Pause.....Happy New Year

My parents hosted the "1st Annual Berger New Years Eve Party" at their house tonight. Both Teresa and Stefanie came with most of their families. We met about 5:30pm and had dinner as a family. After dinner we visited and played games together. We took the Nintendo Wii over and Teresa's boys brought their Playstation 2 and guitar hero.

We played all sorts of games. Phase 10, uno Master (a cool new game we got for Christmas), Swipe, etc, etc. Ryan and Deni playing Phase 10.

Because we all have little kids and we didn't want them to be up until midnight MST, we decided to celebrate the New Year with the East Coast at 10pm MST. The best part of the night was about 3 minutes before 10pm MST. My mom was channel surfing attempting to find a channel showing the Ball falling in NYC. Apparently everyone wasn't quite ready, so we paused live tv until everyone was ready. What did we do before we could pause live tv?



Sydney with 2 of her cousins getting ready to ring in the new year (NY time).

High School Musical Audtions

Sydney is a huge High School Musical Fan.

While we were waiting for Deni to run into a store the kids and I were listening to the Soundtrack for High School Musical 2 and I caught this little video clip of Sydney singing.



Oh and we have had the High School Musical 2 soundtrack for 4 days. She learns fast.

Also, if you didn't notice, he's wearing her High School Musical Varsity Jacket too.

Christmas Traditions - Sitting on the Stairs

Growing up, I had a lot of constants in life. Things I could always plan on. One of those was, no matter what time we woke up on Christmas morning (early or late), we had wait for my dad to "get his eye's in" and then get his cameras ready to capture the events of the day.

As a kid, it felt like an eternity. Even worse, once he had his contacts in and cameras ready, he would go downstairs and taunt us by saying "Do you think Santa came?" and "Ooh look at what Brett got." We had to wait upstairs until we got the go ahead to come running down the stairs.

I thought of my childhood Christmas's as I made my kids sit on the stairs and wait while I got my camera ready before I let them come up to see what Santa brought them. It's funny how that works.

Although it looks like Ryan is crying, he isn't. I think I caught him mid sneeze.

Christmas morning, waiting on the stairs.

Christmas Eve Snow

We went to my parents house this afternoon for a Christmas get together. We got there around 1:00 pm. It was cold but not snowing....yet. We had a great lunch and an enjoyable time visiting as a family. After lunch, we played "Disney Scene it" for a while with all 19 of us. Playing a game with 19 people isn't that easy either. It began to snow very hard while we were playing. Around 5:30pm we decided that we should get the presents we had stashed at my parents into our car. When we went out to the car, there was about 2 inches of new snow. By the time we left, about an hour later, there was even more snow. Dad got out the 4 wheeler to clean off "the driveway", however even with the snow off, we slid all the way down. The roads weren't that great coming home but we got home safely and did our Christmas eve traditions.

Ryan read the Christmas story out of Luke 2 to us.

Sydney was our picture holder.

After reading the Christmas story we put our stockings out and then opened a present from Grandma Berger. Deni read the book to the kids and then we put them to bed.

Brett, Ryan and Sydney

Ryan, Deni and Sydney

The kids have been in bed for about 30 minutes and I think they are asleep. Now comes the fun part.

Christmas Traditions - Sugar cookies

As a kid, I always remembering my mom making sugar cookies around Christmas time and as a family we would decorate the cookies for our friends. It was fun decorating them. I also remember having a good time driving around to my friends homes to deliver them.

Deni made cookies for us this year and we spent a Monday night decorating them and delivering them to some of the kids friends. We had a great time as a family decorating the cookies.

Ryan and his cookie:

Deni and her cookie:

Right before we went out to deliver the cookies:

White Christmas

I just watched the weather and it appears that we will have a White Christmas this year. It's not snowing yet but is supposed to be snowing by tomorrow and continue almost all week.

Tonight the kids and I watched a Sesame Street Christmas show on TV. They have been so excited about Christmas this year and have been counting down the days till Christmas.

We have an advent calendar (the one we had when I was little) and the kids have been taking turns putting up an ornament each day. They were so wound up tonight before bed that I didn't think Sydney was going to go to sleep. After I put her to bed, she laid in her bed singing Christmas songs as loud as she could.

Tomorrow we are headed to my parents for lunch with the rest of my family and then we'll spend Christmas day at home.

