What's up with Amber - now?

Amber just gave me a call.  She wanted to talk.  So we talked.  We talked about many things.

• School
• Church
• Summer rafting trip
• Angels Landing
• Changing her major
• My blog & facebook
• Why she wasn't my friend on facebook

Yep, we talked.

• We didn't talk about boys - what was I thinking!

We talked about the 5th annual Grand Canyon hike coming up in October.  She doesn't want to go.  She doesn't think that there are any restroom facilities below the rim.  Boy is she mistaken.  Many of the restroom facilities are very unique.  So unique that I've taken pictures of them.

This restroom is at the bottom of the Tanner Trail.  The trail starts at Lipan Point.

Restroom at Tanner Rapids

This restroom even comes with a view.  You could almost wave to the boaters as they float by.

Restroom with a view - Tanner Rapids

This next facilty is on Horshoe Mesa. It overlooks the ravine on the East side of the Mesa. This is very convienent for those that take friends when they visit the facilities.

Dual facilities at Horseshoe Mesa.  

Theres room for two & a view

It was late when we arrived at Hermits, so this picture is a little dark. It was taken from the trail as we were descending into Hermit's Rest.

Trail View at Hermits Rest

I'll look for another picture from the Monument area.  If there are more than two in the group, this facility will work out nicely.

So Amber,  come join us on our hike.  Those tales of having to rough it - we were just trying to impress you!

2012 Outdoor Plans

It's here!  Summer time is here!

This years planned activities include:

• Winter Grand Canyon Trip (cancelled, two plausable excuses are listed below).
• A float trip down the Green River from Gates of Lodore to Split Mountain (completed in early May).
• A Varsity Scout biking trip in the Moab, UT area.  Plans include the infamous slick rock trail.
• Yampa River float trip - it may be cancelled due to lack of water.
• Snake River float trip between Jackson Hole and Palisades Resevoir.
• Bike The Bear - a 50 mile bike ride around Bear Lake.  Two trips around makes a century.
• A hike down the Virgin River Narrows in Zion, followed by a mountain bike trip just outside the park.
• 5th Annual Columbus Day Packpacking trip.  Hopefully at Royal Arch and Elves Chasm in the Grand Canyon.

In addition, I may get invited on a weeklong float trip of the Salmon River in September.  If it all happens, it will be a busy summer, but that is what summers are for.

I had hoped to go down the Grand Canyon for a few days in February.  Didn't happen.  I found two excuses that will work:

• Couldn't find someone willing to go down with me - jobs keep getting in the way.  
• I broke a rib playing basketball.  Broken ribs cancelled any thought of doing a solo hike in the GC.

Ribs are healed, summer is here, it's time to get busy and have some fun.

Help! It's Been Too Quiet, Too Long

Susie and I took Amber up to BYU Idaho on January 2 and returned on January 4 to an empty house.  It's just the two of us now.  Empty Nesters.  I've been concerned for 33 years that we wouldn't know how to get along when it was just the two of us again.  Amber must also be concerned.  She has been the sole excitement in our lives for the past 6 months.  Amber called and said she was coming down for the three day weekend, and bringing two of her roomates.

I think Amber is trying to break us in slowly.

Today is Monday.  Amber, Brittney and Liza are leaving this afternoon and rather than risk putting us in shock with a quiet house again. They've obviously conspired against us.  Justin, Pam, Joel, Bailee, Sydney, Aubrey, Cory, Stacey, Emily, and Katie all crashed our house this morning.

Never a dull moment at our house when the kids are home.  However, although Susie may have a different view,  I don't think that the two of us are really that dull.  There's got to be a little spark somewhere.

http://www.maylin.net/Fireworks.html

2011 In Review

A new year brings the opportunity to review the accomplishments of the recently expired year.  Here's some statistics for your leisure time review.

Family Statistics

• Number of Children:  6
• Number of married children:  5
• Grandchildren:  12
• Grandchildren born in 2011:  2
• Sequential years with a new grandchild: 9 Years & running

(Do we need to draw straws to see who will keep the trend alive?)

2011 S-10 Pickup Statistics
Miles driven:  12560
Gas Purchased:  579 gallons
Cost of Gas (it wasn't priceless):  $1953.26  (Avg $3.37/gal
Miles driven to work:  4,800
Fun Miles:  3286

• Grand Canyon:  1208 miles
• San Juan River:  827 miles
• Zion girls trip:  821 miles
• Zion Virgin River Trip:  746 miles
• Boise Trip:  686 miles

Miles Driven to who knows where: 4,480

My Personal Exercise Statistics:

Activity          Miles Time    Rate
Bike                 609   37.5   16.2
Run                  109   15.9   6.9
Walk                105  30.1   3.5
Hike          128   67.7   1.9
Swim                1    1.2  .95   (new PR for rate)
Boating             121   36.7   3.3
(Some rates are off due to rounding errors)

Campout Statistics
Number nights trying to sleeping out:  36
Ambien Pills required:  36
Ambien Pills available:  35
The cost of 1 Ambien Pill on a sleepless night - Priceless

Racquetball statistics
Racquetball games played:  89
Games Won:  81
Games Lost:  8

Cutthroat games played:  25
Games won:  25
Games Lost:  0

Estimated calories burned through exercise:  170975
Calories per pound:  3500
Theoretical fat burned off:  48.85 pounds
Actual weight lost:  8 pounds

Thank goodness for junk food.  If it wasn't for the junk food, I would have wasted away to a mere 152 pounds.

