Wrinkled Thoughts

Okay, so I'm playing a little catch up on the blog…

On Memorial Day, Sage, Ethan, and the twins and I all went to Timpanogos Cave up American Fork Canyon. Avery was off in Idaho with some friends, so he didn't get to go, but I don't think he cared. We all had fun… including Sage who was only about 2 weeks post-op from having her uterus removed. Crazy woman… The hike up to the mouth of the cave climbs about 1100 feet and is a mile and a half long. Then, you go through the cave (bending down, squeezing through holes) which is a quarter of a mile long, and then you have to hike back down the mile and half. I think the hike down is worse than up. Here's some shots of the event.

My good friend Myke is getting up in years… He turned 40 years old on March 1st and celebrated by purchasing an RV! … and for his maiden voyage, he drove it up to my house from Phoenix. I won't get into detail about his first RV road trip, but let me just say two words: "Beached Whale". Yup, he got himself beached at Lake Powell in the middle of the night which resulted in about a 9 hour delay on his arrival to my house. He did make it though.

While Myke and his kids Zoe and Nolan were here, we all went up to Brighton to have a blast snowboarding. Myke was feeling adventurous at the ripe old age of 40 and decided to try and snowboard. His kids seemed to pick it up much faster than he, so he resorted back to his favorite hobby of taking pictures of his kids. Here's some of his photos (and a few of mine) for your viewing pleasure. 

Grandma Jackie likes to fly her grandchildren down to Arizona for their birthday… so she can spoil the snot out of them for a few days. Normally, Sage goes with the child… but this time Avery didn't think his mom was "cool" enough to go with him… So I went!

We didn't do a whole lot. Avery hung out with his grandma while I worked and visited my friend Myke. I did get to stay a few nights with my brother Tyler and my sister-in-law Teresa. It was a nice break from the CRAPPY food in Utah. Mexican food in Arizona is the best. Utah mexican food sucks… although, I did hear a rumor that Chipotle was going to FINALLY build a few locations in Salt Lake. My prayers might be answered. I went to Chipotle 3 times while I was in Phoenix. I even got a FREE t-shirt for being there during a promotion! Sweet.

Avery and I did have one fun day with Myke and his daughter Zoe. We hiked the Siphon Draw trail at the Supersition Mountains. If I had a nickel for every picture I have of Avery and Zoe, I'd be rich. They've know eachother since birth and will probably end up getting married.

Here's a few shots of our trip:

Yes folks, I procrastinated a few things over the last few months… And now I'm here to make ammends. In the following post you will be updated on everything from Halloween to "the flood" to Christmas to my new remodeling project… So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Halloween 2006 and Ethan's 8th Birthday! 

My second born son Ethan turned 8 on Halloween 2006. I've already blogged his baptism, but failed to blog the trip to Arizona we took to celebrate.

The trip to Arizona was special in many ways… #1 we took "Monkey" along with us. I won't say his name for his privacy, but for those of you who didn't meet him, Monkey was the foster child we had in our home for 8 months. See my "rants" category to see how that turned out for us. He appears in one or two of the pictures below… see if you can find him.

We stayed at Grandma Jackie's while we were in the valley of the sun. As you can see, we hacked up a few pumpkins for Halloween… and you can see my children new they were back in Phoenix and decided to "dress the part" by reverting back to their old ways and wearing nothing but their underwear.

Hannagan Meadow - on the way home:

On the way home from Phoenix, we stopped by the Hannagan Meadow Lodge where my parents are the Innkeepers. On the way up, we picked up "another pathetic lifeform" in the Showlow K-Mart parking lot. I actually got the pleasure of naming her - Agatha. Yup, Sage wanted a "brown puppy" for her 32nd birthday and wouldn't you know it!? We found her. Now Toby has a friend to beat on when he gets bored. Actually she is bigger than him in every way (including crap size) EXCEPT height. She has short little stubby legs and Toby has long legs.

The Flood…

I decided to flood my basement in December by not shutting off the main valve to my sprinkler system out by the street. We had Niagra Falls coming through our window before I was able to locate the valve under the snow and shut it off. I also had trouble finding the "tool" to shut off the valve. Neeldess to say, there was a TON of water in our basement. The neighbor across the street helped me suck 60 gallons of water out of the window well… and then we had the professionals come in and take care of the rest. Sage and I had to hustle and move all the furniture (entertainment center included) before the flood waters ruined them.

