In the Land of Salt

ER Visit.... and more happy things

2011-09-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Our first trip to the ER. Can you believe that it was with our second son rather than our first? Well, I can. Kimball was swinging from a tree and fell and hit his head on the edge of a chair. Poor guy! He ended up with 3 staples in his head. The ER people said that we are lucky because we didn't have to hook him up with IV's and stuff. They were able to take care of him pretty easy.
Kimball was very brave at the hospital and so they gave him a cute little bear. Kimball LOVE's the bear and would take it everywhere if he could.
Poor Kimball came down with a cold the next day and had a fever so he does not look to happy in this picture.
Here is a picture of Patten and Kimball trying to help Dave move some of the lighter office equipment up the stairs. What great helpers! At one point Dave ended up pulling his bicep because Kimball was in the way.

I have tried to create a schedule for Alyse which is eat, play, sleep and repeat:) One day when I went to check on her I found her looking up at me as pictured above. Don't you just love those lizard eyes?

Our new upstairs office has been quite helpful, we bought this table to double as a desk because sadly Dave's old desk would not fit through the door into the room. We love being able to file things and work on things without having to go down a flight of stairs. Thanks to Norm for helping carry up the heavy office stuff!

The office also doubles as a napping room for Patten.

When we find Alyse in he morning we have found her in a few interesting positions. To the Left is her trying to recreate a previous life she led as a catipillar building a cocoon. To the right is the reenactment of breaking out of the cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly :)

We are still adjusting to three but making it by. We are blessing Alyse on September 18th at 9am for any of you who would like to attend.

Chores and more....

2011-08-29T18:29:00.001-07:00

We have been trying to teach the boys that part of being a family means that we all have to do chores. I just couldn't resist taking a picture of them bringing their dirty clothes from their bedroom up the stairs to the laundry room. It was hilarious to listen to and watch. Patten: "Kimball, you push and I pull. ok PUSH!"

Greg and Annalisa are in town. Yeah! They came to see Alyse.... and hopefully us:)

Greg and Dave just can't take a serious picture, sorry Dave you will never be as tall as Greg :)

Patten and Addie had lots of fun together. Here they are watching a movie together.

Whenever I pull the camera out to get a picture of the baby the boys have to jump in. I can't believe all three of these children are ours!

Alyse in her one of her cute outfits

My sister Kimberlee lives in Florida and planned a trip so that she would be here after the baby had arrived. It was fun to spend time with her. Thanks for coming Kimberlee!

Kimball trying to help feed the baby by bringing me my pump. I know a little weird.

Dave and Patten feeding Alyse her first bottle. We have decided to feed her one bottle a week so that she will take bottles when I want to leave her. We weren't very good with this with Kimball and boy did we pay the consequences...

This picture was taken the Sunday after Alyse was born. She is getting less scrunchy faced everyday.

Kimball's Birthday was July 31st and we had a little party for him. Here is a picture of him ripping open one of his presents and Patten helping:)

I made a basketball cake for Kimball because he LOVES balls right now and it seemed to be the easiest ball to make. One of the phrases that Kimball can say is "hoop ball."

Levi and Kelsey my sister.
We took a few pictures of the attendees but I didn't get as many as I would have liked.

Mimi, my mom.

Norm- his face is cut off, sorry Norm. Kimball thinking about blowing out the candles

Read and look at below photo first... sorry I am figuring this out more and more each time.
Dave, Patten and Kimball running/rolling to the finish line. Can you believe he actually passed a few people while pushing all that weight? Your awesome Dave!

In previous news (sorry, at least it is getting up) we went to Fairview for the 24th of July and Dave pushed the boys in the 5k fun run. Dave would have placed in his age group but the blanket you can see in the picture fell off of the bike mid run and wrapped around the tire. That added a few minutes to his time!

Our Garden is still doing great! Here is a picture of one of our basil harvests.

I hope you liked all of our randomly placed pictures and captions. We are adjusting slowly but all is well. The boys still love Alyse and can't get enough of her.

Alyse Johnson

2011-08-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Mimi (my mom) and Alyse. My mom is so excited to finally have a granddaughter!

Norm LOVES babies. I think he would be around all day every day if he could

I can not get enough of this cute little bundle!

She has a very scrunchy face which is slowly going away. I will post some more recent photos in a few days.

Despite Kimballs expression, he can not get enough of Alyse.
He is constantly wanting to hold and kiss her.
When he is upset about something Alyse is a great distraction!

Uncle Derek, Aunt Natalie and Aunt Missy.
We were lucky that Missy was in town so she could see Alyse.
Thanks for visiting Missy!

Aunt Kelsey and Alyse.

Well, you probably noticed that she has arrived! Dave has done a fantastic job of letting everyone know that she is here and I absolutely love his post. I have not posted yet because it takes up a lot of time taking care of a baby and two toddlers. A lot more time then I used to spend taking care of my kids, but it is definitely worth it.

Let me tell you a bit about the labor and delivery from my perspective.

As some of you may know I have been very into the whole natural child birth thing. I did it with Kimball and wanted to do it again with Alyse. With both of them I was determined to not be started/induced. With Kimball I could not handle being pregnant anymore and scheduled an induction date which wasn't used because I (thankfully) went into labor about 4 hours before they would have induced me. I had decided with this pregnancy I wasn't going to cave and I would hold on and wait. Well, I guess I forgot how hard pregnancy is and an induction date was scheduled for Alyse.

I was very worried about being induced, I thought the labor would be impossible to endure without an epidural. I had an awful experience with the epidural when I had Patten and I did not want to go down that road again. My midwife had mentioned many times that she could break my water but I had heard of so many women who ended up needing petocin (sp?) to get the contractions going even after their water was broken.

Good news... the water breaking was all I needed. It turned out that when I arrived in the hospital I was nearly dilated to a 5 and 90 % effaced. I guess all the miserableness I was feeling was doing something :) My labor ended up being just over 2 hours and my midwife said that if I had waited to go into labor by my self I might not have made it to the hospital in time (worst fear). I guess it was a good thing I was started!

I decided to do something different for this labor. With my previous pregnancies I only wanted Dave in the delivery room. I just didn't want anyone else there. With this pregnancy I felt really good about inviting both of my moms to the labor. I am so glad I did. They were very supportive and helped the entire experience to be even better than it would have. There was a time when I had all three of them (Dave, my mom, and Julie) tickling me on my back arms or legs. It was so comforting even through the craziness of labor. Thank you moms!

Alyse is a joy. We love her so much. I am so glad she turned out to be only 8lbs 4 oz. I was really afraid I would end up with a ten pound baby after I deliver Kimball at 9lbs 8 oz. Would a ten pound baby actually fit out of my body without a c- section? I don't know... Any way I was thrilled to have something smaller.

We have been home from the hospital now for a few days and are trying to get into some semblance of a schedule (hahaha). Our boys love Alyse and can't get enough of her. We are so glad to have a cute girl added to our family.

Alyse - A Dad's Perspective

2011-08-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

Kristin gave birth to our beautiful daughter Alyse on Monday afternoon at 12:40. Quite amazing, really. Below is the experience from a dad's perspective.

The hospital turned us down at 6am, only to tell us to hurry our butts in at 8. We arrived at 10 and the midwife broke Kristin's water at 10:30. Speaking of the midwife, she was incredible. Nancie Mooy is her name. If you are in SLC, I highly suggest looking her up. It was like having a doctor and a doula in one. The nurses respected her and did what she asked, and yet she understood and respected Kristin's desire to birth Alyse without medication. She was awesome.

But back to the story. After the water breakage, Kristin and I paced the halls for a good 45 minutes. I know some husband's fear the thought of natural birth because they fear the responsibility involved. They'd rather just sit back and let the epidural do all of the work. That's fine, and I'm not here to judge natural vs. medicated (Patten's birth was medicated and it was great), but I for one enjoy the husband's job in a non-medicated birth. At least with Alyse's birth, I noticed this most acutely while Kristin and I paced the halls. At times we could walk 100 yards without a contraction, at other times we couldn't walk 5 yards without a contraction. But the whole time it was as though no one else existed. Sure, we were walking by the nurse-hub quite frequently, and 10-15 nurses were watching our every move (they aren't sure about the whole labor while you walk thing). But to Kristin and I, it was just the two of us. We talked, we laughed, we cried (during contractions), we reminisced, we anticipated our daughter, and, generally, we just loved each other. What a special time. I won't soon forget it.

After pacing, we headed back to the hospital room. Kristin spent some time sitting on the birthing ball (medicine ball), used the restroom (I must say that "used the restroom" does not adequately describe the drama involved in that bathroom stop), and then headed for the bed. She first labored while laying on her back, when at some point the midwife said (in her respectful way): "now, Kristin, you can reject this, but I suggest you turn to your side to help that baby get over the pelvic floor." Kristin's response? "Let's do it." And, just like that, within 3 or 4 contractions, Alyse was out.

Alyse had a lot of white stuff (don't remember the name) on her, more than the boys. And despite Kristin's valiant efforts to be healthy during the pregnancy, she was still a large baby girl (8lbs 4oz; 21.5 inches). It took her 5 or 10 seconds to let out a cry, and she didn't cry incessantly like Kimball or Patten.

It took us a few minutes to decide on her name (which proves that all of you people who think we know our children's names 4 months before they are born are wrong). But the name settled in, and it wasn't long before I couldn't imagine my life without my baby girl. I can already tell the boys have a lot competition for my attention, and she's probably gonna win.

Update

2011-06-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

I was reading through Dave's facebook wall which he updates much more regularly than I do. I noticed a request for more pictures and updates on our blog. Well, I have some very sad news. We can not find our camera anywhere. So all pictures that are being taken are from Dave's phone, which is actually quite nice. He has been posting all of said pictures on facebook if anyone would like to check them out.

I have also heard a request for a picture of my large and growing a belly. I will make sure that Dave takes a picture of that in the near future (hopefully tomorrow) and post that for you.

Here are some updates on the fam. My belly, as said before, is getting larger and so is my baby. Today she decided to lodge herself on my right hip and not let go for about 4 hours. Cute you might think but a bit painful. I have never known what it is like to get ribs kicked or a foot stuck under my ribs but I have sure felt babies lodged onto my hips and my bladder. I guess it is a good reminder that my baby is healthy and active.

Patten is growing up like a weed. He is so verbal and loves to talk up a storm. His favorite conversations involve why, what, and how. A lot of the time I don't have answers:) I wish I was a little smarter so I could quench his curiosity. Patten can get dressed and undressed by himself! I know for those of you who have daughters they probably had this done and figured out long before Patten's age. Well, we are just grateful he finally caught up.

Kimball has shown us what a true child does, not to say that Patten is not a true child or that Kimball is a terror. He just does a few of the normal things that Patten never did such as learning how to climb out of a porta crib, vacations are going to be really exciting now:) Kimball still isn't talking much but every once in a while we think he is trying to say a word.

Dave is loving his job and is happy with what he is doing. We are so grateful to have an income and a real job. I have to say though that I wish I was more grateful and enjoyed more the years of school. Yeah Dave was busy then but he had all holidays off. That was wonderful.

Well that is all I can think of to blog about. We will try harder to find our camera.....

Insufficient

2011-05-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

That title seems to fit our lack of posting. Kristin made a valiant effort when she did the Christmas post, but you'd think that considering it is May 1st (really?!?) we would have a few more posts on the blog. Sadly we have no good excuses. Here's the update on our lives.

November: I started a new job. It keeps me busy. We are so so so so thankful to have a job.

December: Xmas, the holidays, etc.

January - March: We started looking for houses. This decision all came up rather quickly, despite the fact that over Xmas I told Ty that it would be a couple of years before the house hunt began. We honestly thought that at the time. But we got the itch and it just felt right. We started out by seeing 1 or 2 houses a week, and it progressed to 3 or 4 per week by the end. We looked everywhere from Bountiful to Draper. You see, I had lived in the same stake for all of my 28 years (minus 2 for the mission and 1.5 spent in a married student ward) and I thought it was important to expand our search to other parts of the valley. I had nothing against other parts of the valley and I just wanted to see what was out there.

