Going, Going...

We have had quite the wet winter this 2009-2010 season—unusual for Southern Utah! As the weather begins to warm and the last remnants of the white stuff melts away, I wanted to post some ‘before & after’ pictures for posterity (or at least have them someplace other than your dad’s laptop).



Since I haven’t mastered the knack placing labels under pictures, I’ll just have to add some notes under each set of pictures. Here is what it looked like most of the winter: 1) the Franklin’s backyard, 2) our front yard as seen from the driveway and 3) the picnic tables by the overlook.


We had some really wet, sticky snow many times. I’d never seen it stay together like this before! That’s 7 or 8” of snow that folded over on itself without falling apart!


The Meadow (or dry lakebed) up the road from us for some reason always gets more weather than we do here at the park. At the most, there was several feet down there, covering the wooden fence rails in places. More than once this winter, someone has tried to drive down in there only to find it was a bad idea!


I got to go up on Cedar Mountain in the snowcat with your dad again this year. The building in the upper right is a ranger residence at Cedar Breaks National Monument; the machine in the lower portion is one of the snowplows that they use to clear the highway up on the mountain. The evening we were there, he was clearing a fresh wall of snow for some Boy Scouts who were digging snowcaves at the state road shed. From the video, you can see that thing can fling some snow!

Now the snow is nearly gone, at least here at the house.

In the five winters we have been here, we have never seen so much heavy, wet snow that stayed in the trees. These are only a very few of the many trees damaged by the weight and strain of so much snow—sometimes it sucks to be an evergreen!

This is what the Meadow looked like this afternoon as I was coming home from church. With Easter weekend coming up, there is a concern if the Meadow is going to be one muddy quagmire for campers next week. The snow has melted relatively quickly lately, but right now, it is one big mud puddle down there! The BLM rangers are thinking of posting a sign, “Enter at your own risk”!! It could be ugly...

So April will soon be here, followed by summer. I honestly have looked forward to each snowstorm as they came, just for the fun of watching it pile up! Of course, I wasn’t the one who had to shovel the walks all over the campground, so Dad likely has a different opinion…

Here’s to the Winter of 2009-2010—thanks for the memories!!

Mom

The smouldering aftermath

We celebrated Finnley's first birthday on Sunday with a little family party. There was, of course, cake. Here's the happy one-year-old after enjoying most of his very own piece (with a little serenading by Aaron in the background).

One more time

I just thought I'd let you guys know that I'm going through the process of donating bone marrow again. Actually they want to do a different process this time where I'm treated with a drug (Filgrastim) that causes me to produce an abundance of stem cells that are then filtered out of my blood. You can read more here: LINK. The recipient is a 64 year old male with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. The procedure is tentatively scheduled for the 3rd week in March. Hopefully it will all go well.

-Bryce

Happy Valentine

Dad here. I'm not sure how to explain this, but I'll try. Last month when I was up grooming snowmobile trails on Cedar Mountain, I was listening to a CD I'd made. On it was a song I've known and liked for more than 30 years, but for some reason I haven't heard (or at least really listened to) for a number of years. Anyway, it really struck a chord with me that night and I've kind of wanted to share it with you all since then. This seems to be an appropriate time for that, so I hope you'll excuse a little personal feelings on this public forum. The song is "Beautiful" by Gordon Lightfoot.

At times I just don't know

How you could be anything but beautiful

I think that I was made for you

And you were made for me

And I know that I won't ever change

We've been friends through rain or shine

For such a long, long time.

Laughing eyes and smiling face

It seems so lucky just to have the right

Of telling you with all my might

You're beautiful tonight

And I know that you won't ever stray

Cause you've been that way from day to day

For such a long, long time

And when you hold me tight

How could life be anything but beautiful?

I think that I was made for you

And you were made for me

And I know that I won't ever change

We've been friends through rain or shine

For such a long, long time.

Well, I must say it means so much to me

To be the one who's telling you

I'm telling you, that you're beautiful.

Like I said, for some reason the words and feelings of the song just struck me especially hard that night on the mountain. Many thanks to Mr. Lightfoot. I don't usually make a big deal of things, but I wanted you all to know how much I love my wife and what a great blessing she has been in my life. She's the very best. I hope you all have a good Valentines day and that your Valentine is as special to you as mine is to me.

Typical Aaron

Him: "Hello."
Me: "Hi."
Him: "How are you?"
Me: "Good. Very good. In fact, I am... content. Are you content?"
Him: "I will not be content until I rule the WOOOOORRRRLD!"

A note to Sarah.

This is for my sister. I like her a lot. She makes me smile, especially today. Why do I love my Sarah? Let's find out...

She plays with me sometimes.

She reads me stories and gives me memories.

1. She's silly like me. 2. She won't get mad that I put this on a blog post.

Let's face it... she's absolutely gorgeous.

She lets me be her sidekick.

She is my friend.

She loves me, too.

Je t'aime, mon souer.

To: Aunt Rachelle, From: Pyper

"Thank you! It almost made me cry."

Christmas Post (finally)

Dad here. Sorry it took so long to do this, but you know me. We had a wonderful visit with Sarah and Aaron and the kiddles at Christmas. I found a few pics to share and some thoughts on them as well.

We were able to stay with Keith and Rachelle on Wednesday night (thank you!) and we all visited Temple Square that night (above pic). Mom had to work the morning of Christmas eve, but was able to do it in the Salt Lake office, so we were able to get to the Hillgroves fairly early in the evening. It was fun to surprise the kids. After the Christmas Eve goodies, we got to do the whole "Night Before Christmas" tradition with them. Pyper and Hakan opened their Christmas PJs and went to bed. Not necessarily to sleep. Patiently waiting. ?
Jennifer's cruise packet
New wheels for Pyper and Hakan

Everyone got into the act.

