September 2007 - California Trip
Part i
Over the next week I hope to post what will likely be a four-part video-log of our California trip. Enjoy and stay tuned!
Uncategorized
-
New Wheels
Sorry about the xanga hiatus. With our California trip last week and catch-up this week things have been hopping. Don't have photos ready of our trip yet but here are some shots of our new family car the purchase of which we decided to squeeze into an already mind-numbingly busy day last Monday (the 10th). We had been researching vehicles for several weeks and found two of what we wanted at the price we wanted - the only problem being that one was in Texas and the other was in Ohio or some other far off state. Then, as Liesl was cruising main street she saw one in a local dealer's lot. She pulled in, asked about it - turns out it wasn't the one we wanted but they had one of the models we did want in St. George. They drove it up, we test drove it and bought it. It's a 2007 Yukon with 19k miles with lots of fun snazzy things inside and we got it for $5k under blue book. We drove it down to Cali and back and I, for one, am looking forward to needing its 4x4 and towing capabilities. For now, the Odyssey is serving as my commuter car which we'll probably trade straight across or something for something more appropriate in the next few months.
-
Two Firsts for Joseph
This was a big Sunday for Joseph. Last week he was ordained a deacon and this week was his first time passing the sacrament. Liesl, Joseph and I exchanged glances several times as he did his little route around the chapel. Major parental moments!! Then, Joseph took his place on the stand to give his first sacrament meeting talk. It went fabulously if I do say so my-biased, parental-self. The subject he was assigned was something he admired about Joseph Smith. It just so happens that Joseph has spent a lot of time studying the life of Joseph Smith and church history. Liesl gave him guidance on the basic outline of a talk and some pointers along the way. Joseph decided that he admired Joseph Smith's ability to forgive others even when they committed terrible wrongs against him. He shared a story about W.W.Phelps and added the Book of Mormon story about how Nephi forgave his brothers repeatedly. He delivered his talk from memory and looked at the audience the whole time. It was awesome. He got tons of positive feedback from ward members. Between really enjoying his first time passing the sacrament and having a great first-talk experience he was on a high all day.
Joseph built a psuedo podium to practice his talk at.
I recorded this practice session of his talk as he delivered it to his mother and I on Saturday:
In other new, Lizzy has been making timid steps into the walking world. Here are some steps caught on video:
Saturday, the Elders Quorum went up the mountain to cut firewood for needy ward members. Here are some photos of the event. Brian Bairett and I ran the chainsaws (I didn't get any footage of my chainsawing prowess. Photos of Brian will have to do.)
The local lumber companies create these big "slash piles" hither and yon as they harvest timber. The piles contain left-over wood they couldn't use - excellent for firewood! This is the pile we worked on. It's the biggest I've tackled so far.
We used a four wheeler with a winch mounted on front to pull logs out of the stack and down close to the trailers for easy cutting and hawling.
This is Brian using a $900 Stihl saw. We had two of those and one smaller saw whose name I can't pronounce or spell. A thing of beauty. Note the saftey glasses, ear protection and Kevlar chaps. Brian takes good care of us all and makes sure things are done right.
We loaded up a flatbed without sides with a bunch of logs for cutting later and a 16 foot trailer with cut wood. In all, we brought about 2 1/2 cords down the mountain. In a few weeks we'll reconvene with a hydraulic splitter to split and deliver the wood. We may go back up for another trip or two. We hardly made a dent on this particular pile. Good times.
Other than that, we are heading to California tomorrow for a Disneyland jaunt. Monday t'will be a killer day. I have a breakfast meeting at 7:30am. Then I'm rushing over to teach a class at Joseph's school from 10:00am to noon. From 1:00-4:00pm I'll be off to the school for back to back meetings with each of the directors I oversee at the college. All this time Liesl will be working like a wild woman to get everything packed and ready to go. At 4:00pm she will pick me up at the college and we'll head to Vegas where we'll stay the night at Pam and Brian's. Tuesday morning we head to the Southland. Bon Voyage!
-
Birthday Week!
A couple days ago we finished up the annual birthday week at our house. Katrina turned 10 last Tuesday. Joseph turned 12 on Saturday and Monday was my turn to use the "it's your special day" plate. Here are some photos from the week!
Family tradition dictates that one present be opened in the morning - usually the birthday cereal box. On the right, the rest of the family opened gifts kindly sent by Serra & Rich in commemoration of birthday week. For some reason I was given a thick book on humor... a hint, perhaps, that lengthy instruction is required if there is to be any hope of salvaging my warped sense of humor.
Katrina opens a present from G.
A cool hand-made kaleidoscope with inlaid wood from G & G Arnell.
Random moments with Lizzy
Katrina received a beautiful doll
Georgianna gets tickled by...
...her father, who is a mild-mannered college administrator by day and a fiendish tickle-monster by night.
Here's Joseph before opening his presents and after having opened the first - which was a fishing vest from Uncle Jeff.
Lizzy enjoys the birthday festivities. Joseph gets his first suit!
G & G Arnell came down from Logan for Joseph's ordination on Sunday and Jeff & Maren came up from Vegas. We enjoyed many hours of delightful meals, conversation and Halo.
While the rest of us were eating dinner, G appeared on the back porch after gathering the afternoon eggs in her shirt without breaking a single one.
Birthday cake in our house means "Oreo Pie." Yum!
On Sunday Joseph received the Aaronic priesthood and was ordained a deacon. This day represents a huge starting-a-new-chapter in Joseph's life and for our family.
Monday was my birthday and here are some pics of the day. Baby's crying, gotta type fast...
