Faces of Sydney

Sydney is much like her father. She loves to get a laugh when she can. Today she found Ryan's Sunday tie, my BYU hat and was pulling funny faces while wearing both of them. She definitely got me to giggle. She's a cute little girl and I'm sure glad we have her.

Ryan will be a Cub Scout this year

It's very weird that Ryan will be old enough to be a Cub Scout this year. Because he is turning 8 this year, we were invited to the Cub Scout Banquet. The theme was "Chinese New Year".

It appears that both kids were more interested in the decorations on the table, than what was going on.





Grandpa Berger came out to support Ryan, which was nice as he had to go to the MTC tonight.

Ice fishing at Strawberry

We slept at my parents house last night so we could get up early and leave for ice fishing, well at least that was the plan. We put the kids to bed about 9pm in the same bed. Bad idea. They were so hyped up on being at Grandma's and going ice fishing in the morning, it took a few times before they really stayed in bed.

We got woken up a number of times during the night. If it wasn't Ryan, it was Sydney. By 5am, I was in bed with Sydney and Deni was in another bed with Ryan. We probably got about 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep, if that.

We got up at 5:30am to get the final things packed and ready to go. Between buying a fishing license at the last minute, to getting the equipment in the truck, to getting gas, etc we didn't officially get on our way until about 7am, which is the time we want to be on the ice.

We went to Strawberry Reservoir. It was amazing the amount of snow. There were 5 or 6 foot snow drifts on the side of the road. When we got to our normal fishing spot (Mud Creek) the road wasn't plowed. Again, 5 to 6 feet of snow covering the road. We were eventually able to get the snowmobiles up and over the snowbank. We got on the ice around 9am. There was 12 -14 inches of snow on the ice. We cleared a few places and started drilling holes. The ice was over 2 feet thick, probably the thickest I've seen at Strawberry. Before I could get my pole in the water, Deni caught the first fish. I say she cheated,since I was still trying to get everything setup.



The fishing was very slow. No bites like we usually have. Ryan and I hanging out waiting for fish to bite, I got hot clearing the 12-14 inches off of the ice that I had to take my jacket off for a while.


Ryan and I still waiting for a fish.


My first and last fish of the day. Too bad we had to throw it back because it was only 18 inches. It was a cutthroat, and they have to be smaller than 15 or larger than 22 to keep. I think it looks bigger than Deni's fish too.


All in all, we had a great time being out on the ice. We left around 2pm when the wind started to pick up. Deni and I were the only ones to catch a fish today.

Nothing says "I love you" like a

Nothing says "I love you" like a Fedex tracking number. Let me start at the beginning. I despise Valentines day. As I told a co-worker yesterday, I dislike Valentines Day because I'm cheap, actually I'm not cheap, I'm frugal. I hate the fact that prices jump 50% or more on flowers and other things that are customary on Valentines Day. So for the last 11 years of marriage, Deni has grown accustomed to not getting anything for Valentines Day.

For once in my life, I decided that I should do something for Valentines day. I ordered Deni a dozen red roses on (Jan 22nd) and paid for overnight shipping by Fedex to be delivered on Valentines Day. How could you go wrong with FTD and Fedex? All was going well yesterday, I got a confirmation email stating my flowers had shipped Fedex Overnight and would arrive by 3pm today. As I dropped Ryan off for school, I let him in on my secret but swore him to secrecy, he agreed. Ryan gets out of school at 2:30 so I thought the flowers would be there by the time he got home. Turns out they weren't. When I got home at 5pm they still weren't here but Ryan had kept his secret, that is until dinner.

While we were eating dinner, Ryan said something about "Deni's present". Deni immediately perked up and I felt like I had a spotlight shinning on me. By this time, it was 6pm and I was starting to doubt that Fedex was going to actually get the flowers to us. So I told Deni that I had ordered her something that was supposed to be here today by 3pm but it wasn't here. To prove my point, I pulled up the Fedex tracking number and told her Happy Valentines Day. The flowers actually made it to Utah overnight but then sat in SLC all day. Very frustrating.

