Ryan and Melissa Kendrick's Blog

We've moved

2010-09-06T22:51:00.001-06:00

Blogspot is too clunky. We've moved over to Tumblr, where things are cleaner and easier to work with.

Check it out here: ryan-kendrick.tumblr.com

Sunset tonight in Draper

2010-06-30T21:02:00.000-06:00

Cambodia and Singapore

2010-05-23T11:02:00.004-06:00

I spent a few weeks in Cambodia and Singapore with my MBA class from Westminster College. I plan on making a more extensive blog post about my experiences, but the LOST finale takes precedence, unfortunately. In the mean time, check out the photos of my trip by clicking here.

Done with School!

2010-04-24T13:30:00.006-06:00

Ryan had his last class for school yesterday. I am very proud of him! He's going to Cambodia and Singapore next week for 11 days.

He's at work right now (on a Saturday!) and I'm kicking around the house. Brinkley got his first haircut and looks super cute. I put onions down the garbage disposal and clogged it. Then I broke the plunger trying to plunge it. So far it's been a very productive day. Oh yeah, I remember why I was writing this post. I'm looking though our (million) pictures on the computer because I'm going to have some of Ryan's photography printed. While doing so I stumbled upon these beauties. I find it particularly interesting that the time all of these pictures were taken were between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am. Probably doing homework on the computer and would rather be doing anything, anything! else. Needless to say I'm sure Ryan is very excited that his routine late night (early morning) homework nights are over.

We Have A New Addition To The Family.... Brinkley!

2010-02-13T17:49:00.002-07:00

Magna Smokestack

2009-12-26T17:08:00.001-07:00

Blanket Of White

2009-12-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

A Very WinCo Christmas

2009-12-19T17:33:00.001-07:00

New post about our Christmas gift to our family over on my blog. Click here.

Santa Sighting

2009-12-19T16:43:00.002-07:00

I had a really tough time after this Santa sighting explaining to Mel why Santa and Mrs Clause were in a 2001 Jeep Cherokee, instead of their sleigh. I think she understands.

(yes, that's a reflection of her waving like a maniac at Santa and Mrs. Clause. They waved back)

I'm ready for a nice warm vacation. Or an extra blanket.

2009-12-08T22:09:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to convice Ryan to move here

2009-11-02T09:37:00.004-07:00

There's only a few problems though ... it's half as many square feet as we have now, it's twice as much money (at least), and we're not really looking to move.

However, it's beautiful! It's right downtown and the warehouse was built in 1904. IT was renovated in 2007 and the windows and walls are original. I think it is beautiful.

San Francisco

2009-10-25T16:00:00.008-06:00

We went to San Francisco last weekend. Ryan was between semesters so we took a little trip. It was really fun. We did some cool things. Cool thing #1 ... the AMTRAK! This was not only my favorite part of the trip but probably my favorite thing that I have ever done!!! Here's some video.

We stayed in a funky hotel called the Mosser. It is similar to the Pod, the hotel we were at in New York. We saw Wicked (amazing!) I loved when they were singing the Emerald song and everything turned green and sparkly. I've done four Broadway lotteries and NEVER have I had my name drawn! We ate some GOOD food (thanks Yelp!). We rode our bikes across the Golden Gate bridge. Well, actually if they were OUR bikes we could have gone the whole 15 miles in an hour or less and still had energy to spare. THESE bikes (rentals) weighed about 80 pounds and it felt like you were either riding through sand or riding through sand pulling a car. The bridge was cool and I couldn't even imagine building it. However, when riding a bike across the bridge there were 3 things that worried me. #1, being high up on a bike made the guardrail look pretty short and you had an even better view of the water 120 feet down. #2. The wind would scootch you off your path. I don't like the wind doing that to me, especially on a bridge. #3. I wasn't a fan of the GAP between the bridge and guardrail. Not exagerating, if I fell off my bike (which I haven't done in 2 years, yeah!) I could probably slide right between the bridge and guardrail. I didn't really take these things into consideration, and also that I don't like heights very much, before we started. Oh well :) We got some good pics of the bridge. When we go to Sacalito we took a ferry back :) We got a great view of Alcatraz and got pretty close to some saliboats. I really wish we had a boat down there. People would charter their own boat for us but nothing cheaper than like $150 an hour. No thanks.

We also saw the sea lions. They were awesome! We watched them for a LONG time. We (I) would make up narratives for them. We rode the cable cars and went to the Cable Car Museum. We rode the cable cars at night time which was really cool. We went to Ghiradelli square at night time and it was really nice how there was like nobody there. We just ate a really big cookie and window shopped. We walked up and down Lombard street, walked to the top of a hill which was a really cool neighborhood, walked the Embarcadero, did the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and also the Ferry building. There's a video of Ryan eating an oyster below. We also got a personal tour of Guittard chocolate factory. We have a good relationship with them so they showed us all around and and explained their whole factory from the cocoa beans that come in the burlap sacks to their labs to the production and packaging. It was really nice of them to let us do that. We also visited a company, Foodzie, that sells our chocolates. We ate clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls on the pier and looked at the submarine and the WWII ship.

San Francisco shopping is great, of course. The flagship store for Banana Republic is there and the sale section is as big as a regular store! The flagship store for Gap and Old Navy is there also. We went to Old Navy to buy some short sleeve shirts because it was a lot warmer than we expected. I usually don't like Old Navy because if I wanted to wear clothes off the floor I could just get them from my bedroom. However, this was a cool big store with 3 floors and a huge selection. ok, no more words, here's pictures.

Just in Case you Care

2009-10-25T15:51:00.002-06:00

Here some pics of my new nose.

Las Vegas

2009-10-25T15:36:00.003-06:00

We went to Vegas a few weekends ago. The fun parts were fun and the rest sucked. Mystere was amazing and I fully want to be a crazy dancer/gymnast/trapezeperson/hang on a rope and fly around person. We ate at the best Thai food place called Lotus of Siam ... I think. It has had a gazillion 'foodie' reviews and it was probably the most amazing food I have ever had. Then we ate at the Wynn Buffet (we eat a lot on vacations). Everybody talks about how expensive buffets are. WEll, they didn't make any money on me. I had seven plates. Probably the best part of our trip (or at least funnest memory) was trying to drive down the strip one night to take pictures. There was construction and it took us like over an hour just to go less than a mile. It was hot and humid and every city in the world has vomited their trashy people into this great city in the desert and we were stuck behind a city bus with a lovely wrap-around banner of four women wearing nothing but thongs. Classy. Oh yeah, and then there was a really ugly drunk bachelor with Mardi Gras beads in the car next to us hanging out the window screaming "who wants to earn these". Anyways, the memorable part came when we were so SICK OF VEGAS that we shamelessly proclaimed 'I hate you vegas'. A lot of people probably heard. We didn't care. It was just one thing after another and it was funny to me and memorable. Here's some pics from our trip.