Dear Heavenly Father .... and Jesus

I put Sydney to bed tonight and she had a cute prayer. She said:

"Dear Heavenly Father.....and Jesus. I love you. And I love Azure." Her prayer continued on and she said, "and I love the movie Annie."

This weekend I was sick, so I was stuck inside all weekend. While I was here though, Sydney was saying the ABC song to me and she would get the the "L, M, N, O" part and say "Elmo Elmo P" I stopped her and told her it wasn't "Elmo Elmo P" but that it was "L, M, N, O, P". She laughed and tried it again, but for some reason it always came out as "Elmo Elmo P".

Bowling with the Bro-in-laws

Since the funeral, we had been sitting around not doing much and someone decided that we should take out my bro-in-law Brian out for some fun. I went with Deni's Dad and my 3 Bro-in-laws to a Bowling Alley about 30 miles from Heber.

I hadn't bowled in a long time, but was fun to get out and bowl. My first game was pretty good. I had 149 point going into my last frame. All I had to do was get a spare, so I could bowl one more frame. As I was getting ready to bowl Nic came from behind me and ruined my last frame.

All in all it was a fun time.

The Funeral

I went to bed at about 2am this morning (after a long drive alone from Home to Arizona). I set my alarm clock for 10am, so I would be up in time for the 1pm funeral. Wishful thinking. I was woken up just before 7am to help carry the empty casket from the house to the back of Keith's truck.

A closed casket viewing started at 10:00 am. There were lots of people that showed up. I've only been to four funerals total in my life, however by far this was the most attended funeral. I'm sad to think that Deni's sister, Azure, is gone and it is even harder seeing her husband left with a 6 month old. I did fine with my emotions for the most part. I watched as people came in and paid their respects to Azure and spoke with her husband Brian. I didn't know anyone coming in to give their respects, but sat there and watched as they came in and spoke with Brian. I was far enough away that I could hear what they were saying , but watched anyways. Deni leaned over while I was watching the people come in and talk to Brian and she pointed to the guy that had found Azure and did CPR. As I said, I couldn't hear what he was saying, however I could tell it was a special moment. There was also a video/slideshow of Azure playing in the background.

At 12:30 pm they closed the doors to immediate family only. At that point, they opened the casket and let the family pay their respects. Deni and I didn't want the kids to see her, so we kept them back. Personally, I'd always like to remember people the way they were when they were alive, instead of seeing their body.

The funeral started at 1:00 pm. We walked in as the family to a completely packed church. They estimated there were at least 1,200 people there. The Chapel was full, the gym was full, all the rooms were full as well as people standing in the hall ways. Quite the showing, from a small community.

Deni, as well as her dad, brother and sisters, spoke. They all had great things to say. I enjoyed Deni's talk. She focused on the Young Womens theme and how Azure exemplified those values.

After the funeral, I was one of the Pall Bearers, so I helped the casket into the Hearse. We then drove a mile or so to the Cemetery. I then helped the casket out of the Hearse and to the burial site. The grave was dedicated by Brian.

We went back to the church for a luncheon and then to Brian's house. Our family is going to stay at Brian's for the next few days to help him out.

Farm Fresh Days

Ryan had a field trip today that he didn't want to miss, plus Deni had signed up to go along and help, so I filled in for Deni and went on the field trip with Ryan.

First we went to Springville to a pumpkin patch and he was able to pick out a pumpkin of his choosing. It was freezing outside (about 40 degrees) and raining on and off, not the best time for a field trip. Then we went to a park in American Fork for lunch. They had us get off the bus and eat outside, but because of the wind/rain and temperature, they finally let us back on the bus to finish our lunches.

We then went to "Farm Fresh Days" where the kids learned about farming and ranching. One of the ladies talked about pigs and what pigs are used for. She said, they use pigs to make make-up, so go home and tell your mom's that they have pig on their face. They also had some really cool "sheep" dogs that herded the ducks around the arena we were at. The kids really enjoyed the field trip.

After the field trip, we went home and left for Arizona. This was the first trip that I had ever driven by myself for such a long distance. Dad came over to help me look at my cruise control, which hasn't worked in a while and we found out that it was just a fuse. After fixing that we were on our way to Arizona. We left about 3:19 pm Utah time. The drive is about a 10 hour drive.

