Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival Performance

I went to Thanksgiving Point on Saturday night, to support Justine while she was clogging. We were at Waterfall Amphitheater in the Children’s Discovery Gardens at Thanksgiving Point


I get to do the sound for Bluegrass Thunder. I try to keep Sarah, Greg, Dodd, Liz, Randy and Maria sounding well. The wind was blowing into the microphones so it was extra challenging.



Here are great shots of Maria singing and Greg plucking on the banjo. I had a very good seat for the concert.

Spending Time in Arizona With The Topol's

Best of buds, McKay and Zak. I'm not sure if the tortoise is sure what to do with all the attention.

We went swimming at a neighbors pool and the water was 67 degrees. Rob is actually gritting his teeth he's not really smiling. Cresta and Julie were the smart ones they didn't get into the cool water.

We took the boys shooting. The targets got boring so the little guys found a ant hill to shoot at.

Thank you, thank you Rob and Cresta for taking our family Wake boarding at Canyon Lake.

Sydney is about ready to get up on the wakeboard. Zak and McKay are about pulled behind the boat.

Hannah and Luke are best of buds as well, getting ready to get pulled behind the boat. Also, here's proof that Sydney wakeboarded.

Disneyland '08

This how looked starting out the day when there was an early entry. It's a little chilly at that time in the morning.

Sydney hooked up with a friend from A.F., Logan. Cassie and I shared a tea cup. This ride never gets old and you usually don't have to wait to long to get on it either.

McKay could have spent our entire savings shooting at the Rifle Range. We stopped off at lunch at the Mexican restaurant right by the Rifle Range.

Hannah and Cassie heard how much fun Pirate Island was so we went over together and had some fun adventures. McKay could have spent our entire Disneyland vacation on this island.

Look at the girls taking in the Jungle Cruise adventure. Next is a picture of some us all enjoying Hannah's favorite ride.

McKay enjoyed turning the Captain's Wheel until he got the treasure to appear along with the skeleton.

Happy Birthday - Big Number Six

It seemed for McKay that his birthday took forever to come. Oma and Grandpa were able to make McKay's day today. They came over and gave him their gifts and it was like he had his birthday all over again. He loved it!

For McKay's Birthday we went to the Kangaroo Zoo. McKay invited Carter, Abby, Myra, Erich, Ainsley and they had a blast running around Kangaroo Zoo. While we were at Disneyland over spring break it was McKay's real birthday, so he got a birthday pin to wear. This kinda threw McKay for a loop. He started telling the Disneyland employees that he was seven. Since we celebrated his birthday before we made the trip. So to him he had another birthday which meant we was now seven.

The Discovery Channel "I Love The World Song"



We enjoy several of the shows on the discovery channel and recently they have been running an add to advertise their channel. My son's favorite show is Future Weapons, one of my daughters likes "How's its Made",(I like that show a lot too), we also watch, Myth Busters and Dirty Jobs. I must say "Man vs Wild" has captured my interest as well. My kids and I have been enjoying the catchy commercial, "I Love The World", so I wanted to share it with you all. We agree, with the Discovery channel that the world is just awesome.

Who Knew That You Could Teach Chimpanzees To Irish Dance?!



(Greg and Maria should enjoy this little clip...)
We arrived home to the cold Utah weather to find our home intact. We had an adventure filled spring break and were with family in Arizona and visited Disneyland. It was interesting at Disneyland as one day, wearing one of my BYU shirts, I was stopped and asked if there was some special BYU alumni day going on. I should have said, why yes, we all got in for half price. I didn't I told them that it was spring break where we live in Utah and Utahn's wanted to get out of the snow with their families. The guy said that he had seen about 50 BYU shirts. We had a contest in our family to see who knew the most people at Disneyland. If you saw a family that counted as one, you couldn't count every member of the found family. Justine won the contest she found 23 people she knew, I found 19 people I knew. Most of the people I knew were there from my work place. They were off work with their families as well. I've got much to post and so little time to do it in.

Disneyland '08

We are at Disneyland this week. Here's a picture of a picture
that was taken at Splash Mountain. I got to protect the family from the huge splash that was forthcoming. Yesterday it was a little cool, I think it got up to 71 degrees. We got a few text messages yesterday where people told us back in Utah it had been snowing all day, so it really wasn't that cold here at Disneyland. Hannah loves this ride.

Why The Blog URL change?

Well, I thought previous URL was not very interesting. I picked "The Haggis Is In The Fire" on three levels where it appealed to me.

1. 1. I'm a geek and watched Star Trek growing up and one of my favorite phrases was from Scotty when he said, "The Haggis is in the fire now".

2. I went to Scotland on my mission so some Scottish reference is good.

3. I have Scottish heritage so it appeals to me in that regard as well.

This month we are having YM/YW's missionary month and we are hosting two missionaries, who were called to the Scotland, Edinburgh. That might have caused Bonnie Scotland to be on my brain.

What about Global Warming?!

