A 5 year haitus

I really enjoy looking back and re-reading things that have happened in my life on this blog. Except, I haven't written in 5 years.  Luckily, Deni captured some of those happenings.

How things have changed since I blogged last.  (Ryan was 10 and Sydney was 7.  Sad, I know.)

Ryan (15):  Over the Christmas break he had a surprise birthday party for one of his friends at our house.  He invited a number of young men and young women over for the surprise party. However only young women showed up.  Girl after girl showed up.  He finally came up stairs when there were 5 young women in the basement.  He looked at me and said, "I invited guys too, but I guess they aren't coming."  Tough life.  Ryan's got a great group of friends and is really becoming a social butterfly.   He's also driving now. He's a pretty good driver, but he still scares me most of the time. 

Syd's (12):  life mostly revolves around Soccer and Baking (cupcakes are her favorite). She's about an inch taller than Deni now too.  Syd is a beehive,  so most mutual nights are quiet around here without Ryan and Syd. 

About a week ago I finally decided that I needed to begin being more careful with my calorie intake. It turns out that you can't eat what you want AND look like you want.  I don't like making new year's resolutions. Actually, when I've changed or tried to make health changes in years past, I typically have made them in in Oct/Nov, so my changes have become habit by the time New Year's comes around.  That didn't happen this year. 

By watching what I'm eating, I've learned a few things.   First, I've probably been eating at least twice what I should in a day. Second, my wife is wise beyond her years.  Over the years, she's tried to replace certains foods with healthier versions, however I resisted. Turns out, she was right. Wheat bread for White bread,  Brown rice for White rice, ...and the list could go on forever.  

For the past two days, Deni and I have driven to Mapleton to hike up to Whiting campground. Deni bought us Yaktrax last year but I didn't get much use out of them. Yaktrax are little booties that give you amazing traction when hiking or walking on snow or ice.  Just pull them over your existing shoes and hike. It takes us about 1 hour round trip and is an amazing hike. Today it was breezy, which combined with the teen temperatures made for a cold hike.  Two of my favorite people (pic taken on our hike today.)

Syd is growing up. Of course, she's trying to look taller than she is in this picture, but she's not too far off from me.

Yes, I watching calories

I never thought I'd have a need to diet, actually, I'm not going to use that word because that is not what I'm doing.  I'm watching what I eat or counting calories.

Up until I was about 35, I could eat what and when I wanted without having to worry about weight gain. Years ago when Shane was visiting Utah, he told me that turning 35 was bad, but turning 40 was even worse. I thought he was just trying to scare me, but as it turns out, he was pretty close with his predictions (as least with what happens to the Berger men's body at those ages).

My clothes haven't been fitting quite like they used to and I could tell that things had gotten a little out of control (not that three Dr Peppers a day is out of control).  It was finally time to watch what I eat.

Deni and I officially started counting calories on Monday December 28th. We measured ourselves and even did skinfold tests but we couldn't do the weigh in, as our bathroom scale had died a few weeks ago.   However we did buy a new scale on December 29th and did do our weigh ins the morning of December 30th.

I set out to eat 1640 calories a day and exercise daily.  I quickly realized that I was probably eating (and/or drinking) close to twice that amount of calories a day. At the time I didn't feel like I would over eat, and 3 Dr Peppers isn't that much (is it?), but it all adds up quickly, as I would soon find out.
Deni warned me that I'd be hungry when I started counting calories and I have been hungry most days, however she's been amazing at making great low calorie meals and making sure that we had the right things to eat.

Two of my favorite new Low Calorie Breakfast choices:

Eggs w/Ham and Onions - 203 calories
2 egg whites + 1 egg
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup of ham

or

Blueberry Oatmeal w/Vanilla Yogurt - 245 calories
2/3 cup blueberries
1/3 cup of quick oats
1 Yoplait Light Vanilla
(all mixed up)

Both are pretty quick and very tasty.