Deni's sister, Azure's funeral is on Thursday at 1:00 pm in Heber, AZ, which is why we had to leave after Ryan's school and drive all night until we got there.

I got in about 1:30 am on Thursday, so it took me just under 11 hours. It was a very long drive by myself, one that I don't care to ever do alone if I don't have to.

Carving Pumpkins

Prior to Deni leaving for Arizona, we had invited my parents over for dinner and for Family Home Evening (to carve pumpkins).

In our garden, we planted and grew pumpkins this year for the first time. Both the kids planted their own pumpkin plant (Ryan named his Ghostrider and Sydney named hers Jackie.) From those two plants, we got 8 good sized pumpkins.

I cooked dinner for all of us (yes I can cook). Then after dinner we carved pumpkins.

Ryan and Grandpa Berger carved 2 pumpkins while myself and Sydney carved 3 pumpkins. Grandma Berger made sure the pumpkins were cleaned out and ready for carving. Grandma Berger also took pictures of us carving. Here is Sydney with one of her pumpkins.

Ryan wanted to carve a "Ghostrider" pumkin. Grandpa Berger help him design this one.

Sydney even helped me make cookies for dessert. We had chocalate, chocalate chip cookies. As you can see, Ryan was in the middle of eating his.

We had a great time having my parents over for dinner and then carving pumpkins. I know the kids had a great time too.

Azure Dae Starkes (Deni's Sister) passes away

Just after 2pm today we got a call that Deni's sister, Azure, had been in a horrible car accident. At the time of the call, all we knew was that she had her son, Eric, with her.

We later learned that despite wearing her seatbelt, Azure had been thrown from the car and was being life flighted to Flagstaff, AZ. We also learned that Eric was not harmed.

Deni felt like she needed to be in Arizona with her family, while she packed her things, I booked the earliest flight to Phoenix, AZ that I could. The earliest flight was 5:30pm. I booked it around 2:45pm. Deni was packed and ready to go before I could buy and print out her ticket. I called the neighbors and asked Ryan to come quickly come home. I also called my mom, which was out and about in Provo, and I asked her if she minded if she watched the kids while I took Deni to the airport.  We met her just off I-15 at about 3:15pm, switched the kids into her car and Deni and I headed to Salt Lake City, UT.

I dropped Deni off at the airport just a few minutes before 4pm. I didn't even get out of the airport before I got a call from Deni telling me that Azure had passed away.

When Deni told me, I felt like I wanted to throw up. I drove to my parents house to get the kids. I told the kids that Aunt Azure has passed away, but told them they would see her again when Jesus came again. Sydney isn't really sure what is going on, but I'm pretty sure Ryan understands.

It appears that I'll be traveling down to AZ with the kids for the funeral.

Novell yearly layoffs - 2007 edition

As always, rumors have been flying for some time about layoffs this year. It seems like just about everyone knows something a little bit different about when and how many people will be layed off this year.

I always hate this time of year as I never know if my badge will actually let me in the door as I get to work. So far I've been at Novell for just about 7 and a half years and made it through about 7 layoffs (including this one.)

As of this afternoon, the layoffs in my group, Global Technical Support, have been completed. My manager of 3 years was demoted and I report to a new manager. There were 2 other managers that lost their jobs. With those changes there is lots of restructuring.

The layoffs this year in my group won't really effect me much, however the real big layoffs for the rest of the company, which are coming next week, will. It is rumored that anywhere from 30% to 50% of the Provo campus. Not a good thing for me.

Date night -with kids

Ryan recently complained that Deni doesn't spend enough time him, so we decided that we would have a date night and each of us take a kid and spend one on one time with them.

Tonight, Deni took Ryan and I took Sydney on a "date".

Deni and Ryan went to to Burger King and then the nickel arcade. Ryan came home with all kinds of little things he "won" from getting tickets from the games.

Sydney and I went to McDonalds, then to a sports store (we looked at pink soccer balls), stopped at the grocery store to get some candy and finally rented a DVD (Fantastic 4, Rise of the Silver Surfer) and came home to watch it.

We are going to try to keep this up every other week, but switching kids so we have some one on one time with them.

17.14 tons of rock

I worked from home this morning as my rock was going to be delivered sometime this morning. I finally got a call saying they would be here between 11:30am and noon.