I Promise

2009-10-21T18:54:00.002-06:00

Contrary to the trend in the next couple posts I really do spend my days out of bed or off the couch.

Mel In Our Sleeper Room On The Train.

2009-10-16T10:57:00.000-06:00

We just left Reno. On to San Francisco!

Mel Got A Little Excited About Her Halloween Costume

2009-10-15T11:38:00.000-06:00

New Bloggy-goodness

2009-10-04T21:51:00.002-06:00

Check out my summary of our Vegas trip, as well as some new photos: www.ryankendrick.me

Nose

2009-09-24T18:47:00.004-06:00

I had some work done on my face last Friday. I had a rhinoplasty, bilateral nasoseptal reconstruction, submucous resection and a chin lift. ouchie! No, it hasn't been that bad. The surgery went well. I remember them putting me on a little table thing in the middle of a cold white room and then putting a nice warm blanket over me and the anesthesiologist telling me that he was going to give me 'sleepy juice' :) I was so bummed, I wanted to count down from 10 really fast just to see if I could but I don't think I even got my first number out :) I asked the doctor a few days later and he said he didn't remember :) I had the surgery at the new IMC hospital and all the nurses were great. It was the first time really that I've been in a hospital. Of course I didn't really like it but that hospital was pretty nice. The only complication I had was with the pain meds. See, they got a little confused and thought I was the incredible Hulk and so the perscribed me for up to 15 mg of pain meds every 3 hours. Well, it should really be closer to 2.5 mg every 3-4 hours. We knew there was a problem when I was TOO vegtable-like and wasn't responsive. For a few days I've been on a MUCH lower dose of pain meds and also a small dose of nausea meds (the nausea has actually been 100x worse than the pain ... and the pain isn't much fun). I went outside for the first time in 5 days 2 days ago for a 'walk'. We made it all the way around the culd-a-sac in about 30 minutes! Yeah! In case you don't know, we live on a really SMALL culd-a-sac :) Yesterday we walked to my friend's house and we sat on the porch and visited. That was nice. Today Ryan's mom took me to my appt and I got the splint taken off and the splints taken out of my nostrils. I didn't even know I had splints in my nostrils :) He just kept pulling stuff out of my nose and I was like 'where did that come from!'. I'm already excited about the results and the swelling will still go down a lot. They say in about 6 weeks I will be able to feel my lips. (The chin implant was inserted between my lower lip and lower teeth and it's all stitched up now). The swelling on my face will be down in about 3 months and it will take about a year for everything to have feeling and really be normal. So I'm in the recovery phase but it is getting a little better each day. Luckily I have had an amazing appetite and have eaten real food this whole time. I think that has helped a lot. It has been very peaceful and relaxing. I didn't even turn on the tv for about 5 days (well, even a light or any movement made me totally dizzy/nauseous). Ryan has been great and his favorite part is putting hydrogen peroxide on a q-tip in my nostrils because of the cool noises it makes (sorry, that might be tmi). I got the most tender little care package from my mom. That has been the hilight. She is the most thoughful person! They were just down a couple weeks ago and we decided that if she was down I would be too tempted to 'over do it' and that they'd come down after the recovery. Man was I wrong! I wanted her every second of every day! Good thing for phones! I called her ALL THE TIME and just mumbled to her (most of the conversations I remember ...) She let me mumble all I wanted :) And my parents didn't even complain when I accidently called them in the middle of the night TOTALLY out of it because I got really scared and not with it. So thanks mom and dad and Ryan and Ruth and everybody that has made my dream become a peaceful, 'manageable', smooth recovery!

This is probably my only picture that won't gross you out :) This was on the very tired day two.

We Need Your Help!

2009-09-03T14:05:00.000-06:00

We need your opinions on some new chocolate shots: Clicky

New Photos

2009-08-23T23:46:00.000-06:00

Posted a few new photos over at www.ryankendrick.me

Dog Sitting and Neighborhood BBQ

2009-08-22T20:56:00.005-06:00

Today we got to dog sit while our neighbors went to the water park. I'll post a picture of the cutie tomorrow. It made me want a dog even more. We took naps together. It was the greatest day ever!!! Then we had our annual neighborhood BBQ. A group of guys have a band that is called Malpractice.(which is kind of funny bc I think most of them are docs) They're really good and they play at our neightobhood BBQ. It's fun to meet your neighbors or see ones that you don't see that often. It's always a good time. They have cotton candy (which I had 3 'servings' of), snow cones, regular BBQ food, a bouncy house, bouncy jousting and a bouncy slide. It was fun. Here's a video of last summer's BBQ in all its Metalica glory.

Next week my parents are coming into town which will be fun. They're staying at the Grand America which means that I can go there after work and swim! yeah! My mom is doing a half marathon with me on Saturday in Logan. It will be fun. We're planning on walking it though because my knees have been on the fritz this summer. boo knees! Even though they freak out when I run I've ridden my bike to work a few times. It's a good 30 mile ride but my knees are ok afterwards. Just a little ice and Motrin :)

We're pretty sad the summer is almost over. We're going to see Mystere in Vegas in September and then we're riding Amtrak to San Franisco the next weekend. Ryan is stoked to ride the train! We'll spend a few days in San Francisco and then fly home. We booked a hotel in New York for October but we're not sure if we'll go then. It can get pretty busy with school, work, life ... and not to mention the expense part ... tuition, etc. We think that it would be fun to do a VERY BUDGET Europe trip. Hostels, public transportation, etc. Have you ever done that? What is the cheapest airline ticket you have seen to Europe? I know there's a lot of deals for traveling right now.

Well I'll stop rambling because the video finally uploaded. Bye!

...

ok, here's the puppy dog pictures!

Goldendoodles

2009-08-09T22:18:00.004-06:00

These are goldendoodles. They are the darn stinkin'est cutest thing I have ever seen!

Albion Basin

2009-08-03T01:33:00.002-06:00

As a matter of fact, we DID wake up at 3:30 am to go up to Albion Basin (near Alta). Mel wasn't exactly glad she came along, but I'm glad she accompanied me. The wildflowers are absolutely gorgeous right now, and we even saw a moose! Shots found here.

New Shots Over At My Site

2009-07-27T09:51:00.001-06:00

Click on the photo to be whisked away.

