2011: A look ahead

2010: Not sad to see you go.
I have said that if we can make it through the next few years, we will have quite a story to tell our grandchildren. I don't want to spend anymore time on the negative. So here's to a much better 2011. Here are some predications for the New Year;

Mike will make the "a" team as a starting defensive end.
Aj will start as center as a senior this year.
The Patriots will win the Super Bowl.
The Utes will be a force in the PAC-12 south. They will build a defense that is fast and deep.
I will lose more weight, reaching my new goal and achieve my reward. Going to a Pat's game in 2011!
Shelly will be driven nuts by all the crazy schedules we are on this year.
Lenny will not get bigger, he will stay a kitty forever.
Stan will slow down as he gets older and become a lap cat.
Mr. D will finally get a much needed bath and lose 10 lbs of dirt.
Rambo will get out and catch the mailman. Upon catching him, he will not know what to do with him.

The future is looking bright and maybe, just maybe, we will make it through the next year without turmoil.

FOOTBALL IS...

EVERYTHING!

All Fall long. We live, eat, and sleep football. We have red clothes, we have white clothes, we even have once a year special black clothes. We have warm Ute gear, we have light fall gear. We have rain gear, we have good weather gear. We have warm hats, we have ball caps. We got shorts, we got thermos. Fall is football time and our most hectic time of the year! The boys practice and play during the week and we are up at the "U" on the weekends. We love to tailgate Medina Family style. We go up way early and hit one of our favorite restaurants, then off to our parking. Usually we pull out some chairs, listen to the pre-game, then walk down to the stadium. Every year we make at least one road trip and this year we had to go to the most famous home of college football. We made the trek to Notre Dame. More on that in another post. Next fall we hit Socal for the UTAH vs. USC game. If you are trying to find us from July to December, check the football schedule because odds are we are there.

A night at The Tomahawk

Where do you go when the team is out of town? I know when my butt isn't parked at Rice-Eccles, I can't think of any place I would rather be than at The Tomahawk. The newest Ute sports bar to hit my neighborhood. Being the proprietor, let me give you a virtual tour.

First note the autographed helmets above the handsome guy in the mohawk. Next (below) check out the autographed helmets and footballs from both of Utah's BCS busting trips (2004,2008).
Here we have a signed mini ball from the Poinsettia Bowl nestled in the actual stadium turf that was torn out when we replaced the field last year. Two BCS runs were made here and we stormed the field both times.
More signed helmets and a soon to be played Notre Dame ball. Also a commemorative pin set from the 13-0 season.
The number one pick in the nba draft, Andrew Bogut's signed jersey.
First time the Utes did a blackout game they gave us these towels.
If I could take a decent picture, you could see that this is a 1998 Ncaa finals plaque. The Utes were in the finals and lost to Kentucky (boo-boo). This was only given out to players and coaches. So not many were made. The magic of Ebay,baby!
The 2004 Bcs trip yielded these awesome towels. Also pics of the boys getting all snuggly with Utah cheerleaders.
Fight song banner.
We have lots of good food. Today, we did pizza and nuggets!
For dessert we had delicious brownies.
Football and family! What else is there?
So stop on in if you are in the neighborhood. The game will be on! Go Utes!
Utah 56-New Mexico 14

