Turning 30

Last week I turned 30. I really had nothing planned, it's not that I was upset about being old or anything, I've just been depressed a lot the last three months and didn't feel like celebrating anything. I hear you're only as young as you feel, well the last three months I feel more like I'm turning 50 instead of 30.
Luckily I have some great family and friends who threw a big surprise party for me and really helped lift my spirits.

My sister Alison and sister-in-law Rachel came over to my house late at night and decorated it so all my neighbors would know how old I was getting.


Rachel also went to the effort to create a shirt for Lucy that read "Wow! My Dad is 30 Today. That Old!"

I thought that this was the extent of my surprises for the day. My friends Dave and Marc had decided to take me out to dinner that night and then we were going to head back to my place where I thought we would be joined by a few family members and have some cake. I knew Alison was going to get one for me. Little did I know that this was just a distraction and that Alison, Rachel and Marc had contacted more friends and family to gather at my place and that Alison and Rachel were in the process of decorating the inside of my place. So when I walked in the door I was quite surprised to see a large gathering of friends and family.

At which point I was forced to wear a party hat and sash that read "Thirty and Thrilling"

There was quite the spread, party food, drinks, ice cream and apparently when you turn 30 you need two cakes. But they were both good so it was cool.

Lots of presents like Oreo cookies and Pepsi, and a giant birthday card.

Thanks every one, especially Carl for going and getting the food, Marc for inviting people, Dave for arranging to get me out of the house, Rachel and Alison for decorating my house, helping clean up afterward, getting the cakes, making a shirt for Lucy and knowing that I really needed this to help me feel better.

P.S. "The Power Week" will continue to be only "The Power Week". No power month or year as some had suggested, however we will acknowledge Monica and JD's anniversary as part of "The Power Week". These changes will become effective immediately.

The POWER WEEK

Many of you probably don't know that today, July 21st, is the begining of the POWER WEEK; which runs until July 27th. This was something Tyler and I thought up when we were teenagers. I'm not sure why we chose the name Power Week; but let me explain why this week is significant.

It starts with Tylers birthday and ends on my Birthday.


During the week we have our cousin Matthews birthday on the 25th. When he was born that was when we first came up with the POWER WEEK.


And then there is also Pioneer Day.


As you can see this is a big week. This year though Tyler, Matthew and myself will all be in different states so the celebrations probably won't be as "Powerfull" as they have been in the past. We may also have to look into expanding it to a full month, making this the POWER MONTH. Then we could also include the 4th of July but mostly it would be to inlcude Tylers new son Braden James, who was born July 14, 2009.
Calling it the POWER 2 WEEKS just sounds stupid, as opposed I guess to how smart the POWER WEEK sounds. I tryed to talk Brooke into waiting till the 21st but she wouldn't listen to me. Oh well.

So Happy Birthday Tyler and Matthew and Happy Pioneer Day everyone else.

Lagoon 2

Here are some pics from the second trip to Lagoon with Lucy.

The "Moon Raker"




"Bulgy the Whale" where she could hardly wait to get on the ride.



Us on the "Contiki"


Her favorite ride was the cars. She cried when the ride operator took her out. I guess we'll just have to go back another time and ride again.

Independence Day

I know it's like two weeks after the 4th of July but I had some pictures that i wanted to put up.
For the last 4 years I have been in the Kaysville parade with the Fire Dept looking something like this to all the crowds lining the street.


I thought this year I would take some pictures of everyone I saw along the parade rout, well everyone I care about. If you're not pictured and I didn't hear you yelling my name that's probably because all I hear is, "Siren, siren, honk, honk, whirrr, Siren, honk". You'll have to forgive me. If you feel slighted because I didn't toss you enough or any candy, go down to the store and by your self a big bag of taffy they're only like $2.00.
Now on to the photos.

First on the rout was my sister in law Rachelle, her husband Devin and daughter Kira.


Next was my brother in law John and his wife Liz. He's the one in the black hat standing up and she's in front of him.


Then my family. My parents, my sister Alison,my sister in law Stacey, my daughter Lucy and my Aunt Jeans family her husband Kevin and two kids Henry and Marie


Here is my Uncle Carl and Aunt Jenifer with some of their kids Daniel, Melanie and Leslie. I'm not sure why they are acting so weird. We were at the front of the parade so they couldn't have consumed that much candy yet, maybe it's because I dumped a bag of candy in front of them or maybe they were just so excited for me to take their picture. Who knows?