April: I ran the Salt Lake Half Marathon. I had hoped to run the Full, but had some issues with my left knee. Incredible how reasonable the Half seems when you've mentally prepared yourself for the Full. I suppose that's a life a lesson that could be applied in other arenas. The same day that I ran the Half we moved to our new house. We are close to the Fort Union area (about 70th south and 18th east). Most importantly for all of you blog readers, we have a guest bedroom (even two!). So, next time you are in Salt Lake make sure to stop by our place, we'd love to have you. Our neighborhood, at least two weeks in, seems incredible. We've had scores of neighbors over to welcome us. Heck, one of our neighbors goes by "papu and yaya" (greek for grandma and grandpa). Ty, can you say Grandpa Art? The boys are invited to Papu's and Yaya's every Saturday to have a treat from the treat bucket. So cool.

I think those are the main updates. Hope everyone is doing well.

Christmas 2010

2011-03-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas 2010. We only took them from the morning, we aren't the best picture takers I am afraid.

In my own family we had a tradition of taking our picture on the stairs in our pajamas on Christmas morning. So, i had to continue it. It builds the anticipation :) Don't you love the stripes! Thanks Cindy!

I had to add this picture in because Kimball is doing his roar face! Hilarious!
Natalie, Norm and Julie decided that they wanted to come over Christmas morning to watch the boys open their Christmas presents. It made it much more exciting for the boys because they had someone to show their new presents too!

When the first snow came Patten wanted to build a snowman and it of course had to have arms eyes, nose and a mouth. I know you can't really see the mouth but I tried to with the snow :) We had lots of fun.

Make sure you look below because I put up another new post just before this one. I know it is not nearly as fun to not have them spread out but I am just glad I found time to get these up.

Catching up on 2010

2011-03-17T12:53:00.001-07:00

We have missed a few things in our blog and I apologize especially to Missy, Mike, Ty, Becca, Kimberlee, and Bubba who do not get to see the boys very much. Well here you go. There are some Halloween pictures as well.

As you can tell with the summer attire this picture should have been posted a really long time ago. Kimball has this itch to put things on his head. Pajama bottoms, blankets, there was a time that he would throw a blanket on his head and run around full force around the family room. He did end up hurting himself but before that happened it was hilarious.

Patten and Kimball had lots of fun with this box. Why do we buy toys again?
I wish that I could say that this is a usual visual of how the boys act as they sit next to each other watching a movie, but it would be a lie. When they do sit and watch a show together though the peace is wonderful. One interesting thing is that if we put a blanket on Kimball's lap he will sit for upwards of a half an hour to watch a show. Yeah!

Reading books. I have Patten read books every morning before he can watch TV. I usually read them one as well. Kimball has taken a liking to them and will even bring a book over to me and plop his cute bottom on my lap.

This is actually the cleanest of messy faces that Kimball give himself. He eats yogurt everyday for lunch and there is usually yogurt through his hair all over his face hands and tray. Oh yeah, the floor as well. Love cleaning it up :)

Kimball was a frog and patten was a turtle. I guess I should have had Patten turn to the side so that you could actually tell what he was in the picture.

k

Here we all are in our Halloween glory. I am an old school alarm clock and I am not quite sure what Dave is suppose to be. He is wearing a head thing (which I can not remember the name of) that he bought while on his mission in Philadelphia.

Dleifxam (not a virus)

2011-02-16T06:58:00.000-08:00

In the Focus. On the street. At a church. At a nursing home. It didn't matter. Dleifxam Trauts (that's what I called him) was always a musician.

He used to say to me. "What do you think about me becoming a rock star." I always told him "that would be cool, just remember me when you are famous."

Well, his time has almost come.

http://www.rollingstone.com/choosethecover/artists/fictionist#ooid=BhbXkwMjpvIxQvE3YQukrou-I87fI3J_

Give Fictionist a listen. You won't be disappointed. And hurry. Pretty soon he'll be performing in a stadium near you (and listening won't be nearly as cheap).

Alive

2011-01-08T21:48:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the recent lack of posts. Life, at times, is crazy. This is one of those times (but in a good way).

Dave started a new job at the beginning of December. We feel blessed beyond measure to have a job in this less than ideal economy. Easily the best part of the job is coming home to Kris and the boys every night (not that the job itself is not fulfilling, because it is, but there is something special about the boys jumping out of their pants every time I come home).

Upside-down-backwards-D and Special K keep Kristin busy. Special K seems older everyday and, unfortunately, has almost fully embraced the "hitting" stage. From prior experience we know this will pass. But, in the meantime, it makes things difficult.

Mr. P comes up with a lot of great questions. Like this morning.

Mr. P: "Dad, what is a PU?"
Dave: "Well, it's what we put in the potty."
Mr. P: "No, dad, what IS a PU?"

Good question.

Chicago

2010-11-16T19:48:00.000-08:00

Last week Kristin and I went to Chicago to visit our good friends the Condies and the McConkies. What a blast we had. Here's the rundown.

Unfortunately, we didn't take our camera to Nate and Missy's our first night in Chicago. Trust me though, they make same killer homemade pizza. We had a great time with Reuben, Ashlyn, Nate, and Missy. Also, special thanks to Nate and Ash for taking us on a driving tour of Chitown on Thursday. That was invaluable. And I got to see the Michael Jordan statue (special bonus).

Here are Kris and I at the Billy Graham Center on the Wheaton campus. Greg took us to Wheaton our first day in Chicago. It was beautiful. We might take up preaching.

On Thursday we visited the American Girl doll store. Kristin was in heaven. I did my best to act interested.

Kristin in front of Trump Tower.

Kristin and Addie. They absolutely adored each other. Kristin did Addie's hair. Addie constantly asked Kristin to sit on the couch next to her.

Kristin in Chicago.

Chicago Tribune building.

Part of our justification for the trip was to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We ate lunch on Friday on the 95th floor of the Hancock tower. We ordered Creme Brulee. They wrote Happy Anniversary around the outside of the plate. Very cool.

The game does not deserve mention. Notre Dame does. It was beautiful. Here are Condie and Annalisa in front of the Golden Dome.

Touchdown Jesus.

All 4 of us.

Thanks again to everyone who made the trip happen. Parents who babysat, friends who took us in, etc., etc. We had a blast.

Resurrected

2010-11-03T20:09:00.003-07:00

The blog, that is.

But can someone tell me how to center the picture of the boys at the top of the blog?

Patten is 3!

2010-10-14T20:17:00.000-07:00

Patten had his birthday on October 12th. He turned three! I can't believe that I am the mother of a three year old. He had preschool that day and came home with this crown on his head. Patten wanted to wear it all day.

Close up on the cake.

Patten and his lion cake. I made it myself! Patten has been into lions lately going around the house and saying "I am a lion roar!" When we went to eat the cake Patten said , "I want to eat the lion!" I can't beleive that I actually made a descent lion. It is a little bit of a miracle. Sorry Missy, the eyes aren't in the middle of the head :) I was never good at that even in my art classes.

Patten blowing out his candles. I think this is the first time he actually blew out his candles.

Patten and his aunt Kara. Patten enjoyed eating his lion cake. Bottom left is one of Patten's new toys a magna doodle.

Thank you for all of the presents everyone! And thank you for the phone calls and messages. Patten loved all of them.

Hello again

2010-10-05T05:56:00.001-07:00

Our blog has been (and largely still is) out of commission. Hopefully we will fix it sometime. In the meantime, here are some pictures.

Patten drew his first face, all by himself.

Our tomato crop exceeded our expectations. Behold the largest tomato of the bunch.

Play-dates with Sara Jane (sp?) are the highlight of the week.

All the boys in ties.

Kris with her boys.

Help with blog

2010-09-09T18:26:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know how to get rid of this photo bucket thing I have in the middle of my blog? I have tried looking at settings and designs and it doesn't appear to be in there. Thanks!

Green smoothie

2010-08-25T08:04:00.001-07:00

Due to multiple requests, here is an explanation of the green smoothie.

Last Xmas, aunt Debbie and uncle Steve introduced us to the green smoothie. Essentially, you can use any combination of fruits, vegetables, and greens. We have our own special concoction, which we will include below. It takes about 20 minutes to make - start to finish. Our boys love it, especially through a plastic straw.

A few notes.

Note #1: don't use juice. The beauty of the green smoothie is its naturalness (word? sp?). Adding orange, apple, or any other kind of juice would fill the thing with extra unnecessary sugar. So don't do it.

Note #2: don't use yogurt. Yogurt will double the calorie content of the drink. If you want yogurt for breakfast, eat some yogurt. But don't put it in your green smoothie.

Note #3: you will need 200 or so calories at about 10am (this would be the time to eat the yogurt). Your body can devour the green smoothie, because the raw fruits and vegetables have easily accessible energy. So, drinking the smoothie ups your metabolism (or at least I think so) and makes you hungry. The recipe included below makes two tall glasses of smoothie. Each glass has ~180 calories. That is not enough to keep you going all morning. Kristin supplements the smoothie with a small bowl of cereal; Dave uses grapes and carrots. Either way, you will need some more fuel mid-morning.

Now, the recipe.

5 ice cubes
1 cup of water
1 golden delicious apple (we find it easiest to cut the apple into wedges and then cut the wedges in half)
1 orange (cut off the peel)
2 handfuls of frozen strawberries (Costco or Sams)
2 handfuls of frozen blueberries (Costco or Sams)
1 banana
1/3 of a $1.99 bag of Dole Spinach (or until the drink turns a shade of green)

That's it. Post any questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer. Enjoy.

Lately

2010-08-12T08:52:00.001-07:00

Life after the bar is wonderful. A few highlights.

Kimball turned one. He loved his cake.

And his presents.

Patten has taken to surfing (please notice Mike's pasty white legs...).

We love walks.
The "special drink (aka green smoothie)" is a daily tradition. Even the boys love it.
And finally, we made tin foil dinners. Patten helped put it all together, Kristin added the spices, and Dave attempted to remember the tricks from his scout days.

Photogenic

2010-08-06T11:33:00.001-07:00

Look at these boys. Courtesy of Missy Johnson Wallace photography (and Mike's hard earned money that bought the camera)....

2010-08-03T08:52:00.001-07:00

It is about time that we post something. A lot has happened since we last posted. Dave's grandmothers house sold and we moved out on July 6th. We only moved five blocks away and we are still in the same stake. Even though we have been living in our new house for a month it still feels like we just moved in. I am sure things will feel more "normal" as time goes on.

Dave has been really busy for the month of July which is one of the reasons why there have not been any posts recently. Dave took the bar on the last tuesday and wednesday of July so he was busy studying all day long the whole month before. We are hoping all the work payed off and that he will pass. We won't find out until 8 to 10 weeks after the test was taken.

Kimball turned one on the 31st of July. We had a fun little family party last night and Kimball was very spoiled ( as well as Patten because after all they share their toys). Kimball has grown up lots. he walks he is displaying more and more preferences and he is basically a toddler. My baby is no longer a baby.

I promise I will post a few pictures once I figure out where our stuff is to load the pictures on to the computer. I am hoping that it wasn't lost in the move.

Missy and Mike came home from Tonga on Sunday and we have already had lots of fun spending time with them. The boys were both so excited to see them.

Good things to come

2010-06-30T07:34:00.001-07:00

This brought back some memories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nczw6xHJ0I&feature=player_embedded

When I left on my mission Ty had almost finished his. Before I left, he told me to print out Elder Holland's talk, take it with me, and pull it out on a particularly hard day. I think I only made it 8 weeks or so before pulling it out. And then I pulled it out a handful more times throughout the two years. Amazing how difficult some experiences can seem in real time, and then how reasonable they can seem in retrospect.

Recently

2010-05-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

A few recent happenings.

First, Patten looked spiffy at church.

Next, Kimberlee graduated.

Finally, Dave graduated.

Our boys

2010-05-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Becca, for these pictures of Kimball and Patten. And, yes, we stole them from your blog.

My Friend

2010-04-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

Ted Jenkins, a neighbor, ward member, and dear friend - passed away due to complications of myasthenia gravis this week. You can see his obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=edward-jenkins&pid=141799513.

To be honest, I still can't fathom that he's gone. I loved running into Ted. Whether it was the grocery store, church, or just in front of his house. Ted and Carolynn ran the young single adult program right after my mission. I ate breakfast at their house, enjoyed evenings at the Mt. Aire cabin, and learned the gospel from this good man.

For me, Ted's death has been a wake up call. As one friend put it, "Ted and I climbed through the snow to his cabin 6 weeks ago. Nobody could have seen this coming." And so it is for all of us. Enjoy every day with your loved ones, you never know how many more you have.

Fun filled March

2010-03-27T09:53:00.001-07:00

A little of what we've been up to lately.

Aunt Kimee comes once or twice a week to read books to the boys. Patten really looks forward to this and can often be heard saying "books - Aunt Kimee!"

