Great Scott

Tebow Mania

2012-01-16T10:05:00.006-07:00

Tim Tebow Mania swept the nation this last fall especially Denver Broncos fans like myself. For those of you who don’t follow football or live under a rock, Tebow is the quarterback for the Broncos who has been known for his late game heroic comebacks and being very open about his Christian beliefs.

This praying pose, which Tebow makes several times during a game, has become known as “Tebowing” and became sort of a national phenomena.

It got us at our house all excited for Broncos football this last fall and winter, everyone at our house has a Denver Broncos shirt or two or six.

Some of us even have Broncos pajamas with matching bed sheets!

It was a very exciting year for football with the Broncos winning Tebow had six come-from-behind fourth quarter or overtime victories this last year. Check out the top 10 Tebow plays of 2011.

None may be more exciting then what happened in the playoffs last week against Pittsburgh.

Conan O’Brien tells it even better.

Tebow has been the subject of several late night shows including David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live.

We sure had a case of the “Tebola Virus” at our house.

Hands down favorite part is the very end about the Mormons, it was awesome.

In all seriousness though, Tebow is a very humble and gracious athlete who is charitable and has an incredible work ethic and a great attitude.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Tim Tebow

www.thedailyshow.com

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Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

Wouldn’t it be nice if more athletes and celebrities acted this way?

Tebow Mania may have ended with a horrific defeat to the New England Patriots, but it sure was a fun ride while it lasted.

Temple Square With Lucy

2012-01-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

This last week I took Lucy down to Temple Square for a father daughter outing. A great time to visit Temple Square is any time the Christmas lights aren’t on. It’s a lot less crowded and you can take in more of the sights.

The Church History Museum has a children’s exhibit, which is what we really went there to see.

Lucy got on the boat that Nephi built and caught us some dinner for our journey.

We built a temple in the New World and promptly destroyed it just like it happened in Third Nephi.

Checked out some gold plates to.

Lucy says that they are very heavy.

They have a LeConte Stewart exhibit in the art portion of the museum, which Lucy could care less about but they have a computer set up where kids can color in some of his famous paintings.

For those of you who don’t know Stewart was a painter who is famous for his works of Utah rural structures and landscapes.

Like this one that Lucy painted on the computer.

I showed her the replica of the podium that is in the Conference Center and she had to get behind it and give a talk.

We then went down to the pioneer exhibit, Lucy was impressed that they used wagons and hand carts instead of cars.

She tried out the bed in the sailing ships quarters and said it was not as good as her bed.

After that I had plans on leaving but she wanted to see more stuff. I took her over to the North and South Visitors Centers, which really aren’t geared towards kids. Lucy complained that they were boring and wanted to see more kids stuff and was disappointed to find out that there wasn’t much else for little kids there.

Finally we took around the temple and climbed the steps up to the door of the temple only to find that it was locked. How disappointing.

Retirement

2012-01-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

What does my bar-b-que grill and St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa have in common? The answer is they have both participated in their last World Series.

Tony retired after managing for 32 years with the White Sox, Athletics and the Cardinals, he managed 5,067 games, winning 2,728 of those games, managing in six World Series and winning three of those, and he’s one of only two managers to manage a team that won the World Series in the National and American leagues.

I’m not sure what the stats are on my old grill but it’s been through my Grandpa, my dad and now me, it’s been around for about 15 years and unlike Tony it did not leave at the top of its game. It’s struggled to cook meat for the last few years and it was time to say good-bye.

Much like the Cardinals were in need of new manager I was in need of a new grill. We both got what we needed. The Cardinals hired a former player Mike Matheney and my dad got me a new grill for Christmas.

Both of them have one thing in common, they are inexperienced. Mike has never managed a major or minor league team and the new grill has never cooked a piece of meat. The experience isn’t a bad thing for my grill but it’s defiantly a gamble with the Cardinals and Mike Matheney. Hopefully next fall I’ll be grilling meat on the new grill while Matheney is managing St. Louis in the World Series.

Christmas Recap

2011-12-30T06:29:00.000-07:00

It was a great Christmas at our house. Everybody seemed to get what they wanted. Lucy woke up Christmas morning and was really excited to see that Santa had indeed come.

However we have church at nine o’clock so opening presents, eating breakfast and getting ready for church was going to be hard to accomplish. Luckily for us Santa left a note for Lucy telling her that she had been a good girl and he had brought her a lot of presents but he wanted her to wait till after church to open them. Lucy was okay with idea and got ready for church without much protest. When we got home the real excitement began.

Lucy got her Perry the Platypus just like she asked for. We got a lot of Perry the Platypus actually.

In addition to getting Perry, Santa also brought Perry’s friends Phineas and Ferb, The Phineas and Ferb movie, Perry Shirts for her and my self and a Perry hat.

Funny thing about the hat, Lucy got two more that day, one from her cousin Kira and another from her cousin River, we now have enough Perry hats for everyone but Jack.

It was definitely the year of the platypus at our house.

Lucy had also asked Santa for two new light sabers, he delivered twice that amount. Everyone in the family had a light saber in their stocking.

Now if only we could get Lucy to turn them off so the batteries don’t run out.

Jack got some diapers and on a more exciting note Santa brought him a Swoop University of Utah pillow pet and some Denver Broncos shirts.

Jacks stocking is a Jack Skellington stocking that my Mom finds weird but we think is pretty clever and funny.

In celebration of the Cardinals winning the World Series we got some more St. Louis stuff.

My brother Greg got me the World Series Champions shirt.

As for Ariane getting more sleep, that hasn’t happened yet. I guess there are some gifts that Santa just can’t deliver.

All I Want For Christmas

2011-12-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

With Christmas now a week a away I thought I would take a look at what everyone wants for Christmas.

With Santa appearing at several Christmas parties Lucy has been to and a trip to the mall to see him as well Lucy has had several opportunities to let Santa know what she wants for Christmas. It’s been the same thing each time, so she is at least consistent.

Lucy has asked for two new light sabers, to replace the ones that we have now which no longer light up and get stuck when they extend. I’m really excited about this present, I don’t know how much longer she will continue to embrace Star Wars like this so I figure I should ride it out as long as I can.

The other thing Lucy asks for is Perry the Platypus. You may remember him from an earlier post about one of Lucy’s favorite TV shows, Phineas and Ferb.

As far as I can tell Jack would like some more diapers. I can only assume that that is what he wants by the amount of diapers he goes through in a day. With as many as he uses he must enjoy them, so maybe Santa could bring Jack a package of diapers.

Ariane would like a good night’s rest. Since I work most nights anytime one of the kids wakes up, Ariane is forced to get up with them and handle whatever problem they are having. It’s been a pretty rough stretch the last couple of days, both kids have been several times during the night and not at the same time, so Ariane is feeling sleep deprived these days. What she really needs is both kids to sleep through the night so she can as well. I don’t know how Santa is going to pull this one off but if he could Ariane would be eternally grateful.

As for me, I feel like Christmas came back in October when the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. For those of you who don’t remember I wrote a blog post about it, you can relive the magic here. It was one of the best World Series I have ever seen and I would like to thank Santa for bringing Christmas to me early this year.

In all seriousness though, I am really grateful to be able to spend this holiday with my beautiful and sassy daughter, my loving and gorgeous wife and our brand new baby boy.

Thanks to them I am happier then I have been in a long time and the holidays aren’t as gloomy as they used to be. I like to believe that this what Lariann would want for Christmas, her family to be happy again.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Famous Fans

2011-11-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

Famous Fans: Denver Broncos Addition

Now that we are well into football season, it’s time that I presented the famous fans of my favorite football team the Denver Broncos.

Actress Jessica Biel
grew up in Boulder Colorado and when asked by ESPN if she was a fan of Colorado or LA she said, “I am definitely a Broncos fan”.

Tim Allen is most famous for his roll as Tim-The Tool Man-Taylor on “Home Improvement” where he is often seen rooting for the Detroit Lions but it turns out Tim is a Broncos fan. Tim spent lived in Colorado for a time and he even had Hall of Fame Broncos quarter back John Elway on the show.

In his latest show, Tim Allen’s character, Mike Baxter is a Broncos fan. The October 18th episode opened with Mike Baxter sitting at the table holding his grandson. While reading the paper, he points out, with a hint of frustration in his voice, that the Broncos would have won five Super Bowls if Elway had receivers like Jerry Rice. A few minutes later, while the family is discussing the grandson’s attachment to his blanket, Mike Baxter’s wife points out that everyone has something they hold on to – Mike’s being his irrational attachment to the Denver Broncos!

Patrick Warburton who is best known for his dead pan style voice has done work in animated works such as Kronk in “The Emperors New Groove”, Brock Samson on “The Venture Brothers” and Joe Swanson on “Family Guy” or from “Seinfeld” where he played one of Elian’s boy friends Puddy.

Although he was born in Kansas, Don Cheadle moved to Colorado where he graduated from Denver’s East High School. He did several commercials for the NFL promoting the Super Bowl from 2002 to 2005

Pam Grier became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's “Foxy Brown”. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film “Jackie Brown”. She also attended East High School in Denver and was a cheerleader for the Broncos at the age of 19; but quit after two months.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of “South Park” are huge Broncos fans and often reference them on the show. These guys may be the two that I am least proud of.

NASCAR driver Kyle Busch is a big Broncos fan and attends games as often as he can. Being a Broncos fan can be a little risky for him since he races for Joe Gibbs Racing, who is a former Super Bowl winning coach of the Washington Redskins. ESPN asked Kyle if to make friends with the folks at Joe Gibbs Racing, was he obliged to be a Redskins fan? Kyle responded, “No, not at all. I'm actually more of a Denver Broncos fan than anything. That's my team. I've met Rod Smith and John Elway before. It's been cool to get to know those guys.”

Quiet a bit different from the Cardinals edition, no country singers and more actors which really surprised me.

Television With Lucy

2011-11-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

It’s time for another installment of “Television With Lucy”, where we take a look at what entertains four year old.

Today we’re talking about “Wild Kratts”, a PBS show that follow the adventures of Chris and Martin Kratt and their friends as they travel the globe to study different animals. Being a PBS show this is marketed as an educational show for kids. The theme song drives Ariane nuts because it’s pretty catchy and gets stuck in her head easily.

The show is mostly cartoon but does start and end with the real Chris and Martin along with some real animals.

The cartoon portion, which is the bulk of the show, has the Kratt brothers traveling to a different part of the world to study a new animal and usually involves them saving that animal from one of the many bumbling idiot villains who have some reason for wanting to capture animal. They save the animal by using that animals “creature power” and their special creature suits.

The Kratt brothers have been doing some kind of animal themed show for PBS on and off for about the last 15 years. It’s undergone several changes moving from all live actors and animals to actors with puppets and now to mostly cartoons. I guess you gotta keep changing to keep the kids interested.

It’s defiantly not the most entertaining show for adults to watch with their kids but it occupies Lucy for a little while and is somewhat educational so I don’t feel like as bad of a parent for turning it on for her.

Photo Shoot

2011-11-13T03:35:00.005-07:00

We recently had some family pictures done. My cousin Amy came down from Idaho and was able to fit us in to her busy schedule. This time around the theme was firefighter, so I brought my bunkers and helmet from the station so we could have a few props and we all wore out firefighter shirts. I think they turned out pretty good.

Some of Lucy

We took some of Jack

And some of both the kids

We got some shots of me with the kids

And Ariane and Jack

(Lucy was finished by the time we got to this phase so no Lucy and Ariane)

Also some of the whole family

I think they turned out really good. Amy did I good job as always, she is also available for hire if you are looking for someone to take some pictures. She does great work and highly recommend her.

Now we just gotta figure out which ones should go on our wall. Let us know what you think.

The winner of the Photo Caption contest would be my brother Greg who wrote "I have herd lucy talk so I know there is NO WAY that you could put what she said into such a small box"

Jacks Blessing

2011-11-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we blessed our new baby Jack in church. This is the same outfit that my Father and I were blessed in, the booties were crocheted by Mother and that blanket was made by Larianns Grandmother.

