Temple dedication

Yesterday was a day that church was cancelled for all of Utah. Kinda weird huh! Well instead we were able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain temple dedication in our local building via satellite. This temple is located on the southwest side of the Salt Lake valley and is the fourth temple built in Salt Lake County. Julie and I had the kids watched at Grandpas house and off we went. To be honest I really just wanted to stay home and skip this, after all church was cancelled why do something churchy(I know not a word, but I like it). Well this turned out to be one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in a very long time. These experiences are very difficult to put into words, in fact as I write this I am unsure as to how I could even come close to explaining how I felt in a somewhat decent manner. We got to the church a bit late so we where in the overflow in the gym on metal chairs that are not very comfortable. As Julie and I rotated butt cheeks we listen to the speakers talking about the importance of temples and what they mean for us in today's time. The dedicatory prayer was given, and hymns where sung. This is when I felt overwhelmed and everything just came together for me. The hymn The Spirit of God has always been a favorite. As this song was being sung I felt as if I was being cleansed, all my sins being washed away. I felt proud to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I felt like this was where I was suppose to be. I felt many more things, all indescribable with my limited intelligence. It was something I desperately needed to experience and will remember for a long time. Life is interesting, it amazes me that we have these opportunities at times when we least expect. This also a time for personal thought and wondering why am I sharing such a personal experience on a blog, honestly I don't know.

Berry Quickie

Went to the Berry (Strawberry Reservoir) for a couple of hours this morning, decided to hit Chicken Creek West, had my 5 year old son and brother in law with me. So I ask my neighbor to use his float tube since he has offered, so he hands me this box. Holy crap it's never been used before..... and I get to break it in. Friday night I put it all together, pump everything up, ahhh the smell of fresh virgin rubber. Went to bed late, woke up late left the house at 745 am. Met my bro in law in Heber, grabbed some crawlers and got to THE spot around 915 am. So I have never float tubed before, had no waiters, just some flippers, swim shorts, and two shirts. Holy crap that water is cold, instant shrinkage, and me second guessing what the crap I was doing in very cold water. Well I get totally loaded up and head out, I didn't go too far, wanted to keep an eye on my boy, but Cliff my bro in law had things handled. Across the way I notice the DWR (Department of Wildlife Resources) is here checkin licenses.... I remember Cliff saying he forgot his license on the way up from Heber.... this may get interesting. I decided to slowly make my way in to see if I need to be there for my son in case Cliff is put into handcuffs. I was bouncing a worm tipped with Power Bait along the bottom when WHAM! Mr. Bendo decided to visit. "Oh crap I have 4# test line on, I gotta baby this" I couldn't reel this beast in at all, and this fish feels alive, gotta be a rainbow trout. Fifteen minutes later and made it to shore as Cliff is sweet talking the DWR Officer, I finally see the beast.... it is HUGE. Turns out the 'bow was 25 1/4 inches long and more than 4 lbs. Yeah Baby! The DWR Officer was impressed mentioning that's the biggest bow she has seen in a while. After the excitement wore off I noticed I was wet up to my chest and realized my legs where a bit numb. Cliff was asked to go to the DWR truck and work things out so I was able to warm up hanging with my son on the shore. Twenty minutes later and just a warning (lucky) Cliff comes back rather pleased that my son told the CO that he is fishing with his teeth today, thus putting her in a good mood, and letting him off with a warning. Fished for another hour, no more fish. Got to my truck and was very happy to change into dry clothes. My legs finally defrosted when we got into Salt Lake. A very fun trip, lessons learned for me, son, and bro in law. Enjoy!Sorry no pics, they are on Cliff's phone, trying to get a copy, will post as soon as I get them!

