S&J Barker News

4-Wheeling

2011-03-25T21:42:00.004-06:00

Escalante week #2

2010-05-24T10:16:00.009-06:00

Yes we went to Escalante again... and it was a blasty blast. We had an amazing little campsite next to a little river, with a little waterfall... Here are the pictures

Two weeks ago when we came here the Hell's Backbone road was closed so we weren't able to cross, this weekend however we were.

Here is the sign across the bridge...

Here is the edited version of the sign...

We hiked both the Lower Calf Creek Falls hike and the Upper Falls hike, the lower was better with no competition.

On our way home we stopped by Fish lake... Ok, so it really wasn't "on the way," but we wanted to stop by none-the-less. As you can see, it was mostly frozen over so we weren't able to go snorkeling, but the scuba diving was amazing... :)

Our Weekend

2010-05-03T11:49:00.006-06:00

To celebrate the ending of another semester for Sam, we headed out to find some adventure. We are not very good at planning, and usually simply pick a general direction and then see where the road takes us :) This time the road took us to Escalante and Red Canyon.

Here is Indy the Mountain Dog

Red Canyon: We went on a beautiful hike, crossed the stream many times, encountered horses, and really just let Indy run wild.

We tried to drive across Hells Backbone, but alas, it is still closed due to snow... So we went back and took a drive down Hole in the Rock Road. Where we stopped at Devil's Garden:

Indy loved the sand and rocks

Our final destination was Egypt!!

We couldn't really figure out why it was called Egypt, but it was truly beautiful!

New addition

2010-04-05T16:24:00.001-06:00

We got a new puppy!!! We like to call him Indy, but he prefers to be known as prince! We chose the name because of Indiana Jones... the dog, you were named after the dog...

Stary Stary Night

2009-09-10T23:06:00.004-06:00

These were taken around midnight down in Cedar, if you look in the picture above you can see Jamie on the truck. Hi Jamie.

You can't really tell because I changed the settings on my camera so it would pick up the light, but it was really dark outside and you needed a flashlight to get around. That is the reason that Jamie is so out of focus if you zoom in because with the naked eye you weren't able to see her. In fact from where I took the picture of Jamie I could barely make out the trucks outline. These next two pictures were taken one right after the other so you can kind of see how dark it was.

The moon was out so I wasn't really able to get a good picture of the stars, but I got some good ones of the clouds.

The Performers Studio

2009-08-20T00:55:00.004-06:00

Jamie has been involved in a 9 month singing class with the Performers Studio and last weekend was her final performance. Each of the students sang one solo and then back up for the other singers. She brought down the house as she was the only singer that did not sing to a karaoke track. You can see by the different pictures that she did not wear the same outfit twice. That is my little diva :)

She opened up the first half singing backup to "Alone" by Heart.

Her second song she sang backup to "To Make You Feel My Love" by Garth Brooks

Jamie and I (I played the guitar for her) opened up the second half with her solo to "The Story" by Brandi Carlile. Up until this point I was the camera man, but I had to give my duties to my mom who drove all the way up from Cedar City with my Uncle Rich.

This was taken during my whistling solo... Did I mention that I also whistled while I played the guitar?

Her last song she sang backup to "Juke Box Hero." She spent a lot of time learning the air guitar for this part. I think it paid off, she is quite the rocker!

I'm Scuba Sam

2009-08-10T21:35:00.004-06:00

This is me Scuba Sam

Jamie and I went to Flaming Gorge this last weekend with some friends (Laurie and Nate) and we went scuba diving. Let me just tell you that this trip was a regular blast! This was Jamie's and my first scuba trip outside of the confines of a scuba classroom. As the old adage says "you learn a lot more by jumping into a lake with all of your scuba gear than you do in a scuba classroom."

Lesson 1, Nothing is better than a good plan... except for a nice MLT where the mutton is nice and lean...

Our planning consisted of "We are going to go down 20 feet and swim to the island." We all went under water and that was the end of communicating because how do you talk with each other under water? After about 5 minutes of floundering around we all resurfaced and came up with a better plan. The visibility was about 5 feet and it was hard not to lose each other. We decided Nate was going to lead, Jamie would go second, and I would be last. We went down again. I saw Nate slowly vanish, and saw Jamie starting to swim. I started to follow and after about two kicks I felt a little tap on my fin. I turned around and saw Nate. How in the world did he get behind me so fast?!? Also WHERE DID JAMIE GO? As I turned around to get her attention she was gone.

Here is Jamie

Lesson 2 If you can't see me I can't see you and that is a bad thing.

You learn in class that if someone gets lost you are supposed to resurface and find them because safety comes first. When we first got in the water Jamie was having trouble with her ears and that was some of the reason why we re-surfaced the first time. I thought that as soon as she saw that Nate was not in front of her and that I was not behind her she would come up and wait for us just like we learned in class. I started to panic because she couldn't stay down that long with ear problems and she shouldn't stay down that long if she couldn't find us. Well she didn't want to come back up because her ears had acclimatized, so no matter how lost we were she knew where she was and that was good enough.

