Finally... An Update on the Landscape Weekend

I know it's been a few days, but man, we accomplished a lot during that time. Compare the picture of our house in the last post, and then consider everything we did. Here's the lowdown...

We laid 12,000 square feet of sod in about 4 hours; we spent hours on our hands and knees cutting in and patching that sod around curved curbing, sprinkler heads, and gardens; we planted dozens of shrubs, trees, flowers, and other plants; we spread a big pile of bark; and we fixed sprinklers.

We couldn't have done it without a lot of help. Cameron and I were there the whole time, and our landscape crew was my Dad, Matt, Spencer, Dan, Todd, MattMax, Brandon (Anne's boyfriend), one of Camerons' workers, Christine, and Anne. Our inside work crew was my Mom, Hailey, Rosemary, and Rebecca. Everyone was so awesome! Thanks everyone!

I'm now back in California, enjoying a quiet Memorial Day morning with Brig, and deciding where to start in preparing for our move next month. There's so much to do between now and then... yikes!

Ang and the girls had a good weekend without me. They had Morgan's birthday party on Saturday, which was a spa party where a few of the YW from the ward came over to do nails and other junk. They also had fun games, flip flop decorating, and of course good treats. Micah had her last school play of the year this weekend and she was brilliant. She had many long solo parts, and she did great on all of them. I was grateful that one of the performances was on Sunday night so I could see it when I got back. Ang also took the girls down to San Jose to see the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. Man, they probably want me to go out of town more often.

Dan's on the final stretch of his cross-country drive today. He's driving from SLC to Los Altos today to start his summer internship tomorrow. We're looking forward to having him with us, and especially to have Hailey and him close for the summer. Hopefully they have a good experience and want to come back permanently.

Coolest Family in the World

I am flying to Utah this weekend, not for fun, but for an intense period of work to get our Provo house ready for the Parade of Homes and for sale. We will be laying sod, planting trees and plants, and anything else that needs to get done.

Meanwhile, Matt and Debby were planning a fun get together at their house Friday evening to celebrate their recently completed house projects, and to kickoff the Memorial Day weekend in style. Well, they have generously volunteered to postpone their party, and move the venue to the Provo house where they will help Cameron and me with the landscaping. I'm so stoked that they would make this sacrifice - and I really appreciate it. So not only will we get a lot more work done, it'll be great to work alongside my family and catch up.

In Honor of Dan

Dan has a lot of ground to cover over the next week. Many of you know that he and Hailey are coming out to California for the summer, with a short stop in Utah along the way. Like the gallant husband that he is, he will put Hailey and Preston on a plane tomorrow, and then hit the road for the roadtrip from H-E-double-hockey-sticks. Sure he's probably excited for the challenge, and for the adventure of the open road. But ask him again as he's sitting in trucker traffic just outside of Chicago, watching the mind-numbing sameness of the Midwest crawl by - then there might not be much excitement. I believe he's checked out the complete Audio Book section at his local library, and I'm sure he'll find his way through many a 7-11 before he turns off his engine for the last time. Just enjoy the road, Dan, and avoid looking like this...

I'm sure he wouldn't mind periodic WAKE UP! calls, so remember to check in with him over the next couple of days. Dan, we can't wait to see you next week! Drive careful and be safe!

Weekend of Firsts

First thing's first: thank goodness that darn heatwave has passed us by. Today was a very manageable 85 degrees; have fun all you guys further east...

Brig and I went camping on Friday night, and we had a great time - his first campout, my first fathers and sons as the father. We found a campsite right next to a bunch of our friends from the ward, and it was my kind of campsite - relatively flat ground, room to park the car close to the tents, picnic table close to the fire pit, and only staying one night. It wasn't until I had pitched our tent (for the first time) that I realize just how big it was. Sure, we didn't need all the extra room, but I wasn't complaining when it came time to move our stuff in and out and being able to stand completely erect without hitting the top. Sure beats the little two man pup tents we used to have when I was a kid! Brig's highlights were (in order): carrying around his own working flashlight, repeatedly kicking off his crocs and ending up barefoot in the dirt, eating a hotdog he watched me cook over the fire, running around with his buddies from the neighborhood looking for Lions, and being the only person in the whole camp to sleep soundly through the night. A couple of my observations: thank goodness for a whole box of baby wipes so we were actually pretty clean before going to bed; smooth ground while camping is an illusion - what feels pretty good when you first lay down quickly and cruelly turns into a hip-pointer waiting to happen; some people are really good at roasting all-beef hotdogs over a campfire (me) and some people are really good at making dutch-oven potatoes, cobbler, bacon, eggs, etc. (my campmates); the kid with the flashlight is always the coolest when it gets dark - it's worth whatever it costs to stock up your kid with his own; and why is it so easy to wake up at 5:45 while camping and it's already 75 degrees, when it's almost impossible to wake up that early at home? All in all a great trip.

