rockin' Thanksgiving

Now for the obligatory Thanksgiving update. As usual, we spent the day before Thanksgiving making stuffing with Brodi's side of the family. Ashton stuffing consists of bread, sage and butter and it is fabulous. The kids love helping and the adults love snacking on it. It is generally a quieter affair with Brodi's side of the family, but we always have a great time.

We spent Thanksgiving with Brodi's family and then that evening we drove to our family ranch down in Central Utah, Castle Valley Outdoors. This has been a family tradition to go down the ranch for Thanksgiving weekend for well over a decade now. It is located just outside of Emery (about 45 minutes from Price). It is a working ranch as well as an executive retreat ranch so the accomodations are fabulous. There is the lodge which has 9 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms...then there are 3 apartments in a house each with its own bathroom and then there is another house with 3 bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. Plenty of room to handle all of us, which by the size of our family is pretty impressive. The pic on the left is during the summer...while the pic on the right is from late November.




The Thanksgiving dinner is crazy. Though my brother and his family couldn't come...my 3 sisters and their families as well as my other brother and his family - well, lets just say, that adds up to a whole lot of people.









We spent the days hiking, horseback riding, hiking some more, playing games (pool, cardgames, karaoke, campfire games and songs, etc.) and a lot of talking. I can safely say that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

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.

A rearview mirror look back at 2009

I thought that I would give a quick recap of some of my favorites over 2009. It was a good year, but as Brodi says, ends of eras stink, so it is good to move on to 2010.

COOL THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR

Pakistan--It was very cool to travel and spend over a week in Pakistan with Brodi. We had a chance to eat some interesting things (sheep brain masala is not as good as it sounds), see some wild stuff (the Waga Border where Pakistan and India have a stand off nightly between their borders) and just have a great time.

Rocky Mountain National Park--We spent a lot of time hiking, boating and having a relaxing outdoorsy time. We hiked up to 12,000 feet which was awesome especially having it snow on us...in August.

Carter: This year he learned how to ride a bike as well as learning how to swim. He was pretty proud of himself. He is now in the 1st grade and his teacher says that he is a class clown, but he gets his homework done and he does what she wants him to do when she asks.

Beckham getting potty trained--Yay. Except when he decides that he doesn't care if he messes his pants. Boo. He is in pre-school now and he continues on the long Johnson tradition for boys in taking fooooorrrrreeeevvvveeeerrrr to speak. He is getting better though.

Brodi's Dad continues to beat back ugly Pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed almost 2.5 years ago. Huge, major Surgery was 2 years ago. He is doing great right now and is back to work as a Pediatrician at his practice.

My first nephew is home from a mission. Little Peter came home from his mission from Spain. When he was a newborn, my sister and brother in law brought him to my Freshman basketball games. Crazy that he is that old...crazy that I am that old.

Brodi is writing up a storm--She has a NYC agent and a book out on submission with a second one getting close. In the next year or two, look for her name, because she is going to be big. Join the masses who religiously read her blog: Brodi blog


TELEVISION
1. Dexter: Seriously, no creepier yet thoroughly enjoyable show on TV. The ending was absolutely fabulous and equally disturbing.

2. Battlestar Galactica: This series is done. This was the last year. This show hit every issue imaginable (torture, discrimination, human emotions, etc.). I can't say enough about this show and I am sad that it is over.

3. Fringe: If you like creepiness, sci-fi-ness and great stories, then start watching this show. Every week seems to surpass the week before. You gotta love Anna Torv.

4. Burn Notice: Mindless entertaining fun about a former CIA operative that was 'burned' and is now fighting to regain his good name while also doing good things for people in need. Light entertainment but a lot of fun.

5. Modern Family: A new show about a 3 families (the dad and his family, the son and his gay partner and the daughter and her family). A truly hilarious show with a good heart.

6. True Blood: Terrific and inappropriate about a small Louisiana town with a handful of vampires and crazy stuff. Not for the faint of heart but very good storytelling and very compelling.