(Here is a little side lesson that comes extra with the price of admission to my blog. It is easy to keep track of yourself. It was even easy to keep track of one other person, but when your attention is split with two people that is when you lose people.)

Lesson 3, If there are cops around do not admit to doing anything wrong... It will only get you into trouble!

Here is Nate

Nate and I would swim a little looking for Jamie and then surface to see if she had surfaced, then we would repeat. It was a little hard to hear while we were on the surface due to the fact that we were wearing our scuba caps and little did we know that we were shouting "I can't find her do you know where she is?" In a matter of minutes there were 5 different police cars on the shore ready to give aid at a moments notice. After about 15 minutes Jamie finally did re-surface and search and rescue was called off... for the moment. We decided that we would all hold on to our dive flag's rope that was connected to my vest and proceed.

Lesson 4, If your spiritual compass is broken it will always lead to a dam. I mean there is magnetic pull toward a dam.

Well, now I was in the lead and since we couldn't see the island under the water a compass heading was taken and I started to follow. My compass was not working, it just kept slowly turning to the right. I was trying to compensate and go left, but it was to no avail. My compass kept taking me to something that was making a lot of noise. So I would re-surface and get a visual on the island and go back down and rely on my compass. With in a matter of kicks it would take me right back to the loud noise.

Lesson 5, If there is no air in the tank you can't breath under water... unless your name is Aqua Man

Well, after searching for Jamie and all of my bad directions we were getting low on air so we had to surface and swim back to the shore never having made it to the island. When we surfaced I noticed that the loud noise was the dam and it was slowly dragging us toward it. It took a little bit of effort, but we over came the pull of the dam and swam back to shore with all of this newly acquired knowledge. As we walked to the truck we waved as we saw the police cars leaving in single file. Sorry you didn't get to practice your skills today Search and Rescue, maybe next time...

Here we all are with our divers flag

Jamie's Concert

2009-08-10T21:12:00.003-06:00

Here are some pictures when Jamie preformed during a Local Talent Night at one of the clubs here in Salt Lake. She brought down the house!

Jamie Started out the night singing some solos.

One of her friends sang some songs and then they sang in a group.

Here she is during intermission, you can tell that she is mentally preparing for her next gigs.

We started the second act with a little guitar/singing action

Y'all come back now ya hear!

The Great Salt Lake

2009-08-03T18:03:00.003-06:00

Sam and I have lived here in Salt Lake City for about 6 years now and we have never been to the Great Salt Lake. We have heard how salty it is and how many bugs there are out there, but we wanted to experience it first hand. Well, we blew up our little raft at Saltair and we walked the long walk through all of the bugs to get to the Lake. When we finally reached the water the whole bottom of our boat was covered with bugs. About 1/2 had died because they got baked with the sun on the plastic and then the rest were flying around trying not to die. We looked in our bag that had all of our stuff in it and there was about a half inch of dead bugs that had gotten in our bag and got smashed.

We put the boat upside down in the water to get rid of all the bugs in the boat and we paddled out about 400 yards until we finally got away from the bugs. At this point Sam thought it would be fun to do some snorkeling so he put on his flippers and his mask and jumped out and I was a bit surprised that he didn't sink. His feet hit the ground and he didn't even get his hair wet. He quickly took off his flippers because there was a lot of sand that got in them that was rubbing against his foot. He pushed me around for a little bit then I decided to get in. I didn't put my head in the water like Sam did, but it was fun. We were both surprised how buoyant we were. Sam kept trying to do hand stands on the bottom, but he couldn't stay down. Well, Sam had enough salt in his eyes and nose so we both pushed the boat back in and we were amazed how much faster we were able to walk to shore than it took to paddle out.

We then drove out to my parents because they live close and we took a shower to get all of the salt off of us. It took a long time to get all of the bugs and salt off of everything that we took. There was salt covering everything that was in the back seat where we put our partially deflated boat. Salt was all over the windows and the towels that we had to protect our seat. We took some of the salt inside and put it on our food... mmmmm delicious...

More of our trip

2009-07-31T13:38:00.003-06:00

Jamie forgot to add these pictures... She is silly like that.

Here she is sleeping like an angel

Can you find the 4 Leaf Clover?

Just us

A Wonderful Trip

2009-07-26T11:44:00.007-06:00

Our first stop was "Hells Canyon Recreation Area." While it was beautiful- we were definitely expecting something a bit more ominous considering the name...

We did see a couple beautiful waterfalls during our drive-thru tour!

It was the perfect start to a very "green" trip :)

Next up was Mt. Rainier National Park. When we arrived we saw some amazing trees, ferns, lots of green, but no mountain! We finally found the visitor center

Where we learned where to go for a view of the mountain.