Cleanup took about a week … 3 days of 10 fans and 2 de-humidifiers at about 100 decibles was the worst part. Thank goodness for insurance! Speaking of insurance… the adjuster who came out went to the same high school as me! Only he graduated a year earlier. Small world.

Christmas - 2006:

Christmas was a smaller event this year… mostly because the house was torn up something fierce (see next section below). However, the kids got something that they wanted and DAD got his XBox 360. Mom thought she would be funny and give them all a gag gift of Barbie or Ken… The twins actually fought over who was going to keep Barbie. Should I be worried?

Ian was down for a visit and went skiing with Avery and me. He even helped put up some drywall and rewire my light switch. Good times! Skiing was awesome at night up at Brighton Ski Resort. Here's some goofy photos to prove it.

Before Christmas, we decided to have a family home evening to build "ginger bread" houses… except ours were made from graham crackers. My first attempt was an example of poor engineering… the candy was too heavy for the joist hangers (frosting) and the whole thing caved in (me crying). The boys loved it… hopefully, next year we can improve on our designs. And maybe my children will have some clothes on!

The "Project":

Sometime (shortly) after the flood, we decided we hated the fire place (and a few walls) in the back room by the kitchen… So we tore it out. It took me 3 days to A) Sledge hammer B) Hammer Drill and C) Jack hammer out all the bricks and concrete that went into building the fire place. WHAT A PAIN. The walls came down a bit easier, and really opened up the space. We also ripped out the boring tile in the kitchen, as well as a row of cabinets (that are now in the garage) that were taking up waaaay too much space in the kitchen.

After the drywall was put back in place with about 7 gallons of mud (seriously) and the walls were painted, I laid about 1000 sq ft of Pergo "Hand Scratched Hickory" flooring upstairs… since Sage is "anti carpet". It looks awesome if I do say so myself. The final touches were new baseboards, a big mirror and some furniture (a couch and chair).

Here's a few "before" shots… for those of you wondering… These were actually taken before we bought the house, way back in July of 2005.

Yes, our second born son Ethan has been baptized!

First off, I would like to thank the MANY family and friends who came to Utah to see the blessed event. It was a truly wonderful experience for Ethan to have you all around.

The baptism itself was one of the most spiritual baptisms I have ever been apart of. Grandpa Service (Craig) and Uncle Ian both gave wonderful talks from the heart. Grandma Service (Diane) played the piano, and I was able to baptize and confirm my son. The whole room was full of friends and family from all over. The confirmation circle was huge… I thought we were going to push Ethan and the chair into the floor.

Afterward, everyone came over (and filled the house) for dessert. Desserts of ALL kinds filled the kitchen, all made with love from my family in Odgen… except for the BEST raspberry concoction my Aunt Linda made. I only had 4 pieces.

Here's a few shots of the "after party".

As I stated earlier in the post, I had my ENTIRE family in town at my house for the weekend. It was a blessed weekend. Since we were all together, we actually planned ahead and family pictures taken at Wheeler Farm. Here's a "preview" of what the REAL photos MIGHT look like… I'll post tthe real photos here when we get them. It was the first time we have ALL been together in about 2 1/2 years.

Another treat was having my Grandmother Cogdill (my mom's mom) and my Grandpa Ben down with us. They parked their large RV on the side of my house and stayed for a few nights. On Sunday, my mother made a FANTASTIC "pre" Thanksgiving dinner and we all pigged out. We had to borrow a few tables and 16 chairs from the church to make sure we had enough seats for all of us. While my Grandmother was here, we snapped this photo of 4 generations of girls… Great Grandma, Grandma, Momma (Holly), and baby McKenzie.

… and while we were together, I hired my father, brothers, and brother-in-law (for free) to help me FINALLY build my deck on the back of the house. With my father manning the saw and the rest of us watching… er screwing down boards, we knocked it out pretty quick. We used most of the old wood from the old sun room that was on the back of my house (that I tore off last May) so I was able to put in a GREAT DECK for about an 1/8th of the cost of a brand new deck.