It was about 4 and half years ago that I blessed Lucy in church. At the time Lariann had finished her radiation therapy and had begun chemotherapy for her brain tumor. I remember thinking at the time that I didn’t think that day would come; with Larianns cancer we just weren’t sure if Lucy or Lariann would be there. Fortunately we were blessed to have Lariann be healthy enough to give birth to a healthy little girl.
Last Sunday while blessing Jack I was thinking the same thing that I didn’t think this day would ever come. With Larianns cancer I was sure we wouldn’t have any more kids, it would just be to risky to ever try, and after she passed away the idea of having another child seemed impossible. Once again though I have been blessed with something that I wasn’t sure was possible.

While Ariane was pregnant I would be asked, “Do you want a boy or a girl?” My response was usually something along the lines of, “I don’t really care what it is. For the longest time I never thought I would have another child so I am just grateful to be having another baby”.
I am so grateful to have this little baby boy in my life. Two and half years ago when Lariann passed away I was as more depressed then I had ever been in my entire life and now I am so much happier then I ever could have imagined being at that time.

Caption

2011-11-05T22:50:00.000-06:00

We recently had some family photos taken (I’ll most more of those later) and we had this great shot of Lucy pointing out that the vacuum we had brought in to help quiet Jack down was sucking up a burp cloth. We thought it looked pretty funny and wanted to have a caption contest, so insert what you think would be funny for Lucy to be saying.

Halloween

2011-11-01T00:14:00.000-06:00

It was a great Halloween for us this year; we’ve sure had a lot of fun this October.

It started out with our annual trip to Firghtmares at Lagoon with our friends Tiffany and Brandon Hopkins and their kids and also Marc & Hali Lunt and their two kids.

Marc’s mom Lori was nice enough to come along and watch kids so we could ride some adult rides. Since Ariane was pregnant all summer this was the first time all year she was able to ride some rides.

Lucy wanted to go as Tinkerbell this year, and with her blonde hair I’d say she makes a pretty good one.

Ariane worked really hard trying to get Lucy’s hair into a perfect bun.

We went to Lucy’s pre-school for their Halloween program which included a costume parade and some songs.

My favorites were the Storm trooper and the kid dressed as a roll of toilet paper but I was also told he may be a marshmallow instead.

We also took the time to carve a few pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.

Nothing fancy but I think they turned out pretty good.

Jack went as a jack-in-the-box. It was fairly easy to do we just took a box, made it look fancy and placed him in it. The perfect costume for the boy that doesn’t care if he’s wearing and isn’t even aware that he’s in a costume.

We also thought it would be fun to put him in one of the jack-o-lanterns and take some pictures of him.

We went to my sister in law Rachel’s church for trunk-or-treat with Rachel and her kids.

After which we hit our neighbor hood and really raked in the candy. I’ve already helped my self to some of Lucy’s candy, I feel like I earned it since I took her trick-or-treating.

Lets not forget that the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series this October as well, making this one of the best Octobers ever.

The World Series

2011-10-29T00:02:00.001-06:00

Another World Series is in the books and this time my favorite team the St. Louis Cardinals won making it 11 championships for the Cards. This one feels extra special though since the Cards made huge comebacks and overcame a lot to get there and win it all. In August they were 10 and a half games out of the playoffs and managed, thanks to the Atlanta Braves collapse, sneak in. They beat the Philadelphia Phillies, the best team in baseball during the regular season, in the divisional series, the Milwaukee Brewers, champions of the National Leagues Central Division, in the National League Championship Series and then finally the Texas Rangers in the World Series. It’s been one crazy ride.

We made sure to have Jack already for his first World Series in his new Cardinals outfit.

We had a lot of family over to watch the games including my parents, the Evans’s and Arianes parents.

Some of my favorite moments from the series were when Albert Pujols hit three home runs in game three.

He’s only the third player in baseball history to do that in a World Series, Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth are the others.

Chris Carpenter diving to first base to get the out in game one.

When Allen Craig robbed the rangers of a home run.

The best moments though came from game 6, if you missed watching it then you missed one of the greatest baseball games ever. The Cards won in 11 innnings thanks to a triple in the 9th inning by David Freese and his walk off homer in the 11th.

After which his teammates mobbed him and tore his jersey off his back.

All leading to the win in game seven.

After winning it all the Cardinals like to pile on each other and spray champagne on each other. I prefer to run around outside waving my Cardinals flag and cheering loudly.

What a season and it was the best World Series I have ever seen.

Television With Lucy

2011-10-21T06:14:00.001-06:00

As a parent I have discovered that I end up watching a lot of what my child watches. Some of the shows are more entertaining than others. I feel that it is my duty as a parent to let other parents know about kids shows that are not annoying.

One of the shows that Lucy loves that Ariane and I also find entertaining is “Phineas and Ferb”. The show is made by Disney and involves two step brothers Phineas and Ferb who are able to build just about anything and then along with their friends go on crazy adventures, while all the while their older sister Candice tries to expose what they are doing to their mother, busting them, but before their Mom sees whatever it is they have made somehow manages to be gone before she can see it.

Perry is the boys pet platypus who unbeknownst to them is also a secret agent, agent P, who has regular battles with the evil but incompetent Dr. Doofenshmirtz. He’s also Lucy’s favorite character on the show. Check it out.

Arianes favorite part of the show is the music. In the tradition of classic Disney cartoons and movies every episode has a different musical number. The tunes are very catchy
Lucy’s favorite is the “Gitchee Gitchee Goo” from the episode Phineas and the Ferb-Tones, where the boys create their own one hit wonder.

Arianes favorite song is “Hey Ferb” from the episode “Musical Roller Coaster”. She prides herself in being able to identify every musical they parody in the song.

My favorite song is the “Perry the Platypus” theme song.

The show has gotten very popular and now has segments on Disney Channel and on line called “Take Two With Phineas and Ferb” where the boys interview various celebrities like Regis Philbin, Andy Samberg, Tony Hawk and Taylor Sift, just to name a few.

We find the show witty and funny, if you are a parent looking for a show for the kids to watch that won't annoy you or if your just a bored adult with nothing better to do, “Phineas and Ferb” may be just what you are looking for.

Holy War 2011

2011-09-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we got together at the Evans house to watch the annual “Holy War”, everyone had on their best Ute gear.

Here’s Lucy and her cousin Kira enjoying the big game. Kira still struggles with posing for pictures but Lucy really gets into posing now.

And here we have myself and my sister in law Rachel holding Jack and Cooper with Liz sitting next to us. The latter three all have about the same interest in the game.

I think Liz and I could have a future doing the play by play and color commentary for football games.

I really appreciate Jake Heaps and the other cougars doing their best to help the Utes win the game.

Thanks for the SEVEN turn overs guys, you really made my weekend.

Preschool

2011-09-14T18:07:00.000-06:00

Lucy had her first day of preschool last week. She is going to my Aunt Jennifer’s preschool Little Feet. Lucy was really excited, when we got there she asked, “Can I go to school every year?” I told her, “You will be going to school for many years to come.” That made her pretty excited; we’ll see if she’s still excited about that in five or six years.

I think it’s really cute that she has to bring a back pack to school with her every day in though she never puts anything in it. Every paper and drawing she brings home can’t go in the bag because she wants to show them to us and hold it in the car.

Our little girl is getting so big.

Here's Jack

2011-09-01T19:02:00.000-06:00

Jack was born yesterday at 9:38 pm. He is 8lbs 13ozs and 21inches long.
Here’s Ariane before she began the process.

She was in pretty good spirits.

After 12 hours of labor though she was pretty tired.

But we had this cute little guy so it was worth it. Here he is about a minute after being born.

Ariane felt much better the next day.

My parents are really happy to have another grandson and so are the other two sets of grandparents, I just failed to get pictures of the Stevens and Evans when they came up to visit us.

Arianes sister Chelsea has also been up several times to see her and Jack.

Lucy’s really excited to be a big sister and to see her Mom again.

We’re way excited to have this little guy as part of our family now.

Pregnant Ariane

2011-08-31T07:03:00.001-06:00

Ariane is a week over due, she was supposed to go in last night to start the birthing process but McKay Dee Hospital called last night and said there wasn’t room and we should come back at 7:30 a.m. The hospital called at 6:00 a.m. this morning to tell us that they had a lot of spontaneous births last night and there still wasn’t room. They told us that they would call again at 8:00 a.m. to let us know when we could come up.

So while we await the boys arrival please enjoy these last few pictures of pregnant Ariane.

This last picture also reveals what we’ve decided to name the boy. Ariane thought this shirt she made was hilarious, I was embarrassed to be seen in public with her in that shirt. Thanks everyone for all of your votes on our various polls. You loyal viewers of our blog have spoken and we have decided to name the boy Jack.

Hopefully sometime today we will make it to the hospital and get this baby out of Ariane.

Manly Names: Star Wars Bonus Round

2011-08-25T16:59:00.000-06:00

Jack defeated the other three finalists to take the victory in the manly name contest. However due to protests from some of my loyal readers, particularly Cole Brock, and the fact that Ariane still hasn’t had the baby and probably won’t until next week I’ve decided to proceed with a bonus “Star Wars” round.

There are six “Star Wars” movies so there should be six characters one representing each of the “Star Wars” movies. Let’s begin.

From Episode I Qui Gon Jinn: The wise Jedi who’s trying to teach Obi Wan about the force while trying to save Queen Amidala and the planet of Naboo from the trade federation when he discovers Aniken Skywalker and has to fight the Sith lord Darth Maul. The man has a lot on this plate and completing three out of his four tasks successfully is pretty good.

From Episode II Jango Fett: The bounty hunter who was so great that they decided to clone him into an entire army.

From Episode III Mace Windu: Samuel L. Jackson plays the bad @$$ leader of the Jedi. Though he meats an untimely end in this movie he is still one manly Jedi.

From Episode IV Obi Wan Kenobi: He also had major roles in the first three movies but when he hits this movie he is the wise Jedi master who pushes Luke Skywalker towards his destiny. In the other movies he proves himself quite tough and manly by fighting and defeating multiple Sith Lords, droid armies and bounty hunters.

From Episode V Lando Calrissian: He’s one smooth scoundrel, played by Billy Dee Williams he makes betraying your best friend seems almost cool. In the end though Lando mans up, rescues his friend and helps defeat the Empire.

From Episode VI Luke Skywalker: I know in the first movie he’s whinny brat and in Empire he gets his butt kicked pretty good and accidently makes out with his sister. But by the time “Return of the Jedi” hits Luke is ready to kick some butt.

Ariane will be induced on Tuesday if she doesn’t have the boy before then, so this may be the last pole. Vote now.

Redecorating: Lucy's Bedroom Edition

2011-08-23T05:30:00.001-06:00

With the new baby coming (hopefully sooner rather than later for Ariane's sake) we needed to re locate Lucy to a new bedroom so the baby could be closer to us.

So we cleaned out the bedroom next to our family room and got it ready for its new tenant. Here’s what we started with.

Ariane’s Mom and her brother Jeff came over one night and helped paint Lucy’s new room.

My Dad also came over and helped us clean carpets and do some touch up in the room. We painted most of the room Pooh Corner which is a very light green (I thought with a name like that it should have been a dark brown) and one accent wall was painted Tinkerbell Green, which is a darker green.

The room turned out really nice, it’s got a bunch of shelves to put toys, books and other nic nacs on.

It also has a small ledge going around two walls of the room which we used to stack stuff on as well. We replaced the dingy old dark green valance with an aqua blue sheer valance with a decorative rod.

We had a Tinkerbell theme for one wall of the room. We got some wall stickers of Tinkerbell and her friends and put a bunch of her Tinkerbell stuff on the shelf on that wall.

It turned out really cute and Lucy is so excited to have her new room.