Majestic and awe inspiring

We had soooo much fun on our trip- and have way too many pictures to put on. We also saw Olympic National Park, the Oregon Coast, and so much more. We had a great time- just started driving, bought a map, and went from there. One of our favorites was 2nd Beach in Washington. The place was magical. Sam made a new friend...

We enjoyed wading in the water (it was very cold, no swimming for us :)

And enjoyed appreciating the beauty and mystery around us.

We sure hope you have all had as great a summer as we have had so far!

Our Trip to Washington and Back

2009-07-20T19:45:00.007-06:00

We stopped at a little seafood restaurant on the coast in Oregon where we had oyster shooters.

One of use enjoyed it a lot more than the other one. Can you guess who?

Recent Fun

2009-02-17T22:24:00.008-07:00

My mom and I were able to go see the "Lord of The Dance!" It was amazing!

We are quite the cowboys... hehe...

Sam's Valentines present to himself (thanks Glen for the "2nd" addition)... he did buy me flowers!

This was one of William's favorite games.

And finally- the cutest nephew ever! We got to spend all of Memorial Day weekend with him- lucky us :)

Fun Times!

2009-01-13T21:44:00.009-07:00

Happy Anniversary!!

We have now been happily married for 5 years! Currently living in Salt Lake. The end of school in sight:) Happy times!

For our anniversary celebration, and a happy new years time, we went on a little outing.

To Canyonlands National Park:

Dead Horse Point State Park:
(We are the Dead Horse Bandits!:)

and Arches National Park:

We had a marvelous year- thank you 2008 and welcome 2009!! We just want to thank all our family and friends. You are all amazing people who make our life whole! Here's a toast to another fabulous year full of surprises and experiences!! May it be wonderful for us all.

October- a brief summary :)

2008-11-03T19:13:00.004-07:00

I have always enjoyed October- leaves different colors. The excitement of the start of the Holiday's. Birthdays. October is always a busy month for us- so here is a brief summary of our time.

The following pic is from the birthday party with Sam's family for both Sam and Nate. This is William (the cutest nephew ever) playing with the Hulk hands Sam's mom gave him. It was a wonderful weekend. We were able to watch conference- which is always calming and a blessing, enjoy a nice drive up Cedar Canyon in our new truck (pics coming), spend time with the family, and learn that we get to be uncle and aunt to another baby in a few months! We are truly blessed!

A couple weekends ago the weather was so warm Sam took me to the driving range! Doesn't he look like a pro!! Perhaps he will get updated clubs for Christmas... if anyone knows a good place to look let me know :)

Then, Halloween weekend we went to Tuacahn and saw "Thriller." It was quite enjoyable! We were then able to spend time with Nate, Mel, and Will- it was fun to have him all to ourselves :) We had lunch with Craig, Diana, and Cayson- I just have to say he had the cutest expressions (Sam just couldn't get over how he would sigh, look so serious, and hold his head in his hands). Then we were able to head up over the mountain to Orderville and spend time with Jeff, Jenna, and Dallin. They are doing so well and Jenna really has their house decorated up nice. Dallin was the sweetest guy- we sure enjoyed our time with them!

After all that we headed for the family cabin to spend the night and Sunday morning with Sam's dad. On the way there was a controlled burn, and of course Sam had to stop and take pics (which would be the reason my car still smells like smoke :). Here is my picture of the fire... well actually of Sam taking pictures of the fire!

And the fire:

It was a great weekend! It sure was nice to catch up with friends and family! We sure love you guys!!

Happy Birthday!!

2008-10-11T23:04:00.002-06:00

I hope you had a great day! Just wanted to say thank you for being such an amazing husband. I sure am lucky!

S- smart
A- awesome
M- manly
U- unusually kind
E- excellent
L- loved

Honey, you are perfect for me. Hope your special day was special :)

Breast Cancer Awareness

2008-09-18T13:06:00.006-06:00

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer - 2008-2009

With a sister-in-law employed by the American Cancer Society I now get to hear about different volunteer opportunities! This October I am puting together a team to participate in "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer." Part of making that team is to fundraise- so I am taking a chance, posting this post, and asking that anyone who desires make a donation.

Here is the link to the team space. You can also make a donation from here.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/MSABCFY09GreatWest?team_id=344455&pg=team&fr_id=11683&et=m--ifRhNPyg9hJUd_G1pEg..&s_tafId=194114

If you want any further information please let me know! I can also send you an email with a link.

Thank you

River Rafting

2008-08-05T12:41:00.004-06:00

Like most, I have been really excited to post this. The river rafting in Colorado is fantastic. I have never been down a more exciting run. On the left side of the boat going from front to back you have me (Sam), Jamie, and my sister Erin. On the Right you have Stranger #1, #2, and my mom. We really didn't get to talk to stranger #1 and 2 very much, so I can't remember their names. If you look at the pictures you will see what I mean.