The flowers actually came today at 1:55pm, a day late. It defeated the purpose but I guess it's the thought that counts. Deni liked them and was happy to have flowers, even if they were one day late. What's one day when you've been waiting for 11 years.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today my dad turned 70. I always thought 70 was old, but the older I get the less old it seems. As a teenager, I would talk to people in there 30's and 40's and they would say they didn't feel old. It's kinda odd how the years go by but you don't feel like you change much but your body gets older and older.

If you've ever met my dad, you wouldn't think he was 70. He works just as hard as he always has. 70 must be the new 50. My parents are out vacationing in warmer climates, so I called Dad this morning on his cell before I forgot to wish him a Happy Birthday. We also called him as a family when I got home from work, so we could sing to him. Ryan was funny, we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and Ryan added "cha cha cha" So it went like the following "Happy Birthday to you, cha, cha, cha, Happy Birthday to you, cha, cha, cha, Happy Birthday Dear Grandpa, cha, cha, cha, Happy Birthday to you.

I also had a birthday this week on Tuesday. I celebrated the 4th anniversary of my 29th birthday. For those challenged in math, I'm 33. Deni hacked into my work email and got my boss and one of my coworkers email addresses and emailed them. Ok hacked is strong word. I store my password in Firefox, so she just launched the browser and logged in and got the information.

I heard from most of my family and was pleasantly surprised to see an email from an old friend that had remembered my birthday. It's always nice to be remembered.

My cup is bigger than yours

I had an Eye Dr appointment today. It's always great fun to go in and get your eyes dilated. I've been going to the same Eye Dr for at least 5 years, however he doesn't know me from Adam.

It's funny, I go to my dentist and he always knows my name and at least seems interested in me. Anyway, about 5 years ago, I was told that by looking at my eye, I have the symptoms of Glaucoma. They ran several tests, even sent me to a specialist to verify my eyes were fine, which they are. However every time I go in, the Dr looks at my eye, freaks out, then looks at my chart and sees that we're monitoring things and I've been to a specialist and things look fine. He then breaks into the story about what Glaucoma is and brings up the slideshow to show me what a eye looks like that has Glaucoma, etc, etc. At a minimum, it would be nice if he were to look at my chart 2 minutes before, come in call me by name and say, "we're monitoring your for Glaucoma, let's take a look and verify things are still good. I think he's a great eye Dr but how hard is it to look at a dang chart or just remember a patient that's been coming to you for 5+ years.

As part of my "monitoring" I've had to take Field Vision tests, which is a test that makes me push a button every time I see a little light. After what feels like 15 minutes, they plot where I was able to see the random dots to see if I have any vision loss. This time he took me in and they had a digital camera (Canon 30D) hooked up to some fancy machine and they took a picture of my eye. I wish I could get a copy of that picture, as it somehow takes a picture of the back of my eye. The picture looked something like this.



Apparently my cup is bigger than normal, as shown in this picture. The Dr thinks I was born this way. All I can say is my cup is bigger than yours.

The other thing I don't understand about Eye Dr appointments is this. They dilate your eyes, put you in a dimly lite room, then use some fancy magnifying glass to shoot an extremely bright light into your eye and expect you to keep your eye open while they are looking it. I wonder sometimes if my eye is going to actually catch on fire. After the Dr is done and you are free to go, they always give you some ugly sunglasses to wear to protect your eyes. Didn't they just take a bright light, pump it through a magnifying glass and aim it at my eye? Wouldn't you think that the magnifying glass would do more harm than the sun? Next time I'm going to take those ugly disposable sunglasses with me and wear them through my appointment and refuse to take them off.

3 kids sleding

Brett



Ryan



Sydney

Got an extra 48 minutes?

Well it appears that my 48 minutes and 28 seconds standing in line to vote for Mitt Romney was wasted. Mitt Romney withdrew his bid for President of the United States yesterday.

I'm had hopes he would make it, but apparently it wasn't in the cards this time. So I started thinking what I could have done with the 48 minutes and 28 seconds instead of stand in line to vote.

Apparently I'm not the only one asking these types of questions

Is there magic in the number 48? Does this number hold any significance in your future success? Speaker Don Crowther suggests that there is. Here’s how it works… Set a timer for 48 minutes. Close out all distractions and work continuously for 48 minutes. When the timer goes off, get up and stretch, get a drink, use the restroom etc, in the following 12 minutes. Repeat as necessary.

