Mission Call - Josh Harris

Our good friends Natalie and Don 2nd oldest son got his mission call yesterday. We were called to participate in this wonderful event last night. We got over to the Harris Haven just before 9pm and witnessed Josh opening his letter to server in the Kenya, Nairobi Mission. It was exciting speculating where Josh might go. I thought he would go Spanish speaking like his father. I was way off. To watch a video of Josh opening his letter, go to his older sister Megan's blog here. To read about his mom's feeling go here. I've never been to the African Continent, perhaps my brother-in-law Rob who's been everywhere can comment and tell us about Kenya. His mission includes Tanzania, Mt. Killimanjaro, probably Lake Victoria too. Here's a link to the Kenya Nairobi mission.

I thought I'd include an humorous email that I received about LDS missionaries with this entry:

Resourceful

Two LDS missionaries were visiting homebound patients when they ran out
of gas. As luck would have it, a gas station was just a block away.

The two walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas. The
attendant said that the only gas can he owned had been lent out, but
they could wait until it was returned.

Since young men were on the way to see a patient, they decided not to
wait and walked back to the car. They looked for something in the car
that could be filled with gas and spotted the bedpan they were taking to
the patient.

Always resourceful, they carried the bedpan to the station, filled it
with gas, and carried the full bedpan back to the car.

While the missionaries were pouring the gas into the tank, two men
watched from across the street. One of the them turned to the other and
said, "If it starts, I'm turning Mormon."

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Trailer

The movie is schedule to be released on November 21st. "To know the future - return to the past."

Are you just wild about Harry Potter? Take this quiz...

1 What is the name of Harry Potter's mother?

A Poppy; B Minerva; C Lily; D Petunia.

2 What is the name of the inn in Diagon Alley?

<A HREF="http://ads.telegraph.co.uk/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=30682&AdID=37812&TargetID=2904&Values=1473&ASeg=&AMod=&Redirect=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/exclusions/supplements/flora/nosplit/index.xml" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://adc.telegraph.co.uk/f/flora/mpu_flora_300X250.gif" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></A> A The Leaky Cauldron; B The Witch's Brew; C The Diagon Dragon; D The Three Broomsticks.

3 The Weasleys have how many children?

A Nine; B Seven; C Five; D Three.

4 What is the mascot of Gryffindor house at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?

A Dragon; B Snake; C Lion; D Griffin.

5 What is the occupation of Hermione Granger's parents?

A Doctors; B Lawyers; C Teachers; D Dentists.

6 In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry has to fight a dragon. What type of dragon is it?

A Norwegian Ridgeback; B Swedish Short-Snout; C Chinese Fireball; D Hungarian Horntail.

7 Harry's relatives, the Dursleys, live on which street?

A Chestnut Close; B Privet Drive; C Lime Tree Avenue; D Holly Lane.

8 What type of owl is Hedwig?

A Eagle owl; B Barn owl; C Snowy owl; D Screech owl.

9 Syrius Black is an "animagus". Which animal does he transform into?

A Rat; B Dog; C Stag; D Cat.

10 Hagrid, the half-giant, loved his baby dragon. What was the dragon's name?

A Gilbert; B Herbert; C Egbert; D Norbert.

11 What did Harry Potter ingest to survive an hour under water in the lake at Hogwarts?

A Spine of lion fish; B Gillyweed; C Dragon blood; D Wolfsbane.

12 Which is Ron's favourite Quidditch team?

A Chudley Cannons; B Ballycastle Bats;
C Caerphilly Catapults; D Wigtown Wanderers.

13 What is Hagrid's first name?

A Albus; B Rubeus; C Arthur; D Rufus.

14 Who wrote Wandering with Werewolves, one of the second-year coursebooks?

A Adalbert Waffling; B Miranda Goshawk; C Newt Scamander; D Gilderoy Lockhart.

15 Wormtail is Lord Voldemort's servant. What part of his body does he sacrifice so that Voldemort can rise again?

A Nose; B Hand; C Eyeball; D Heart.

16 At the Quidditch World Cup Final, Ron and Harry support which team?

A England; B Bulgaria; C Ireland;
D Romania.

17 Platform 9.75 is at which London station?

A St Pancras; B Waterloo; C King's Cross; D Charing Cross.

18 Professor Snape teaches which subject at Hogwarts?

A Herbology; B Potions; C Divination;
D Defence against the Dark Arts.