Here is a fun bit of trivia. Stranger #1 thought that it would be a good idea to bring along his smokes. Who wouldn't be relaxed slowly rafting down the river smoking your favorite brand. Well, as you will see from the pictures not such a good idea. Instead of smoking he was soaking. (I know that was a little lame, but I put it in anyway.)

Here is your second bit of trivia. Like all good trivia, you don't have to read it because you will never need to know it, but it is worth the read.

when I was in sixth grade my writing teacher gave us an assignment where over the course of 3 weeks we had to write down six memories. Every story had a different format and had to be from a different point of view. As a cover page we were to bring in a picture that represented our life and write a one sentence motto describing what we thought was the essence of our life. I looked in my moms Good House Keeping magazine for this assignment and I saw an add for a boat. The picture was of the back of a girl's head with really long hair. Her hair was soaked and she was ringing all the water out of it. Underneath the picture it said "Life; it is not about keeping your hair dry." From the eyes of a sixth grader, this was my life's motto. (even to this day it still kind of is) I did pretty good on the writing portion I think I got something like 88%, but on my cover page I only got 4 out of 10, that is only 40% yikes. I guess she didn't understand the meaning of my life, but I want you to look through these pictures and tell me if you don't start to understand where I was coming from. Life; it is not about keeping your hair dry.

Here we just unloaded the raft and we just bearly got in the water. I don't think that anyone was really ready for it to be this intence this fast. We are coming to our first rapid and I just knew that we were going to get soaked. You will see in the picture that I am closing my mouth. Jamie and Erin saw the camara so they both put on their best smiles. :) This picture is called "And so it starts."

You can see in this next picture that everybody sort of stops paddling except for me. I don't know if I was too dumb to stop or not, but he told us to paddle forward and that he would tell us when to stop. It is hard to tell from the angle of the camara, but it was quite the drop.

Have you ever been totally enveloped by water and thought "hey, where am I" yep, that is what happened. We are still going down here.

Here we are on the way up, but still covered with water. What a trip.

Yes, we made it!

This next picture is a little further down the river. We are still getting soaked, and loving it! You will notice that my side is a little lower in the water. As you can see I am totally covered with water while stranger #1 is riding high and dry. The reason for this is because left side was strong side.

There are several more pictures that I was going to put on, but I thought that this was getting a little long. So, I will end with this one. I think that it is pretty cool. It is called "where's the boat."

Colorado

2008-07-29T22:25:00.008-06:00

We went to Colorado for the 24th of July. For those of you who live in Utah you know that this is a Utah holiday. One of our family motto's is "when you have a state holiday leave the state for that day." I have never understood this motto, but I think that is has something to do with getting away where people don't celebrate so you don't have to worry about the crowds. No one in Colorado celebrates this Utah holiday so we didn't have to worry about traffic or anything, it was amazing. This blog is going to talk about the biking portion of the trip because I don't have the river rafting pictures yet, but believe you me, they are something else.

Not all of the Barker clan was up to biking, but the strong ones were Jamie, my mom, my brother, and me. Because we only had two bikes Nate and I drove Jamie and mom up to the top then drove down and waited. Waited is the appropriate word here, it took them forever. If you look at the top picture of Jamie and the following one of my mom I think that you can see why. They took their time lolly-gagging in the river :) I think that I have to note here that they also rode about twice the distance Nate and I did, so yea, they are pretty tough.

Because the trail was so long Nate and I didn't have the time to go back up to the top. This means that we only did a partial trip. (also we are not as strong as Jamie and mom :) As you can see, I caught my brother napping along the trail. He is the in shape speedy hair, while I am the slow and steady tortoise, but I didn't get to win this race. More on that after the picture.

About half way down the trail my tire blew. Here is a picture of my stem that I found. Don't worry about me, because I have such strong expertise in physical matters I was able to gain control of my bike and come to a stop without causing an accident. (also, I am a little out of shape, so I couldn't get going fast enough to get into any trouble :)

Here is a picture of my tire (where the stem should be)

Luckily I was close to where I could get picked up so mom and Jamie came to my rescue. Well, we rushed back down to the bottom to pick up Nate, then we rode back to the part where my tire blew so I could finish the trek. I am not a quitter :) Jamie told me that I had better take a picture riding by myself so people would believe that I actually finished and didn't wuss out. So here is the picture

The river in the background is the same one that I will write about when I get our white water pictures, so get ready for an adventure!

This picture is just a random picture that I took when I was by myself. This is one of my favorite parts on the bike ride. I couldn't resist, so I put it in.

Lastly, this is a picture of my nephew. (he is also the reason that not everyone came on the bike ride. Someone had to stay in the hotel and watch this cute little guy so he wouldn't get into trouble.) Here he is playing the "where is it?" game. You show him something (shown here we are showing him food) then you hide it behind one of your hands and ask him "where is the food?" He then puts his hands up and says "where is it?" then he chooses a hand and you give him the object (again here it was food.)I have to say that I have the cutest nephew in the whole world!

