Bananas and Trunks, Oh my

I saw this hanging from the rearview mirror of a guys truck at the grocery store. If you can't read it, it says 'My exwife is in the trunk.' Sheesh, really? Nothing says classy like 'hey everyone, my ex-wife is in the trunk and she is probably dead, good times, huh?' I will say that I am glad that I took the picture quickly and left quickly or there would be another thing hanging from his mirror, 'stupid nosey picture taker is in my trunk.'

This banana was found in a desk, in the office that we just left from...yes, that banana is well past the ripe stage and has moved into the rock hard stage. And no, I didn't try it.

Trip Review: North by Northwest (Seattle, Parks and Islands)

We got back last week from our great Northwest/Washington trip. I had actually never made it over to Seattle, so it was a lot of fun to visit an area that I have heard so much about. Let me just say, my lovely wife did a much better job talking about our trip here and here so if you want a laugh and see more pics visit her site.

Let me start by saying--it was a lot of driving. We decided to drive. And we drove and we drove and we drove. We went with Brodi's parents and her sister and their family. Let me just say that 6 total kids under the age of 11, there will be a lot of bathroom breaks, snack breaks, lunch breaks, etc. Carter and Becks both decided that they didn't care much for the seatbelts either after about 3 miles...so most of the driving was with me saying/yelling 'get back into your car seats and put on your seat belts!!'

There were two main components of our trip--visiting the Olympic National Park and the San Juan Islands. Both places are absolutely beautiful. It always took some long driving, but it was well worth it to see countless waterfalls, ride many ferries, many hikes, and do lots of exploring.



We also drove through Forks (Twilight reference for all of us that were not quite sure the importance of really small little town) on our way to the national park. Let me just say, Forks is much prettier on the big screen than it is in real life, though the trees and everything is very pretty that surrounds the town. I will say though, just outside of Forks is 2nd Beach which was pretty terrific with a nice beach, cool rocks sticking out of the ocean. We spent several hours just exploring that beach.


Seattle was very cool. We only spent a day there, but we were able to visit the Aquarium, the famous Pike Market as well as the Space Needle. At the Space Needle, they also had a little crummy looking amusement park-we skipped that. At Pike Market, Carter found fresh shrimp and that boy loves few things more than big fresh shrimp, so we got him a couple and he ate as we walked.



The San Juan Islands were awesome. Even with the bumpy ferry rides, I somehow managed. I get car sick pretty easily. So imagine the joy knowing that we were driving our car onto a boat and taking a boat ride. A car + A boat = not awesomeness. But with the views and everything, it was very cool. The kids kept themselves entertained by running around to see everything and when they got bored with that, they huddled around a DS.



Olympia National Park is very cool. One of the most impressive things was seeing Thunder Ridge. You go from sea level and then drive up long winding roads to get some spectacular views of the mountain range. The kids quickly headed for the snow for some bum sliding.




We spent a lot of time in this park exploring. Whether it was the mountain range or the Rain Forest, there was always a lot to see and do. I believe that it is the only rain forest in the United States.




Every hike had a water fall, or so it seemed. Our oldest nephew, nephew A would say 'Are we going on another hike to see another waterfall.' Why yes, we are. Another one. We have only seen 37 of them. 2 of our nephews also lost a battle with stinging nettle. I have bumped into poison ivy and that was bad...but these boys just had welts and bumps all over their legs. Pretty brutal.



Overall though, a great trip. If we weren't hiking and exploring, the kids were using their scooters, playing tennis and swimming. 8 days. 2705 miles. Thumbs up to the Great Northwest.

June is done. Yay.

This was a wild month for good and for bad. I am glad though that it is over and we can begin to start the real summer...here are the past 30 days:

• Brodi had her heart surgery and had her hole in the heart filled with two tiny umbrellas.
• Rebuilt the entire transmission of our car, the Scout...note, I did not rebuild the transmission, I can barely find the hood of my car.
• Traveled 2700 miles over one week visiting the states of Washington and Oregon with 2 boys who were not pleased to be locked up in the car that long.
• Carter graduated from 1st grade
• Garage door broke and needs to be replaced
• Replaced our two side fences and gates
• Saw the Utes get invited to the PAC-10 for athletics
• Won 3 matches and lost in the finals of a pretty big state tennis tournament
• Pulled a groin and twisted an ankle in that tournament
• Moved our entire office to a new location (from downtown to the East bench)

Here I come July.

The wisdom of Gas station bathrooms

We just got back this weekend from a long trip to the Seattle area. We had a lot of fun and I will post pics and stories in the next day or two. With that said, I wanted to post a couple of interesting things from the restrooms that we visited while driving to and from Seattle.

When I am looking for profound comments or statements, I usually think of visiting a bathroom stall in Yakima or some small city in the northwest. I was not let down as I came across this gem: [the cross sign) with the comment: 'All men are created equal.' So true. My heart was uplifted knowing that someone took the time to carve this comment into a toilet paper dispenser.





The best thing that I came across in a bathroom was this nice little machine. It is a cologne dispenser. How cool is that? Who hasn't been on a date where you stopped to get some gas, ran inside to pay and realized that you needed to use the restroom and then finally realized that you just stink...lucky you, you can now pay 25 cents and get some awesome cologne and smell terrific when you leave the gas station. You know this is high end cologne because it costs 25 cents. If you come across one of these machines and they are selling it for 5 cents, don't buy it. It probably would smell terrible.

I AM A MAN!! and one lamely cool t-shirt

Nothing better than getting a lovely letter addressed to Samantha. Seriously, how does that happen? Brodi received a letter the same day and her information was correct, so how did they put down Samantha? Strange. Maybe I should see if I can open up a credit card as Samantha.

Yes, I wore this shirt around the house and neighborhood yesterday. Though Popeye is obviously very cool, this could be the lamest t-shirt in town. I wore it proudly.

Tennis, Injuries and getting Justified

I turned on my sprinklers this weekend. I did a quick run through of all of the watering stations to make sure that there were no leaks or problems...the valve box started gushing out water. Good times. Nothing like a broken valve to fix to start the summer. Some of the water got in the house, but I had turned off the outdoor water pretty quickly, so just a bit of water in the basement (thankfully, this pic is not of my house...but egads, how bad would that be?) The joys of home ownership.

I played in a tennis tournament last week. I realize that my body is not what it used to be. I played well and won my first three matches (played Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and I played in the finals on Monday, Memorial Day. Interesting sidenote--I played an old family friend from the Avenues that I had not seen in 25+ years. Anyway, during this match, I proceeded to make my shin splints worst, badly sprained my ankle and pulled my groin. Yep, I was pretty much the walking wounded. To make matters worse, I lost 7-6, 7-6.

It is the season finale of the tv show 'Justified' on FX. If you have not seen it then see if they will be showing a marathon of it or rent it this fall. It is a fabulous show.

Utah Site: Midway/Homestead Crater and Springs

Over Memorial Weekend, we headed up to Brodi's parents condo in Midway. The weather was great and the kids played soccer, went biking, hiking, etc. We also took the kids to the Homestead crater. I had never been, but it is essentially a little hill in the middle of the Homestead. Even though I have been to Midway countless times, I never knew what that little hill was.



Inside is a natural spring where people go scuba diving and swimming. The water goes down over 70 feet below the surface. The natural spring inside continues to add and shed over 150,000 gallons of water a day which keeps the water somewhat fresh. The water stays between 92 and 95 degrees.




The kids enjoyed swimming next to the exterior cave wall and putting on their goggles to see under the water. It is not cheap ($11 for 45 minutes), but it was worth seeing it and playing in it.