Bikes and food

2009-07-25T19:49:00.003-06:00

Today I went on a 30-mile ride with Adele and Lily Allen. They're not real. I just listen to them and they keep my sane. (on my ipod. they're not imaginary friends just in case anybody was wondering). I rode up 7th East to 45th south. I'm not sure why I ended up at my work on a Saturday but that's where my ride took me. Did I go in? yeah right. I didn't really get anything else accomplished today :) I met my friend, Kaley, at IKEA. She was down from Boise to try out for So You Think You Can Dance. Then I took a nice long nap. I woke up as Ryan came into the house from the garage. He was coming home from work. I won't even tell you how long I slept. Then I made some dinner. What did I make? I made lime-cilantro chicken with tomato and avacado salsa with parmesean rice and zuccini and squash from our garden. And I made it all in 20 minutes! I'm trying to cook a little more because my idea of a good dinner is Subway. I'm perfectly fine with that :) But I need to practice cooking. baby steps. (ugh, I really don't like it, but I have some big shoes to fill) Afterall, his mom is Ruth Kendrick. For example . So I'll take any good low-calorie recipes you have that I can make in 20-minutes or less.

New Photography Post over at Ryanland

2009-07-24T22:32:00.004-06:00

Click here, and hilarity will ensue:

Outdoors

2009-07-19T21:41:00.002-06:00

This week we went to Girl's Camp and it was so much fun! Nothing beats campfires, canoeing and singing hakunamatada at the top of your lungs, swimming, hiking, smores, games, volleyball, skits, (not so) zip lines, killer racoons, mass amounts of bracelet making and eating large doses of garbage. Ryan and I went for a walk tonight and looked at the baby ducks in the canal by our house and saw where the cute beever chewed down the trees by our house. Our garden is doing well. We have cute tomatoes and zuccini and squash almost ready and other stuff growing. Ahh ... I wish I worked outside :)

Four-Wheeling at Miller Motorsports Park

2009-07-01T21:47:00.003-06:00

Pictures from Ronbo, Brett, and Ryan's excursion to the Miller offroad course in Grantsville can be found: here

Wasatch Back

2009-06-23T00:02:00.003-06:00

Ryan

2009-06-04T21:23:00.001-06:00

Meet Ryan. He listens to podcasts about computers and takes pictures
of pretty things. He is the exact opposite of Kenny.

Boot Camp

2009-06-04T18:58:00.003-06:00

He causes me pain at 5:30 every morning. His name is Kenny. He likes pushups. I hate them. He knows that. He doesn't care.

In Case You Were Wondering If Garbage Trucks Are Edible...

2009-06-02T15:30:00.001-06:00

...Now you have your answer. You're welcome.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys....

2009-04-27T00:57:00.000-06:00

Mel thinks it's funny that I cheer more when I watch COPS than I do
when I watch sports.

Our new chore/hobby

2009-04-26T22:01:00.003-06:00

I'm amazed at how the things I once thought were chores are now hobbies. I remember weeding my parents' garden and wondering how I could secretly torch the thing so I'd never have to weed again, and yet now we are actually out MAKING gardens.

Mel and I tried planting a small garden in our backyard, but since our backyard is about 5x10 and never sees the sun, it went over about as well as you would think.

So this year we decided to take a different approach. There is a field behind our house that is unoccupied, right next to our ~~waterfront~~ canal. So, this Saturday being the first one in a while not being consumed by homework or other stuff, I made a quick run to home depot, and $30 later, came back with all of the gear necessary for a small 4x8 growbox. It's in an area that gets a ton of sun, so we shouldn't have any excuse this time.

la di da

2009-04-13T18:48:00.003-06:00

I don't really have anything noteworthy to blog about. I'm pretty bored. Ryan's at school and I'm procrastinating going to the gym because I didn't shave my legs today and I can't go in the kitchen because I'm trying to cut back on the amount of garbage and sugar I eat. There's evil cookies and cupcakes in the kitchen. My friend started eating a Butterfinger but knew that she would be tempted to eat the second half so she mushed it up with ketchup (which she hates) and threw it away. I heard that today and thought it was really funny. We're doing 'The Biggest Loser / Gainer" at work. Some of the engineers want to increase their body mass. Curse them. We're all trying to help each other get a little healthier. We'll take any ideas you have! Have a good day! -Melissa

My AMAZING husband!

2009-03-27T20:33:00.002-06:00

My husband's great. He's pretty smart. His business plan was just chosen to be in the top ten of the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. (uec.utah.edu) Whenever I get busy I just think of him and all the things he gets done - being the President of our HOA, being in the Elders Quorum Presidency, having cool hobbies like photography and outdoors stuff, working full time as a Branch Manager for America First and, oh yea, going to school full time to get his Master's. Oh yea, and he wrote a huge, amazing business plan for Chocolot. And he won the Wesminster Business Plan Competition. Today he was chosen to be in the top 10 and will present next month to venture capitalists. Good job Ry!

SNL: Don't Buy Stuff

2009-03-21T13:23:00.001-06:00

If only the world had this SNL skit years ago. Maybe we wouldn't be in this mess today.

That's such a Croc®

2009-03-19T19:22:00.005-06:00

Actually this story isn't a crock, but that was the most creative thing I could come up with. This story is about my two Croc shoes, Sam and Pete. Just kidding, they don't have names. But the story is still about them.

I love my Crocs. They look(ed) like this

Ryan got them for me a couple years ago and I was hesitant to wear them because they're ugly but then I started to wear them around the house and realized they're the greatest thing on earth. I frequently wear them out and about usually because I forget I'm wearing them until I get about a mile from home and figure it's not worth it to turn around and change my shoes. I've done this 6 times coming home from work for lunch. Nothing rounds off your nice work outfit of a skirt and blouse like rubber Crocs. But I wear them to the store because I don't care what I look like at the grocery store.

Anyways ... I wore these this weekend (of course) when we were in Ogden. We had a dentist appointment on Monday morning in Ogden and then Ryan dropped me off at work. Monday night Ryan unloaded everything from his car and dumped it in a pile in the living room. Tuesday morning I remembered my MaryJane shoes were in my car so I just needed some shoes to get from the house to my car in the garage. (I don't like walking barefoot in the garage because then my feet are cold for the whole day). I looked through the pile of car barf really fast and found one Croc. Figuring that would be enough to get me to my car 10 feet away I put on one Croc and hopped on that foot to Betty.

Today, two days later, I went for a walk with my friend Heather around our building because it was so nice outside. As we were coming back to our building Heather starting laughing about a shoe that she had been watching out her office window. She wanted to see if somebody had picked it up yet so we walked over towards the Washington Mutual parking lot. In the grass was a blue shoe. I went to pick it up to put it on top of a 'no parking' sign so that if somebody was looking for it they could see it really easily. I looked at it and commented that I had a pair of crocs that had white paint on the toes just like these did. Then I thought it was funny that there was also brown paint on top just like mine. It should have been more instantaneous but I soon realized that ... this was my Croc! I didn't know I was missing it (although hopping on one foot because I only had one should have been a dead giveaway) and I'm not sure how it got in that WaMu parking lot.