When he called to tell me the time, he also told me the exact tonage (17.14 tons) and the price. The price was about $125 more than I was quoted, so I called the company and got that straighten out. A dump truck holds about 15 ton, and since I ordered 17 ton, they brought a "truck and a pup". They had 10 ton in the truck and about 7 ton in the trailer (pup).

I asked the driver to drop it in a few locations for me, which he did. He made four drops. Since we were spreading this by hand (and wheelbarrow) it put the rock much closer to where I would need it.

After the delivery, I headed off to work to finish up some loose ends. I talked to Dad and he said he was coming over to help me after work around 5:30pm.

When I got home, Deni had been already working on it and had finished about 20ft of the 125ft park strip. She had worked for hours to get it that far. I didn't expect her to work on it, but she did, which was really nice.

Deni, Dad and I started working on it again about 5:30pm.
Here you can see three of the four piles of rocks.

A friend, Kevin Fenn, also stopped by and helped for about an hour. He had done the same to thing to his old house, so came and worked with us and gave us some pointers, which was really nice.

Just as we were calling it a night, with about 40 feet left, a neighbor came over and said he had saw us spreading the rock by hand and that he had access to a bobcat and would go get it right then. We accepted his gracious offer. He was back in about 30 minutes with the bobcat. It took him about 20 minutes to finish to two remaining rock piles and by about 8:30pm, we called it a night with the rock mostly done.

I couldn't have planned it any better. We used all the rock with a tiny bit left over (probably the .14 ton extra they brought).

I had planned on working on the rock today, all day tomorrow, and then on Saturday too.

I still have some minor finish up work in cleaning up weed fabric.

Starting again on an old project

Our new neighbors drove by today and told Deni that everytime they drive by I've been working on the park strip. Deni laughed and said, that I started the project back in April. The funny thing is that they've driven by the only 2 times I've worked on the park strip since April. I've been really good at coming up with excuses to not finish it.

In April, I dug up the park strip to the west of our house. The park strip is 125 ft long and 6 feet wide of unusable space, plus it took two watering stations to water it. We decided that we would rip out the grass and replace it with rock. I dug it down about 3 to 4 inches deep and had planned on filling the space with rock.

I finally ordered rock late last week. I actually ordered 17 tons of rock, so I have to be ready before it gets here tomorrow. Actually it has been ready for the last few months except for the weed fabric.

Deni and I laid down the weed fabric and got the park strip ready for the delivery tomorrow.

Snow in September

It's amazing how much one day makes in the weather here in Utah. Yesterday, as seen in Deni's birthday post, we were outside in short sleeve shirts laying on the grass. Today it snows.

Let it snow.

To contrast yesterday and today:

Sydney outside on Friday Sept 28th:


Sydney outside on Saturday Sept 29th:

Happy 30th Deni

Happy Birthday Deni! Deni turned 30 today.

I took off half a day of work and came home to spend some time with Deni and the kids. The kids happened to be out of school today for some school administration day. When I got home, Sydney wanted to go outside and play chalk. Sydney loves to go outside and play with chalk on the driveway. However today, she wanted someone to play with her. Deni was on the phone, so I went out and played chalk with her.

We decided to let the neighborhood know it was Deni's birthday.

After we finished it, Sydney went inside and got Deni. Sydney made Deni close her eyes and then she brought her out to show her our masterpiece.

Later on Ryan had a soccer game. When we got there, the other team didn't have enough players, so Ryan was chosen with a couple of others to play on the other team. I'm surprised he was happy playing on the other team. However his real team scored on him (I think it was their first score of the whole season). Of course, it had to be the game that Ryan got put on the other team. Somehow at the end of the game, he was excited that his real team won a game, even though he wasn't on the team at the time.

After Ryan's soccer game, we dropped the kids off at my sister, Teresa's, and Deni and I went out to eat at Red Lobster. We both had the All you can eat shrimp. We didn't get to eat until about 9pm, as there was about an hour wait. But it was worth the wait.

I'm glad Deni is finally 30 years old, as she has been giving me a hard time for the last 2 1/2 years that I'm in my 30's.

Real Salt Lake Soccer Game

A few months ago we won four Real Salk Lake Soccer tickets at an auction. We finally got around to redeeming them for tonights game.

Of course the night I picked to go to the game, it had to rain. Actually it was more than rain, it poured the whole time we were at the game, however we had a fun time.

