Celebrate Independence Day 2009

Once again, Independence Day is upon us. A time for friends, food, and fireworks.. and food!

I've been wondering now for a few years why I continue to put myself through the irritation of planning a 4th of July event.. as most years it has resulted in countless disappointment and irritation. This year was looking to be no different. My friend Kristen and her husband weren't going to be able to come, and getting a committed yes or no from some of my other friends is starting to seem impossible now days.

Add to this, that our traditionally "friend only" event somehow picked up countless family members - parents and siblings - and you have a recipe for suckage of epic proportions.

Or.. at least that's how I thought it was going to turn out. I'm not sure what it is about me or if its something that happened in my childhood to cause this, but I've always been of the opinion that if family is involved, the event or get-together or whatever you want to call it is automatically going to suck. I have to be honest, at first I wasn't the least bit looking forward to spending the holiday this way... in-laws, my friends parents, my friends in-laws, the parents kids... I read this sentence and it sounds something akin to waterboarding to me.

However, I honestly ended up thoroughly enjoying myself... probably for the first time ever at something like this. I'm not sure if it was the combination of friends and family or maybe, just maybe, that I can in fact really have fun with my family once I let go of the "uggggh this is going to SUUUUUCK!" disposition.... Madness, I know.

Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and I guess in the end that's what this day is all about. Being able to get together with friends... and family... and celebrating our freedoms and what makes this country truly great.

Less text, more pics!

The little ones having a great time together


The barbecue hard at work! Delicious!


Kaleah's first Independence Day!


I can neither confirm, nor deny, that this was ours...
(but it was awesome)


Children love holidays even more when they're cracked out on sugar!


The "finale" fountain in progress
(yes, those are fountains stacked on top of each other)


The 4th Division of the Tank Army lies in wait, prepared to strike!


You know you've put on a good show when all that's left is
piles upon piles of burning firework remains.

Scenic Evanston, Wyoming

Today in preparation for the 4th, Jeff and I made a run to Evanston in hopes of procuring some good fireworks at a fair price. My store of choice was always Porter's, dating back many years into my youth. Porter's has since been converted into the TNT warehouse, so that was naturally the first stop.

Living in Utah, it really sucks trying to find fireworks. What little fireworks are sold here are not impressive, and usually very expensive to boot. One of the greatest things about the store was just how obscene the size of some of the packages were. I was really tempted to buy one of these, but previous run-in's with the county sheriff made me decide to not test my luck.


On the way back to the freeway we passed one of those adult novelty stores. Normally, this isn't really my thing and I just drive on by, however I couldn't help but laugh at the last item on the sign. I felt compelled to take a pic so that I had proof I wasn't just making this all up in my head.


Somehow I don't think "I swear honey, I was just getting my Pac Man on" would cover me from my wife's wrath...

Garden of the Apocalypse

Roughly two months ago I was listening to a segment on Glenn Beck's radio show about things to consider during the rough economic period we're in, as well as what would happen if things were to further collapse. During the course of the dialogue a really good point was made that, if things were to get really, really ugly, a lot of people would be completely lost. Imagine a world where you have no one to depend on except your family and friends: no stores, no Wal-mart, no mass-transport.

I found myself thinking that if that were to happen, I would be among the "screwed" segment of society.. lacking any basic knowledge of how to grow even the simplest of foods. I decided it made good sense to try and grow some food this summer, if for no other reason than it would help cut down on some food costs later on and provide valuable education in the process.

Thus, the Garden of the Apocalypse was born.

We're two months into the project, and despite an early setback from an untimely late April frost, things are now going fairly well.

Front to back, we have beans, radishes, carrots, and chard. We're also growing some rather large squash plants (no fruit yet) and taking an attempt at a watermelon which thus far has been a complete bust, but we're still early in the growing season for that.

In the other corner are our tomato plants which have been doing quite well. In the far corner we have what I have deemed the "Alpha Male" Beefmaster tomato plant which has grown to the point where its coming out of the top of the cage. Our garden is also sporting some rather large dandelion plants in the back... apparently MiracleGrow also feeds weeds as well.

The Alpha Male is sporting some rather hefty greens right now. Doing some research on Wiki today I learned that Beefmaster tomatoes can often times reach about one pound in weight... which I figure is roughly one can of salsa per tomato.

Wheeler Farm Party

This evening was the Christmas party for my mom's church, courtesy of the fine folks at Wheeler Farm. Even though we don't attend the same church as my mom, she was kind enough to extend an invitation to my wife and I as well as my sister's family and my grandmother.


It started off with a great country fried chicken, mashed potato, and stuffing dinner with more bread than should be allowed under state law. All the butter and jam currently in circulation couldn't have covered the demand of these rolls. Thankfully, only a small portion was eaten. This was pretty much my nephew Scotland's first major major event but he seemed to handle it really well.


The majority of the night's entertainment was provided by the a cappella group Hangtime. One of the highlights of their show was a funny as hell rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. Prior to the show, they asked people for various nouns, verbs, etc and ad-lib'd key parts of the lyrics. They also roped my foster sister Tiffany into helping with the act by playing the part of the poor embarrassed reindeer (see the above pic)

There was also a reading of the biblical story of Christ's birth and a silent auction to benefit their church. Last I checked I was the high bidder for a pair of Phantom of the Opera tickets for a show this coming March. Hopefully my bid held out because its been forever since I've seen Phantom live.


As usual, I was a complete and total sucker for my neice Kiera. I couldn't help but snap pic after pic and she was more than willing to give me all the photo shoot time I asked for.

Overall the evening was a lot of fun and everyone I talked to had a great time. The entertainment was fantastic, and this was a great way to kick off our fifteen days of action packed Christmas hell... I mean joy. Christmas joy!


This is what a total sucker looks like, right here. I'm still kind of a noob at this self-picture taking thing though.

Kickin' Off the Holidays

Tonight officially kicks off the Christmas season for me and my wife. Thanks to Lu at my office, the finishing touch was put onto our Christmas tree this evening (the bow on top of our tree) I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out.

Unlike most years, the two weeks before Christmas are going to be jammed this year with all kinds of events with friends and family. The good ol' blog should see a multitude of updates over the next two weeks. So, until the next post, have a merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well today was the big day. By "big," I mean the day I put on about 10 pounds from various foods and desserts (including the mystery pie) In all seriousness, its a great day to give thanks and see members of my family that I don't get to see all that often.

My mom hosted dinner tonight at her church, which was great of them to let us use their building and kitchen for our large group. One of the high points of the evening for me was the opening toast, where we went around every member of the family and we all made a toast to something that we were thankful for. I was really impressed by some of my nieces and nephews who gave answers like "my parents" and "my brothers and sisters." My youngest foster sister, Tiffany, said she was thankful for school (and she was serious to boot) Stephanie, the older foster sister, said that she was thankful to have the family she was now a part of.

Then there were answers like that given by my stepsister Lori, that she was thankful for her new dog. I was seriously blown away that the oldest of the children was the only one to give something completely material as something she was thankful for. Her husband Matt seemed pretty unimpressed.

PIX!

Mom, Michelle, Tiffany, Stephanie, Traivs, and Grandma
(I think the girls were just pretending to eat for this photo shot)

Rick, Lori's kids, Lori the Dog Lover, and her husband Matt

The back of my wife's head, Adam's parents, and Adam
(Melissa is hiding on the center-left)

Here's the kids hard at work at the craft table
(awesome idea on my mom's part, I must admit)

Their creation, the four-legged turkey
(......)