In addition to reading, Patten opened his own ice cream parlor. He really whips the cream.
We went down to the Johnson condo in St. George for part of spring break. Patten, despite his expression in this picture, absolutely loved the swimming pool.
Kimball and Kristin in St. George.
And finally (here's where I brag) - Kristin and I ran the East High Running of the Leopards 5k this morning. Kristin has trained for 3 solid months to run this race. Prior to January of this year, Kristin hated running. Now she loves it. Even more impressive, she had been running three miles in about 50 minutes and this morning ran the race in 31 minutes and 11 seconds. Talk about improving your best time. Plus, she ran the first mile in 9 minutes and 37 seconds - also a personal best. We had a ton of fun and look forward to more races in the future.

The most wonderful time of the year

2010-03-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

March Madness. What a wonderful thing. It brings together families, friends, and neighbors alike. It is the greatest event in sports.

Here's to BYU making a run to the Final Four.

Name That Song

2010-02-23T17:42:00.000-08:00

What is the little guy singing?

Pictures

2010-02-13T15:04:00.001-08:00

A few pictures for your enjoyment.

First, meet Claire. Kristin and Diane (Kristin's mom) watch Claire on Mondays and Wednesdays. Claire is the daughter of Brian and Jessica (the downstairs tenants). Brian and Jessica keep pretty busy with an engineering masters program and a pharmacy doctorate - so Kristin gets to watch Claire twice a week.

And, mostly for posterity purposes, here is bearded Dave with Patten.

Kimball might as well be called guy-smiley.

Brothers.

And finally, the 3-eyed cookie monster.

All in good time

2010-02-01T16:09:00.000-08:00

Great article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/02/01/bcs-justice/index.html?eref=sihp

Friday Night Play-doh

2010-01-30T12:09:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, Kristin and I had Patten's friends Henry and Aggie over while their parents, Scott and Mieka, went on a date. We had a great time. Henry brought his super-cool helicopter to play with. Patten loved the 'copter.

In addition to the 'copter, we spent the evening playing with Play-doh. All of the kids were naturals - they made Play-doh fingers, balls, crocodiles, cows, and stars.

Kristin was the Play-doh queen. She helped the kids for an hour and a half, and made sure they got good and dirty.

Finally, a shout out to Patten's aunt Becca. She loves the U. Especially more than the Y. :)

What makes pancakes green?

2010-01-20T16:50:00.000-08:00

This is what we had for dinner tonight - let's hear your guesses as to how the "cakes" became so green.

By the way, it was Kristin's idea, and it was delicious.

Haiti

2010-01-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

From my sister-in-law's blog (written by my brother):

"Becca wrote beautifully yesterday about the terrible devastation in Haiti. As news reports have come to the states and been sent around the world, we've been inundated with photos like the one Becca showed yesterday as well as terrible stories of buildings lying in rubble, people trapped under the debris, and desperate relatives trying with their bare hands to move boulders and buildings to try to free those who voices they hear from under the destruction.Estimates are that tens of thousands may have died and, for those still alive, houses have disappeared and many of the hospitals are also in ruins. Luckily, there is a hospital on the outskirts of town, called "Hospital Albert Schweitzer" that is up and fully and functioning. And here's the best part: the Stanford medicine department (which is affiliated with this hospital and had lent support to it through the years) has agreed to match all donations to the hospital, up to $25,000.

"So, if you have been thinking You know, I would really love to help out somehow, or if you were touched by that photo yesterday, or if you've been touched by a story you've heard, or if you find an extra five dollars under the couch, or if you just decide you can squeeze an extra few bucks from the budget this month, please do the following:1) Go to this site (you can donate by MasterCard, American Express, Visa and Discover).2) After submitting credit card information, please click on “tribute gift.”3) Then, enter "Stanford Department of Medicine" (where it asks for matching organization) so the gift will be matched appropriately.Then, rest a little better tonight knowing that you have helped the people in Haiti just that little bit and that the money you gave was doubled. If you have a second, maybe even enter a little note here (it can be anonymous, of course) to let us know you gave.God bless.

"Back to Becca: You can also donate through LDS Humanitarian Efforts by going to this site, though I don't know of a matching pledge."

Kristin and I echo their thoughts.

Running to Victory

2010-01-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Bourne Ultimatum, the Natural, Sirus Marner (sp??)....

Don't call it a comeback - we've been here for years.

Missy's Wedding

2009-12-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

Go here for pictures....

http://www.annazphotography.blogspot.com/

After 4.5 Long Years

2009-12-26T06:02:00.000-08:00

Growing up, pretty much all I did was play basketball. Andrew Hill and I played dunkball on my driveway for hours on end. We played in the rain, the snow, before school, after school, etc. In addition to dunkball, Ty and I played ball up at the Roosevelt building. We routinely woke up at 6 am on Saturday mornings (even during the sleep-in years of highschool) to go play ball. For whatever reason, basketball never got old for me.

Then, in some strange twist of fate, during my senior year of highschool I dislocated my right shoulder. While dislocating a shoulder hurts like hades, the most painful part for me was that it kept me from playing basketball. The dislocations continued and eventually, 4 months before I left on my mission, I had rotator cuff surgery (plus a little more) on my right shoulder. I stayed away from the game for the first year of my mission. With time, however, I allowed my cravings to get the best of me and played on New Year's Day of 2003. Shortly after that I dislocated my left shoulder and continued to do so until finally in the fall of 2005 I had shoulder surgery on my left shoulder.

Considering that Kristin and I have been poor starving college students our entire 4 years of marriage (and the fact one surgery runs $6,000), I have stayed conservative and not played basketball. At all.

Until, that is, Christmas Eve of this year. The past few months I've lifted weights to strengthen my shoulders and on the 22nd of December Scott Jacobsen invited me to play basketball on Xmas Eve. I jokingly told him I'd come - to which he replied with a version of "stop getting my hopes up" (Scott has endured 4.5 long years of asking me to play and always receiving a negative response).

Kris and I got talking about the offer and came to the conclusion that the weight lifting combined with some reserved play on my part might make me basketball eligible. I mean, you can't allow a shoulder injury to hold you down forever, right? So, I played. And it was a blast. Sure, there's a bunch of rust from the 4.5 year layoff - but it was still a blast. Scott was so surprised by my appearance that he snapped an Iphone photo for proof:

Let's hope the shoulders hold together. Kristin gave me the best Xmas present of the year by pushing me out the door on Xmas Eve. If it weren't for her, I'd still be waiting to step out on the court. Thanks, Kris.

BCS

2009-12-15T11:56:00.001-08:00

Thank you, Eric Boyd, for showing me this wonderful piece of literature.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-ncaafplayoff120709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Kind of long, but worth the read.

Wow

2009-11-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

I intended to come here and post about the BYU Utah game and how I thought BYU played a good game, etc.

Then I heard the following comments from Max Hall. What an idiot, I'm sorry, but what an idiot.

Sportscaster: "Personal redemption Max because you didn’t play as well against these guys last year?"

Maxie: "Um, a little bit, yeah. I don’t like Utah. In fact, I hate ‘em. I hate everything about ‘em. I hate their program. I hate their fans. I hate everything, so it felt really good to send those guys home.

"Um, they didn’t deserve it. It was our time. It was our time to win, we deserved it. We played as hard as we could tonight. And it felt really good, again, to send ‘em home, to get ‘em out of here. So, um, you know, a game I will always remember."

Sportscaster: "Any particular reason they are not your favorite team?"

Maxie: "Uh, you really want me to go into it? I mean, I think, I think, I think the whole University, their fans and the organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don’t respect ‘em, and they deserved to lose."

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

Thankful Indeed

2009-11-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

I imagine the folks in Utah heard about this story - but for those of you out of the State, read the following link.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705347398/Efforts-to-save-a-life-praised.html

And, if you can spare 5 bucks, donate to the Emily Jones fund. She is left widowed with her 18-month-old daughter and another on the way. God bless her and the rest of the extended family.

Halloween 2009 (new and improved)

2009-11-04T20:07:00.001-08:00

Thanks to my sister and sister-in-law, this Halloween post is now new and improved. Below you will see pictures (including of the forgotten child Kimball) of the festivities. We carved pumpkins, dressed the boys as bengals, visited family, and had a good old time.

Anger

2009-10-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

My institute teacher introduced me to a great talk the other day. Kristin and I decided it's worthy of sharing. Here's a snippet:

"To those who say, 'But I can't help myself," author William Wilbanks responds: 'Nonsense.' 'Aggression, ... suppressing the anger, talking about it, screaming and yelling,' are all learned strategies in dealing with anger. 'We choose the one that has proved effective for us in the past. Ever notice how seldom we lose control when frustrated by our boss, but how often we do when anoyed by friends or family?"

Here's a link.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=dfbc605ff590c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

2 Years Old

2009-10-22T16:51:00.001-07:00

Patten turned 2 on October 12. We threw him a Pooh-bear birthday party. Thanks to all of the friends and family who came to wish him a happy birthday. Here are a few pictures.

Patten getting ready to open his presents.

Natalie (Dave's sister) and Derek (Kristin's brother). They are the same age. I won't say anything else.

Patten, Dave, and Kristin preparing to blow out the candles. You can see the focus on sir Patten's face.

Who is trying harder? Patten, Kristin, or Dave?

One of Patten's many awesome presents. He also received a set of plastic golf clubs (okay, 3 plastic golf clubs), lots of clothes, the baby Einstein rocket (thank you our Kmart exec), and tons of other fun stuff I don't remember.

Soon after Patten's birthday we headed down to Las Vegas for the Utah UNLV football game. On the way we visited our good friends Taylor, Ruby, and their daughter Lydia in St. George. Patten fell in love. Even now, one week later, he won't stop talking about Lydia.

Here is Patten giddy-as-a-school boy next to Lydia.

She even held his hand.

And a luv.

And finally, a few pictures from Vegas. Kristin and I took Patten to a park close to Uncle Steve and Aunt Deb's house. It was 90 degrees in the middle of October. Gotta love Vegas.

Here are Patten and Tanner (Kristin's cousin) on the top of the slide. In addition to repeating Lydia's name everyday - Patten repeats Tanner's name everyday. He loved hanging out with his cool older cousin.

Western Newsie

2009-10-04T08:28:00.001-07:00

Dave leaves for Priesthood session and comes back to...

Which made Dave

The Boys

2009-09-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Time for an update. Kimball is now 8 weeks old - and he is growing up all the time. Kimball and Patten loved summer and did a lot of fun things.

Here is Patten eating watermelon. He loves standing on his stool to help Kristin cook. He loves it even more when Kristin gives him an entire ring of watermelon to chomp on.

Good story behind this one. Patten decided to jump while sitting on his chair at the table, fell down, and knocked his head on the side of the table. His forehead got real big real fast - so we pulled out an ice pack. Trick is he wanted to finish watching his show. We rigged up a self-contained icing kit using a couple of t-shirts. Patten had to stay laying just so - but it allowed him to finish his show.

Not sure what to talk about here.

Mmmmmmmmm....... chocolate.

Patten and Kimball on the couch. We had Patten hold Kimball for a couple of pictures - he did a great job.

Johnny Stock and Coach Sloan

2009-09-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Senator Hatch's words concerning Stockton and Sloan:

"Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a matter of great prominence to the people of my state. This past Friday, in Springfield, Massachusetts, Jerry Sloan and John Stockton were inducted into The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. This is a well-deserved honor and I wanted to take a few moments to congratulate them both.

"As any fan of professional basketball can tell you, the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City is widely considered one of the most difficult places for visiting teams to play. Now, some have tried to blame this on the city's high elevation, but, if you've ever been to a game there, you know very well that it's because of the Jazz fans.

"You see, due to its relatively small population, Utah has only one major sports franchise - the Jazz. And, there were times when people thought that this small market would not be able to sustain even a single NBA team. But, for more than two decades, the Jazz have enjoyed one of the most loyal and supportive fan bases of any team in professional sports. This is due in no small part to the careers of both John Stockton and Jerry Sloan.

"John Stockton grew up in Spokane, Washington and played basketball at both Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University in his hometown. He was a relative unknown when he moved into the professional ranks, picked by the Jazz in the middle of the first round of the 1984 draft and initially relegated to a reserve role on the team. But, after three seasons, he became the full-time starter at the point guard position and went on to have one of the most prolific careers in basketball history.

