Meridian Speedway Races - Daddy's Night with Caleb

Bless Hubble Homes, Caleb and I enjoyed a fun evening hanging out with Dave and Amber at the local Meridian Speedway watching cars race around a short quarter mile (I think) track. It was crazy the speed those cars reached. We liked almost all of it especially the juice (name Caleb gives to soda) and popcorn.

Seattle

Sarah and I took a wonderful vacation to Seattle from Tuesday to Thursday. I had gone on Monday for work and Sarah met me to have a bit of fun. We went to the Space Needle the first night for dinner



Wow, look at the beautiful girl getting in the way of my sunset shot. ;-)



What an indredible view of this amazingly clean city. We loved our stay and found ourselves Sleepless in Seattle



I taught a good man how to take good pictures and look what turned out.



On Wednesday night, we were ecstatic to go to Wicked, the Broadway show with our great friends, Heber and Chalonn Redd. They made quite the sacrifice to get there - they braved an hour of traffic and their sister-in-law spent considerable time taking the hour long fairy to their house to watch the kids. The show was fabulous detailing the untold story of the good witch so long known as the Wicked Witch of the West. It taught great moral lessons of goodness to others and understanding. All was well except for Sarah's view through all the tall heads.

Ellie's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Ellie! We sure loved celebrating with you on your 2nd Birthday



Leave it to her Aunt Amber to dress Ellie up in style with this cute "cover half her upper body" jacket. It is sure to keep her totally in style and half warm at any given time. ;-)

Nicole's Fairwell Weekend

We spent the last weekend in August heading down to Ogden to support Nicole on her mission. We spent Saturday at a Dinosaur Museum that was fabulous. The kids dressed up in costumes.



Caleb was Robin Hood.



Next, he took a trip to the store to buy some merchandise



Even Sarah and Krystal got caught up in the dress-up fest. I don't know how the Wolf resisted Eating up Red Riding Hood with such a toupe (is that how you spell it??)



Ellie connected us with our Southern brothers and sisters across the border. What a muneca!!

August 5th - Beckstrand Reunion

We had a Beckstrand Reunion and a little talent show to celebrate all our hard earned talents. Caleb represented his last four years of training when he demonstrated his Jungle dance to the beat of the Tarzan music. I have been a proud father at many different times and in this moment, I was a "busting up" father that could not believe what I was seeing. Caleb ran from down the hall like a Rock Star entering onto his stage with a blast of energy. He jumped into the center and proceeded to dance beating his chest, yelling like Tarzan, and moving back and forth in a very funny way moving his feet very fast almost like a clogger without clogs.



His parents followed with a stupendous skit illustrating their "silly" talent. Sarah was my arms and proceeded to walk me through my morning routine, eating breakfast, and brushing my teeth. It was very funny.

Chucky Cheese Fun!

Here is a cute picture of our two darlings at one of their favorite places - Chucky Cheese and you can tell they love each other!!

Newman Reunion & Christensen Party & Boise Pool

Little Ellie made an adorable face mask at the Newman Reunion.



We headed to the Christensen's Saturday afternoon and Caleb took his first strokes in their pool thanks to these inflatable arm floaters. It was a major milestone for this kid who has always loved the water. I think his cousin Jacob gave him a bit of courage with his big splashes and unabashed bravery.



Ellie is such a cutie with her skinny little legs - the kids loved the local pools and spent plenty of time there.

Emmett Cherry Festival & Caleb Birthday

Ellie is growing up oh so fast - notice the lady like posture and the way she wears those high heels.



Caleb was an excited fool for all his birthday presents. We had a small family b-day party and one crazy excited 4-year old.



On the 17th, we went to Emmett for the Cherry Festival. It was a ton of fun. We went to the outdoor festival and the kids couldn't get enough of this cute kitty.



We were hot and tired and stopped to get a bite of lunch. The sweat look was planned.

Boston WhirlWind History

I traveled to Boston for four days to do some work for HP and was able to see some awesome places on the way. I loved eating lunch at Cheers. It had a downstairs that looked exactly like the bar on the show though I am not sure if this was the real Cheers or the second Cheers located a few blocks away.



I then took a short walk to Paul Revere's house. I learned that not only did he ride the Great ride to warn the Yankees of the British, he was also a gold smith and professional writer.



They also continue to light the lamp posts with gas as a historical tourist attraction. I would hate to have to go through town changing out those element pieces - the little sacks.