Last on route were my brother and sister in law Jared & Julaine and their kids, who were more interested in the candy I had just dumped on the ground than getting their picture taken.


Lucy's favorite was the beads that Taco Time tossed out and the bear that she got. She could have cared less about the candy.


Happy Independence Day everyone!I'm all out of candy and back riding in the truck.

2 months

It's been 2 months since my sweet Lariann left us. I get asked alot,"How are you doing?" and,"How's Lucy doing." I don't mind being asked, it's nice to know that people care and are concerned about Lucy and myself. So let me sum it up for you.

I feel like I am just in this survival mode. I just try to get through each day. Some days it's a struggle to get up and face the day. But Lucy needs me to be strong so she will know that everything is okay.

I try to stay busy to keep my mind off of things, which isn't hard. I even picked up a third job, I went back to Lagoon to work first aid again. It's easier if I have something else to think about something to distract me and work seems to a pretty good job of that.

I've rearranged alot of furniture and boxed up alot of stuff. I hope by doing this that I will stop being reminded of her so much.

Being a single parent is hard. I have almost zero free time anymore. When I'm not at work or asleep it seems like there is always something that needs to be done, house work or yard work or Lucy just needs some attention. Luckily I have great family and friends who are always there to help me out. I don't know what I would do with out them. I don't know if I can begin to add up all the hours my Dad has spent working in my yard, I worry that he is neglecting his own house and yard just to help me.

Lucy spends days with different relatives. My Aunts Jean and Louise each have a day they take her. She goes down to my Uncle Carl and Aunt Jennifer's once a week, sometimes their son Daniel comes over and spends the night if I have an early shift at the fire station or am on call there. My parents and my in-laws take her alot as well, they also come over and spend the night while I am working as dose my sister Alison and my brother Greg and his wife Stacey when they come down from Logan.

Lucy has good days and bad days. She can get very moody and it's hard to tell if it's just because she's two years old or if it's because she lost her Mommy, doesn't understand where she's gone or why she can't come back. She asks about Mommy less and less everyday, actually she hardly brings her up anymore which is good because it always hurt when she would ask for her and didn't have an answer for her that she would understand, but at the same time it's sad because I'm afraid she's starting to forget her Mommy.

My life almost feels like a bad dream that I keep waiting to wake up from but I know that I'm not going to. I almost expect to see her laying on the couch watching TV when I come home or I even reach over to put my arm around her when I'm laying in bed.

I guess the best answer to the question, "How are you doing?" is, "I am okay." I could defiantly be alot better but things could be whole lot worse if I didn't have such wonder full friends and family.

Lagoon

I decided to go back to work at Lagoon this summer. My friend Cole talked me into it. I guess they were short a few people and were desperate so they wanted me back. My sister Alison is also back as well.

The good thing about it is I now get into the park for free and I can get Lucy in since she is under three. So the other night when Alison and I went in to get our ID badges we brought Lucy along and took her on a few rides.


Her favorite is the carousel. She gets angry when she has to stand in line and when the ride stops. I know how she feels.



She also enjoyed the baby boats a lot.


Right after this picture was taken I walked away and she freaked out. So she never actually rode this ride. But she sure looks cute in the picture.

Wolf Shirt

A friend of mine showed this to me on Amazon.com. It's a wolf shirt with a humorous review. Take a look.

10,931 of 11,023 people found the following review helpful:
Dual Function Design, November 10, 2008
By B. Govern "Bee-Dot-Govern"

This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my shirt that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to 'howl at the moon' from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called mehth. I told them no, because they didn't have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn't settle for the first thing that comes to him.

I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my shirt, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you wolf shirt.

Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.

Zoo

Last month while my brother Tyler and his family were in town from Kansas we took our kids along with our parents and sister Alison to the Zoo.

More exciting than the actual animals were the replicas of animals.
Like the rhino statue-


The tiger statue-




The classic Lion drinking fountain-


And the carousel-

Lucy loved it, Britain did not so much. She also loved the train ride-