A good friend sent me a link where a reporter reported how 2007 was a strange year for snow, excerpts from the article include, the following:

"A rare winter snowstorm dusted South Africa’s commercial capital Johannesburg early on Wednesday June 26 closing mountain passes and claiming at least one life. ‘SNOWBURG’ trumpeted the headline of Johannesburg’s Star newspaper. Gleeful children built snowmen in Johannesburg’s Zoo Lake Park, while families could be seen carrying snowballs back to their cars, fast melting souvenirs of the city’s first significant snowfall, the first real snowfall in more than a generation.

On July 9th 2007, thousands of Argentines cheered in the streets of Buenos Aires got covered by snow. The Argentinean capital was white again after nearly a century.

Last time it snowed there was June 22nd 1918."

...

"In Australia which experienced its coldest June on record, Australian ski resorts enjoyed the best season in seventeen years with snow dumping across New South Wales and Victoria. Summer there too was cool and ended very early with snow by late February (the equivalent of our August). We have barely had a summer this year,” said Gary Grant, New South Wales Perisher Blue’s general manager of marketing. “It’s felt as though it’s remained cold since the end of the 2007 season, apart from a few warm days, there air has always had a nip in it.”

In September, Antarctica set a new record for ice extent in the satellite era and ironically stayed at record high levels through much of this past summer. Currently the ice extent is running 60% ahead of last year at this time."

...

THEN CAME THE NORTHERN WINTER

"In the Oregon Cascades, the snow was so heavy, roofs were collapsing. In Steamboat Springs, CO, over 100 inches fell in every winter month for the first time ever and set a new record for seasonal snowfall with 450 inches with weeks more to go. Rendevous Bowl which has a 33 year average of 320 inches, had 566 inches as of March 25.

Madison, Wisconsin blew away there all-time snow record 100.4 inches of snowing exceeding their old record by 33%! New seasonal snowfall records were set in Michigan in places like Ann Arbor , in Ohio where Youngstown had well over 100 inches, 52” above normal and for the winter (December through February for Burlington, VT and Concord, NH. "

For the full article - go here

I thought this article was interesting as it seems our winter here in Utah is holding on and not allowing spring to come.

Reflective Moment...

In the book, "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff...and it's all about the small stuff" by Richard Carlson, link is here. A quote struck home with me, "People are no longer human beings. We should be called human doings." I think I feel trapped in the category of human doing. I need to take more time to reflect. One of our founding fathers, John Adams, perhaps one of the greatest men to ever live on this continent, use to wake up really early and walk miles a day before most anyone else was stirring. In David McCullough's book on John Adams, John recorded in his journal, "I wander alone, and ponder. I muse, I mope, I ruminate," I'm convinced that his brilliance and tenacity was a result of his walks. Another interesting tidbit, is that some evangelical Christians consider their life, their "walk."

So, what I am doing to become more of a human being, I've reflected on the passage in D&C, "...be still and know that I am God." I'm trying to be still and reflect more. I found this wonderful poem that follows the chiasmus writing style found in the Book of Mormon:

Be Still and Know That I Am God
Be Still and Know That I Am
Be Still and Know That
Be Still and Know
Be Still
Be

Be
Be Still
Be Still and Know
Be Still and Know That
Be Still and Know That I Am
Be Still and Know That I Am God

*Found here

I am trying to be less obsessed with always doing something. There is something more than maintaining our health when taking walks or runs in our life.

Karate Breaking a Brick in Slow Motion



After watching this I was amazed! At regular speed it looks as though the hand slices through the brick, but in slow motion it looks like the hand is breaking into pieces.

Where I'd like to be now!

We used to go out to Carlsbad, CA every summer. I miss those days. When I was on a trip to CA, in January, I took a picture of the beach, right by the cafe we used to eat at, "The Harbor Cafe". That's where I wish I was today, as it snowed again today. The snow in the evening stuck, I don't know that it will be there tomorrow morning but winter is lasting a bit longer this year.

Cassie's Creations!




Cassie makes these wonderful cinnamon roles. They are easy to make and are really good when you take them right out the oven. I'll never tell who took the missing roll before this picture was taken. I included the recipe to the right. We do not really melt two sticks of butter. I think Cassie just melts some spread that we have, enough to dip the raw biscuits in, before you dip them in the cinnamon/sugar mix. There is a light cinnamon/sugar glaze that covers the biscuits that really make these rolls taste great. Thanks to Cassie we enjoyed these before the morning session of General Conference on Sunday, along with some sweet Mango juice Julie got.

Half-Time Conference

We went over to the Tucker's for Sunday's half-time between morning and afternoon General Conference sessions. We had quite a spread of food at the Tucker's. We appreciate their invitation, their HOT TUB, their home theater, the blow-up jumping toy, the food and their sense of humor. Greg mastered the skills of making a thin crepe, the HOT TUB helped to relax for the after noon session. We were also happy to have Pat, Oma and Papa there. What an excellent conference!

