Wakeboarding according to Todd

Last week a friend of mine from Rexburg, Rosalyn, invited us to go wakeboarding with her, her husband (Brayden), his dad, and his cousin (Whitney). Unfortunately, Kristen had to work that day so I had to go without her. (although she's not much of a water person anyway) Anyhoo....the weather was fantastic and I was psyched to go for the first time. That was until I found out that I was the only one who hadn't done this before. In fact, when Brayden went first, I felt less inclined to "show my stuff".

Until he did this.

Apparently Whitney had never been able to clear the wake before. Until now. (look at her face at the end)

This is kinda what MY experience was like.

It probably didn't help that my feet were a thousand times too big. But I digress. All in all it was a fun time and I hope I get to try it again. I will leave you now with a few pictures of some flying rats.

Our Baby's Gone To College

Well, today we got Jennifer to Cedar City and settled into her dorm room at SUU. She's rooming with Lindy, a girl from our ward and is excited to begin her college career. She's not excited, however to be a freshman again. She hates those feelings. Almost as much as the "first day of school picture" feelings as indicated in the second picture. Mom kept it together pretty well throughout the process and did very minimal crying. At least when anyone else was around.
Jennifer and I took one car in the morning with one load while Mom went to work with the other car load of stuff. When she got off, she headed to Cedar and met up with us, and we moved the rest up to the room. After all kinds of fun (for Mom and Fif) arranging things in the room and finding places for almost everything to live, we said goodbye and left her to it.

Jennifer is pleased with her new bed set...thank you Grandma Anderson for making the quilt!

In all fairness to Jennifer, she was antsy to get to a mandatory meeting when we were taking this picture. She had also had some last minute issues with a non-functioning room key, but Mom had to have the back to school picture.

The weirdness of not having any kids at home to worry about will only last for a week until Kimberly gets home next Thursday. But then the normality of her being home (when it finally feels normal) will end when we take her back up to Rexburg in September and we will be empty nesters for real. sigh.

New Mexico again

Sorry this took so long to get posted. I seem to have had an incentive problem lately. Probably comes from getting back to work after vacation. Anyway, I just wanted to post a few more pictures of our New Mexico trip for you. On Thursday the 5th, I borrowed Popper's Jeep Wrangler and went across the valley and into the mountains to the west to see what the "Who told you about the Falls?" Falls looked like after all the rain they've been getting. It was a fun, but bumpy, trip and I finally found my way up to the falls. They were running pretty strong, and I'm not sure if anyone would have wanted to climb up them this time or not. I know I didn't try. After spending some time and about getting my fill of taking pictures, I heard one big crack of thunder and decided it was time to get myself off the mountain and head for home. I really didn't get into any rain to speak of until I got down to the higway in Cleveland, and about that time, Mom called me and told me not to try and drive up the road into Trumbell Canyon, because they were getting flooded out.

I drove up to the turnoff, and it was sure enough flooding! The wash just to the south of the turnoff had overflowed and overwhelmed the culvert and was flooding across the road. I had to dodge a basketball sized rock that was rolling across the pavement in front of me. Shortly after I crossed the water, the traffic stopped and there were a few brave (or foolhardy) souls who went on through.

This guy in the pickup (below) was trying to pass the FedEx truck in the middle of the water until he saw the car stopped in the oncoming lane. And maybe he spotted the big rock in the road just behing the FedEx truck. Can you see it? What was he thinking? I was afraid the asphalt road was going to wash out, but it ended up OK.

Anyway, a lot of the dirt road coming down from Mommer and Poppers was washing out and getting worse all the time. Below is a picture of a little section just above the gate with the bulldozer parked and waiting for us to put it to work. You can see the water had washed up against the dozer treads at one point. All this happened Thursday afternoon. We had a stake temple trip to Albuquerque scheduled for Friday that couldn't be changed, so it was Saturday before Popper and Iwere able to do anything about the road, and we spent all day on the dozer and backhoe trying to get it smooth enough for me to drive my little, low clearance, Subaru down the road and head for home on Sunday. The high clearance vehicles like their Forester and pickup got up and down with some bumping, but we didn't think our Impreza would make it. We finally ended up driving it down on Saturday night after all the road work and leaving it at the farm. There were a few bumps and a bit of mud on the front bumper, but it went ok - it really IS a Subaru! Then on Sunday morning, after goodbyes, Mommer and Popper drove their Forester to church and we loaded up in the pickup, drove down to the farm, transferred our stuff to our car and hit the road. All in all, an exciting end to our vacation.