We went back up to our office and when I walked in everybody was like "sick, why are you carrying that nasty croc that's been traveling around the parking lot for the whole week". BECAUSE IT'S MINE! Apparently everybody had been following it from the front of the building. (I NEVER use this door because the parking garage is in the back but it must have fell out of the car when Ryan dropped me off at the front of the building on Monday) It has traveled from the front of the building to the middle of the parking lot, over to WaMu, back into the parking lot and then into the grass. If only somebody would have told me about this vacationing Croc! I could have rescued him much earlier. I think I was the only person in the office that didn't know about the orphan shoe.

So I have my Croc back safe and sound. Well actually it has tire tracks on it and a broken strap so pretty much I just have it back. I was actually kind of sad when I realized that it was mine. Those Crocs have been on many-a-vacation, been my slippers for the last 2 years, been on tons of Sunday walks and I have probably cleaned them a million times. (rubber shoes clean up quite nicely). It was wierd to see my little Croc-ie just laying there all dirty and broken.

I think I can fix him though. Croc.com says that they can mail you new rivets for the strap and I think he'll clean up just fine. For now he's on my wall and my coworkers have been rubbing him for good luck. Afterall, he has survived abandonment, abuse and mockery all in the last four days. I'm sorry Croc. I think his new name will be Champ. So I guess they do have names, left and Champ.

Blossomed a little more today.

2009-03-14T22:47:00.003-06:00

We don't have any kids to watch grow, so we'll just stick with flowers for now.

An Afternoon at the Paragliding Park

2009-03-13T20:08:00.001-06:00

What a great day!

Spring is Coming!

2009-03-13T20:02:00.003-06:00

It was an awesome day today. Inspired me to get our and enjoy some Utah "Sprinter." It was 50 degrees and sunny today, but it's spring in Utah, so that means tomorrow we'll get 4 inches of snow.

The Issues of a Welfare Society

2009-02-26T12:56:00.002-07:00

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friends, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

Dr. Adrian Rogers
Former President, Southern Baptist Convention

Senator Buttars, please just go away

2009-02-19T22:23:00.005-07:00

Senator Chris Buttars doesn't represent my district. He lives on the other side of the valley. And boy am I glad.

Every year during the Utah legislative session, he never fails to amaze me with his incredible ability to carry on the narrow-minded stereotypes that tend to make Utah a state that always seems to be viewed in a different way than residents of other states (read: people think we're weird here).

And yet every election period, Buttars is re-elected by his constituents--Not for his overwhelming qualifications (doesn't have many), but because his opponents have a "D" next to their name instead of an "R," which, if you didn't already know, doesn't go over so well in Utah.

Let me give you a brief summary of Buttars' greatest hits:

1. In 2008's legislative session, Buttars opposed a bill that dealt with school funding. Instead of merely disagreeing and stating his opposing view, Buttars decided to use this beautiful prose to describe how he saw the bill. He said: "This baby is black, I'll tell you. This is a dark, ugly thing." Needless to say, the NAACP (and the rest of sane Utahns) had a fit over this and Buttars later apologized saying that he made a comment "that some could take as racist." Uh, yeah. Mark me down for that group.

2. Buttars tried to introduce legislation that would have forced schools to stop teaching evolution (which, as most people who have attended at least seventh grade science know, is a scientific theory). Instead, Buttars insisted that teachers teach a curriculum based completely on creationism (which, for the record, I believe in. But that doesn't mean I can't learn other theories as well).

3. In a recent interview on a local TV station, Buttars continued his legacy--this time taking his fight to homosexuals. He compared homosexuals to radical Muslims and said that gays are "the greatest threat to America."

I can think of a greater threat to America, Mr. Buttars: intolerance.

In case one spoiler isn't aerodynamic enough

2009-02-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

Also take note of the license plate and the car badge that says
"3000G" instead of 3000GT. Word up, G.

We went to the Adele/James Morrison Concert a while ago....

2009-02-15T23:29:00.002-07:00

And this was my view during the concert:

Spent some time near Saltair today, and this is what we found:

2009-02-14T20:11:00.002-07:00

Playing around with some different treatments

2009-02-14T13:48:00.002-07:00

Campbell Brown takes Wells Fargo to task

2009-02-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

Studio 5

2009-02-09T22:26:00.004-07:00

Mom got the opportunity to be on KSL's version of Regis and Kelly today, Studio 5. They featured 4 or 5 chocolate-based treats for Valentine's day, and they called Mom to ask her to participate and showcase Chocolot. It's a short clip, but we'll take whatever we can to get our name out. So far she's been in all of the major Utah newspapers and has been on two TV stations in about three months, so pretty soon you can start calling her Martha Stewart, but without the creepy voice and the misplaced stock options.

Skip to about 5:19 for all of the Ruthie goodness.

KSL Studio 5

2009-02-08T22:30:00.001-07:00

Make sure you check us (Chocolot) out on KSL's TV show Studio 5
tomorrow morning (Monday)!!!!

Sent via mobile

Took a trip to Temple Square today

2009-02-07T00:03:00.003-07:00

Took the camera out for a spin today...

2009-02-05T22:17:00.004-07:00

Let me know what you think!

Camera

2009-01-30T20:25:00.001-07:00

So I'm thinking of spending some of our loot on a new DSLR camera. I
really like Canon, so I probably want to stick with them. What say you?

We did it!!!!!!

2009-01-28T23:14:00.002-07:00

Well, we had the awards banquet for the Westminster Business Plan Competition, and we were shocked to be named the winning team! This means that we get automatic placement into the final 25 teams for the Utah Business Plan competition (about 300 teams enter this one), so we don't have to worry about the qualifying rounds and can just focus on the finals. It has been an absolutely fantastic experience, and we look forward to the next competition!

Amazing shot of the inauguration

2009-01-27T18:48:00.002-07:00

Check out this picture. Make sure you zoom in all the way to
appreciate the quality of the image. The photographer used 220
individual pictures to stitch them together to make this shot.

Excellent article

2009-01-16T13:56:00.001-07:00

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/16/boy-we-needed-that/

Sent via mobile

New Years Resolution: Let's all be more polite

2009-01-01T20:32:00.002-07:00

Can we all just be a little nicer this year than last year please? I hope that now that the holiday craziness has died down, we can focus on being nicer to one another. Every time I see someone talking on their cellphone while at a service counter I get the powerful urge to smack them upside the head and tell them to be courteous to the person trying to help them. I would be well-served to remember this resolution. Although I have to admit that I find myself sometimes doing the same rude things that I can't believe other people do (except talking on my cellphone while others are waiting--that's an unpardonable offense that I will work hard to never commit. Unless I have to perform emergency brain surgery over the phone or crack the code to Blagojevich's hair. Those are the only two exceptions to this rule).