Although it isn't 48 minutes, I saw a domino's pizza commercial last night that made me laugh about what to do with the 30 minutes while you wait for domino's pizza to be delivered.

Running stinks

Training update. I said for the month of February, I was going to bike and run on Tues/Thurs.

Today during lunch, I biked 20k, then ran 1 mile. For some people running is great, but for me, running stinks. I really hate running, but since I do triathlons, it kinda makes it a necessity.

After having a good 20k ride, it's an odd transition to running. If you've never tried it, it's hard to explain, other than your for the first minute or 2 your legs feel like lead. It's almost the same as when you jump on a trampoline, get off and then try to jump on the ground.

As I run, I have to play the mind game. Today I thought I'll run 1/2 a mile then walk the rest, but when I got to the half mile, I'd set a further point. I was finally at a mile, so I stopped. I could have kept going but I only have an hour for lunch and it takes me just over an hour to run and bike and then shower.

Growing up too fast

Wed night is busy for us. Since both of us are in YM/YW's, we end up dragging Ryan and Sydney to activities with us. It's funny, Ryan thinks he is 14. Sydney thinks she is a teenage girl and expects to be treated the same as the other girls at the activities.

Tonight after our activity, the youth were all in the gym playing basketball. Deni had a meeting to attend, so I had both kids. Ryan was attempting to play basketball with the deacons and teachers and Sydney was standing by the 3 young women in the middle of the gym as they talked. It made me laugh. Especially to see Sydney standing by the girls like she was "one" of them.

Earlier today, my mom called me today at work. I was on the other line so I didn't answer. She called right back about 30 seconds later so I thought that something might be wrong so I answered it. She had just heard that a friend of the family had lost her husband. He was 41 and it was very much unexpected.

Although it is very sad news, it is comforting to know that we have a Father in Heaven that knows us and we can turn to him in difficult times. It also made me thankful that Deni and I have acquired life insurance as well as gotten a trust setup. It's nice to know that if anything ever were to happen to one or both of us, our kids would be taken care of.

48 minutes 28 seconds for Mitt

I left for work around 7:15am. I had planned on stopping and voting before work so I could avoid long lines. As I got to the school we always vote at the parking lot was eeriely vacant. It was vacant as there was no voting setup at the school. I continued on to work and made a few calls while I drove and found out for some reason the voting had been moved to another school. No biggie, I'll vote after work.

During lunch I biked for 35 minutes (about 20k) and then walk/run for 1 mile. I decided that I'll do this for the month of February, then next month I'll bike for 40 minutes and walk/run 2 miles, etc.

As I was leaving work late about 5pm, a co-worker caught me and I ended up staying for 30 minutes talking to him. As I finally left, I remembered that I needed to vote. So I drove to the school and there were an unusual amount of cars there. Then I walked in and saw the line. I figured it would be 30 minutes for me to get through the line, however I started my watch to see how long it really was. 48 minutes and 28 seconds after getting in line, I signed my name in the voter registration book and got my fancy smart card to vote. I stuck the card in, Voted for Mitt Romney and pulled the card out about 20 seconds after I started. Living in Utah, my vote for Mitt probably doesn't count as much, but in my opinion he appears to be the best of the candidates. I'm not impressed with Huckabee or McCain, I guess we will have to wait and see.

Ouch

Last night as I left for a planning meeting for Youth Conference it was snowing yet again. I went out and started the car and proceeded to wipe off the snow off the car. As a side note, yes I have a garage, but it only fits one car because I'm lazy, but that's another story.

So here I am, in Sunday bests standing out in the snow wiping the snow off of my car when WHAM!!! I slipped and fell right on my face. Obviously it was unexpected, but I usually have a great sense of balance and can catch myself in these types of situations. Not this time. Apparently I used my right hand to stop my body from pounding into the cement as when I got up, it hurt pretty bad. Other than having snow all over my Sunday clothes, I was fine, except for the pain in my right wrist. It's not broken, but sure does hurt quite a bit. The joys of getting older.