Happy New Year!

2001 was a fantastic year and a lot was accomplished, personally and as a family.  Amber finished her first year at BYUI.  We had a fabulous family reunion in Southern Idaho.  We welcomed, not one but two new additions to the family - Aubrey and Marcus are definitey keepers.   Susie was able to spent 3 weeks in Arkansas with Melissa and family.  I was able to do my outdoor things.  All in all, a pretty good year.

The Plan
We had big plans for the end of 2011 and the start of 2012.  A day off on Friday, Saturday (New Year's Eve) we drive with Amber to Boise and participate on Sunday as Jason and Kim bless their new little son.  Then on Monday, we drive to Rexburg and spend a few days visiting family and dropping Amber off at BYUI for her second year.  Ah - such nice plans.

What Really Happened
Wednesday, Dec 28 Amber has three wisdom teeth removed.  Thursday Susie comes down with a cold.  Friday she passes it on to me - we cancel the Boise part of the trip.  Saturday (New Year's Eve) Amber's face turns yellow, Susie gets worse and I'm trying to fight off a sore throat.

Saturday evening I go to the store to get a movie and snacks. - we're not going anywhere, might as well enjoy the time at home.  At the girl's request, I pick up Sarah's Key from Redbox, then I go into Walmart and pick up some Red & White Sparkling Grape juice, gluten free potato chips and Peanut M&Ms.  I poured the girls each a glass of grape juice and presented them with their movie and snacks.  Amber couldn't eat the M&M's - duh, she just had her wisdom teeth out.  Susie couldn't eat the M&M's either - she's allergic to peanuts.  Did I mention that one of the bags of potato chips were Jalapeno?  That didn't go over very well either.

Then I went back upstairs to grab some cheese cubes.  You know that I love cheese - so soft and smooth - just like, ah never mind - lets just say that I love cheese.  I took one bite.  What's that crunchy stuff in the cheese?  Warning! Warning! crunchy stuff doesn't belong in cheese.  As I'm spitting the cheese out, I feel this hole where one of my teeth is supposed to be.  Oops, that temporay crown that was put on two weeks ago just cracked in half.

So here we are. Sunday morning, just the three of us.  Susie has her cold.  Amber's face is yellow and she has hives.  I have a sore throat and a sensitive mouth.

I sincerely hope that 2011 was an enjoyable and rewarding year for each of you.  As I look back on 2011, I see growth in each member of the family and I know that you certainly had a positive impact on my life.  I am very optimistic that each of you will have a happy, rewarding and thoroughly enjoyable New Year!

The New Year is here! 

Forget the Aches, Colds, Allergies.  

It's time to PARTY! 

Merry Christmas to All

Christmas is here - well almost.  It's 8:00 in Utah on Christmas Eve.

Last night Amber, Susie and I went to Salt Lake for the Mannheim Steamroller concert.  This is the second time we've gone.  We went two years ago and enjoyed it immensely.  Last year we went to the Delta Center to see TSO (Trans Siberian Orchestra).  It was fun, but the mood wasn't the same and I much preferred Mannheim Steamroller.  I like TSO's music, but I didn't care for their performance.

About noon today I read an email that Mel sent me on Thursday.  She had already run about 13 miles.  I hadn't run anything - well that's not quite true.  I played 3 games of racquetball and shot hoops with the young men for about 2 hours.  Some stop and go running in those events, but nothing close to what Mel did.  I also did a 4 mile walk on Wednesday during my lunch hour.  I'm into a little cross training, don't want to get to sore from just running

I responded to Mel's email with my own stating what I had done during the week.  An hour later I got a message that she had just finished up a 5 mile run in 51:10.  Way to go MEL.

I've been a competitive guy lately, it runs in the family.  I think I got it from Justin and Jason.  When we lived in California I took Mel with me and the scouts on a hike up Mt. Baldy (10,068 feet) when she was no more than 9.  All the boys took off, Mel and I just hiked at our own pace and we caught up to the troop when they all stopped at a creek for a break.  Mel wanted to keep going, so we did. Half of the scouts jumped up and ran to get ahead - can't let a 9 year old girl beat them to the top.  As we continued to hike & climb, we passed more and more of the boys.  By the time we got to the top.  The only boys that were ahead of us were Justin and Jason.  I think they would have rather died than to let their little sister beat them to the top.

So I packed up my stuff and headed to the base gym.  I spent 29 minutes on a treadmill (lots of motion, no progress - felt like a squirrel in a cage) before it crapped out so I switched to running circles around the indoor track (10 laps for 1 mile).  Now I'm making progress and running in circles is a little bit better than running in a squirrel cage, but harder to keep my speed constant.

