Galatians 6:7

It's time to reap what I sowed.

Sydney holding a carrot from the garden.



Potatoes, carrots and squash.

We tried potatoes on a larger scale than last year and did pretty good. I only picked about half of what I planted and we only used about half in the picture for dinner.



This is the fun time part of gardening.

Caps for kids

I brought a few gifts back from my trip to Paris (and the Tour de France). I got Deni and I a "Tour de France" shirt, however instead of getting the kids Tour de France shirts that they'd grow out of in a year, I decided to get them these cycling hats.

Ryan is wearing Team Liquigas (an Italian team) and Sydney is wearing Team Euskaltel-Euskadi (a Basque team).



I also brought some chocolate back from England, but it's mostly gone so I can't take a picture of it.

Hike the Y

An out of town friend (Chris) called and stated he was in Provo on business and he wanted to hike the Y after work today. Our kids have never hiked the Y and it's been about 11 years since Deni and I had hiked it together. So even though it was 98 degrees outside, we decided to give it a try.

Deni picked me up just before 5pm and we headed up to the Y. ( I drove.) I had forgotten the correct road to get up to the Y, so we made a few U turns, but eventually made it up to the parking lot.

We were a little pressed for time, as I had Scouts at 7pm, so I sent Deni and the kids up the trail, while I waited for Chris. Chris got there about 10 minutes after Deni and the kids left. We headed up the trail in a brisk walk to catch up to them. Little did I know that Deni and the kids wanted to beat me up to the top, so they had been pushing pretty hard.

Chris and I attempted to talk as we walked the 1000 ft gain. As I was walking, I looked down and saw the key to our car that I had handed to Deni as the left with the kids. This happened to be the only key we had with us. I picked it up and put it in my pocket (thinking I was going to have some fun with it, when she realized it was gone.)

We caught Deni and the kids a few minutes later, however they had made it quite a ways. Ryan looked like he was about to give out, so I put him on my back and carried him until the next switchback.

We made it to the top, but forgot to take pictures while up there. I think it was because I was in a hurry. On the way down, I realized I wasn't going to make it back in time for Scouts. I called the other leader and let him know I was going to be late.

We had Chris take this picture of the family after we realized we had forgotten to take a picture.



After getting back to the van, we had a little picnic out of the back of our van and then we dashed home.

It was good to see Chris and fun to hike the Y. Now my kids can say they hike to the top of the Y.

Expert, me?

Back to work. I've been away from the office for 1 full month. Too bad it wasn't all vacation time.

My trip to England had one purpose. For me to become the expert on a piece of software that Novell acquired in an acquisition a few months ago. For the last 9 years I've been working at Novell I have been dedicated to a handful of Novell products. Now I'm starting over and ground zero. I saw this quote today and felt it was appropriate.

My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what's really going on to be scared. - P. J. Pla

uger

23 fish

I got the urge to go fishing, so I woke up got ready and took the kids to Spanish Oaks pond. Spanish Oaks is a little pond that is supposed to be for kids under 12, but I think it has been way overfished this year, as I didn't see many fish, nor catch anything.



After about an hour, we packed up and headed to Salem Pond. We used my fly rod and my home made "survival" fly rod that I made at Scout camp (Ryan thinks the home made rod was pretty cool, so we took it along). The fish were small but fun to catch.



We ended up catching a bunch of little perch about this size. Ryan was having so much fun, he didn't want to leave.



Each time I caught a fish, Ryan would say "Switch", where we would switch fishing rods. I'd switch with him and then catch a fish on the rod he had just given me, which he would then want to switch back again.

I finally stopped fishing so he could catch more. I ended up catching 11 fish and Ryan caught 12. 23 fish in all.

Sydney was with us too but just wanted to play on the swings and feed the ducks.

Escalante Peak

We didn't do much all day, just hung around the house and spent time together, however by dinner time, I decided it was time to take a family hike. In Spanish Fork, there is a huge cross up on the hill not too far from the house. It's not new, but we've never taken the time to hike it. Tonight was the night. The kids really didn't want to hike, a storm was rolling in, but I was determined to hike it.

We made it to the top but didn't stay too long because of the wind.



From this point, we also had a great view of the "new" windmills up the canyon.



At the end of the hike, we had hiked about 2 miles and had a great time.

Adjusting

After being away from my family for 15 days in England (plus 6 days of Scout summercamp before that, total of 21 days) I decided to take a few days off to adjust and spend time with Deni and hte kids.

Let Jag

Uh, I mean jet lag. I always thought Jet Lag was just an excuse to take a day off after a long business trip (flight).

It's amazing how fast I got used to the 7 hour time difference in England. Hopefully I can adapt back to good old Mountain Standard Time (MST).

Chasing the Sun

After 2 weeks of living in England I had adjusted to the time zone fairly good. When I would call home, Sydney always thought it was funny when I would tell her I was going to eat dinner (7pm - when it was only noon where she was.) Time Zones are a very interesting thing to think about. Quite confusing for small children.

Here's how my last Tuesday in England went:

7:00am GMT Wake Up (midnight Monday Utah time)
8:00am GMT Leave for Bristol Airport
10:30am GMT Flight leaves UK -8 hr flight to Newark.
5:30pm GMT Land in Newark, NJ (12:30pm EST)

4+ hour layover

10:15pm GMT Leave for SLC
3:00am GMT (Wed) Arrive in SLC. It's really 8:00pm MST.

I was chasing the sun all day. I saw 20+ hours of sunlight (kinda... as it was raining in Bristol when I left.)

I was very happy to see Deni, Ryan and Sydney happily awaiting my arrival in SLC. It's been a long 2 weeks away from my family. Not sure I'll ever leave them for so long again. I was tired, as I had been up for 20 hours with little sleep on the planes, but grateful to be home with my family.

Road Trip to Stonehenge

I've seen very few trucks here in England, however that doesn't stop these Brits from pulling a trailer. Oddly enough, I saw quite a few trailers being pulled by cars. The kids just got out of school last week, so lots of vacations being stated.

These pictures of the countryside don't do it justice. It's beautiful here. Today was a very rainy day.


Here I am at Stonehenge. Not a great picture, but that's what you get when you give you camera to some other tourist to take a picture of you.


Another Stonehenge picture.