Fish Fry at P&A's

Those of you who check out Andrea's blog know that Paul went to Alaska with the Jeff's men and caught a lot of fish. So today, he grilled some up for everyone and we go to enjoy some Salmon, Halibut, and Yellow Eye. The Salmon was really tasty as was the Halibut, I wasn't a fan of the Yellow Eye, it was really pretty tasteless. So, we all enjoyed the fish (well most of us, there are some non-fish-fans in the family, but that's their problem.) Thanks P&A!!!

Then the guys had a croquet game. It took forever! I could not get the ball through the wickets, I kept jumping my ball over them and having to come back and try again, it was annoying and the rest of the guys got WAY ahead. It ended up working into my strategy to lull everyone else to sleep while I slowly but surely caught up. Well, it almost worked, but Paul finally caught up to me and killed me, so I ended up taking 2nd. Still pretty funny considering my slooooooow start.

Here are some pics:

Yeah, I'm WAAAAAAY behind!

You can barely see the other guys they're so far ahead.

Sean even started taking pics for Stacy's blog he was so far ahead.

The girls and kids wondering what was taking so dang long (seriously, Paul's lawn is so deep it took easily 1.5 hours to finish this game. :-D )

Griffin goes to School!

I got to take Griff to school and pick him up. 1) I can't believe how big he is! 4' tall and 56 lbs! I can no longer let him run and jump on me as he will take me down! 2) I am so happy how excited he is to go to school! I'm so proud of him!

I asked him if he likes school and he said yes. I asked him if he's making friends and he said yes. I asked him if he liked his teacher and he said yes! So, it sounds like Kindergarten is agreeing with Griff so far, I'm very happy about that!

Oh, he's also pretty excited about getting to ride the bus some days. I remember riding the bus when I was little, the bus driver had ALL of his teeth drilled and filled, he was like a living jack-o-lantern, it was a little freaky for a little kid - maybe that's why I've always been a good brusher :-D All the buses at Griff's school have pictures in them so the kids know which one is theirs (I just had to remember the number???? Whatever) and Griff's is a monkey - how appropriate is that!

So, here are a couple of pics of Griff in some of his new school clothes and shoes!

All set to go! Backpack and all!!!

Cool new shoes too!!! Look how big that kid is!!!

Griff Soccer update 8/26/2008

Griff had another soccer match today and the Red Raiders got back on the winning path. The first halg was a bit slow but Luke had 2 goals to put the team up 2-0 at the half. Griff played really well in a defensive position, stopping at least 2 break-aways and helping to keep the clean sheet.

In the second half things really heated up. Griff went off for 4 goals and should have had 2 more but one scooted across the goal mouth and one went off the woodwork (or PVC pipe as the case might be). One of the girls on Griff's team had a terrific cracker of a shot on goal (about the first one to come off the ground that I can remember) but it was right at the goalkeeper and he was up to the task - meaning he let it crack off his chest and it bounced away from the goal, I'm impressed he didn't go down, it was a good shot. Then the smallest girl on the field - I mean she is HALF Griffin's size took the ball all the way from half-field and made a terrific goal - the first one by a girl on Griff's team and the place went Crazy!!!! It was pretty funny, but it was a really good goal - nothing flukey about it all! Then, the defense broke down and the other team did manage one goal, but it was a good break away and score, so nothing to be ashamed about there.

So, after 4 matches, Griff is averaging 2.5 goals per game - not bad! Now if we can get them to spread out and pass the ball, we'll be in business! I mean the level of magnet ball this game was so dang funny. I'm not kidding when I say they got stuck in one spot for no less than a full minute and a half not going anywhere, everyone was just cracking up. Good times!

Draper Fire

I'm sure all of you (in Utah) have seen the fire, or at least the smoke, from the fire up in the foothills above Draper. It has spread SO far! It's amazing how fast it moved - the winds up there are pretty strong. Fortunately for me, it's all north of my house so I haven't even smelled the smoke. I took a ride up on the Bonneville Shoreline trail and got these pics that are kind of cool. The color of the sunset is caused by the smoke (which, I'm sure you could figure out given the title of the post :-) )

See the dot of light in the smoke in the right of the pic? That's the helicopter dumping water on the fire.

East coast trip

I got to go out to Connecticut recently for work and figured I'd take advantage and visit Boston for the first time (I have been through Logan airport before, but that hardly counts).

