The List

About November 1st of each year, Susie has taped blank sheets of paper on a wall above the stairs. Each member of the family had their own sheet with plenty of space to list the things they were thankful for.  We were supposed to write one item each day.  Susie thought it would be a great way to reflect on what we were thankful for.

I HATED THAT LIST!

Why, only once a year, did we celebrate Thanksgiving and why did I have to list the things that I was thankful for on this silly list?  Didn't my actions demonstrate the things that I was thankful for?

 I wrote on the paper - but not every day!  Sometimes I would write a whole weeks worth at one time.  One year, I filled up the entire page on Thanksgiving Eve.  Perhaps it was my way of protesting.  I wrote the obvious things like:  Susie, the kids, the church, a job, home, peace & quiet, etc.  ( I even itemized the kids names, it filled up 6 lines instead of one.)

WHY DID I HATE THAT LIST?

This year, there is no list.  Five of the six kids are married and gone.  Amber is claiming to be an adult, but she lives here while on break from school.  Justin, Pam & family have moved out.  When Amber goes back to school in January, Susie and I will be on our own for the first time in 33 years.

WHERE'S THAT SILLY LIST WHEN YOU NEED IT?

• My Parents - they did their best with what they had to work with - Sorry about that mom & dad.
• My Wife's Parents & Grandparents - I never met Susie's mother, but I know she is a wonderful person.
• Six Fantastic children that have taught me what it means to be a dad.  Why don't children come with a parents manual?
• Two very special women that my sons married.
• Three exceptional men that married my daughters.
• Twelve grandchildren, unique in their own way and each bringing a special joy into my heart.

And last but definitely not least:

• A wonderful wife that truly believes "Always & Forever & No Matter What."  She has put up with a lot over the past 34 years and loves me in spite of my faults and has always been very supportive in everything I've done.

Thank you.  

You are what makes Thanksgiving special to me.

I love you

Oct Updates

The 4th Annual Columbus Day Hike is officially over.  The fantastic four and one old dude hiked from Lee's Pass at the Kolob area to the Grotto in the main Zion Canyon, exiting down the Angel's Landing Trail.  It was a fantastic time.  My trip report will be posted on my Outdoor Adventurers Blog.

We returned home from Zion late on Friday and then on Wednesday I was off to the Gates of Lodore for a rafting/kayaking trip down the Green River with Mr. Eller, kids and friends.  What a hoot.  I was able to break in a new inflatable kayak going through such rapids as Triplette, Disaster I and II, Hell's Half Mile, and SOB.  The weather was great, the water was wet, and the kayak performed as advertised.

A few days after getting back home, I went to the base and had the bodpod done again.  I'm under 190 pounds for the first time in 20 years or more and my body fat is down to 20.6% pure lard.  Earlier this year I was 199 pounds and 26% fat.  Several years ago, before I was rescued by a friend who invited me on a bike trip, a trip that I failed to complete, I weighed in at 234 pounds.  What a difference 45 pounds makes.

Where did the summer go?

It's now Oct 2, 2011.  Summer is over, where did it go?

It's been a very active summer time, hopefully the autumn season will be just as busy.  My activities during the 'summer' include:

1. Whitewater rescue course on the Green River (3 nights), May
2. Joel, Annaleise, Madison and Brianna's birthdays (3 of them on the same day)
3. Overnight backpack on Indian Trail (1 night), June
4. Kayak trip down the San Juan River (4 nights), July
5. Green river canoe trip (4 nights), July 
6. Katie's birthday, July
7. Zion National Park (Subway, Kolob Arch) (4 nights), July
8. Burley Spudman, July
9. Family reunion (3 nights), August
10. Bailee and Pam's birthdays, August
11. Bike the Bear (1 nights), August (I made two loops for a century bike ride)
12. (I'm over 55 and had physical this year, do I need to add a special test for over 50 males?)
13. Zion National Park (Virgin River, Angels Landing) (2 nights), August
14. McKenzie's birthday, September
15. Justin, Pam and family moving from our home to Bountiful, September
16. Keith and Sheria's visit from Texas (& 2 new family members), September
17. Nampa, (3 nights), September
18. Aubrey's birth, September

Upcoming Activities include:

1. 4th Annual Columbus Day Hike (Lee's Pass to the Grotto)
2. Float trip down Desolation Canyon
3. Emily's birthday
4. Thanksgiving and lots of birthdays in November, along with our anniversary.
5. Christmas and more anniversaries and birthdays in December
6. Grand Canyon trip (Hermits Rest to Monument, Indian Gardens, Phantom Ranch)

Can I squeeze in a skiing trip?