It was the first time that any of us had attended a Professional Soccer game. Having grown up playing soccer, I looked forward to taking the family to the game. With Sydney playing soccer for the first time this year and with Ryan playing for his 2nd year, I had hoped that seeing a Professional soccer team play might make both Ryan and Sydney more interested in playing soccer.

We took rain poncho's because we didn't have enough umbrellas and it turned out to be the best decision we made as when we walked in, there was a huge box of umbrellas. The guard said no umbrellas were allowed, as it is impossible to watch a game with someone in front of you with an umbrella. Since it was already pouring, we were wearing our poncho's. I had a number of people stop me and ask me where I bought the poncho. I told them Wal-mart, but I'm sure they were thinking that someone at the game was selling them. It was pretty cool (in the 60's) as well, so I'm glad we were able to stay mostly dry for the 90 minute game.

We sat next to a group of people that were banging a drum and chanting all night. As Deni said, the game is a very fast paced game, unlike football. There aren't too many times that things stopped, even when someone was down injured.

Real Salt Lake beat the Colorodo Rapids 1 to 0. I think we all enjoyed tonight's outing.

Soccer, Soccer

We've been staying busy with bi-weekly soccer games for Ryan. It seems like we are always going to something. Monday night is family night, Tuesday is YM/YW's, Wed and Friday at soccer games and occasionally on Thursdays, I have meetings.

Ryan's soccer team is called the Charge. Ryan's team has struggled to win a game this year, but since they play 2 games a week, they don't practice. Some of the teams do practice and it makes a big difference. (the difference between winning and losing.) However if they practiced it would be more time away from home.

Most of the time Ryan plays defense and has learned to get his body in front of the ball and even sacrifice his body for the team.

It's been fun and frustrating to watch Ryan play soccer.

School Pictures

We got the kids pictures taken for school. They came out really well again this year.

Ryan just started 2nd grade

Sydney is attending a preschool a few times a week.

Never driven by a woman

We are trying to sell our van and replace it with an older Toyota 4Runner. While I was looking for a 4Runner for sale today, I came across a 2001 Toyota 4Runner with this description and it made me laugh.

It has low miles and has never been off road and driven by a woman.

I'm just taking a guess here, but my guess is the seller either isn't married, or is divorced, or will as soon be divorced (at least as soon as his wife sees the posting.)

Camp Steiner

Welcome to Camp Steiner. Camp Steiner is located in the Uinta Mountains just a few miles from Mirror Lake. The camp is at 10,000 ft above sea level. Our ward choose to take the Boy Scout Troop, Varsity Team and Venturing Crew to this camp as it had Merit Badges for the younger boys as well as High Adventure for the older boys.



The Uinta Mountains are beautiful and green. It rained at least once each day we were there.

We left at 5:30am on Monday August 13th. The drive is only about 90 miles on way, so it was alot closer than I had thought. We took 5 Adult leaders and 15 boys (13 being deacon age and the other 2 were teacher age). I hadn't planned on going up the whole time as we only had 2 older boys going, however I thought it would be a good time to get to know the younger boys, as many of them are going to be moving up this coming year.

As one of the 5 leaders up at camp for our ward, we helped keep the peace at camp, as well as served as buddies to get the boys to and from our camp and merit badges, etc. Apparently there was a bear sited the day before we got there, as well as in other camps while we were there, so they made us clean up completely all food and cooking items (including our Camp Chefs) after each meal. We also found out the day before we left that we could not have any open fires, including brickettes used for Dutch Ovens. So we had to change up a few things at the last minute.

As soon as we got there, we had to do a swim check/cold water check. A few of the boys had to do the swim check, so I thought I would do that with them as well. I have never felt colder water in my life. As soon as you jumped in, your breath was taken away. I did my 100 yards and got out as fast as I could.

I took advantage of the High Adventure program and got do some rappelling and rock climbing.

The Lake below, known as Scout Lake, is about 10,000 ft above sea level. You could tell you were at or above 10,000ft when you hiked or ran. However, it was fun to hike up above the lake and rappel.

Getting ready to rappel.




It has been a while since I have rappelled, so I was a little nervous, however it was fun going down. I only got to rappel once as a thunderstorm came in after we got up there.



I did get to do a little rock climbing as well.



I also got to do a little fishing a few days. I caught 5 fish one day and 2 the other. It was nice to get out and relax and do some fishing with the other leaders.