Manly Names: The Final Four

2011-08-20T23:27:00.000-06:00

It’s now less then a week till Arianes due date. The doctor told her she shows no signs of going into labor any time soon. So that means it’s time for another one of these polls about the baby’s name.
We have the final four for the Manly Names. I’ve discussed in depth what’s great about these names, but now lets discus some of the draw backs to each of the remaining names. It’s down to the following:

JERMAIN: The name of Weber States star point guard but also the name of Michael Jackson's less famous brother who sung with him in the group the Jackson Five. Not sure I want a name that is associated with Michael Jackson some how.

GASTON: He may be manly but the country he is from is not. In the last 100 years they’ve been beaten in two world wars and the only good things they’ve given us are the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and that horny skunk Pepe Le Pew.

MAVERICK: Sure it’s the same name used by the cowboy Mel Gibson played and the navy fighter pilot that Tom Cruise played, but lets face it those two guys don’t enjoy the best reputation anymore. From arrests to acting crazy on talk shows, these guys don’t have the same great reputation they used to.

JACK: A lot of good things about this name but lets not forget it’s also associated with a brand of whiskey, slang for a donkey and a certain movie trilogy (which I love but other find it offensive).

So given those draw backs let us know which manly name from our final four you think the boy should have. Hopefully he’ll come soon so we can stop doing these stupid posts and get back to what’s really important, my half baked ideas.

Manly Names: Sports Edition

2011-08-11T05:14:00.000-06:00

Another week has passed and the boy still isn’t here. That leaves two more weeks until the due date is upon us. After Ariane visited her doctor this week it doesn’t look good for the boy’s early arrival. So we’ll have another poll to help decide on a manly name.

Jack really dominated the poll last week. This week’s poll will be manly sports names or names from some of my favorite players. Perhaps the names themselves aren’t the manliest of names but the accomplishments of these men are what makes the name itself manly.

REGGIE: The shooting guard for the Indiana Pacers, Reggie Miller was a very exciting player who was known for his three point shooting, his trash talking and taunting Spike Lee. He was a five time All-Star, played in an NBA Finals and won two Olympic Gold Medals with team USA. Pacer would make an interesting name though I am a Jazz fan first and I don’t want to give people the wrong impression.

JERMAINE: The name of the point guard who played for Weber State while I was a student there. He led the Wildcats to an undefeated regular season in the Big Sky Conference, helped the team to a conference championship, a trip to the NCAA tournament and was named to the Weber State Basketball All-Decade Team. I think Wildcat would also be a cool name for the boy.

OZZIE: The Hall of Fame short stop for the St. Louis Cardinals and my favorite baseball player when I was a kid. Ozzie Smith was a 15 time All-Star, won the Gold Glove Award 13 times, a Silver Slugger Award, NLCS MVP and a World Series Champion. Cardinal just doesn’t seem like a manly enough name for the boy, I mean it is a pretty little bird after all.

JOHN: John Elway was my favorite football player when I was a kid and also as a young adult. He was the quarterback of the Denver Broncos for 15 years. During that time he was nine time pro bowl selection, played in 5 Super Bowls winning two, a Super Bowl MVP and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bronco would be a very manly too, but I don’t want people thinking that I named the boy for the coach of the team down south, if you know what I mean.

ALEX: Smith was the quarter back for the University of Utah when they won the Fiesta Bowl in 2005. He was 21-1 as a starter, Mountain West Conference Player of the Year in 2004 and the first overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft. Ute would be a really cool first name and it’s short so it would go well with a long last name like Bredthauer.

Who knows how many of these ridiculous polls we have left? Ariane hopes this is the last one but I guess we will see.

Manly Names: Lucy Edition

2011-08-03T05:13:00.000-06:00

It looks like Gaston took the vote for “Manly Villain Name” Though it was very close with Megatron. With three weeks left till the due date I’ll keep pressing on in my search for a manly name for the boy. Our next category is “Manly Names: The Lucy Edition” or in other words names that Lucy has wanted to name the boy and they are creative.

LIGHTNING: Lucy has loved the movie “Cars” for as long as she can remember. So of course this has at one time been a name she wanted her new brother to have. However given the boys gene pool he won’t be called Lightning for his speed but possibly for sticking his hand in a light socket. Perhaps McQueen could be the first name or we could call him Lightning McBredthauer, it would make people wonder if we were Scottish or German.

R2-D2: Her favorite character from “Star Wars”. We always have to have a “Star Wars” character in these polls. It would be easy to learn to spell and with a last name like Bredthauer and easy first name can really come in handy.

PHINEAS: From Lucy’s current favorite show “Phineas and Ferb” produced by Disney. Phineas is pictured below with his pet platypus Perry. I know it’s not the manliest name, but it is what Lucy wants. The show revolves around these two kids Phineas and Ferb who are step brothers and they build all kinds of crazy stuff and have all kinds of adventures. Araine finds the show witty and funny, Lucy finds it entertaining.

JACK: Lucy likes this name because it is the name of one of her favorite movie characters, Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. It may be a semi scary movie but she loves it. I how ever think we should name him Jack after the famous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow and Arianes grandpa was named Jack as well. We could name him Jack S Bredthauer and the S could stand for Skellington, Sparrow or Stevens depending on which one of us you talk to.

Not as many names this time but enough that we can get an idea of what you like based on what Lucy likes. Let us know which one or ones you like and be sure to vote. If the boy hasn’t come by next week we will have another poll up.

Manly Names: Villain Edition

2011-07-27T02:12:00.004-06:00

Ariane is now entering that last four weeks of her pregnancy, or at least she hopes she is. We’ll just wait and see if the boy decides to stay in an extra week or so.

Having still not settled on a name it’s time for another poll. We’ll consider the last poll the Manly Names: Heroes Edition, where Maverick really cleaned house in the polls. That makes this one the Villains Edition. So here are some of our favorite manly villains. Disney characters seem to dominate this one, but that’s because Disney creates such memorable villains. Here is the next set of names in no particular order.

GASTON: There’s no one in town half as manly as you can see he’s got biceps to spare. He is defiantly one of the manliest of Disney villains. No one's slick as Gaston, no one's quick as Gaston and no one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston's. All qualities every man would want. The drawback is he’s defiantly lacking in the brains department. But on the plus side every last inch of him is covered in hair.

VOLDEMORT: I’m sure with the popularity of the Harry Potter movies and books this name is going to really take off. We could even refer to the boy as He Who Must Not Be Named, though that may get a little long when paired with Bredthauer.

JAFFAR: This gives us some ethnicity. It would really throw people off when they ask where his family is descended from and the boy tells them Germany. We would need to get an obnoxious parrot to go with the name and I'm not sure how long I can put with that.

DARTH: I can’t have a name list without someone from Star Wars being on it or in this case two someone’s. His middle name would be based on who ever we chose to name him after, either Vader or Maul.

MEGATRON: He is the leader of the Decepticons in the Transformers movies and cartoon show. He’s a pretty bad dude but he’s never r been able to finish of the Autobots and really put them away. He’s kind of a failure but you’ve got to admire his tenacity, every time he flees you here him yell, “Next time Prime” (referring to Optimus Prime, his arch nemesis) The guy just doesn’t know how to quit.

COBRA COMMANDER: We would just call him Cobra; maybe make Commander his middle name. Leader of a group of military terrorists from the G.I. Joe cartoon show and movie. Same story as Megatron, leader of an evil group and he can’t seem to beat the good guys but always promises to be back again. For the record this movie was terrible so that is another drawback. This name does have the snake that we could use instead and drop the Commander from the middle name. It is one of the most poisonous snakes in the world.

SCAR: I’ve always wondered why his parents named him this. Was he born with a scar, did they not name until after he had the scar, did he get the scar during delivery or is it just a coincidence? Either way it would force me to give the boy some kind of scar on his face which may be borderline child abuse, but maybe it doesn’t count if you name your kid Scar and you are just helping him live up to his name sake.

There you have it, our manly names for villains. Let us know which one you like and we’ll let you know of the boy arrives early; otherwise we’ll see how many of those polls we can do in the next four weeks.

Lucys First Stiches

2011-07-24T23:15:00.000-06:00

The other afternoon I was working at the fire station when I got a call from Ariane, who told me that Lucy had fallen in the bathtub hitting her chin on the metal part of the shower door. She said it was bleeding pretty bad and looked pretty deep. I told her to come by the station and I would check it out. After looking at it we decided Lucy would need some stitches.

We went out to the Insta Care in Layton and the nurse agreed it would need stitches. They numbed her up pretty good but Lucy still cried a lot, I think she was more scared then in pain.

The doctor and nurse were really good and both very patient with our scared little girl. They were really quick, we still had time to make it up to my cousin Carries wedding reception. Here she is four stitches later.

Lucy is really falling (no not following) in her mother’s footsteps. Lariann also had stitches right underneath her chin when she was a little girl, must be a genetic thing.

Redecorating: Family Room Edition

2011-07-16T02:12:00.001-06:00

I was inspired by the recent blog post of my friends Dave and Kristen about their recent redecorating. I decided to chronicle the redecorating efforts of Ariane and myself.

Our home décor has always been a difficult subject for Ariane and I. She would prefer each room to have a simple theme with only a few things on the wall. I prefer to have various family pictures and much of my sports memorabilia displayed. Over the course of the last year we have negotiated much of how the house is decorated.

The family room became a sore subject for us. I wanted to have some of my sports stuff up but Ariane wanted a theme in the room, so her compromise was to make the theme for our family room a sports theme. At first I was sure it was a trick of some sorts but as it turns out the only catch is, this would be the only room in the house that has sports stuff displayed. I was totally on board with the plan. I’ve actually had family pictures taken with us wearing our sports gear, so that way is still within the theme of the family room.

My St. Louis Cardinals stuff remained where it was and Ariane gave it a few improvements.

We used one wall for the Utah Jazz. We even purchased a few new pennants so we could display the evolution of the Jazz logo.

The Denver Broncos wall hanging that had been in our bedroom made its way down on to the Broncos wall.

I have a pretty good sized collection of baseball pennants that I have been collecting since I was a kid. There were too many to display so I hung up the ones from baseball stadiums that I have been to.

And of course the Los Angeles Clippers sign hanging over the door that leads down to the basement, perhaps a little poetic since the Clippers find themselves in the NBAs basement quite often.

Why the Clippers? Well what can I say? I feel bad for them.

The only thing left is to find a spot for the University of Utah and Weber State. I’ll keep working on it.

Manly Names

2011-07-04T00:31:00.001-06:00

As many of you know Arianes due date is coming up at the end of August so we only have about six or seven weeks to come with a truly MANLY name for the boy.

THOR- This one is for my brother Greg who is really pushing for this name, I’m sure my brother in-law John and his wife Liz would be on board for this name too.

RAMBO- Technically his first name is John but we could go with Rambo for a first name. Sylvester Stallone could work if we only used his last name for the boys first name, just like with Rambo.

ROOSTER- A manly cowboy with an eye patch, we could also use John Wayne as well but I think I would pass on Jeff Bridges for a name.

MAVERICK-We could name the boy after the pilot in “Top Gun” played by Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise is too crazy to name the boy after. He could also be named for the cowboy character Mel Gibson played; I don’t know that Mel’s name is good enough these days after all the trouble he’s been in. Or we could name him after the team that won the NBA championship the year he was born, then we could decorate his room in a Dallas Mavericks theme, however I’m not a big Dallas fan so that seems pretty unlikely.

WOLVERINE- The character played by Hugh Jackman, though Hugh does not make it to our manly list, or the animal itself. Either way you look at it it’s manly.

HERCULES- One of the oldest manly names around could be for the Disney cartoon character, the mythological Greek character or the character played by Kevin Sorbo. Sorry Kevin your names not quite manly enough to be considered.

INDIANA- This might be my favorite movie character of all time. Played by Harrison Ford who’s name could be considered manly enough for this list, not quite on the same level as John Wayne since Harrison in real life is kind of a hippie.

