Monday, November 7, 2011

A Superhero Halloween!

Oh, what a wonderful Halloween we had this year! The boys were so excited to be a family of Superheros! James was Batman (although we missed the photo op), Keri was Super Mom, David was Iron Man, Steven was Spiderman and Jared was Captain America! Good times! Throughout the month of October, we celebrated Halloween quite a bit. We attended 2 Trunk or Treats, a neighborhood after-school party, David's preschool party and classroom trick or treat, even Keri got involved with an all-girl Halloween party with friends. What a fun holiday!



Our superheros



Our sweet baby Jared



David's Preschool Class



Story time in class



Trick or treating in the high school



Keri's girlfriend party



Lots of fun girls!



Mommy & David



Captain America Jared



Best Buddies



After school neighborhood Halloween party

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Our 5th Anniversary

So for the last week I have been planning a surprise for my wonderful wife of five years. Keri has been in Salt Lake with her family with the last week and with our up coming 5th anniversary I thought I would take advantage of the situation and surprise her with a little get away.
It started with Keri going shopping with her parents in Park City. I was already in town so as they were shopping I surprised her in the shops. After continuing the shopping we enjoyed a nice dinner with her parents at Redrock Junction, which was awesome and I would recommend to anyone. After that Keri's parents left to go watch our 3 boys for the night so I could continue in the anniversary surprise. We then went to the movies together. Something that we haven't been able to do in a year or so. I then took her to the Grand Summit lodge for the night and we will leave that at that. The next morning I had scheduled a Fishing guide to meet us and take us out and teach Keri how to fly fish. It was amazing, and she was a trooper. Such beautiful country and the leaves are beginning to change. Our guide was very informative and patient. Keri caught the first fish, a nice size 8 incher, at least that's what I thought since that's what i am used to in the northern Idaho mtns. I had several hit I was having a hard time setting the hook at first then i got my first one a 12 incher. Then later I had a big hit, it took 10 or 15 min to get the fish warn out with help from our guide we got him in the net. A 21 inch brown trout. biggest trout I have ever caught it was amazing. Keri and I finished our 12 hour date with lunch and then headed down the mountain. What a great celebration of 5 years. If eternity is as fun and adventurous as the last 5 years then I am glad I am doing it with Keri!!
Here are some pictures to show the fun!!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Kanab City Council

Politics in a small town sure are crazy! For those of you that didn't know, James ran for City Council this month. There were a total of 8 people running with only 3 spots to fill. It was definitely competitive. James knew he was the underdog, going against people who have raised their kids here and have been residents for 30+ years. But he got his name out there. The primary election was yesterday and he unfortunately didn't make the cut. He still got 200+ votes though. Not bad for the "new guy" in town. Even though he didn't make it this year, it sure was fun to be a part of the process. He ran a good campaign. We put signs up all over town, went door to door, was interviewed for the newspaper and participated in 2 public forums to get his ideas heard. I'm very proud of my man and the boys are very proud of their daddy! :)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Preschool!!!

Preschool already? It seems like yesterday I was being rushed into surgery to meet my first baby boy. Now he is a confident, cute 3 1/2 year old! David was so excited to start preschool yesterday morning. He is going to Kanab Preschool, which is located in the high school. He goes 4 days/week for 3 hours a day. And because it is a state sponsored program, he gets to ride a bus to and from school! It's great! They pick him up and drop him off right in front of our house. They have a preschool aide that rides with him too. That's reassuring. I thought David would be a little hesitant yesterday when the bus showed up, but he walked right over and hopped in. He didn't even turn around and wave. So quick in fact, that I didn't even have time to snap a picture. I did get one of him getting off on his way home. :)

It's only his first week, but I already love the program and his teacher. He has a page of homework each night and a letter to learn each week. He starts practicing writing his name tomorrow. They also send a book home each night for him to read. Then he takes it back the next day and gets another one. Sure does beat buying new books all the time. :)


David waiting for the bus on his first day!



Steven was just as excited as David




David & Mommy



Getting off the bus



"Bye yellow bus!"



Steven was "snoring" waiting for David to come home. Hilarious!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Jared Duncan West

Today Keri and I were blessed to receive Jared D. West in to our lives. He was born at 8am and was 6lb 1oz.