"Over the course of his career, he accumulated numerous honors. He was selected to play in the NBA All Star game ten times. He played on the 1992 and 1996 Olympic teams - the first two Olympic squads to include professional players - winning gold medals in both years. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team twice, the All-NBA Second Team six times, the All-NBA Third Team three times, and the NBA All-Defensive Second Team five times. In 1996, the NBA celebrated its 50th anniversary by selecting the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Of course, John Stockton was honored on this list as well.

"Though the accomplishment of winning an NBA championship eluded him, Stockton did lead the Jazz to two consecutive NBA Finals appearances in 1997 and 1998. John Stockton was immortalized in the first of those seasons when, in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, he scored the last 9 points for the Jazz, including a last-second three pointer to send the Jazz to the Finals for the first time. This was probably the most memorable moment of Stockton's career and the history of the Jazz franchise and it is still replayed in montages of great sports moments.

"It's impossible to talk about John Stockton without mentioning Karl Malone. Together, these two formed one of the game's legendary 1-2 punches. Together, they became the league's models of consistency, commitment, and success. The two played 18 seasons and an NBA record 1,412 regular-season games together as teammates. Due to their collaborative efforts, Malone finished his career as the second-highest scorer in NBA history and Stockton holds the all-time career assist record.

"Let's talk about that assist record for a moment. In the 63-year history of the NBA, only four players have career assist totals of over 10,000. Stockton finished his career with 15,806 assists. Mark Jackson, number two on the list, collected 10,334 assists - 5,483 fewer than Stockton.

"But, the raw numbers don't do this record justice, Mr. President. To put it in perspective, only 37 players have dished out 5,483 or moreassists in their entire careers. Indeed, just getting that many assists over a whole career would put you in pretty elite company - and that's the difference between John Stockton's total and that of the guy who's next in line.

"This record is among the truly unbreakable records in all of sports - and it isn't the only one held by John Stockton. He also holds the career record in steals, also by a considerable margin. He holds the NBA record for the most seasons and consecutive games played with one team, and is third in total games played.

"John Stockton's success on the floor was matched only by his consistency. He missed only 22 games during his career, 18 of them came in one season. In 17 of his 19 seasons in the NBA, he played in every single game. Overall, he played in 1,504 of 1,526 possible games. These are Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken-type numbers.

"Stockton will always be remembered for his no-nonsense approach to the game, his hard-nosed defense, his matchless work ethic, and his quiet, unassuming personality. His unflashy, fundamentally-sound style of play earned him the respect of John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, who once said that John Stockton was the only NBA player he'd pay money to see.

"Stockton retired in 2003 and returned home to Spokane. While other NBA greats have sought careers in broadcasting and coaching after their careers were over, so far, John has been content to stay at home with his family. This comes as no surprise to those who know him.

"Guiding John through most of his NBA career, was coach Jerry Sloan, who, once again, is also being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Sloan's careers as both a player and a coach have been characterized by his unyielding toughness and an unmatched drive to compete.

"Jerry was born and raised in McLeansboro, Illinois and played his college career at the University of Evansville. He played one season in the NBA for the Baltimore Bullets before being selected by the Chicago Bulls in the expansion draft. In fact, he was the team's first player, earning him the nickname "The Original Bull." Sloan quickly became known for his tenacity on defense and he led the expansion team to the playoffs in its first season.

"He had an exceptional career as a player. He played in two All-Star Games, was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team four times and the All-Defensive Second team twice. He also led the Bulls to the playoffs on various occasions and helped them to win the franchise's only division title prior to the Michael Jordan era. After his playing career was cut short by knee injuries, the Bulls retired Sloan's No. 4 jersey, the first jersey retirement in the team's history.

"Immediately after his retirement, he became part of the Bull's coaching staff, starting out as a scout, eventually working his way up to head coach, a position he held for three seasons. A few years later, he joined the Jazz coaching staff as an assistant to another Utah sports icon, Frank Layden. In 1988, when Layden's health forced him to retire, Jerry was named head coach of the Jazz, a position he has held ever since.

"Coach Sloan just finished his 20th season as coach of the Jazz, a milestone that, in today's sports world, is almost unthinkable. Over the course of his Jazz tenure, literally hundreds of coaching changes have taken place throughout the NBA. In a league that has had a number of great coaches in its history, none have coached for the same team as long as Jerry Sloan.

"This extends to other sports as well. Currently, Sloan is the longest-tenured coach in any major professional sport.

"There are a number of reasons to explain his longevity. The most obvious is that he's been successful. He's currently fourth on the list for all-time coaching wins - though he holds the record for most wins with one team. In 17 out of the 20 seasons his been in Utah, the Jazz have been in the playoffs, the only absences coming in transitional years after the departures of John Stockton and Karl Malone.

"Another reason Sloan has been able to stick around is his consistent, no-nonsense approach to the game. Over time, teams have changed strategies to become flashier in order to cater to younger fans and the new era of players, many of whom have been self-centered prima donnas. Throughout that time, Coach Sloan has been a model of consistency, placing premiums on discipline and hard work among his players. The result has been a franchise that, for over two decades, has competed at a high level.

"In many ways, Stockton and Sloan were alike and their strengths complimented each other. Neither one will claim to have been able to be successful without the other.

"Currently, there is a huge statue of John Stockton in front of the Energy Solutions arena alongside a statute of Karl Malone. Chances are, in 20 or 30 years when Jerry Sloan finally decides to hang it up, they'll want to build a monument to him as well. Neither of these gentlemen would actively seek such limelight, but few are as deserving.

"Once again, I'd like to extend my congratulations to both John Stockton and Jerry Sloan for this great honor and to thank them for their contributions to the Utah community."

Patten plays the flute and hits a wicked golf shot!!!

2009-09-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

When we left the married student apartments I accidentally took with us one of the apartment complex's red plungers. Now, just so you know, the plunger was brand new when we moved into the apartment and we never used it in the toilet. Instead, it became, and still is today, one of Patten's favorite toys. As you will see in the following videos, the magical red plunger plays many roles in our house.

Patten playing the flute.

Patten playing Golf.

Dancing Kimball

2009-09-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

Enjoy.

Yes Sir

2009-09-05T19:43:00.001-07:00

Let me be the first avid Utah fan to congratulate the Cougars. Amazing game. You hung with the Heisman Trophy winner until he got hurt. Your D manned up against OU's line. And you won the game.

I can't wait to hear what the pundits have to say about the MWC now.

Wakesurfing

2009-08-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

Behold Wakesurfing. I'm sorry for the farmer's tan and for the fact that the video is sideways most of the time.

Kimball Neal

2009-08-02T16:16:00.001-07:00

Well, we did it. Let me rephrase --- well, Kris did it. Kimball Neal Johnson joined our family on Friday July 31, 2009 at 7:23 am. He's healthy. Kristin is healthy. We all are tired. But it is great to have Kimball as part of the fam. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.

Kimball having 1 oz of amniotic fluid sucked from his lungs

Patten, Kimball, and Daddy

Patten meeting "bebe bimbo"

Proof of his massive weight and size

Perfect for burping

Grandma and Kimball

Look at that hair

In case you were wondering

2009-07-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have known that I was suppose to be induced yesterday (Wednesday July 29th). It turned out that too many women went into labor yesterday so they did not have room for me. They have rescheduled the inducement for Friday and have promised me that they will do it no matter what even if they have to do it in the late evening. If only my body would be normal and go into labor! :) I guess we will end up having an August baby instead of a July baby. We'll let you know as soon as he comes.

Photo Shoot

2009-07-29T06:44:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the photo shoot. I've put numbers underneath the three family pictures - let us know which number you like best. FYI - it seems the picture quality decreases when we put them online...

Enjoy!

Thanks again Caitlin.

Guardian Patten

Patten and Daddy

Patten and Mommy

Family Picture #1

Family Picture #2

Family Picture #3

Just You Wait

2009-07-21T05:54:00.001-07:00

First of all, please notice the fact that the countdown on the right has reached 7 days. 'Nough said.

Second, we had a great time last night taking family photos with Caitlin Connolly. Caitlin is our good friend, we also happen to be good friends with her entire family (her brother and I served as mission companions, Ty and Drew roomed together for most of College, Missy and Caitlin roomed together in College, etc., etc.)

Here's one picture from the shoot.

No photoshopping on this baby (at least I assume as much because Caitlin sent the photo as a "sneak peek" last night directly following the shoot). If you are looking for a great photographer - look no farther than Caitlin. And, if you can convince Robbie to come along for the ride he will keep your 21 month old son laughing for an hour and a half (I still don't know how he pulled that off).

Thanks again Caitlin and Robbie. We look forward to seeing the rest of the pictures.

Patten the Performer

2009-07-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here's what happens when you put Patten by a piano with a little bit of JT. Please don't mind the singing by the dad, just enjoy Mr. Patten rockin' out.

A Request

2009-06-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

We are looking at having some family pictures taken. If you know a good (reasonably priced) photographer who would take our pictures - please leave a comment with the person's name and contact info.

Thanks.

Memorial Day Weekend and More

2009-05-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? We are actually putting another post up! I know it's amazing. We just happened to take a few pictures and do a few fun things that we wanted to share with you. You can thank Dave for being more aware of picture taking :)

Our friends invited us for a Memorial Day lunch Barbecue. We went to Lindsay Park which is located up in the avenues. They were so nice to invite us especially because they brought most of the food and mmm was it good! We had hot dogs, hamburgers, spare ribs, and shrimp all barbecued as well as multiple salads and chips. The children loved the park and enjoyed getting dirty in the baseball field. Sadly I didn't think to take a picture of that.
Above: Evan, Brigette, Melaine and Adam
They all look so great!

Above: Me, Dave and Patten

After the barbecue in the park we went up to Dave's family cabin for the traditional Memorial Day dinner. Their family goes up there on every summer holiday. Their cabin is located in Millcreek Canyon and I have to say that it has become my favorite canyon.

Above: Patten and Natalie(Dave's sister) inside the cabin

Above:Tyler (Dave's bro), Patten and Grandma LeNila
We were so excited to take grandma up there. We had lots of fun with her.

Above: Missy (Dave's sister), and Mike (Missy's BF)
It was fun to see Mike again after he had been gone on his month long trip to Asia.

Above: Natalie, Tyler, and Patten

I have become increasingly frustrated with Patten's hair recently. He not only has sooo much of it but it grows so fast. Now these would all be great and awesome things if he was a girl. What little girl wouldn't look cute with long hair? But sadly these things were wasted on a boy :) So we decided to buzz his head. I wish I had taken a picture of the finished product before I put him down for his nap this morning. His hair looks pretty cute all spiked up! While we were cutting Patten's hair he was a pretty good sport. Dave was able to snatch a few great pictures below.

Yeah!

Watch out for the attacking belly!

That is all for now. We hope life is treating all of you well.

An Update

2009-05-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. So, first, a quick update.

Patten is growing right up. He can say a few words, loves to kick his ball, and loves convincing people to read him books (which doesn't take that much convincing).

Kristin is pregnant. The baby is due July 30th. We are gonna try having this one without medication, we'll see how that goes. But, even if we end up using medication, preparing to have a baby without medication has been a wonderful experience. It has brought us closer together and been really enjoyable. We highly recommend it.

Dave just finished his second year of law school and is working this summer. He likes his job, especially the fact that they have free drinks. What more could you ask for?

Now, for some pictures.

Random Patten.

Can you say "Mama gave me a container of cool whip to eat!"

Patten playing the piano with Grandma. They became best friends while we lived in grandma's basement.

If he becomes a piano player we will know where his skills came from.

It's Official

2009-03-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

Patten's gonna have a brother.

Mom and babe are doing well. Everything is on track.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2009-03-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

That's all...

Spring Break

2009-03-13T14:55:00.001-07:00

Here I come.

Please Help - Stop HBO

2009-03-10T07:47:00.001-07:00

I'm not much of one for a soapbox. But sometimes we need to speak out. HBO plans to air sacred LDS temple ceremonies on its show Big Love. Regardless of your faith, please join with me by doing two things: (1) send a comment to HBO to ask them to not air the episode; and (2) write a blogpost to spread the idea to others bloggers. The LDS church considers its temple ceremonies sacred and requests they not be publicized. Such a blatant disregard for other faith's sacred worship would not be tolerated. This should not be either. Click on the following link to send a comment to HBO:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbo.com%2Fapps%2Fsubmitinfo%2Fcontactus%2Fsubmit.do%3Ftitle%3DGeneralInformation%26questiontype%3DgeneralInformation%26questiontype%3Dgeneral&h=8f1f0eb647d2245d70030b8f0bec3c74

I have included the comment I sent to them below. I hope that in the next few days my blog-updater-thing shows a slew of new posts addressing this same topic. Thanks.