I flew into Hartford CT and drove down to Stamford for my meetings. Things went well with my clients so I'm happy about that and things are still going well with them since, another thumbs up there! So, when I was done with my meetings, I drove to Boston (about 1.5 hours the other direction from Hartford, but not a bad drive at all - until I tried to go back to Hartford - unreal traffic!!!)

Here are some pics, I didn't have time to do a lot, so I mostly stuck around the area around Fenway, which was really fun! I will make plans to go back and visit another time. By the way, you should all know how I feel about East Coast sporting teams, but going to Fenway was REALLY cool, there is so much history there and I took the tour, which was really good and well worth the $12! The Sox have an amazing history, yet I still don't care if they win or lose ;-) I have more pics if anyone wants to see them.

(click to make larger):

Yep, you can even go to Fenway High School :-D

This bar is in the stadium and has a huge open section in Left field so you can sit and watch the game at field level, pretty cool!

The sports bar attached to the stadium where I ate dinner, SUPER GOOD clam chowder!

YAY! We're #2!!! I just thought this was funny, it's right across from the stadium.

Where I had lunch, I went with the pizza and was disappointed, guess that's why you've never heard of Boston-style pizza.

The latest World Series banners for you new "fans" ;-)

The field from atop the Green Monster, These are such cool seats!

View of Boston from Fenway

Me and the Green Monster (sounds like a Disney movie title or something doesn't it???)

The Green Monstah!

Me outside Fenway, photo taken by a little chinese guy who I tried to help take pics of his son and him but his camera was toast! They're going to get home and not have a single clear picture. I felt bad and even tried to let them use my lens, but it wasn't compatible with the camera body he had. Oh well...

I'm pretty sure the guy driving this lovely Fenway-mobile lived in it. Definitely a die-hard fan but he needs to install a shower. I would have gotten a picture of him, but I was afraid he'd attack and bite me and give me rabies or something!!!

Griff 8/23 Soccer update

Well, the reality of sports came crashing down on Griff and his team Saturday in their soccer match. They got blown out, didn't score any goals and basically melted on the field (It was HOT!) Griff was a little disappointed after the match, but I think this is a really important lesson (one I had a REALLY hard time with when I was younger, and I still don't like ;-) ) but losing is part of sports and you have to learn how to deal with it. So, Griff and I had a little talk after the game about understanding that sometimes you lose but you practice harder, you work harder next time and try to do better and learn!

I will vent just a little bit about this game though, Griff's coaches don't hold practices I guess and it really shows. I realize these kids are 5 and this is definitely not life or death, but the kids need to learn SOMETHING about the game! The kids on Griff's team will have a break away toward the goal and they all STOP at the white line that defines the penalty box (the big box in front of the goal for you Soccer newbies). So they had many opportunities to score but would stop short and just let the goalkeeper scoop up the ball every time. The coach needs to let the kids know they don't have to stop at the line, they can run the ball right into the net if they have the chance! Anyway...

Here are some pics from Griff's last game that I hadn't posted yet (these blow up big if you click them):


Griff in his Uniform, with new cleats and shinpads (and he needs them! :-D )


Griff as Goalie - not his best position but he did stop a shot!


Griff giving the thumbs up after a goal.


Griff after the game with snacks in hand - gotta love the snacks at a soccer game!!!

Evening out in the neighborhood

Those of you who have been up to Sean and Stacy's or Grandpa Arnold's know they live in a pretty cool little neighborhood. Lance and Jodi (sorry if that's spelled wrong) have two kids, Kamas and Winnie that Griff likes to play with along with a bunch of other little rug-rats on the street (no, not literally - I know they have snakes and Tarantulas, but I haven'ts heard of rats up there yet.)
Here are a few pics:



Grandpa H, Baby Q, Grandma H, Jax, Sean, Stacy, neighbor girl :-D

Griff with friend playing "cops"

Kaja mid-picky-pick

Whimsy!

Emma (close) Griff (across the street) and Emma's Bro and Sis (across the street)

The weather was so nice we all sat out there for a few hours and had a nice evening. By the way, Happy Anniversary Paul and Andrea!!!!

Griff's game 8/19

Folks, Griff is AWESOME!!! He had 4 goals tonight and had a 5th disallowed (they always protect the goalie WAY too much, that little girl didn't have a good grip on the ball :-D )

His team is actually pretty good - there are 2 other boys and 1 little girl that are pretty good also. Another boy, Luke, scored the 5th goal for a 5-0 blowout. When the coach put them on the field at the same time as Griff it was like ManU pounding a hapless MLS team :-D The other team tried to bring in a Mexican ringer, but he was no match for the swarming defense of Griff's team (there is a really big girl on the team who just pushes everyone down, including her own teammates! It was pretty funny!)