Another first on Saturday was taking all the kids and one friend to the Giants game up in San Francisco. It got chilly, the game was slow (I know you're thinking ... "duh", but this one was actually really slow), but we had a good time. I didn't find out until today at church, but our friends sitting in a different part of the ballpark saw Brig and me on the scoreboard picture as I was throwing him up and down, oblivious to the game. Fortunately it was timed to coincide with a "slow" period of the game in which they were playing music and encouraging people to pretend like they were having a good time so they could film people looking silly, so we fit right in. The kids liked their $17 Giants Dogs (not really, but close), and I think it was a great effort to last until the 8th inning.

I also got to take Brig on a bike ride during the day while we waited for the girls to get home from their sleepovers the night before. He's a good little kid, and I love him a lot. We had fun hanging out, although there were times when he'd just get this look like, "where's everyone else...where's my mom?" It's been a fun weekend to hang with him, Micah and Morgan. Church went well today, and having the kids actually got me out of counting tithing today, so not too bad. We're definitely all looking forward to Mom and Kennan coming home later tonight, but we haven't been at each other's throats, and the house is actually clean, so I guess it's been a successful weekend without Mom. ..... Maybe that's a first too.

Africa Hot

On my mission in Australia, my companion and I had a saying when it was unbearably hot, that it was "Africa Hot". Yesterday was approaching Africa Hot, and today will be more of the same. Sure you may scoff at mere 104 degree temperatures, but when the entire previous month's high never deviated from between 65 and 75 degrees, to be hit with that was withering. Needless to say I'm seeing a lot of shorts and flip flops at work today...

Ang and Kennan made it safely to Utah yesterday and are enjoying time with family. The rest of us here are also having a good time as last night was Little Caesars pizza and two recorded episodes of American Idol, which the kids absolutely love. I enjoyed this season early on, and then sort of lost steam, but enjoyed watching with them last night. Micah told me it's the girls against Dad in the finals because their favorite is David Archuleta and mine is David Cook.

Today the kids get to swim with some friends, both the girls have birthday parties, and both of them are sleeping over at a friend in the ward. We're so grateful to a handful of very kind friends who are helping with the kids at different stages of the day as I have to fulfill some work commitments during parts of the day. I'm really looking forward to camping with Brig tonight for our ward Fathers and Sons. You'd think we're going on a week-long wilderness survival trek with all the gear I've got piled in the front room, but I want to go all the way with putting up our big tent and having a fun experience with him. He'll just be happy to have his own flashlight and maybe a roasted marshmallow or two. Good times.

Peace out.

The Joy of Showering

Brig has discovered showers. I had to give him a shower with me on Saturday because I didn't have time to shower and then bathe him, but he did NOT want to get in with me. After forcing him to come in, he quickly changed his mind, and then was extremely mad when I turned it off. For a little kid, I was surprised how much he likes standing with his head directly under the water. But now every day he walks around saying, "take a showa", and he loves to get in with anyone he can. It's a little disconcerting though when you're in there, washing soap off your face, and you feel these two little hands on each cheek...yeah, those cheeks.

I haven't written much about the Jazz recently, so I wanted to give them some big props for coming back the last two games and tying the series with the Lakers. Unfortunately, it's impossible for them to win in L.A. because they will not be able to get the foul calls, and the Lakers will get every possible advantage from the refs. I don't blame the league - the whole country would watch a Lakers-Celtics series. Just saying that the Jazz can be a really great team, but they won't win this series. I think it will go 7 games though, so we have a few more opportunities to cheer them on.

Angela and Kennan head to Utah this weekend for Camille's baptism. They're excited for their little trip, and we're happy to support them in it. Friday night we're thinking about Micah and Morgan having a sleepover at a ward friend's home, and then Brig and I going camping for fathers and sons. I'm actually really excited to do that with Brig, I think it's going to be a blast!

Mother's Day and Stuff

We had a good day celebrating Mother's Day yesterday. The kids made multiple cards and small gifts for Angela, and she also got breakfast muffins, a letter from her husband, a running shirt and a Jamba gift card. The girls had a couple of good lines in their cards: Morgan said, "I love you because you let me watch TV", and Kennan said something funny too but I can't remember what. We probably could have done more for her throughout the day, but it was still a good day. She's so great for our family; I don't know what we'd do without her.

This week marks the start of our crazy late spring / early summer period. Travel, end of year school things, swim team and tennis lessons starting, getting ready to move, and much more are just around the corner. I feel like I need a seat belt ... I'm dizzy.

I was able to go over to Stanford hospital late Saturday night and administer to a relative of one of my hometeachees who was just about to get a lung transplant. It wasn't super convenient, and it made for a late night, but it was neat to be able to participate in it and to help out. One cool thing was just by chance the conversation with the patient, as well as with the Stanford chaplain (LDS and in our ward), revealed that both of them had had previous interactions with my dad, and both had come away blessed by his actions. So that was really cool. It made me proud of my heritage and that I have a really great dad.