My comment to HBO:

"I write to voice my displeasure with your company's plan to air a Big Love television show that depicts LDS temple ceremonies.

Specifically, I find two things very upsetting: (1) the fact that the producers of the show blur the distinction between polygamists and the LDS church; and (2) the fact that your company does not have the decency to respect the LDS church's wish to not publicize its temple ceremonies.

As to my first point - the Big Love producers claim the show depicts polygamists rather than members of the LDS church. However, the show consistently imports LDS themes (such as the temple ceremony) and links them to the polygamists. Such misattributions are misleading, false, insensitive, and should not be tolerated.

As to my second point - the LDS church considers its temple ceremonies sacred and requests the ceremonies not be publicized. That alone should be reason enough for you to cancel the Big Love episode. Moreover, for the Big Love producers to consult an "ex-mormon" for inside information on the temple ceremonies unequivocally proves the Big Love producers understand the ceremony they plan to show is an LDS ceremony. Hence, if your company decides to air the ceremony you will blatantly disregard the church's request that the show not blur the line between polygamists and the LDS church.

I respectfully request you do not air any Big Love episode that depicts sacred LDS temple ceremonies."

Valentines Day

2009-02-19T17:45:00.000-08:00

Kristin and I are not the types to spend lots of money on each other for Valentines Day (or any other holiday for that matter). It's not that we don't love each (we do), rather it seems that simply spending time together is enough of a holiday for us (mind you, the fact that we have zilch to spend on each other probably influences our current trend as well...).

Sooooooooooo - the fact that we spent more than $20 on each other for Valentines this year is quite momentous. What, you may ask, would convince us to do such a thing? Well, Disneyland of course.

You see, we had some free airplane vouchers that expire this May. Seeing that Kristin gets pregnanter (great word) by the day, and that I will have finals in April - Valentines Day (and President's Day weekend) seemed like a great time to use our free cash.

Luckily for us, we have great friends (Scott and Courtney) who decided to join us in the adventure. We had a blast. We went to Santa Monica (ask Courtney the name of the street) and had some absolutely delicious crepes, stayed at the EconoLodge directly across the street from the Happiest Place on Earth (as in we walked to Disneyland), attended the Anaheim 3rd ward, visited the LA Holocaust museum, and spent Sunday afternoon / evening and Monday with Courtney's best friend and her family in Thousand Oaks. A great trip. We highly recommend you do yourselves a favor and embark on something similar.

Oh yes, and special thanks to the grandparents who watched Patten and made our trip possible.

Below are a few pictures from the trip.

Dave and Kristin on the plaza between CA Adventure and Disneyland.

Scott and Dave surfin' like the crazy men we are.

Kristin, Scott, and Courtney on the plaza between CA Adventure and Disneyland.

Dave, Scott, and Buzz.

Remember suck and blow? We couldn't think of anything better to do with the fake drivers licenses they hand out at Autopia (which, ironically, I remember from some old school nintendo game - can anyone remember what game?). Scott and Courtney look like seasoned veterans.

And you can't go to Disneyland without a picture in front of the castle.

Patten Update

2009-01-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

Greetings. We apologize for the recent lack of Patten pictures. Hopefully this post will make up for our shortcomings.

In the months of November, December, and January we: celebrated Thanksgiving with Dave's family, endured finals, moved back to Grandma's basement (which was bitter sweet because we love Grandma but miss our ward / neighbors tremendously), celebrated Christmas, enjoyed 3 weeks together without school, and started yet another semester. We've included a few highlights below (but, let's be honest, we forgot to bring the camera to many of the above listed events - so the following pictures are highlights of the events to which we brought the camera).

Oh yeah, Mustard is swimming along just fine. He / she (unsure at this point) has a strong heartbeat and is doing great.

Patten in his Peruvian Llama sweater. Unfortunately he inherited his father's ginormous head and therefore can't wear the hood correctly. But, trust us, the sweater is the right size.

Patten in his striped sweater from Aunt Missy. Dashing.

Patten conquering the bin-thingy. Patten loves doing this. Wicker baskets, dishpans, boxes, this thingy, it doesn't matter - he just loves getting in / on them.

Patten and Dave perfecting the "swing Patten game" originated by Kristin. Patten begins this game in a sitting position looking into your eyes. Then he slowly lets himself fall backwards (he loves the anticipation), until he swings as shown above.

Patten in momma's shoes. One day Patten decided to wear Kristin's shoes and walk around the apartment. What a funny guy.

Patten and Dave by our first real Christmas tree. Our first years of marriage we used a little fake Christmas tree. But this year we ventured to Rite-Aid and bought all the fixins for roughly $50. That included the tree, stand, ornaments, and lights (all though we accidentally bought green ones - who does that?!?). This picture is in our new apartment, grandma's basement.

Patten and Kristin by the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. You can barely tell, but our Christmas decor was Patten-proof. The ornaments are only on the top half of the tree and most of the presents are on the mantle. At the beginning of the season we had ornaments on the bottom half of the tree and Patten loved to bring them to us, one by one, until he had removed every ornament in reach. After a few rounds of this game we decided the ornaments better just stay on the top half of the tree.

Despite his disinterested face, Patten loves his Grandma Bonnie. He sits still for her almost better than anyone else. In this picture she and Brent visited us in our old apartment and she read Patten one of his books using her well rehearsed and very entertaining make-believe voices.

What do you say about this picture??? Patten loves to give kisses, especially to his mom.

Always Room For Two

2009-01-19T08:23:00.001-08:00

Patten joined our little family in October of 2007. When Kristin and I found out she was pregnant with Patten we immediately wanted to call him something but we also didn't want to give him his official name until he was born. So we called him Pinto. I think it had something to do with him being the size of a pinto bean. Some family members still call him pinto. When they call him Pinto in public we get some weird looks. That's okay. We like weird looks... I think. Or at least we must, because -----

Welcome Mustard! (You know, like a Mustard seed :) ). That's right, Kristin and I are expecting number two. Much of the world already knows this, because Kristin had some complications at the beginning of this pregnancy, but for those of you who don't consider yourselves informed. Mustard should join us mid to late July. We can't wait to have another little rascal running around the house (okay, in all honesty, we CAN wait - but we're still excited).

A Must Read

2009-01-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

Need I say more?

Okay, if you insist.

Go Utes.

A Great Man

2008-12-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

I really need to study this morning. But, I can't seem to get my mind off the passing of Elder Wirthlin. So, I'm hoping this post will help me unload my feelings and that I will then find the will power to focus on finals (oh joy).

Elder Wirthlin was my good friend's granddad. And, perhaps not surprisingly because I've noticed this trait runs through all of the great people I know, Elder Wirthlin considered his familial responsibilities (in this case as granddad) paramount. So much so that through my interactions with him I didn't think of him as an Apostle or a great church leader (although he was both of those), but rather as a superb granddad.

I remember mowing his lawn, drinking his ice water, hearing him set-a-part my good friend for his mission, delivering him prescriptions, and many other interactions. Through them all he exuded kindness, love, generosity, and genuine concern. He was a great man. A great granddad. An apostle of the Lord. He will be missed.

But, thankfully for him, Sunday has come.

Top Ten Utah Moments

2008-11-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well, it's here. Rivalry week. Most people know I (Dave) am a Utah fan. Some would describe me as a "big" Utah fan, others don't know the extent of my fandom. Suffice it to say, I like the Utes.

In commemoration of the big game I thought I'd list my top ten Utah moments / Utah related memories - some are for the sports folks out there, others are more general in nature.

(10) Pulling in front of Kristin's house for the first time only to be greeted by a giant lit U in the upper window. Love at first sight (that refers to Kristin, of course).

(9) As a 12 year old, sitting in the BYU season ticket holder section while Yergensen nailed a 55 yard field goal to beat the Zoobs.

(8) Eating Christmas (or was it Christmas Eve) dinner, again as a young tike, with Phil Dixon (Ute basketball player) at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Having Phil Dixon, at the same dinner, give me two tickets to the Utah Wyoming basketball game. Also, and this may be my own addition (just ask Kristin about my bad memory), having Phil Dixon point / wave / come up / something to my dad and I at the game.

(7) Getting kicked out of Rice Eccles stadium while watching a closed-to-the-public spring practice in preparation for the magical 2004 season. In 2004 I worked night shifts (5 - 9) on campus. I often took a break from school by spending my afternoons watching the Utes practice. On one particular day the Utes practiced in Rice Eccles. I made my way up into the stands and watched about 30 minutes of practice. I found it odd that I was the only spectator in the stadium. I soon knew why. To my surprise, don't ask me how I didn't see him coming, a large man barked at me from the portal "get outta here before I call the cops, this practice is closed." I left.

(6) Fracturing my ankle on the morning of the Utah BYU game in 2004. Greg Condie, Nate McConkie and I ventured down to the ESPN Game Day set to watch Game Day that morning. Before the darn thing even started ESPN threw out Home Depot shirts to the fans. I jumped up to grab one, fell awkwardly, and fractured my ankle. Despite the intense pain, I couldn't miss Game Day. So, I had Greg and Nate drop me off at Scott Jacobsen's where he and I watched the show. I then went to the Instacare, got a brace, learned it was fractured, etc. That night I attended the game on crutches.

(5) Singing the Utah fight song with Dan Hinckley and Byron Burkhart in front of our Fluid Hydraulics class in return for my teacher moving our homework assignment due date from Friday to Monday (the new date allowed us to see the Utes' Thursday night game).

(4) Hearing Grandma say "Fred and I are going to the ball-game on Saturday." There's something special about Grandma, Grandpa, and the "ball-game."

(3) Standing under the basket as a ballboy when the Utes' Byron Wilson threw in a halfcourt shot to beat UTEP. Seeing myself on the news that night as the ballboy standing under the basket in which the game winning shot was made.

(2) Walking through Times Square on New Years Day 2005. The Utes thrashed Pittsburgh later that night, and my brother, Dave Hansen, and I watched the thrashing from the Vincents home in Delaware. But we had spent New Years Eve in NYC and accordingly found ourselves in Times Square on New Years morning. Some guy, from across the street, noticed my Utah gear and yelled out "Go Utes." I whipped around and yelled the same back to him. It was great to feel the Utah fever in the heart of New York City.

(1) Maintaing my position as the only one (out of 14 who have attended some form of college) of Grandpa Fred's grandchildren to remain true to his school (Lindsey Homer, I hope you'll join me).

At Long Last

2008-11-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a timely Christmas present (yeah - 2 months early - so what?!?) from Kristin, our family once again has the ability to put pictures on our blog. We are way behind. So, instead of giving long descriptions - we'll just give each picture a title.

Smiling Patten in a red striped shirt

Sand-focused Patten

Patten and the red plunger

Momma and Patten (in his yellow pajamas)

Good friend Melaine, future girlfriend Hannah (pink hat), and Patten

Aunt Kimberlee and Patten

Argyle Patten playing the piano

Patten and future girlfriend Aggie (don't worry Hannah, he's not cheating on you)

Patten and dad with Patten's birthday cake

No explanation needed
Patten wearing momma's ankle socks while getting ready for Halloween

Dalmatian Patten and Professional DodgeBall Playing mom

Dalmatian Patten

You Better Believe It

2008-10-31T09:13:00.001-07:00

I don't particularly like baseball. I don't know how any individual can follow the regular season - all 160-some-odd games.

BUT - when it comes to the World Series - I am a true fan. My friend said it well the other day, "I hate baseball, but I could watch the World Series - all day - everyday."

And, when you add the Phillies to the equation, my interest level goes through the roof. In fact even Kristin, who I would wager had earnestly watched perhaps 1 combined hour of baseball in her life, LOVED the world series.

We fell in love with Brad Lidge (whom we referred to as the ugly man - sorry Brad, but you have lots of funny markings on your face), and Ryan Howard, and that Blanton pitcher, and the manager, and everyone else.

And as proof that parents' habits influence their children.... Last night we went for a walk, we grabbed Patten's Phillies blanket (which some good friends of ours from Delaware gave him last year) to keep him warm. Patten has a lot of blankets and is not partial to one or the other. But he smiled as wide as ever when we placed the Phillies blanket on his little legs. He loved it, wouldn't let it go. Way to go son.

Go Phillies!

Sno-Cone

2008-09-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

We never knew our son liked sno-cones. But, apparently, he does. After church yesterday we had a linger longer and the activities committee provided sno-cones.