My Bike

2008-07-12T15:55:00.002-06:00

Yes you read it right, I am giving free rides all month long on my bike. 7-10-08 is a historic day. That was when some over paid bank owner looses one of his greatest assets. He looses the right to stop by my house and take HIS bike out for a spin. I paid off what I owed on my bike and now I am a full owner. He now has to grovel at my feet if he wants to sport around town on the coolist bike in the world.

Anyway, this picture was taken when I was stopped at a stop light. The digital screen that reads 107.7 is my trip-ometer and not my speedometer. It is one of my favorite pictures of my bike.

So, don't be afraid to stop on in and ask for your free ride this month!

An Experience Never to be Equaled

2008-05-21T11:42:00.007-06:00

Yes, this is the monster drink of monsters. It makes ordinary cans of soda pop look like regular teaspoons. Normal cans contain your regular everyday allotment of stuff you should never intake. This can takes all of that unhealthy-ness and triples it. There is enough sugar in this to keep a young child awake for 72 hours straight, and enough energy supplements to power a small city for at least that. I am not going to lie to you, this drink is as untamed as any beast in the deepest, darkest jungles of the Nile. Trying to tame it is no easy accomplishment, but one I was able to manage. What you are about to witness is not for the faint of heart. Bring on the pictures

Ok, I may have stretched the truth a little here. First off, I never actually guzzled this drink. I took the pictures of me drinking it while it was still closed, then I took the pictures of me opening it. It also took me three days to put it down. It tasted like pure gas-o-leen, and it was a bright, neon, radiation color green that seemed to glow a little when the lights were out. I think this is the stuff that the Ninja Turtles were swimming in when Master Splinter found them. I don't really remember getting any sort of cafeen high even though there is way to much of that in it too. My whole body, however, did go completly numb and now (one week later) I am starting to get feeling back in my right hand. If anyone ever wants to experience what it would be like to drink pure rocket fuel this is a great way to do it. Just don't light a match!

Cute Pics

2008-05-17T14:46:00.003-06:00

It seems like we haven't been taking as many pictures as we used to. Or perhaps we are just due to go on another trip!! :) Here are some cute pics of our nephew, William, from a couple weeks ago.

We went down to St. George. They have this fun park with the cutest little man-made stream for kids to play in. Will thought it was just the most amazing thing! He was giggling and wouldn't slow down for a second!

This picture is one of my favorites. He looks so cute with his Aunt Erin, who I know misses him dearly since she joined us here in the North :)

Here we are with Sam's mom. It was such a beautiful day!

This is Melanie, aka Will mom, Will and Erin. Thanks family for being so enjoyable and amazing!

Patience

2008-04-23T22:31:00.000-06:00

I have decided that I do not have enough patience, and that is why I am having to learn it the hard way. I don't know about you, but I am a planner. I like to have my goals written out, and all the steps to complete those goals set up so I can accomplish things in a timely manner. Well...sometimes I guess my timely manner does not fit with the timeline the Lord has set up for me.

Perhaps I am an idealist, but it seems that we have had a few big goals that seem to be taking at least twice as long as I think they should. House... chillin's... cars... education... trips abroad... so many things. Don't think I am complaining, just trying to evolve :) I am thinking if I can just survive the next few years- and become willing to make my timeline a bit more flexible- I will be able to successfully not drive Sam crazy. Wish me luck!!

Snake

2008-04-06T09:42:00.001-06:00

Snakegreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Happy Easter

2008-03-24T18:03:00.000-06:00

We hope your Easter was as fun as ours. We had a blast. We left here on Thursday and arrived in Bryce where Jamie's parents were kind enough to pay for our room and board. We got up Friday where we met with Jamie's grandparents and went 4-wheeling. I know what you are thinking, what about all the snow? Well, we went anyway and had way too much fun getting stuck and trying to get unstuck. Look how I am totally lifting the 4-wheeler!

Saturday we drove into Bryce Canyon where we did some biking and some hiking. WoW, you haven't experienced Bryce until you see it with the snow. There was so much mud on one of the hikes. I wish I would have taken some pictures of the people as they came up the trail, but I felt strange asking them to let me take their picture. So, here are some of the ones that I did take.

Sunday we listened to Mo Tab as we got ready as there was no church around. Then we turned in our room keys and went to Red Canyon and rode the bikes up and down the arches trail. For lunch my mom and sister came up and gave us a nice Easter picnic. Then we rode down (not up) the trail one last time and departed for home. I didn't get any pictures of my family as I had put away my camera just before they got there, but the food was amazing, and the company even better.

