Today, the roofing project starts

It's going to be interesting. I've never torn a roof on. I've put on two roofs, one garage, and one small shed. We have 3 layers of shingles to tear off, regular asphalt shingles, then the shake (wood) shingles, originally put up in 1917. Alene and I spent the evening last night, removing the gutters and tearing a section off by hand. It was actually quite easy, so we're excited about this going quickly as possible.

We have a lot of our family coming over, so it should be fun.

Caiden told me about an awesome dream this morning

When I woke him up, he told the following story:

He dreamed that he was with Peter Pan and he could fly like peter pan, but he had wings that flapped really fast. He said there were three guitars there too and you take a little disc and put it in the guitar and it makes you play the guitar really good while you're flying. He said it was the best dream he's ever had.

Holy crap, I was cracking up inside so hard. I love my son so much.

Got a great BD present from my brother Russ

I laughed my tail off. If the picture doesn't show his writing too well, I'll put something down in sub-titles.

First, here is the envelope. It say's "To Tyler from Russell (heart) Brothers Forever (heart)"



The first page. It says:

(Top Left) "I remember when I first saw you"
(Top Right) "You always tried to steal my thunder"
(Bottom Left) "But we made up"
Bottom Right) "Until you tried to eat my head"



The Second Page:

(Top Left) "I wanted to get even"
(Top Right) "But I wanted to be good too"
(Bottom Left) "I even played Elvis' side kick. You were Elvis, remember?"
(Bottom Right) "Funny Joke"



The Third Page:

(Top Left) "I was trying to protect myself"
(Top Right) "Funny Joke"
(Bottom Left) "I didn't know I wasn't wearing any pants!"
(Bottom Right) "I thought this was the last time we would see each other"



The Fourth Page:

"But I was wrong. I'm greatful we are best friends. Happy birthday big brother. xxXXooXxooOxoX"

So I'm 30 today......

I'm not sure what to make of it. I thought this day was way far away, but now it's here. I still feel like the same immature dork I was when I was 20, I wonder if that tag ever wears off?

Alene did something so sweet for me. First, she got up an hour earlier than she normally does (5:30am I think) and she went to my favorite donut bakery (Banbury Cross) and got a dozen donuts and a card for me.

Then she posted this blog about me, which means more to me than anything.

My sister Krystal also sent me a very thoughtful card that really made my day. We are distant in age (about 8 years difference), but I've always respected the heck out of her. She sent me a copy of a picture of me and her when I had some funky hairdoo and she had chubby cheeks and both of us were very dirty from our daily activities (I think I was 11 and she was 3). It was really nice.

I had a construction conference call this morning and everyone wished me a happy BD, as well as people at work. It's nice, but I don't like attention drawn to me, so it's also kind of hard to deal with. The only attention I like is from Alene and those that are close to me like my family (even that is hard though).

But yeah, I'm 30 now. YIKES!!! I guess it's time for me to start wearing khaki slacks and tucked in polo shirts every day.

Alene introduced me to some cool music

It's a group from Philly called Dr. Dog. They remind me of the Beatles in some ways, but with more harmony and a bit more psychadelic. I've found I'm a big fan of harmony. I think it's why I like the Beach Boys so much.

Anyway, you can download some cool free sessions here:


Datrotter sessions

You can download some of their songs off their albums here:


Drdogmusic.com

I'd highly recommend these songs: From (live song), Ain't it strange (from both the live songs and an album song), Worst Trip (I like the live version better), Easy Beat, and Wake up.


On an un-releated note, I found this picture I took last month when I had a mohawk for about a minute or two.

Caiden would kill me if he knew I did this

He was in a rare dancing mood one day, so I turned on my camera (he did not know it) and filmed away.

We had a great time down at the Swell

Alene and I took Caiden and two of his cousins (brothers Ryan and Brady) down to the San Rafael Swell.

We left on Friday evening, which put us somewhat in a bind trying to find a campsite. As we got down to the area, we pulled off the road on US 24 and got lost on some side trails. I wasn't super nervous, but it's SO hard to see at night, even in a truck with your high-beams on. We just could not tell where the roads crossed so we could find our way back to the highway. Eventually, I was able to follow my old tracks from the way we took in.

We found a spot much further down by the canyon we were going to hike (Little Wild Horse) and it turned out to be a pretty nice little place. On Saturday we hiked 6 total miles (3 up and 3 back) of Little Wild Horse. Next time we go there I want to do the whole loop trail, which is 9 miles total.

We went back to the campsite and let the boys play around while Alene and I took a short nap. We then headed down to Goblin Valley and had fun exploring around there.

On Sunday we drove around the area a bit just getting a feel for some good camp spots (future reference), then drove down to the Temple Mountain wash and down to Chute Canyon (the first place I went camping with Alene). We stopped at the Temple Mountain wash area on our way out and hiked around on the reef rocks for an hour or so, then headed out of the area down to Black Dragon canyon, which was really nice. We hiked back 1/4 mile or so and looked at some ancient petroglyphs.

One funny story from the last day was Caiden's little quote about Oatmeal. It goes like this: That morning when we were eating breakfast (Oatmeal), my son refused to eat his and I told hime he would not get any red vines later on if he didn't eat his. After pondering for a bit, he said, "Daddy, do you want me to eat the devil?"

I busted up laughing inside. I can imagine at that age (7) not wanting to eat something and thinking of it in the worst possible way. I think "the devil" would be the best way to describe it, or anything you're afraid of.

I remember years ago my youngest brother (Billy) wrote a story (he's 15 now and a pretty good writer still). He used one metaphore like this, "I was scared as a baby being chased by satan". That is pretty much the best description I could think of too

Here is a link to the pictures from our trip.

April San Rafael Camping Trip

We also took a ton of video clips with our camera, so here is a link to my youtube page, which has a ton of clips you can select.

Youtube Clips

I'm going to create a slide show fused with the video clips, but when I have time. I'll post that once it's done.