HAN- Han Solo is the most manly character from “Star Wars”, he’s a reluctant hero, a rogue, a scoundrel and he’s been described as a space cowboy, how cool is that? Chewbacca was also considered to represent the “Star Wars” franchise but let’s face it that would just be ridiculous when paired with Bredthauer.

Please vote and let us know what name you think is MANLY enough for the boy. Just because a name wins doesn’t necessarily mean that we will use it, but I will try my hardest to convince Ariane.

Famous Fans

2011-06-08T06:03:00.006-06:00

Famous Fans: St. Louis Cardinals Addition.

A lot of teams have famous fans, the lakers attract celebrities in droves, yankees games are always a hot spot to find celebrities, Jerry Seinfeld attends mets games and even the L.A. clippers have Billy Crystal .

Here’s a look at the celebrities, who like myself support the Cardinals.

John Goodman (Actor) - A St. Louis native, John was raised as a Cardinals fan. He is often seen at home games in St. Louis, as well as Spring Training games in Jupiter, Florida (as seen in the picture). John is also an investor in a sports station in St. Louis - 550 KTRS.

Gretchen Wilson (Country Music Singer) - She grew up listening to Cardinals games with her grandpa. She sang the National Anthem at one of the World Series games in 2004, and even released "Redbird Fever," a Cardinals version of her hit "Redneck Woman."

Billy Bob Thornton (Actor) - A native of Arkansas, Billy Bob grew up a Cardinals fan. He also narrated the Cardinals 2006 World Series DVD. He played in the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in 2009 as part of the All Star game played in St. Louis. Also threw out the first pitch at a Cardinals game.

Sara Evans (Country Music Singer) - She was born and raised in Booneville, Missouri. On her new album, Real Fine Place, she has a song titled "Missing Missouri." The lyrics include: “Tobacco fields and bubble bees, And the Cardinals playing on TV, Caught up in missing Missouri”. She also has sung the national anthem at Cardinals games and God Bless America at the 2009 All Star game in St. Louis(pictured).

Joe Nichols (Country Music Singer) - Is a long time Cardinals fan. He has also sung the national anthem and God Bless America at several Cardinals games.

Nelly (Rapper) - Born and raised a fan, Nelly often wears apparel featuring St. Louis sports teams. One of his videos was even shot at Busch Stadium and featured then-Cardinals second baseman Fernando Vina. Nelly also participated in the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in 2009 and also thrown out a first pitch before a Cardinals game (pictured).

Jenna Fischer (Actress) – A St. Louis native, she grew up cheering for the Cardinals and also played in the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in 2009 (pictured).

There they are, the famous Cardinals fans. Some country, Some acting and a little bit of rap.

Centennial Fire Department

2011-05-27T06:29:00.000-06:00

This last month the Kaysville Fire Department had its Centennial Celebration. I feel very fortunate to be part of an organization with such a long proud history.

To celebrate we had a banquet at the fire station. We invited anyone who had ever worked for the fire department and their spouses. There was a pretty good turnout, around 200 people showed up, including quite a few old timers, a few of which were pushing 100 years the selves. Kaysville city had it catered and the Farmington Fire Department came out to serve us.

Ariane and myself with Angie and James Wade.

The fire department was officially organized on May 4, 1911. The first piece off firefighting equipment, other than the standard bucket brigade, was a hose cart reel purchased for $75. Similar to the one pictured here. A small shed was placed on the old Relief Society grounds on Main Street to house the hose cart and fire hose.

Their first fire engine was made out of an old Hudson car in 1922. It had a water tank, a pump and a hose. They used this until 1929 when an American LaFrance Pumper truck was purchased, similar to the one pictured here. It was the beginning of a long line of different fire engines and trucks.

The Emergency Medical Service First Responder Program began in 1986. The department did not have an ambulance at this time; it was operated by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office. They would respond to calls and assist the Sheriff’s Department on medicals.

We no longer push a hose cart or build our own fire engines out of old cars. Our station is now a nice state of the art building with five bays that house two engines, one ladder truck, three ambulances, two brush trucks, one heavy rescue truck and a hazardous materials trailer instead of an old shed with one hose cart and 500 feet of hose. We have our own ambulances now and don’t rely on the county to provide one for us. The one thing that hasn’t changed in the last one hundred years is the dedication and bravery of the firefighters.

My engine Company. From L-R My Self (Firefighter Scott Boomer Bredthauer), Captain James (Jimmy) Dotson Jr., Firefighter Keri Harwood, Engineer David Snowball and Firefighter Jared Harvey

Eastern Kentucky University

2011-05-17T05:04:00.000-06:00

This week I have started graduate school at Eastern Kentucky University. No, this does not mean that we are moving to Kentucky it’s an on-line program. I am pursuing a master’s degree in Safety, Security and Emergency Management with an emphasis in Fire and Emergency Services. It looks like a pretty good program. I do two classes a semester each running six to eight weeks long, I do one right after the other that way I don’t have to take them concurrently. I should be done in two years.

This will be a really new experience for me. I only took two on-line classes while I was at Weber State, botany and a social work class, and I didn’t take them very seriously. Now to be doing two years worth of nothing but on-line classes will be a real change for me as well as the fact that I haven’t had a college class since 2006. I have some adjusting to do.

I choose this school because I felt that this degree could help me move with Church Security and with the Kaysville Fire Department. I liked the idea of doing a degree on-line so that I could attend class when it was convenient for me.

A little bit about EKU or “Eastern” as the locals call it. It is located in Richmond, KY and was founded in 1906. Its colors are maroon and white and the mascot is the colonel. I think he bears a little resemblance to the Kentucky Fried Chicken guy. They play in the Ohio Valley Conference. Some notable alumni include, Dan Patrick - Sports caster and writer, Laura Kirkpatrick - Runner up of “America's Next Top Model” Cycle 13 and Rex Ryan - Head coach of the New York Jets. I am in good company here.

If all goes as planned in two years I will be receiving my master’s degree in Richmond, KY.

Mothers Day

2011-05-09T18:58:00.002-06:00

Mothers Day has become very bitter sweet around our place. Lariann passed away around this time of year two years ago. It still pains me that Lariann is not able to rais her daughter and that Lucy will not really ever know her mother. We went to the cemetery to put flowers on her grave. Araine, Lucy and I each put one flower in the vase at her grave for Mothers Day.

I am very grateful for the time we had together and I still love her so much.

Also this year my Grandmother passed away a few days before Mothers Day. Grandma Nelson was a great lady. We both shared a love for Pepsi. I have so many great memories of spending time with her up in Oakley Idaho and more recently when she came down here to live in Kaysville at an assisted living center for about the last three years. I lived really close so I would try to get over to see hear as often as I could but maybe not as often as I should. Lucy got the chance to get to know Grandma Great, as we called her. I had the wonderful chance to say good bye to her in the hospital the night before she passed away. Before I left the hospital I asked her, “Will you tell Lariann how much I love her and that I miss her?” Grandma looked me and said, “I will”. She was such a great lady and she will be missed.

With this bitter we still have a lot of sweet to be happy for. I have several wonderfull mothers in my life.

My mother in law Carrie, Arianes Mom, is a great lady who loves Lucy like she is one of her own grand children. We didn’t get a chance to see her this mothers day as she is with her son John and his wife Emily who graduated this weekend from college at the University of Northern Colorado.

Her other grandkids call her “Nanny”, but Lucy calls her “Manny” and Carrie thinks it’s hilarious.

My mother in law Lorain who we have great relationship with and still a lot of, Lorain still treats me like I am her son and Ariane is her daughter in law.

It’s really great how wonderful she is with everything, she just as excited as mine and Arianes mothers about our new baby.

My own mother who I know is really hurting these after losing her own Mom but puts on such a brave face for all of us. She is most wonderful Mother I could ask for.

She has given us so much help, support and love. I love her so much and am so grateful for her.

Finally my wife Ariane who I love with all my heart, she is such a great woman. She loves Lucy like she is her own daughter and if you ask her she will tell you that Lucy is her daughter.

I’m so happy to have Ariane in my life. She has made our house a home again and we are so happy to have her.

Easter 2001

2011-04-29T23:32:00.000-06:00

I know it was a week ago but I am just now getting around to putting up the Easter pictures

Lucy was a little confused about what the Easter Bunny does exactly. When she got up Sunday morning she came into our room and told us what he was going to bring her, which was mostly a lot of toys. She seems to think that he operates much like Santa. After I explained that the Easter Bunny doesn’t bring a lot, if any toys mostly just candy she had a break down. Once she calmed down and went and found her Easter basket she seemed to forget all her previous concerns.

She did get a small toy and a movie in her basket in addition to all the candy, special thanks to my brother-in-law Devin who got us a bunch of candy for free from his work, you rock man.
There was also a new outfit for her.

Lucy and Ariane went up to put some new flowers on Larianns tomb stone, along with Grandma and Grandpa Evans.

After church we went up to Ariane’s parents where the Easter Bunny had hidden many eggs for Lucy and her two cousins to find. Another special thanks for my sister-in-law Chelsea who put candy in all the plastic eggs for the kids to find. Here are some pictures of Lucy and River hunting for eggs, not pictured is her other cousin Liam who was off somewhere away from the girls.

We had a really fun Easter and I will try to explain to Lucy about the Independence Day celebration before she expects Uncle Sam to come through our door passing gifts.

Star Wars Parenting

2011-04-24T00:04:00.005-06:00

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away……
Or rather several months ago in this galaxy…

My cousin Sarah sent me a link to this video. I think it has a very important mesasge, so please watch it before you read the rest of the post.

I have taken this video to heart and have immersed my Lucy into the “Star Wars” universe.

I have shown her all six of the “Star Wars” movies. She watches and enjoys them, but there are parts of the movies where there just isn’t enough happening to keep a small child’s attention. So I got Lucy her own “Star Wars” movie. It’s an animated CGI movie called “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”. It’s a little faster paced with more action just what a little girl needs to keep her attention.

“Star Wars” is also in fashion at our house, Lucy has several “Star Wars” shirts and Ariane has even gotten in on it as well.

For last Halloween you may recall that Lucy requested we be “Star Wars”, so we went as Jedi Knight and Padawan.

Lucy asked to have a “Star Wars” party this year, so I went all out with table cloths, cups, and plates even a Darth Vader to hang on the door. Lucy’s aunt Liz was nice enough to make an R2-D2 cake for her. I'd also like to thank my friends Marc and Hali for going and buying "Star Wars" shirst for their whole family just for this occasion.

Speaking of Aunt Liz, her and Uncle John gave Lucy some “Star Wars” pancake shapers for this last Christmas. Lucy loves having pancakes shaped like the Millennium Falcon and an X-Wing fighter. How ever she refuses to eat the Tie Fighter saying she doesn’t want to eat the bad guy’s ship. Maybe it doesn’t taste as good, who knows?

While in Disneyland Lucy got to meet some “Star Wars” characters, she thought the Storm Troopers were the best, she said they were funny and were nice to her.

She did not say the same things about Darth Maul, she said he was mean and scary.

Lucy and I enjoy playing “Star Wars together as well. We have light saber fights and she as some of her own action figures, because mine are too nice to let a small child play with.

Lucy thinks it’s great when we play “Star Wars" on the Nintendo. We have the “Lego Star Wars” game for our Wii. Mostly it’s me playing the game while she holds the paddle and jumps around thinking she is playing as well. Hey what ever makes her happy?

Her favorite character is R2-D2. She's really cute when she prettends to be R2 and runs around the house making beeping, whining and whirring noises to try and imitate R2-D2

Her least favorite character is Darth Vader, though Darth Maul seems to be a close second. She refuses to play with the Darth Vader toy, which is then who I usually end up playing with, and has so far tried to throw him away and give him away to other kids. I hang on to him just incase she changes her mind.

