Camping in Pine Valley, UT

Here is our beautiful campsite in Pine Valley. It is so nice to be in the woods and SMELL the trees, even though it was a little cold. Our campsite was right next to the creek with a little waterfall. The boys had a good time shooting their bb guns and Jared tried his hand at fishing. We had lots of deer come right in to camp, as well as a wild turkey. This was probably the best camping trip I've been on, since the boys are big enough now to do alot of the work. Woot-woot.

MY PRECIOUS ONES

I came home the other day and walked in to view this:
I love it when my kids play together nicely.

COLORFUL SUMMER

Since we have moved to St. George the weather pattern has gone beserk. One summer was unusually hot. The next spring was unusually wet. This year we've have had an unusually mild beginning to our summer. The temperature has been in the low 80's everyday with lots of cloud cover. It is definitely messing with my tanning time. But I think it is making for lots of nice flowers....

I have been amazed this summer at all the flowers that are blooming around St. George. It seems that more things are blooming than ever before, and there is just lots of color everywhere you look.

People will plant these two bushes, the red one above and the white one below, right next to each other on the edge of their property, like we do lilacs in Idaho. They get rather big and it looks cool to have the colors alternating.

This plant below is my favorite. It ususally only has one spear shooting out of it, but this one has five.

The Sego Lily is the Utah flower. They have the thinnest stem holding up a lone blossom, and usually several inches or feet are between each flower. Last year the whole hillside above out house was covered with these short little flowers (probably due to the fact that it rained nearly the entire month of May.) It was beautiful.

This flower is not a Sego Lily, but it reminds me of it. Check out my action photo as a bee flew in just when I took the picture!

If you can't tell, I am enjoying my summer vacation.

Snake on the road

Here are a couple pictures of a snake I found on the road when I was out walking the dog.

I ran back home and got Jared and a box. He put the box on the ground in front of the snake, who was curious and slithered in to have a look around. I tapped him on the tail with my foot to get him all the way in the box. It worked, but the thing whipped around and hissed so loudly, and began rattling it's tail so loudly that I thought "uh-oh" maybe we got a rattler that lost it's rattle. It was three feet long and very cranky. Turns out it is a bull snake, aka gopher snake, and they like to pretend to be rattle snakes. It gave a very good impression.

BRAG BOARD

Time to post grades. They did AWESOME!

Kudi did really awesome with her grades. Three A's, two B's and a C+. I don't know what classes correspond to what grades, but she did well especially considering she works 30 hours a week. She's nearly done with her Associates, and plans to start the paramedic program in August.

The boys also did a good job with their grades.

I could just tell you they got straight A's, but check out these percentages! (And as a bonus, check out their new summer "beat the heat" hair do's.)


Ian:
Computer Tech A 100%
Orchestra A 99%
PE A 94%
Lang Arts A 93%
Math A 92%

Jared:
Geometry A 101%
Biology A 100%
Theatre Tech A 99%
Spanish A 98%
Geography A 96%

Lang Arts A 93%

PE A 93%

YOU KNOW YOU'RE GETTING OLD WHEN...

A couple of years ago Scott was on a plane and as it landed at the airport he could see another plane out the window, obviously a corporate jet from Frito Lay, painted to look like a giant potato chip bag. Behind him sat an elderly couple, and he heard the lady say to her husband, "Oh, look at that plane!" After several long moments the gentleman very gently replied, "I'm sorry, Dear. I didn't hear you." There was no response for several seconds, and then he heard the lady answer sweetly, "That's ok, Dear. I can't remember."

That's the funny part.

The sad part is . . . Scott and I have done this.

Guess I'm feeling old today. I had to go to the doctor and have a breathing test. That's what happens when you get old. You have to have a test to tell you whether or not you are breathing.
I was. I mean, I am. In fact, the doctor was astonished at my ablility. He hadn't seen anything like it. I breathe like I'm a "big guy!" (Picture hand motions showing Arnold Schwartzeneger in his prime.)

But it's nothing some good drugs won't fix. That's the other way you can tell if you are old. You have to take medicine everyday for the rest of your life in order to maintain the quality of life you have grown accustomed to.

The third way you can tell if you are getting old is when you have to put your medicine in those plastic organizers, with a little compartment for each day of the week, because you can't remember if you took them or not. You were probably too deaf to hear your spouse remind you to take them. I'm not there yet. I'll let you know.

JARED'S AWARD

So last night we went to Jared's school for an Awards Assembly. Jared received the award for top Science student in the 9th grade. I remembered my camera (surprise!), but the batteries were dead (big surprise!). So here's a picture from today.

The funny story of the evening - very revealing about Jared's personality: Jared was telling us that he probably just got the award because his teacher likes him. The teacher calls him "Oh Silent One." He said the teacher will ask a question and no one will know the answer, and after several minutes the teacher will turn to Jared and say, "Oh Silent One, do you know the answer?" And of course, Jared does.

Scotty's Post

Blog sounds to me like what people do while leaning over a toilet after a long night of binge drinking. Regurgitating my thoughts and feelings all over the web seems similar. I hope I don’t get any on your shoes... but here is my blog.

I’ve never been the best a staying in contact or writing and calling regularly. My guilt over that fact has pushed me to blog. My lovely wife, affectionately known as Mama-Bear, has agreed to relinquish a portion of space on her Ford Family web-site and allow me to post a few words.

As these weekly, monthly or whateverly writings add up, the body of evidence should be revealing to say the least. Fact is... I haven’t written much of or during my life precisely because of the revealing nature of the prose. We’ll see if I can maintain long enough to get rid of this guilt.

46 and a half. That is how old my body is. Its another late night and everyone but me and Paden (our trusty Wal-Mart mutt) is long since sleeping. My eyes are straining to focus on this page but basically things are remaining quite fuzzy. Things are blurry because my eyes are also 46 and a half. We’ve seen a lot, but after a long day, now we’re seeing it less clearly.

I was recommended and interviewed to become a High Priest in church today. To those of you outside the church, that means I will have additional priesthood responsibilities and more opportunities to serve others. Those within the church know it means my body is 46 and a half, my eyesight is fading, my talks are becoming much dryer and enduring to the end has taken on new meaning. Okay, one blog down (or up-chucked) with many more to come forth. Carry on... soldier!

scotty

BASEBALL

(NOTE: If you click on the pictures they get bigger, and you can see Ian's facial expressions.)

Ian has been swinging a bat since he was little. I wish I had a scanner so I could scan in a picture of him in nothing but a diaper and a baseball hat, swinging a big yellow bat. His foot at the perfect twisting position. What a natural.

He hit a double a couple of games ago. His friend's dad is the coach, Marty Zappoli from New York, complete with accent and all. Somehow baseball is more fun wit a eastern accent around.

The coach gave him the signal to bunt. A couple of games ago the coach gave him the signal to bunt, and I think that's when he hit the double. When he got to third the coach said, "Ian, what does this mean?" "It means bunt." "What did you do?" "I swang away." No apology, no remorse. The coach busted up.

Even though this is the Majors, this coach still rotates the kids around to different positions. We don't win every game, but no one is stuck out in left field all the time and that is good. This is Ian's turn to be in the outfield, and he's moving to get the ball. It's really fun to watch the games now because the kids get it. Some of them are pretty good ball players, sliding into third, popping up and stealing home. Ian hasn't had the chance to slide yet. He's such a long lanky thing, I think he'd make the perfect first baseman (he's as tall as I am now). And nothing makes him look taller, and skinnnier than his baseball uniform. What a cutie.

Easter Tradition

Here's a picture of our "Bunny Bread" we make for Easter.