curt & shana's baby garren

payce & gwen at Elite

Payce's place of employment (Elite Security Systems) has a pretty cool building in Orem with Ping Pong, Pool, air-hockey, Foosball, and Wii. Payce and I went over after bowling fell through after the "Nice Knowing you party" for R&R&R. We played a ton of Ping Pong and then Gwen came over and we played about 10 games of Wii Bowling - pretty fun - Thanks Payce!!!

Tubing at Gorgoza Park

We went to the tubing park at Gorgoza Park in Park City, it was pretty fun. The little tow rope that takes you up the hill is way better than hiking! Griff was a tubing monster - going all by himself many many times! He practically passed out in the car on the way home :-D

He also enjoyed telling anyone that would listen for 2 consecutive seconds that he just had his birthday and he was now 5. He didn't understand why he couldn't go on the big hill, and I thought he would actually talk someone into letting him go, I mean what's the difference between 5 and 7, right Griff??? ;-)

The Parking Lot

Getting ready for the first time down the hill!

Heading down the hill on the small tube

Moving up to the big tube

Heading up the Hill on the tow rope!

Taking a break. PHEW!

Griff is 5!!!!!

First off, I can't believe Griff is 5. He's wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese so bad for so long, and I finally relented. I wasn't looking forward to it, the place is SO packed, but we went to Chuck E. Cheese and it was actually really fun! I think all the kids and adults had a good time. Auntie Stacy and Unkie Sean, Auntie Andrea and Unkie Paul with Kaja and Jaxon, Auntie Rylee and Unkie Reece with Ryder, and Auntie Gwen and Unkie Payce. We missed Auntie Amy and Unkie Dave, but they called Griff to wish him a Happy B-Day earlier in the day. Grandma and Grandpa H were there and Auntie Tani and Unkie Kirby with Toree and Kale. We were glad everyone could make it!!!! Without any further ado, here are the pics:

The gang arriving at CEC's

Paul, Sean, Jaxon, Jim, Ryder

Dad and Griff

Stacy and Jaxon

Kaja on a ride!

Grandma H and Aunt Tani

Toree and Kale (Sean, what's up with the eyes???)

Rylee and Ryder (Red Sox Ryder???)

Much of the Gang, Sean finally with his eyes open!

SKEE BALL!!!!!

Thanks Toree and Kale!

Thanks Payce and Gwen!

Thanks Sean and Stacy!

Thanks Paul, Andrea, Kaja, and Jaxon

Thanks Rylee, Reece and Ryder!

Thanks Dad!

Thanks G-ma and G-pa H!

Thanks Dave and Amy!!!

Well there are about 100 more pics, but you get the idea. And I just realized I didn't even get a pic of the giant rat himself! That was a choke. :-D

Happy B-Day Griff!!!!

Cousin Ryder

I just had to post this pic, Reece took it with my new camera and it's hilarious - Ryder does the best faces!

Griffin Bowling!

Griff and I headed down to Fat Cats for some bowling. It was pretty fun. I ran into an old friend from High School - Jason Littledyke and his wife Paige and their 3 boys. Jason looked about exactly the same - only he had a really great haircut (yep, a buzz LOL) anyway, Griff goes up to Jason and informs him that they met when Griff was 3. Jason cracked up at that, since they've never met. Griff is pretty funny.

So without any further delay, here are the pics from the new camera. I didn't do anything to them to adjust lighting or anything, so they're not as good as they'll start being once I really get into this camera.

Got the lightweight ball!

Waiting for the ball to hit the pins (he got 2 spares!!!)

Get that ball rolling!

Waiting again...we did a lot of this. :-D

All but 1 on the first ball - almost a STRIKE! (Dad got a few ;-) )

Final score Dad - 131 (even though he sabbotaged my first frame LOL); Griff 91 - not bad for an almost 5-year old! B-)

NIKON D40x

Yep, big news! I finally got my Christmas present - I found one at the Murray Costco and got it! The Nikon D40x DSLR camera. This blog's photos are going to be SO much better now LOL. If anyone wants new family pics and wants to let me experiment with your pictures, just let me know ;-) If you need pics for anything else and want to let me experiment with your pics, just let me know (see the trend here?) This is going to be SO fun!

Oh, always dress nice to family dinner because I will be photo-documenting everything now :-D

Utes 58 - AFA 36

I took Griff up to the Utes Hoops game against the Air Force Academy. This is obviously not the AFA of recent years as I think they scored 8-10 points total in the second half! I think the Utes made more 3-pointers than 2-pointers, so they were fairly hot. They also played great defense! Anyway, we got a ticket deal with a hot dog and all-you-can eat Popcorn and Soda (or lemonade, as the case may be). So I did a little math and the tickets ended up costing $3 (before going back for more soda or popcorn) - that's a pretty good deal!

Here are some pictures!

Matching Hoodies! (at least very similar :-D )

I need my Nikon D40x for these pictures, but you can see the score if you squint

After the game out in front of the Hunstman Center

The future Ute passed out in the back seat after the game - yelling and screaming can do that to you!

There you have it! As Always - GO UTES!!! BOOOOO cougs!!!!! (ask Griff, he'll tell you! :-D )

Guitar Hero

I've been introduced to Guitar Hero and I'm completely hooked! It took me a few hours to get really good. I had never really planned on buying a game console, but now I'm going to seriously have to think about it. I guess I can justify a Wii since it has educational games (like Big Brain Academy) on it that Griff can play (LOL right???)

Guess I'll start watching eBay and Craig's list to see if I can get a deal. Anyone wants to take me on, let's do Iron Man!!! Cochise by AudioSlave is really fun too. I think the hardest one on the easy level was No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age. It was brutal but really fun to try!

Since it appears I'll have a new place soon, look for the invite to the Guitar Hero tournament and ask yourself, "what do you want to do with your life?" Me? I wanna ROCK!!!

Happy New Year!

Well, here it is finally!!! 2008. If there is anyone happier than me to have 2007 over with I'd like to know who it is :-D

I had a REALLY fun New Year. I hit Vegas for a few days for the UFC fights, which was really fun and then Wendover for a day. And while there isn't as much to do in Wendover, it was still a good time.

The UFC fights didn't have the star power of Sean and Stacy's experience with the Boxing match a few weeks ago, but it was such a blast! The only famous people were David Spade and Mandy Moore, and I was nowhere near either of them. While at Breakfast one morning I saw Matt Hughes - one of the fighters, which was kind of cool. He ended up losing, and I think he looked really bad doing it, but that's how it goes. The guy is a 9-time welterweight champion so he's no slouch but the younger guy took it to him. Had some really good food, did a little shopping and people watching, which is really fun in Vegas, and overall had a really great time! Fortunately, the drive down and back were both very enjoyable. I think once Reece and Rylee move down there I'll have to mooch off them a little and stay with them rather than spending money on hotels :-D

I will be going through and doing my New Year's resolutions, we'll see if I post them here. 2008 is going to be SOOOOO much better than 2007, and I'm totally looking forward to it. Thanks to all my family and great friends old and new for making 2007 bearable (and even pretty great in some instances) despite all the crap than went on!

Oh yeah, and here's to the Jazz making it to the finals in 2o08 ;-)