Big Griff had his second coach-pitch game today as a member of the Angels! This should be a good season for Griff. He has a coach that (other than what you'll read in a minute) is really teaching the boys some good things and it's already showing. The boys hit and fielded really well today. And all I can say is Griff may have found his sport! Here are the pics:

Griff in his catcher's mask. I think he mostly just liked looking like a Star Wars character, but he did well behind the plate!

There he is in action, not a bad catcher's squat. He even got after the opposing coach for pitching too fast, so Griff couldn't gather all the baseballs fast enough, pretty funny.

This is a second before he DRILLED a deep shot to left field with bases loaded!!!! The bases cleared but his coach held him at 3rd for some dumb reason and cost him the grand slam! I loudly told the coach not to hold him, but apparently we're playing new-age wuss baseball where we show compassion for the other team (another dad told me to show some compassion, I just laughed to myself and let it go.) Regardless, it was an AWESOME hit by Griff, I'm so proud of all the good things that kid is doing! :-)

That is a big 7-year old! Hope he likes football too! He does tend to tackle people on the soccer field, so maybe that's a sign. :-D

Oh, we did go out shopping on Thursday when he came over and we got me a matching Angels hat so I can rep the team. B-)

Amy's mission companion - Melanie Hanna - invited all the kids over for horseback riding. Kaja was the only one who got to ride the horse alone, because the big boys spooked the horse (he's not used to big people apparently) and he didn't want anyone riding him. Jaxon did get to ride with Mel for a little bit and Kaja went a 2nd time with Mel as well. Here are a few pics (blow them up, they're pretty good) from our outing to Mapleton - Thanks Mel!

Princess Pey Pey :-D

Blakers and Peyton

Griff, Ryder and Jaxon

Jaxonian

Miss Q

Miss Kaja - I like this pic, it actually kind of looks like she's riding him on her own

Big Griff in his clothes that he has ALREADY grown out of, with his new haircut, courtesy of moi!

After hanging out in Mapleton, we went over to Paul and Andrea's for pizza and garlic bread, it was a really fun time with the fam!

Soccer Season!

The EPL is winding down, looks like ManU will take second, not too bad I guess but a bit of a let down after 3 straight championship years. RSL has started up and has looked OK. I think we expect more after a championship year, but really they had a crap season up til the end and pulled it out, sooooo, let's just hope for a better season and a similar ending. And finally Griff has started his soccer season! The other day in practice, the kids chose the name Red Devils all on their own, I was so stoked! (That's the ManU team name, for those that don't know). However, in the days since practice, it changed to The Rockets - lame. I'm guessing some uptight mom made them change the name, so no more Red Devils. At least their Uni's are still red.

Griff played Goalie and Defense last night to great success and the Rockets won 1-0. A teammate of Griff's should have had like 4 other goals, I've never seen someone so unlucky! He hit the post, scooted two just past the uprights and had the opposing goalie make a phenomenal stop on one (seriously, I even cheered for the stop, it was unreal for a 7-8 year old.)

Here are the pics, I can't wait to see the team pics, there is one other kid who might be as tall as Griff, but no one else is as big overall, he looks like he's 10 :-D

Clash of the Titans

I remember seeing this film when i was pretty young, maybe 10 or so? And I think the original, despite it's lack of technology may have been better than this modern version. I'm sometimes amazed at the quality of actor that these low-budget (well, I'm not sure that's the right term, as I'm sure this film cost a fortune to make) B-movies can pull. I mean the producers must be shelling out a fortune to get the likes of Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes to play these hokey parts, right?

This story is LOOSELY based on the story of Perseus, demigod son of Zeus, but they don't even really stick to the accepted origins of his life. So, we suspend all belief in the movies anyway right, I mean the Kraken? Really? Looked like Alien and the 20,000 leagues under the sea squid had a kid - ridiculous. Soooo, I just went into this hoping for some cool effects and maybe a cool fight scene or two and to hang out with some friends. Didn't even get that - well, I guess the scorpions were kinda cool (and the friends part happened, so PHEW!) Medusa was 100% CGI and not well done - kind of Sci-Fi channel-ish, I mentioned the Kraken, Fiennes as Hades was nowhere near as good as James Woods in Disney's Hercules (yep, I just compared this "real life" Hades to a cartoon version and the cartoon won.) And Sam Worthington who played Perseus was just the main character in Avatar, so I couldn't stop thinking about that and expecting him to turn blue, or grow a tail that would meld with the flying Pegasus, or SOMETHING. I can't say TOO much more or I give away the whole story, but even the comic relief was SO weak and way too thin to almost even notice. Oh, and the fact that Muse isn't included in the soundtrack detracts from the films potential epicness. The Muse concert the other night was more epic than this "epic"film. bah.

I left just praying that someone like Jerry Bruckheimer redoes "Jason and the Argonauts", which I always felt was the superior movie anyway. And lo and behold: 2012 - "Jason and the Argonauts: The Kingdom of Hades". Apparently, Hades is SO HOT right now. IMDB doesn't say who the producer or director is, so let's hope for the best.

Save your money, wait for RedBox. Maybe 2.5 out of 5.

I may have created a monster:-))

We went for a walk at Nunn's park in Provo Canyon today and of course we were taking some pictures. Well Griffin walks toward this tree and says, "Dad, take a picture of this" and proceeds to throw his Blue Steel at me - on his own, with no prodding. The camera does love him! :-D

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 )