I’m doing everything I can to make sure Jar Jar Binks is NOT her favorite character and trying to get her like Darth Vader more then Jar Jar Binks

Judging by the evidence here and I say I'm doing a prett good job of teaching Lucy all about "Star Wars".

Oh Boy!

2011-04-09T11:53:00.000-06:00

Ariane had a visit with the obstetrician last week and we found out that we are having a boy. Arinae was surprised she thought the baby would be a girl and Lucy was angry when we told her the baby would be a little brother. She really wanted a sister and she has been trying all kinds of ways to change it into a sister. We still have about 20 more weeks to get her used to the idea that the baby will be a boy.

As for me, I’m just excited to be having another baby. There was a time that I was certain that Lucy would be my only child. I had no feelings either way, I’m just happy to be expanding my family again.

Now we can hand down all the baseball and other sports shirts that I bought for Lucy to our new son. If you’re in need of ideas for gifts remember my favorite teams are the St. Louis Cardinals, Denver Broncos, Utah Jazz, Weber State Wildcats & Utah Utes. Also anything firefighter themed would also be awesome.

So now we can open it up to any and all name suggestions for boys. I look forward to turning your ideas down.

If we don’t pick your name remember: Your ideas are very important to us. However we have decided to go in a different direction. We look forward to working with you again in the future.

Final Four

2011-03-16T04:04:00.000-06:00

It’s one of my favorite times of the year again, the NCAA mens basketball tournament. I’ve taken four days off so I can devote myself to watching college hoops all day with being interrupted by things like work and sleep.

Here are my picks for this years Final Four

Kansas Jayhawks

Florida Gators

Ohio State Buckeyes

Duke Blue Devils

I have the Buckeyes and Jayhawks in the championship game with Kansas winning it all.

Here are some other "Four" teams from the tournament

Four teams I'd like to see do well

Clemson Tigers

I was there on my mission

Utah State Aggies

Like to pull for the local teams

San Diego State Aztecs

From the old Mountain West Conference

Arizona Wildcats

From the new PAC 12 Confrence

Four teams I'd like to see loose ASAP

byu cougars

Always hated them

Kentucky wildcats

Utes never beat them

Michigan Wolverines

Never have liked them much

Richmond Spiders

I can't stand spiders

Four weirdest mascots

Indiana State Sycamores

A tree, really?

UC Santa Barbra Gauchos

A Mexican Cowboy

Akron Zips

No idea what that is

Saint Peter’s Peacocks

Possible the least feared mascot in the tournament

Four teams that use the Wildcat as their mascot

The most common mascot in this year’s tournament

Villanova

Arizona

Kentucky

Kansas State

Four teams I wish had made it into the tournament this year

Weber State Wildcats

My alma mater

Utah Utes

I’ve always been a fan of them

Eastern Kentucky Colonels

Doing some on-line grad school there

South Carolina Gamecocks

Was there on my mission

What are your picks, who are your likes and dislikes?

Let all of us know what you think.

The Holy Grail

2011-02-17T23:44:00.009-07:00

Last week Ariane and I went to see the musical “Spamalot” at Kingsbury Hall. We went with my brother in law John and his wife Liz and my sister in law Rachel and her husband Devin. The Evans family really loves this musical, Lariann and I went with her parents and Rachel and Devin about 3 years ago when it was playing at the Capitol theater.

It’s based on the 1975 British comedie movie “Monty Python and The Holy Grail” or as they put it, "A new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture "Monty Python and the Holy Grail""It’s pretty funny, though the humor is a little crude.

Coincidently my brother in law Jeff was cast in this same musical last August, in a theater in Maine.

He played Patsy the humble servant of King Arthur, who was played by Charles Shaughnessy, who starred as the Dad on "The Nanny" and is also on “Mad Men", but I can’t verify that since I’ve never seen either of those shows.

Here’s a peak at the musical that ran in Maine.

The movie “Monty Python and The Holy Grail” was one that my friends and I in high school enjoyed watching over and over and also quoted it over and over. I even showed it to my cousins Sarah and Melanie when they were in high school, they both loved it.

The movie isn’t a musical but there is one song in it. I hope you enjoy “Knights of The Round Table” from “Monty Python and The Holy Grail."

While the movie never won an academy award, though for the life of me I can’t figure out why, “Spamalot” won three Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 2004–2005 season. Ariane and I had a really good time and the musical was great.

Places You Aren't Allowed To Visit

2011-02-16T03:41:00.009-07:00

I ran across this video one day on MSN, it it is the "Top 10 Places You Aren't Allowed To Visit" as I watched I discovered one of the places on the list I have visited before.

So watch the video and see if you can guess which one it was. For those of you who know me or my family very well it won't be hard to figure out.

Did you figure it out? I have been there not just once but three times. I have to admit it made me feel pretty cool to be able to say I was there.

I guess I'll just tell you which one it was, though most of you probably know, it is Club 33 in Disneyland. My Dad has a friend who was on the waiting list for a decade and can get us reservations. It's pretty cool to go there.

Club 33 was originaly a place that Walt Disney imagined as a special area he could take coroporate sponsors and VIPs to eat and relax. When New Orleans Square was planned a spot for Club 33 was included, named for its address 33 Royal Street. It opened in May 1967, 5 months after Walt Disney passed away.

Located above the Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square it is one of Orange County's finest five star restaurants. With a limited membership of only 487, Club 33 is not open to the public. Members may however arrange for their friends and associates to experience the club. The waiting list is currently 14 years.

Presidents of the United States, leaders of foreign nations, dignitaries, actors, and business leaders from around the world have all enjoyed the club.

Here are some pictures to prove it, though none of you have been inside so you wouldn't know if I were telling the truth, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

This is last year with my mother and father in law Jerry and Lorain Evans, my brother in law John and his wife Liz, my parents and Lucy.

Here are some shots from when Ariane, Lucy and myself went last month with my parents and my brother Greg and his wife Stacey.
This is the outside of Club 33. There is a call box by the 33, you push it they ask, "Can I help you?" You tell them you have a reservation and give them your name, if it checks out, they let you in.

Here is a view from the balcony.

They have some movie props inside as well, like the telephone booth from "The Happiest Millionaire" and a table from "Mary Poppins"

I am 100% certain that I will not be visiting any of the other 9 places on this list.

Four Years Old

2011-02-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

Lucy turned 4 years old this last week. Earlier this month she informed us that she wanted to have a “Star Wars” birthday party. I was more then happy to provide this party for her. I figure I need to do this now before she figures out she’s a girl and only wants princess and My Little Pony birthday parties.

Lucy’s aunt Liz volunteered to make an R2-D2 cake for the occasion.

It turned out really good. We had “Star Wars” plates, cups and a table cloth. My friend Hali even brought a big poster of Darth Vader to hang on the door that said, “Fulfill your party destiny.” And I think we did.

We had a great time with every one who came by. May the force be with all of you.

A New Hope

2011-02-06T23:27:00.003-07:00

I guess when you run out of stuff to post you can always throw one of these up for every ones entertainment.
I hope you all enjoy the abbreviated telling of Star Wars, Staring my self, my Dad, my brother Greg and my wife Ariane.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Family Portraits

2011-01-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

My cousin Amy took some family pictures last month for us. Here are the best of what she took. It would be nice if some day Lucy would sit still, look at the camera and smile while a picture is being taken. Until then here’s what we got.

A great one of my whole family.

Here are the pictures of us that look the best. Tell us which one you like the best.

Amy does really good work. If you need a photographer she is available for higher

Disneyland Trip

2011-01-18T04:35:00.003-07:00

Last weekend we returned from our family trip to Disneyland It was great to get away from the below freezing temperatures of Utah and be in the California sun for a little while. We did get a little bit of rain but it was still better weather then here.

Lucy, Ariane and my self went down.

Along with my parents

In Toon Town

My brother Greg and his wife Stacey

Out front of "Its a Small World"

And my sister Alison

In line for "Pirates of the Caribbean"

We had so much fun. We met all kinds of characters; we went to Pixie Hollow where we met Tinkerbelle and her friend Fawn.

Lucy also got a balloon Tink at a restaurant we went to, she loves Tinkerbelle

The princess’s Cinderella, Snow White & Sleeping Beauty.

Repunzle and Flynn Rider

Eeyore

Lightning McQueen and Mater

Woody and a Green Army Man

Minnie Mouse

and of Course Mickey Mouse

We also me a bunch of Star Wars Characters

Lucy was not hip on meeting Darth Maul.

One of Lucy’s favorite movies is “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, they redo the Haunted Mansion ride at Christmas time for this movie.

Lucy was really excited to ride this and meet Jack Skelington inside. She also wanted to get a bunch of Jacks souvenirs.

We rode so many rides. Like the Tea Cups, two different Merry Go Rounds, Dumbo, the Rockets, Bugs Life Train, Monsters Inc & Toy Story to name a few.

Some of us were even brave enough to ride Grizzly River Rapids.

We spent some time playing around Toon Town.

Lucy loved being there.

We had lunch at Club 33

Here we are on the balcony looking out on New Orleans Square & Ariane had her picture taken in the phone booth that was used in the movie “The Happiest Millionaire”.

Every day we had a different themed shirt. Denver Broncos, St. Louis Cardinals, Ireland, Cereal, University of Utah, Star Wars, Utah State University and Minnie Mouse or other Disney character like Jack Skellington or Grumpy (Greg wore a different Grumpy shirt everyday)

We also took a day and went to see the Newport Beach temple and the ocean.

Lucy had a lot of fun playing on the beach with Uncle Greg.

It was a great trip, we had so much fun. Disneyland is one of my families favorite places to go on vacation. If anyone is planning a trip let us know we’d love to come along.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-13T13:49:00.009-07:00

It was a great Christmas here at the Bredthauer house, our first one together as a new family.
We went with Grandma and Grandpa Evans to see the lights at the zoo.

As it turns out you see more animal lights then you do actual animals.

Lucy went at saw Santa Claus at the Kaysville Fire Station.
She told him she wanted a baby doll, which she did get but not from him. Lucy’s cousin Britain gave her one and she loves it.

Christmas day was great. We had a lot of presents.
Lucy got a lot of cars and fairies; we like to make sure she’s well rounded.

Ariane got us matching pajamas

I hope yours was as good as ours was.

Utah Football

2010-11-28T03:24:00.013-07:00

With last night’s victory now in the books I can safely say that it has been a pretty good year for Utah football with a just a few exceptions. Ariane was asked by the Utah band director to organize this year’s alumni band for the home coming game; in exchange for this he put us on the list for the band staff so we could attend all the home games. It’s been a great way to see all the games this year for free. Our seats aren’t too bad, we are in the south end zone right below the band. Ariane knows a lot of these kids from her two years as marching band assistant while she was doing her master’s degree.

And since we are "band staff" we can go down and walk on the field before the game and at half time if we want to.

We have a lot of friends and family who also have tickets to see the Utes play football.

Our friends Marc & Hali Lunt

My uncle Brent & cousin Byron Day

My mother & father in-law Jerry & Loraine Evans

Arianes former mission companion and friend Tiffany Hopkins

We also traveled to Colorado Springs for the Air Force game at Falcon Stadium. Really we went over because my cousin Tolan was having his mission farewell in the Denver area, but the Utes also happened to be playing the falcons the Saturday before.
The Air Force Academy puts on quite a show. It’s pretty cool, all the cadets march in, there is a fly over by some jets and then some more cadets parachute into the stadium.

A whole bunch of my family went, we had a great time and the Utes hung on to win the game. There was about 20 of us Ute fans in the middle of all these Air Force fans.

For the final game this season we sat through the cold and three quarters of miserable football by the Utes to watch them narrowly defeat the cougars 17-16.

The final play when Utah blocked the kick made it all worth it.

Wedding Pics

2010-11-09T02:26:00.001-07:00

I’ve finally gotten around to posting the pictures from our wedding. I think they turned out really good. Our photographer did a really good job of capturing the happiness of this day on film. I smile every time I look through these.

