Griff and his Legos

Griff has a pretty good imagination when it comes to building things with Legos. And he's pretty detail oriented (look at the landscaping of the front yard of his Lego house!) However, on this house, somehow the diving board ended up on the wrong side of the house (yes, it's coming off the roof of the house - he's a boy - that sounds awesome!!!) Otherwise the design is pretty solid. The Airplane is amphibious - thus the propeller on the back of the vehicle as well.

The Lone Star State

I got to spend a few days back in the old stomping grounds of Dallas Texas. It's always kinda weird going back places I've lived and checking things out - what's new, what's the same, etc. Dallas was especially interesting for me this time because I actually stayed in the same hotel I basically lived in when I was working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers back in the day. It's in the same location, but is completely updated, it was actually pretty nice! I did have to drive a ways to get to the gym - back in the day they had a deal with the LA Fitness right next door instead of a workout room. And I'm not a fan of hotel workout rooms, so I went and found the nearest Lifetime and went there. I also had to hit some of my favorite restaurants, of course:

Pappasito's is actually not a place I'd ever been but Curt raves about it. I'd been to Pappadeaux's before, which is also really good (those Pappas Bros know how to cook!!! Their Steak house is really great too.) So I went and got the chicken and shrimp fajitas - PHENOMENAL! The grilled veggies they serve with it are SO good!!! It was worth it smelling like fajitas the rest of the day! The mexican butter sauce you see in the little dish (forgot what they call those???) is pure evil it's so good! Definitely 2 thumbs up!

Sonny Bryan's was a favorite when I worked and lived in Dallas. I went a LOT. Their brisket is as good as anywhere I've ever been. However, I seem to remember their sauce being a LOT better than it was this time??? I think maybe I got the wrong stuff, but I didn't see any other options. It was like spicy ketchup. So I just ate the food without so much sauce. The sides there are really good and the roll was very tasty. (yes, I spent an extra 30 min at the gym after this! :-D )

Dallas from the 35. It took me - no lie - an hour to go MAYBE 15 miles. There were 4 wrecks, one of which I'm pretty sure had been a car fire earlier judging from all the fire retardant material on the freeway. This is one thing that never ceased to amaze me about Dallas. People here drive SLOW and yet there are ALWAYS wrecks on the freeway!

Me, stuck in traffic. One good thing about Texas being SO flat, the radio stations work for a LONG way away from the source. So, I didn't go completely crazy.


Recognizable Dallas landmark. I could Google it and find out what it is, but I don't care that much :-)


American Airlines Arena where the Mavericks play. Cool arena...for the Jazz to win in!!!!

I then got to drive down to Waco, TX for a presentation there. In the few minutes I had to look around I found this:
That's right! The Home of Dr Pepper! They make it with real sugar here instead of corn syrup, it is AWESOME!!!!

I'd post all the pics of the sites I saw on my drive...but there weren't any. Not even any Longhorns. I did see some on the way back, but I was so mesmerized by the road by that time that I couldn't get the RiPhone out in time to take any pics. Sorry.

I always liked Dallas just fine, and this trip didn't do anything to change that. I still like it. (the stupid "Never Lost" in my rental car did get me lost before I even left the airport, but that's not Dallas' fault :-D )

Blog Slacker!

Yep, I'm a blog slacker. For those of you who don't have me on your Facebook friends list here are some recent pics of the boy:


Griff and Q practicing their putting strokes. Q was copying everything Griff did, it was pretty cute.

Griff and Jaxon at Home Depot - had to post this one because Jaxon's face is hilarious (and of course the pick is awesome)
The saw was loud, but these two are kinda pansies about it :-D

Griff likes to bowl, he almost beat me! We had a good time with Sean and Quincy.

Alkaline Trio

A while back on Facebook, I had a conversation going about what bands/performers people would want to see in concert - their top 5. Interestingly enough, Sean and I had Alkaline Trio on our lists and well, they came in concert last night so we went! It was at "In the Venue" in Salt Lake City. Two bands opened for them - The Dear & Departed, whose lead singer MAY have been from New Zealand, or maybe South Africa, he had an odd accent for sure. But they were decent, I didn't mind listening to them for 45 minutes or so. Then Cursive played, and they were just ok, but they did have a couple of balding, middle-aged, chubby guys playing bass and guitar, so they made me feel a little more at home with this young crowd :-D

Alkaline Trio played a pretty good set. They had a couple of brand new songs that I hadn't heard before, but they also played quite a bit of their older stuff that I really like. This band is kind of unique in that they have two singers - I know some other bands do this as well, but it's definitely an exception, not the rule. Well, the singer who also plays bass lost his voice about 3 songs into his contribution to the performance so the remaining songs he tried to sing were pretty rough. For some reason their mics were way low too, so you couldn't really hear him very well anyway. So, that kind of stunk but for the most part the show was pretty good. There was a pretty funny "fight" with some really nerdy looking kids, during one of the set-up intermissions, and Sean and I were entertained by that for a few minutes. Also, another entertaining little tid-bit, when the kids would crowd surf, there was this security guy who would grab them and take them out of the crowd. I've seen this at many concerts, when people need to get out of the mosh-pit, or a very crowded area because they can't breathe, or something. Well, one guy kept doing it, he must have crowd-surfed and been snagged and dragged out like 3-4 times. It was pretty funny, I think he might have been messing with the security guys. I mean the space in this venue is pretty small, so it's not like he couldn't just walk out of the congested area pretty easily.

