Winter Time!

The boys have so much fun playing in the snow. Well, Cody has fun for about 5 minutes and then he either face plants or the cold hands or pants catch up to him. But, he still tries to go out every chance he gets. Mason says snow is so wonderful because we can play in it and make snow balls with it, and snowmans.

Mason's New Bow

Mason was so excited to get his new bow & arrow. He waited patiently a long time for it to come in the mail. He is so happy to have a bow just like his Dad.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!!

We all had the chance to go and see Santa the other day at Mason's school. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long in line. The boys were so excited to talk to Santa and get their treats. We can't wait for Christmas.

Happy Halloween!

Mason was a Jedi, Caleb the Black Spiderman, and Cody a Frog.

Happy Cody!

I just had to post some pictures of our happy boy Cody. He has a way of making us all smile when he is happy. He is also growing up way to fast. He is so determined and has to feed himself everything, usually resulting in a great big mess. Good thing I think he is so cute.

Pumkin Patch

These are a little late , but this was Caleb's preschool trip to the pumpkin patch. We had a fun time picking pumpkins and Mason and Caleb loved running around in the maze.

New Sheriff in Town

If any of you can't tell Genie's starting to post on our blog. Look out everyone. Hee Hee Hee.

New Compact Camera

I'm really excited.....I just picked up the newest Nikon Coolpix. The P6000. I got the e-mail from Pictureline that they received them in stock yesterday so I rushed over there after work. They only had 7 in stock but they also had them already discounted so I couldn't pass it up. I've been having a lot of fun with it.

Genie's little Canon Elph has a problem so we have to send it in for warranty work so I'm excited to have this little guy around. It has some new features that I've never used in a camera so I'm having a lot of fun with it. Genie took it today with her to the Pumpkin patch with the boys and got some good shots.

First Snow!

We woke up today to snow. The boys were so excited. After church they had a great time walking around and playing in the snow. Brrrr.

Look who's 1!!!

We celebrated Cody's 1st birthday this last week. I can't believe he is already a year old. Mason and Caleb had a great time helping him open his presents. Then we went to IHOP for dinner and we remembered why we usually don't take our children to restaurants. But, we survived and then came home where Cody had a lot of fun poking at his cupcake. Cody is a sweet loveable boy and we are so glad he is in our family. Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Boy!!

Upcoming Ptarmigan Trip

Our first annual White Tailed Ptarmigan trip to the High Uintas is close approaching. I’ve done all of the mapping and a lot of research on where to go and I think weather permitting we should have some pretty good success. The plan is as follows:

Thursday Sept 11 - 4:00 am leave Bountiful area

It’s about a 3 – 3 ½ hour drive so that would put us to the trailhead about 7:00 – 7:30 am

The hike is laid out as follows:

Mile 0 starts at 9477.9ft elevation

Mile 1 – 9577.5ft – gain of 99.6ft

Mile 2 – 9722.5ft – gain of 148ft

Mile 3 – 9852.9ft – gain of 130.4ft

Mile 4 – 9886.8ft – gain of 33.9ft

Mile 5 – 10004.5ft – gain of 117.7ft

Mile 6 – 10184.2ft – gain of 179.7ft

Mile 7 – 10285.7ft – gain of 101.5ft

Mile 8 – 10584.1ft – gain of 298.4ft

Mile 9 – 10791.4ft – gain of 207.3ft

Mile 10 – 10956ft – gain of 164.6ft

Mile 11 – 11311.8ft – gain of 355.8ft

Destination 11.13 miles – 11325.6 – gain of 13.8ft – Red Castle Lake

Along most of the hike there is a stream that I’ve heard has some great fishing to be done there. I imagine as we hike that we will take a few fishing breaks and simply take it easy on our way in. With little to no fishing breaks I would estimate our hike to take around 5 hours. Throw in a few fishing breaks and that will probably set us back a few hours putting us in camp roughly 2 or 3pm. That should give us plenty of time to make camp and get some fishing in on Red Castle Lake as well as relax for our next two days of hunting. I’ve also heard that Red Castle Lake has some awesome fishing.

Friday Sept 12 & Saturday Sept 13^th the plan is to hunt, fish, or whatever else everyone wants to do. As long as my dog is still running and I don’t have my limit I imagine I’ll be looking for a few birdies. Hopefully we’ll get into a bunch of birds on Friday and limit out, go back to camp, eat them and then limit out again on Saturday. At least I’m pretty sure that’s legal to do. The bag limit is 4 and the possession limit is 2 bags so I don’t see why not. That would make for a lot of birds between all of us. I know that’s dreaming a bit but why not (especially knowing how some of us shoot J).

