Games and hanging out

Today was a laid back day. The whole family hung out at Mom and Dad's visiting and playing games. Shane had an old roommate come down to visit him for a bit.

In the evening, Kennedy, Teresa's youngest asked me to play cards with her. Kennedy doesn't normally like me to get close to her, much less play with her, so I went and started playing cards with her. I then got Shane to come and play and then 2 of Kennedy's older siblings.

Anyway before you watch this video clip. You have to know a few things. First we are playing Old Maid. Second, I have the Old Maid card. If you look at my cards, you will notice that one card is sticking up much higher than the rest (because this is the Old Maid card.) Anyway my niece, Bailey picks the old Maid card from me. Shane and I laughed and laughed for a good long time. It was funny that she would picked the only card that I had sticking 4 inches higher than the rest.

Snowmobiling at Daniels Summit

Today Shane, Ron, Dad and I went snowmobiling near Daniels Summit. Dad rented 2 new snowmobiles for the day and then we took his 2 snowmobiles, so we would all have our own snowmobiles to ride. We started on the "groomed" trails but they were quite bumpy. We ended up finding alot of untouched snow that we went around and played on.

No one wanted to drive one of the rented snowmobiles as it was much faster than the others (and the fact that it was a $10,000 rented machine that no one wanted to wreck) so I drove it. I got going 80 mph before I decided that it was a probably good idea to slow down and before I killed myself.

Dad took this little video of me on the rented snowmobile. I was going about 50mph at the time.



Here's a picture of my Chinese brother Shane and I. Actually in his defense, it was very bright out, as you can see from the transitions lens on my glasses. I'm sure he would also want everyone to know that he had been wearing a helmet all morning and this hair doesn't normally look like this. I wanted to post this as I'm finally taller than Shane. Ok, so he was sinking in the snow, but I'm taller (at least today).



Shane, Dad and I



I had a great time snowmobiling. I have to add that while Shane was driving Dad's snowmobile, he ran into the back of dad (driving a rented snowmobile.) He only damaged the front of Dad's red snowmobile and didn't hurt the rented one. He tried to blame on it on me. Something about he was looking back for me and Dad stopped in front of him. Somethings never change (grin).

Skunked at Scofield

Today I went Ice fishing with Deni, Ron and my Dad at Scofield.

This was Ron's first time ice fishing, so we tried to get everything perfect so he could catch some fish.

We left on time and got up to Scofield about the time the sun was starting to come up (about 7am). I got out and started getting the snowmobiles ready and another car drove up. Two older gentlemen got out and it wasn't too long before Dad had made another new best fishing buddy. This time, one of these men was a "Professional Fisherman" that was testing some special formula he is working on.

I'm sure these 2 men pulled up, they saw a free ride across the lake with Dad's snowmobiles and struck up a conversation to see so they wouldn't have to walk out on the lake.

We got ready and headed out to our fishing spot. As soon as we got there, Dad took off to help his buddies out on the lake. The ice was deep. I was wondering if I was going to be able to get through the ice before I ran out of thread on the ice auger. Luckily, Dad owns a power ice auger.

I was going to bring my hand ice auger and require Ron to hand drill his first hole,(since it was his first time ice fishing) as his right of passage to be a ice fisherman, but I forgot to put it in the truck. The ice was probably 2 to 3 feet thick, so it's a good thing for Ron that I forgot it.

We fished for a long time without any bites at all. After visiting the "Professional" fishermans ice hole, it was decided that we should move all our stuff over by them, as they were catching fish. My dad took Ron over and left him with these two men for about 30 minutes. During that time Ron was able to catch 2 fish, so he was able to catch fish, which was great.

However the rest of us got skunked. Since the fishing was so slow and the there was about a foot of new snow, I took the opportunity to go snowmobiling with my dad. When I came back, I took Deni out. She wasn't too thrilled with the places I wanted to go. She would squeeze me with her legs when I started on a path she didn't think was acceptable or iffy.

I had a great time despite not catching any fish.

Shane's in town

Shane and Ron flew in tonight from Texas. The got in around 10:30pm. We chatted for a few minutes before we headed off to bed (as we were leaving at 5:30am to go ice fishing).

Shane will be in town until Sunday, March 9th.

Family Bowling at BYU

We went out on a family date tonight to BYU to go bowling.

Deni and Ryan had gone a few weeks ago and Sydney has wanted to go ever since. We got rails or bumpers (for the kids). Sydney used this device to help her bowl.





Ryan used a 6 lb ball and was able to do alright.



We all had a good time bowling. I was amazed on how young the students looked. It just goes to show me that I'm getting old.

Here's a picture of Deni bowling straight down the middle. She's not even taking advantage of the bumpers.

Overnight Cross Country Ski trip with the Varsity Scouts

Last night I went on a Varsity Scout overnighter up in the mountains above Beaver, UT. We did the Cross Country Beaver High Adventure base trip.

Not having ever cross country skied, I was a little nervous. Also knowing that I was going to have to do it for the first time carrying my gear, as well as doing it in the dark.

We got to the starting point around 7:45pm and it was already dark. We got our shoes, skis and polls and got a 5 minute "crash" course on how to cross country ski and more importantly, how to get up when (not if) we fall. No one wanted to take the lead, so I decided that I'd do it. With the Young Men's president behind me, I started on the first 1/2 mile downhill. We were told the first 1/2 mile was downhill but I expected it to be a minor downhill. As I started going faster and faster I realized that I should have paid a little more attention to the ski instruction on how to get up after I fall down. I started laughing and lost it and fell down in the snow. I repeated this over and over throughout the night. We had a 2.5 mile ski into the "lodge" we were staying at. Lodge is used very loosely. It was a garage like building with a heater (which was nice) but was by no means a Lodge.



I made it to the lodge with my assigned partner at about 11pm. Over the next 15-30 minutes the rest of our group came in. We had one boy that refused to cross country ski. He "thought it would be easier", so he hiked carrying his skis and poles in the snow for 2.5 miles. Needless to say, he was the last one in from our group. We had 8 in all, 3 leaders and 5 boys. There were 2 other Varsity teams there as well.

The typical sleeping quaters looked like this:


I was a little concerned about lice and other things I could contract by sleeping on these old mattresses up the mountains, but by the time I got my sleeping bag out, I was so tired, it didn't matter where I slept. I was even able to sleep through the other 2 leaders horrible snoring (which I have never been able to do on previous outings.)

The great part of this whole overnighter was that all we had to do was show up. The staff cooked for us and provided all the equipment needed.

We had some free time to go play in some open fields today and then we were taken on a guided tour through the trees and up to this look outpoint.

This is the group that went from our ward. (minus the walker)

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.