I ran across this article from Great Britain that got me thinking about this.

Find the article here

Bumfuzzle

2008-12-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

My buddy and brother-in-law, Clint, got me hooked on reading a travel log called Bumfuzzle

Basically it is a husband and wife with a lot of time and money on their hands who decided to hop in a sailboat with little to no sailing experience and sail around the world. Really interesting stuff. They had their fair share of mishaps and misfortunes along the way. Their latest endeavor is hopping in an old VW bus and traveling through Central and South America.

Part of me would love to do something like this. But the other part of me likes microwaves, creamies, and a big, comfy bed. In this battle, microwaves, creamies and beds win every time.

We just went in for a Costco dog...

2008-12-22T21:24:00.001-07:00

Christmas

2008-12-18T18:37:00.007-07:00

This is one of my favorite times of the year. The other is when we are at the lake in the summer and we gorge ourselves on italian sodas and cookies and sail. We did a fun thing last year and did a geocache IN the lake. Sarah and Travis set it up and two teams each took a boat around the lake and raced to find the caches. My favorite was one where we had to snorkel and find something that ended up being a toy dino tied to a rock and Trav had written "grr" with a Sharpie and the next cordinates on it's belly. So random, sorry... I know this post is about Christmas but I just starting laughing about that dinosour when I though about the lake :) Anywho ... so I started a new job! (still not about Christmas, I know) ... but I am really liking it so far. I work for Nexant. They're engineers that work on energy effeciency and some other things that are WAY above my head. Then there's a team that does the incentives and rebates for the customers on behalf of companies like Questar, Rocky Mountain Poser (I'm going to leave it spelled like that), Jaco, Salt River Project and Pacific Power. That's where I come in. I work with great people and definately have a challenge ahead of me. It's a great, worldwide, company and I feel very "secure" :) Definately a good feeling! Nexant treats their employees very well and even for being engineers everybody is VERY friendly! It just feels right ... if you know what I mean. I knew why there was a reason that I was turning down jobs and now I know. The timing was great leaving the mortgage company, helping with the Chocolot order explosion and transitioning into this.

Ok, now Christmas, really. I LOVE this time of year! I love the snow and I wish that Christmas were still weeks away because I love every second of this season. I'm excited to go to Spokane where they have 23'' of snow right now and counting. It's suppose to snow heavily for the next few days. I wanted to share a fun tradition that Ryan and I started the first year we were married. I got him a starter train set just like the one he had when he was little. Each year we buy one more car and write that year on the bottom of it. It's pretty cute and fun but we have more cars than years of marriage because the set came with 5 cars. So that trainset is in the picture below and then there's a picture of the tree. We also got this tree the first year of marriage when we were living in our apartment/bombshelter in Lindon and the tree is huge! Even in our living room now it is big. It's about 5 feet in diameter and in Lindon we had to bend the top of it down for it to fit vertically. It's our big, happy tree with 1300 or 1400 lights. It's a bright one :)

New Blog

2008-11-23T23:47:00.005-07:00

Hey everyone,

We are experimenting with a new blog format, so we'll probably be posting on both sites until we figure out which format we like better. Let us know in the comments which one you like more!

http://web.me.com/ryan.kendrick

Failure

2008-11-21T00:07:00.002-07:00

Just in case you don't know what failure looks like:

We're still here!

2008-11-18T17:51:00.002-07:00

We're still around, just busy with new job responsibilities and a major butt-kicking at school. More hilarity to follow soon......

Our Busy Saturday

2008-10-19T21:09:00.006-06:00

Mel and I had a busy day yesterday. We headed over to Mulligan's to hit a bucket of balls and test out my new driver. Mel's much improved since she had some lessons while we were up in Midway a few weeks ago.

I pulled out my nemesis, the 5 iron, and the results weren't much better than they normally are when I whip out the fiver (sadly, this isn't a joke):
We came home and went outside to play some Bocce ball, and for some reason I decided to throw the target ball with my left hand (NOT my regular throwing hand) and proceeded to launch the little yellow ball through the chainlink fence and into the canal. Mel climbed the fence to find it, and coming back over she decided she needed to fulfill her daily recommended amount of tetanus.

We then spent some time playing the "when's the last time you've had a tetanus shot" routine, and determined that it was luckily only a few years ago. Too bad--I've heard lockjaw is really fun, and I was really looking forward to a $30 copay at the Instacare. Maybe next time.

Soccer? Not so much.

2008-10-19T20:42:00.003-06:00

Mel and I got tickets to the Real (Ray-al) Salt Lake professional soccer game in their new stadium last night. It's an amazing stadium, and it's fun to have it so close to our house.

Soccer. Futbol. Whatever you want to call it, I just don't get what is so attractive about this game. Teams chase each other around for 90 minutes and they count themselves lucky if they put up one or two points on the board. Others will have different opinions, but to me, soccer is more painful to watch than golf and perhaps even steeplechase. If you ever get a chance to watch a soccer player collide with an opposing player, they fall to the ground and writhe in pain for at least 45 seconds, or until the refs stop the gameplay. Their acting is worse than a B-list actor on a TeleNovela on Univision. At least Max Hall was man enough to keep getting up after getting pounded to the ground for the thirtieth time by the TCU defense this week.

Although we did have some fun. We laughed pretty hard when they started handing out $50 gift cards to KFC. $50 at KFC? Now THAT'S a party! Sign me up!

2008-10-15T11:10:00.005-06:00

I saw this on Jared and Liz's blog, and had to put it on ours. It's so true it hurts a little inside.....

More Park City fun

2008-10-14T08:31:00.003-06:00

Park City

2008-10-12T20:38:00.005-06:00

Mel and I had an opportunity to spend a weekend in Midway/Park City for my company's management seminar. It was a fun weekend, and we got a pass to the Park City Mountain Resort, and we rode their new ride, the Alpine Coaster, about 30 times. It is an awesome ride. If you ever get the chance, you need to try it out!

We were walking up and down main street, and I noticed this guy walking up the sidewalk that looked exactly like Tom Hanks. Someone asked him if he was Tom Hanks, and he said "I used to be!" Har har. We only got a picture of him heading up the hill:

The best ad ever....

2008-09-25T17:35:00.000-06:00

New Discovery

2008-09-22T23:08:00.004-06:00

In another great showing of our time management skills, we discovered a new program on our Macbook called Photo Booth that takes some pretty fun pictures. Here are a few:

Wow. Awesome.