7. Better off Ted: Just a nutso comedy about a company that does crazy research. Very funny and offbeat.

8. NBA Game Time: Yes, I know that it is not a typical show...but I love watching this show on NBAtv where they break down every single game that happened during the day. Better than Sportscenter because it only focuses on the NBA.

SLC RESTAURANTS

Indian: Himalayan Kitchen: I am a huge Indian food lover...and this is fabulous. It barely beats out Bombay House on Foothill and Ganesh in Fort Union.

Greek: Dasks. I like a lot of the small little greek restaurants. The Other Place downtown is also very tasty but stay with the greek...don't branch out to some of their other servings.

Italian: Setebellos. The pizza here is fabulous. Very, very good. Other nice italian places are Canellas, Cinnegrill (mainly for nostalgia purposes) and Gepettos (also for nostalgia purposes).

Thai: Pawitt's Royale Thai. This opened up in the past year and has tasty thai food. Well worth a visit to this Holladay restaurant. Thai Lotus downtown is enjoyable as is Thai Gardens in Midvale.

Hamburger: Fuddruckers. It is a chain, I know that...but I do enjoy these burgers more than Apollo, Red Robin and Training Table. I will say though that The Counter (down at the Gateway) was terrific but it is now out of business.

I am looking forward to 2010.

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado (sung in a totally metrosexual John Denver kinda way)

We had a great trip to Winter Park/Granby, Colorado. We went with Brodi's parents and Brodi's sister Erin and family. This is the Rocky Mountain National Park area. Even though we lived in Denver for a little bit, we never made it to this area, so it was fun to check it out.

This area is all at around 8500 feet in elevation and it just got worse when we moved up higher into the Rocky Mountain National Park. We hit 12,000 feet and even went up a few more hundred feet as we did some more hiking. This area was simply built for biking and hiking. 6 days of that along with swimming, tennis and soccer made up our days. The tree line tops out around 10,000 feet, so it is desert like as you hit this altitude...and windy. We got some nice hail coming down on us as we hiked to the top.

Carter learned how to ride his bike this summer and he was a star out there...we did some mountain, single trail riding and Carter led the pack with his cousin Necie. There was also a little dirt biking with little hills obstacle course that he went after and did great on it as well. I have been amazed by how good he has gotten on a bike in such a short time. He wants to ride everywhere every day (can I ride to Amma's house? Can I ride to school? Can I ride to Grandma Kate's?)

Now, figure this out with me...you decide to build some condos and you want to include a hot tub with each unit. So, what do you do? Put the hot tub on the balcony? Put the hot tub in a seperate room with glass doors? Put it in the living room? NONE OF THE ABOVE. This genius put it right in the master bedroom, about 4 feet away from the bed. Any of you own a hot tub...if you haven't, then you should know they are not quiet. They constantly whirrrllll and hummmm. These didn't turn off so every couple of hours, it booms to life to re-heat the water. Awesome. Because of the noise, Brodi slept in the living room in a pull out couch. Carter slept in the living room on another pull out couch. Beckham slept in the 2nd bedroom. I slept next to the sexy hot tub. Lucky me.



We rented out a Pontoon and went out onto Grand Lake. Half of the homes/cabins on this lake are not accessable by walking or by car so they have to drive their boats to it where the have boat garages that they drive into. The weather changes quickly in this area where one minute it will be 75 degrees and partly cloudy skies and literally the next minute, it will be 60 degrees and beginning to rain. Luckily, the weather stayed nice and Carter and Beckham were both able to take their turns driving the boat.




One of the days, we headed off to Estes Park which is on the other side of the National Park...it is a nice little town similar to Park City. This is also where they filmed the Shining. It was a lot of fun to walk thru the hotel...Brodi gives a better description of that part of the trip, here

It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun, I would be curious as to what the area is like during the dead of winter. Anyway, crazy to get home only to send off Carter to his first day or 1st grade.