Anyway, here is some video, I have some pictures but they're on my camera so I need to move them over.

At the Bee's Game!

Griff and I had a very active weekend! We were at the pool every day, went to the movies (Star Wars: The Clone Wars - not good, I may not even create a review for it), went to Gateway to do some school clothes shopping - he got some cool stuff, went to the Bees game, tried to clean the house though we didn't get far, watched a lot of Olympics, went to G-Ma and G-Pa H's for dinner and played with the cousins (PHEW! - no wonder he was falling asleep in the back seat of the car a lot this weekend!)

Live from the pool! New swimsuit!!!

Griff Soccer update

Well, Griff scored 2 goals in his Soccer debut. I TOLD you he was going to be a scoring machine. Someone didn't tell me about the game though, so I missed it. The other team tied them up at 2-2 though, so his first match ended in a draw. Griff is currently leading the league in goals after 1 match (kidding, I'm 100% sure they're not tracking that stat LOL)

His next game is Tuesday 8/19 at 6pm, I will post the location here ASAP for those that want to go!

Sean and I Mtn Biking last night!

Let the games begin!

That's right! It's FOOTBALL season again! FINALLY! Nothing worse than the part of the summer when there are no good sports. So, Utes football is coming! I'm a little disappointed in the games we get here at home (Weber State is the only non-conference game??? WEAK!) EDIT: They play Oregon State at home, Not sure how I missed that. There is a game on my Birthday, so that'll be fun.

Also, the BYU game is at home this year, that's be super fun! Anyway, I'm excited, can't wait to go! My seats aren't that great, kinda high up in the stadium, but I didn't pay a lot for them, so it's cool. Any excuse to get in the Alex Smith Jersey and yell really loudly for the UTES!!!

First home game is Sept 6 - a little payback is in store for UNLV, CAN'T WAIT TO GET THE SEASON GOING!

Griff started Soccer today!

Griff had his first soccer practice today! I'm So proud and excited. I'm trying really hard to not be the psycho sports dad, but I really want Griff to be good at things, whether it's soccer or school, or whatever. But, I promise I'll be good. He is only 5 and I promise I will not get kicked out of any games, nor will I yell at the coach or refs, or any of the little girls on his team. Yeah, it's a "co-ed" team. I do have to say, this whole thing is SO different from when I played sports. We played on the bigger fields, and had full size goals - oh, and we had winners and losers! I never liked losing, but I understood it as a necessary part of competition at some point (maybe by the time I was about 25??? :-D ) And I don't think we ever had girls on our teams??? My dad will have to verify that, maybe one girl on our t-ball team once? I think she quit half-way through the season ;-)

The best part was when I was on a junior Jazz team with my friend Curt and he was the smallest guy on the team. I will find that pic and scan it and post it here so his son can see it and not feel bad about being a runt (he's 6-months old hahahahahahaha)

Anyway, back to Griff, he just had a lot of fun playing soccer, which is the most important thing right now, but I will have him scoring goals like Ronaldo by the time he's 10 - I'll also ship him off to the ManU academy at that time when the call comes. MLS? Pfft, it's EPL by the time he's 16!

I'll have plenty of pics and video as the season goes along. :-)

Fun with Griff!

I had some schedule changes this week, so Griff came over tonight instead of Thursday. So we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa H's and Grandpa put Griff right to work!




Mowing the lawn (I remember when Griff would run as fast as he could away from the mower when Grandpa would start it up, that was so funny!)


Cleaning up after mowing!
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Then we headed out for some school clothes shopping!

Batman T and plaid Volcom shorts! This boy will be stylin' in Kindergarten! :-D


"Wanted: Drummer for a rock band" T and camo shorts (we didn't get these shorts, traded them for some other plaid Volcom shorts that matched the shirt better.)

Then we went and got him some killer new gray low-top Chuck Taylors that I failed to take a picture of somehow. Griff is SO excited for school, and so am I!!! I can't wait to see him on his first day! He was telling anyone who would listen for 2 seconds that he was school shopping for his first day in Kindergarten, everyone thought he was hilarious. He's so happy and so outgoing, I love it - everyone likes hanging out with Griff!!!