Another Dog Photo

2008-09-22T23:04:00.001-06:00

Mel and I have some weird infatuation with dogs in/on vehicles. Here's another one we saw on Sunday.

Utah State Fair

2008-09-20T22:04:00.001-06:00

Mel and I went to the state fair last Saturday. I always thought that
Lagoon attracted interesting people, but Lagoon's got nothing on the fair.

I'm usually not pursuaded by too many advertisements, but the minute I
heard the ad for the fair on the radio, I knew that my resistance was
futile. You may ask "what were they advertising, Ryan?". Well I'll
tell you. Fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yes, you read that
right. From the same stand that produces such hits as the deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried Snickers, and deep-fried Oreos.

Every year the fair has a butter sculpture. This year's was particularly exceptional. 700 pounds of butter. Woah. Here's a pic.

9/11

2008-09-11T00:15:00.006-06:00

Today marks the seventh anniversary of 9/11, and like most people, I think the arrival of this day causes us to reflect on where we were, and how we felt when this tragedy occurred. I don't have a very good memory, and can't remember much (just ask Mel--she'll confirm this fact). But I will never forget that morning in Argentina, watching the news cast from an investigator's house, and wishing, hoping, praying, that it was just an unfortunate accident that a plane ran into a building. Unfortunately for us all, it wasn't.

It was interesting to see the reaction in Buenos Aires. Those who constantly spewed vitriolic remarks at us as missionaries continued to do so, even in our time of grief and uncertainty, as if they enjoyed rubbing caustic salt in our wounds from that day. Others were compassionate and recognized that even though they may not like the United States, what happened that day was something that was so terrible, it was time to put aside our differences and show each other a little bit of what is so lacking in this world: compassion and love.

While we were in New York, Mel and I stopped by Ground Zero, and we stood there at the fence, in silence, peering through a little hole in the fabric to catch a glimpse of the giant chasm that has been left. That was one of those moments of self-reflection that knocks you to the ground in a speechless stupor, and makes you realize what a blessing our lives are, and how grateful I am to have people serving in the military and risking their lives so that I can sleep safely at night and live in a country that understands freedom and democracy.

Directly across from Ground Zero is a small church, called St Paul's Church. This church is one of the oldest buildings on Manhattan, and George Washington had his own reserved pew at this church (which is still there, by the way). After the attacks, St Paul's Church was turned into an emergency shelter for firefighters and other rescuers to come in and lay down for a few hours. Grief counselors volunteered their time to stay at the church 24/7 to talk to anyone who needed to talk. To this day, you can see scuff marks and scratches left from rescuers laying in the pews who were too tired to remove their tools and boots. The church interior was coverd by postcards and letters coming from throughout the world. The church has since been cleaned up, but they have a few small memorials set up to remember what had occurred at this site. I didn't take any pictures of the memorials that have remained in the chapel. Somehow it didn't seem like the right thing to do. When we arrived at the chapel, there was a flautist performing a recital. We sat in one of the pews, reflecting and listening.

I'm pretty confident I will never be able to contemplate what compels people to create such evil. What is it that makes someone decide that in order to make their point, they need to cause so much death and grief? I don't know, but to me it seems to be something sub-human. I can't imagine how it would be to live with such disdain for the lives of others.

I'm not exactly sure why I'm writing this. I think, in a way, we're all still recovering from what happened that day. If there was one glimmer of light from that awful event, it was witnessing the patriotism that spread across the country following the attacks. Everyone seemed to treat each other a little nicer, and give each other the benefit of the doubt. Flags were blanketing neighborhoods, and it seemed that everyone treated each other with a little more respect. I guess I'm writing this for myself. To help me to remember what happened that day, and how I felt. I'm hopeful that we can continue to reflect on 9/11, and if we reflect a little bit about that awful event, let's renew our efforts to revisit those feelings we had. I will try a little harder to be patriotic, and to be thankful for what I have in my life. I will try to be more respectful and understanding of others. I will try my best to realize the fragility of life. And if I do those things, maybe I'll be able to catch a little glimpse of a silver lining, regardless of how small it may be, that surrounds the disgustingly dark cloud of 9/11.

I challenge you to do the same.

CNN Blog
Glenn Beck Audio Montage (16 minutes)

We've Gone Public!

2008-09-07T16:33:00.002-06:00

As you may have noticed, we've switched our blog to be open to the public. We received feedback from family and friends that they didn't like having to log in to see the blog. So we gave in and made it public.

You'll notice a couple changes, though. We will avoid publishing pictures of our nieces and nephews, and they will only be mentioned by their first initial. Sounds weird, I know, but there are too many whackos out there these days.

Thanks!

Ryan and Melissa

Police Derby Rodeo

2008-09-07T16:05:00.008-06:00

I had a chance to go out to Granstville, Utah, and watch the Utah Highway Patrol Police ~~Derby~~ Rodeo (my brother hates it when I call it a derby. He says derbies are for scouts. I don't think "rodeo" is much better). Motor squads from various police departments from the West come and participate and compete in different courses to see who completes each course the quickest, and without any errors. Salt Lake PD ended up kicking some butt, and my bro ended up taking 2nd place overall out of the best in the West. Way to go! It's amazing to see these guys lay the bikes over far enough to scrape their tail pipes.

Here are a few more shots.

This is Melissa now. Typing, not in the picture above. If you've seen Arrested Development you'll appreciate this sound clip in an ode to Ryan's brother. http://soundboard.com/sb/jvp3122.aspx. Copy and paste it and click on 'Hey Hermao'. I can't figure out how to link it. If you just listened to it I'm sorry about the anti-climaticism. I thought it was a good idea at first. Ok, I'll hand it back to Ryan, he's much better at this.
Utah Highway Patrol has a cool new ~~toy~~ tool called a variable mutifunction lejoscropic magnificator. OK, I made that up. But, they have a camera mounted to the bottom of a small battery-powered helicopter, and they use this to hover over accident scenes and take pictures and videos to be able to reconstruct accident scenes. One officer flies it, and one officer takes the shots. Kind of cool.

Would've been funnier if it was McDonald's....oh well

2008-09-07T15:22:00.000-06:00

Home, Home on the Range

2008-08-31T20:54:00.005-06:00

Melissa and I spent the weekend in Ogden. We thought it would be a fun sort of mini-vacation (you know--sort of like the days that my mom would take my sister and me to Lagoon and tell us it was Disneyland, but Mickey was sick that day, so we weren't going to see him around. I swear we had the worst luck, because Mickey was sick EVERY time we went to "Disneyland.").

I had to work all day Saturday, so Mel decided to take the train up to Ogden. I dropped her off at the TRAX station, and off she went. I don't think she had any idea how long of a journey this would turn out for her. Let's just say that after ten hours of work, I got to Ogden about the same time she did.

