Your Thing Magazine (Too Funny!)

I found this today. Allison made it I think yesterday...












My scan went bad on this last page. It is an 'index' page...

Guy's Trip to Moab

We started our countdown timers somewhere around 52 days and the next thing I knew we were on the road. We left a day earlier this year, leaving on Wed around 6pm. With the jeep hooked up to Tony and Jason's RV we headed down I70. We made it to Fruita where we parked in a truck stop and got some sleep. Early the next morning we finished up the trip to Moab.

We first found a camping spot along the river, unhooked the jeep and headed to Fins And Things. On our way up to the trail head we found a FANTASTIC camping spot up the road above Hell's Revenge. After Fins we headed back to the RV on the river, hooked the jeep back up and moved spots.

Fins And Things is a pretty tame trail. The highlight is definitely Kenny's Climb, which is a VERY steep, bumpy, short climb. After a few practice 'tuck and rolls' Tony and I headed up. The front of the jeep got very light, but we made it without any trouble.

After we got the RV moved (and after Fins) we headed to town for a quick bite to eat then Jason and I headed out to 7 Mile Rim. We did this trail 'backwards', mostly in the dark. Again a pretty mild trail but it was super fun (and cold) doing it at dark.

The next morning the three of us just hung out at the RV and played some 31. Around 3ish we packed everything up, hit the grocery store for some food and started our Golden Spike night run. We were hoping to make it to the Crack before dark, but we missed that by a couple hours. This trail at night was amazing. I honestly don't know if I've ever seen so many stars or the Milky Way so clearly. We ended up getting off the trail around 3am and headed straight to Denny's. This is where the quote of the trip comes in..."I loved four wheeling till about 1" -- Tony. Tony fell asleep in the back of the jeep (not an easy feat) bobbing all around and eventually smacking his head on the cooler!

This brings us to Saturday. We slept in pretty late, then Jason and I headed to Cliff Hanger while Tony hung out a camp and was going to go for a hike on Fins. Cliff hanger was a blast (last year we broke the rear driveshaft) and we ran the entire trail with no breakage and no winching required. The second to last obstacle is really nasty, but Jason hit it hard and cruised right up with an audience to boot.

After Cliff Hanger we headed back to camp; Tony was no were to be found. We eventually found him walking down the road in the dark using his cell phone as a flashlight!

We had planned on doing Porcupine Rim on Sunday before heading home, but we got up way too late, so instead we just hit the T-Shirt shop and then the road. It was a pretty quick trip home as we pulled in around 9pm.


Again, it was a great trip to Moab. The highlight was certainly Tony's comment at Denny's, with the only bummer being averaging 5.6 miles per gallon in Willis!!

We have more pictures here and lots of videos here!

End of Summer Rockies Game

(Todd Helton waving at us)

We spend most of the day on Monday (Labor Day) at the Rockies game.  We got there a coupl hours early and caught batting practice (nope, didn't get a ball) then headed over to our seats.  These were the best seats we've had yet!  Section 120 Row 10.  We did the usual hotdog and nacho thing and drank tons of water.  It was HOT out. 

The game was amazing.  In typical Rockies fashion we came back at the end to beat the Reds.  After the game Johnny got his glove signed by Dinger!

My poor wife!

Last night Melissa worked at the Rockies game as a cheer fundraiser. She left the house at 2:45pm and got home just after midnight. Nine and a half hours on her feet cooking/serving pizza’s at one of the many concession stands. Hourly rate when it is was all done: $4.34. She was scheduled to work another 20 some odd games over the next four weeks…However after having to massage her feet and ankles at 4:30 this morning I don’t think she is going to go back. (Or more to the point, I’m not letting her go back!)

Johnny's Court of Honor

Last night was Johnny's quarterly Court of Honor (Boy Scouts). We are SOOO proud of him! He earned his:

First Aid merit badge
Rock Climbing merit badge
TENDERFOOT Rank!

Next step, Second Class!!

After getting his merit badges



Putting on his mom's pin


After his rank advancment

Kelly Flats Jeepin' Trip

Allison, Shawn and I ran Kelly Flats on Saturday. Kelly Flats is up Poudre Canyon (Colorado) about 25 miles. It only has two named obstacles, Heart Attack Hill and The Chutes, but they were both fun. When we got to the Chutes I was actually thinking about bypassing it, but a group of people showed up so I had an audience! We made it through with just some new scratches in the fender flare on the driver's front. At one point the Jeep leaned into the rock wall, but fortunately my driver's slider was hit first!

After the Chutes we stopped for a quick picnic then started moving again. There were some fun mud holes (I hate mud, but these were fun) that dang near came in the jeep.

After wards we headed to Poncho's and had a great lunch!

Fishing Barr Lake (Melissa is awesome!)

We had another fun trip out at Barr Lake. Melissa, Johnny, Allison, Sadie and I spent an evening fishing. Melissa ended up being the 'big winner' pulling in 3 nice trout. I didn't fish (lucky for her); I just helped out the kids and her... When Melissa caught her first fish she had a good fight on her hands. Once she got it close to the boat it jumped out of the water and took off! She handed the pole to me and started screaming/laughing!! Maybe you had to have been there but it was very funny.

