Everything IS bigger in Texas

I had an opportunity to cross an item off of my short bucket list. My cousin's husban organized a group of people to go help sell programs for a charity at Super Bowl XLV. A good friend of mine, Tag, and I drove down Friday afternoon. It took us about 12 hours to cover the 770 miles. We had good conditions for about 750 of the miles so we were happy regardless of the time it took. We stayed with a friend I hadn't seen since the week I left my mission in Florida. We spent Saturday catching up on our sleep, eating Hershey's Kisses (cherry filled), catching up on the last 12 years, and getting the band back together. We played Guitar (Band) Hero for several hours before heading to BJ's for lunch. A huge thanks to Billy and Lisa for letting us crash at their place. I got to work with my uncle and cousin, so that made the trip even better (pictured below).
The day of the game the weather was pretty good. It had warmed up enough on Saturday that most of the 2" of ice that was on the streets when we arrived had melted. We went the right direction to get to the parking area and were able to make a left turn into the parking lot while everyone else took 40 minutes to an hour to get off the freeway. That ended up being one of the few short lines I would see that day. After standing in line for an hour for my credentials I was sent upstairs because someone decided the image I had sent in was not acceptable. I was in that line for 3 more hours. That side of things was not fun, however things got better. Apparently this was the worst any of the employees helping us had ever seen the credential side of things at the SB. Lucky me. Once I got shuttled to the stadium it was fun. With my credential I was able to walk past thousands upon thousands of people waiting to get into the stadium and was (mostly) treated like a celebrity as far as getting me quickly inside. One jackhole in a suit wouldn't let me past a certain point. He aske me if I knew where I was going and I said "no." He said, "you don't even know where you are going?" I said no, I was a volunteer and had never been here before. I then asked if he could direct me to that location and he said he didn't know where that was, to which my final response was "YOU work here and YOU don't even know where it is?!? I don't feel so bad!" After that I was able to get right in. The stadium itself is incredible. Luke the Engineer was amazed. Luke the Parking Manager was also amazed. Parking for $200 doesn't happen every day. Everything really is bigger in Texas. The stadium looks like a space ship from another planet had landed in Arlington, TX. Indside is high enough to base jump from the roof, have a 1 second freefall and still have time to pull the ripcord and land softly. They said you can fit the Statue of Liberty inside and rotate it any direction and have enough clearance. The HD big screen goes from 20 yard line to 20 yard line and is so big you almost forget there is a game going on underneath it. It is truly a sight to behold with one's own eyes. I saw several celebrities: Owen Wilson, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Anniston, Maroon 5, Marisa Miller, Christian Slater shook my hand and said hi, Rich Eisen (ESPN), and Seth Myers. Seth Myers stopped for several people and was very cool and said hi to me and the guys working with me. Tag tried to sell a program to Owen Wilson and said that his nose is even worse in real life. Owen walked past me on his way in with his entourage but I didn't say hi. I just wish I could have heard him say something because pretty much anything he says is funny. Christian Slater shook my hand and said hi. I get recognized often, but I can't imagine what they go through. Contrary to what was seen on the news, BEP put on a phenomenal performance at half time. Seeing it live was awesome. Christina Aguilera sounded worse live singing the Ntl. Anthem than she did on TV. Just sing the song and you won't forget the words. I'm sure you saw the rest along with 111 million other people, (unless you were at my parent's house, then you didn't.)
We had to take off in the 3rd quarter so that we could beat the waves of workers getting back to the parking lot. WE got back fairly quickly and were able to get out of town pretty fast. We drove straight to Denver and got home the next morning. We had to take a couple of detours due to a fatality accident in New Mexico. The Honda did well and we stayed awake by watching 8 different movies on Tag's iPad. Overall it was a great trip and we are very grateful to our wonderful wives for letting us make the road trip.

Where did the summer go?

Hello there. It has been a busy summer. The boys are now in school. Stone is in 2nd grade and will soon be celebrating a birthday of his own and is planning a spooky party. Van and Sawyer are home with Janna and growing up fast. Sawyer is growing up fast. She can usually be found with a top-of-the-head pigtail. She is finally starting to walk and is cute as a button.
Janna is very busy running the boys to soccer practices and managing our family. My sister Sadie moved in with us after graduating from BYU and works for me. She has been fun to have live with us this summer and the kids really like giving Sadie hugs every morning. Work has been going well. We are enjoying the work and working hard to grow the company here in Denver.
Rusty celebrated a birthday recently and started Kindergarten.
We recently went to the AF/BYU game and while the result was disappointing the game was fun to attend.

April Pictures

My mom came to visit in April during her spring break. We always love having her come visit. We went to a Rockies game, the nature and science museum and shopping. Here we are eating at Dickey's BBQ. It is always delicious and they have free soft serve ice cream.

The next week we went to Utah for my sister Sara's and Luke's sister Sadie's BYU graduation.

Master Sara and the Family.

Valedictorian Sadie and Family.

Easter

I hope everyone had a happy Easter.
Sawyer is checking out her new teddy bear.

Doesn't she look like her Daddy?

Sawyer's first Easter.

Spring Break

Call me crazy, but I took my 4 kids to South Dakota for spring break. I have always wanted to see Mount Rushmore so we went on a road trip. It is only about 7 hours from Denver. The kids were so excited to go. It is a pretty amazing thing to see.



We had nice weather, but it was windy as you can see in the picture. Van was being a little grumpy and didn't want to look at the camera. He said he was scared of the man taking the picture for us.




Sawyer was excited to get out of her car seat. We at lunch in the car waiting for our tour time for the cave.

Next we went to Jewel Cave National Monument. The pictures didn't come out very well with my little camera, but that is where we are in the picture below.

The next day we went to see Badlands National Park.

Again Van was grumpy and didn't look at the camera.

The town of Wall, South Dakota was close the the Badlands. On our drive, we saw a lot of signs for this Wall Drug Store so we decided to check it out. We spent a couple of hours there just checking everything out. They make their own donuts and ice cream, so of course we had to try them. They were delicious.

This is the pool at the hotel we stayed at in Rapid City. We went swimming everynight. Since we got home, Van keeps saying he wants to go back to the "little house". That is what he called the hotel room.

This is funny. On our drive home, we stopped at a gas station somewhere in Wyoming. The boys used the bathroom, then they waited in the hallway while I took Van and Sawyer in the ladies room. When I was in the ladies room, there was a girl who looked a lot like a boy. She left the bathroom and Rusty said "Why did you go in the girl's bathroom?" and she said "Because I'm a chick." When I came out, they told me that and I told them that she was a girl, not a boy.

It was a fun trip, but I was exhausted when we got home and the boys have mastered the art of armpit farting.