The kid wouldn't let the cone go. Notice the redness of his facial cavity (and the how his blue eyes match his blue shirt).

*Please note - after reading the first four comments associated with this post I decided I should clarify something. Patten is eating a Pina Colada sno-cone. Do you know what that means? The red on his face is not from cherry or some other flavor - its from burying his face in the freezing ice.

Can't I have another?

Ladybird

2008-09-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

It's not everyday that you see this beast on your wall.

We didn't know what to make of a black-tar-looking blob on the wall. Kristin thought it was tar growing out of our cinderblock. However, on further inspection, we saw two little red dots on the side of the creature.

Turns out we had a ladybird living in our apartment. A sister to the ladybug, ladybirds are usually found in Britain - but occasionally here in the US.

That's all.

For My Aunt

2008-08-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Aunt Missy!

And again...

Today is Missy's birthday. Happy Birthday from Dave, Kristin, and Patten.

In other news.

Patten plays twice a week with Michael from downstairs. They like each other (we think - how can you really tell)? Here is a picture of the rascals - notice the belly - gotta love it.

I want to be in the Saucer - Michael, can you share?

On another note. Looks like all y'all made the right choice by NOT going to law / business school. If it weren't for the sympathetic face-saving comment from Dan (thanks, by the way) - my little experiment (see the next post down) would have gone nearly two weeks without a single comment. Your reluctance doesn't change the fact that I liked the class / material / etc.

This Should Be Fun

2008-08-13T07:23:00.000-07:00

I took a week-long class taught by one law and one business professor the other week. The business professor was exceptional. I won't bore you with the details - just trust me, he taught exceptionally well.

He presented a thought experiment that made me think (looks like it worked). I thought y'all would enjoy. I can't remember the problem's details (they filled 8 or so single spaced sheets of paper), but I can remember enough to give you an idea. Leave your answer, what you would do in the situation, in the comments. As per the instructions in class, you must give an initial yes or no answer with no strings attached - then you may support that answer. Also, don't assume any facts not given in the problem.

The Problem:

You make business decisions for a refrigerator manufacturing company. Your scientistists recently invented a new cooling mechanism, way-cool gas, for the latest refrigerator model. The way-cool cooling system uses much less energy and keeps food cool for much longer than your competitors models. For some time your company has actively pursued opportunities to expand outside of the United State of America. You know capitalist America largely dictates prices in less affluent areas and that the stockholders of your company desperately want big returns this year.

You have an opportunity to sell 1.5 million refrigerators to the United Nations this month, with a net profit of $10 million - a substantial return. You must make the decision today. The UN will distribute your refrigerators to individuals in third world countries who currently do not have refrigerators. Your energy-efficient longer-cooling fridges are the only fridges these individuals can use because all other fridges cost too much money and don't keep food cool long enough. You know that many of these people have never even seen a fridge in their lives. You also know your fridges will save the lives of people who would otherwise die from malnutrition / starvation - but you don't know how many lives your fridges will save.

Yesterday your scientists informed you your fridge has a defect. Out of the 1.5 million fridges you plan to sell, roughly 125 of them will leek free-on gas through a defective tube - killing any person within a 20-foot radius. Your scientists predict 500 people will die from the cumulative effect of these gas leaks (in fact the lead scientist, in a fit of rage, informed you "signing that contract is like signing 500 people's death sentences"). Your legal counsel assures you that because your daughter company will sign the official contract, the deaths will not tarnish your company's name. In fact, it is most likely even you will never hear of the 500 deaths. You could fix the problem, however doing so would take 30 days and you would miss this golden contract opportunity.

To complicate matters even more your competitor is waiting in line for this UN contract - hence if you don't take it today you will lose it. Your competitor does not have the energy-efficient longer-cooling fridges you do - but his fridges also (you assume) do not have the defect yours do.

Do you sign the contract with the UN? Yes or no.

Why?

A Little Help

2008-08-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Okay - I know there are hundreds of people who read this blog.

That being the case, I have a request. Patten is teething, has been for awhile, and I'm sure will continue for awhile.

While Kristin and I don't exactly enjoy Patten's screaming at night, and while we feel badly for the poor kid, we REALLY feel badly our extended family.

Why you may ask? Because this weekend we have a family reunion and 37 of our family members will be staying in the same house. The last few weeks Patten has consistently cried from about midnight until we get him back to sleep at 2 a.m. We don't want to keep all 37 of our extended family members awake during those hours.

Soooooo - if you have a remedy for a teething baby, please share. I don't care if it is natural, non-natural, expensive, inexpensive, etc.

Oh yeah - you only have one day to give us your insight because we leave for the reunion on Thursday evening.

Patten Shenanigans

2008-08-04T09:02:00.001-07:00

A smattering of Patten sightings:

* Patten's canine teeth appeared the other week. Cool, huh.

* Patten has learned the art of shrieking (yelling, screaming, grunting, etc.) Most comically, in my mind, is what must be going on in his brain when people react to his noises. Patten thinks, "I think I will yell now." [Yells]. Some bystander, directly following the yell, says "Dave and Kristin - what is wrong with Patten - why is he so cranky?" Or "Patten - be quiet." To which Patten thinks "hmmm, my noise made them make noises (although I don't have a clue what "be quiet" means) - I think I'll make another noise and see if they make more noises." The cycle continues. He's outsmarted us all.

* Patten lost his first major amount of blood the other day. While walking around a picnic table he slipped and hit his head on the seat. Kristin picked him up. He screamed - a lot. Next thing I know I hear "Dave..." And what to my wondering eyes should appear (name that song) but a whole lot of blood all over Kristin's shoulder and Patten's face. We cleaned him up (are wipes toxic? - if so we probably did more damage than good because he sucked on a few of the wipes we had used to clean his face) and realized he had cut his bottom lip on his teeth. He's fine. It was dramatic. Thanks to Adam and Melaine for calmly guiding us through our first child injury.

Summer 2006

2008-07-31T14:32:00.001-07:00

Aren't we cute? My old work-colleague sent my dad this picture which comes from a work picnic 2 years ago.

Bear Lake

2008-07-26T20:19:00.001-07:00

We just returned from Bear Lake. I have no pictures (we lost the cord for our camera). But we had a blast.

We air-chaired, skiied, surfed, rode horseback, four-wheeled, played basketball (not competitively for those of you who know my shoulders), ate at the LakeTown Chuck Wagon Breakfast (and learned Brigham Young visited LakeTown back in the day and prophesied of its growth), ate food, ate more food, etc.

We had a blast.

Patten is growing. He's almost 10 months. He can pull himself up on anything. He bounces to music, and sometimes leads it.

Simple Pleasures

2008-07-05T17:02:00.001-07:00

We have a hallway - blessed day.

That's all.

P.S. Oh yeah, and our kitchen is no longer connected to our living room.

For What It's Worth

2008-06-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

With some hesitation, this post will deviate from our general "here's the latest trip" or "time for Patten pictures" blog theme. After reading a few thought provoking posts from my good friend Daniel Wayne, I decided it's high-time I add something other than pictures to the blogosphere.

So, here you go.

I spent the last year in law school. Joy. I have two pieces of advice: (1) find a good wife; and (2) serve in the church.

#1 - Find a good wife. Kristin supported me like you can't believe. I never heard a word of complaint. In fact, she somehow convinced me she enjoyed my daily rundown of "listen to this crazy Torts case" and "can you believe the Justices interpreted the Constitution this way," so much so that I often spent the 5 minutes walking from the shuttle to our apartment anticipating sharing info with her.

We experienced much of the first year together - phone calls almost every day at lunch, parties at law school friend's houses, reading my memo / brief to her (which she did NOT edit - for you Nazi law school students out there), her edits on my resume (which she did edit - obviously), practice interviews with Kristin acting as the stern interviewer, her calm reassurance when I woke up in a sweat at 2 in the morning before my first exam in the fall, delicious homemade lunches, her acceptance / friendship / admiration of my good law school buddies' cultures and belief systems, and the list goes on and on. I could not have survived without her.

So, first piece of advice - find a good spouse.

#2 - Serve in the church. We moved into our current ward, a married student ward, during the second week of law school. I had heard stories of graduate programs swallowing students to the point the students had no time to attend, let alone serve, in the church. However, I also knew of graduate students who did serve (Tyler is a fitting example - I even got to see him teach the genius of a compass to his concrete-trapped-Philadelphian scouts when Kristin and I visited - one of my favorite memories of that trip). So, from the beginning I knew I had a choice to make - serve, or use school as an excuse.

After only a few weeks in the ward I received my favorite calling to date - ward organist. I think I surprised a few people with my choice of stops, and I know Kristin patiently endured a few awkward moments in sacrament meeting, but I loved playing the organ and I loved the convenience of magnifying my calling during the same time period I would have been attending church anyway. I hoped to remain ward organist for all three years of law school - I even got organ shoes for Christmas.

I did well in school my first semester. Not as well as I hoped (but who does?), but okay. I planned to devote even more time to my studies my second semester and hopefully improve my performance. The Lord had other plans (at least on the time front). Mid-February I received a call which (gasp?) required time outside of church hours (as most do). Kristin and I knew the right thing to do, accept the call, but it scared us (or at least me - Kristin possesses [I'm not kidding here] unshakable faith). How could I improve my performance in less time? Shortly after retiring my organ shoes my dad gave me a blessing and I went to work.

Guess what, it all worked out. Second semester went well, I served in the church and enjoyed myself all the while. Looking back it seems so simple. Yet at various times I had to make difficult choices; like whether to study the day before my Con Law exam or do church stuff, or whether to attend another study group or do church stuff.

Perhaps my dad described my experience best. After all was said and done he noted in an email, "what can we say about you having accepted a time-consuming calling and still seen the increase that you did other than, hard as you work, the Lord's hand is in this too." Amen.

So just remember - find a good spouse and serve in the church. Everything else will take care of itself.

Alene's Heart

2008-06-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

We spent the last week in Couer d'Alene with Kristin's and her dad's best friend's families.

What a blast.

Conveniently, Wayne (the best friend) owns the MasterCraft boat dealerships in SLC, Spokane, and Seattle - as well as a lake house on the shores of Hayden Lake in Couer d'Alene. We definitely used and abused all his toys - here is the run down:

The trip began with an eleven and a half hour drive from SLC to Couer d'Alene. Kristin, Patten, and I squeezed into the back of a four-door sedan for the majority of the ride. To his credit, Patten acted like an angel the majority of the ride (see below).

We arrived at the lake house on Friday night. Sadly, the rain and clouds hung around for most of our trip. But that didn't stop Bubba (my brother-in-law) and I from exploring in the kayak on Saturday night. The lake actually seemed even more majestic with rain falling and steam rising.

Patten enjoyed the lake house even more than the car ride (can you imagine that)? Here he is showing off with a little patty-cake (I think he learned the focused-tongue approach from Greg Condie).

On Sunday we ventured to Spokane (half-hour from Couer d'Alene) to see waterfalls. The picture below was actually taken at Post Falls, halfway between Couer d'Alene and Spokane, but you get the idea. It looks like Patten is even more excited about the falls than the lake house OR the car.
We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday relaxing at the house and waterskiing. We learned how to wake-surf (newer boats can create a four-foot wake which you then surf on with a surfboard - you can even throw the rope in and surf behind the boat with no rope). Surfing came naturally to Kristin, she excels at watersports, I had a harder time (but braved the 50 degree water and air more frequently) and in the end found my wake-surfing capabilities.

We also went on many walks on our trip. Patten and I particularly enjoyed a stroll during which Patten happily mumbled and grumbled (as he tends to do) enough to attract multiple dogs out to the street. One heavy-set beagle howled in response to Patten's noises - it startled Patten - he didn't make a peep the rest of the way home.

Finally, on Thursday, Grandpa Kent helped Patten find his inner-gymnast. The picture below shows Patten hanging from a chair - no help from Grandpa and feet not touching the ground. He hung in that position for eight to ten seconds before falling to the ground. Much crying ensued. Regardless, the picture is pretty cool.

Oh yeah, one more thing. On the drive home, just before Roy, Patten executed the blow-out of all blow-outs. Dirtiness extended to his socks, so much so that we had to pull over at Roy and change him. None of the food establishments had adequate changing facilities so we did what any good parent would do - changed him on the grass next to a six-lane highway. Surprisingly, no one honked or hooted or hollered. I think I used fifteen wipes when all was said and done.

"Philadelphia, not LA..."