BOUNTIFUL TEMPLE

BRIDE & GROOM AT THE TEMPLE (with some Lucy)

LUNCHEON

FAMILY & FRIENDS

RECEPTION

BRIDE & GROOM

Halloween

2010-11-04T08:41:00.010-06:00

Lucy, Ariane and I had a great Halloween this year. We went to Halloween parties, decorated the house, went trick or treating and carved pumpkins.

This year Lucy and I went as Jedi Knights from Star Wars. No the costumes weren't my idea but I was all for the idea.
My brother in law John and his wife Liz gave Lucy the costume last spring and ever since then Lucy has told has said, "Daddy you and me are going to be Star Wars for Halloween." I'm not one to disappoint so I got out the light sabers and borrowed a Jedi cloak from John and Liz and we had us a costume.

Lucy and her cousin Kira went with Ariane to her parents’ house to carve pumpkins with her cousins River and Liam and Ariane’s sister Chelsea and her brother Jeff.
The adults did most the work while the kids played around, Lucy will tell you that she carved the pumpkin but don’t believe her.

We made our anual trip to Lagoons Frightmares, where Lucy got meet all the monsters.

And try on some a costume.

Ariane took Lucy to a Halloween carnival with her friend Tiffany and her daughter Addison, who went as Super Girl. They had a lot of fun getting their faces painted, playing games and of course getting candy.

We actually spent the Halloween weekend in Denver Colorado for my cousin Tolans mission farewell, he’s going to the Dominican Republic. We went to the YMCA’s Halloween carnival where we played games got candy and made some crafts.

I hope your Halloween was as fun as ours was!

New Mexico

2010-10-29T00:30:00.010-06:00

A few weeks ago Ariane and Lucy took a trip down to Albuquerque New Mexico along with my parents to visit my brother Tyler, his wife Brooke and their two little boys Britain and Braden.

Grandma and Grandpa both enjoyed spending time with their grandkids.

They had a lot of fun going to the zoo

Interesting facts: the hippopotamus is Arianes favorite animal and Animal Planet listed it as the second most disgusting animal on the earth.

And to the park, where Lucy and Britain would run through the water.

Britian apperently is a great tour guide.

And while they were down in The Land of Enchantment I worked 16 hours overtime that weekend. Hey, some ones gotta pay the bills around here.

Lagoon

2010-10-26T06:07:00.015-06:00

I went back to work at Lagoons first aid department again this year for my 6th year there. Since I get into the park free I decided to get Ariane and Lucy season passes this year and it was worth it. We've had a really good time together.

I have noticed that there are several rides that have a dragon theme or a dragon in them like...

Puff the Dragon, a roller coaster for kids and parents

The Jumping Dragon, a ride that spins around frontwards and backwards and is also for adults and kids

There is dragon car on the Scallywags ride, a ride that spins around and the kids can make the car go up and down, unfortunately adults cannot ride this with their kids

The Carousel has a dragon on it as well, Lucy is not happy to be getting off this ride and of course you can ride this with your kids.

The Dragon Fly may be bit of stretch here since it's an insect not so much an actual dragon but it dose have dragon in its name. It is a swing ride that also spins around and you can ride it with your kids to.

And finally it's Coleuses the Fire Dragon. Lucy isn't tall enough for this nor dose she have the back bone for it yet but hopefully some day we will ride it together.

Lucy is also doing very well training in Lagoons Air Force

Like the Sky Fighter

The Red Baron planes

And the Helicopters.
All of which do the same thing, spin around and go up and down.

Hopefully we can increase her training in the future by riding the Paratroopers, Flying Aces and even the Rocket, though she may have to do that last one solo since I hate it.

New Bed

2010-10-16T23:36:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we finally broke down and got Lucy out a crib and into a bed.
We let her pick out her own sheets for the bed. They had all kinds of options at the store, princes, Tinkerbelle, SpongeBob to name a few. But Lucy saw the Cars sheets and had to have them.

We did at least have a nice comforter to put over the Cars sheets that is a little more girly.Last year my aunt Jennifer took an old sheet set and some old pajamas of Larianns and she patched it together into a quilt. Once night Jennifer had some of my family and some of Larianns famiy over and they tied the quilt. Now Lucy has this wonderful blanket made out her Moms old pj’s and sheets.

Funny thing about the new bed, Lucy won’t get out of it on her own. Every morning she calls for one of us to come get her and every morning we go in and tell her she can get out any time she wants, which she then does. It’s like she’s looking for our permission to get up. I’m sure this will all change in a few years and instead of her telling us she’s ready to get up it’ll be us telling her it’s time to get up.

2010 Baseball Season

2010-10-14T08:01:00.008-06:00

We are now half way through the month of October, which means that the baseball playoffs and the World Series will soon be coming to an end.
Though the Cardinals failed to make it to the post season this year it was still a great baseball season for me. I made it to four professional games this year, which ties my personal best from last season. I went to two games in Kansas City, two in New York and went to one minor league game Ogden.

Last year I started buying baseball t-shirts from the games I went to for Lucy. She already had a royals shirt from last year. But while we were in New York for a couple of games in August I got Lucy a few shirts.

For the Mets I found this Jose Reyes t-shirt.

I picked up a Yankees shirt for Lucy and my Dad since he is a big fan of the Yankees.

Grandma Evans was nice enough to spoil Lucy at the Ogden Raptors game we took her too and got Lucy a t-shirt and a ball.

It was a pretty good year for baseball, I don’t know if I will be able to equal the success of this year, since Tyler and his family moved from Kansas City to New Mexico. But I’m sure going to try.

If I Die Young

2010-09-29T04:42:00.002-06:00

I guess every now and then I should have a post that doesn’t have any thing to do with sports or wear I’m trying to be funny.
I assumed after getting married that I would really be getting over Larianns death. I had hoped that I would mean I wouldn’t be sad about her being gone any more and while I am so much happier then I have been in a very long time I still find myself missing her at times, though definitely not as much as I used to.
One of those times happened a few weeks ago while I was driving into work at the church. I heard this song on the radio.

I actually started crying while I was driving. I guess I still miss her more then I thought I did.
I do know that Lucy and I will see her again and I am so grateful for that knowledge, though it still hurts some times to think that she is gone. I am also very grateful to have Ariane in my life now, she has made me happy again.

Ole Miss

2010-09-18T06:02:00.009-06:00

A short time ago, in a land not so far away…

Back in 2003 the University of Mississippi Rebels, or Ole Miss as it is more commonly known, dismissed their mascot Colonel Reb, in an attempt to be more politically correct. Since that time they have been with out an on the field mascot. The students at Ole Miss decided that it was time for a new mascot. Who better to lead the Ole Miss Rebels then the leader of the galactic rebellion against the empire, Admiral Ackbar from the Star Wars movie “Return of the Jedi”.

It’s to bad this didn’t work out. It seems like an upgrade on so many levels, going from a colonel to an admiral, pistols to lasers, sailing ships to space ships, the south eastern United States to an entire universe. Plus you would definitely have the entire market of alien themed sports mascots all to your self.
So I guess the students of Ole Miss will return to their search for a new mascot and Admiral Ackbar will return to trying to restore freedom to the universe. It’s to bad, I probably would have signed to do graduate studies at a school who had a Star Wars character for a mascot.

Ogden Raptors

2010-09-05T04:59:00.013-06:00

Ariane and I took Lucy to her first baseball game last night. We went up to Lindquist field in Ogden along with Lucy's Grandma and Grandpa Evans and Uncle Devin and Aunt Rachel, to watch the Raptors take on the Casper Ghosts.

Lucy did pretty well for her first baseball game, the first three innings were a breeze, she clapped and cheered whenever anyone else did and yelled "Charge" after the trumpet played. She did start to loose interest and we ended up entertaining her the rest of the game.

Ariane ran into one of her former students who works for the raptors and she asked Ariane if she wanted to participate in one of their promotions between innings.
Araine had 12 seconds to make it from first base to third base. She didn't quite make it, it took her 14 seconds and she lost one of her sandals between second and third.

The most impressive part for Lucy was the Spondgebob Squarepants and Patrick pictures that were on the walls. She asked Aunt Rachel to take her picture with them.

We had a really good time and the raptors went on to win 15-4. Maybe we will try bringing Lucy to a Utah football game some time this year.

New York Honeymoon

2010-08-20T17:01:00.022-06:00

We got back yesterday from our honeymoon to New York City. I won’t share all the details but I will show you some pictures of the stuff we did out side of the hotel room.

We mastered the subway, well kind off. We at least got to every where we wanted to be.

We ate at all kinds of famous places.

Carnegie Deli, where their sandwiches are big on quantity but not so much on quality. The cheese cake was real good though.

The Hard Rock Café in Time Square where Ariane had her picture taken with one of Linkin Park’s guitars

Planet Hollywood, here I am with some stuff from the movie “Ferris Buellers Day Off”

We made sure to get some famous New York Pizza, which was really good.

We saw a lot of famous sites
We took a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The Empire State Building

The United Nations

The Brooklyn Bridge

Time Square

Rockefeller Center, where we went to the “Top of The Rock”.

Also saw Radio City Music Hall and the NBC studios

We took a walk through Central Park.

Went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the Met. No it’s not where they keep the baseball team the Mets and I was pretty disappointed about that, seems like should shorten it to the Muse, then it would be way less confusing and angry baseball fans would stop coming.
They do have priceless works of art from all over the world going back thousands of years; it was very cool to see.

We walked through China Town and Little Italy.

Took in a show on Broadway, the 2010 Tony Award Winner for best musical "Memphis"

And of course the baseball stuff.

We went out to Queens to watch the Mets play the Phillies and it rained the whole game. New York fell to Philadelphia 3-1

We toured Yankee stadium and watched them beat the Tigers 9-5

We really had a great time and saw so much and had a ton of fun.

Wedding Announcement

2010-08-10T21:03:00.006-06:00

By now all of you should have received a wedding announcement for Ariane and myself. If you haven't well here's what it looks like.

Arianes sister Chelsea took the photos and my friend Dave did the design for the announcements and invitations. He said, "I wanted the layout to have an old fashioned, almost western feel, but with a contemporary touch." He also did the invitations to the luncheon and temple sealing.I thought he did a great job and we were very happy with the way they turned out.

Here are some of the pictures that didn't make the announcement.

July 27th Birthdays

2010-07-27T00:26:00.005-06:00

Today is my 31st birthday. A few years ago I took a look back at some of the important events that took place on July 27th. This year I thought I’d take a look at some famous people who share my birthday, in order from youngest to oldest.

Alex Rodriguez

Born: 1975
MLB baseball player (shortstop, third base). He has played for the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees

Maya Rudolph

Born: 1972
She is an actress who was a regular on "Saturday Night Live" from 1999-2007 and has also appeared in several movies.

Jerry Van Dyke

Born: 1931
He is an actor who is most famous for his roll as an assistant coach on the television show "Coach" and is also the brother of Dick Van Dyke

Joseph Bert Tinker

Born: 1880
Death: 1948-07-27
"Hall of Fame" MLB baseball player (shortstop). He played for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (player-manager). During his career, he won 4 pennants and led NL in fielding for shortstops 5 times. He later managed the Cubs and worked for Chicago of the Federal League.

Nobody of any real historical significance on this list, so I’ll have to see what I can do about that.

Television

2010-07-15T06:01:00.007-06:00

I would defiantly say I am a bit of a TV junkie. I have all ten seasons of “Friends” on DVD, six seasons of “Scrubs” and couple of seasons of “The Office”.
This last year though I expanded my horizons and added a couple of new shows to my favorites. It’s no coincidence that they both air on Thursday nights on NBC the same as “The Office”. I suppose I started watching them just to fill the time until it came on but while doing so these shows have really grown on me.

First is “Community”. It’s about a group of seven students from all different walks of life who join a Spanish study group at Greendale Community College. They become a very diverse group of friends and the show centers around their experiences at college.