Tagged

2008-03-11T02:09:00.000-06:00

Thanks do Donny and Lena for tagging us. It is supposed to be a get to know your spouse tag, but like Lena said, the questions are targeted more to us as a couple so in honor of the getting to know your spouse, here is a little bit about Jamie.

Jamie is the daughter of Vaughn and Marianne Oborn. She has a younger sister who she is very close to and very proud of.

Jamie's younger years where spent growing up in California near the orange groves. This is why she has the sunkissed skin and beautiful white smile. She is a classic example of the song by the Beach Boys "I wish they all could be California Girls."

She attended high school in Delta Utah. That is where she got her love of everything nature. It is also why the birds seem to follow her around and why she always smells of the country. She started college at SUU (that is where we met) and finished up at the U with her Bach, in Nursing.

What is her name? Jamie Camille Barker (when she gets mad: aka Bruno)
How long have you been married? 4.4 years.
How long did you date? 1 year
How old is she? 25 (this year)
Who eats more? With her petite frame it is obvious that I do...
Who said "I love you" first? Me, but she was a close second
Who is taller? I am (are we counting her high heels?)
Who sings better? My shower skill are impressive, but hers are bigger
Who is smarter? Jamie is by far

Whose temper is worse? Jamie will tell you that I pout more, but her temper is worse
Who does the laundry? she does, I can't touch her "delicates" with out giggling
Who does the dishes? both of us
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Jamie

Who pays the bills? It is labeled a Jamie job, but we both do, she likes to put it off until the last minute then have me run them to the post office (we don't have out going mail at our place)
Who mows the lawn? The establishment since 1876

Who cooks dinner? The vending machine at school sad but true
Who drives when you are together? I like to make her... ok, I know I should man up on this one because I know she doesn't like to.
Who is more stubborn? At the first of our marriage she was, I couldn't get her to do anything I wanted, now I think I have her trained :)
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? No contest, she is. My motto is "Always right don't bother to fight" I need to be more like her and admit my faults more... Sorry Jamie

Whose parents do you see the most? Hers
Who proposed? I did, but it is not a good story, it just kind of happened. I think that she feels a little sad about this. We have a ton of romantic dating storys, but our engagement story is that "it just happened."
Who has more friends? She does
Who has more siblings? She has one sister, and I have a sister and a brother, so I do
Who wears the pants? She does, how can I say no to those beautiful eyes, you should see how hot she is in a dress though, man oh man!!!

What Happened

2008-03-07T12:28:00.001-07:00

As people casually come into my office and look at my computer and see this picture on my desk they often ask "What happened?" (no they are not saying that about the tornado that tore apart the top of my desk, but to the picture...)So, due to public demand I thought that I would blog about it. Last month Donny and I saw this happen. If you look to the far right of the pic you will see that a driver hit a telephone pole and split it like a toothpick then continued where she hit a huge rock and it flipped her on her side as she drug the rock to a stop. We raced across the street and were able to push the car back onto it's wheels so she could get out and away from the car. Fluids were running toward the downed power lines and pieces of the car were every where (for example the car battery was sitting by the road) it was a little scary, but again we got her out and everyone was ok. As they say in the psychological world, "I'm ok, your ok." Well, an ambulance was called along with the police and they showed up in under 2 minutes. I think they took her to the hospital just in case, but she was fine (just a little embarrassed and scared.)Crazy huh?

To My Friend Nick

2008-02-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

I totally saw this on my friends blog, so I stole it and put it on mine. I thought that it was that funny! No I am not in the habit of stealing, nor am I in the habit of taking credit for OPW (other peoples work) so a shout out to my friend Nick and his creative geniousessness with this post.

this brought this whole scene to my head of some lady grabbing this lovely bikini and tromping through the rest of the store until happening on the cookie isle. You can almost feel the inner struggle where the balance between bikini and cookies was momentarily in chaos... guess who won? Yeah, ditch the bikini and go for the box of cookies!

Thanks Nick you are a true rockstar. One thing people may not know about me is that I had one class with Nick. We knew each other through various activities and shared friends, but only had one class together. This class was a computer like class (I can't remember really) I only remember it was on of those classes where the teacher does not teach they just assign and you get the work done. It was also one of those classes that you only take because you absolutely have to. We would just show up to the computer lab and do our work and go. Not only did we hate the class, but the only reason that I would show up was to glean the wisdom of Nicks analogy's and metaphors.

During class one day (one day is the best way to describe this day because as we entered the day neither of us would know the significance of how this day would change not only my life, but my love of life) I was sitting doing some random computer assignment that would not benefit my life in any other way other then get me a diploma. The time that I waisted in that class is now lost to time along with the knowledge associated with the assignment as it left me five minutes after the end of class. But I digress for what Nick taught me during that class stays with me. Nick came into class about 10 minutes late. Not a big deal, I was only on time that day because... come to think of it, I can't remember why. Nick sat down next to me and one of us made some remark like "I am sick of this class" or something similar. We shared a quick laugh and started talking about the assignment as Nick was getting his book out and logging in.