Sunday Sept 14^th – Hike out and drive home.

We’ll need to watch the weather reports closely as the trip approaches since at that elevation snow storms and thunderstorms would be the likelihood if we get into bad weather. I hear it can get pretty nasty up there so we’ll want to be prepared.

There are 4 guys going as well as 4 dogs (3 German Shorthairs, and 1 Brittany). This is the first time any of us have taken this trip but I feel pretty comfortable with our plan. Hopefully we’ll make this an annual trip. I’ll post how the trip goes when I get back. I’m still debating on whether I should pack my D300 or my wife’s little digital camera. Hers is small and really nice but I’d love to have the D300 up there to take some nice shots. It weights a lot though especially considering we’ll be hiking over 22 miles.

2008 Yellowstone Cabin Vacation

We just got back from our yearly vacation to our cabin just outside West Yellowstone. We had a lot of fun this year.

The weather was so much cooler than Salt Lake City. I love the cool evening breezes blowing through the window while you sleep. Salt Lake City has been way too hot for my liking. The mosquitoes were really bad this year though. It has been a very wet year up there.

Genie had a lot of fun hanging out the entire week at the cabin and her favorite thing was just relaxing. I’m too restless for that so I spent the week riding the horses and my 4-wheeler in the mountains, boating on the lake, fishing Hebgen lake and the Madison River, picking huckleberries, watching the wildlife, shooting guns, hiking, catching frogs, playing with the kids, exercising myself and my dog (we are trying to get ready for our 28 mile hike next month to go Ptarmigan hunting), and then a little relaxing and playing the Wii in the evening. We also went to the Bear and Wolf discovery center which was awesome to watch the behaviors of those powerful animals. The boys lost interest pretty quick but Genie and I loved it. Next year I think Genie and I will go by ourselves so we can spend a lot more time just watching the animals.

Fishing was a little slow for me this year. I did manage to catch one really nice Brook trout though on our private lake at the cabin. There is a big natural spring on our property that flows into a lake. I’ve caught Brook trout in there over 24” but they are the toughest buggers to catch.

One of the days we went hiking to Mystic Falls. It was 2 miles round trip. Mason hiked the entire way and was very proud of it. I carried Caleb on my shoulders most of the way and Genie struggled to haul Cody in our little stroller. We realized we should have brought the Kelty kid carrier to carry Cody in. O well, next year. The falls were really pretty.

In Yellowstone we didn’t see much wildlife. We saw a bunch of Elk and a couple Bald Eagles.

When Mason and I were out riding the 4-wheeler one day we ran into a really nice 4 point buck and a doe on the trail. We saw a lot of Elk sign but no bear. Genie’s aunt was up at their cabin just down the road and they ran into a bear while up huckleberry picking the day after we went.

Mason had a lot of fun just playing with a bunch of his cousins that were up there. They all went to town and bought Bionicals and he has fallen in love with them. He told all his cousins and grandparents that they can buy him Bionicals for his birthday and Christmas if they want to. Grandma Ann made a bunch of Jedi capes and Mason ran around most of the week wearing his Jedi outfit and playing with his lightsabre. Mason loved fishing and riding the 4-wheeler as well.

Caleb loved picking huckleberries and when I took him fishing all he wanted to do was go back up and pick more huckleberries. Him and Mason were both big helpers picking the berries. The berries were huge this year. A couple times I had to double check that we were picking the right berry. They looked too big. We got quite a few and ate them on our ice cream and pancakes the rest of the week.

Cody just played, slept, ate, cried, and laughed.

We had a super heroes night that the boys absolutely loved. Caleb dressed in a black Spiderman costume most of the week. Genie dressed like Zorro and I dressed like a Pirate.

Mocha, our dog, always loves going to the cabin since she is free to just run and enjoy herself all week. We really wore her out with the horseback rides and the 4-wheeler rides. When we went fishing she just laid in the boat and Caleb used her as a pillow so he could lay down.

Here’s a few pictures from the week:

Cody, Genie, and Matt dressed up for Super Hero Day

Mason dressed as a Jedi and Caleb as the Black Spiderman

The beautiful scenery in Montana - Looking out from the deck on the cabin

Mocha - Our Hunting Dog

The cabin

Mr. Cody playing with his toys

On our hike in Yellowstone National Park

Matt, Mason, and Caleb sitting below Mystic Falls

Wildflowers

Wildman Cody

Caleb

Caleb and Mocha - They love to hang out. Mocha will just stand there while Caleb lays his head on her back and gives her hugs.

