Family Cookouts and a Waterfight

Our family had a great time in Provo over the last few days. We had a cookout almost everyday. Too bad Deana and Korey's family couldn't make it down.

Anyway, this first set of pictures is from the family picnic at Nunn's Park up Provo Canyon. A nearby family reunion (not ours) was providing some great musical relief with a live DJ.

Samantha and Dad.
Several of the grandkids: Elijah, Isaac, Jadyn, Emmalee, Carlee Anna, and Gracee.
Isaiah checking out the playground equipment. He went down every slide...by himself.
Samantha and Sadie. Both were trouble during most of our visit. I think it's a common occurence.
My good friend Ryon Lott and I trying our best to suck our guts in. I think I'm doing a better job.
And here are some silly pictures from a backyard cookout that ended in a waterfight.

I may be dead when my mom sees these pictures...so feel free to call me and tell me good-bye.
Jarad and Isaiah with cool hair-dos.
We wanted Deana to be in this picture too, but she's not normal enough to hang with us.

Trippin' on the Train

Emmalee, Elijah, and Jarad took the California Zephyr (Amtrak) train from Denver to Provo this last Thursday. The train was supposed to leave Denver at 8 am, but didn't pull out until almost noon. Originally, the plan was for Rochelle, Gracee and Isaiah to meet them in Grand Junction and drive together to Provo. Due to the late start, it was decided to let them ride the train all the way into Provo.

As you can see by the pictures below, the seats were comfortable and the scenery was beautiful.

In the restaraunt car. Elijah enjoyed his roll and some macaroni and cheese.

Coming down along the Colorado River...there were several amazing views and lots and lots of tunnels.

Elijah and Emmalee slept from just past Grand Junction until they arrived in Provo at about 1:30am.

Elijah says his favorite part was eating lots of Skittles during the train ride. Emmalee spent much of the trip on her feet, exploring different parts of the train. A young guy sitting close to them took his guitar down into the trains dressing room on the bottom level (yes the train had two levels) and worked on the songs he was writing. Emmalee and another girl sat outside the door and listened to him sing for a couple of hours. Jarad's favorite part was just relaxing for an entire trip to Provo.

Everyone should take a train ride out to see us. We would be happy to come and pick you up in Denver.

Batman on the Move

Here are a couple picture of the latest star to play Batman. Enjoy!

Villains Beware!

A Few More Pictures from Ukraine

A really cool toilet in a Georgian restaraunt in Kiev. I would hate to do any repair work on the tile.

Two photos of St. Sophia Cathedral, the oldest orthodox church in Kiev. Yaroslavl the Wise is buried in the church with his wife. The church sits on the site where the Apostle Andrew supposedly placed a cross when he prophesied that a huge city would be built there. Prince Vladimir I marched the inhabitants of Kiev down the nearby street to the Dnieper River to be baptized. After exploring a number of religions he picked Christian Orthodoxy as the religion for the Kievan Rus.

A dog by a car..........

A beautiful view of Yalta on the Black Sea. We had an amazing time.

The Livadia Palace in Yalta. The Yalta Conference between FDR, Churchill and Stalin took place here towards the end of WWII. It was originally a palace belonging to Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

A picture of me overlooking the Swallow's Nest in Yalta.

Our Last Conversation on this Topic, Ever!

One of my children and I had our last conversation on a topic that has been visited repeatedely in the past. I'm sure this time it is our last conversation on this particular behavioral anomaly. After slightly more than 300 hundred separate discussions on this very same topic, I can't imagine that we would need to speak about it again. Finally, I feel like I'm beginning to succeed as a parent.

Based on the above photo of Emmalee, taken secretly with my phone after I walked out of the room, it appears we may revisit the topic at least once more.

A Superhero Birthday!

Elijah turned four! He had an amazing superhero birthday party. It started out with an icebreaker in the pool. As you can see in the picture, Gracee managed to crash the party.

Once everyone was finished chilling out and showing off their tan lines, they moved on to receiving their superhero identities. Elijah informed us his superhero identity was Fast Green. Rochelle mad some amazing capes and masks for everyone. A few of the boys decided that if you have a superhero you must also have a super-villain, so they started to take swings at one another. To head off any superhero battles to the death, we informed them that bubbles were evil and encouraged them to destroy all the bubbles as Jarad blew them as fast as he could. With all the bubbles destroyed, we moved on to destroying the Batman pinada.

Cake and ice cream soon followed just as parents arrived to claim their superhero children. Rochelle was a superhero for her excellent skill in putting together the Batman cake.

Until next year!!!!

(Isaiah, the next superhero?)

Ukraine

Last month I had the privilege of spending two and a half weeks in Ukraine with 32 cadets from the Air Force Academy and Air Force ROTC. We were there for a language immersion. The cadets stayed with local families and spent 4-6 hours engaged in Russian study. I and another member of the faculty stayed in our an apartment right in downtown Kiev. It was an amazing stay.

One Sunday I was able to make it Church. A few of the older sisters in the ward (yes, Kiev has a stake and a number of wards), mistook me for a missionary and asked why I had forgotten my nametag. Then she saw my weeks worth of facial hair and began to lecture me. I was very flattered that someone thought I looked young enough to still be a missionary.

My two favorite activities in Ukraine were people watching and eating. Ukrainians are an interesting lot of people. The women are tall and beautiful and many don't believe in wearing much clothing. Mullets are the hairstyle of choice for many young men in Russia. (Billy Ray needs to do a concert in Kiev.)

Food in Kiev was amazing. Almost every meal I ate was amazing. We had Ukrainian, Georgian, Italian, English and German food. Most of it was priced about the same as it might be in a place like Salt Lake or Colorado Springs. Below is a picture of a Georgian dish called tsyplata tabaka, a very tasy way to prepare chicken. (Yes, it's a whole chicken. And I ate it all.)

We spent a four day weekend on the Black Sea in Yalta. The Crimean Peninsula was very intriguing. Largely flat and rolling agricultural land dominates the peninsula, broken up by the tall mountains along the southern coast. On our way to Yalta we saw the top of Gorbachev's dacha, the one in which he was put under house arrest during the attempted coup in 1991. While in Yalta we visited the Livadia Palace where the Yalta Conference (the meeting between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during WWII) was held. Roosevelt stayed in the palace during the duration of the conference. Also, it was one of the Romanov palaces before the Soviets acquired it through revolutionary means.

Above is a picture of me at the Swallow's Nest looking over the bay leading into Yalta. Overall it was an amazing experience. I hope to go back again next year.