Sweet Mr. Eli

Eli loves to play sports, especially football.  He loves to wrestle and fight with Brad and gets upset when his older brothers and sister don't pay attention to him.  He yells and screams until he gets his way.  He loves to wrestle and tease the dog.  He loves to just hang out outside in the backyard playing with Ava and Jake, then other times with Ethan and Brad when they play with him.  He is a typical 2-year old.  Last Sunday, we had Stake Conference instead of normal church, so I was able to sit with the family.  I think Nichole liked it, because I had the privilege of going out into the hall with him 4 times; 3 times for messing his diaper and another time to calm him down.  Church is just too long for a two-year old to sit quietly

Scouting family

Brad and Jake continue to advance in scouting.  Jake earned his Second Class and First Class Ranks while Brad earned his Star.  Each also received 6 and 7 merit badges respectively

Brad with Trent Jarrett, the Assistant Scoutmaster

Jake with Trent receiving his badges

Jake just barely turned 12 and has done all of his scouting to date with his 11-yr old leader, Greg Freestone

This is Brad's Scoutmaster, Lewis Barton.  Lewis has been a great leader

Before being called into young men's, I didn't have much of a testimony of scouting.  Over the years, I have grown to first of all, accept and respect it and then to love the program.  It really does introduce the kids to possible life adventures and help them grow up and be ready for life when they're out on their own.

Ralph's Epic Ride 2014

Over the Labor Day weekend, Don and I to set up a time where we could go and do an epic ride.  After Don came up with the idea, I was able to recruit Jake Carlile, my neighbor and bike buddy, into doing the ride with us.  Jake actually designed a t-shirt that would have been cool to purchase.  It had a cool logo on the front with the mountain passes and miles and then "Ralph's Epic Ride 2014" on the back.  We wanted to do a big loop from my house, through the Alpine Loop, around Deer Creek and up through Guardsman Pass and then back down through Cottonwood Canyon.  We made the first serious climbing up through the Alpine Loop but then after attempting to scale Guardsman Pass, we decided to bag that idea.  The second climb, Guardsman Pass, was just too brutal after all the climbing we had already done, so we turned around.  We ended up doing exactly 100 miles up through all the mountains.  It was a great ride except for my bike chain braking and having to switch out bikes at Darin's house.  It was a beautiful ride up through the mountains

We decided that we will try to make this an event for next year as well and hope to make it a big friendly ride event