This was as it was getting dark on the Madison River. I was fishing just below 3 Dollar Bridge. I really wish I would have had a tripod with the way the moon rose up over the mountains.

Garden Boxes

We just finished up our 4 new garden boxes. They are 12’ long x 3’ wide x 2’ tall. It took about 12 yards of topsoil to fill all of them. That was a lot of shoveling dirt! We had to shovel it once into the wheelbarrow then again from the wheelbarrow to the garden box.

 

We are really excited to have them finished. The soil here is very thick clay and doesn’t do well with planting gardens. Our carrots last year were about an inch long.

 

Now we are on to our next project, staining the deck.

New Trampoline

The boys final got their own trampoline. They were VERY excited. Anytime we go to someone’s house that has a trampoline they can’t seem to get enough of it.

 

The other day we put the sprinkler under it for the first time and Mason absolutely loved it. One of their favorite things to do on the trampoline is to play fight. Both of them are big into Pokémon and Ben 10 so they like to act their shows out on the trampoline.

 

Right now Mason and Caleb are going to a Summer Camp and they are in Swimming Lessons. They have both been doing very good.

 

 

Genie & Cody

Here’s Genie and Cody hanging out in the yard in Mom’s new swing.

New Toy!!!

I just got my latest toy last week. The Nikon D300!! I also got the 18-200mm lens with it and a bunch of other little goodies to play with.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. It takes phenomenal photos and has so many features and functionality that if it had legs it would kick my butt. I’ve been learning to shoot in RAW format and processing the images myself in Lightroom. It’s been a very fun learning process and I’m looking forward to the photos I’ll be able to capture with it.

Middle Fork of the Salmon River

In April myself and several friends floated down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. This has been an annual event for this group now for several years. We go early enough in the year that we don’t have to play the lottery game to get a permit. In fact, we go early enough that often we are the first group to have gone down the river for the year. Last year the weather was perfect and this year didn’t disappoint as well.

We drove to Challis Idaho on Friday to the MiddleFork Aviation hanger where we started flying gear into Indian Creek. The weather wasn’t very nice on Friday so we only had one plane flying. The pilot that day is a bit of a crazy guy. We asked the other pilots if it was safe to be flying that day and they just said, “You don’t see me up there do you?” I was happy to not be one of the guys that flew in that day. When you fly up over that mountain range the winds and thermals can really make for a rollercoaster ride. We got three flights in that day which allowed us to get all five boats in and a bit of other gear. We also sent three of our guys in to start rigging up.

Friday night was really cold in Challis. There was a local high school rodeo so I went over there for a little while to kill some time. After my hands nearly were frostbitten I decided to head back to the hanger. We smoothed talked the pilots into letting us sleep in the hanger that night which made for a great night of sleep.

Early Saturday morning the weather was beautiful. We started flying around 8:00am and soon after had two planes hauling in gear and people. By the time we got all of the gear in, boats rigged, lunch eaten, and all the other little necessities we were able to get on the water around 1:00pm. The weather at Indian Creek was sunny and warm temperatures. The water level was at about 2.5’ measured at the Middle Fork Lodge. The water was fairly clear.

Just after the put in there was a massive avalanche slide that ran down into the water and had some massive logs mixed into the compacted snow. It’s amazing to realize the power an avalanche can have.

Since we got onto the water a bit late we pretty much rowed straight through to camp at Loon Creek. There was an amazing amount of deer and elk that we saw throughout the entire float. We also saw several big horn sheep including a bachelor herd that had some monster rams in it. One would have scored around 180. The first day of the float we saw a dead mountain lion just off the river bank. We pulled off and took a look at it. It was a very freshly killed lion. On the third day I saw a nice cinnamon colored bear. The amount of wildlife this early in the year is amazing.

Camping at Loon Creek is one of my favorites. There is a hot spring just up the trail from the camp that is very well established and is very refreshing. Jeff always talks us into doing the Loon Creek challenge which is that you walk out into Loon Creek, fresh run-off – ice cold water, and submerse yourself completely. It is brutally cold. His Dad used to buy them a Whopper at Burger King if they did it.