Camping

We went camping Aug 13-15, and had a crazy time. As activity's chairs, Julie and I where in charge of our ward(church) camp out. We arrived around 2pm at the camp site, being the first ones there we got to pick the best camping spot, right under a group of small trees. This was great because we saw rain every day that we camped. After night one Julie was in tremendous pain since her ribs are still broken, she had a horrible night. We drove home, precooked as much as we could for the breakfast that we where preparing for everyone the next day. The kids and I returned to the campsite early afternoon, leaving Julie and Eli home to recover. It was a blast to watch Jake ride his bike up and down the dirt hill, he had so much fun. Julie surprised us by coming up with her sister Sheri and she helped me make foil dinners. They where yummy, foil dinners are so good to eat while camping and easy to cook. The 2 kids and I had a good night of sleep, I awoke early to get breakfast going. I made a yummy dutch oven dish that was very simple, sausage, hash browns, eggs, and cheese, it was a hit. Shortly after breakfast was served the heavens opened hail and a heavy downpour quickly got us wet. Luckily the tent and most supplies where put away.

Yesterday, the day after getting home from camping was miserable. Emily and I where so freakin sick with a nasty stomach bug. I will blame stress of the camp out on getting so sick, it sure whipped me. No it was not food poisoning, because another person who was camping with us got the same bug, but didn't stay for breakfast that I made. I feel so much better today.

So this has been our first year trying out cooking with dutch ovens, so far I am impressed. They are fairly easy to use, simple as using hot coals, cleanup is way easy, and the taste these ovens gives is phenomenal. A new hobby found!

Family Pics

We got our copy of the family pics that where taken on August 2nd, I hope you enjoy, because I do.

Been a long time

I really have no excuse to not be updating this blog, it's kinda like keeping a journal for me, I am really great at it for a short time, but then gets greatly neglected. Well life is never boring for us. We have had about 3k in car repair bills, stupid stuff really, drained our savings which is the most disappointing part of repair bills. Julie got Broken ribs from a roller coaster at Lagoon on the anniversary that Emily broke her collar bone. And I am just preparing for nursing school this fall, lame I am 30 and still don't have a degree. Got this laptop for school, I love it, and hopefully I will be able to update this a bit more because of wi-fi at work.

Another thing that has kept me from updating this blog is because of Facebook. It is so much easier to write a sentence or two, than writing this, yes I am lazy at typing, I am really bad at it. Yet I have determined to resurrect the blog because as life seems so crazy and hectic now it is only going to get worse, and I might as well document it. Instead of writing all that has happened so far this year, I am going to start with what is current and go from there.

This past thursday we went to Lagoon with Julie's sister Sheri and her kids, and Eli was with grandpa Carling. We got there shortly after the park opened with excitement and nervousness. As an adult these "thrill" rides are a bit more daunting, hence the nervousness. Emily and Jake where very brave and challenged themselves to ride the "scary" rides. Jake was an inch too short for most of the rides, but Emily was able to go on all of them that she wanted. We had a ton of fun, the weather was great due to an incoming cold front so the wind kept us cooled off. My favorite rides with three being #1 due to thrill factor was Colossus, Wicked, and the Rocket. We where all able to fit on the same tube on Rattlesnake Rapids, which got us (except Julie) drenched to the core, no matter how hard we tried not too. Much to our delight Sheri offered to watch the kiddos while Julie and I went to ride some rides. I was looking forward to hear the shrills resonant from my sweet wife. We found the Jetstar, a smaller but fast rollercoaster. We went down the first descent and Julie looked back at me in pain, "oh Crap!" It turned out that Julie had her right arm next to her and at the bottom of the descent she got slammed to her right side and she felt and heard a pop, a rib broke. We soon left the park due to Julie's pain increasing, dropped the kids off at Grandpa's and went to Instacare. After some x-rays revealing that her lungs where not punctured we got the kids and headed home. This made for a very long day, full of emotions of excitement to one of great concern. I then called "sick" for work the next day, good thing I did, because I was able to help Julie out quite a bit, and changed 6 poopy diapers! Something positive to note my laptop arrived 3 days earlier than expected yesterday. Things are better today, I am at work, and my sweetheart has family to help out, which I am extremely greatful for.