Pioneer Day at Starvation Reservoir

3 minivans with canoes on top headed towards Starvation Reservoir today.

We spent the day on Starvation Reservoir canoeing, swimming and playing in the sand. We had a great time swamping the canoe (on accident and intentionally.)

As we left, we took a group picture.

The Woodlands, The Bergers and The Wrights.



As we left Starvation Reservoir, there was a gas station and a sign stating how many miles to Heber, UT. 69 miles to Heber and the Van said we had 89 miles till we ran out of gas. I decided that since we were stopping in Heber to eat and that we had enough gas to get there, that we wouldn't waste the time to get gas and we would do it when we stopped to eat in Heber.

About 5-6 miles outside of Heber, we came around a corner and suddenly all the cars in front of us were stopped. We stopped and realized that we weren't going to be moving any time soon.



We stopped about 5pm on the freeway. Most everyone was out of their cars and while we were standing outside someone came by to inform us that the freeway was going to be shutdown for about 3 hours. Since I had made a decision to fill up with gas in Heber, we didn't have enough gas to turn around, we were stuck. So we did what everyone else was doing, we set up camp.



Our friends, Chad and Mandy were just a few cars back, and when people heard it was going to be 3+ hrs, some turned around, which allowed Chad and Mandy to drive up right behind us.

4 hours later, about 9pm, we were back on the road and headed towards Heber. We stopped to get something to eat and then headed home.

We had a great trip and a much needed vacation from our day to day activities.

Crawfish Dinner

After attending church with the Woodlands we went back to their house and had lunch. We had planned on going home after church, however another friend of ours (Chad and Mandy Wright) from our old Springville neighborhood showed up at Jakes church.

They planned on staying the night and spending Monday the 24th with them. (Since Monday the 24th is pretty much a holiday in Utah). We decided we were having too much fun to go home, so we decided to stay another day too.

For Dinner we all pitched in some food and made a huge meal.

Next to the Woodlands house, there is a canal for watering fields and it is filled with Crawfish. We took some of the fish heads from yesterday, tied them on to a string and went out to the canal. About 15 seconds after throwing your fish heads in to the water, you can pull up your string and you will have anywhere from 2 to 5 Crawfish trying to eat your bait. As long as you leave them in the water and put some sort of net underneath them, its easy to catch them.

We caught about 80-100 in about 10 minutes. It was quite fun. Here's our cooler full of live Crawfish.



Jake washed them all up and got them ready for dinner.



The Crawfish were really good. A little on the small side and you had to do alot of work to get them out, but the tail and the claws were really good tasting. Something I wouldn't mind having on a regular basis.

Lake #25 (Angel Lake) - Day 3

Day 3 in the Uintas. We decided to hike into a lake that I fished at last year that has Artic Greyling. I guess the lake really doesn't have a name, but the Woodlands call it Angel Lake, or as the map calls it Lake #25.

We took the kids with us and headed off on the hike. We also took lunches and drinks so we could stay in there for a while.

It was a good hike for little ones. Right before you get to the Lake there are huge bolders that you have to climb on. Most of them being quite bigger than myself, but somehow we made it up there. The fishing was slow but fun. The water was really clear so you could see the fish swimming around. I caught 2 fish today. 1 Artic Greyling and one Cutthroat Trout.

Ryan was getting bored till his bobber went under water and he reeled in a Artic Greyling by himself. After catching that, he wasn't as bored, at least for 20 minutes afterwards.

I decided to show Ryan how to fly fish and while I was teaching him how to fly fish and on our first casts, I saw a good size fish, so we cast out and pulled the fly right over the fish and sure enough, Ryan and I pulled the fish in. The fish was probably 14-15 inches. Ryan was pretty excited about catching a fish on his first tiem trying a fly rod.

On the hike out, I carried Sydney the whole way. Ryan was having a hard time too, so I carried both of them for a little while.

All in all, we had a great day and enjoyed the lake and the fishing.

When we got back to camp, we had a big dinner and then packed up to come home.

As we got down out of the moutains, we stopped to check the canoes, etc and I took this picture as the sun was going down over the mountains.

Happy Birthday Sydney/2nd day in the Uintas

Happy Birthday Sydney.

