-one. Christmas Eve issued the return of The Nativity Reenactment, brought to you by the Bagby's and Friends. Ashley and Amber tag-teamed as the star while I played the vital role of the videographer. Such an eventful performance had to be captured in full motion and sound. You can purchase your copy at our store for the low price of $19.95 (plus S&H). The big day dawned with nary a stir through the Bagby Place. After showers and bit of breakfast my girls and I decided to slide on over to my sister Julia's place on the west side of town. We arrived there just in time for the assembling of the Christmas gifts. For me, that meant getting beaten at Spider Chess by a seven year-old. And then celebrating victory by trying out their new sleds in the backyard. We finished our visit with a hardy breakfast and then returned to a still silent Bagby house. At the stroke of 2 p.m. - after all the siblings arrived from their homes - the unwrapping commenced. Our video camera was glued to Ashley as she tugged and pulled on the paper and bows. The colorful toys underneath the packaging also captured her attention - much to the relief of her parents. We travelled south one last time for the year the following weekend. We used this jaunt to celebrate the first birthday of Ashley's boyfriend - Sam Billman - born on New Years Eve. The calendar year switched over just following a game of Settlers of Catan, and just before falling asleep.

It is not good for man to be alone

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 21:15:00 -0700

I learned a valuable lesson a couple weeks ago. It was something that I already knew, but it was reiterated when my dear Amber left me with our sweet little Ashley and went down south to Springville, UT for a week. The lesson was simple and proven three times over during the five day period of Amber's absence: it is not good for man to be alone. On Monday - around mid-day, while I was at work - the two most important ladies headed south for Utah county to stay with Amber's sister Stacy and her new daughter Sienna while Stacy's husband Serge was at a conference in Vegas. Amber and Stacy both claim that the reason for the trip was so that Amber could lend a hand to the new mother and offer support in Serge's absence. But, every time I spoke with Amber she sounded more happy with each call. My suspicions of enormously fun partying increased with each conversation. What ever went on, I could tell that she was enjoying herself being so close to family for week. My new independence found me walking in from work on Monday night to a dark and motionless home. After surveying my vacant surroundings I did what any guy would do in my situation. Popped in a Simpson's DVD and watched cartoons for two hours. When the disc was over I headed upstairs, probably thinking it was time for bed, but got side tracked by my old turntable. I hadn't spun a record since before Ashley was born. Since no one was sleeping in the next room, I hooked that bad boy up to the stereo and cranked the sucker. While enjoying the tunes, I grew curious about how sound traveled in our new place. After some short exploring I found that the music could faintly be heard in the basement, but to my delight even less could be heard outside. Like the Simpson's DVD, the record ended soon enough and I found myself surrounded by the loneliness of an empty house. Reluctantly, I prepared for bed. This routine includes downing various vitamins, one of which is a new horse pill that I had begun taking the week prior. At that moment I got the bright idea to cut said horse pill in half thinking it would swallow easier. Taking a flat metal spatula that was already out on the counter I successfully split the and the skin on my left pinkie. Nothing major, just my first reminder that it was not good for man to be alone. Wednesday evening brought my second reminder. Because I didn't like the feeling of being in an empty house I decided to stay at work until 7pm on Wednesday. While traveling home from campus through the rain mixed with snow that was being blown in all directions my umbrella decided it had had enough. It's functionality to fully open or close no longer existed. Some time during my struggle to get the umbrella to a manageably closed position somehow I sliced the meaty part of my left thumb. I didn't noticed the cut on my hand for some time. But after I had been home several minutes something caught my eye and I was surprised by the discovery of a bloody wound. This one was slightly more serious than the previous injury of Monday night. But, I was the talk of the office with my coworkers laughing at the increasing number of band aids on my hand. My final reminder that it was not good for man to be alone occurred the following evening - my last night as a bachelor. While preparing a delicious dinner of chicken fajitas I successfully chopped up an onion and thawed out the chicken. You'd think a former Subway Sandwich Artist would be able to slice a green pepper with out incident, but I was able to catch my right index finger with the slicer. The instant pain told me that it was a bad cut. After soaking it under the faucet for a few minutes I turned my hand over to inspect the damage. One look at the wound and I said out loud, "yeah, that's stitches." I called my buddy Joe - remember Amber had the car - and he gave me a ride to the hospital. When the nurse removed my bloody wad of paper towels she told me that I probably would not need stitches, because there was no skin to stitch. Our slicer is so good, that it lopped a small portion of my finger tip right off. She dressed the wound and then told me that in the morning I should just put a band aid with neosporin on it. I then sheepishly asked, if I had just put neosporin and a band aid on it at home would I have been okay. She nodded her head. Joe did well to keep a straight face. Looking down at my hacked up hands I was grateful that Amber and Ashley would be home in less than 24 hours. And, at least the house was in one piece.