Many of these activities have helped me in achieving one of my goals for this year.  This goal was to have at least one workout each week.  Thus far I've been able to achieve that goal.  A few weeks were a little iffy, but I was at least able to get at least one, one hour walk as a minimum. I've kept a activity journal and have included in the journal an estimate of the number of calories burned for the activity.  The number of calories comes from the Food and Exercise Diary and while I can't guarantee it's accuracy, at least it is pretty consistent.  Thus far this year, I have burned off over 122,000 calories.  It's a good thing I eat a lot!  If I didn't eat so much, I would have wasted away to nothing.  At approximately 3500 calories/pound, I would have burned off over 35 pounds.  For each of the last 3 years, I've averaged over 121,000 calories burned through my workouts.  That's the equivilant of about 105 pounds of fat.  If I lost that much, I'd be under 100 pounds.  (I'm not even close to 100 pounds).  

Unfortunately I also struggled to keep my weight in the neighborhood of 200 pounds.  What am I eating and whatever it is, it must be way to much.  In late August, I did another bodpod test.  I'm down to 24% pure lard.  That's a big improvement from the over 26% fat from my first time in the bodpod.  After getting this number, I decided to use the diet portion of the Food and Exercise Diary.  I didn't create a diet, I just started keeping track of what I eat and logging it in every day.  Once again, I don't have a lot of confidence in the exact calories recorded because I had to make estimates on the quanity and content of some of the foods, but once again, I think it is close. Once I finish deso trip, I'll make another appointment for the bodpod and get some updated numbers.

The Burley Spudman - I did it

Today I did the Burley Spudman triathlon.  The last time I did the Spudman was 2008.  A man in the heat ahead of me had a heart attack and drowned, and so they cancelled the swim and changed it to a duathlon for my heat. I registered, but missed out in 2009 and didn't register in 2010.  I wanted to do it again and see if I could reach my goals so in January I registered and today was the big event.

My goals are the same as they were three years ago.
1.  Don't die
2   Finish the event in under three hours
3.  Finish the run in under 1 hour

However, last time I tried, I was three years younger.  Now I'm a senior citizen.  I'm also not quite as active as I was three years ago, I'm trying to hang in there, but the 'JOB' takes more of my time than I would like.  I haven't been able to train as much.  So far this year, and before today's event, I've biked 252 miles, ran 45, and swam .15.  That's a whole lot less preparation than what I would have liked.

I don't have my official times yet, but inspite of the lack of training, I think I achieved all three goals:
1.  I'm still alive
2.  I believe that I was just under three hours, however I did take a lot longer than usual in the transistions.  I hurt my left foot last week just as we were beginning the hikes at Zion National Park.  It is still pretty tender, so I wanted to make sure that I had my foot properly protected for both the bike and the run.
3.  I finished the run in 57:43 (unofficially).

Once I get my official times, I'll compare it with my goals and my other years times to see if I've improved.  I feel like I did about the same on the swim - Just keep my head afloat and I'll make it to the exit point.  However, I feel like I was a bit sluggish on the bike.  My bike-o-meter quit working and I haven't replaced it yet.  Without being able to monitor my times, the only thing I could really concentrate on is trying to pass or at least stay even with the folks just ahead of me.

The run was the event I wanted to focus on.  In the past years, after doing a swim and bike ride, it was really hard to do the run.  This is the first time in five tries that I've had my run under 60 minutes.  Needless to say, I'm happy with the results.