Ice fishing at Scofield

Last year I didn't get out ice fishing. Mainly because we had a warm winter and I'm not sure the ice was ever safe enough to be out on. 

Syd had been wanting to go ice fishing, so what did she do?  She did what any other teenager would do - she texted her Grandpa and asked "Are we going ice fishing tomorrow?"  It turns out we couldn't go "tomorrow", as we had plans but we planned it for a few days later. Who can say NO to a face like this? 

We went and fished on the East side of Scofield. There was between 8 and 10 inches of ice and the water was probably about 10 feet deep. It was very cold (high of 12F) but we were quite warm while we fished. We set up the ice tent, but didn't use it to fish with. Sydney and her cousin, Kennedy did go into the ten to warm up a few times, but other than that we fished out on the ice. 

 Grandpa Berger and Sydney fishing.  

We didn't catch many fish today.  Matter of fact, I caught two small trout, while my dad caught a Chub.  Usually, I like to get a fish on the line and then have Sydney reel it in, however both times I caught the fish Sydney was too far away or they bit my line a few feet from the top and the fish was through the hole before I could hand it over to her. 

We weren't successful at all until dad went to talk to the people next to us and they gave us a Chub fish to use for bait. In years past, the Utah Chub was introduced illegally to Scofield Lake and the DWR have since added more predatory fish that like to eat Chub.  Once we added Chub to our hooks, we started getting more hits. 

It wasn't a great day of fishing, but it was fun to be out on the ice again. 

All I want for Christmas are my four front teeth?

Sydney recently lost her front two teeth, just a week or so before Christmas.

This is my Sydney, without her front teeth.  Very Cute.

This is my Sydney playing with Grandma and Grandpa's Mac.  Warning: what you are about to watch doesn't look like the Sydney we know.  However it is the Sydney that makes us laugh all the time.

Stop Copy catting me

I was driving home from Mom and Dads with Ryan and Sydney in the back seat.   Sydney was copy catting Ryan.  

It went something like this:

Ryan: Stop copy catting me.

Sydney: Stop copy catting me.

Ryan: Sydney, I'm serious.

Sydney: Sydney, I'm serious.

Ryan:  I'm an idiot.

Sydney:  You're an idiot.

Sydney is no dummy and Ryan knew he had lost the battle. He stopped while he was ahead.

I'm older than color

We were at my parents house today watching the BYU game.  During half time, I went upstairs and got the binders that have pictures of my childhood.

Ryan came and sat by me and was looking at the pictures with me.  The first few pages were black and white photos.  A few pages into the binder, the pictures turned from black and white to color and Ryan said "...and that's when color was invented"

Apparently, I'm older than color.

The A-Team

Last month we turned off the cable and re-enabled Netflix. The kids were disappointed that they couldn't watch the their favorite channels like Disney Channel, etc.  That is until I introduced them to streaming old TV shows, like the A-Team. 

Over the last few weeks, they have watched all of Season One and part of Season Two of the A-Team.

It's fun to hear the old theme song for the A-Team coming from my bedroom and even more fun to hear the kids giggling while watching a show that I grew up on. I've watched a few episodes with them and it's fun to remember back.

Speaking of the A-Team.  Yesterday, Ryan told me I needed to grow a beard like Mr T on the A-Team.  Uh, yeah, not  too likely. 

Lots of Apples

Deni and I picked many (many) 5 gallon buckets of Apples this last week.

Today was the day take care of the apples.

I worked half a day in the morning (6am to 10am) and then we spent the rest of the day making and bottling apple products.

We ended up with:

15 quarts of Apple Juice
13 quarts of Apple Pie Filling
30 quarts of Apple Sauce

Family Pictures

My siblings.

Deni's Bday

This year for Deni's birthday we took a break from life and went up to Snowbird Resort for two days, 1 night of fun without the kids. A few quick video clips of some fun events.

Alpine Slide

Zip line