Pictures from the Field

We got a memory card from Matt today with a bunch of pictures on it. No explanations of them, just the pictures. I think that this must be the end of a long P-day! Or maybe it's early in the morning and he just hasn't warmed up yet.

When he was in San Ramon, he and his companion were the only elders in the district. The rest of the misssionaries were sisters and the district was known as the 'Relief Society District.'

This must be Pacifica, whose baptism he was privileged to be a part of.

A missionary's gotta eat, you know. This looks better than the duck and chicken feet he was writing about!

Rides

I was thinking the other day about all the vehicles we've had and our experiences with them. I started looking around for pictures and decided to post some of them. The list is not complete. I'm still looking for a picture of the Neon and the Eclipse in its prime. I'm not even sure I have a decent picture of our 2004 Durango! I've got to have one somewhere. Anyway, here goes:

Rust Bucket

1974 Mercury Comet - This was our first car. Peggy brought it to the marriage. A good lookin' car. But unfortunately, that's all it had going for it. This car probably represented the nadir of American car manufacturing (along with the Pinto and Vega). Under the hood was a wimpy straight six that wouldn't have looked out of place on a tractor. Quality control was nonexistant and the heater gave out about a year into our marriage. I can still remember driving back to Provo from Kanab all bundled up and driving with one hand while sitting on the other to warm it up and then switching hands! I fixed the heater and while it worked for four winters in Cleveland, so did the rust. The automatic transmission gummed up on us in Luverne, Alabama one Christmas trip to visit Uncle Kim and Aunt Marilyn in Florida, but fortunately the good folks at the Ford dealership there had us going in short order. The final straw came about a month before graduation when the hood flew up on me while heading down Carnegie on my way to work. We made some quick trips so some dealers and dodged a bullet when we almost bought a K-car (remember those?) Instead we bought the Subaru. I will say this for the Comet, it got us through our school experience, alive.

The Subaru and our old house were about the same color.

1981 Subaru DL 1600 - We bought the Subaru because our then bishop, Pete Gail, had one and loved it. We opted for the two-wheel drive version (cheaper) and in base trim (no AC, AM only, etc.) $6000. We loved that little car. It's little flat four moved it right along and it was perfect for us and two kids. We bought it about a week before graduation and drove it pretty steady for about 14-15 years. Jared and Andy learned to drive in that car. We still kid Jared about the time he came home from school all hot and bothered. "Why didn't you tell me the Subaru is a wagon?" All this time he thought he was driving a hatchback! Hatchback=cool, station wagon=dull. That little car took us a lot of places, including some where it probably shouldn't have gone, like right through a wire fence gate (there's a story for another day). Good car, we'd probably still have it today except for the guy that ran into Andy and crunched the front end pretty badly.

This truck took us a lot of places!

1977 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup - Every guy ought to have a truck and this was my first. I bought it for $1700 bucks in 1983 or 1984, I forget which. A real truck, it had full-time four-wheel drive, a 3/4 ton chassis, and was already beat up, so I didn't have to worry about bashing it up. It also had amber running lights on the roof which led Peggy to name it "Navajo Joe." It took scouts on trips, hauled a lot of wood and rocks, and took me and the older boys a lot of places. Although Navajo Joe is long gone, part of it is with us still, as I'll mention later on.

Our first real "family" car.

1987 Dodge Caravan - We joined the minivan crowd early on, in late 1987. By now we had added Sarah to our growing family and the little Subaru was hard pressed to hold all of us and our luggage when traveling for any extended trips. Besides, we really were starting to miss AC! This was the first edition of the Caravan with a four cylinder engine, a bench front seat, and most importantly, air conditioning! A gutless wonder, it gave us room and convenience and taught us to plan way ahead when passing a slower car. We had it for six years (enjoyed not having a car payment for a year!) and then we traded in for a Grand Caravan. Say what you will about minivans, they were right for us at a certain point in our lives.

We ought to have a picture of our Grand Caravan somewhere!

1993 (or 94) Dodge Grand Caravan - Follow on to our first van. Bigger, faster, nicer. It let us down in Anaheim with a busted transmission while on a trip to Disneyland. We rented a car, got the van fixed while we enjoyed the park. Nice outfit, but it gave way to:

1998 Dodge Durango - Probably my all-time favorite vehicle (so far). When the Durango came out in 1998 I knew I just had to have one. I traded the Grand Caravan in on the Durango and thought I was right uptown. 4-wheel drive, cool styling, macho image, seating for 7, powerful engine. Man, I miss that car! You can see the Nissan in the background. Maybe some day I'll do a post on the other cars we've had (like the Mitsu and Neon).