Me and my bike, After the finish

The race was a well organized event.  From my perspective it went very smoothly even though the number of participants and spectators was huge compared to my memory of past events.

7 Aug 2011 Update
I retrieved the official results yesterday.  There were 40 finisher's in 55-60 year group.  I came in at number 27.  Swim time:  23:03;  Bike time:  90:53;  Run time:  57.42;  Overall time  176:07 ( 2:56:07).  So I met all three of my goals.

Historically, my times are as follows:
Year                   Swim                    Bike                    Run                      Total
2005                  27:43                     77:55                 64:14                   2:49:53
2006                  23:59                     87:50                 87:22                   3:29:11  (calf muscle injury)
2007                  23:50                     72:39                 61:50                   2:47:09
2008                                                74:56                 59:13                   2:16:41  (duathlon)
2011                  23:03                     90:53                 57:42                   2:56:07

Note:  Some of the segment times in different years included the transitions and some did not.  So the numbers listed above are not truly accurate of the real segment times.

San Juan River Trip

Saturday June 4, 2011.  Today I came home from a backpacking trip with some girls in our ward.  We went up the Indian Trail last night, cooked out, pitched tents and this morning we hiked back out.  After getting home, I changed my clothes, packed a different set of bags, and then headed down to Bluff, Ut.  My co-worker Dave invited me to go on a float trip with his four children.  I'd take my kayak and he would be in his raft.  Dave left early this morning and I didn't get on the road until nearly 4 p.m.

I arrived in Bluff just after 10 p.m. and after calling Dave, drove over to his camp site on the San Juan River.  It was pitch black, so I had no idea on the terrain, but it is definitely warm.

Sunday, June 5, 2011.  Today was the first day of our float trip.  We packed up this morning, moved over to the boat ramp and then started rigging and loading the raft.  The nice thing about going with Dave is that I don't have to try carrying my gear in my little 10 foot kayak.  However, after loading up this morning, my amount of gear is definitely a lot less than his.  He does travel in style and comfort.

After shuttling the vehicles, we were ready to leave.  We got on the river about noon and the trip began.

San Juan River

Upper Green River Float Trip

Nine months in the making!  It's now in the rear view mirror!  And no, I'm not talking about a baby although we are expecting two more in our family.

I'm talking about the Young Men's canoe trip down the Upper Green River.  Last fall, the young men identified it as one of the activities that they would like to do.  In November, I got it on the calendar and the week of July 11 was set at the time.  The week of July 11 has come and gone and so has our canoe trip.  I believe that everyone had some good experiences and hopefully they've learned some things that will last them a life time.  I won't say that everyone had a good time all the time, because there were definitely some ups and downs.

However, here are the highlights.

The Cottonwood Creek River Crowd

We met and loaded up at my house at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of July 11.  After saying goodbyes and a few photos, we were off.  Our first stop was at Walmart in Evanston because one of the driver's had forgotten his water shoes.  While he was getting some shoes, we noticed that he had also picked up a nail in one of his tires, so a trip to the tire store was in order.  An hour later, we finished our breakfast at McDonalds and we were on the road again.

Breakfast at McD's

We arrived at Camp New Fork in time for lunch and a movie.  The movie was our training before hitting the river.  It was a review of things we've talked about over the last few weeks concerning hydraulics, strainers, rapids, etc.  Then it was off to the water front for some hands on with the canoes.

Green River Rescue Course

I'm currently the Varsity Coach for the 14-15 year old young men in our ward. Nearly a year ago, we decided on a canoe float trip down the Green River as a high adventure activity. I have 3 adults and 13 young men going on this trip. It's been a lot of work planning this activity. Most of the boys have some experience in canoes, but none of them have experience in white water.

The trip is part of the high adventure activities sponsored by Camp New Fork. It's planned for 4 days down the upper Green River. I went down this section of the river three years ago with my nephew Matt. It was a lot of fun then, hopefully it will be equally fun for the boys in my ward.

