Your Mom sings in the choir...

I'm sitting here waiting for Mom to come home from stake choir practice. Actually, I've been typing up some letters that need to go out this week. But we had a big week. Chris was here and that was loads of fun. Mom and I got to do a few of her family's sealings in the temple, plus all of the usual work of the week. Mom has started to "winterize" the back yard, but I still mow lawns every weekend.

School is going well for both of us. I have huge groups at Tierra Buena and puny ones at Barry. Mom hands out ice-packs to every kids who wants one - but it's against the law to 'kiss it better.'

We hope that all of you will watch and/or listen to all appropriate sessions of General Conference next week. There really is nothing more important for you to do with your time. Mom and I went to the Relief Society General Broadcast last night. I highly recommend listening to the talks. Pres. Uchtdorf's will probably be a classic. Don't miss out!

Rode My Mountain bike to the Levee but the Levee was Dry

I finally had time to finish this montage of video clips from a ride along the levee I made last summer. I used my action cam fixed on my helmet (you'll see it in my shadow part-way through the video) and since the ambient sound is less that tolerable, I added an audio clip from a popular movie, which I sure you'll all recognize. (name that tune Michelle)

It begins with my ride down Teesdale past Rich and Joanne's house (on the left), continues around the corner onto Railroad, shots of the ride down that street, and eventually turning onto Garden Hwy just north of the road over to Boyd Pump boat ramp 5 miles south of town. You'll watch as I peddle up the levee access road, then south along the levee to Starr Bend 8 mi. south of our house. There's a little footage of the trip back with a brief shot of the buttes in the distance, then back down of the levee, ashot of East Owald, and the return to Creswell Dr. and our home.

Camping at Zion

Wish I had some photos to share, because MAN we had a good time last Friday. But before I get to that - Mom and I went to the temple Tuesday and had a good trip. On Wed. I participated in a conference call with Elder Clayton where he described our future efforts with the coalition to protect marriage. It's exciting work. Thursday evening was meetings.

But Friday! Mom and I took grandma and left about 4:00 for Zion's Camp. We got there and set up, built a fire, cooked foil packs (which I had made the day before) and pigged out. The weather was beautiful and NO MOSQUITOES.

It was actually a ward camp out, so later on everybody gathered around our fire (nobody else wanted to build one) and played games then sang songs. There was a good turn out of about 35-40 people. It was late when we finally got to bed. Which didn't really matter because at 11:00 pm the gun fire started. Some whacko neighbors of the camp were shooting high powered semi-automatic guns until midnight. : (

Anyway, we did get a good night's sleep, got up the next morning and packed up. By the time we were done with that the cooks had breakfast ready. Pancakes, sausages, hot chocolate, juice - and piles and piles of scrambled eggs! Yes, I ate my fill.

Later that night we picked up Chris from Sacramento (he's in NorCal doing a conference). We have him here till Tuesday. Fun, fun, fun.

See ya in the funny papers!

This week in review

The big news this week comes from Michelle, but then you all know that already. We have prayed for her and Trevor, and will continue to do so.

This was a big week for me with interviews every night, but we had a great part for Aunt Joanne and James Friday night. Becca and Sara were here too. (Oh, and Tyler) I ate a hamburger that had more meat on it than I have ever seen before in my life! And of course, there was the obligatory brownies, pie and ice cream. Yumm!

Yesterday was a pretty good, relaxing day. I finally got around to buying some new shirts for school (now that we're four weeks into it), mowed the lawns, rode my bike 10 miles, and watched some good college football. Yes, BYU whupped UCLA 59-0, but the game that interested me most was Notre Dame. Both of the big religious schools won big. Maybe it's a sign.

See you next week, when maybe I'll have another video from my action cam ready to post.

One of the best things we did at the fair this year was watch the Peiking Acrobats. It was Mom's favorite. We saw it twice, once with Kim too. There were so many good acts, but this was one I got a good video of. These girls were gorgeous and the guys were tremendous.

Dad at the Jurassic Park exhibit

I thought Grant and some of the other grandkids would like this video of me petting the dinosaurs at the fair.

The Train, The Train!

When Mom and I went to the fair a couple weeks ago we stayed overnight in Sacramento and took a (very) short train ride. This video is of the engine switching from the front to the back of the train to pull us back to Old Sacramento. Unfortunately, this was the most exciting part of the ride.

Photos from Hollywood

The theme for the state fair this year was Hollywood and they had a "back lot" set up with scenery from different movies and TV sets. Here are a few examples.

Kim having brunch (not breakfast) at Tiffany's.

Mom with Sponge Bob at Bikini Bottoms.

Me, with my big green friend.

Kim and Mom putting their best face forward.

Kayaking Down the Yuba

Kim and I kayaked down the Yuba River Saturday. We put in at Parks Bar (where Hwy 20 crosses the river) and paddled down to Hallwood, about 9-10 miles. The weather was great, the water was cool, and there was no on else on the river. We portaged around the Deguerra Point Dam and ate our snacks there: white cheddar Cheese-its, beef sticks, alsorts licorice, and frosted oatmeal cookies. Ymmm! We've got to do that with Pam & Rob and Chris and Lorna and Trevor and Michelle sometime. Heck, we may as well get David to go too!

Below are two photos taken before we got in the river. I'm afraid we were having so much fun that we forgot to take any more when we got out.

Yuba River Gothic


At this point neither of us had both oars in the water.