Final result, I ran 6.3 miles in 58:10 miles.

Thank's Mel for the motivation.

Merry Christmas Feliz Navidad

You want to do What? Really? Come on, be reasonable!

It's the end of the year and I'm looking for ideas to keep me motivated and working out next year.  I know that Mel has big ideas for fun things to do, so I gave her a call.

Earlier this year she ran a half marathon.  That's 13 miles.  Now she wants to do a marathon.  Thats double the 13 - a total of 26 miles.  I've always been told that when you have a goal that you want to achieve, break it down into smaller units so that you can see progress and have bite sizes pieces to work on.  I decided to apply the idea of breaking it down into smaller steps.

26 miles = 45,760 yards

26 miles = 137,280 feet

26 miles = 1,647,360 inches

Maybe that's not such a good idea!

Fortunately Mel is a better thinker than I am.  She broke it down into weeks before the big event and activities to achieve each week.  Look at her blog to see the details.  She's working out six days a week.  Two days of cross training, 3 days of short runs (if you call 3 miles a short run) and a longer run (7 miles) on Saturday.  And that was for week two!   The shorter runs get longer and the longer runs get huge.  The marathon in on April 21.  She had 125 days to prepare.

Go Mel!

I've never run anything over a 10K (6.3 miles).  However, after talking with Mel this evening, perhaps I have a new target for 2012.  Can I train in Utah and keep up with Mel as she trains in Arkansas? Wow!  That's a big commitment.  I've started to break it down, not into feet and inches, but into time.  Can I dedicate at least an hour a day to working out and 4 or 5 hours on Saturday?

I have two weeks before the new year starts.  Two weeks to write-up my own plans and then decide on my commitment.  I'm not sure if I can put in the time and miles (I still have a life and the Grand Canyon is calling me again).  But it sure sounds like a challenge, and I've considered doing a marathon but never taken it past the 'considered' phase.

Where has the year gone

It's December 11, the month is nearly half over.  Where did 2011 go?


It's been a delightful year.  Two new grandchildren has blessed our lives and only our own precious little baby is still at home (sorry Amber, could resist rubbing it in a bit).  Amber will be off to school in a few weeks and then it's just Susie and I.


Susie, Amber and I went to Boise on Dec 3rd and met Marcus.  Cute little guy.  Definitely another keeper!  Twelve grandkids and they've all  been keepers.  They've been fun too.  If I'd known the grandkids would be so much fun, I would have had them first.
As most of you know, I spend a fair amount of time at the gym, trying to stay in shape.  This last week while I was working out in the gym when I spotted a gorgeous young lady.  I asked the trainer who was near-by: "What machine should I use to impress that sweet thing over there?"

The trainer looked me up and down and said: Try the ATM in the lobby."

Sounds like I have a lot more work to do to get in shape.  I just looked at my numbers this afternoon.  I'm now up to 161,316 calories burned off this year and I've done at least one workout every week.  Yeah! if I can just hang in there for 3 more weeks, I will have been successful in meeting that objective.

I must admit that a lot of my calories burned comes from my activities in the backcountry.  Fun things, like floating the San Juan or Green Rivers in a kayak, or hiking in Zion or Grand Canyon National Parks.  I always try to be safe, particularly in the backwoods because you never know when you might come across a bear or cougar.  Since Susie got after me a few years back for doing a solo hike on Mt Borah, I've tried to keep safety in mind.

When it comes to bears, my personal favorite bear defense gun has always been a Beretta in .22 short!   I've found over the years when hiking in bear country I never leave without it in my pocket.  Of course we all know the first rule when hiking in the wilderness is to use the "Buddy System".

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this it means you NEVER hike alone, you bring a friend or companion, even an in-law, that way if something happens there is someone to go get help.

I remember one time hiking with my brother-in-law in southeast Idaho, up near the Tetons.  Out of nowhere came this huge brown bear and man was she MAD!  We must have been near one of her cubs.

Any way if I had not had my little Beretta I am sure I would not be here today.  Just one shot to my brother-in-law's knee cap and I was able to escape by just walking at a brisk pace.

Sorry about that.  Susie told me that I need to focus on the topic at hand and quit telling stories. However, there is a risk that if I don't pass on the stories from my internet friends I'll start telling stories about my own family.  And that might be embarrassing.  Like the time that ... ah, guess I'd better stick with the internet stories - they're safer.  Besides, I don't want my grandkids saying the same thing about me that Justin has said about his grandfather.  Before Justin got married, he told me that he needed to apologize to my dad.  As the story came out, it seems that everytime we went to Grandpa Brown's place, Grandpa told the same stories (Ah yes, I remember those stories).  Then, when Justin and I were putting a new roof on our house, Lamar, an older gentleman in our ward, came by to lend a hand.  The reason for the apology -   in less than an hour, Lamar had told Justin the same story four times!

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.