Back to Washington

I'm just checking in to do my annual post or whatever you want to call it. We are in Washington D.C. visiting Alyssa's sister Taunya with Isabelle. You can call it tradition or something like that. Isabelle turned 8 and so we came to visit. Last time we were here it was with Abbie after her 8th birthday. I think the kids love the one on one time and it is nice to spend some time with the Allen family. We spent one day at Arlington National Cemetery, Harpers Ferry, and the Temple. It has been a lot of fun. Caleb is one crazy little kid. He reminds me of Chase. The two girls are so sweet. I was hoping to become the favorite uncle on my trip here and so far I think it is mission accomplished. I'll see if I can get Alyssa to post some pictures.

Birthday

Today is my birthday. I share it with Alyssa's sister, Taunya. Her husband put a little tribute to her on their blog and it got me thinking about our blog. I turned 35 today. It is hard to believe. I don't think I ever thought I would be 35 when I was in highschool. You always know it is out there, but you never think it will come. It makes me think about life and consider things. I have a wonderful family and great kids. I love my wife and I love spending time with her. I wouldn't trade being 35 for anything. I really enjoy what I have been blessed with today. I need to remember that more and treasure the times with everyone. Life is good. I am very blessed. I am convinced my happiness comes from understanding the true purpose of being on earth. Perspective is so important.

On a lighter note, Alyssa got me a guitar for my birthday. I'm excited to learn. My fingers hurt from my first lesson.

Hunting Trip 2008

Check out that big boy sleeping in his bed. I didn't realize I was as stealthy and sneaky as I am.

Well, the annual hunting trip has ended. It was a lot of fun and I didn't bring home a dead animal to eat. At least that is my positive spin. As much as I would have loved to shoot my gun, it was fun hiking around the mountains. We went to a new area near Fish Lake. There were elk everywhere. We could hear them calling and bugeling all the time. It was way cool. My highlight of the trip was walking over this little rise and as I started down the trial on the other side I saw an elk laying there on the ground about 20 feet in front of me. I thought someone had poached it at first. Then it sort of swayed and I realized it was asleep. I pulled out my camera and took a picture and then crouched behind a nearby pine tree to watch. It was way cool. The elk slowly woke up and looked around and stood up and then slowly wandered up the mountain. I never thought I would get that close to an elk before. Not a bad size bull either. I also spent an evening touring the area around Boulder, UT between the Boulder mountains and The Grand Staircase Escalante. It is an amazing area. Wow, who thought that Utah would have all this different kinds of landscape. As I looked around I missed my wife and children. I wanted them to see the beautiful scenery. It was awesome.

Here are a couple pictures of the area I explored.

Vacationing in Washington DC

First of all, sorry about my last entry. It was very late and I was very tired. It doesn't make a lot of sense.
Today is Saturday and we go home very early tomorrow. It has been a fun week. We have enjoyed seeing the sights and visiting with the Allens. I'm sure they can finally see the light, the Hamblin invasion is almost over. I think my favorite things to visit have been the historical and memorial sites. It was very cool to see the founding documents. It felt like a spiritual experience. It probably was. I can tell that those documents were written through inspiration from above.
I really enjoyed Gettysburg as well. It was an afternoon trip. That was a very large battle area, at least in my opinion. I always thought it would be one big field and you would be able to see where the different sides lined up and fought. It wasn't like that at all. The more i think about it, the more I realize that it makes sense that it would be a larger area as the armies advance and retreat and the battle changes over several days. What sacrifices those from the past have made for us now. They seem to have been so committed to greater causes and the greater good for the future. Do we have that commitment now?
We went to visit the monuments at night. That was very cool. The lights on the different buildings and columns and statues. I was impressed with the WWII memorial. Another group of people who seemed to see the bigger picture and sacrificed so much for the greater good and a more important cause than one person's life. So many died to prevent Nazism and Tyranny of the Axis forces. The other war memorials were impressive as well. It is good to see those soldiers of different wars honored.
We went to the Lincoln Memorial that night as well. It is so much bigger than i ever imagined. What a great man who understood what was happening in his time and understood the importance of his decisions. I'm glad he was there to make those decisions. The Jefferson Memorial was pretty cool too. A great founding father of our country who had so many great principles and ideals that he wanted to have as part of our society.
Well, I will try to post some pictures when we get home. I think we will go see Arlington Cemetery today and finish off the visit at the Air and Space museum. The big one so Abbie can walk through the planes and stuff like that. It will be fun. I am excited to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I didn't realize it was guarded 24 hours per day with a change every 30 minutes. Goodbye blogger friends.

What took me so long?

I'm not sure what the deal is. I've been trying to log on to this for months to do a little update, but I couldn't unitl tonight. All of the sudden it just worked. Hopefully I can do this again.
Okay, so I am in Washington, DC with Alyssa and Abbie. Alyssa thought it would be fun for the two of us to take our newly baptized 8 year old on a trip with just the two of us. It has been fun and a little annoying too. One funny story. I am sitting on a park bench in the DC Mall area and I see a friend crossing the lawn. I yell his name and go over and say hello and we begin to talk. Abbie walks over and he says hello to her and asks her what she has seen today. You see her look to the side and think for a second and then she looks at him and says, "Seven Squirels." I cracked up right there. We had seen The Declaration of Independance, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, The Capitol, the Supreme Court Building, the Botanical Gardens, and many other things and all she can think of is the wild life. That is Abbie.
We are having a great time visiting Alyssa's sister Tonya and her family. Abbie loves to play with the kids. It has been fun to visit with them each night. I wonder if they are getting tired of the invation. It is good to see family. It only takes a few minutes and it feels like we see each other all the time. Relationships are what life is all about. I hope I can remember what is truly important and share that with my wife and kids. I have a pretty good life.

New to blogging

I figured I should start a blog after I was reading Josh and Alisa Linton's blog and saw a comment by Jesse or Leah Powell. I clicked on their picture and was taken to their blog. As I was reading I noticed a friends list with links and there were several people I recognized. I checked out the blogs and learned a few new things. Wow, the Whiteheads have some mad shelf making skills. Lisa really likes Davy a lot, I guess she should. The Winter's son doesn't like tweezers. The Atwoods are the experts on all things food. Alisa is a deep thinker and makes me appreciate life, family, and children more every time I visit her blog. It was fun to see all the stories. I wanted to reserve a site for Alyssa and I and now that it is done, I'm not sure if I will do it much or what. Maybe I'll add a picture.







Here is the latest family photo at Chase's blessing. Crazy kids. Those girls love each other, but sometimes you wouldn't know it. It makes me wonder what will happen when they are all teenagers. I am afraid, very afraid.







Just a great picture I took on a trip to San Diego. I thought it turned out pretty cool. I've got mad photo skills, not really, but I still like the picture. I took a couple others that were pretty cool with the girls and their mom, but Alyssa doesn't like them because she has a pregnant belly in them.










My cute girls. This is my favorite picture of the girls. It was a great fishing trip up at Stateline Reservoir in the Uintahs. They kept putting the fish on rocks and pretending it was sleeping beauty and petting it. It was a lot of fun. My girls love to fish. I never thought it would be like this. It's not all princesses, pink, and dancing. It's a lot of fun.

Cute boy Chase. He is way cute. I love to snuggle him, but that doesn't sound very manly, so let's just say that I can't wait to play catch.

The big deer I shot this year. I can't believe it. My first buck. I was so happy when I shot him and knew he wasn't going to get away. About 15 minutes earlier I missed one just as big at about 15 yards. I was happy to get a second chance.

Thats all I got for now. Chow.