We decided to try our luck at some Ogden-style geocaching, and the first cache we found had a magnifying glass in it. I couldn't find any ants to fry with it, so I tried the next best thing: Mel's foot. I learned two lessons from this experience: 1. I don't think I'll ever hear my wife utter a curse word, because I can't think of many more stupid things I could do to tick her off, and 2. If I don't want to eat the rest of my meals through a straw, I'd better not do that one again.

We also helped my mom with some taste-testing and product sampling for some new chocolates and popcorn that she's making. For those of you who don't know, she's starting her own artisan chocolate company, Chocolot. Check out her blog here. We're all really excited for this new venture, especially because she spend all of our inheritance on this, so we have a deep, vested interest in the company's success. If nothing else, we'll at least each end up with a chocolate melter.

Since I know you're all dying to know, here are a few conversations that Mel and I had on our way home:
1. We would eat more fruit and vegetables if they tasted more like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
2. Windshield wipers definitely do get tired of doing the same thing over and over.
3. UDOT specifically engineers their road striping to completely disappear when it rains.
4. Whether or not the Church thinks it's OK to believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Anyway, thanks Mom and Dad for having us!

Four-Wheelin' Fun!

2008-08-24T20:55:00.012-06:00

It's official. I need an FJ Cruiser. Yesterday Brett picked me up in his FJ Cruiser and we headed to Alpine to meet up with some other FJ fanatics and do a little 'splorin up American Fork Canyon. On our way up, we saw one of the coolest things ever: a guy and his girlfriend rocking the trails in a Chrysler LeBaron with the top dropped.
We gave the guy a thumbs up, and his poor girlfriend was so embarrassed she couldn't even look at us. I thought it was cool--I guess she didn't feel the same way.

I was a little surprised when Brett turned the FJ over to me. I think his secret plan is to take idiots into the mountains so that they can be the first sucker to put a dent in his black beauty. Although he succeeded in getting the idiot into the mountains, I was extra careful to not run the thing into a rock (although we came close).

We made it up to a lake called Forest Lake (I can't imagine how long it took the person to think of that name) and got in place to do our glamour shot. Brett and Melissa's is the black one with the white top.
This gives you an idea of some of the stuff Brett made me drive his truck through:
Here's a shot of Brett driving
If you want to see a lot of high-quality shots (not mine), go here:

If you want to see some not-so-nice shots (mine), go here

Thanks again, Brett. I had a great time.

The Price is Right?

2008-08-21T22:46:00.003-06:00

So, I just did a loan on one of these:
It is a $175,000 car, and after his down payment, this guy is paying $2,300/month (about the same cost of Clint's Banana-rama Tanning Hut monthly membership) for the privilege of driving this thing. And before you start thinking this guy goes home at night to swim in his magical tower of gold coins, keep in mind that this guy makes slightly more than I do (and I'm about one pay grade away from a garbage man . . . or Burt Reynolds). The only way he can (barely) afford this is because he lives rent-free because he's a property caretaker, and has no other debts.

So, the moral of this story is: the next time you see someone flying down the highway in a big, jacked-up diesel truck, or a fancy sports car, keep in mind that there are mainly two possibilities: either they're up to their eyeballs in debt, or they make some ridiculous money. And if I were a betting man, I'd bet the on former every time. Either way, when the time comes I'm going to slip the repo guy a $20 so he'll let me take it for a spin before he hauls it away.

Gee-oh-cash-ing

2008-08-17T17:15:00.003-06:00

Hiking straight up a mountain in the middle of the day looking for a small aspirin bottle with a log to write who's found it sound like fun to you? No? Well, it's fun for us, dangit.

I've heard about geocaching before, but never really got motivated enough to actually do something about it. But Travis and Sarah took us out while we were in Spokane, and I have to say, it's pretty addicting!

For those of you who don't know what geocaching is, the gist is that you use a GPS to find containers that others have hidden (I know--sounds like a laugh a minute--but it really is fun. Plus, it gets you out hiking around and enjoying the outdoors. For those of you who have Tivo--yes, the outdoors still exist). There is a website, geocaching.com, that has a bunch (and by a bunch, to give you an idea, there are about 4,000 geocaches in Draper alone) of geocaches that people have made. They will go up and leave some sort of container with paper in it for people to log their names and date of the find, and then they will post the GPS coordinates on the website for others to find.

Some are trickier to find than others. The cache we found in Spokane was about the size of a shoe box. Our most recent find was a tiny little container about half the size of your pinky finger hanging in a pine tree. When you find one, you're supposed to take something along to leave in it (we are currently using little green army men).

Here is a picture of our first found geocache in Draper. It was an extremely arduous hike that sent us wandering miles and miles from our basecamp (no, that's not our car in the background. . .I promise. . .)

I guess this takes us one step closer to us becoming hippies. Oh well.....

Club Foster 2008

2008-08-14T17:28:00.020-06:00

We've been looking forward to spending some time at Club Foster 2008. It's nice to go somewhere for vacation and strive to do as little as possible.

Grandpa Stu came to pick us up from the airport, and in true Foster fashion, he was able to find some very nice roadside treasures from some kids who were biking from Washington to Wyoming. Apparently they no longer needed a giant camo duffel, a Helly Hansen rain jacket, and bungee cords, so Stuart was the beneficiary of their generous offering.

Here he is chatting it up with the bikers:

...and here he is showing off his bounty:

Mel decided to entertain us with some magic tricks...

And here's Captain Jimmi pointing the way to the geocache. I think Sarah has got me hooked on geocacheing (although I'm not sure Melissa's sold on it yet.) But it's a great way to get out and do some hiking and exploring in the mountains.
Melissa had reached her cookie ration, but found a way to get more:

The Forest Service was using Loon Lake to swoop down and load of their dump tanks for forest fires. It was amazing to watch them dive down and fill their tanks, then slowly take off again. I'm glad we weren't in the way of this thing, because I think with a plane vs. boat accident, the plane would win.

The plane made numerous passes, and Jimmi and I decided we weren't close enough to the plane, so we took the kayaks and paddled out to get closer to the action. We may have gotten a little too close...the Sheriff wasn't too happy with us (but we were pretty lucky we didn't get tickets for not having lifejackets on).

Paradise:

2 second exposure of the parachute ride

Thanks for looking! -Ryan

Here are some of Melissa's favorite pictures:

This is my favorite picture of little Aimee - just sitting on the steps by herself eating trail mix
The whole gang - Jace, Ryan, Dad, Sarah, Travis, Clint, Jimmi, Maddison, Kaylie, Lindsay, Me, Aimee, Mom, Monica, Michelle, Laurie, Abby, Caleb and Ashley

On our way home

2008-08-13T14:06:00.000-06:00

Well, we're on our lovely Southwest plane heading for home. It's been
a great vacation, and we're not ready to come home yet. . More posts
to follow.