Half way through, my dad said something to the effect, "Man, I wish I started a construction company with all these boys I have around". I don't know about that… some of us still subscribe to the threat he all gave us as children: "If you ever pick up a hammer, I'll break your arm." - You could tell we didn't know the first thing about hammering a nail… but we sure could drive a screw with the screw gun! It snowed before I could get decent shot of the finished product, but I will post one just as soon as it melts.

It was a fun weekend… everything from playing scrabble, to staying up late and talking, to dinner at Johnny Carino's, to ice skating downtown, to riding the Trax train was all good times. I'm sure it will be something we all remember fondly. Can't wait for the next big get-to-gether! … maybe I'll put that addition on my house!

Almost 24 hours after Sage and I returned from our Alaskan cruise, I jumped on a plane to Chicago to see my brother Ian in Michigan. Why fly into Chicago? Because it was half the price of flying into Detroit. Weird huh? It all worked out though because my good friend Rob Jarvis (see the Who's Wrinkle page of my blog) lives in Kenosha WI, about an hour north of Chicago. He swung down, picked me up from the Chicago Midway airport and then drove us to Grand Rapids Michigan where my brother Ian was waiting for us. The next morning we all went fly fishing in North Western Michigan…

 … Okay, so we didn't go fly fishing right away. First we drove around Western Michigan looking for everything from a fly shop (for advice and flies), to a Best Buy (so Rob could buy a new laptop), to a new place to stay that was close to all the action. We finally got on the water in time for some late afternoon/dinner time fishing. SIDE NOTE: I brought my laptop so I could do some work at night while on the trip… but I forgot my freaking power cord! I tried to find a new power cord or adapter for my laptop at a few computer stores and Best Buy to no avail. It appears I bought the only laptop in the world that has such a weird power adapter that NOBODY creates a universal adapter to fit it. I was SOL the whole trip.

We started out on the Pere Marquette river ("the PM") as the locals call it. I could see some big fish in there, but they were too smart for us. The next day we decided to go a bit further north to the Manistee river just below the Tippy Dam. We didn't have much luck there either, but Rob and I both caught 1 small trout each. That night though… we stayed on the river until about midnight watching the locals throw out gigantic treble spoons to snag salmon… and boy did they snag em! We watched several guys haul in 25lb salmon and then turn around and let them free. We tried our luck, but didn't snag anything but a few zebra mussels. Zebra mussels are weird… they are like little clams that actually "bite" down on your hook if it comes across them.

After our adventures up north, Rob had to hit the road and go back to work so Ian and I headed to Lansing where Ian and Natalie live. However, on the way there, we hit a little river called the Flat river. We found an ANCIENT covered bridge and fished until dark. As much as we'd like to have caught the big trout we could see sleeping on the bottom, we had to settle for small and large mouth bass… but boy were they biting! We caught about 25 fish each and had a blast. Granted, the biggest whale of the day was about 12 inches, but it was fun nonetheless.

After spending the night at Ian and Nat's in Lansing, Ian took me on a tour of downtown Lansing. We saw a few of his school buildings (Cooley School of Law), Michigan State University, and Oldmobile stadium where the Lansing Lugnuts baseball team plays. After our short tour of Lansing, we drove down to Battle Creek and caught a train to Chicago… after all, I had to get there somehow to fly home.

The train ride was interesting… A lot like a plane only with more leg room. If I had a power cord for my laptop, I could have plugged it into the wall next to my seat. Why don't planes have A/C plugs on them? We arrived into Chicago's Union Station and then walked down to a Holiday Inn where we were to spend then night. We had time, so we walked around downtown, had dinner, and then wandered around a huge pare where a gianormous latino festival was being held. We saw a big colorful fountain called the Buckingham Fountain, had some icecream, then wandered the streets back to the hotel.

The next morning, I caught an "L" train to the airport and came home. It was nice to sleep in my own bed for a change. A HUGE thanks to Rob (who paid for our lodging and drove us around the state) and my brother and sister-in-law for letting me come visit and have the wonderful time that I had.

