Last Friday we loaded up the van and headed back up into the mountains to do some more camping. We liked where we camped a few weeks ago so much that we decided to go a few miles up the road. Actually, the campgrounds were all reserved months ago. We just happened to get lucky in the fact that they were great places to pitch a tent. But I digress…
Camping with friends is always more fun so we went with our friends, John and Dana Rimington and their three daughters. For additional fun points, we also brought along Chelsea and her soon to be husband, Nick. We tried to get my brother, Ryan, to come too but he had to work. Maybe next time… It was really nice spending time with everybody. The kids enjoyed playing with John and Dana’s girls and they loved having Nick and Chelsea along. I know though that if Ryan had been able to make it, he would have been the star of the weekend. The kids love playing with him so much.
Tags: Alex, axe, beaver, Camping, Chelsea, Dana, Duschene River, dutch oven cooking, Emma, fishing, Friends, hatchet, John, Kids, Nick, Rimington, Ryan, trout fishing, Work
Emma, Family, Jeremiah, Vacation | Jeremiah, August 21, 2008 8:04 am | 
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As a kid, whenever anybody would ask me what my favorite holiday was, the answer was obviously Christmas. After all, what kid doesn’t like Christmas? Free toys, lots of candy stuffed into clothing designed for feet, and did I mention free toys?
Now that I’m a bit older, I still love Christmas (I think it’s the free toys thing), but I’ve developed a deep appreciation for other holidays. Thanksgiving is awesome but the Fourth of July holds a special place in my heart. There’s something about seeing an American flag flying as a wing of F-16s fly overhead that makes me extremely grateful to live in this wonderful country. Add to the the fact that we’ve developed some really fun family traditions, and you have a day that we all look forward to each year.
Tags: Alex, candy, Family, family traditions, fourth of july, Friends, Fruit Heights, holiday, Holly, Jeremiah, Kaysville, parades
Alex, Emma, Family, Friends, Hannah, Holidays, Holly, Jeremiah | Jeremiah, July 4, 2008 11:34 pm | Comments (0)
A lot has happened in the past week that I’ve wanted to blog about but work has kept me too busy. I’ve been working long hours and then, when I get home, there’s so much to do that I don’t usually get a break until around 8:00.
This weekend, we decided to take a break from our busy lives and take the family camping with some of our friends. Like last year, we headed up Logan Canyon with hopes of catching some big fish and, like last year, we came back empty handed. I’m getting a bit ahead of myself though. Let me start at the beginning.
Last night we had a get together with some of our friends. One of these friends, Lisa, is four months pregnant and was wearing a very cool, yet somewhat disturbing shirt. It had a picture of a fetus on it. Yeah, a fetus. It’s a very realistic rendition of and eight-month-old fetus that her husband, Mike, drew. I gotta say that the reason that I found it so disturbing is because it was so well done. It looked just like a fetus!
I was discussing the shirt with Mike and he mentioned that he has started taking his amazing artistic ability and using it to develop a line of clothing. His business is starting to do fairly well and seems to be keeping him busy. Personally, I never envisioned that he would become a fashion mogul but it appears that he’s heading down that road. In a few years, when people say the name “Calvin Klein”, the response will be something along the line of “Oh yeah, he was that guy that people liked before Mike Phipps came along.” Mark my words, it’ll happen.
After a few weeks off due to an extremely busy schedule, I was finally able to resume construction on the basement this weekend. Since I have two tons of drywall sitting in my garage, and hanging it is the next step, that’s what I did.
I know nothing about hanging drywall other than it’s heavy and takes a lot of screws. I bought a 25lb. box of drywall screws so I’m good there but because of the “it’s heavy” thing, I opted to rent a drywall lift to assist with the ceiling. I also enlisted the help of some friends, including Chelsea’s love interest, Nick. After 12 hours, we were able to get the entire ceiling and part of the walls in the family room finished.
Yeah, I know that I should have posted this maybe on Saturday. Or on Sunday or Monday but I have been too busy dealing with other aspects of the site to write anything.
I wanted to let everybody know about our weekend. It was very eventful. On Friday night Emma had her eighth birthday party. While we were able to pull it off without any major problems, Pizza Hut did their best to ruin the night for Emma and her friends. I’m a good dad though so I was able to thwart their efforts.
Tags: Baseball, birthday, birthday party, Emma, Friends, Holly, horrible experience, Mets, pizza hut
Church, Emma, Family | Jeremiah, April 17, 2008 9:58 am | Comments (0)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m finishing our basement. I have the building permit and construction has started.
Last Saturday, my friends, Garth and John came over to help. We were able to get quite a bit of the framing done. Holly assumed that I just sat around watching everybody else work since I’m not known for my hammer-smith skills but I actually did a lot. Nearly every stud that was put in place was cut by me. I also helped place and measure the walls. I was working and having fun doing so. It was an accident-free evening full of sawdust and loud noises.
Yesterday I went out rabbit hunting with some friends. I know that when you read that sentence, combined with the title of this post, you thought to yourself “That dummy, Jeremiah shot himself in the leg.” If that was your first thought, you are wrong. I did hurt my leg but that’s a different story for another time. Maybe later in the post.
Anyways, we took my friend John’s red tailed hawk out to try and catch a few rabbits. It was snowing with a very cold wind so we wondered if we’d even see any rabbits. There were lots of tracks in the snow and after about an hour of walking around a huge field, our friend Adam saw one. He pointed it out to John but the bird saw it, and before anybody else knew what was happening, she was chasing down the bunny. She swooped down and missed. That, my friends, is where the fun began.
Last night was so much fun! We had the Backoom Dwellers over for one of our monthly gatherings. This time, it was our turn to host everyone but since everybody doesn’t fit in our house anymore, we took the party to the park near our home.
For dinner, we broke out the Dutch ovens. I made chicken and wild rice, our friends Dan and Joy made breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage, hash browns, and biscuits, and our friends John and Dana made some apple crisp. Everything was so delicious! I love Dutch oven cooking!
In addition to eating, we also spent some time breaking in our new volleyball on the sand court and played a bit of croquet. I think that everybody enjoyed the volleyball better than the croquet. It was a nice change since we always play croquet.
A few years ago, our friends John and Dana introduced us to a board game called Ticket To Ride. This has since become our very favorite game to play with anybody who comes to our home.
The point of the game is to claim railway routes. There are boards with European destinations but we like the North American board the best.
It’s a fairly simple game but people seem to get very competitive when playing. One time when Holly blocked our friend John, he slammed his hand down on the table, shaking all of the trains everywhere, and nearly giving Holly and Dana heart attacks in the process. Another time when my sister Chelsea and I were severely beating Holly, she flipped the game board over, scattering pieces everywhere. I personally like to talk trash at the people that I’m destroying. This isn’t normal behavior for us. We’re usually a mild mannered bunch of people but there is something about this game that brings out the competitive side in us. Maybe it’s because we are all somewhat good and know it.