2008-05-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

If you don't recognize the title of this post it is from a song Dave and Stu made up as missionaries (I mainly put it on because it talks about Philly). Well, I would have finished our Philadelphia posts on this post however, the blog sight decided that it could no longer download pictures so I just took what I could and I will have to write more later. Sorry to drag it on :)

On the Saturday before we left we went with Tyler and Becca to a Cuban Restaurant in downtown Philly. It was called Alma de Cuba and it was a really nice restaurant. When our server came to take our order he first tried to get us to order some cocktails etc. and we all asked for water. It was like a switched flipped and we were no longer of interest to him, kind of like he was thinking "Let's get this over with."

When he came back for our actual food order I proceeded to only want to order some rolls because I had been sick (you don't want to know the details) which made him even less happy. He tried to offer other dishes that he thought would be good on a weak stomach such as - a sandwich with Di Jon mustard? Um... that doesn't work for me. But he did suggest tapioca pudding. So I thought that if I couldn't order liquor to appease him I could order some tapioca pudding. Below is a picture of said tapioca pudding.

Oh, did I fail to mention that this restaurant is kind of fancy? That coconut shell right there, that is my tapioca pudding. Because the coconut is still in it there was not much room for the tapioca, maybe three bites. On the leaf next to it are some mango bars. Mmm... they were actually pretty good. And both of these food items are served on top of ice. I'm sure you are wondering what the brown flakes are, they are shaved coconut. Talk about presentation.

After we ate at the restaurant we went over to the tourist area of Philadelphia, I wanted to see the mint but sadly the mint is not open on Saturdays. We took a picture in front of Independence Hall. You can barely see it in the background there between the quote rock and us.

While on our excursion that day Dave and I had a wonderful time trying to feed Patten lunch. It was pineapple and ham which I though was pretty good but Patten didn't take to it too well. Since we've come home he has learned to like it.

On Sunday we went to church with Becca and Ty. That was definitely different compared to church in Salt Lake. It was a fun experience. It was mothers day and the Primary kids sang in sacrament meeting. There was a great spirit there. After sacrament meeting I went with Becca to her Sunday school class. The kids she teaches are great. They were practicing a play of one of the members favorite scripture stories for a "going away" celebration because a lot of the members were leaving soon because school was out and a bunch of people had graduated. Her class was doing the story of Abanadi. Becca asked if they remembered the story from a few weeks ago and one of the kids, name Surprise, piped right up and new every part of the story. It was awesome, Becca was beaming (and rightfully so) because he remembered what she had taught. I had to leave her class a little early because Patten was having a hard time. I ended up in the mothers room and met some sisters from there. They were all really sweet. After I finally calmed Patten down. I went into the Primary room where Dave, Ty and Becca were. The kids were making flowers for their mothers. But sadly not all of the kids had mothers. One of Becca's girls said this to Dave and Dave said " You can give it to my wife." And she beamed. I have the flower sitting on my dresser drawers right now.

Well, that is about the end of the trip. We'll tell you more about the middle of the trip later when we can get the pictures to upload.

Buggies and Stuff (Philly continued)

2008-05-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Kristin and I spent Thursday in beautiful Amish country.

On Ty and Becca's recommendation, we took off Thursday morning to visit a portion of PA I had never seen. We took the 76 to the 202 to the 30 and ended up in Lancaster county - home of the Amish.

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of our Amish visit. The Amish are partly to blame because they don't allow pictures - however our own forgetfulness played a large role as well.

First, we visited an Amish furniture store. Everything was hand crafted - and most things custom built. A nice Amish man ran the cash register (??). We loved this store - perhaps in ten years we will buy something from it.

Next, we visited the town of Intercourse, PA. We ate lunch at Plain and Fancy. For those with deep pockets Plain and Fancy offers an all-you-can-eat Amish buffet full of everything Amish. We went for the regular menu - Kristin partook of the best Homemade Pot Pie she has ever tasted, and I enjoyed a roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes. So good.

Following Plain and Fancy we ventured to the Kitchen Kettle Village. A small Amish strip mall. There we ate wonderful fudge (although a 1/2 lb. cost $5!!), watched Amish woman make jam, ate lots of said jam (over 100 flavors all with one open bottle for sampling), and visited a handicraft type store full of wooden stars (you know those trendy wooden stars folks in Sandy, South Jordan, Salt Lake, Daybreak - okay everywhere - have hanging on their walls?) - which made me wonder if the stars originated with the Amish or with the trendy...

Finally, we enjoyed our ride home through the Amish country side. The highlight of the day happened on our drive. We saw three children, all under the age of 10, riding in a horse-drawn-box (the horse looked the size of a pony). The box had two plastic wheels, perfect for trudging over rocks and such, and barely fit the three children. A blonde haired 9-or-so old boy held on to two reins serving as the driver. They flew around a corner, almost knocking out all three children, smiling all the time. It reminded me how I often disregard life's simple joys. Those three children looked content to ride around in their box all day long.

Great fun. If you ever have the chance, make sure to visit Amish country in PA - unlike anywhere I've ever been.

Our Second Home

2008-05-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

Last week Kristin, Patten and I ventured to the City of Brotherly Love to visit my brother Ty and his wife Becca. The trip was so much fun we cannot possibly fit it into one single post. Therefore (doesn't that word sound official?) we will explain our travels in multiple posts. I (Dave) will handle this first installment - and Kristin will contribute down the line.

We began our adventures on Tuesday May 6. After arriving in Philly at 4:30 we went to Ty and Becca's house and shared a Hawaiian pizza from the local Pasqualli's (sp?) pizzeria. It was great. The picture below shows how happy that pizza made us after a full day of flying (especially since we are too cheap to buy airplane / airport food and thus were STARVING!) (in the interest of full disclosure, this particular picture was not taken on that particular night - but it still gets the point across).

On Wednesday the 7th Kristin and I tromped around Philadelphia while Ty spent the day in his cardiology rotation and Becca watched the General. First, we visited Penn's campus. We were happy to see our good friend Ben there to greet us. He and Kristin bonded instantly.

Next we ventured to Drexel University's campus. Becca will attend Drexel this fall for nursing school. While no dignitaries on par with Ben Franklin showed up for us in Drexel, I did convince the local dragon to pose for a shot with me.

After Drexel we marched on to my old mission stomping grounds. I served in the Singles Ward, twice, on my mission and we covered Penn, Drexel, and many other campuses. The picture below shows Kristin outside of my apartment on 36th and Powelton. The complex serves mostly students but somehow we missionaries infiltrated the premises back in the day. Kristin even got to see the local elementary school (which sits across the street from shown apartments) on recess - quite a sight.

While we tromped around Philly, Becca played with Patten. They had a great time. I'm not clever enough to include a link to Ty and Becca's post - but if you look over to the left, yea right there, you'll see a link - "Ty and Becca," and if you click on it you will see (about 4 posts down) some darling pictures of Patten. Thanks to Becca for watching him so Kristin and I could see the city.

Tune in next time for more Philadelphia adventures.

Alive

2008-04-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Say goodbye to yet another semester. Monday, April 28, I took my last final. After finishing that last test I realized I need to develop a "finals are over" tradition. I know Ty and his friends watched a movie following each semester, other friends go out to lunch, or golfing, or some other such fun event. I need to get on the ball and figure that out.

But, in the meantime, I'm just glad to be done. I spent Tuesday, all of Tuesday mind you, with Kristin and Patten. We visited my family's Millcreek cabin (only looked at it though due to snow), ate 3 (count 'em) meals together, and Patten and I changed the headlight on Maxi (our Nissan Maxima). He played more of a minor role in the actual light change but I greatly appreciated his moral support.

I hope other folks get to experience this feeling of freedom. I've decided semesters exist simply so they can be finished.

We are excited to visit Ty and Becca in Philly next week, followed by the start of my new job and a summer full of no school (other than counter-terrorism research for my professor). Should be a good few months.

Patten's Many Faces

2008-04-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

What a month. As you will see, our family had lots of fun in March.

First - Rolling Patten. Patten decided he was sick of laying on his back / stomach. So, he set out to roll over. Here he is following rolling from his back to his stomach. You can see him thinking, "hmm... that darned arm... what am I going to do about that."
And so Patten decides "aha! I'll shift my weight to the pelvic region and remove my arm." Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for his parents, it took him a good 20 minutes to pull out his arm. But eventually...
He did it! Victory! Rolling over is now common-place. In fact, if we put him on the floor and mind our business for 2 or 3 minutes he undoubtedly changes orientation and position by the time we return.
In addition to Patten's rolling antics, we celebrated Kristin's birthday in March. We got together with a few good friends (from left to right - Scott, Henry (or Henrizzle), Jake, Jacy, Lex, Kristin, Patten, and Mikea - I know our friends have cool names) - we played games, ate food, and had an altogether great time.
Next - Moose Stroller Patten. That moose outfit is his most expensive and prized outfit - it comes from some fancy store (naartje?) and supposedly is fine clothing for youngins.
Ahhh, Mischievous Patten. I don't quite know what to make of this picture - other than the fact that it wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the 800 blankets Kristin stuffed in the contraption to make him fit in it. Way to go Kris!
And here we see Easter Patten. A charming young man dressed in sky blue and donning a killer smile. Disregard his dad, please.
More Easter Patten. But, luckily for him, his mother matches his beauty in this picture (unlike his dad in the last). Didn't I get lucky?
Hang with me - we're almost done. Here we see Reading Patten. I came home from meetings last night to find my adorable wife having a Read-a-thon with our beautiful son. I doubt he got much out of the reading aspect, but man he sat right up and hit that book with his fist over and over again. Perhaps he gained some knowledge of Persuasion via osmosis... either way it was about the cutest thing I have ever seen.
And finally - Smiling Patten. Patten sure loves his mom - this picture proves it.

A Utah Man Is He

2008-03-02T20:01:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it took me this long to get him in a Utah shirt? And the best part is, I did not even put him in the shirt. I walked out of our bedroom one day and Kristin had slipped him into her MUSS shirt. I definitely married the right girl.
Here is a picture with Uncle Ty. I mostly post this so Becca can have a copy (your welcome, Becca). But also to say it was fun to have Ty around this weekend. He got Patten ready for bed, wrapped him in the magic blanket, and even checked on him after he feel asleep.

This just might be my favorite picture of all time. I believe those are my hands helping him stand - I don't know what I did to get him to smile like this, but it sure is cute. He loves to stand, just loves it. In fact, he often refuses to sit because he'd rather stand.
And finally, Patten's first walk. Kristin and I love going for walks. Unfortunately the General joined us during cold weather and we haven't been able to take him for a walk. So, the first halfway bearable day (all of you RSV-fearing mothers would have vetoed this) Kris and I took him out for a stroll. You can see from his outfit that it really was too cold for a 4 month old to be on a walk.

At 4 MONTHS?!?!?

2008-02-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

We always knew baby Patten seemed a bit old for his age.

But when Kristin came home on Tuesday and informed me that the pediatrician said it was time to begin the "jella (I mean rice) puddin (I mean cereal)," I was astounded.

Luckily, I didn't write this post that day - because in the subsequent days I've overcome my initial shock. Now I just to get enjoy feeding out little boy.

Before I get to the eating pictures, how about a good Valentine's Day smile from Kris and her boy! (The truth is I don't know how to get the darn pictures to post underneath each other rather than on top of each other, and by the time I figure out they are posting on top of each other I've already posted pictures that I wish were on the top...)

Now for the eating - doesn't that look good!

Time for another bite.

At some point, I trust, he'll enjoy his food. For now, it is simply a test of endurance for his parents to force feed him the entire bowl (and I believe more ends up down his chin than in his mouth).

We Thank Thee...

2008-01-30T15:59:00.001-08:00

President Hinckley's passing generated many emotions for our little family. On the one hand, we were sad to see "our" Prophet leave us. On the other, we were happy to see him finally pass on to be with his wife. We enjoyed spending last Monday's FHE reminiscing on President Hinckley: from waving the cane to rebuking the brethren. What a great man.

My dad sent me a link, included below, to Glenn Beck's tribute of Gordon B. Hinckley. I actually had seen this clip the very night it aired, but am grateful my dad sent the link because it is worth watching again and again. Glenn, a long time radio and tv voice, lived in PA during my mission years. I participated in the Messiah sing in with him and found him to be a no nonsense kind of guy who cherished his conversion to the Gospel. I've always appreciated his willingness to embrace and explain our faith on national television.