Midway and Park City in a weekend

A nice Memorial weekend so far. We spent the weekend up at Brodi's parents condo in Midway where we played some tennis, went to a park, had a nice dinner and watched an entertaining NBA game. One of the nights was long as well as Beckham decided that he sleep was overrated and he just wanted to hang out and not sleep. The joys of being a parent.

We are also fans of Park City's Alpline Slide and Coaster rides. The kids love them. Beckham squealed and Carter yelled 'lets go back again, lets go back again' after every single ride. The coaster ride is actually pretty cool. You slowly go up the mountain but when you hit the top, it is hang on time as you pick up pretty good speed.





It is not cheap though. They know how to charge you a lot of money for what amounts to 10 minutes of action. We would have liked to have stayed longer but we realized that we were completely out of money so it was time to go. Definately a lot of fun though.






On another note, Carter had a few interesting things to say to us this weekend. The first was on our drive up to Midway and Brodi and I decided to have a conversation with each other (I know, crazy!). Carter asked something and Brodi told him just a minute to which Carter responded, 'I command you to listen to me now.'

Carter has allergies though not as bad as Beckham. Well, he says that he gets bubbles in his throat, so we have been giving him Zyrtec to make him more comfortable. He let me know right before he went to bed: "Sam, will you put the pill on my tongue to get rid of the bubbles." Yes, the new slogan of Zyrtec: Try Zyrtec and say good bye to the bubbles.

Rockin' Thanksgiving

First off, let me just say that is shocking how much weight you can gain over a 3 day period. Shocking. But it is OK, all of that weight just went into my belly and face--hardly noticeable.

Thanksgiving was fabulous as usual. We spend the evening before Thanksgiving as well as Thanksgiving at Brodi's parents house where we make our stuffing (bread, sage and about 14 cubes of butter) and then we spend the rest of the time eating and eating and eating. I want to feel the pain of being full and trust me, I felt it. I felt it real good. The kids love this because they get the full attention of their grandma and grandpa as well as hanging out with their Gubler cousins. The kids had a contest of spelling different words at the dinner table and laughing their heads off at some of the words they had to spell. Lets just say that the older cousins did a bit better at this game than the younger ones.



The next day we head down to our family ranch down in central Utah where we spend a couple of days eating and playing hard. The ranch is beautiful and lodging is awesome. There is a bedroom and a bathroom for every adult couple as well as another bedroom and a bathroom for ever family's kids (14 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, yes, you read that correct).





Carter and Beckham could not get enough of it all. Carter calls it: Grandma Kate's Desert House. We then spent the next 2 days hiking to see Indian art, riding four wheelers over thousands of acres and riding horses. They especially liked the hike. What could be better than having hilly desert land in front of you, a nice trail, all of your cousins and few rules? Beckham did have one of his silent tantrums. This tantrum consists of him getting angy over something, laying face first on the ground (or dirt as it was, as we were on a hike) and not moving for a couple of minutes. When he decides that he has won the argument, he gets up and acts like nothing happened. Adorable, unless it was your kid. And Beckham is my kid.



Carter rode the horse all by himself. In fact, he asked that Brodi not steer the horse for him after a while as well. Beckham loved it as well, but he wanted Brodi to sit with him (though he has also ridden a horse all by himself).







The four-wheeling was fun as it was open roads every where you went. The kids just sat in the four-wheeler, clenched their teeth and hung on, laughing and talking the whole way.








Dinner was massive as every family made it their duty to bring lots of food. Plenty of food. And overall the trip was as fun as expected even though Beckham was a bit confused with me sleeping in his bed with him (he wouldn't sleep in the crib or on blankets on the floor, so he got to join me in the bed...Carter slept with Brodi) so we spent about 3-hours in the middle of the night hanging out with my trying to convince him it was time to go to sleep and him trying to convince me that I was wrong.

Overall, a very nice weekend and it is back to the grind of school, work, etc...