I like this picture especially because of the juxtaposition between old and new. I believe this is the building where several significant (can you tell I didn't pay attention to history in school nor did I ask a tour guide but was much more interested in the photo) documents (I think, but don't quote me on this) were signed. I think there was also a massacre here of some sort (I overheard - I'm really good at hanging on the fringes of tour groups with their paid guide for tidbits of information).



We then went to eat at Ruth Chris' Steak House. It was the finest food (measured by price for sure) I have ever eaten. Thanks to my HP peer, Ted, for talking me into going because I never would have had the nerve to eat there on HP's dime but he was several years my senior so I submitted.



The restaurant happened to be in the basement of an important State Government building. It was beautiful and so neat and I thought this statue of Jefferson was real cool with the spotlight at night.

Hockey Game in Boise

Caleb and I at the Idaho Steelheads enjoying the game.

Spring Night Skiing @ Bogus

Night Skiing at Bogus - Dave, Sarah and I had a great couple of hours greasing the ski hill with our bums. Oh, I mean, Sarah several times, Dave once and Chris never, but who was counting.



It was the first time Sarah and I had skiied together and Dave was a good enough sport to put up with both of us taking our sweet time. We were no match for Dave. His legs must have had magnets in them since I don't think I ever saw him pull a snow plow. :-)

I brought my camera along so I could catch each graceful fall. :-) Here was one of Sarah's few. I was quite impressed how much she remembered since not skiing for 5 years.



Okay, so the only reason Dave fell was because he was trying to slide through a 360 on a steep choppy slope just to show off!!

Chris' Birthday

Well, I hit the big 30. This was my deeeeeelicious monkey bread breakfast. Sarah sure does love me.



Kinda crazy when you think about it and sadly, I was feeling worn out - my left foot was aching from a severely bruised outer toe that was stomped on by an opponent in my weekly HP soccer games and my right shoulder was wigging out with some sort of arthritic joint problem.

Here is a picture of Ellie working on some art - her face painting. I think this one is a Lettuce Water Ranch. You ought to see the spaghetti brunch. Nasty . . .



Here is another of Ellie trying out my ball cap. She liked it and gave me a quick tooth shiner.

President's Day Weekend

We spent our President's Day Weekend in Rexburg with the Beckstrand clan sledding and playing in the snow. It was a ball.

Here are some pictures of us all bundled up











We tucked inside after a while for a few more shots

Here are three of the sisters, Katie, Sarah and Christine



Jared and Katie in their Engagement Photo



Aaron "Caught in the Action" snatching cookies



What a fun weekend

Denmark - Day 5 and 6

While I saw awesome sites in Italy, my visit to Denmark, in a way, felt like home. Over the course of the two days, I was amazed how it seemed that the people looked so much like me. I saw blonde and fair skinned people all over - Theirs was an incredibly green land even though the temperature must have been in the low 40s and the land was clean and sectioned off and I hardly saw any trash. I saw large stands of forest after every couple of fields - a reforestation project, Bent Hogsted told me.

I spent the first half day seeing Aahrus sites and catching up with Jan and his family. Jan and I spent the first couple of hours strolling the streets and shops of the downtown. It was like we were 18 again and we had such a fun time catching up. We then went to dinner with Luisa, his girlfriend



and ate a delicious Danish dish of pork, potatoes and gravy. The pork was cured and tasted like delicious bacon.



On the walk downtown, I was amazed how public people are. The apartments are at least 4 stories high and small and no one used blinds anywhere. I was fascinated to look across the street and see people in heated conversations and all up and down the street, young couples were sitting down for candle lit dinners. It was almost romantic. Here, I sneaked a shot of this couple



The next morning, Bent and Marianne prepared a wonderful traditional Danish breakfast of cheeses, meats and breads. The meat with the dark center is pork with pepper and the redish meat seemed to be a smoked pork. Both were very new tastes to me.



I watched Jan play soccer that afternoon, bought some gifts and then went back to the Hogsted's for a family dinner and evening chat around the traditional bowl of candy. It was great fun. In the pictures are Jan's kids, Victoria and Oliver



Bent and Kim (Jan's older brother)



and Hele (sorry for the bad spelling), Kim's wife.



Marianne, Oliver and me



It was a fabulous visit and ended with a quick snapshot of a life size Star Wars figure made out of Leggos which originate in Denmark.