Sage and I had the opportunity to accompany the Knudsen Brothers on (possibly their last) an Alaskan cruise! Big thanks goes out to them for a) letting us come b) being the stud performers they are and putting on 4 great shows… and c) letting me rebuild their website (www.sixrealbrothers.com )

For those of you who don't know who the Knudsen Brothers are (they are now called "Six"), you are missing out on one of the best singing variety stage acts on the planet. They rock. Here's a few photos from their shows on the ship.

Anyway, as I said before, we went to ALASKA! We flew into Juneau to catch the boat. Did you know you can't drive a car into or out of Juneau? It is completely land locked, so the only way in is via plane or boat.  

Our stops on the trip included Icy Straits and the little town of Hoonah, Ketchikan, Vancouver BC, and Juneau. In Hoonah, there was a guy pulling dungeness crab right out of the water and putting them directly into the steamer… So, of course I had to have one! It was the best crab I have ever had… and a nice old local lady taught me how to properly "clean" the crab so that I don't miss any meat. Holy cow! You get twice as much meat with her cleaning method. It's a secret, but if you want to know how it is done, just ask me. Here's a few shots I took in Hoonah. The bald eagles are like pigeons up there…

Our next stop was Ketchikan. I was super jealous stepping off the tender boat to find a lady fishing from a bridge over the creek in town and hooked into a 15lb salmon! But I kept walking and walking and walking… for a bout 7 miles round trip actually. Curtis and his brother Lynn took me on a GREAT hike up Deer Mountain (pictured first below). The lower part of the mountain is almost like a jungle, complete with ferns. Then, about half way up, you get to a lookout and can see the ocean and land out in the distance below (picture of Curtis and I). As you go higher, the trees get sparse and at the very top it is like an alien landscape like nothing you've ever seen before. a must do if you are ever in Ketchikan.

After Ketchikan, we sailed down the inside passage to Vancouver British Columbia. Sailing in the ocean, watching whales and dolphins with beautiful green mountains on both sides of the ship was truly awesome… even if we had to brave the 50 degree weather up on the top deck. Here's a panoramic shot I took of us traveling the inside passage.

Vancouver British Columbia was our next stop… Okay, technically, Vancouver BC is in Canada, not Alaska, but it was cool just the same. Curtis and his brother Owen took Sage and I on a cab ride to the Grouse Mountain resort. In the winter, the resort has skiing. In the summer it has all kinds of other stuff. We saw people parasailing off the top of the mountain, a bird of prey show, a bear sanctuary, a lumberjack show, and lots of larger than life tree carvings that were absolutely amazing. Oh, and we also saw this dork. If I ever dress like this, SHOOT ME. Here's a few of the shots I took of Grouse Mountain. The picture of the white capped mountain is Mt. Baker. It actually sits in  Washington state USA.

Quite the amazing trip… can't wait to go again and see everything north of Juneau.

That's right… after a 21 year absence, I took the family to Tibble Fork up American Fork Canyon. We even stayed in the beloved Granite Flat campground where we stayed when I was a kid.

The fishing wasn't so good… only caught two fish, but it was better than nothing!

Here's some photos of the trip:

At least that's what the sign said on the way into the state…

On Thursday, July 27th, the boys and I took a trip to McPhee Reservoir near Dolores, Colorado. We met my buddy from Arizona (Myke) and his two children, Zoe and Nolan for a long weekend of fun. Fun included fishing, boating in rubber rafts, riding bikes, eating marshmallows and my favorite: Checking out the "cliff dweller" Indian ruins at Mesa Verde. Did you know there are 600+ cliff ruins on that mesa? It boggles the mind when you are actually there staring down into the canyons full of all the alcoves that house the ruins. Then, there are THOUSANDS of other sites on top of the mesa… and all were strangely vacated about 800 years ago.

As you can see by the pictures, we had lots of fun… and lots of rain. The last night we were there, it rained about an inch and a half on us… not to mention the wind and the marble sized hail that broke up our game of campsite baseball! We all retired to our camp trailer to watch Napoleon Dynamite for the 78th time. On the way home we passed by Moab and the Arches National Monument in Utah. Here's a photo of "Wilson's Arch"… in panorama baby!

Check out this hysterical video of Ethan taking a dip in the lake:
The video is 3.4MB so it may take a minute to start playing once you hit the play button. If you want to just download it, right click HERE and "save target as" to your harddrive.

The morning we left for home we all looked like this: