Proving Chaos Theory: 2011

Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Land of Cotton - Part II

After my football trip to Memphis and Mississippi with my dad and brothers (see Part I below), I kept heading east to join Jaime and the kids in North Carolina for a much needed vacation. Along with Jaime's parents and the families of two of her siblings, we rented a large beach house in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, where we had a fantastic time. We were in the pool and at the beach every day for hours.

While I lack the time or energy to write much about the trip, I will say that one of the best things about living in Southern California is the lack of large, biting insects. We were there in the Outer Banks the week following Hurricane Irene, which left a lot of standing water -- perfect for insect breeding and hatching. For the first few days of our trip, the mosquitos were so bad that my t-shirts were showing visible blood stains. Some of my mosquito bites had mosquito bites of their own. At one point I saw a Volkswagen being carried away by a couple of tough-looking mosquitos. But then we got a robo-call from the local mosquito abatement authority telling us to stay indoors while they did aerial spraying. It sounded like we were being dive bombed by Air Force bombers, but the spraying did the trick. After that, everything was PERFECT!

Beach House

The four oldest cousins had a great time sleeping in the bunk room together. And while they all had a great time playing together, some of the battles over toys were epic.

Cousins all eating Moon Pies

Davis and Kate at the sand dunes

Sand dunes, anyone?

The kids visiting monster truck Gravedigger's home base garage

For Davis, the highlight of the entire trip was easily the few hours we spent at the garage/gift shop/cafe of the best-known monster truck on the Monster Jam circuit: Gravedigger. When we passed the big sign on the road on the way to the Outer Banks that said "HOME OF GRAVEDIGGER!" Davis about lost his mind. He had recently become a near-religious fanatic when it comes to his love of monster trucks generally, and Gravedigger specifically. I had no idea that Poplar Branch, North Carolina, is where Gravedigger calls home. The kids got to walk around and touch an older model of Gravedigger, ride through the mud and over a school bus in a modified monster truck, and have lunch in the Gravedigger cafe.

The REAL Gravedigger (at least one of them)

Gravedigger's daddy

The beach was great, and while we live just a short drive from the beach in California, we don't get there very often (at least I don't). It was great being just a 5 minute walk from the water again.

See you soon, Outer Banks.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Celebrating Country and Family

In a few posts I'm going to try to catch up on the last several months. Sounds easy, right?

For the Fourth of July weekend we went to Utah for my family reunion. On the morning of the Fourth all the kids decorated their bikes, scooters and wagons and we had a family parade:

Mom helps the kids decorate

Kate decorates her bike

Parade gets ready to roll out

The self-appointed parade queens

The parade moves up the hill

The kids all had a great time. We were pleased to discover later that day that my mom's pre-holiday craft shopping earned her a lifetime Golden Craft Card from Michael's craft store for her efforts at helping the sales staff meet their summer sales quotas.

We all went camping up Big Cottonwood Canyon on Tuesday night and had a great time despite the rain. When it came time for the family talent show, however, Kate totally let us down when she refused to perform her choreographed routine to Beyonce's All the Single Ladies. Too bad, 'cause I was sure we were going to take home the gold for that one.

I tried snapping a few family photos - some turned out pretty well, but unfortunately the best shot of all of the grandkids is the shot where Davis is trying to take a bite out of his cousin's neck:

Who knew that Davis was part vampire?

It was a great trip, and made me wish that there was less distance between me and my family members. (Who wants to move to California?)

The Land of Cotton

Even in the Memphis airport, The King is the king.

Several months ago, after talking with a friend who mentioned that he and his three brothers have lunch together every Friday with their dad, I started to think about ways that I could get my brothers and dad together on a regular basis. After quickly Googling "Alaska fishing adventures", "Tanzanian safaris" and "surfing adventures for non-surfers" I realized that I was overlooking the obvious: my dad and two of my brothers and I were graduates of BYU, and my other two brothers had attended BYU for a while before graduating from other universities, and we all loved BYU football. So the idea of an annual BYU football trip was born.

We first considered BYU's road game to TCU, as one brother lives in Ft. Worth, TX. But we ultimately opted for BYU's game vs. Ole Miss, which was somewhat equally inconvenient for all of us: it was about an 9+ hour drive for my brother in Indiana, about an 9+ hour drive for my brother in Ft. Worth, and required flights for my dad and brother from Utah and for me from Southern California. But it was in the heart of BBQ country, near Memphis, TN . . . perfect!

