Just some thoughts

Last night, Kim came upstairs and took a hot bath (she does this almost every day now). When she got out, she came over to show me her fingers, they had turned black. This is one of the symptoms of her illness.

There are so many unknowns right now. How will my family be without me being there? Is where they are staying safe? Will Kim be able to stay warm enough to start the healing process?

Kim and I are not sleeping much right now. Hopefully the warmer weather will make up for some of the stresses. Cold weather can make Kim's symptoms flair up but so can stress. I hope this is the best thing for everyone. I guess we will see.

Change

There are going to be alot of changes in our lives over the next few weeks.

On Wednesday, we will be leaving to head down to Phoenix. We are going to spend New Years Eve in Mesquite, probably in the WalMart Parking lot. We will drive the rest of the way to Phoenix on Thursday. The weather right now is looking good. I think once we get down to St. George, the weather wont be an issue.

I will be flying down at least every other weekend. I will be heading down there the first 2 weekend to make sure everthing is Ok, ease into the trasition.

We have a very close family so having us be away from each other will take some getting used to. Good thing for texting, email and IM.

Holiday times

Well, I am just sitting here waiting for the German Pancakes to finish cooking. There is about 8 inches of new snow on the ground and it looks beautiful outside. Too bad it wont get about 20 degrees today.

We are pretty much ready for Christmas at this point. After that, we are going to be getting ready to head down to Arizona. The weather will be nicer down there but it will be hard being away from my family for 2 week stretches.

Kind of a pointless post but at least I have updated finally.

No More Waterfowl

I am done waterfowl hunting for this year. I have been out in the marsh almost every weekend since October. My dad had some really good looks at swans but was not able to fill his tag. Hopefully next year we will be able to draw more tags.

No we need to get ready for Christmas and leaving for Phoenix in 2.5 weeks.

Quack Again

Holiday weekend

Finally a holiday weekend to spend time with family and relax. Here is what may happen at some point this weekend:

• Make homemade donuts
• Play Rockband or other video games
• Sleep in
• Eat Turkey and other delicious tastyness
• Watch football
• Go hunting
• Go Shopping
• Eat leftovers
• Work :(
• Clean guns
• Make sure my recliner is working OK
• Laugh at all the people who wake up at 4:00 in the morning to save a few dollars
• Buy the same stuff online at the same price or cheaper while in my PJs after waking up at 8:30
• Find a new gun
• Pay $1.64 for gas
• Go to a movie
• Clean up my Inbox on my desk
• Eat candy corns
• Wash my truck
• Go to Brunch

Sound like a pretty good weekend!

Weekly update

On Thursday night Kim and I went to the Catholic Community Services Awards Dinner at Little America. This is an event where they give out a bunch of awards to businesses and people who help out CCS. There were a bunch of community leaders, politicians and business leaders there. President Monson was there too. We sat in the back corner with his security guards. I guess our donation wasn't big enough to move us out of the corner ;) Kim and I decided to stay over the night and Spence came and stayed with the kids and played Rock Band until 1:00 AM.

On Friday, we came home and went as saw Twilight. That night we went to Ryleigh's Birthday party at Bounce U. I kick Tawni and Shanae's butts on the obstacle course. 40 year old out of shape fat guys Rock! Kim and the kids decided to go see Twilight again at 11:00 with Polly and Tawni. I went to bed.

On Saturday Morning I woke up at 3:30 and my dad and I went hunting again. Yes I am addicted to hunting, thanks for asking. We met a friend, Dustin who has a boat, out at Ogden Bay. After a 20 minute boat ride we were at our spot. We put out his 100 duck decoys, 10 goose decoys and 2 swan decoys. We were done setting up about 15 minute before it opened and could hear ducks landing in the decoys in the dark. That was cool. We shot a bunch and even had a triple (3 duck shot out of one flock). We saw geese, and swans but could not get them to decoy in. We came home around noon and now I am so tired that I am having trouble typing. I guess I should go to bed now.