For my own preparation, I decided to take a River Rescue Course on the lower Green River near Green River, Utah. My co-worker, Dave, told me about the course and he also wanted to take it. Dave recently bought a raft and has yet to use it, so it will be a good opportunity to gain some experience. Dave also convinced me to go down a day early and float the river before we take the river rescue course.  He would take his raft and I would take my kayak, but is that like putting the cart before the horse? I thought the idea was to learn and then do. But what they heck! It's a good way to get some experience.

On the Green River

The river rescue course occured on May 13 thru 15. Dave and I went down a day early as planned and spent the day floating the river from Nefertiti to Swasey Beach. Dave took the raft, I took my kayak. After getting the raft rigged and got on the water and as I was approaching the first rapid, I was thinking "What am I doing." Those waves were the largest I had ever seen from my kayak. I made it through the first set of waves and my nerves settled down a bit. I made it through the next few sets of waves which were even bigger. Then my confidence exceeded my abilities and when I was almost done with a set of rapids a rogue wave just reach out and flipped me over.  I don't know how to do an eskimo roll, so my plan has always been that if and when I flip, I'm going to bail. The plan worked well. I was out of the kayak in seconds, but boy was that water cold. I'm glad I had my wetsuit and an excellent life preserver on.

In the Green River

I pretty well rescued myself and was on shore draining my kayak when Dave made it back up to where I was. He helped me get back in and off we were again. We went down a few more rapids and then I rolled it again in similar circumstances. Nearly through the rapid when I rolled. This time Dave was close by and I just climbed in his raft and pulled up the kayak and rode the rest of the way to Swasey Beach.

After beaching his raft, I walked back up to the campground, changed clothes, grabbed my bicycle and rode the nine miles back up to Nefertiti and brought Dave's van back down to the boat ramp at Swasey's Beach. We loaded up his raft, went back to our camp site changed clothes again and headed into Green River for dinner and the first session of our river rescue course.

The River Rescue Course
The class met for dinner at Joe's Tavern and then went over to the Green River Museum for the classroom instruction. We had introductions and background, then talked about safety, did some rope work and set up a Z-drag system.

After class, everyone went back over to Swasey Beach and camped near our campsite. The next morning, the staff provided breakfast and then we loaded up and headed up toward's Nefertiti. We didn't go all the way though, we stopped at a launch point just above one of the rapids. We then practiced some rope throws, talked safety some more, then got in the two rafts and pushed off.

Practicing Rope Throws

 Once through the first rapids, we pulled over and practiced rope throws with a person in the water. Each of us took turns and it was a good experience. When I was in the water, I was surprised at the amount of force against my body. When I threw the rope and the swimmer hit the end, the water force was also great. It takes a lot to hold on at either end of the rope in a fast current.

Rope Throws in the River

 At Swasey's Beach, we also practiced setting up the Z-Drag to flip a raft. The water was cold, but the air temp was hot. At times we were wearing jackets and other times we were wearing a lot less.

Setting up a Z-Drag

 We also practiced flipping rafts in calm water and then we flipped the rafts in the middle of rapids. We also took turns abandoning a perfectly good raft in the middle of good size rapids just to give people in the other rafts the opportunity to rescue us. Fortunately we all had wet suits and good life preservers. The trainers always had one raft and a kayak in rescue position just in case anything went wrong. It was good experience and gave me more confidence as I prepare for our Green River Canoe trip in July.

Practice Flip in Calm Water

Flipping rafts in the rapids

After all the practice on both days, we loaded up the rafts at Swasey's Beach, had lunch, and then took off.  As Dave and I were leaving in his van, we saw the ultimate beach party getto blaster.  At first, we couldn't figure out what it was, so we had to get out and take a closer look.

The Ultimate Solar Powered Beach Getto Blaster

It's Done - but am I finished?

On 28 Feb, 2011, my son-in-law Jake and I started hiking the Grand Canyon with the purpose of finishing two 5 mile segments of the Tonto trail that are separated by 12 miles. It was a last minute trip. His wife, (my fantastic daughter Jenn) and my beautiful wife Susie were headed off to see another of my daughters in Arkansas. A perfect opportunity to head South.