Big Name Star:

Chevy Chase stars as Pierce, a man whose life experience has brought him infinite wisdom, or so he thinks.

“30 Rock” is about Liz Lemon the self destructing head writer for comedy sketch show, “TGS With Tracy Jordan”, who is forced to work with a group of needy actors/celebrities, a group of needy and socially awkward writers and her boss a prim and proper CEO. While trying to lead this group Liz also has various comical struggles with her personnel life which seem to become less personnel and more public at work.
This show came recommended by my friends Marc and Hali and they were definitely right about it.

Big Name Stars:
Alec Baldwin plays network executive Jack Donaghy

Tracy Morgan plays wild and unpredictable movie star Tracy Jordan

Tina Fey is executive producer, head writer and plays the self destructing head writer Liz Lemon

If you’re looking for some thing new to watch these two shows come highly recommended.

Day At The Beach

2010-07-03T05:52:00.003-06:00

So it wasn’t really a whole day, nor was it an actual beach. Ariane, Lucy and I went and spent a couple of hours at Lagoon-A-Beach, Lagoon’s water park, last week. They have a kids area with some small water slides and a lazy river to float along.

At first Lucy seemed a little skittish of the water. After a few rides down some water slides and some time to splash around in the water she became quite accustomed to it and really had a good time.

St. Louis Cardinals

2010-06-26T05:29:00.024-06:00

Many of you are probably aware that I am a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. From the flag flying outside my house during baseball season, the rug just inside my house, the sheets on my bed, the clothes I buy for me and my family, the collection of memorabilia in my family room and the family picture where everyone is wearing cardinals shirts, I am a big supporter of the Cardinals baseball franchise.

What many of you may not know is how I became I St. Louis fan. It all started when I was 5 years old. My first little league team was the St. Louis Cardinals, which my helped coach. This was the first time I ever cared or aligned my self with any sort of team in any sport.

That next summer my family took a trip back to the Midwest to see my grandparents who were serving a mission in Nauvoo IL. Along the way we stopped in St. Louis to see some of the sights. My Dad took my brother Tyler and I to a game in St. Louis, it was my first major league game. We watched the Cardinals drop a game to the pirates 3-2 at old Busch Stadium. I was still really excited to watch the Cardinals play, my Dad bought me a pennant which I still have today (in the picture of my collection it's on the top left), I wore my Cardinals shirt from little league and Dad had to buy Tyler a Cardinals shirt because he was worried that nobody would know he was cheering for the Cardinals.

On my way out to South Carolina for my mission we had a lay over in the St. Louis airport just after Mark McGuire brooke the home run record.

The Cardinals have had a very rich and excellent history. The Cardinals were founded in 1882 as the St. Louis Brown Stockings; they joined the National League in 1892 and have been known as the Cardinals since 1900. The Cardinals have won a National League record 10 World Series championships, second only to the New York yankees.

St. Louis has had many famous players on their team.

There was the Gas House Gang of 1934 a group of underdogs that won the World Series.
Stan Musial (Stan the Man) 1941- 1963. Three time MVP

Lou Brock, 1964-1979. Second all-time in stolen bases with 938
Currently they have Albert Pujols, also a three time MVP

But my favorite player growing up was the Cardinals short stop Ozzie Smith. He’s a hall of fame member who won 13 gold glove awards and appeared in 15 all-star games. He was even on an episode of the Simpsons.

The Cardinals have won two World Series Championships during my lifetime. The first was in 1982, when I was 3 and didn’t care about baseball. Finally in 2006 they won the whole thing and I was ecstatic. Much like these players were.

I certainly am lucky that my first little league team was the Cardinals. I could only imagine how miserable my life would be if I had begun my baseball days with the Kansas City Royals.

Manute Bol

2010-06-21T22:24:00.007-06:00

This last week the NBA lost a legend. No not Michael Jordan, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. Manute Bol a 7’7” center from Sudan died Saturday from a kidney disease. He was 47 years old
Manute entered the NBA in 1985. He played for Washington, Golden State, Philadelphia and Miami during his 10 year career.
As a kid I always thought that Manute was really a site to behold when I saw him play on TV. At least half a foot taller then the next tallest guy on the floor and probably weighed about as much as the shortest guy on the floor.

I will miss you Manute. The NBA was not the same with out you, though they did have Shawn Bradley for a while who fit the same mold as Manute only he was white. Perhaps some day he can be honored with a spot in the basket ball hall fame, though that seems unlikely since he wasn’t really that great of a player. His numbers weren't that great and really the only thing he was famous for was being the second tallest player in the NBA.

Manute the world seems empty with out you.
October 16, 1962 – June 19, 2010
Please chech out the link, it's funny
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6ba60c4136/manute-bol-cruises?rel=player

Kansas City, 2010

2010-06-10T15:35:00.025-06:00

Last week I took Ariane out to Kansas to meet my brother Tyler and his family. My parents also came with us.
We had a really good time and it was fun to spend some time with Tylers family. We had some famous Kansas City BBQ a couple of nights and it was great.

Ariane and I visited several museums during our trip. Like the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. No photos were allowed inside.
Out side they had a memorial to Charlie Parker a famous saxophonist from Kansas City.

Also located near by was the Negro League Baseball Museum.
This museum didn't allow any photos inside either but I did manage to get picture of Ariane in a Kansas City Monarchs hat.

There were museums where we could take pictures, like the National World War I museum in Kansas City.

I also got Ariane to try on another hat.

We went with my patents to the Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence MO this museum also allowed pictures to be taken.

We also visited the church sites in Independence, like the temple sit.

Tyler, Brooke and the boys joined all of us for a trip to Liberty MO to see the jail.

Ariane and I had a great time getting know Tyler's family. This was this first time I had met Braden, or as Britain calls him Mr. Braffey. He is a fun little guy.

Britain had his third birthday while we were out there. He had big party with presents, dinosaur cake and a pinata.

Ariane and I took in a couple of Kansas City Royals game while we there. We went with my parents to watch them play Angels, the roylas fell behind early but were able to mount a come back, unfortunatly they fell one run short.

A couple of nights later we went with Tyler and Brooke to watch the Royals take on the Detroit Tigers. The Royals ended up falling to the tigers 4-2.

In keeping with the museum theme of this trip the Royals have their own museum.

Full of all kinds of awards won by Royals players. The 1985 world series trophy

Cy Young Awards

Gold glove awards

A tribute to George Brett, considered the best player in Royals history

And George Bretts bat from the famous "Pine Tar" bat.

For those who don't know what this is check out this link it should explain it. Don't worry, they ended up giving him the home run and played the rest of the game a few days later and the Royals won. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrFzGbM_g4Y

South Carolina

2010-05-24T08:31:00.004-06:00

This weekend is my Cousin Neil’s mission farewell. Neil has the privilege of serving in the Columbia South Carolina Mission, the same mission I served in ten years ago. You might think that’s amazing that my cousin is going to the same mission I did and it is but it gets more amazing.
Neil isn’t the first cousin of mine to go to South Carolina. I have two other cousins who were called to serve there as well. I know; what are the odds that three of my cousins would all have served in South Carolina? The odds are probably not very good. But wait it gets more amazing.
All three of these cousins will be in South Carolina at the same time. Now that’s amazing. You may not believe it but it’s gonna get more amazing. Two of these cousins are brother and sister; Sadie and Dylan. How crazy is that a brother and sister in the same mission at the same time? As always it gets more amazing.
All three are from the same ward in Pinedale Wyoming. When was the last time you heard of three missionaries from the same ward in the same mission at the same time?
So to recap three of my cousins, two of which are brother and sister, from the same ward all going to my old mission in Columbia South Carolina at the same time. Pretty amazing isn’t it?
I have pulled my old mission photo albums out three times now and shown each them pictures of South Carolina, retold stories, told them about the food and the wonderful people there and tried to teach them all a little bit of the southern language. I’ve gotten pretty good at giving my presentation on South Carolina.
I guess the Nelson family is just blessed to place so many of us in the greatest mission in the world. Maybe I won’t put my old mission photo albums away just yet. You never know when the next Nelson is going to get called to the Columbia South Carolina. Maybe with the Nelson families help the south will rise again.

Flags

2010-05-13T05:42:00.005-06:00

As the seasons change several of my neighbors (I assume it’s the women who are doing this) like to acknowledge this by placing flags out in front of their houses. Feeling the need to fit in a little I decided to follow suit but being a single man though I felt the need to maybe do this a little differently.

This beautiful flag has been flying out side my house since January. About the time the Denver Broncos season came to an end.

Once the Utah Jazz were out of the playoffs I put up my St. Louis Cardinals flag, the one that started it all, to show everybody that it was baseball season.It will remain there until the Cardinals season comes to end, which will hopefully be in late October or early November.

Once the Cardinals are done playing baseball the Denver Broncos flag will return out side my house.The same flag that was stolen off my house last November was returned to me. It was taken by a fellow Kaysville fire fighter and neighbor James Wade, who thinks he’s pretty funny.

Maybe it’s not the same way my neighbors would do it but I try to fit in as best I can.

Class of 2010

2010-05-11T06:49:00.006-06:00

Last week Ariane received her Masters Degree in Music from the University of Utah. It caps off two years of hard work studying music and working with the band up at the U. I made the trip up to the campus for graduation along with Arianes parents, grandma, sister and niece and nephew. Ambassador John Huntsman Jr. was the speaker and it was a nice ceremony. Ariane conducted the band for a piece during the prelude.

What does one receive for getting her masters degree? You get a diploma with a red cover, a new gown that has some sort of fancy sleeves, a new hat, a brown tassel which is the color for degrees in fine arts and a hood (that’s the red and white thing hanging on Ariane’s back).

I am so proud of her for all her hard work and her passion for learning. She is a great example for my daughter.

Mothers Day 2010

2010-05-09T09:48:00.002-06:00

Mothers Day will always be a bitter sweet holiday for me. It was a year ago today that Lariann passed away. Watching my sweet wife pass away and knowing my daughter Lucy will never really know her Mother are two very painful thoughts for me. Lariann was such a sweet caring mother who loved her little girl so much. Every Mothers Day will probably be a little difficult for me.

As I said before it is a bitter sweet holiday. There is also a lot sweet to celebrate on this Mothers Day. There are many women who have become like mothers to Lucy and me. Like the women who have loved a cared for my daughter like a mother. My Aunts Jean, Louise and Jenifer who bring Lucy into their homes every week and look after her and love her as if she were one of their own daughters. Who also have us over to eat with them as if we were part of their own family.

Lucy’s aunts Liz, Rachelle, Stacey and Alison who like my aunt’s care for Lucy and love her like their own daughter. They also make personal sacrifices to help take care of Lucy. And do such a good job of doing Lucy’s hair.

Lucy’s Grandmothers, who Lucy loves so much she would rather spend time with them then me. I guess I don’t spoil her as much as they do. They come and spend the night with Lucy and sometimes she goes to their houses so I can go to work. They take her during the day so I can sleep. They are people I can call at the last minute to come and help. They are two of the most caring women I know.

My soon to be wife Ariane and her family who have accepted Lucy as one of their own. Arianes mom and sister are so wonderful with Lucy. They play with her and look after her, Lucy loves going to their house. And we are so blessed to have Araine in our lives. She loves Lucy like her own daughter and I am so grateful to have found a woman like her.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the women out there who have helped fill the void of mother in Lucy’s life and my life this last year. We wouldn’t have been able to make it through this year without you.

Alice in Wonderland

2010-05-02T11:47:00.013-06:00

A few weeks ago Ariane and I went to see Tim Burtons Alice In Wonderland movie. I’ll admit I had really low expectations for this one. I think a lot of stuff that Tim directs ends up being weird for the sake of weird and a little too dark for my taste. I found myself pleasantly surprised with this flick. The story is already weird so I don’t know that there was much more that Tim could do to it to make it weirder. It wasn’t as dark as I thought it would be either. Johhny Depp makes a wonderfull Mad Hatter. I found it visually stunning with some great CG effects that don’t take away from the story. It’s not the traditional story of Alice; it takes place 10-15 years in the future and is really a coming of age and figuring out what you really want in life story. It does have some violence and scary parts in it so it’s probably not for little kids but it’s one you parents and your older kids could watch and enjoy.