My dad still hasn't filled his swan tag so I guess we will try again.

Swan Hunting

Kaylee, Tanner, my dad and I all went out to Bear River Bird Refuge on Friday afternoon to see if we could help dad fill his tag.

We arrived about 2:30 and started walking out the dike. We can to an area where water was flowing across the dike and dad had to tight rope across the boards holding the water back. Kaylee got a piggyback. About 4:00 the swans started flying. Here are some photos.

Sorry these aren't the highest quality photos they are stills from my camcorder.

He didn't fill his tag but did get some good looks. Next year we are going to put in as a group so we should have multiple tags. Hopefully Nate can put in and come up for Thanksgiving and try (hint hint).

Duck hunting

I went out duck hunting yesterday with one of my friends from Specialized. He has a boat and a bunch of decoys and a new puppy that likes to poop in the boat.

We met at Farmington Bay, and drove out about 4 or 5 miles and started setting up the decoys. He had one of his friends, Dustin, come out as well. He too has a boat and he brought about 100 decoys. The day was sunny and beautiful not too good for duck hunting. We ended up shooting the only 2 birds that decoyed in. Here are a couple of photos. It was still a really nice time.

Family Home Evening - Bringhurst Style

Last night we went to the Metallica Concet. We left just before 6:00 to get there and give us enough time to find parking and to get through security. We had really nice seats, 10 rows up right in the middle. The first act was The Sword. They were ok. The next group was Down made from 2 members of Pantara. Finally Metallica took the stage and rocked for over 2 hours. Kim and I have been to 2 other Metallica concert and they never disappoint. The kids both loved it and said it exceeded their expectations.

These photos are from last nights show we were at but taken from their web site. I think everyone should experience a Metallica Concert at least once in their lifetime. I can't wait until they come back and we can see them again.

Halloween

For Halloween this year, I was the Big Bad Wolf, Kim was Little Red Ridding Hood, Brit was a Hobo and Kaylee was an 80's Pop Rock Star.

I little late but well worth posting

A couple of weeks ago I decided to go duck hunting in the evening to see how good it is. My dad, Tanner and Kaylee all went with. We had a great time and had really good shooting. Here are the pictures from that night.

40th Birthday

Well I am offically over the hill. I turned 40 last Monday and celebrated by working a 10 hour day and had dinner with my family. The working part would not have been my first choice but o well. Kaylee made me a hat with a tombstone on it that said Happy Birthday Daddy. I was given a book of scenic highways and 2 pairs of pants.

Dinner was very nice. We went to dinner at Tuscany and had a really nice time. I was given 2 large packages of adult diapers and a really nice Catholic neck tie. What more could a person ask for on their 40th birthday? Thanks to everyone for the phone calls and gifts. Thanks Grams Crackers for the 2 birthday cards.

I also bought myself a new G1 cell phone for my birthday. Happy Birthday me.

rhetorical post

When was the last time you . . . .

Slept on a trampoline?
Sent flowers to someone?
Made a Carmel apple?
Talked to a grandparent?
Played in the sand?
Listened to a cassette tape?
French kissed?
Made your own clothes?
Slammed a Slim Jim?
Test drove a car and had no intention of buying it?
Visited someone in the hospital?
Gave a homeless person some money?
Popped popcorn NOT in the microwave?
Sat in front of a fire?
Got out of your chair to change the TV channel?
Drew with crayons?
Made love outside your bedroom?
Ate a Hostess product?
Planted a tree?
Changed a tire for a stranger?
Cut off jeans to make shorts?
Listened to AM radio?
Went more then a day without checking your email?
Went to the library?
Wound a watch or clock?
Checked the air pressure in your car tires?
Bought a VHS tape?
Spoke to a high school friend?
Went on a bike ride?
Rescued an animal?
Got out of a traffic ticket?
Layed on the beach?
Asked someone about their dreams?
Camped in the rain?
Had a Pixie Stix?
Used film?
Watched a movie that is more then 40 years old?
Jumped off a large rock or cliff into water?
Dug for worms?
Over tipped at a restaurant?
Made a fire without matches?
Attended a concert?
Saw a sunrise?
Colored your hair?
Picked fruit off a tree?
Explored a cave?
Drove through the mountains with the windows down?
Made someones day?