Conference Weekend

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:49:00 -0700

Our last two weekends straight have been spent in the company of family and friends in the greater Provo area. The first weekend was for General Conference and the second was to celebrate the birth of Ashley's first cousin on her Mommie's side of the family - Sienna St. Felix. Taking things in chronological order, I have yet to figure out how to pay attention to General Conference while not being at a church or inside the Conference Center. As if sitting on a soft couch was bad enough, now there is this adorable child to play with. In fact, we have a great home movie of her during the opening session on Saturday. Due to some serious health issues with Amber's parents we weren't able to stay at their home as we normally do on our trips south. But, Amber's very pregnant sister Stacy graciously invited us to their home in Springville - just south of Provo. Although we missed Ken and Joyce, it was fantastic staying with Stacy and Serge. We also used that weekend to see our friends who have departed Logan for the bigger cities. On Friday, in an attempt to surprise Amber for her birthday - the day before - I arranged to meet our friends the Lewis' at a pizza joint (Gapeddo's: very good) in Salt Lake. When I made the plans I forgot to take General Conference/Mission Reunions/Highway construction into account when figuring driving time. Rather than the 90 minutes it normally takes to get from Logan to SLC, we crawled down the interstate arriving at our destination after 3 hours in the car. Amazingly, the Lewis' were still at the restaurant and they didn't even hate us for being so late. Saturday conference was spent at our friends the Billmans. All enjoyed the company of friends and the moments of talks that we heard. Ashley made sure to provide the entertainment. Now we just need to work on her timing. Sunday was spent with family. For the morning session we stayed with Stacy and Serge. We joined up with the Perego's who came down from Taylorsville to the Andersen's in Orem. We ate lunch with the bunch and then slep, I mean, watched the last session of conference. Following conference we headed up Provo Canyon for a gathering of cousins stemming from my mom's side of the family. That was fun, considering I don't meet up with that group all that often.

Bagby Park City Retreat: Day 1 - "This is the place...I think"

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 12:30:00 -0700

When discussing the details of traveling from Logan to Park City with Amber it occured to me that our schedule was not very tight. Or, in other words, we had some time to kill. It was during this train of thought that I remembered that I had never been to "This is the Place" monument down in Salt Lake. And Amber, though she is a native of Utah only vaguely remembers visiting the site. The monument marks the spot where the leader of the settlers of Utah, Brigham Young, stopped his wagon, surveyed the valley that laid out before him and declared "this is the right place." For God had shown Brigham the destination for the Latter-day Saints, who settled Utah, in a vision. That valley was eventually called the Salt Lake Valley due to the large salty body of water that sat in the middle of it. Our plan was to have a picnic lunch at the monument on our way to Park City. Armed with Subway sandwiches we arrived at a large field on hill with a tall granite tower at one end. The sun was blazing, so lunch was had quickly after seeking refuge in a gift shop so that Ashley could get her lunch in comfort. We made our way through a windy canyon that separates Park City from Salt Lake City and found our accomidations at the center of town. Home was at the Park Station Condo Hotel, as mentioned above, and our condo was equipped with 5 bedrooms. To get an idea, imagine two large hotel suites, each with a living room, full kitchen and two bedrooms. Knock out the wall between them and use the space between the walls to squeeze in a bunkbed. To be honest, it worked. Shortly after arriving I returned to Salt Lake to cover an RSL game. I was delighted that Serge (Stacy's husband) decided to come along for the game. There were some great goals - although Salt Lake let their lead slip away as they got scored on in stoppage time to end up in a 3-3 tie. Serge and I returned back to Park Station and were climbing into bed just in time to hear the fire alarms go off in the building. He and I went to investigate what was going on and found the the building had all evacuated - with the exception of our party. We ran back in to get everyone when the alarms stopped. With everyone now awake we milled around in hallway for a few minutes before the alarms went off again. This time Amber rushed back into our room to grab Ashley (soundly sleeping through the whole thing) and we all made our way out of the building in a rush. Ashley woke up once she felt the cool night air on her face. If you haven't noticed, I haven't mentioned anything about a fire. That's because there wasn't one. The Fire Marshal came out to investigate and found nothing. We all returned to our beds and slept fairly deep into the next morning.