Thursday, November 30, 2006

All you need to see to believe

This is the last play of the BYU-Utah game. BYU was down 31-27 with 3 seconds to go. It was so fun to be able to have witnessed it live on TV and I'm still giddy over it.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

BYU 33 Utah 31

HOLY CRAP WHAT AN AMAZING FINISH! I can't post much now, but I'll leave an image.



Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Had a good weekend

Alene, Caiden, and my Nephew Brady (who is 1.5 years older than Caiden) all went down to stay in St. George this weekend to get into a bit warmer climate for a bit. It was a nice trip.

We got down there on Friday and kind of "settled" in. We did a lot of swimming in the pool and hanging out in the jacuzzi. I coaxed Brady into doing a belly-flop for $1.

We went out on Saturday to play some mini golf and then headed back to the hotel to watch the BYU-New Mexico game. BYU won 42-17 and with this win, it gave BYU the out-right championship to the MWC and an invite to the Las Vegas bowl, which Alene and I will be attending in December. The cool thing was that I watched the BYU game from Alene's laptop (a buddy of mine streamed it from his computer), so I had the TV free and watched the Michigan-Ohio St. game at the same time (I'll post pictures later).

After that, we did some swimming and went out to Cold Stone to celebrate Brady's BD. He turned 9. One thing I've noticed is that St. George does every portion much bigger than they do in Salt Lake. At Cold Stone, the portion of ice cream they gave was HUGE. At Cafe Rio, I felt like they piled on more meat and also didn't skimp on the beans and rice. Interesting.

Anyway, on Sunday we went to Zions National Park, which was beatuiful. In fact, it could be my favorite park in Utah. We hiked the trail that leads to the entrance to the Narrows. I want to hike up them a bit someday. Alene has already done it and says it becomes kind of boring, but she said she would do it with me when we had the chance. It's so cool to see a river coming out of them with nothing but rock wall on each side. We also hiked up to Emerald Ponds, which was really pretty as well.

We got back into town, went to swim for a bit, then headed to Chuck-A-Rama to pig out (which we did). The food there is admitedly good, but Alene and I agreed that we should only go to that place once a year :-).

On Monday we went to Snow Canyon and did a couple of hikes. We went into Jenny's Canyon, which is the only Narrows spot in snow Canyon. That was pretty cool. We then hiked out to 3 ponds, but never found the 3 ponds. The trail map listed the hike as 3.5 miles round-trip, but we had to have gone at least 2 miles and still had not found anything. We ended up just climbing on some rocks nearby, which was fun. Plus, the echoing was cool in the area. Getting out there, we hiked through a sandy river-bed for quite a bit, which was nice because the sand was really soft. We ended up at the red sand-dunes area and played around on them for a bit. I was disappointed that the dunes weren't very steep (funner to jump into), but it was still fun.

The drive home sucked (as does any long-distance drive), but I was glad to be home and take a good shower last night.

I'll post pictures later.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Losing sucks

My team lost the championship game today 13-21. It's been a pit in my stomach all day long. As Tim says, it's just a game where 14 year old boys go out on a field and chase around someone with a ball in their hands. That should make perfect sense, but I can't seem to get my mind off the game and figure out some way I could have prepared my boys better to win this game. They've worked so hard and two years in a row go to the championship game, only to get beat and in some ways, beat themselves. It's a tough one to take.

I wish I could just wipe it out of my memory so it would not bother me, but it does and I can't make it stop. I guess it will just take time.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Love

I just watched Parenthood with Alene last night. What a great movie about "life" in general. It seemed very real. I know it was made in the late 80's/early 90's, but Ron Howard really made a great one.

One thing for sure is that life is a Roller Coaster and I just need to ride the sucker and enjoy it. I get so caught up in wanting everything to be perfect, much like Steve Martin's character.

Another thing I loved about it was the "family" aspect of the movie. The scene where Steve Martin comes home after just quitting his job and seeing kids running all over the place like a mad-house reminded me of my house growing up and I imagine my dad really relating to it, however I never recall my dad ever losing it when he came home. He seemed to REALLY enjoy the roller coaster of life when we had 8 kids living in a 3 bedroom, one bath 1500 sqare foot house. My mom was very patient too, although she would lay the much-needed smack-down when it had to be done.

Either way, I want a REAL life with Alene and I want a family so badly. I want to experience sharing that with her and having new experiences together. Alene and I argue more than we thought we would going into our marriage. Despite the arguing, I still love her as much as I did when we were dating. I know it doesn't change anything, but it feels good that despite her thinking that she feels she is a bitch to me, that thought had never crossed my mind. I just love her.

Sometimes I wish we could start over. I wish I could make things perfect and ideal for her. I wish she didn't worry so much about things/people from my past, but that is the roller coaster that comes with it I guess and I just need to enjoy/embrace it and deal with it.

We had a good day yesterday though (in my opinion). We played Fast Sunday Bingo in church. OK, a little sacreligious (for those of you that are LDS, you know what Fast Sunday is). We had a good day at home and being together. I want that feeling all the time and I strive for it every day.

Back to the arguing though, we have to be very careful about when/where we argue. I guess sometimes I'm just not aware, but Caiden hears it and it worries him. He has been a little stand-offish toward Alene lately and it really hurts me to see it (as I know it does hurt Alene too). He won't let her kiss him. I asked him why the other night and he said that he hears us argue and he thinks she is going to be leaving. His voice actually started to quiver as though he became sad. It broke my heart. I know he does love Alene and he does know very well that Alene loves him. I think he's afraid to get too attached to her because he thinks she is leaving. I told him she isn't leaving and that she and Daddy will do better to not argue (sometimes arguments happen, but they can still be controled not in his presence). I've tried to talk openly with Caiden about how he feels about the divorce, if he is upset with his mommy and daddy, etc. He always says he isn't mad and that he is fine with the way it is. I actually ask him quite a bit. We separated when he was 1 1/2, so I'm sure he doesn't remember it and is used to the way it is. What I told him was that through it all, no matter what, his parents both love him dearly and support him in everything he does. He smiled. I love my son so much.

I also love my family. I love each and every one of my brothers and sisters (and my parents) for the unique individuals they are. They are all growing into such great people and it's so cool to see it happen. I fear/worry so much for their safety and their happiness. I hope they all know that each of them are important to me.