Santa Sighting

There was a sighting in West Haven of this jolly old fella.

He had a hard nights work visiting with all the children at the 1st Annual Lighting of City Hall. Don't you just love Santa with his all natural hair and beard. Our neighbors are involved with the city youth council and were in charge of the hayrides, so who better to help out than Bob and his mighty red tractor!

Our neighbor tried to tell me he was The Grinch Santa, I just think he was a little confused and couldn't quite decide who to be. Here they are at the beginning of the night, keep in mind it was about 24 degrees out when Bob drove his tractor over to city hall.

There was a big turn out and Bob was out on his tractor pulling dozens of different groups.

Finally the Grinch handed Bob a wool blanket to try to warm him up a little.

This was my last picture before I had to go inside to warm up my frozen fingers. By the time we made it back home it was 18 degrees outside and he was frozen to the bone. I guess dressing in all your ski gear just isn't enough when you are sitting on a cold metal tractor for a couple of hours. He already volunteered to do it again next year, I think his brain cells were frozen as well!

Traditions

I happened to be looking at some old pictures I had scanned onto my computer and ran across these. What better time to scrapbook these than right before Thanksgiving.

Credits: Paper - PhuonTon_Autumn; JSprague_Dauphin Alpha; Font - Myriad Pro; Template - TNT 25DaysSum10

If you want to read the journaling you should be able to click on the picture to see a larger version. I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving!

2nd and Proud

These kids had such team spirit. They spent the morning making posters to support their older brothers, but weren't allowed to bring them into the stadium so they did the next best thing by becoming their own walking poster. Fremont put up a good fight but wasn't able to overcome the nationally 4th ranked Bingham football team. We lost our starting quarterback a minute into the 2nd quarter and I was worried our boys would simply give up. They never gave up the fight.

Going into halftime we were down 27 - 0, talk about being deflated, but it must have only been the fans feeling the defeat. Our boys came out the second half of the game, rotating 4 different quarterbacks, and fought to the end. 

I am so proud of this team and how they turned the game around. We still lost 30 - 7, but won the second half 3 - 7. It was a win in my mind simply because they never gave up despite the odds against them. 

My nephews may be twins but couldn't be more different in appearance and personality. I thought these after the game shots were priceless.

The Bug Project

I've had a few requests for an update on Bob's latest project. So here it is.

YABBA DABBA DOO!

That was for those of you that didn't see this picture on Facebook. I really did marry quite the comedian. The bug project is moving along nicely. A little slower than the tractor, but this one is going to take a lot more TLC along the way. He's not simply restoring one bug, he is combining bits and pieces off of a few. Here's the bottom part of the above car which he's not using.

And here's the bottom of the car (please understand that's my lingo, not sure of the exact terminology to use) that he is going to use. In this picture he was test driving the bottom of the car to make sure the transmission would shift through all the gears. Prior to taking this picture I got a phone call from Chase telling me to head outside so I could take a picture of them, well in the middle of the conversation there was a little bit of commotion on his end and then he hung up. The next phone call I got was from Ian laughing his butt off. He was following Bob & Chase on the 4 wheeler as he watched the back wheel start to shake, come off and pass Bob & Chase as they came to a screeching halt. That's one picture I wish a had, but you'll have to settle for this one after all 4 wheels were properly secured.

Here are the remains of the unused portion.

Bob is currently working on replacing the heater channels (whatever they are!). The only thing I know about this part of the project is that he spent a lot of time researching and reading articles. Apparently there was a lot of warning that this was not a project to be taken lightly and the local shops told him he was crazy to do it on his own. Well that's only more of a challenge for Bob and from what I can see it looks like he has thought it out wisely and it's going as he had anticipated.

A little custom fitting with the grinder

and little bit of welding. Those welding classes for Chase are coming in handy!

Football Madness

The madness of high school football is still going strong. Last week they won their semi-final game and will play for the State Championship this Friday. They have had a great season and I wish them the best this week. GO #22 & #41!

 And in closing I'll leave you with this. What do little girls do at a football game . . .

 

Fall Football

While loving this fall season I'm also enjoying getting out to see some fall football in action. This pretty much says it all.

My nephews Jr. Midget team won the Mini Bowl this weekend. The raw emotion of this boy after the game made my day. Now as an adult sitting in the stands it breaks my heart to see him like this the majority of the game.

 I much prefer to see him like this.

But as I watched this after the game

 

I wondered if as adults we judge the worth of team sports by the amount of playing time a little too much. Maybe the fact that they are on a team and obviously have a connection to the team, like this, is really what is ultimately important. I haven't asked him how he feels about his role on the team because I think these pictures pretty much sum it up. He was a little teary eyed after the game and I asked his mom if something was wrong. The only thing wrong with this little boy is that he has a very tender heart and realized that this is the last game he would be playing with these boys as a team. Next year they will be on a Junior High team and things will change. Kudos to this boy with a heart of gold.

 The day before the Mini Bowl was State Football Playoffs at the high school. My twin nephews are seniors so this game was equally important.

There you have it, they advanced to the semi-finals and get to play on the turf at the U of U this week . Great job #22 & #41! Can't wait for some more fall football!

 

Zions

A couple weekends back we actually took a mini break. It was a much needed break where we actually didn't work on anything and just enjoyed our time with each other and our friends Doug & Sheryl. Granted we would have enjoyed our time a little more in Southern Utah if the temperatures would have been normal St. George temps for this time of year and not the early cold spell with rain that we encountered. Oh well, the positive is we had to hike to stay warm! We had one day in Zions National Park so we tried our best to see what we could.


Here a some pictures on our way up the Angels Landing trail.

We made it to the West Rim when Bob noticed this sign on the trail leading to Angel's Landing. Hmmm, the decision whether to continue on or hang out with Sheryl on the rim, I think I'll just stay back on the rim and let the guys continue on.

They made it back safely and then we came upon this. Looks like a good place to hang out and have a snack, yummy!

The sun did decide to shine for just a few minutes while we were eating lunch so I was able to  take a few pictures with the rocks lit up slightly.

Next up was Weeping Rock. This next picture is looking out from under the rock. If you look closely you can see the droplets from the rock falling.

And here you can see that Weeping Rock must have burst a tear duct since the shuttle guide mentioned it was unusual to see a waterfall here this time of year.

Finally, we ended our day with a walk along the Temple of Sinawava trail.

Now that I have finally seen Zions I want to go back to explore a little more and maybe to catch a few pictures of clear blue sky against the red rocks.