Jared, you are a wonderful child. Your mother and I look at you with aw and wounder of all the wonderful accomplishments you have in store. You came to us early but the time was right. You are healthy and strong! Your not even a day old and there are more people that love you that can be counted. I know that we will have our great days and our good days, but for now you sure are a quiet baby that has been a joy to be around.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Antimony Creek Adventure

Yesterday at 6am Steve, Cameron, Blaine, and Myself set out of a fishing trip of a lifetime. We loaded up the back of my truck with all the needed gear and coolers and through on a trailer with 4 ATV's. We set out for Antimony Creek. Still being fairly new to the fishing scene in Utah I was excited to get some time out with my fly-rod. We reached our ATV drop point at about 8am at which time the real adventure began. Going from about 8000 ft above sea level to about 1250 in an hour on ATV's, on trails that are just wide enough for the ATV and have boulders everywhere to clime over. The trails were "gnarly," as one of my cohorts put it. We arrived at our destination around 9:30am, we had no sooner gotten off our rides scoped the place out and the heavens opened their wrath upon us with penny sized drops of rain and nickle sized hail. If that wasn't enough there was lighting so load and close that it caused grown men to cower and scramble. One strike was so close there was no delay in the crack of thunder from the flash. One of the other guys said he saw it hit about 200 yards away from us. The storm eventually calmed down enough that we all felt like getting our gear out and seeing what we could catch. Antimony Creek is a typical mountain creek crystal clear water and it is stocked full of native broke trout and brown trout, so much so that at any point along the creek you can see a dozen or so swimming along. Fishing started off slow for some, Cameron started hitting them as soon as his line hit the water. This was Blaine's first time fly fishing so we tutored him at first but he was quick to pick it up and Steve, well this was his spot so he went right to work catching them as well. I had a slow start on the upper side of our camp, but as soon as we moved to the lower side and I switch to a better fly I started slaying them. So much so I put an 8 fish per hole limit on my self before moving along the creek. It was a blast. After fishing the creek for a good 4 hours, all this time being rained on mind you, we headed back to were we had parked the ATV's and Cameron our outdoorsman had built us a little fire under a pine tree away from the rain. It was dry and warm!! We stay under that tree for probably an hour and the storm finally broke at which time we decided to make a break for our next fishing spot Antimony Lake. Now never being in this area I made some assumptions about what Lake ment. So when we pulled up to it and it was not much larger than Kanab Creek Pond I was a little surprised and worried about the fishing potential. The creek didn't even run in to it. It was a snow run off pond. But I was assured that the DWR stocked it every spring. We all pulled out our fly rods and began to fish this pond, I had a fish on my first time in the water and a few missed hits after that but it was really slow after that. They just weren't hitting the surface. Fortunately Blaine and I had packed our spinning rods. As soon as I pulled out my favorite trout lure I was hitting them again. About every other cast I had a fish on. It was awesome! As the sun began to dip down past the mountains to the west we began to realize that if we wanted to get off the mountain before we lost light we had better move quick. Just as we packed up our things the rain came again which made for a very muddy very slippery ride down the rocky trails. We made it back to the trucks just as dusk was settling in loaded up the trailer and began our trip home.

Here are a few pictures to tell the story;
Thanks Blaine for not making me ride this one!
The end of a beautiful adventure!

The boys!

Warming our self's up under a tree, Thank Cameron for the fire, I am glad one us brought a lighter.

Cameron and Steve consult a map to find our way, Blaine supervises!

Herding cattle along the trails, yeeha!!
Ready to Go!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Ward Campout!

We had the opportunity a few weeks ago to go camping with a few other families in our ward. We are so lucky to live in such beautiful country! To be surrounded by so many beautiful landscapes only 30 minutes from our home! This was the first time we have taken the boys camping in a while and they absolutely loved it! That was obvious by the brown color of their bath water after we got home. :) They had so much fun just running around getting dirty, playing with bugs, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and sleeping in the tent. It was nice for all of us to get away from our cell phones and just spend time together and with great friends. Although I will admit, camping and sleeping on an air mattress probably isn't the smartest thing to do while you're 8 months pregnant. Oh well, I survived... and so did my back. :)

David driving with Daddy down the dirt road

James playing a little horseshoes


Mommy & Steven


Dirty boys!


Playing in the back of Daddy's truck


Silly Steven... this kid cracks me up!


Family pic by our tent


David LOVES his Daddy!



Roasting dinner


You can't tell, but David was having a blast

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Fishing with the Boys!

We've been waiting (and waiting...) for the weather to get warmer so we could finally take the boys fishing. We figured Memorial Day weekend would be perfect. The temperature was fine, but the wind just about killed us! The boys had so much fun throwing rocks in the water and just holding the fishing pole, neither of them cared that we didn't even catch a fish. :)


Mommy fishing with the boys


David sure was concentrating on that fishing pole

The boys thought the worms were pretty funny!




David thought the salmon eggs were pretty cool though.


Steven had a blast just throwing rocks in the lake