The High of Conference Week-end Continues

This morning, I took a picture of some daffodils that the deer missed in our backyard. We really love the blooms of spring. It's still cold outside so the daffodils have not awoken yet today.

A wise man once said:-

“Do not spoil what you have
By desiring what you have not;
But remember that what you now have
Was once among things only hoped for.”

-Epicurus

When I think of this quote I think of how blessed we are:

Chillin' On Conference Week-end



After doing her 'cat'ersizes, to Olivia Newton John's, "Let's Get Physical", Darla takes a rest.

After the 2nd session of conference. McKay,Carter, Hannah and started a fire in the fire pit in the back yard. We had some branches to burn and McKay had some firecrackers to blow. So as the branches burned, we threw in firecrackers and said, "Fire in the Hole". Julie and the older girls went shopping while all this was going on. McKay and Carter thought this fire business was pretty, just like camping they said.

Taco John Starring Whiplash The Cowboy Monkey



"Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey" has a website here.

(You will probably want to pause the playlist music below to hear the music in the commercial.)

Behold, I stand at the door and knock

The bishop with one of his counselor's was visiting the homes of his ward members. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door.

Therefore, he took out a tithing envelope and wrote “Revelation 3:20″ on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

When the tithes and offerings were processed the following Sunday, his financial clerk found a tithing envelope, marked, for the bishop's eyes only. The bishop found that his tithing envelope had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, “Genesis 3:10.”

Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke out in laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Genesis 3:10 reads, “I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked.”

“A cheerful heart is good medicine” (Prov. 17:22)

Dad's and Donuts today at school!

Things have been rather busy this week. Today, I went with Cassie to school. (I love you Cassie, thanks for inviting me.) Can you tell that I'm ready for spring with the shirt I'm wearing?! It was nice getting to spend some time with her at school. If you look closely at my eyes you'll notice they are quite bloodshot. I apologize to Julie for the state of our home. Soon after I got home I had to get dressed for Scouts and head off to the monthly meeting and by the time I got home and cleaned up dinner, I still had not given the kids a bath so I hurried and did that. The younger kids and I stayed upstairs pretty much after that. Julie worked last night and Hannah had a rough night. McKay got up once and my work called, and woke me up, a couple of times. I had some naps last night but that is just how life goes sometimes. The week has gone as follows: FHE on Monday night, on Tues. stayed at work until almost 9pm, YM/YW Missionary Month kickoff on Wed., Thurs. Roundtable after work, tonight we are taking the scouts to Camp Williams to do some rappelling. Saturday will be six hours of General Conference, then another four on Sunday. Then I start another work week. Sometime on Friday evening I have to figure out how to get some Miley Cyrus tickets for the Stadium on Fire that will be this summer at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Everyone Should Have one of these...

I should visit this site daily!

Simple But True

A Native American boy was talking with his grandfather. "What do you think about the world situation?" he asked. The grandfather replied, "I feel like wolves are fighting in my heart. One is full of anger and fear; the other is full of love, forgiveness and peace." "Which one will win?" asked the boy. To which the grandfather replied, "The one I feed." (origin unknown.)

Best April's Fool - Snoop Dogg a Mormon?

Folks are asking if there's any truth to the CNN report that rapper Snoop Dogg has converted to Mormonism. The answer is no. If you check the date of the story, you'll see it's April 1 -- April Fools' Day. If you look closely at the URL of the alleged CNN article, you'll see it isn't really a valid CNN site at all. And if you look really, really closely at the fine print at the bottom of the phony Web page, it says: "You just got fooled! Snoop's not Mormon... yet!

Screencleaner and Nertz

Is your screen a little dirty, got fingerprints you can get rid of, here's a link to a free screencleaner.

If that screencleaner doesn't get along with your computer here's another free screencleaner.

Here's a picture of Oma and her daughter's. We took this picture while Angie was visiting. The cards on the table are Nertz cards. My oldest daughter introduced us to this game and we've been hooked ever since. Nertz link

April Fool's Day

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. (According to Wikipedia - April Fool's Day)

There were a few pranks pulled at home yesterday. I told Cassie it had snowed, which she looked outside to find it hadn't. Hannah gave me a lime sucker, wink, wink, that tasted like fish. (It actually was black licorice flavored, which I liked.) The best prank though was one Julie pulled off on Cassie and Hannah. She short sheeted the bed they slept in.

This picture was taken when Bennett's were staying with us last week. Caleb and McKay are ready to defend the hallway. (Maybe from their sisters?!)

Once there was a snowman...

Just when we thought spring was here we got a big snow storm. On March 30th, we woke up to a rather good snowfall. We built a snowman because this was hopefully the last snowfall of the season.

If you want to get into the snowman grove, I've included the URL to the song so you can listen to the song, "Once There Was a Snowman" while you enjoy these pictures.
http://starturl.com/snowman

BTW..."Once There Was a Snowman" is the song we sing every FHE at least once if not more...