I arrived in Memphis first, and after my brother Taylor arrived we headed over to Central BBQ (an internet recommendation I'd picked up from my fellas over at the BBQ Brethren) for a late lunch:

Lovin' the pulled pork with slaw

My dad and two other brothers arrived a bit later (the fifth brother hadn't been able to make the trip), and we headed to the Bar-B-Q Shop, another recommended local joint, and put away more than our share of ribs, chopped brisket and other smoked meats:

The next morning we stopped for breakfast in downtown Memphis at the famous Arcade Restaurant, a favorite of Mr. Elvis Aaron Presley.

Strangely enough, our waitress was from Provo, Utah (the location of BYU). Stranger still was that she had no idea that we were BYU fans (despite the fact that all of us had BYU shirts on) until another customer asked if we were here to watch BYU play Ole Miss. I'm guessing she didn't go to a lot of BYU football games when she was growing up.

Then we headed down to Oxford, Mississippi, to the University of Mississippi. This is a truly Southern place. The pre-game tailgating is like nothing I'd ever seen. The Grove, the area where thousands of Ole Miss faithful gather for every home game, is a truly impressive.

We were lucky to be hosted by some locals who happened to be close personal friends of one of my brother's neighbors in Indiana, who was herself an Ole Miss alum and had emailed her friends asking whether they could host some visiting BYU fans. They were great, and really showed us true Southern hospitality.

The game itself was a lot of fun, and those SEC fans really know how to get into a game. BYU didn't play well but managed to get the win on a late defensive touchdown. The best part was being there with my dad and three of my brothers (we missed you JB - next year!).

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

My, Its Been A While

Jaime reminded me that it had been more than four months since the last post here.

Well, you can't say that anymore . . .

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Clash of the 70s Titans

Despite the fact that the 1970's were responsible for a few gems (1. me, 2. the Eagles, and 3. that one episode of CHiPs where John skateboards in an empty swimming pool), they also produced some complete mysteries:

The best part of the clip is that I can't figure out whether they're playing this serious or for laughs. Maybe if Jessica Simpson would do another variety show, we could start understanding the cultural context for the wackiness that was the Donny & Marie Show.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Nearly finished!

Just needs a few coats of paint and some door hardware, and then I can pull the wires through and connect everything! (Those cords you see will of course be hidden.)

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Goodbye ugly fireplace, hello audiovisual experience

Its finally time to say goodbye to the ugly, strangely placed fireplace in the family room. I've been wanting to take a sledgehammer and chisel to it since we moved in. This week that day finally arrived.

On Thursday we got the fireplace demo'ed, the fireplace insert covered, the window seat drawer boxes in place and the initial electrical and A/V wiring run.

I dig deep drawers (and alliteration)

These drawers should provide some real toy storage. Now hopefully our family room looms less like a daycare and more like a place you'd want to sit and relax.

This morning we're getting the A/V component cabinets and the top cabinets in place.

Planning the speaker wire runs

I readily admit that my biggest concern is the quality and fit of the speaker cabinets. Looks like Jack's measurements were perfect and this little system will be blasting out high performance sound in no time.

I just remembered that I absolutely have to order the industrial strength cabinet child locks and get them installed before Jaime gets home next Wednesday. Or, should I say, before DAVIS gets home next Wednesday.

This is a good way to spend a weekend.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

"D" for Destructo

Davis is now two years old.

And while he's never been formally tested, there are certainly ways in which his development is far advanced for his age. I don't know too many two year olds with the destructive power of a Mongol horde. I thought of renting him out to contractors who need to do a little demolition before building commences. However, he doesn't take direction particularly well, so if you left him alone on the jobsite you'd never know if he was going to remove the drywall or rip up the subfloor and cut through the floor joists.

I chose the photo to the left because it captures well three things that help to define Davis right now:

1. His constant motor, which never shuts off.

2. His love of jumping off of things. Everything.

3. His extreme disregard for wearing pants.

He just turned two this month, so we of course had to celebrate.

"But Dad, I'm pretty sure my fingers are fireproof . . . "

His birthday party was a lot of fun. When I say "party" I mean the four of us had some cake and ice cream at home. Apparently we're not welcome back at Chuck E. Cheese.

Kate is becoming a very helpful older sister. She helped Davis at just about every step of the way on his birthday: helped blow out the candles, helped open his presents, and even helped put Davis in the sleeper hold when he wouldn't calm down when we wouldn't let him have the box of matches.