Just wondering. . . . . . .

Moab via RV

We took our Trailer out on its maiden voyage this last weekend. All the fear that I had have now been alleviated. I was worried about towing it. No problem. I was worried about parking it. No problem. Everything we fairly smooth. I had only 2 sewer problems. Scott and Polly went down with us. It was nice having experienced RVer’s to help with the questions I had.

We had dinner on Friday at Pasta Jays and then hung out at camp for the night visiting and playing games. On Saturday we went on a nice hike and then the adults we out to lunch at Eddy McStiffs. For dinner we went to the Moab Diner.

Brit ended up getting food poisoning probably from the Spaghetti O’s he bought at the gas station outside of Price. Who know how long they had been sitting on the shelf. Kim and I both had colds but were fine most of the day.

Moab is a wonderful place to go and visit. If you haven’t been, plan a trip there is so much to do and the scenery is just beautiful.

We need to start planning for Memorial Day 2009. Most of the cabins are already taken and so are some of the best RV spots. If you are planning on going, let me know ASAP.

size does matter. . .

Here are the results of Kim and Kaylee's garden this year.

Pumpkins

Gourds Zuchinni

Quack, Quack, Quack

Waterfowl Weekend 2008

Well the waterfowl marathon weekend is now over. We started on Saturday when 6 of us, Me, Dad, Nate, Megan, Sammy and Tanner headed out to Farmington Bay. We haven't hunted here is a long time but have heard good things about it. We arrived at about 6:15 and dressed up in warm clothes and started walking down the dike. We walked about a half mile and setup and waited for the opening. We ended up getting 3 ducks buy the time we were ready to head back to the truck. A good day.

On Sunday, Me, Nate and Tanner headed back to Farmington Bay. There was a couple inches of snow on the ground when we woke up and the freeway around Centerville we pretty snow covered. Once we arrived we walked East this time on the dike instead of West. This was a very good choice we found out later. The birds flew constantly all morning long and we end up running out of shotgun shells. We ended the day with 4 birds.

On the way off the dike we decided to do a guided hunt the next day. I called a guy and he set us up with a air boat, sink boxes and decoys. Expectations were extremely high for Monday. We were able to sleep in since the boat driver was going to be scouting for us the next morning. About Bountiful the guide called and said all he had seen all morning was 5 birds. He recommend that we don't come up since we would end up disappointed at not having a good hunt. We agreed and decided to save our money for later in the year. Although is was disappointing, we made the right choice. We stopped at Farmington Bay and talked to some guys and they said there weren't many birds. We headed to Carl's Cafe and had some lunch and called it a good weekend.

Book now for 2009

October is awesome

Saturday was the opening of the duck hunt here is Utah. I have been out on the opening day for the last 15 years straight. Sometimes we have had groups of 8 people, sometimes it has been just me. This year, my dad and I went out. I picked him up at 5:00 and we hit 7-11 for some snacks them drove 1.5 hours to Ogden Bay. When we arrived we opened the doors and started getting on our gear. The rain was so bad, it covered the rear view mirror. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.

We walked out the dike about a mile and setup and waited for the opener at 8:00 sharp. Once it opened, I knocked down a duck on my first shot. Yea 100%. The duck fell into the Fragmites aka Devils weed. This stuff grows so think that you can walk through it let alone find a duck that may have fallen more then 2 feet off the dike. We shot 2 more ducks that were swollen up but the Fragmite. It was not one of the greatest duck hunt openers but we had a great time.

Today I look like I have the chicken pox from all the mosquito bites on my face, neck and hands.

I love October. Too bad I don't have a deer tag this year. Nate, Jen and the girls will be here next weekend and Nate and I will be out looking for some more quackers.

Oh by the way, we bought an RV this last weekend.