That is when it happened. (at this moment it is important to note that all of these facts may be fake for I don't remember much about what happened that "one day" it was just a day long ago) Nick turned to me and said "you know, I am not going to work on the assignment today. I am going to write a letter to the editor instead." "You might fail the assignment" I cautioned. "Like Hell I will" Nick laughed (at this point I have to mention that I have never heard Nick swear in my life... it was added to show the seriousness of the assignment)

Well, as the class was coming closer to a close Nick turned to me and said hey read this. As I was reading I noticed that this was a very well put together letter. It had costs of college/books costs of time spent in class. It had time spent in classes needed for one's major vs. time spent in general classes that don't help in the job field in any way. (I thought Nicks example was funny, he used Art Appreciation, but he was kind of going into art back then so... you should see the kid paint/draw/whatever artist do... I failed art appreciation so I don't know what it is called...) He gave statistics on how many people have to retake these classes because they failed, he gave the stats for classes failed in one's major. The stats that he had showed that more students fail art appreciation then they do in their area of study. He gave detailed analysis on how much more one could learn in their own field if they could take the time spent on General ed and put it toward their own field of study. He stated the importance of being well rounded, but the importance of the schools responsible to prepare a student for the work place instead of teach fluff classes.

I know at this point of the story some of you are concerned about Nick and his grade on this assignment. Well, he finished it in the last five minutes of class like every one else. Instead of spending our time on a cause that we believed in we spent our time on "the world wide web."

Does Nick know that I remember this? Does he know how much it inspired me to live my life in the little moments that make me happy? With how much effort he put into this letter to the editor he taught me that life is not about having fun, he taught me that one cannot really be happy just surfing the web or playing. He taught me that work, yes work, is where true happiness comes from, for that is where our accomplishments lie.

Thanks Nick for the lesson and the picture. Oh yea, I would feel out of place if I did not mention that a bikini trumps cookies in my book any day... but I am a guy...

Presidents' Day Weekend

2008-02-19T23:16:00.001-07:00

If you click on the image you will receive a nice vitural poke in the eye from my mom. We had a blast over Presidents' Day Weekend. Jamie and I went for the seasons first motorcycle ride and then went down to Cedar. There we went to Kolob and to Zions and went on a really fun hike up Cedar Canyon. What a Blast!

I know that we are in Utah, but I still can't help support the Longhorns. This friend of ours was peacefully grazing down in Zions. My old boss George is from Texas and I thought that he would get a kick out of this.

Here is Jamie and my mom down in Kolob. The pictures below are of our hike. The first one is of Jamie and Erin, then of our friends little girl Lauren, then a pic of my bro's family (Nate, Mel, Will, and Grandma) then last but not least there is a pic of baby Will by himself. Man he is a cute one.

I know what you are all thinking, where is the proof that I went on this crazy adventure. Well, here it is. This was taken in the Zion's lodge. Jamie found this hat and put it on my head. I am supposed to be acting like it is cold. You know what they say, when the camara is rolling I am a posing.

Happy Valentines Day!!

2008-02-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

So, it is Valentine's Day and I am home alone (Sam has class until 10), and since I am a bit of a romantic ;) I decided to add a blog with some of my favorite photos. Sam had some fun with photo shop for this one. But seriously, we have not had the best luck with our cars! This is my old car, which has now been stolen twice and broken into twice (this picture is of the last time). I now drive around my little red car with no stereo so as not to tempt any ill fate!

Sam has such a sweet relationship with his mom. Actually, with his entire family. He truly is a generous person. And lastly, a picture of us in our earlier days.

What I Do

2008-02-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

A lot of you are wondering what exactly that I do for work. You may know that I worked for the cheese plant where I became the master cheese maker. I made artisianal goat cheese and I ran a tight plant I will tell you. I then changed jobs where I was the accounting manager for a ski company.

Well, I now work for a good friend. He has a lot of really cool contacts in the Jewelry business and we sell watches and rings. We don't sale just any watch or ring, but the latest in metal development. If any of you are wearing a gold or stearling silver ring or watch you probably notice that it is scratched or you need to take it to get replated. Well, we sale tungsten carbide watches and Black Diamond Ceramic watches and rings. If you have heard anything about tungsten carbide you know that it is one of the hardest materials out there second only to diamonds. This means that the metal is virtualy scratch proof. I just received a watch to repair that was purchased in 2005. A pin had come out and it needed to be replaced. Well the clasp of the watch was a sterling silver and the links were tungsten carbide. It was amazing to see the difference between the two. The links looked brand new, but you could tell that the watch was well worn and loved by the little scratches in the clasp. Here is one of my favorite tungsten carbide watches that we sale. You may notice that yes we don't use glass or plastic for the face of our watch. Yes this is a saphire crystal and it is almost as hard as the tungsten. This model is sporting what we call a tri cut crystal. Very nice huh?