On Thursday night, I went on the "Wilderness Survival" overnight. We had 3 boys from our group go. They had to build a shelter and then sleep in it. Luckily, I could take my tent, which I did and set it up near by their shelter. At 2:30am, I woke up with to the sound of it raining very hard. At 5:30am, we woke up, took down my tent (boys took down their shelter) in the rain and then hiked back into camp. Out of the whole week, the rain we got that night was the hardest and most volume of rain.

We came home on Friday August 17th, about 12 hrs before we had planned due to weather and because it was just time to go home.

I officially used up all my remaining time off with this trip. It will be hard to go back to work.

All in all I had a great time at Scout camp and enjoyed the week

Burley Idaho Olympic Spudman - Brett

This morning was a crazy one. We woke up around 5:45am, ate breakfast and headed to do our last minute race preparations. Dad drove us to our bikes, where we placed our water bottles. We then drove to the area where the swim was going to start, 1 mile up the road. I got to the water and they were just starting the first heat of elite racers. I had 10 minutes to get through the bathroom line and get my wetsuit on. Deni was there to help me and she zipped up my wet suit about 4 minutes before they sent my heat down the river. I got into the water, which was surprisingly warm.

I started in the second heat, which started at 7:10am sharp. My dad had parked the truck and headed down to get some pictures of me starting the swim, however not being able to tell which one I was of the 183 people starting in my heat, he took some general pictures, attempting to get me in one of them.

After searching for a while, I found myself.

Since the swim start and finish were 1 mile apart, it was impossible for Dad to take pictures of my swim start and then get down to the end of the swim before I got out.

The bike route was also away from most of the crowd areas, however Dad caught this picture of me as I was coming in the end of the bike ride. I was attempting to get the last drink before I started on my run.

The run was very difficult for me. For starters, prior to this race, the longest distance I had ever run in my life was about 3 miles (from other Tri's.) This race was 6 miles. I just didn't train for the run. About half way through the run, my knees were killing me and at that point, I had to push through the pain to finish. During the run and the bike when people would pass me, they would say "Come on Texas". (Because of my Texas shirt.)

Here I am coming across the finish line. Note, the time is 10 minutes off, as I started in the Second heat. So if you take off 10 minutes from that time, that is my official time. 2 hours 46 minutes and 38 seconds

I got a little metal as I came across the finish line.

Ryan and Sydney had been waiting (not very patiently) for Deni and I to cross the finish line with Grandma and Grandpa Berger. Ryan ran out to say hello to me as I came across.

Dad thought he would be funny and snap this picture. Let me explain the reason I'm running the wrong way. I was up watching for Deni to come across the finish line and I saw a lady about 50 yards away stumble and almost fall. A guy that was close to her went out and put his arm around her and was helping her down to where I was. As they came closer, I decided to go up and help him. When I got close, the man helping the woman asked me to run and get an ambulance. Apparently she had passed out completely. I ran down to the finish line and got someone to get some medical personnel to follow me back up to the woman. Some medical personnel came to her and took her away on a stretcher. She was within 50 yards of the finish line. Not sure what happened to her.

Finally, Sydney holding my metal.

Brett's Official Time for the Burley Spudman Olympic Triathlon

Swim (1 mile)
00:17:44.730
Transition from swim to bike
00:03:55.530
Bike (25 miles)
01:12:50.740
Average Bike speed
20.6 MPH
Transition from bike to run
00:02:14.510
Run (6 miles)
01:09:53.270

Total Time
02:46:38.78

Burley Idaho Olympic Spudman - Deni

This was Deni's first Olympic distance Triathlon. Deni started at 7:40am, in the 5th heat. She was in the 25-29 female age group and her race number was 968.

Here are Deni's official results.

Swim (1 mile)
00:21:39.110
Transition from swim to bike
00:03:53.740
Bike (25 miles)
01:19:27.690
Transition from bike to run
00:02:37.610
Run (6 miles)
01:10:02.820
Total
02:57:40.970

Deni getting out of the swim, starting her transition to bike.

Once out of her wetsuit, she got on her bike gear and headed out for the 25 mile bike ride.

2 hrs 46 minutes and 38 seconds later, Deni crossed the finish line.