Anyway, we enjoyed the show, had a good time and look forward to the next concert. I think Sean had Ray Charles on his list, which will be hard to accomplish. I'm trying to get to 311 again, and I'm sure there will be others this year. :-)

Go Utes!

I try to take Griffin to a game or two every year to properly indoctrinate him into being a true Ute fan. He's getting there, though in all honesty - all he really cares about right now is the popcorn, hot dogs, lemonade and dibs he can talk me into getting him while we're at the Huntsman Center. It's pretty much like any activity where there are concessions or vending machines. He does however LOVE to do the cheers and to yell GO UTES when the time is right. Also, he thoroughly enjoys the "Everybody clap your hands" cheer/activity, whatever you want to call it - but really, who doesn't?!?!? I do wish they would play the whole thing where it gets to the "how low can you go" part, that's always fun.

Somehow, every year Griff and I seem to catch the Air Force Academy (AFA) game. I'm not sure why, but we've seen it the last 3 years. At least we have a pretty decent idea that it will always be a Utes Win, so that's a bonus. This year was no different. The Utes pretty much controlled the game from about the mid-first half on - at one point going up 25 points. The downside is the Hunstman Center is not very full at all - even the student section is thinned out for this one - I guess that's a product of a crummy team coming in, but it's too bad more fans don't attend all the games. I know I should attend more, so I can't fault others for not going more. The atmosphere is still pretty good and very loud for the 10k people that were there. And to me, it always feels good to be on campus. Being surrounded by Y fans at work gets old sometimes, so being amongst kindred spirits on campus is a good thing. And, when the Utes made great plays the place still got loud, which is always a good sign that the fans are lively. To be fair, the football stadium wasn't full for Utah State this last season, so I guess expecting the Hunstman center to be full for AFA in hoops isn't realistic. The guys played hard, put on a good show and made sure to entertain a little too, I would say.


All that said, it is kind of a letdown that the Huntsman center isn't always full like it has been in the past. Was that because of the level of talent on the court? Maybe. Was it because the Fatman coached a better brand of hoops? Maybe. Is it because football is king at the U? Maybe (though it was not TOO long ago that Hoops was king, I still have significant issues stemming from the 1998 Final Four). Whatever it is, I'm going to work on getting to more games. It was fun, Griff and I had a great time - he loves cheering for the "Go Utes" (hasn't quite realized that's a phrase not their name, but it's cute, so it works) and the concessions aren't ridiculously priced like at a Jazz game or the movies. We have a great time going, make some fun memories, and he'll be able to tell his college buddies, when he gets to the U, that he's been coming to games since he was 5! We'll definitely keep up our tradition of father/son trips to the games.

We were trying to find Swoop to take a picture but he was gone already. He should really come up to the upper deck - there were lots of families up there with little kids that would have loved to meet him. We'll find him next time!

Griffin is 7!

Every time one of the kids in our family has a birthday, I like to say it like Kaja did when she was 2. She would put a ton of emphasis on I'M then say two! I'M two! Always cracked me up.

Anyway, Griffin had his party at Pirate Island and LOVED it. They did a really great job and all the kids had a blast and the adults didn't have to do much, and we had a private room so it was all very calm, which I think we all appreciated. The game area was a different story, but it was super fun too.

Here are the pics...(and it's late on the 18th, so I'll do more another time...)

Griffin and some of his buddies in the room we got at Pirate Island! It was pretty cool.

The remnants of one of the giant "Kracken" pizzas the group ate - surprisingly good - way better than Chuck E. Cheese for sure.



The two pirate cakes Aunt Amy made for Griffin, she did an awesome job, they were really cool and very tasty. Thanks Am'!!!

Amy getting some help cutting the cakes from Jax-onian (or Jax-onville, which I like to call him because he'll always say, "I'm not Jax-onville, I'm Jaxie :-D )

One of the many cool gifts Griff got from his friends and family, probably my favorite - the remote control Audi R8 - super sweet!

DSi games from Grandma and Grandpa H - what were you guys thinking??? :-D

Uno Attack from Paul/Andrea and kids and Dave and Amy, pretty excited to play this! Griff and Aunt Amy have been cleaning up on regular Uno lately.

Q helping Griff open cards - she does enjoy a good party and So helpful too!

Griff got about 10 Bakugan - if you don't know what that is, just Google it. He and his buddies got to playing with them right there at the party. So good job those of you who got these for him :-)

Opening gifts with friends and Q looking on. Great party, thanks to everyone who came!


Griff and Cap'n Jack Sparrow! The guy was awesome - did the character perfectly, it was really funny. Quincy was scared of him though :-D

Jump On it!

It had been a long time since we'd been to Jump On It. It's still one of Griff's favorite places. There was almost no one there when we arrived, so we pretty much had the run of the place. Griff did find a little friend to play with and they had fun.

Taking a quick break from the action!
Bounding along from trampoline to trampoline!
OK, enough pictures already...
...yeah right (which is why he's trying to hit me with a ball in this one :-D )

Costa Vida for quesadillas!