Fall 2010

I have been pretty occupied this summer and into the early fall so I am a little behind. So my beloved Utes have been invited into the Pac-12! How do I feel about that?? Well, excited but a lil wary. Next years schedule is going to be brutal and there is rumor of only 5 homes games and 7 away! Not a fan of that idea! Tickets are too expensive to see even fewer games. If we have to cancel a road game or reschedule to a home game, so be it. BYU either needs to bend and play us at home next year or we need to drop them from the schedule for a year. We can't drop Pitt, maybe Boise State but if the play in a BCS game we want a shot at them. I can't see another way but Chris Hill stopped returning my emails, so he must have a plan. I can't wait to travel to all the Pac-12 stadiums and hope to make it to all in the next few years. Anyway, the Pitt game was awesome and I was on the Jumbotron a few times, no big deal. Tomorrow is UNLV and we expect a good game. I can't believe all the memories that I have that revolve around football. I was there for Lavell's last game, I was there during the 1st BCS run, I was there the 2nd BCS run, I was there when it rained for hours during the UNLV game, I was there when we tore the goal post out and carried them through the stadium, alot of our family memories revolve around that stadium. Almost all our family has been apart of it. Lee, Kolby, Kindra, Ali, Mom, and Dad have all been to games rooting for one side or the other. It's crazy how something simple like football has become such a part of my life. The boys grew up on saturdays in that stadium. They have traveled and they have tailgated like pros. Fall was made for for football and if you need to find me on any given saturday I am in one of two places, in my seat at the stadium or at The Tomahawk cheering my boys on! Until next time, GO UTES!

Bear Lake: What I did this summer...

I have been doing a lot of biking this past six months and I brought my bike on this trip. The first night we rode to town for dinner and then rode back. After swimming I wasn't quite done for the day, so I took a little trip on my own. I rode to the golf course and then back, then into a new subdivision down the road. I still had some energy so I went back into town, then came back. The cool air was awesome to ride in and it felt great. Sunday Lee and I went for a walk into town and that was about three and a half miles. It was a good walk and we were able to talk about all the things that have transpired in our lives lately. It was good times. Monday morning, I awoke early and headed out for a ride. I just started peddling and before I knew it I was in Idaho. It was approximately 10 miles each way. I felt I was going to get a call looking for me so I turned around. I could have easily gone farther in to Idaho. Next time, baby, Montpelier! That will be about 30 miles each way! If you can believe it, you can do it! Here's some pictures of what I saw while on my trek.

Idaho is full of old barns.

I didn't think anyone would believe me so I took a picture of my bike.

This stone marker at the border has Idaho on one side and Utah on the other. Pretty cool.

Beautiful young buck in velvet still. A lucky one not smashed in the road. They really stink after a while. Roadkill becomes obstacles for bikers, please don't smoosh the animals!

Unbeknownst (real spelling I checked) to me this is an original Oregon Trail route. Again proof I was there.

I got to ride on Eli (check my other blog for short story). Look at me I am a farmer!

Full moon after a visit to town for shakes. It wouldn't be summer if we didn't make it to Bear Lake.

Bear Lake 2010

I can barely remember a summer without going to Bear Lake. Even before I was officially in this family, I tagged along. I can't be certain but I believe we are at least 20 years and counting. I needed this vacation this year more than the previous years and it felt good to relax. The cool summer air, the soothing waves crashing on the seashell lined beach, and who can forget the crystal blue water. It was a short trip but it was a good one. I picked a few of my favorite photos and will try to be clever with captions. I brought up the idea of a family reunion in 2012, please think on it and give some feedback. I am not asking for a commitment anytime soon but keep it in the back of your mind.

Shelly's annual sand art. It relaxes her. It wouldn't be official without it.

All those years of bugging me with a camera! Here's payback, Gert! SMILE!

I am gonna pump you up! Look at my pasty flabby ab, ya, just one ab!

Mike was the only one building sandcastles this years and this wasn't exactly his best effort. Maybe next year big guy!

Hey! Brett Michaels! The 80's called and the want their glasses back! "I wanna be a rock star"

The few, the brave, the weenie riders! Mike, Gert, Kin, Shelly, Capn' Fantastic all braved a ride over the frigid waters. This was extremely fun!

The trip ended with a marshmallow roast. Have you ever seen a marshmallow this big? We broke chocolate bars and shoved them inside, then roasted. They were messy and oh so good.

The Fabulous Girls of Westshore

...Hubba hubba..

Bear Lake 2010

Original this post was titled Beach "bums" of Bear Lake but due to threats against the author's life those photos were destroyed. Well mostly destroyed, but that is for future persuasions...