And finally a picture of Mom at her birthday dinner at Hatcha's. It was a great vacation and we had a wonderful time. I tried to post a couple of videos of the flooding, but for some reason, the videos wouldn't upload very well, so you'll have to come to our house to see them (hint, hint). The summer is about over. Jennifer leaves for school in 4 days, Kimberly gets home from St. Louis in 11 days and leaves for Rexburg 12 days after that. Time seems to be compressing in an alarming fashion. Which means I should wish Bryce a happy birthday before it whizzes by me. And maybe Sarah as well. You guys quit being lazy like your Dad and put up some posts so we can hear from you. Keith's trip to Montana looked awesome. Bye for now. Dad

GlassEar National Park

I've been meaning to put up some pictures of our trip to Glacier NP for a while now. I like the way Bear Grylls says it, so breath really heavy and say "glass ear" with an English accent. Anyhow, we went up to Montana about three weeks ago and had a blast. This trip was one Rachelle and I have been wanting to take since we looked at a coffee table book at the chiropractor's office several years ago. The weather was beautiful, the drive was long (we learned all of the state capitals and Canadian provinces on the way up - we are so dull), and it was everything we hoped for.

This trail followed the continental divide through the park to a chalet at the top of a ridge. Beautiful.

The marmots would lay out on the rocks and "bark" if you got too close.

Maybe the cutest thing I have ever seen.

More New Mexico

Just some more pictures from New Mexico this week. A couple of the family group pictures we took (I only have a couple because the SD card in my camera is apparently corrupted and most of the ones I took are all screwed up). And a couple of the ones I took on a photography expedition to Fort Union National Monument and La Liendre ghost town. Maybe more later from the ones Mom took on the other camera. Dad.

Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here. Dad

Another one bites the dust (so to speak).

Tuesday, July 27

She couldn't have chosen a more appropriate shirt for the day!

$3 t-shirts + tie-dye kit = SOOO MUCH FUN

I've been feeling kind of guilty that I haven't done many projects with the kids this summer because I've been so busy with my own. So during one of our trips to the craft store I picked up some white tees and a tie-dye kit and let them create.









I know it was torture leaving the shirts alone for 24 hours to let the dye set, but they were very patient. And didn't they turn out AWESOME?!

Back In New Mexico Again!

I got to go to New Mexico again this summer—this time Dad got to come along! We left after I got off work on Thursday and stayed overnight in Farmington, NM, which is halfway. Today, we surprised Mommer by showing up at the mountain house at 3 o’clock this afternoon!

It is pretty wet on the road up to the house; at one place, we felt like we were fording a small stream because of the runoff from all the rain lately! Mommer says that they have been having daily torrential rains here—more water than some locals say that they have seen before! Here are some photos that Mommer took the other day of some ‘waterfalls’ around the house here… Do you recognize where these are pictures of?

It didn't rain today and was quite pretty, actually. The picture below is one that I took today of the pond. The water was running over the road in the storm that Mommer photographed! The water has also backed up behind the small dam that Popper built behind the house. This is a lot of water!!

There is still a steady flow of water running down the mountain, so we have our own natural ‘mountain stream’ white noise to listen to! We are enjoying the cool weather and hope that we don't have to come home in a canoe!

Mom

Latest Update!!

So we're officially moving down to Orem on the 24th. We found an apartment right by campus (UVU) and we're both way excited for the change. This is short but we just wanted everyone to know where we're at with it.

Our Wittle Fif is Gwowing Up!!

I don't have a lot to write so I'm going to let the photos do the talking for me about Fif's big day.

I want to congratulate you again sweetie. You da bestest!!

Moving Plans

Just a little update for those of you who haven't heard, I recently was told that my residency status has been changed in Utah so I'm going to transfer down to Utah Valley University. This last weekend we took a trip down to Orem to look at apartments and for Kristen to interview at the plasma center down there. She got the job and we may have found a good apartment next to campus. We're planning on moving down there either the middle or end of July. We'll keep ya posted.

Pretty Time of Year

Just thought I'd share a few pics of the wildflowers that are going crazy around here right now. We had a good wet winter and the results of all that ground water are starting to show. Hope you like them.



I also wanted to thank those of you who were able to make the trip here for Jennifer's graduation. Mom and I do so appreciate the support you all have for each other and the fun we have together. Makes us feel good. Dad

Dear Family

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that came down/up/out for my graduation last week. It really meant a lot to me that you came, and I had SO much fun! I hope you all thought it was worth it, because I sure did. (:

And also: I love you!

Family reunion

Just in case some of you haven't heard, there is a family reunion for Grandma's family scheduled for July 17 in Provo. We are planning to go up there for it and hope some of you can make it as well. Contact me and I'll give you the details (if I know them). As of right now, it sounds like Grandma, Cheryl, Ryan and (hopefully) Jan will be coming out for the reunion and maybe spending a couple of days with us down here. Just thought I'd give you a heads-up. And maybe a picture for your enjoyment. Dad.