I had no idea they are giving drivers licenses to dogs...

2008-07-28T17:31:00.000-06:00

Spudman Tri

2008-07-27T15:43:00.006-06:00

Mel is too humble to type anything, so she just posted pictures. So, I'll type a few things. The Spudman is held every year in Burley, ID, next to the Snake River. I can't say much about Burley, other than I've never seen so many taco carts on the sides of the roads. Not even in Ogden.

She had a really great race, and was nervous because this was her first "Olympic" triathlon. She's done "Sprints" in the past, which is a 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike, and a 5k run. The Olympic is basically double that. So, she swam 1 mile, biked for 25 miles, and then ran a 10k. Now that's impressive. And one of the many reasons I'm proud to be her husband.

Her goal was not to finish last. I told her I'd make sure that wouldn't happen, and if she was coming in last, I'd pull a Jeff Gillooly and take out the second-to-last place finisher's kneecaps.

We were saddened to find out that a prominent businessman from Provo had drowned in the river during one of the swim heats. Article here. Makes you really appreciate your life and look around at all of your blessings perhaps a little bit more, and maybe in not so casual a manner.

Another perk of driving past Brigham City: we stopped at Maddox on our way home and gorged ourselves on their homemade rolls. We even talked our server into smuggling three more rolls in a take-home container. Yum! He got a good tip that night.

Anyone Else A Little Warm Today?

2008-07-25T14:03:00.000-06:00

Just in Case....

2008-07-24T16:09:00.003-06:00

...there's any confusion on who's the best, here's proof on video:

24th Parade

2008-07-24T15:44:00.009-06:00

I went to the 24th parade in SLC this morning with my dad, mom, and my niece S. Mel couldn't be there because she had to work . . . At a mortgage company . . . On the 24th of July . . . When not even restaurants are open . . . And noone is getting a mortgage . . . Anywho......

....we had a great time. We saw President Monson and his wife.

And, we got to see the Governor:
Here he is giving me the old lookie-loo:
S waving to the helicopter
And, the best float of all. There was one from the U, but it broke down and was being towed by a truck the rest of the way, so I didn't want to take a picture of it and embarrass anyone.
SLCPD Motors doing a nifty maneuver

Notice the awesome mustaches

Aston Martin

2008-07-22T21:42:00.001-06:00

We were driving around the other day and saw an Aston Martin Vantage. Kind of a strange thing to see in a Wal-mart parking lot.

Rodeo

2008-07-15T23:01:00.003-06:00

We went to the West Jordan Rodeo the other day. I might post more videos and pictures later. Or, I might let this one picture summarize our entire evening.

Happy Fourth of July!

2008-07-05T09:02:00.002-06:00

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th

Tour de Riverton

2008-07-04T12:04:00.005-06:00

As I'm sure everyone is aware, Melissa and I are training to qualify for this years' Tour de France, as well as the three-legged steeplechase in the Beijing Olympics. That's us training on the left

In order to qualify for these events, all participants must participate in Utah's famous Tour de Riverton, held annually on the 4th of July. It's a 25 mile ride from Riverton up to the Kennecott entrance, and back into town. I did it last year and swore I wouldn't do that beast again. But, as always, memories of pain subside quicker than the glory of decimating your opponents, so we gave it another shot this year and had a really great time.

As for who won: one of us won by about 10 minutes. I won't say who it was..... ;-)
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...because I'd be too embarrassed! Great job, Honey! (Don't tell her that I stopped for a hot chocolate and a nap midway through)

Our Beautiful Little Part of the World

2008-06-30T21:19:00.005-06:00

Melissa and I went out scouting for a good hiking trail for her Young Women. I snapped this picture on our way.

Bring it, Natural Disaster

2008-06-29T20:32:00.005-06:00

Melissa and I have been slowly organizing our food storage in what limited space we have, and found these great 7-gallon water storage containers. These things are perfect because they're small enough to carry, and are designed to stack and lock on top of one another.

Happy Fathers Day!!!!

2008-06-23T22:06:00.004-06:00

Mel and I had a great time visiting the fam up in Ogden for Fathers Day. Food was excellent, as usual. Mmmm......ribs.......

M&M's

M and her favorite Uncle

Maxxie and M

The grandkids were apparently having the time of their lives

The whole clan

Get it? Huh? Get it?

This is a gem

2008-06-07T22:53:00.003-06:00

We were digging through our pictures and found this little gem. Enjoy!

President Bush's Visit

2008-06-07T21:03:00.007-06:00

The morning of President Bush's visit, I went to work a little early and hung out at the middle school before they shut down the main drag in Park City for about 45 minutes. I think the Secret Service has done this before. 4 large Marine helicopters landed behind the middle school, and any open lines-of-sight were blocked by school buses and fire trucks.

The motorcade was really cool. Lots of black suburbans and police cars. All of the helicopters took off and headed in different directions. A couple hovered over Deer Valley, and a couple made a straight shot through Parley's Canyon.

Mother's Day

2008-05-31T15:23:00.001-06:00

Thanks to everyone for coming to our Mothers Day extravaganza. We only took two pictures.

Transformation

2008-05-21T09:21:00.003-06:00

School began last week. I've got to say, I'm pretty excited to be going back to school. Classes are small, and it's fun to have a class full of students who are wanting to learn, and not just get a degree.

Jeff says I'm slowly turning into a leftist hippie, since now I work in Park City, recycle, go to Westminster, and now drive a Subaru. Now all I need is a picture of Che Guevara hanging in my office and I'm there!

The New Roo

2008-05-04T15:07:00.006-06:00

With gas prices continuing to go up, and with my many miles I drive per day, we decided it would be wise to buy a newer, more efficient car for me to drive. We figured that the amount of money I'll save per month on gas will almost pay the car payment on this new one.

We found a really good deal on one from a dealer in American Fork, drove down there, found the car, and the salesman came back and told us that the car had been sold to someone else two hours before we got there : ( Luckily (for us), the guy couldn't get financing, so the sales guy (First name Dempsey--Mel kept wanting to call him Patrick) called us immediately, and we went down and picked it up. Still haven't given him a check for the car. He said "just mail us one when you get a minute." Pretty cool.

I studied a ton of cars, but found that the Subaru was the best fit. All-wheel-drive, 30 mpg, one of the top-rated cars for safety, and it's a nice-looking car. Here are some pics of our new Subaru Legacy 2.5i Special Edition Sedan:

And, a picture of David Beckham from last night's RSL game. Mel was a little excited...

Let us know what you think!