Today was our first full day up in the Uintas. We packed the canoes on the back of Jakes truck and put the truck in 4 wheel drive to get back to a lake called Larva Lake. It was only about 1/2 mile off the main road, but you can't drive down to it without 4 wheel drive.

The lake was a little erie. It looked as if the water was black. Almost like when you go ice fishing.

We stayed at Larva Lake for most of the day and fished.

Here's Ryan getting his fishing pole ready.



Deni and Sydney in the canoe



Not only was Deni the only one to catch a fish, she caught 2. I guess I taught her a little too well.

First day on the Woodland Family Farm-/Day 1 in Uintas

Today was the first full day at the Jake Woodland "Farm". We had a great time becoming accustomed to the farm life.

Nick Woodland, Ryan Berger and Casey Woodland (Ryan's old friends from Springville)



When we got to the Woodlands, they put him right to work doing "farm" chores. Here Ryan is feeding the goats. Notice he is looking around carefully, as the day before one of the goats, Kermit, decided Ryan's bum looked like dinner and he took a bite.




Here's Kermit the Goat.
Since Kermit decided it was okay to bite Ryan, it only seemed fair that Ryan was able to get a free ride around the yard.







When you live on a farm, sometimes your sheep get out of the fence. When that happens, you can call Ryan to put them back. Ryan was fearless putting these sheep back in. With the rope, he is an official sheep herder.









We had a great time today with the Woodlands. I haven't laughed this much in a long time.

Tonight we headed up into the Uintas. When we left, it was 89 degrees, as we started driving up the mountain, we hit the afternoon thunderstorm and by the time we got to our camp ground it was 59 degrees. It dropped 30 degrees in about 45 minutes. It had stopped raining by the time we go to our camp ground, so it was really nice and cool.

Here's our campsite (and new tent).

Happy Birthday Sydney ( a few days early.)

Since we are going to be out of town on Sydney's Birthday, we decided that we would celebrate it with friends and family a few days early. Deni made a great ice cream cake.



A present Sydney got.



We had a pinata and Sydney's friends enjoyed the candy.



Happy Early birthday, Sydney

We bought Ryan a Dionaea muscipula

When I got home the other day, Ryan could barely wait to tell me about the plant he wanted to buy from the store. Ryan was so excited, he could barely talk complete sentences.

He finally calmed down and told me about the Venus Fly trap that he wanted. I asked him how much it was and he told me $2.00. Deni had told him he needed to talk to me to see if he could get it.

It just so happens that Ryan had just made $2.00 by watering the neighbors flowers while they were out of town. However I reminded him that he needed to pay his tithing first, which would be 20 cents of the $2.00, which means he would only have $1.80 left. However, I told him that if he was good and payed his tithing first, then Mom and Dad could make up the difference and help him get the Venus Fly trap.

Sunday came and I helped him pay his tithing by filling out a donation slip and he promptly gave it to the Bishopric. I figured it was time to have a FHE that discussed tithing and then for us to go on a little field trip to get his plant.

And that is what we did. We read a few scriptures about paying tithing and its blessings and then we went on a field trip. We started driving towards downtown Spansih Fork and Ryan kept attempting to guess where we were going. It was driving him crazy. As we pulled into the Macey's parking lot, he knew what we were up to and guessed we were going to get him the Venus Fly trap.

We walked into Macey's and went back to where the Venus Fly traps were, however they were gone. The first thing that popped into my head as "great, I just had this lesson on tithing and if you pay your tithing, you will be blessed and the dang plant isn't here anymore." Luckily, the plants had been moved and we found them.

We got 2 plants ($1.99 each) and headed off to pay for them. When we got them home, Ryan wanted to immediately feed them.I have to admit, it is fun to watch them. We stunned a fly and dropped it into the plant last night and it immediately closed on the fly. The fly tried to get out, however it couldn't.

Venus Flytrap Background

Although the Venus Flytrap has captivated people across the world, the plants actually grow in an incredibly small geographic area. In the wild, they are found in a 700-mile region along the coast of North and South Carolina. Within this area, the plants are further limited to living in humid, wet and sunny bogs and wetland areas.