Her second fish she let Allison pull it in, she was grinning from ear to ear :-)


(Allison wanting to pet the fish)


(Allison after she pulled it in!)

Fishing at Barr Lake

We finally caught a couple fish at Barr Lake this morning. I first pulled in a 15" rainbow that, at the time, looked HUGE. However a few minutes later Ryan pulled in a 21" rainbow. Mine then looked like a minnow! Anyway, these are the first two fish brought into OTIS!

Easter Jeep Safari 2009

Just got back from Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, UT. This is my fifth year going, but unfortunatly Melissa and the kids had a conflict. So, Jason and I headed out first thing Wendsday morning and wheeled until Monday. We have detailed write ups of all our adventures on the pictures and video pages, check them out!!

Pictures
Videos

Johnny's Basketball Season

Johnny finished up the basketball season a couple weeks ago. While they didn't win a game, the team certainly showed a lot of improvement throughout the season. He was named 'Defensive Player of the Season', which he was very proud of.

Alli Cheer Team

Alli is on the Mini Level 2 competitive cheer team for Cheer Central Suns. They took team pictures a few weeks ago - can you find her? :-)

Johnny's Tower Project

Johnny’s 5th grade class had a science-engineering project to build a weight bearing tower. How fun is that! So, the first thing we did was talk to Jason and he drew us a great design in CAD.

After a couple weeks of procrastination, we finally got started. Gluing up the popsicle sticks to make the legs, floors and braces took forever…well, the construction did too! But Johnny and I had a ton of fun doing it together.


Each corner leg is 6 ply, the top and bottom floors are 4 ply and all the bracing is 3 ply. We drilled and pegged (with skewers) each joint, then wrapped the joint with kite string and smeared glue over the string. It was really fun to watch the tower get stronger with each brace we added.

There are two categories in the competition up for grabs. 1. The tower that supports the most weight. 2. The best tower weight to load capacity ratio. We’ll find out in a couple weeks how we did! Unfortunately, Johnny will be out of town the night of the competition, so we’ll find someone to video it for us.


Here are some fun facts:
1. Over 1200 popsicle sticks
2. Over 100 yards of string
3. Over 12 feet of skewers
4. 32 ounces of Elmer’s wood glue
5. Over 30 hours of work!

Spring Break Castle Project

Today is the last day of Spring Break 2009 for the kiddos and me. While we did not have any vacation plans because of our two upcoming trips in 10 days (the kids and I are going to LA for a week and John is going to Moab for Easter Jeep Safari - more blogs in the future on these two trips), we did have a great and relaxing time at home.

But......this Spring Break included two very BIG school projects for the kids. Johnny had an engineering science project, complete with an actual tower built out of popsicle sticks, skewers, glue, and string and a poster board explaining the construction of his tower, and a paper. John and Johnny spent over 30 hours over the last week building the tower (our kitchen is in shambles!).....it's amazing....I'll let John write up a more detailed blog on this project.


Allison had a castle project - she had to build a castle that looked like a castle from the Middle Ages, along with a paper. Alli's project is amazing too! John and Alli built the castle out of big and small marshmallows, toothpicks, rocks, glue, construction paper, popsicle sticks, paint, and markers. And she had to mark at least 10 details of the castle (and to be the over-achiever that she is - she marked all 16 details that were given) with 'flags' that we printed out and she cut and glued to toothpicks, and then hot-glued to their places.

John and Alli spent about 5 hours working on her castle, and then I helped her for another 2 hours for a total of 7 hours spent on building it. Notice the beautiful placement of the rocks around the castle - she did such a great job placing each pebble to represent the 'rocky ledges' that were around castles in the Middle Ages. The 'moat' - she cut out the paper herself - she drew the black lines on the castle to represent the 'arrow loops' - I can go on and on....

Both kids worked on their entire projects and although we helped them out - they were apart of each building step and we can truly say that these projects were theirs, not ours, and they did it - with our help - but THEY did it. John and I are so proud of them and we know that they will always remember their projects that they worked so hard on and be proud of themselves for this. And for all of the family time we spent together this past week - working together - helping each other - just being a family - I know I will always remember it!


Do you remember your school projects that you did? And how proud of yourself you were for the success of them? I remember mine - the most vivid one was the 'Insect Project' I did in 5th grade - my mom still has the report today.

Although we got a fairly big snow storm over Spring Break and really only went out a few times, I would have to say that it was such a great break for us - for all four of us - I just love hanging with the three most important people in my life. And with the dogs - they loved us just being home and hanging out too! I hope everyone's Spring Break was just as great!

Johnny's Class Song

Johnny and his 5th grade class recorded a song for a CD for the organization "Up With People" - which they will be producing and distributing and selling around the world. Listen to the first rough version of the song!

Listen Here
Download Here

Welcome to our blog site

To keep up with the Bloggers (or to come into the 21st Century) I've added this blog to our site. Hopefully we will keep it up to date and you will enjoy the stories of our day to day lives.