I hope you enjoy the clip.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/

2008-01-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

The Johnsons have had a great break. We spent a lot of the time with family. Patten is getting bigger and chubbier by the day. Sadly, he is starting to loose some hair on his head...

Missy and Patten have a fun bond between them. Patten loves to talk to her.
Kristin decided to chop her hair off. She still hasn't decided whether she likes it or not.
Well that is all for now, I know it is rather short but there will be more later.

-The Johnson Clan

Our Growing Boy

2007-12-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

Patten is now nearly 11 weeks old. We consider him the miracle baby. He sleeps through the night (has since 3 weeks), has made two trips two Las Vegas with us and both times we made it to Cedar City without stopping, and has now found his smile and shares it regularly. What a baby!!

His Grandpa and Mimi, Kristin's mom's preferred name in lieu of "grandma," gave him the "Jumperoo" for X-mas. Only problem is that although he seems mature for his age he's not quite large enough for the Jumperoo. But, for now it is his space ship - at least that's what this picture reminds me of.

I hope Patten won't one day kill me for posting this picture. But I just had to show how happy he looks in the bathtub. Every other day Patten gets to do his favorite thing - splash in the bathtub. It is the cutest event I have ever seen. We lay him down in the water - he looks at us for about 3 seconds - gets a big grin on his face - and then splashes until he can't splash anymore.

And finally, a random smilely picture. Isn't he cute? We just love Patten. Particularly we love his hair and the fact that no matter what we do it refuses to stay down. Oh well, he looks stlyish.

Viva Las Vegas... err Boulder City!!

2007-11-27T07:40:00.000-08:00

We had a great time in Boulder for Thanksgiving. Kristin's aunt and uncle live in Boulder and the entire family, we're talkin' 25 people for Thanksgiving dinner, converged there for Turkey Day. I had never been, and while some of my assumptions concerning Boulder were verified - others were not. For example: (1) I thought Boulder was "just outside of Vegas." While this is true time wise, roughly 25 minutes, it is not just outside like Sandy is to SLC. You have to drive through 10 minutes of nothing to reach Boulder. (2) I thought Boulder was "a little LDS community." Truth is a few Boulder neighborhoods are "little LDS communities," such as the one Kristin's aunt and uncle live in, but the rest of the town is as diverse as you'll find. (3) I thought Boulder would be warm, hence my plethora of shorts for the trip. Truth is it is warm, however not 80's, more like 55 - 60.

Enough of my Boulder insights - on to the pictures.

Kristin's family. I did my best to show Patten's face for the picture - however the Bjorn (that backpack thing) made it a little difficult.

Cousin Trevor and Patten. If you look closely you'll see a hand holding Patten on Trevor's back - as much as I trust Trevor, I don't trust him with my child's life.

Grandpa and grandson. Patten, as you can see, has learned how to use his arms/hands. He now sucks on his hand, occasionally swings his fists of fury, and enjoys waving his arms.

Kristin's sister Kelsey and Patten. One of the best pictures of the young one - now we just need him to learn to smile for a picture.

More pictures of Patten

2007-11-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Patten is doing well. He gained 1 lb. in his first two weeks and at night he sleeps 4 - 5 hours between feedings.

Enjoy the pictures.

Kristin and her boy.

Amazing how people can enjoy a good diaper change.

One of Patten's many hats.

Love the boots.

Patten is here!

2007-10-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

That's right.

Patten Fredrick Johnson arrived Friday morning October 12th at 9:50 weighing 8lbs 4 oz. and measuring 22 inches long (can you say - they should have induced Kristin 10 days earlier on Patten's due date?)

We couldn't be happier. He seems perfect to us in every way, even his crying brings us joy.

Unfortunately, Patten has jaundice (or, is jaundiced?) and is spending some time under the ultra violet lights at the hospital. He couldn't come home with us today, Sunday, but we hope he will join us tomorrow. In the meantime we visit him every 3 hours for feeding. We can't wait to have him home.

Enjoy the pictures.

Swaddled Patten in his crib.

Attempting the perfect mouth posture for a good drink.

He spent most of the days sleeping.

Gotta love the pumpkin hat!

The Joy of Classmates

2007-09-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, while sitting in my Torts class, I received the following email:

"I have two tickets to the Utah game this Saturday. First person to respond to this email with the name of the person who kicked the winning field goal in the 1993 Utah - BYU game gets the tickets."

Thankfully as an 11 year old brat Laird Swensen's family kindly took me to BYU games. They had season tickets, Laird and I were friends, and I loved football, so they took me. And, even more thankfully, they took me to the 1993 BYU - Utah game and I saw Chris Yergensen kick the winning field goal.

I responded to the email and won the tickets.

Little did I know the 2L named Chris Hill happened to be the Utes Athletic Director's son, Chris Hill.

And, I couldn't have dreampt this up, Chris Hill gave me two tickets on the 50 YARD LINE on the 20TH ROW!!!!

AND ----- The UTES OBLITERATED the 11th ranked UCLA BRUINS!!

Wow. It was a sight to behold.

Thank heavens for kind classmates.

Go Utes.

3 Weeks and Counting

2007-09-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well.

Less than 3 weeks until the babe joins us.

For any of you expecting your first, let me clue you in on something. The impending baby may not seem too real for the first 7 or 8 months - but when you visit the doctor at the hospital and hear things like "this is where you will deliver" and "here is where you wash the baby after he is born" and "3 weeks from today you will likely hold your baby here" the forthcoming baby will seem real.

We are so excited. I probably won't write again until I have a picture to post - that will be a happy post.

Once a Ute, Always a Ute

2007-08-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. My blood is red.

I got the call (okay e-mail) this morning from GW informing me they will not take anyone from their waitlist this year. A somewhat sad development, but considering our baby coming in October and the fact that I'm sick of not knowing where I will live for the next 3 years, I felt happier after reading the e-mail than before.

I'm almost finished with orientation week here at the U Law School. This place overflows with impressive students and teachers. We have 2 marines (that means 2 future JAGs), a Romanian, an Irish fellow and something like 40 states and / or countries represented.

I'm enjoying lawschool, at least for this week. We'll see what happens when the real deal starts next week (by the way, I just bought my books -- $570!!!)

USPTO

2007-07-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

I took the United States Patent and Trademark Examination (for the second time) on Monday.

The test is pass / fail, with a score of 70% needed to pass. The first time I took the exam, June 14th, I scored 68%. As you can imagine that made me a little upset.

But I'm happy to report that I passed this last Monday. I studied roughly 180 hours (in total) for the exam. I am so glad I do not have to study for the test ever again. I've seen enough of the MPEP (Manual of Patent Examination and Procedures).

As for the law school update, I'm planning on the U but waitlisted at GW. GW cut their waitlist to 80 people (down from 1400) last week and I'm on the list of 80. Time is running short, I told GW they need to accept me by the 7th of August if I'm going to come (I need time to drive across the country and be there by the 14th). Let's hope they get on the ball and call me sooner than later.

Our Bean

2007-07-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

Early in the pregnancy Kristin and I decided our baby (pictured to the left) should have a name. At the time we didn't know he would turn out to be a he, so we needed a gender neutral name to use for the pregnancy. I don't remember how, but somehow we came up with "pinto."

The evolution of pinto (no -- not that kind of evolution -- I'm referring to his name) amazes me.

The ladies at Kristin's work come to Kristin every morning, say "good morning Kristin," and then kneel down and while speaking into her tummy say "hi baby pinto -- how are you today."

Both of our families refer to the baby as pinto.

I find myself calling him "the bean."

Sometimes I wonder if our current actions will harm my son for the rest of his life... I doubt it.

Long live the bean.

Last Summer

2007-07-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

On the off chance my kids read this blog someday I thought I'd include one post to describe what I did the summer of 2006.

I worked as an intern for the Division of Water Resources (DWR). We designed, and Gerber construction built, a new and improved spillway for the Red Butte Dam up Red Butte Canyon. I actually joined the process midway through; DWR had completed the design and construction began just before I came into the picture.

I spent the summer verifying that the construction company followed the engineer's drawings (fancy way to say I worked as in inspector). For those of you new to the construction business inspectors don't have the best rap in the industry -- they are known for sitting in their trucks while the construction workers die in the heat and only leaving the blessing of their air conditioning to inform the construction workers of a mistake.

I did my best to buck the trend. I worked with the construction guys, against policy but I did it anyway, and did my best to deliver a nice glass of water when needed.

Below I've posted a picture of two DWR engineers and myself -- from left to right: me, BJ and Lee. As you can see Lee is sitting on the spillway (the structure used to release water from the reservoir when water elevations are too high). I am using a handy dandy instrument called a nuclear density gage. It determines soil density by sending a probe 6 or 8 inches into the dirt, releasing some radiation and then measuring how long the radiation takes to return to the probe.

Most days I spent 6 - 8 hours at the site. We saw moose, rattlesnakes (the construction workers ate them -- no joke), deer and other wildlife. I took notes of all the activities, held responsibility for anything that went wrong, kept a photo journal and performed necessary on the fly engineering calculations (we engineers love that "calculation" word). Sounds like fun, no???

The Grand Canyon, St. George and a growing baby

2007-06-28T14:53:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday through Saturday I set out with the Priests of my ward to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim. My group started on the north rim and ended on the south. What an adventure; 26 miles in 3 days, 115 degree high, 100 degrees at 7 am, 90 degrees at 8 pm. Sleeping was futile (a layer of sweat coated our entire bodies) and we (or at least I) felt thoroughly exhausted by the end. Still, I say hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim should be on everyone's to do list at some point in their life. Unfortunately I didn't take the digital camera for fear of it melting, but I do have one shot of Kris and I upon my return:

And now that I think of it, the above picture explains most of our recent happenings. You can see the increased size of the babe and the picture shows the condo in St. George which is where we, along with my family, spent the first half of this week. We swam, ate, watched movies and tv, and had an all around good time.

Now it's back to work...

Tagalicious

2007-06-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

Bob -- thank you for the "tag." It is received warmly.

1. I hit a good friend on the head with a baseball bat. That good friend was Bob (Eric Vogeler).

2. A few years back I promised my grandmother I would never ride a motorcycle, or as she refers to it, the "suicide machine." This was probably a bad choice on my part because for whatever reason I can't get myself to break the promise even though my in-laws have multiple motorcycles and I'm pretty sure I could learn to ride them safely. Oh well.

3. I've spent more days / nights in the hospital than any one man should -- the list includes: deviated sceptum surgery, reconstructive shoulder surgery (both shoulders), tubes in ears and a repair of an already "set" broken arm. Let me explain the last one. Sometime during elementary school, all of the laughing gas has made me lose my memory, I broke my arm. During class my arm often itched -- so what did I do? Scratch it of course. But this wasn't just any old scratching, I had to shove a pencil between the cast and my arm and "itch" the itching area. Needless to say that lovely pencil did wonders for the setting bones and eventually I ended up in the hospital in surgery so the doctor could "rebrake" my arm to fix the damage my pencil had done.

4. I absolutely love basketball, hence the shoulders. Throughout junior high and highschool my friends and I met at my church circa 6 am every Saturday morning to play ball, in addition to Tuesday and Wednesday night basketball get togethers. I can't wait to have a son (October) who I can coach, cheer on, etc. I will live my basketball life through him because I am no longer physically capable of living it on my own.

5. I possess a strange ability to remember hymn trivia. Everything from page numbers to verse lyrics to origination details. Of the 341 hymns I can probably name half (okay maybe only a quarter) by page number and title, and the rest I can guess within 20 pages or so.

6. I am afraid of heights. Sometimes they really scare me (walking across the Golden Gate Bridge) and sometimes I can handle them (Angel's Landing in Zion), but all of the time I know they are there.

7. I will take the patent bar on June 14th. What is the patent bar you may say? It is a test which, if passed, allows an individual to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

8. My wife can out waterski me any day of the week. Not to mention she knows how to "airchair," let's just say my airchair attempt left something to be desired.

9. I played a duet of "I Need Thee Every Hour" with Stu Maxfield for the Prophet when he visited our mission in Philadelphia.

10. James Taylor is and will always be my favorite musical artist. Not sure why but his songs seem to brighten my day.

Shameless Plug

2007-05-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

Everyone should visit my brother Tyler's blog (find the link "Tyler" to the left). He writes well. Mostly I think you will find the series titled "Gravity" quite compelling. It has 5 installments and you should start with number 1 of 5. It is part of my dad's life story. Let me know what you think, or just post your thoughts on Ty's blog and I'll read them there. Enjoy.