It was a great weekend and we all had a good time. I was even able to get in a visit with my cousin Kevin Clegg and his wife Jill who live in Boise. He is Aunt Elaine's son who is about my age and we used to have a good time together when we'd visit as kids. Thank you, Hillgroves for letting us come - we had a good time. Hope all the rest of you had a good Christmas as well. Wish we could all get together more often. Love, Dad

Surprise Christmas guests

I'm not going to post any pictures from Christmas here because I'm sure Dad's are much better. Instead I'll (attempt to) put up the video of when Mom, Dad and Jennifer arrived at our house on Christmas Eve. Somehow Aaron and I managed to keep the secret for a month so the kids didn't know they were coming. Mom called as they were getting close to the house to let us know they were nearby, and to tell the kids Merry Christmas so they'd think they were still far away in Utah.




Pyper later told Mom that at first she thought they were just people dressed up as Grandma, Grandpa and Jennifer. I guess it took her little brain a second to process that they were actually standing at our door. :)

The Heart of a Champion

A couple years ago, a young deer in the prime of his life was jogging down the street near the brush where he lived. He was training for his big chance to join the football team. He had been training all year. Unfortunately, one neglectful deer plus one speeding car equals disaster. The poor little guy's dreams of becoming a star wide receiver and of course his leg, were shattered. He was immediately rushed to the nearest deer hospital where the deer doctor made quick work off making him look like a pirate so the other deers wouldn't mess with him. So now, after extensive rehabilitation, our little furry hero can hobble and limp like a pro. It's true that his dreams of being the next Jerry Rice are (and pretty much always were) out the window, but at least he's home now and making the best of it.

THE END

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered,
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives,
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies,
Succeed anyway.

The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight,
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you help them,
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth,
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

this was found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta. it was also found in the envelope i received from a mysterious stranger at the DI in St. George, along with a $100 bill. after asking some questions, i learned that this is a regular occurance around Christmas time at DI. the motive? to spread the Christmas spirit. this is the first year i have ever had a hard time getting into Christmas, and this little thing has thrown me in head first. what am i going to do with it? i haven't decided yet. i just know that it has literally changed my whole perspective of what Christmas is about. i realize that sounds hokey and stereotypical, but i mean... what would you do if this happened to you, hmm?

just something to think about...

Bloopers

It's hard to take pictures with kids. This is no revelation to me. But taking pictures with kids alone? Well, that's not just hard- it's nearly impossible.

On Wednesday I decided to drive myself crazy, I mean, take some pictures of the kids and I for Aaron. He'd been saying that he wanted some updated ones for his office to replace the ones we gave him for Father's Day last year. Can you believe how much these kids have changed since then? Scary!

I got everyone all spiffy and set up a little photo shoot in the bonus room. I set the camera on the ottoman, put a mirror behind that so I could see the back of the camera so I didn't have to keep crawling behind it between shots to reset the timer, AND so I could see what we all looked like when everyone was in front of the camera. Trouble was, I kept looking at the mirror to keep an eye on everyone and so in most of the shots I wasn't looking AT THE CAMERA. DOH!

I had the camera set to "rapid shot" so it'd take like 4 or 5 photos in succession in hopes of getting a reasonably good one in a short amount of time. Oohhh, was I ever naive. That baby of mine would crawl away the instant I put him down, so as soon as I pressed the button the self timer gave me 10 seconds to grab him, sit down, and situate the kids and myself. It was... um, a struggle. Just like last year, I ended up with over 100 photos, with very few that were any good.

Here are a few of the many, many outtakes.

Not quiiiite fast enough.

Finnley was easily distracted from the camera- and my head got cut off a lot. Dang it, the other kids look so cute, too!

A good picture, except I didn't notice that Finn had snagged something to gnaw on.

Pushing the baby's head towards the camera does not work.

In fact, there is no good way to force a baby to look at a camera if he really doesn't want to. Meanwhile, the camera has gotten nudged and is now no longer pointing straight.

Hakan doesn't feel like smiling anymore, and the camera is now waaaay off center.

Good photo! But I over corrected the camera. *forehead slap*

Finnley becomes sad, so Mommy becomes sad, too.

Hakan can't seem to smile real to save his life for his individual photos.

And now Finnley WANTS to be in the picture. Hakan thinks this is hilarious.

Attempting a sibling photo...

...with unsuccessful results.

Pyper took charge of the camera for a minute.


Finally, here are the photos we ended up using (with a little editing using Picasa).





I couldn't decide which of Finnley's I liked better, so I printed two.



Hakan and Pyper were great. They were so patient and cooperative and didn't get cranky even after hearing me say, "Stay put!" and "Again!" over and over and over.

I printed these as 8x10's and gave them to Aaron as an early Christmas present the other night. I will be sending some to the Grandmas & Grandpas, and all the Greats as well, probably as 5x7's. If anyone else would like some just let me know.

Wishing You Were Here

Where are all my big, strong, strapping, snowshovel-wielding sons when I need them? As you can see from the above photo, last weekend we got about 15 inches of snow, the temperatures have dropped down close to zero so it wouldn't melt, and there is more snow falling and lots more on the way. Shoveling, plowing and snowblowing all that snow has not been a fun event. Driving has been fun, too. At least they are plowing the roads for us this year. I went up on Cedar Mountain and groomed snowmobile trails for the first time this year. So far, there's about 2 1/2 feet of snow up there. Anyway, just thought I'd share and let you know I was thinking of you during all this fun. When Ryan and Curtis were here, Curtis got a kick out of seeing a bit of snow up on Cedar Mountain when we drove over there. He should see me now! Looks like it will be a white Christmas here. Happy Holidays and hope you all have a good Christmas in case I don't get around to doing this again before Christmas gets here. Love, Dad