The kids know me well and gave me the essentials; M&Ms, Mother's Circus Cookies and a renewed fishing license.
In the morning we saw Jeff & Maren off on their return trip to Vegas and then we headed to the Iron County Fair with Mom & Dad Arnell. Jacob asked me to go on this crazy centrifuge ride with a sadistic operator that kept us going forever. I was begging for mercy and was weeping for joy when the ride began to slow to a stop - only to have him start the ride in reverse for another couple minutes. I was sick for several hours afterwards. I guess this means I'm officially old. Happy birthday!
Monday night Liesl took me to see Bourne Again, I mean, Ultimatum which I really enjoyed. We celebrated birthday dinner Tuesday night with Lizzy watching the grill from the living room window.
-
For FHE on Monday we went to the Greenshow at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Always fun.
Our chickens are in the full swing of things, producing up to 20 eggs a day...
Lucky got a trim. It was sorely needed, but now he looks...pretty sore.
One of Lizzy's favorite passtimes - emptying the dishwasher soap on the floor.
On Friday, Joseph and I went on a hike to "the Lion's Mouth" located about 20 minutes from our home. This short hike takes you to an overhang filled with old Indian pictographs.
Here's the view of Pine Valley from within the overhang (shown above).
The hike was part of the kick-off celebration for the one-day-a-week private school cooperative Joseph will be attending and where I will be teaching one class a week.
Saturday we went to a BBQ at the Cook's home - friends in our ward. Here is a picture of some of the foam swordplay we engaged in. The kids ganged up on me and vanquished my pitifulness.
Here's some video of Georgianna dancing Friday night and a quick clip or two of the Saturday night swordplay.
(Liesl here) A note on Georgianna's astute understanding of the world. This morning she observed that she cannot wait to be a Mom. Her reasons were that Mom's get to go to Disneyland whenever they want, they get to spank kids, they get to hug kids and tell them "I love you," they get to make cookies, pancakes and dough for people to eat. Hmmmmmmmm. Did we miss anything?
(Gary back) In other news, on Monday I was offered the position of Vice President of Administration at George Wythe College. Tuesday evening Liesl and I went out to dinner with the college CEO and we accepted the position. The rest of the week has been a whirlwind and I'm still in a daze. Basically, I will be responsible for all things administrative at the Cedar City campus. I will oversee finance, admissions, registrar, public relations, seminars & events, press, youth camps, etc. There is a lot of work to be done and I consider it a great privilege and an honor to be entrusted with such a responsibility. This will mean more time on campus and travel so we've decided we need a second car, sooner rather than later. This will be a busy week as we work to transition responsibilities from the CEO - Wednesday is the first day of school at the college and starting Tuesday we will have three birthdays in one week. Here's to keeping busy!!!
-
Day Camp at Yankee Meadows
Liesl has been doing an insect unit with the kids for school. To cap off the event we made a day trip to a local mountain areacamp ground called Yankee Meadows. Here are some pics and video from the day!
Katrina and G run for the trees.
Camping supplies ready to go. Lizzy enjoys her tent enclosement
Exploring and Dutch oven dinner.
Fishing (no luck). Lizzy enjoys a graham cracker.
S'mores all around!
Video of the day
-
PROVERBIAL DOG DAY:
#1 HE TORE UP MY ONE AND ONLY FLOWER POT, STREWING EVERYTHING INTO AN UNSALVAGABLE PILE
#2 SOMEHOW HE FOUND THE ONE PIECE OF PAPER IN THE HOUSE THAT HE SHOULD NOT HAVE AND HE ATE IT UP. WHAT WAS THE PAPER? ONLY A CHECK FOR $2500 WE WERE SUPPOSED TO DEPOSIT TODAY.
AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGG!
-
Georgianna turned 4 years old today! Here are some photos from the day:
Birthday cake enjoyed by all.
In the photo on the left, G is holding a tithing bank in the shape of a rocket constructed from toilet paper roll, built with love by her brother Jacob. On the right, Lizzy regales us with her feats of daring chair balancing skills.
Here's some video from the day:
-
Amigos Campout - July 2007
This post is belated. At the end of July we ran up to Logan for several days of family, friends and fun! The 1st Annual "Amigos Campout" was held at the home of Brian & Eleve Dickey in Hyde Park. Five families formerly from the Camarillo 1st Ward who have since moved to Utah or Idaho got together to reminisce, catch up and eat! We all pitched tents and spent the night. Great fun!
Pictured scattered throughout are the Snyders, Dickeys, Yeates, Clarkes, Arnells and Seibolds. Good people.
Not much photo taking got done, but the kids got to ride horses in the Dickey's pasture. Pictured above is Katrina and her bosom friend Paige Snyder.
Georgianna LOVED riding a horse.
Mom & Dad Arnell were gracious to put us up in their Spring Creek home. We spent an afternoon at Crystal Hot Springs (home of the first girl-asks-the-guy date Liesl and I went on in our courtship days) in their pools and water slide. We also spent an afternoon at the Logon Rec Pool. Way fun - too fun, in fact, to stop and take any pictures. Of course, we enjoyed an evening at Julie and Jared's with the fam. Pictured above is Lizzy getting a bite of her first sour apple.
Sunday we had a WONDERFUL time with Darci's family at their cabin up Logan Canyon. We had a way-tasty BBQ and a rousing game of horse shoes, my first, at which no one caught my ringer on video! No evidence for posterity.
Maybe it was two ringers... or was it three?
In other news, The Middle Three prepared a play - Little Red Riding Hood. Their opening performance was so cute I made them do it again so I could catch it on video. Enjoy!
Recent Comments