38.6 miles and Lagoon

I started out the day with a 38.6 mile bike ride. I enjoyed my ride up Payson canyon on Saturday so I decided to do it again today. This time I did it alone as well as I rode up Payson Canyon about 3 to 4 miles more up the canyon than I did on Saturday. I rode for just over 2 1/2 hrs. It rained on me as I went up the Canyon, so I had to be really careful coming downhill as I didn't want to crash.

When I got home we got packed up and went to my parents house to give Deni a blessing. After the blessing we went to Lagoon.

The kids loved Lagoon. They rode just about every ride they were tall enough for.

The kids riding in a car at Lagoon.

The kids were great today. Ryan would take Sydney's hand and hold it while they were standing inline and make sure she got onto the ride. It was a rare (and cute) event that happened over and over today.

Of course, can't forget the carousel

One of the last rides we (Ryan and I) rode was Colossus. Colossus has 2 loops that you go upside down. Ryan had been talking about it all day. Apparently a cousin told him it was really fun. However when we got closer to he ride and he saw what happened on the ride he started to get cold feet. I made a deal with him, if he got on the ride, I'd give him a dollar. Ryan said, "I don't think it is worth it." so I then said, "ok I'll give the dollar to Sydney" I didn't have to say anything more, he took the dollar and we got in line. As we went to get on the ride, Deni said, just don't sit in the very front. Of course, we ended up sitting in the very front. (I had never gotten the chance to ride upfront, so decided it was a good time to take the opportunity.) Ryan was quite nervous until we went upside down and then he was giggling and really enjoying himself.

We left just in time. As we got to the car, it began to rain very hard. As we drove home there was quite the lightening storm.

Deni is off to girls camp tomorrow.

34.5 miles, family swim, and Ryan Shupe

Today was a great day.

I started off the day at 7am with a bike ride with a neighbor. We headed out towards Salem, not knowing where we were going. We rode through Salem into Payson and my neighbor mentioned he had ridden up Payson Canyon and enjoyed it, so we turned at the Peteetneet building and headed up Payson Canyon to try it out. We rode past the Boy Scouts Camp Maple Dell, through the S curves and up to the turn off to Maple Lake. Ended up being just over 7 miles or so up Payson Canyon. The ride up wasn't that hard but was slow. I saw two deer come across the road while I was riding up. When we turned around at the Maple Lake turn off, we flew down the canyon. Matter of fact we caught a truck with a horse trailer and had to pull off and wait for him to go down as we were going much faster than he was. Once we were out of Payson Canyon, we turned back towards Spanish Fork and rode home. My total ride today was 34.5 miles and it felt great.

After I got home, Deni and I washed the van (in preparation to put it up for sale.)

As a family we went up to the Orem Rec center. Deni swam laps while I played with the kids. As always, Sydney is fearless in the water. Ryan, on the other hand, it still afraid of any water over his head. If he can touch, he is fine, otherwise, he freaks out. Both kids are scheduled for swimming lessons starting at the end of the month, so we will see what happens. Hopefully Ryan can overcome his fear of water and learn to swim.

After swimming, we came home to shower and clean up. We then went to Cafe Rio for dinner and then to the American Fork Steel Days Big show. The Big show was Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, Peter Breinholt, Jon Schmidt. We are big fans of Ryan Shupe and haven't seen them since they went to Nashville and got signed by a record label. They still put on a good show.

After the show, and I mean immediately after the show, the fireworks started. Sydney was pretty excited about the fireworks.

We got home about 11:15pm or so. A late night for the kids but we had a great time as a family.

Of course, we also has to watch the hightlights of the Tour de France for Stage 7 before we went to bed.

Mile Swim

I swam again today. I swam mile in 27 minutes 39 seconds.

Indoor Swimming

I swam again today. Did 1 mile in 27 minutes 39 seconds.

31.6 miles

I left the house this morning at 6:30am headed out on a bike ride. Deni suggested that I ride into Springville and ride up Hobble Creek Canyon. I started riding into Springville and decided to ride into town. As I was riding into town, I called Deni and told her I was going to just ride into work as I was so close to Provo, but then realized I didn't have my wallet or my badge, which means I couldn't get into the building if I tried this early (nor would I have anything to eat for lunch.) So I kept riding. I rode into North Springville, then headed back and rode by Teresa's house. Teresa's house has a big hill next to it and on the way down I got going 37 mph without pedaling.