Training Update

Well it's been almost a month since I agreed to do the Yuba Triathlon. Since that time I've been swimming many times, running twice (I'm still not getting into running yet) and my most recent event, I bought a road bike for me for me to ride and train on. I bought a Trek Pilot 2.1 S.P.A. from MadDog Cycles. My bike is almost exactly the same as Deni's with a few tweaks.

Since buying my bike, I rode to and from work (about 25 miles round trip.) The ride to work wasn't too bad for my first "long" ride. Work is only 11.6 miles away, however I wanted to see what my time for 12.4 miles would be (20k) so I rode past my work till I hit 12.4 miles. My first measured 12.4 mile bike ride was 38 minutes even. On the way home, I road the same route home and it took me 41 minutes and 10 seconds. On the way home, there are a few more uphills that slowed me down, but all in all, I was pretty happy I was able to do what I did.

On my swimming, I have come to the conclusion I like swimming distances in a pool rather than an open body of water. You would think swimming is swimming, however there is quite a difference. Swimming in a pool, you can see the bottom of the pool, see the nice lines to follow and you can stop every 50 meters if needed to hold on to the side. You can't do that in open water, unless you have a canoe. I've been swimming in the Spanish Fork Reserviour and Salem Pond. Both are really odd, as you can see down about 2 feet, then a greenish-blueish abyss beneath. It's a little wierd feeling. So wierd that at one point, I closed my eyes each time my head went down into the water. I would open my eyes when I took a breath, and close them again whenI put my head in the water.

My last swim in the pool was Thursday July 6th. I was able to swim 300 meters on my front without stopping. When I did stop, I stopped for 30 seconds and then continued on and instead of stopping, I would swim on my back for 50 meters to catch my breath. Deni always swims on her front, never having to stop or do the backstroke when she races. I've come to the conclusion that we are either swim differently or my upperbody is way out of shape. Each time I get done with my 1/2 mile swim, my upperbody is tired, whereas Deni's is not.

I've got 2 months from today to be ready for the Triathlon. I've got to be a little more dedicated in my training. I plan on riding 2-3 times a week to work (75-100 miles a week), with little workouts on the bike here and there. I need to get on a scheudle for running too. We try to swim about 2 times a week, which is going well and I'm happy with my progress for now.

4th of July

I worked as usual. There's something about getting paid double time for working a holiday. Holiday's at Novell are usually quiet. That was the case today and I got alot of work done, which was nice. It's amazing how much work you can get done when your phone doesn't ring, I don't sign into Instant Message, or I have alot of emails I have to answer.

As usual, the Provo parade started out with a few milatary jets buzz University Ave, which means they fly right over Novell. Each year I work, I hear the rumble of jets coming, then they fly over Novell on their way up University Ave and the parade route.

Since I worked today, I decided I would take Thursday and Friday off and spend it with the family.

After work, we had 2 families from our neighborhood come over for dinner. We grilled hamburgers and visited. After everyone left, we rode our bikes around and watched people set their fireworks off.

I was amazed at how many illegal fireworks were set off in our neighborhood.

Fast Sunday...

We fasted for my dad today. He's been having chest pains again after doing minor things like walking upstairs, etc. That's not a good sign for someone that has had open heart surgery and multiple stints put in.

He's got a Dr's appointment coming up to see what is going on.

Luke and Misty went to church with us today, ate some lunch with us and then headed on the rest of their journey to visit other family and friends. It was good to have them here and to catch up with them. It's amazing how different we all ended up with careers, etc.

BYU Freshman Friends reunion

We had a get together of the BYU Freshman Friends at our house today. Luke and Misty Meldrum were up from Texas, so we thought it would be a good excuse to get all of us together again.

Ben Williams, Steve Ostermiller, Luke Meldrum, myself, Emily Lamphere, and Brent Anderson (and all their spouses) came. It's amazing how big this group is getting. Ben W has 4 kids now, Steve-0 has 3, we have 2, Emily L has one, Brent and kerstin are Pregnant and Luke and Misty are in the process of adopting.

It was fun as always to get together, catch up a little bit on what is going on in everyone's lifes.

After we ate, we set off some fireworks and sparklers in front of the house.

Luke and Misty stayed the night with us too.