19 Baby unicorns are which colour?

A Gold; B White; C Silver; D Bronze.

20 Mad-eyed Moody turned Draco Malfoy into which creature?

A Rat; B Toad; C Ferret; D Rabbit.

21 Rita Skeeter is a reporter for which newspaper?

A Wizarding Times; B The Daily Prophet; C The Daily Owl; D The Shooting Star.

22 Who is the captain of Gryffindor's Quidditch team?

A Percy Weasley; B Lee Jordan; C Oliver Wood; D Cedric Diggory.

23 Mr Dursley, Harry's uncle, is the director of Grunnings. What does the factory produce?

A Drills; B Tyres; C Ice cream; D Ball-bearings.

24 What are non-magical people known as?

A Buggles; B Muddles; C Duddles; D Muggles.

25 To reach the Quidditch World Cup Final, Harry and the Weasleys travelled by using a "Portkey". What was the portkey?

A Crisp packet; B Old tyre; C Old boot; D Key.

Comment if you want me to post the answers.

Christian The Lion

In 1969, two friends, John Rendall and Ace Berg, purchased a lion. At the time, Christian the lion was a 35-pound cub. He had been born in a zoo. The friends raised Christian in their London home. All three hung out in a friend’s furniture shop on the weekends.

Within a year, Christian had grown to 185 lbs. Rendall and Berg realized they couldn’t keep him much longer. But they didn’t know what to do with him. A chance encounter changed that. Two actors from the film Born Free walked into the furniture store.

The actors recommended a conservationist, George Adamson, living in Kenya. Christian was soon in Africa. There he was rehabilitated and released into the wild.

In 1974, Rendall and Berg decided to visit Christian one last time. He was now a wild animal. Adamson told them it was doubtful that Christian could be found. No one had seen him in nine months.

The two flew to Kenya, anyway. On the day they landed, Christian appeared outside Adamson’s camp. Somehow, he knew. He waited outside the camp until Rendall and Berg arrived.



For more information on this remarkable true story go here.

Fireworks 24 x 7

I'm a geek and I love looking at distracting interactive things on the Internet. What I'm about to link you to is a site that allows you to create your own personal fireworks show. Since our son McKay loves fireworks so much this is a safe interactive place for him to fire off fireworks as much as his heart desires. Here is a Java Fireworks page where you can just click, click click to enjoy a fireworks show. I've been looking for something to add to my favorite bloggers page, According to Natalie, to help celebrate the return of her eldest son from a mission and this is it. You'll love all the brilliant colors, simulate explosions of the fireworks and you'll probably remember fireworks shows you have seen in your past. So, if your needing more fireworks, check out the fireworks link by clicking on the picture below.

Carmen "Habanera" - Muppet Style

Another classic, Carmen done by the Muppets. Can you tell I find these remakes entertaining?! When I had music 101 at BYU I'm sure I would have remembered all the classics if they were done Muppet style. Bork Bork Bork Meep Meep Meep La La La LaaaH!

PRIDE & PREJUDICE Musical

A friend and co-worker is starring as Mr. Wickham in the Scera Center for the arts rendition of Jane Austen's famous novel. To see pictures of the cast and their preparation go to my friend's blog Grettir Asmundarson, which he calls the Tiny Pineapple. My friend is quite the blogger, hopefully you'll go to his blog to find the humor which he writes with. If you want to want to see the show go to this Scera Shell link for all the detailed show information. After they run the show from Aug. 1st to Aug. 16th they will be doing four show at the De Jong Concert Hall at BYU which will be during Education Week.

How best to store your banana's

I can't help it this is hilarious. Beaker is the best!

Pioneer Day Redux

On Pioneer Day we were invited over to celebrate the day with our good friends Don and Natalie Harris. The Kohlert family was there to help celebrate also, Natalie's nieces Elle and Haven were there. Natalie and Don are such good hosts we were kept busy the whole time we were over. Natalie is a great blogger and always has uplifting thoughts about life. After we BBQ'd hamburgers and ate we played some table games and water games. I was playing with the little kids while the big people were playing Nertz. I had fun playing with Elle in the basement she's such a little cutie. Sam was in the basement too with his good friend Paul Hatch, who I call the Hatchman. I forgot to mention that Natalie has a parachute, wish I would have taken some pictures of the parachute activities we were doing. It's a bummer that Julie had to work this night. I ended up staying out late with the kids until about 10:40 pm. After played games for a while we went over to another neighbor's home to enjoy some classic rock. This neighbor who just moved in is not only a friendly host but a talented drummer in a band. The band played songs from the 60's and 70's that were popular before the electronic age of music hit the airwaves. I especially liked their rendition of "Rocky Mountain Way" originally done by Joe Walsh (one of the founders of the Eagles). Here are some pictures from the open air concert.