Scouting Memories

(left to right: Jared Schmutz, Rod Willis, Chris Andrus, Brandon Bartlett, Patrick Carroll)

Those of you that have followed our blog at all know that our family has been heavily involved in Scouting. While I won't deny that not everyone benefits from their scouting experience, I believe that the vast majority come away better boys and better men for participating. I came across this picture the other day taken over 15 years ago when Jared and four of his friends (all from Troop 363) received their Eagle rank advancement. Jared's good friend Dustin Taylor was already an Eagle and can be seen sitting in the Eagle's Nest. Curt Hawkins and Royce Gillespie were the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster and we held the Court of Honor in the gym of the elementary school. I can't recall offhand who was on the program or who gave them the Eagle Charge but I probably have a note of it somewhere.

Peach Days

We went to Brigham City for Peach Days. Well, we didn't go for Peach Days, we went to see Sarah and her family, but it just happened to be Peach Days. Peggy caught a ride up a week earlier with Andy and was able to spend some time there before Danny and I made it. The parade is the big thing on Saturday, so we went down and sat with Peg's cousins. I forgot they sit right next to a big loudspeaker! Not only that, but the announcer was really annoying.

Lawson has the best seat in the house!

Lawson's enjoying the new drapes his grandma and mother made for his room. He's king of his room! As well as the whole house.


Lawson's making grandma and grandpa some pancakes for breakfast.

This kind of turned into a post about Lawson, apparently. I should've included a few more pictures of Sarah and Scott and Peach Days. Next time.

Snoozarama

Jared always was our best sleeper.

Sand, Pine Trees, and the Jeep

Today Danny and I drove up on the Lamb Point road. He needs a little experience driving off road so he knows what the jeep can and can't do. It rained pretty good last night and that always helps keep the dust down and makes driving in deep sand a little easier. Jared and Rod made one of their little moviettes in this area. I believe the jeep has a few more squeaks and rattles now that it did then!

This is looking out across the Coral Pink Sand Dunes toward the west. Canaan Mountain is on the horizon at the extreme left of the picture, Harris Mountain on the right, and faint mountains right of center is Pine Valley Mountain. You can even make out the West Temple in Zion National Park. I had to make do with the point and shoot today. I brought the Nikon but left the memory card at home!

This part of the country generally lies between 6000-7000 feet above sea level. The above photo is indicative of the terrain that we were in today: sandstone outcroppings and sandy soil. You can also see most of the types of major vegetation we encountered: Ponderosa pine, Colorado (or two-needle) pinon pine , Utah juniper, sagebrush, manzanita, and Gambel Oak. There's even a clump of rabbitbrush.

A side road leads to one of the heads of Water Canyon. Now here's the cool thing about this picture: it's not the view! It's the Englemann spruce trees in the bottom of the canyon. Here we've gone from the drought tolerant species we've been driving through to this secluded, moist, and protected little canyon that can support a little grove of trees normally found at higher and wetter locations in this area (think Kaibab and Cedar Mountains).

Any day's a good day when you're out in the sticks.

Mystery Smell

The last couple of months we've noticed a weird smell in the office. I know, I know, dentists offices smell funny anyway, but this was different. Like, rotting fish different. It drove us crazy. It was intermittent, coming and going for no apparent reason. I turned the gas off, thinking that it was the culprit. No luck. We cleaned the suction several times. I climbed up in the attic and checked for moisture or anything like unto it. Ditto for the crawl space. Gradually we narrowed it down to one particular room. Still, we couldn't smell it all the time, and when we could, we couldn't figure out why. I thought I had it narrowed down to the chair but after I checked it out and ran it up and down several times we couldn't smell anything. Finally yesterday I thought to check the light. I opened the cover and there, resting on one of the metal sockets, was a wire nut. The halogen bulb gets very hot and the socket heats up as well. Well, the plastic wire nut was heating up and causing this horrific stench. When the light was off and the wire nut cooled down, the odor went away. The nut was a little burnt on the side that contacted the socket, but not melted or anything. I don't think we were about to burn the building down, but we were certainly stinking the place up!