If tungsten carbide has one flaw it is that the metal is a little heavy. That is where our Black Diamond Ceramic comes into play. Black Diamond Ceramic is just as hard as tungsten carbide, but it is half the weight. So what that means to me and you is that if you like a lighter feel on the wrist then this is the watch for you. This stuff is amazing! Hey with Valentines, graduation, summer weddings... around the corner now is the perfect time to buy. Give the one that you love a piece of jewelry that they will keep and love forever. Here is the watch that I am currently wearing. I absolutly love it!

The New Busa

2008-01-29T14:03:00.001-07:00

Here is the new Hayabusa, it sure is a toss up between this bike and the Monster! Let me know what you think!

Ducati

2008-01-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

This is the "Monster" Just thought you would like to know.

The Holiday's

2008-01-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a great break! Sorry, we have fallen off the radar for awhile now. Things have started up again for us, Sam is back in school (hooray!!), and I am working.

Christmas was great,here is a picture of our ski trip. It was my first time, and I loved it! I did fall and hurt my knee though, still limping which is very annoying. Here are a couple pics.

Kelli snowboarding.

The camera got too cold to take any more pictures, but I was skiing...honest!

We also spent time with Sam's family, where a mini Santa came to visit!

Isn't he the absolute cutest Santa/nephew!!

We also went for a wonderful hike with Sam's mom and Erin.

We spent the break having a great time, enjoying the outdoors, eating good food, an spending time with family. We are looking forward to the next year, wish you all the best, and here's to the new year!!

4-Wheelin'

2007-11-19T19:54:00.001-07:00

We spent the day 4-wheeling at Cedar Mountain (past Eagle Mountain) with Kelli and Adam. While I had been suspicious the day would turn out terribly cold, it is November ;), the day was amazingly warm!

This is Kelli and Adam. They were both crazy speed demons! I generally prefer to go at my own pace and enjoy the scenery... and Sam is patient enough to stick with me!

Down this mine is a truck. Kelli and I have been going here for years, the truck is much less visible now than it was 5 years ago. Lot's of rock dropping...

That was our fun weekend. My guess is it was the last warm one for awhile. Hope all of you had an enjoyable time, and Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Cheesecake Factory

2007-11-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

We now have one in Utah! Sam and I ate there last weekend with my parents- the menu is a book and the food is delicious! If any of you have the chance to eat there, we would both highly recommend it (just plan on having a wait).

http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/default.asp

Halloween!!

2007-11-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

Look! It's a bird! A plane! A paraglider? No it's... not Superman!?!

Its: Super-Tigger!!

Every Halloween of our married life (and probably some before), Sam has donned his Super-Tigger costume and headed off to work. I have to admit, it really makes me smile. He gets so excited and giddy to be the witty person who combines his two favorite characters: Tigger, and Superman!

I am....

2007-10-28T21:12:00.000-06:00

Take the Quiz here!

:: L I Z Z Y ::

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

Thank you, Riki, for the idea. And to the rest of you ladies... Who are you?

Office Party

2007-10-20T12:12:00.000-06:00

Along with a really fun B-Day party with my family we had an office party too. We celebrated two Events in one. Lena brought a Birthday Cake and it doubled as Good-by Cake for Sprinkles the cat.

The cake maker didn't quite understand that Sprinkles (from the TV show "the office")was a cat so she added sprinkles to the cake.

Happy Birthday

2007-10-20T11:55:00.001-06:00

Look at all the loot WoW!!! I got two really cool "Office" t-shirts from my sister, Johnny Depp from my brother, the "Dangerous Book for Boys" from my mom along with Bones season 2, and a bunch of other really cool stuff. Also my dad gave me a gun and some shells.

Along with Family and presents there was a delicious feast. Pulled pork sandwiches, fruit salad, spinach salad and bananna cream pie. Thanks Mom it was amazing!

The Office

2007-09-30T19:02:00.000-06:00

I don't know about the you, but at our house the tv show "The Office" has become a must see. Much time has been devoted as of late to watching every episode (we now own season's 1-3 on DVD) and watching the deleted scenes. It has become a near obsession for Sam, although I must tell you he has found some cohorts including Erin (sister), Lina, Greg, and Jeremy (work buddies).

So, with that introduction I give you the pics from our own "Office" party, brought to you exclusively for the season opener!

The mug is courtesy of Erin. Thank you!

For the rest of you "Office" viewers please note: Dwight's fitness orb, Pam's whitest sneakers, Angela's Bible, Kevin's jar of M&M's, and of course a stapler in jell-o for Jim.

Our First Blog

2007-09-19T15:51:00.000-06:00

Hello family and friends! We would like to welcome you to our blog. Please visit often and we will try and keep the updates updated ;) We hope all is going well in your lives, let us know what is going on. We wish you the best! Visit again soon...