About a week ago, Deni mentioned that it would be good if Ryan had read the Book of Mormon prior to his Baptism in the summer and that it would be a good idea that we started reading together as a family. I'm usually up and to work before the kids get out of bed, so we decided that we would try to do it each night around 7pm. The kids have enjoyed reading so far. Ryan, even though in 2nd grade, he is an excellent reader. There aren't too many words we have to help him with. I'm not sure where he gets the desire to read so much, but he has always been the child that would sit on your lap and listen until you stopped reading. Sydney doesn't read yet, but she likes to participate too, so we read into her ear and she usually spits out the same words we whispered into her ears. Her attention span is about 3 verses, but we at least have her for 3 verses. So far we've made it through 9 chapters, only about 300 to go.

I swam again today. Today was the first time I had swam after Deni and I's lesson last Friday. It's so much easier to swim without proper technique. I attempted to swim, breathing on every 3rd stroke. Until last Friday, I would breathe every other stroke. I'm not quite used to coming up on my right side and I noticed that I'd hold my breath, instead of blowing out my air in the water as I tried to use the better technique. I guess I'm focusing too hard. It's very difficult to exhale and inhale in the short second that your mouth comes above water. You either end up getting a mouth full of water or less than the needed amount of air. I guess that is why I swim three times a week so I can practice it.

Date with my daughter = Priceless

We attended Evan Williams baptism today in Lindon, UT. Evan is the son of Ben Williams, a friend of mine from my freshman year at BYU. Evan's baptism reminded of a few things. First, it reminded me that Ben Williams is old. I guess that means that I'm getting old too as Ryan is 7 and we will be doing the baptism thing later this summer. The second thing it reminded me of was the church MUST be true. There were a set of missionaries at the baptism that cover that ward. Who other than God himself would have thought that sending out 19 year old immature boys to spread the "good news" would be a wise thing. For the record, at 19, I was much more mature than the missionaries these days.

After the baptism, we went to the Williams home to do the customary brunch with friends and family and while we were there we also watched the Funeral of President Gorden B. Hinckley. We had a great time visiting with Ben and his family. Ryan and Evan play so well together you would think that they lived next door to each other for years.

Tonight was our date night. I took Sydney out on a date with Dad. We started out the night by stopping at McDonalds to pick up a quick bite to eat as we headed to Provo for a movie. On the drive to Provo Sydney told me she was going to be a cheerleader and that "when I come back alive" I can come see here be a cheerleader (referring to her being a BYU cougarette). I told her that I wasn't that old and that I would be alive when she went to college.

She also started singing too. She same the Primary song, "I Love to see the Temple" She said, "I love to see the Temple, I'm going in someday." (real lyrics - "I love to see the Temple, I'm going there someday..."

We got to Movies 8 in Provo about 6:40pm and got our tickets to see the "Bee Movie" starting at 7:05pm. It was a pretty good movie, but it had way too much adult humor in it. I laughed quite a few times, and I'd look over and Sydney would have a blank look on her face. I wouldn't have wanted to pay full price to see it, but for $1.50 a ticket, it was a deal. On the way home we stopped and got a little ice cream. I thought Sydney was asleep but as soon as I asked her if she wanted an ice cream, she immediately perked back up and said she was awake and would like to have some ice cream.

It's been nice to have individual dates with the kids. It's a time where I can give my whole attention to my child and talk to them about whatever is on there mind. Deni and I sure have enjoyed spending time with the kids this way. It seems we always have some fun story to tell by the end of the night.

Dinner at McDonalds = $5.47
Bee Movie Tickets = $3.00
Ice Cream = $1.32
Date with my daughter = Priceless

Swimming Lessons in February

I took the day off today. No really good reason other than it was Friday and I just needed to have a day off. Of course I got called by work anyways, the joys of having a cell phone. I should have turned it off, but I didn't. Then I felt guilty, so I called and talked to my co-worker for about 15 minutes.

Deni set up a "swimming lesson" from a friend of hers for both of us, so we headed to Provo to get some pointers on our swimming. Deni's friend, Jamie, is a pretty talented and accomplished Triathelete, so it was nice to get a few pointers on our swimming technique.

Jamie gave watched us swim and gave us pointers and drills to become better swimmers. Now I just have to practice and remember those drills. After our swim lesson, since Deni and I were kidless, we decided to go out to lunch together.

It was nice to be at home today.