Here are some shots of the band. The drummer is our new neighbor, Michael Berrett, who invited the neighborhood to enjoy his backyard and his band.


If you look at the picture on the left you can see the Kohlerts and Natalie. On the right I took a picture to give you an idea of how many people came to see the band and to the enjoy the gathering.


Here's another shot of the band with the Berrett's home in the background. I took a picture of the Berrett's youngest daughter Raquel. She shares Justine's and Hannah's love of clogging.


During part of the concert I was hanging out with Justine's friends. To the left are Skyler, McKell and Kenna.


At the party was the daughter of our old next door neighbor Megan Knorr she's the blond girl on the right in the picture on the left. Megan is still a good friend of our daughter Cassie. In the picture on the right Justine and McKell are being funny.

Justine's friend took a pictures of me and on the right we headed back to the Harris home for a impromptu sponge water fight.

McKay and Hannah are patiently waiting to get their turn at hitting the pinata. On the right is a picture of McKay having a wack at the pinata.

On the left is a picture if Tyler Kohlert and on the right is picture of Tyler's sister Stephanie hitting the pinata.

After doing the flags with the Scouts, McKay's night of nirvana finally came, we were doing fireworks. I didn't get any pictures of the mortar shell fireworks we sent high into the sky, I did take a few pictures of the fireworks.

Here's the coolest picture of the fireworks that I took. Our 24th was busy, hope you all had a memorable day as we were able to enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 3 - Nice Web Video

This is a nice presentation of the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3.

Raccoon's In Our Backyard

On Tuesday, I got a call from one of my daughters, they said that they had just caught a raccoon in our back yard. Immediately I thought, I hope you didn't get bitten. The neighbor had been taking their irrigation turn and when the water went through our back yard it washed up two raccoon. Cassie had been finding signs of raccoon activity in our backyard. She found a print of a raccoon in our sandbox, a print on our trampoline and then a long raccoon hair on our trampoline as well. Cassie called the raccoon Bob Marley, I called him Rocky. Rocky's sibling didn't fair too well. We called animal control and they came and picked up the raccoons.

Here are two videos taken of Rocky.

Happy Pioneer Day!

We will be celebrating and commemorating the day Brigham Young entered the Great Salt Lake valley on the 24th of July, 1847. We will be going to our Ward (neighborhood) breakfast. Customary activities in Utah include parades, devotionals, sporting events, feasts, dances, excursions, and reunions which often serve to remind the Saints of the religious foundations of their heritage. In our family it also means another day for McKay's favorite things....FIREWORKS.

I integrated our new stock of chicks with our remaining chickens and they are still learning to get along. I think they will figure out how to get along soon. To help the chickens get along I've include this rendition of The Blue Danube Waltz, by J. Strauss Jr. I'm sure if J. Strauss Jr. were alive today he'd get a grin out of this rendition.

Ode To Joy

This morning when I was out early to feed our cats and our chickens I felt renewed. There was a light rain coming down. That's a huge blessing since I can't remember when we had rain last where we live. It felt cooler outside, we have had weather in the 100s for a number of days, it was nice having a break in the weather. Then there is a tree in our backyard that lets of the sweetest smell. I believe the tree is from Japan. The hummingbirds really like this tree, so it must not only smell sweet it must be sweet as well.

I'd thought I'd include this video clip of Beethoven's "Ode To Joy". Hope you find joy today and that you enjoy the muppets sense of humor as much as I do.