We had a great time and I will have another post about my adventures so for today enjoy the beautiful photos of the girls having fun...

p.s. whose the ugly girl in the last photo?

p.p.s Has anyone seen my hat? It seemed to come up missing a lot!

****KEEP THIS IN THE BACK OF YOUR MINDS*****

JULY 2012 BEAR LAKE FAMILY REUNION

20 PLUS YEARS AND GOING STRONG!

My Family:

------dorky kid 1, dorky kid 2, me(Rambo), nice lady, big ears------------

That thing better not be on! Are you taking a picture?? No no dear it's not on trust me.

Yeah, I work out. Haven't I seen you at the gym?? No? Well let's go grab a power bar and hit the bench press. I can lift this car over my head, uggghhh!

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion, you must set yourself on fire"

-Arnold Glasow

Saturday I accomplished another goal! For years I have spouted off about doing a 5k and I can scratch that off now. As told in Shelly's blog this is the midway point for my long journey. When we got back from our cruise in March, I was disgusted at my weight. I have struggled for quite some time with this. I was around 330 over a year ago and I lost 30 pounds with diet and exercise but I didn't change the lifestyle. It all came rumbling back! I had been exercising every day for about 40 minutes and that wasn't helping. I knew I couldn't do this on my own, so I hit my knees. I prayed, Lord if this is going to happen I need you to help me. I got motivated! God only meets you half way, you have to do the work. I doubled up my workouts to 2 hours a day and I counted calories. I love food and this was going to be hard! The weight started coming off! I moved to 3-1 hour workouts and ate under 2000 calories a day. Sometimes I got hungry but not too much. The weight fell off more, I thanked God and asked for stamina. I wasn't hungry much and now the results were noticeable. I made the goal of a 5k and started to train. I am getting up at 3:30 and hitting the recumbent bike for 500 calories and I follow that up with a 5k cool down before work. I watch what I eat and after work I repeat the same workout. Is this crazy? Yes. Is it working? Yes. How long can I keep it up? I dunno. I am seeing a doctor to help keep diabetes from becoming my fate. She was impressed with the weight loss back in May when I had only lost 30 pounds. I have lost over 60 to date. I want to be down to 230 by the time I see her next. That will be a total loss of 100 pounds since I had started seeing them almost 2 years ago, before I lost,then regained. Agghh it's a mess. All I know is I can't control if I get diabetes, but I can meet God half way to avoid it.

I want to thank Shelly and the boys for running with me and being there throughout this whole journey. I couldn't have done it without there support. The race was awesome to see how families come together to get through crisis. It was a neat experience to see them all cheer each other on and encourage them to the finish line. I believe I will make this a yearly thing. I would like to get another 5k done this summer. We shall see!

results: 39 min 31 secs

HELLO KITTY!

Here is the newest member of our family, Colonel Bootz! A few months ago I told the boys when I lose 15 pounds we will get a kitty. I never thought it would come anytime soon, I have struggled with being heavy my entire life and I thought ehh it will take awhile. 15 pounds came off in three weeks and I said ohhh let's wait until 30 pounds. Well thanks to God that came off in the next few weeks. Knowing that momentum was on my side I said 45 pounds, sure enough that has came and went. I am 47 pounds lighter today and not planning to slow down anytime soon. Thanks to God for the motivation and all my family for the support. Oh by the way I typed this whole blog with Col. Bootz sleeping on my shoulder like the pictures below and I entered all posts today with him sleeping either on my lap or on shoulder.

MEMORIAL WEEKEND

Our annual Memorial Day weekend trip has come and gone. I just love being able to be in the mountains in 10 minutes. Aj, Mike, and I took a trail ride up to Silver Lake. It was awesome! Due to a late snowstorm on monday the trail to Mineral Basin was closed, oh well we had fun. More jeeping adventures to come this summer, stay tuned!