The details of this hike will be posted on my Grand Canyon blog, but we made it. The trip was a success. Jake is still alive and kicking - though moving a little slower than usual. (Sorry about the knee Jake). I think that Jenn was a bit worried that I didn't like her hubby and that there might be an accident along the way. (I've read the book "Death in the Canyon." There are many ways and opportunities for accidents to happen. However, I had an enjoyable time with Jake. Hopefully he enjoyed the hiking, camping and driving as much as I did.

On March 1st Jake and I hiked the Tonto from Hermits Creek to Boucher Creek which finished off that 5 mile segment. Then on March 3rd I did a solo hike on the Tonto from Indian Gardens to the tipoff on the Kaibab trail which finished off the last 5 mile segment. I then completed the route with a descent from the tipoff to the Bright Angel Campground and then back up the Bright Angel Trail to Indian Gardens.

Happy Birthday Boys

February 19, 1979 - Keesler AFB, Biloxi, MS
This morning at 3:15 and 3:44 my twin sons were born. A momentous occasion which will have a lasting impact on the rest of my life. Justin was born first and weighs in at 5 pounds 12 ounces and Jason was born 29 minutes later and weighs in at 4 pounds 1 ounce. It was a bit scary having the twins this early - they were due on 31 March. As soon as Justin was born they whisked him away and when Jason was born he was also whisked away. However, I saw them both a short while later and both are doing fine (Susie fell asleep after Jason was born and spent the next 24 hours sleeping in recovery). I counted all the fingers and toes (a grand total of 40). They are perfect in every way.

It is now Feb 19, 2011. The boys are now 32 and each have families of their own. Jason is with his family in Boise while Justin and his family are here at our home. Amber just arrived from school to celebrate the birthdays and enjoy a three day weekend away from school. While she is here, we will also celebrate her birthday (Feb 29).

The grandkids are super excited to see Amber again. It's not like she's be gone for a year or even months. We took her to school on January 1st and this is her second trip home since then.

Another Year Older and ...

I recently had a birthday and a few of my friends welcomed me to the double nickel club. I'm the last of a small group of high school buds to reach this major milestone. Although some were quick to point out that I was the baby of the group (by 13 days), I responded that the day before the big day, I played an hours worth of racquetball and followed it up with a 2 mile run in under 15 minutes. Haven't heard much from them since.

Not only did I reach the 55 year milestone, It's a brand new year. Although I'm an eternal optimist, I've already had a years worth of crap at work. I supervise about 20 employees. All but one are a pleasure to work with. The challenge is my newest employee, the lowest on the rank scale and wants a reserved, designated parking spot. Denied - I see another grievance coming. After a minor security infraction was pointed out, the individual filed a hostile work environment complaint against the person who gently and quietly pointed out the infraction. Another grievance coming? probably.

I've already had one grievance filed against me for putting a letter of counseling in the personnel record. A LOC isn't even disciplinary. It was just documentation of topics we discussed. I'm excited for the next 11 months. I'm sure each month will be something new and exciting on the employee front. This individual has the Obama syndrome.

It's time for an escape. Can you spell Grand Canyon. I don't have permits yet, but a week down the GC is needed. No phones, no internet, no email, no taskers (of course they'll all be waiting for me when I get back). I have a couple of segments on the Tonto trail that I'd like to finish. Now may be a good time.

Things are actually going pretty well. The typical illnesses (Katie has a respiratory illness and Pam has the Egyptian flu - each year since 2002 someone in the family has had this strain of the flu), but otherwise things are going pretty well. Jennifer and Susie are headed off to Arkansas in a few weeks. Amber is doing well at school (hopefully she's doing some studying - it's not all play is it?). Justin's working on his PHD - his family is doing well and doing there best to keep Susie and I active. Jason's fully engaged with his teaching job. Melissa is partying with her family in Arkansas and they are anxiously awaiting Susie's visit. Stacey lives close by and is busily engaged with two delightful little girls.

So all in all - the year is off to an excellent start.