Melancholy Sabbath Morning

I'm feeling a bit melancholy this morning. Yesterday, I lost one of my chickens. We are doing some major renovations in our back yard and as part of that renovation we moved our chickens. Also, the three chickens I've had for some time were integrated with the chicks I got this spring. Well one of the chicks I got this spring turned out to be a rooster. The rooster was really beautiful and he had learned to crow in the morning and evening. There was a problem though, the rooster was reeking havoc with three laying hens. The hens were not laying, eating and were trying to get out of the chicken run every time I fed the chickens. So I let the rooster out of the chicken run, after figuring out he couldn't get back into the chicken run, he went into our garden and started to eat our our vegetables, not the weeds. So I put him in a cage with feed and water. I thought he would be fine. At the time I caged the rooster he had shade, well....things didn't go well after that. Yesterday I had a date night with lovely and talented daughter Hannah. We searched high and low for Camp Rock poster. We could not find any poster sized Camp Rock posters. We eventually found some smaller Camp Rock posters at Wal-Mart. Well while we were on our date I received a frantic phone call from my daughter Cassie about the rooster. She wanted to know why the rooster was in a separate cage and why his legs were taped together. His legs were not taped, Julie went out to inspect and the rooster was on his last breath. He was now fully exposed to the sun and had spilled the ceramic water dish I had provided for him. The rooster passed away, this really upset Cassie and she wasn't pleased with what I did. Well that's part of our activities that we had yesterday.

With the renovations we are doing in the back yard we were having another circuit added to our sprinkler system for the new area of the yard that will need water. Well, with this addition work on our sprinkler system disabled part of our sprinkler system so our backyard needed to be watered since it has not been watered for three days. Lack of water doesn't go well when you have three one-hundred degree weather days in a row.

Yesterday and the night before I took McKay to a Fathers and Son's camp out up Diamond Fork canyon. McKay and I had a great time. Those in charge had some memorable activities that the boys will remember. McKay got to shoot paint ball guns at targets and search through a great big pile of sawdust for candy. There was devotional and as soon as the devotional got over McKay wanted to hang out in our tent. I got this handy two man tent for hiking and McKay and I fit well in this tent. McKay wanted to hear some of my stories so I told him the "Tommy" story and how he caught "Fruititus" (Fruit-I-tus). McKay didn't want to hear any of my scary stories like Stumpy. Then I told him the story of the goat that chased the log down the mine shaft hole. He liked that one as well. I didn't take my camera, I took two picture with my phone, I'll need to download them later and add them to this post.

Well hope everyone is doing well, I still have more posting to do for my Havasupai trip. Also, I'll need to take some pictures of our backyard.

Firehose Rodeo

Yee Haw!!! This is a new take on the mechanical bull, I think a bit more extreme though.

Click The Ball

Click on the picture above, the object is to click on the ball. This should provide children, cats and others with hours of entertainment.

Japanese Drum Music Animation

Clever animation of seven drummers playing traditional Japanese drum music. The drum is called a Taiko and the assembly of many of these together to play music is called kumi-daiko.

Havasupai - Scout Camp - Day 1 - The Decent

Below is a map of the Havasupai trail.

A key to hiking in the desert is hiking when it's not hot. We got up early, I think it was four in the morning. We then drove for about an hour and a half to get to the trail head so we could get checked in and begin our hike. If you view the above map you can see that it's about 10 miles to reach the campgrounds. There were a lot of people at the campgrounds so we would have to travel about another 1/2 mile into the campgrounds to get our campsite that we used for this trip.


Above is a picture of the Havasupai Ranger's station. Repairs were being done on this morning as we began our hike. Also, in this picture are the Scouts who are anxious to begin the morning's trek. The hike will be about 10 1/2 miles this day.


While on the switchback's I took a picture of the trail that lay ahead. This is the trail before we drop down into the canyon's where it is cooler. It is important that we get into the canyon's before the sun breaks the mountain tops where we were at.

Here's a couple of pictures of the trail experience. On left are some of our group, Jim, Jim, Sam and Josh. On the right is a mule train. You must always be on the alert for a mule train. Because if you don't get out of the way you could get run over.

We took a break as the sun was just starting to get to us in the canyons, before the Supai village. Next was the most breathtaking view. We finally saw the first waterfall. This is a picture I took of Havasu Falls. It falls over 100 feet and is one of the most photographed falls in the world. I could see why, because we had just hiked over 10 miles and were in a desert and then all of a sudden is a waterfall that looks like it belongs in Hawai'i.

Here's the view we had in camp for our entire stay. Darren set himself up with his hammock. He was taking a rest after our long hike.

After setting up camp we went up to see the Havasu Falls again. On the right you can see Lane hamming it up. In front of his feet was a little chute you could go under the little falls and pop up in the pool below.