Lucy got the Alice in Wonderland movie this last Easter and she likes it. It’s very whimsical and funny with lots of songs, just the thing for little kids. Alice bears a little resemblance to my Lucy, blonde hair and blue eyes I think we have a potential Halloween costume here. Maybe I could go as the Mad Hatter and Ariane could be the March Hair?

Several of Lucy’s favorite rides at Disneyland had Alice in Wonderland themes to them. There is of course the Alice in Wonderland ride that takes you through the movie. The Mad Tea Party or Tea Cups as they are more commonly known. The Small World ride also made some changes; several Disney characters have been added to the ride each in their respective countries including Alice and her friend the White Rabbit with the English group.

All this Alice stuff got me to wondering what the original book was like compared to the movies? So I went to my sister-in-law Liz to borrow the book, since I figured this type of book has got to be something she would own and any of you who know Liz know just what I am talking about.

The book is actually two books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865 and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There was published in 1871. Both were written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the name Lewis Carroll who also did the artwork for his books. Originally a story he made up for some young girls he knew, one of which named was named Alice.

The books are about Alice’s trips to a new world which she gets to once by falling down a rabbit hole and another time by going through a mirror. Once there she basically wanders around meeting the strange inhabitants of this place. Each time she comes home by waking up and wondering if all just a dream was. The first book uses a deck of cards as a theme while the second is based on a game of chess. It’s about as weird as the movies are. So if you hated the movies you probably won’t find the books entertaining.

The movie is sort of combination of the two books, with several characters being included while others are left out probably due to time constraints. It was interesting to read about the characters that didn’t make it into the movies. I thought the books were fun and I enjoyed them and they aren’t very long. It’s something I think I could read to my daughter some day.

The Swiss Family Robinson

2010-04-24T06:19:00.006-06:00

The other night I watched Disney’s The Swiss Family Robinson. This is a movie I remember watching as a kid and consider it one of Disney’s classic live action films.

The movie is based on a book, written by a German pastor Johann David Wyss. Written to preserve the tales he and his sons made up while imagining themselves in Robinson Crusoe's predicament. Not originally intended for publication, the narrative was later edited and illustrated by Wyss' descendants in 1812. It is about a Swiss family who are shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to New Guinea.

The family has many adventures they capture animals, rescue a girl and fight off a ship load of pirates, which is my favorite scene in the movie. Tigers in pits, giant logs rolling down the hill and of course the coconut bombs.

Their tree house was later turned into an attraction at Disneyland, though that has now been changed to Tarzans Jungle Bungalow.

I was watching this movie and I realized that half of these animals would not exist on the same continent let alone the same island. I can only assume one of two things. Either Johann David Wyss had no idea what animals lived in South East Asia or a ship full of animals from Africa must have also wrecked on the island many years prior to the Robinsons arriving.

They have hyenas’, ostriches and zebras. I didn’t think you could ride the last two but the Robinsons found a way to tame these beasts that no one else can. Maybe it has some thing to do with the animals diet or the weather in South East Asia that makes them able to be trained.

In spite of the inaccurate portrayal of animals this remains one of my favorite movies from my childhood.

Musical Ariane

2010-04-22T10:00:00.015-06:00

Ariane is very talented musically and I have had the chance on several occasions to witness this first hand.

She’s a graduate student at the University of Utah getting her masters in music conducting. She works for the music department as a graduate assistant for the band program. What does that entail? She does all the grunt work for the band, getting music ready, hauling equipment around, setting stuff up and doing a little conducting as well. She has also done some really cool stuff as well.

At football games she helped the drum majors conduct on the sideline and even conducted the national anthem at the New Mexico game this year, which I had the opportunity to attend as it was our third date. She got to travel with the band to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl and San Diego for the Poinsettia Bowl.

Ariane led the pep band the last two years at the women’s basket ball games. I’ve been to a couple of games this year and watched her lead and she is very energetic and passionate about what she does and she does a great job of doing it. The kids all love her. One of the games I went to this year, the TCU game, went into three overtimes and let me tell you that’s a lot of women’s basketball. Last year Ariane got to go with the women’s team to Maryland for the NCAA tournament.

In addition to the conducting Ariane plays saxophone in the jazz band. She will be traveling to China in July with the jazz band for a jazz festival. These concerts are always a lot of fun to attend and Ariane does a great job and plays multiple instruments during these concerts including baritone sax, base clarinet, flute, tenor sax and clarinet.

This last spring she conducted the music for Layton High Schools production of The Wedding Singer. It was a fun musical and the musicians in the pit did a great job thanks to their conductor.

Yesterday was her recital and she conducted the wind ensemble. It went really good. The band sounded great. They even played a song called “Past Time” a baseball inspired song and she wore her St. Louis Cardinals hat to conduct it.

Final Four 2010

2010-03-18T07:01:00.032-06:00

The NCAA tournament begins today and so does one of my favorite times of the year. Four days of watching basketball does life get any better?As one Sports Illustrated writer put it, "It's never overhyped. It never disappoints. How many things can you say that about? From start to finish, the Big Dance is the best sporting event in America."

Before the games get underway this morning here are my Final Four picks.

Duke Blue Devils

Kansas Jayhawks

Syracuse Orangemen

West Virginia Mountaineers

I like Kansas over Duke for the national championship.

In keeping with the spirit of my last post there are a few teams I would like to see do very poorly in the tournament. We'll call this my Hated Four.

I've already discused my reasons for wanting byu and Montana to fail.

Kentucky wildcats for what they have done to the Utes in tournaments past and the Richmond spiders well because I hate spiders.

There are also some teams that I would like to see do well, this would be my Favorite Four. Most these teams are not likely to win many games but it would be nice to see them win a few.

Clemson Tigers since I was in Clemson SC on my mission.

New Mexico Lobos, this seems like the best chance the Mountain West Confrence has to go deep into the tournament.

Utah State Aggies, they are from my home state and it's been a while since they've won a tournament game so I feel kind of bad for them.

UNLV Runnin' Rebels, another MWC member.

Feel free to leave a comment about who you think will be in the final four, who you like and don't like in the big dance.

Teams I Hate

2010-03-12T13:13:00.009-07:00

After my Alma Mater Weber State was defeated in the Big Sky Conference Championships by Montana this last week I decided to write about the teams I hate and why. Most of you are probably pretty familiar with my favorite teams and schools, but loving a team also means your team probably has a rival whom you hate or loath or at least wish bad things upon them. Opposition in all things, yin & yang, good versus evil it’s the way things have been since the beginning of man.

Davis- This became a rivalry for me when half of my junior high in Farmington went to Viewmont and the other half went to Davis, so I had a lot of friends who went there. My school has a lot of advantages over Davis. Our colors were red & gold, theirs are brown & yellow, our mascot was a fearsome Viking theirs is a little dart.

Montana- This rivalry with Weber State is personal. Having played trombone in the band for the Wildcats for all five years I was in school I went to a lot of football and basketball games. Montana cost me a lot of free trips that I would have been able to take with the team had they won the conference championship in either football or basketball. Standing in the Wildcats way was usually the grizzlies.

Brigham Young- The oldest rivalry for me, this one with the University of Utah goes all the way back to when I was a little kid. Before I even knew how to play sports I knew that my family was Ute fans and that we hated the cougars. Growing up in the 80’s when byu dominated the rivalry was rough. I was mocked by friends and my family’s house was toilet papered after several byu-Utah football games.

Chicago-Being a Cardinals fan means that you hate the cubs. However this rivalry is almost comical, where the Cardinals have enjoyed much success during their history, winning 10 World Series, most in the National League and second most all time, the cubs haven’t won a World Series in over 100 years.

Oakland-If there ever was a “good versus evil” rivalry this would be it. The raiders are a bunch of criminals and their fans are even worse. Oakland coliseum looks like it is a scary place to attend a game. The Broncos and raiders both became teams in the old AFL, 50 years ago and the rivalry has been heated since day one.

Los Angeles- My hatred for the lakers comes from their success and the Utah Jazz’s lack of or that the Jazz have come so close only to come up short. It’s the big city versus the small city, the glamour of L.A. versus the quaintness of Utah. They are able to get almost any player they want while the Jazz have trouble talking players into coming to Utah. This hatred for the lakers definitely stems from jealousy.

There you have it. The evil side for all the teams I like. If you happen to be a fan of one of these teams it doesn't mean we can't be friends or I will disown you as a family member, it just means I probably won't like you as much when your team plays mine.

Disneyland

2010-03-01T10:01:00.003-07:00

Lucy and I went to Disneyland this last week with my parents, Larians parents and her brother John and his wife Liz. We had such a good time, it was Lucy's first trip. We bought mouse ears and they gave her a badge for her first visit. It was great, hope you enjoy the pics.

She loved her visit to Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell and some of her friends

She had such a good time in Toon Town meeting characters and playing in the houses and on the cars

We rode so many rides. Some of her favorites were Peter Pans Ride, the Tea Cups and It's a Small World which I rode every day with her.

We saw and did so many fun things.

I made sure that Lucy and I had coordinating shirts on every day. Utes, Broncos, Jazz, Star Wars there was new theme every day.

I had such a good time. Most the rides I rode you didn't have to be over 40 inches and I had so much fun riding them with Lucy.

Winter Olympic Cinema

2010-02-24T03:18:00.005-07:00

It seems my “Winter Olympics” post did as well as NBC’s ratings for the winter games, poorly. I didn’t get many responses from my loyal readers, who maybe aren’t as plentiful as I thought they were. Some how curling won the pole, I don’t really believe that curling is the sport that most of you enjoy watching the most in the winter games.

As the games are drawing to a close here soon the United States continues to dominate in the medal count, proving that we are the greatest nation in the world. If you haven’t quite gotten your fill of the winter games there are a few flicks you can check out to help ease you back into normal TV viewing, though Bob Costas does not appear in any of them and or some reason the summer games aren’t as popular for movies.

The Cutting Edge- Hockey player gets hurt at the Olympic Games, can’t play hockey anymore, is then recruited by a figure skating coach to be partners with a woman who can be bested described as an ice princess. This creates a lot of romantic tension between the two as the struggle to co-exist and compete on the ice. This is really more a chic flick, some thing you men out there might not like as much but definitely will appeal to the ladies. Not bad as far as chick flicks go.

Blades of Glory- Another pairs figure skating movie, but is definitely not like “The Cutting Edge”. In this one Will Ferrell and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) play two male figure skaters who are banned from their sport. A coach finds a loop hole though that allows them to compete in pairs skating. I found the movie hilarious. Definitely one for the guys, though you ladies may also find it humorous. Guys if your girl wants you watch “The Cutting Edge” tell her you will, but only if she’ll watch this one with you. Seems like a pretty good trade off to me. Probably not one you should watch with the kids though.

Cool Running’s- Based on the true story of the Jamaican Bobsled team, though it’s hard to say how much is true. The Jamaicans enter a bobsled team in the Olympics, coached by John Candy, it’s a light hearted look at the struggles, training and competition of team from a country with no snow. On a related note, the Vancouver games were minus the Jamaicans this year for the first time since the Calgary games. It’s fun humorous movie that the whole family can watch together.

Miracle- Also based on a true story, this one tells the story of the 1980 men’s hockey team, known as the “Miracle On Ice”. This is a great film that really shows the grit and determination of a young underdog team that upsets the big Soviet Union power house. If you don’t know the story of this team then you really haven’t ever watched a winter Olympics before. This is another great one to watch with the kids.

You've got it all here, comedy, insperation, romance and drama. Hopefully these can help your appetite for winter sports once the games have come to an end or at least get you buy until the NCAA basketball tournament starts.