Sunday we had a little riverside service which was nice and then we got on the water around 10:00am. We had a fairly lazy morning that day. Tappan Falls was fairly fun but nothing like it was last year at 4.5’ – 5’ water level. Last year we flipped a boat there and had one guy hypothermic by the time we got him out of the water. This early in the year the water is freezing cold. It makes it a bit of a challenge when the weather is as nice and warm as it was this year because you have the dilemma of wearing enough dry gear to be safe if you take a swim but it’s so hot that wearing a dry top is almost unbearable.

The third day is the biggest water on the trip and the most fun for rapids. Rubber was fun but again, not nearly as big as it was last year. Last year three boats went before I did and all three of them almost flipped. The biggest of the three boats is the exact same boat as mine and when he went through his side came up so high I could see almost the entire bottom of his boat. That had my heart going which I loved. This year pretty much all of the rapids were forgiving and straightforward.

We were able to get off the river in pretty good time on Monday and ended up back home around 1 or 2am, I can’t remember. At the takeout we had a pretty wild experience. Myself and Tom have the exact same boat, 16’ Aire self-bailers. His is about 10 years old and mine is about 3 years old. Both of our boats have a ballast system on them that holds a bit of water in the bottom of them for better tracking in the water. We had placed both of them out to dry and to drain out the water. I got mine rolled up fairly quick and taken care of. Tom left his out for a while to make sure it was completely dry. The temperature was really climbing while we were de-rigging all of the boats. A group of us were standing around making some lunch when suddenly it sounded as though someone shot a gun right behind me. We turned around to see that Tom’s boat had exploded. The internal bladder was shredded and had torn out the seam all down one side of his boat. I’d always heard that if you didn’t release some of the pressure in your boat that the heat could make it expand enough to pop your boat. It was wild though to actually be there and see it. The sound was amazingly loud. I felt bad for him but I’m pretty sure it’s still under warranty so they should be able to fix it up easily for him.

This is one of my favorite trips of the year and one I will always look forward to.

I ended up taking over 400 pictures on this trip so instead of putting them all here on the blog you can go check them out on my flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/26492698@N05/

NYC - Interaction Design Seminar w/ Tog

This month has been crazy with travel. I spent part of a week in Wisconsin, flew home for the weekend, then flew back to NYC on Sunday for a week long seminar with Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini the"Leading Authority on Software Design". It was a great trip but I was happy to come back to Utah. I'm not a big city guy. I love going to travel each time I go but I couldn't live there by any means.

The seminar was great! It was pretty intensive but had some very good information on designing software and doing usability testing.

We had a chance to tour around quite a bit since we were staying in the Roosevelt right by Times Square. The hotel was VERY nice, Very expensive, with Very small rooms. We went to a comedy club as well as the Broadway show Spamalot with Clay Aikens.

I was very happy to get home and spend some time with the family since I have to go to Washington in another week. It's been a very busy time of year at work for travel. Next month though I'll be going to Maine and Genie might go with me. Should be a lot of fun if she is able to go.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Pheasant Hunt

Mocha on Point out front - I shot a nice rooster from this point

My friend Scott and I with our birds and dogs

Today a couple buddies and me went out pheasant hunting. Although it was bright and sunny it had snowed that morning. We ended up doing alright, we shot 11 of the 14 birds that we found. A couple of the ones we didn't shoot had flushed way too far out of range for us to get. Mocha did unbelievable for being a pup. She was very solid on all of her points and found several of the birds.

For those of you I haven't updated, Mocha and I competed in our first Field Trial event a couple weeks ago. The puppy trial was on Sunday so we opted to compete in the derby trial which has older more experienced dogs in it. My opinion, she would have easily taken first in the puppy, but then again I'm very biased.

Well after all was said and done Mocha did amazing. She took 4th place and received all the points she needs in the derby to move towards being a field trial champion. Her style was on fire, she pointed a bird from about 40 yards out and held it like a champ. The breeder was there with his pup from the litter (which happened to be the pick of the litter) and he was very proud to watch how well she did. (By the way, she whooped her brother) We should be taking some first place spots this year as she progresses and learns more what the game is all about. I'm very proud of her.

Happy Cody

Cody is one of the happiest babies i've ever seen. He loves to laugh, especially when you change his clothes.

Woods Cross Easter Egg Hunt

The boys get so excited every year for the city's easter egg hunt and party. The city does a really nice job every year with their Easter celebration. Both boys got full baskets of eggs.

Easter Eggs

We had a lot of fun decorating eggs for easter. Mason and Caleb couldn't wait all week. Here is Caleb putting tattoos on his egg. Every time he was putting one on he would start humming.