I continued on the Tour de Berger up Center street to mom and dad's house. They had their office door open so I yelled as I rode by. (no response at 7am) Next I headed into Mapleton. When I was leaving Mapleton, I was riding down hill on Main Street and resting a bit and getting a drink when I heard "LEFT". I looked to my left and there were 2 guys riding and they flew by me. I was riding at about 19mph at that time and decided to kick it up a little and catch them. I quickly caught them and rode about 18 inches off the back tire of them. It is amazing how different it is riding with someone and being able to draft off them. We rode for about 3/4 mile at 26mph.

As I turned back to Spanish Fork, having ridden about 16.5 miles, it began to rain. It was nice to have the rain while I rode. I finished by riding out to Highway 6, riding past the Spanish Fork Golf course down to Spanish Fork Main and then home. I was able to do 25 miles in 1 hr 29min and 45 seconds.

When I got home, I had ridden 28.6 miles. A good morning ride.

After work, Ryan wanted to go on a ride, so we took a 3 mile bike ride bringing my total to almost 32 miles in one day.

Of course, we watched the Tour de France highlights tonight as well.

2.5 weeks left until Spudman

Today I swam 3/4 of a mile in the Provo pool during lunch. Only 2.5 weeks left to the Spudman.

First bike wreck

Today I had my first official bike wreck on my road bike. I feel dumb as it shouldn't have happened, but it did. I left my house about 6:15am this morning and planned on riding up the canyon a ways. As I was leaving the neighborhood, I came to a stop sign. I slowed down to almost a stop and turned sideways a little bit. Just then a large gust of wind hit me and I didn't have time to react and get my feet out of my pedals. There I was, laying on my left side in a little pain from the fall but more embarrassed than anything. You would think at 6:15am there wouldn't be anyone around to witness this, but there was a car that drove by right as I fell.

I know the story sounds a little far fetched, but it happened. Every morning in Spanish Fork we have huge winds. I never thought they would be hard enough to cause me to fall over on my bike, but they did. I'm sure the wind gusts are at least 15 mph, if not more each morning.

Other than having a bad start to a bike ride, I had an enjoyable ride. I set off planning on riding about 15 miles, however I end up riding 25 miles. I went to Salem, UT and around Spanish Fork. I was wearing sleeves and pants as I left, but quickly had to remove the long sleeves about halfway through my ride as I was in Salem (with no wind) and the sun had finally made it over the mountains.

It felt good to get out early and ride in the morning.

A new leaf

Yesterday I decided I'd turn over a new leaf and start being a little more honest with myself. So I decided that I will wake up at 5:30am each morning and a few things.

1. Read the scriptures
2. Exercise (bike Tuesday and Thursday in the am)
3. Swim Monday, Wed and Friday.

Monday, Wed and Friday I'm going to work out in the yard or do some house work from 6am until 7am.

4th of July

I didn't have to work today. In the past, I've always worked the 4th of July. It's always nice to have extra money, but I decided I wasn't going to work this year. Instead of working, as a family we went to the Provo Parade down University Ave in Provo. Unless you sleep out the night before, you aren't getting a front row seat (with shade) to the Parade.

We showed up about 10 minutes before the parade and were able to find a great place to watch the parade in full sun.

The kids liked the parade. I enjoyed the fly over by the Air Force. There were 4 jets then a huge bomber plane. We left before the parade was over, but we were able to see quite a bit

Here is a pic of Ryan at the parade.

Here is a pic of Sydney at the parade.

After the parade we went home and got ready for the rest of the day. As a family (Berger's) we were all meeting at my parents house for dinner. We went over about 3:30pm and dropped the kids off and took a 25 mile bike ride. We left from my parents house and road up Hobblecreek Canyon about 12.5 miles, then turned around and came home. You would think the downhill ride would be fast and enjoyable, however the wind was blowing up the canyon and it was 100 degrees outside, so wasn't quite as fun or fast as I would have liked it to be.

On the way down a car came up beside Deni and the sideview mirror brushed Deni's arm. I think I would have kicked the car, if I could have thought that fast, but it wasn't me, it was Deni. The ride was good but the way too hot to be riding.

We ate as a family at Mom and Dad's then visited and the kids played with their cousins. We taught the adults a card game called No Peeky. It was fun to visit and play. After it got dark we went to a local school to light fireworks and sparklers for the kids.

Syd and her sparkler.

Ryan and his sparkler.