Temple Trip

Look at these handsome young men!!  They were able to go to the Timpanogos Temple together.  It was the first time for Jake and Justin.  I'd increase the size of the picture, but Nichole's phone is horrible and doesn't have many pixels, so every time the picture increases in size, it just looks worse.  Ethan's girlfriend, Lexi, went too.  2 Deacons, 2 Teachers and 2 Priests...interesting!

2 Deacons - Justin and Jake
2 Teachers - Tanner and Brad
2 Priests - Tyson and Ethan

Scout Camp 2015

This year, we went between June 3-6 down to St. George.  We opted to let the kids earn 5 merit badges before going to our own scout camp where we would have more fun in lieu of going to an organized council camp.  The kids were all for it.  We had a blast.  We spent 2 days out on the lake at Sand Hollow Reservoir.  Lewis Barton brought his boat.  I brought our inflatable raft.  Lewis told me not to bring our canoe, which in hind sight, I wish I had.  The lake was definitely the funnest part of the trip.  We spent so much time out in the middle island of the reservoir.  There were cliffs that we could jump from.  Some cliffs were shorter and then we had the taller ones.  We spent hours there just cliff jumping and had a blast.  Jake got into it as well and had a great time.  The wind kind of kept us from water skiing.  We tried multiple times, but the water was just way too choppy.  We were, however, able to do some tubing.  We only had a few bumps and bruises, so that was a victory.  The kids also spent 1 morning going spelunking.  All I can say...bravery!!

One of the spiritual highlights of the four day adventure was our trip to the St. George temple.  After a long day of sweating it out in the caves, the boys were excited for some relaxation at the temple.  Of course, beforehand, we got an ice cream from Iceberg before making the trek over to the temple.  The kids were intrigued with the different sister missionaries and where they were all from.  There were Sister missionaries from Germany, Mexico, Netherlands and of course the USA.  

Brayden Christiansen, Brad, Elijah Hanna, Jake, Max Barton, James Hanna, Mitchell, Aaron Hanks, Kohler Barton

I love spending time with my boys.  I'm grateful for these callings I've had in the church to allow me the opportunity to make it a priority in spending that time with them.  I think the Lord knows me too well.  If I didn't have these callings, I wonder if I'd make it a priority and get time off work to go do these things with them.  I hope I can always be there for them when they need their dad.

A letter to my Elder Brother

 A while back I wrote the following letter:

Hey Bro,

Is it okay to call you "Bro"?  I know the scriptures say you are my friend and I consider You my best friend.  You always know my thoughts, my secret actions and desires.  And, you know what, I'm glad that you do.  It kind of keeps me in check.  Naturally, I like to do things that probably aren't the best things I could be doing with my time.  But, you still will be there unconditionally for me.  I hope you know I am sorry for the heartache and tears I cause you.  I think it's because at times I feel I've done so many good things that I have a sense of entitlement of thinking I can do something that self-gratifies.  I wish I could have the willpower to dedicate my whole heart, mind and soul to you.  Why is it so difficult at times to have desires that are not appropriate and have the effect of hurting my best friend?  Take away my worldly desires, please.  But, this is so hard to do living in a world that requires me to be somewhat of the world.  At times, I wish I didn't have to work to provide an income for my family and that we could just have the luxuries of life and enjoy more family time and dedicate myself to the family and others around me.  It seems easy to live the gospel in a church setting but difficult when I'm on my own.  It should not be this way.  It should just be a natural thing for me, to be able to give my whole self to you.  Why do I have weaknesses and shortcomings?  You didn't. I mean, how can you go throughout your whole life, let alone one day, without having even the least inclination to do something inappropriate?  Again, my dear friend, I am sorry for all my mistakes.  I just want to make you proud of me.  As you are proud of me, I am proud of myself.  I will try, not because I want or feel a need to to be blessed.  But, because I want you to be proud to call me your brother.

Sincerely,
The Pig

The Clan of Merrill

The whole Merrill clan came together, so it was definitely a worthy picture moment.  July seems to always be a big month with family. They're fun to hang out with.  We always have a dinner, play games and just pass the time visiting. The kids love hanging out with the cousins. 

The first day that they arrived, we went canoeing down the Jordan River and took our canoe and a couple rafts.  The kids were so anxious to get started that Uncle Rick and I got left behind to catch up later.  Rick, Scott and I had to go leave a vehicle at the termination point for afterwards and by the time we got back to the starting point, all the kids had already started floating down the river. Rick brought his four kids and Scott brought Tyson, Tanner and Justin.

Half way down the river, Rick and I caught up with Brad, Jake and Justin who were stranded on their raft.  The three of them had run into a metal pole and ripped a huge hole into the raft. They were hanging on for dear life to the half deflated raft. So, they got into our raft for for the rest of the way.  A super fun thing was jumping from the bridge at the end.  Even Lexi and Morgan got into the jumping action. Rick even did a back flip off the bridge...a wild man!  The kids thought that was pretty cool.  I was impressed

Nichole has a great and fun family. I love them as my own

Our Teton High Adventure experience

Wednesday through Saturday, we took the young men over to the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming.  The leaders that went were Brad Erekson, David Driggs, Rob Lewis and myself.  There were 8 boys that went this time.  The fun thing for me is that this was to be a weekend away with two of my boys and especially with one who is about to go on his mission 

I would think the highlight of our trip was going whitewater rafting down the Snake River on Friday afternoon.

The Teachers Quorum boys that came, from front right to left:  Liam Byrne, Mitchell York, Brad, Brayden Sawyer and myself

Brad and Brayden are pretty good little buddies.  They were always hitting each other, hanging out and doing things together.  During our free time, our group would play volleyball or frisbee football.  But, these two hooligans would bow out and go do there own thing

The Priest Quorum had their own raft.  James Johnson, Nathaniel Hanna, Ethan, Adam Baca were the only Priests that came.  Ethan liked to hang out with Adam, who is our next door neighbor.  Thursday morning, we had a flag ceremony.  Both Adam and Ethan did not make it to the flag ceremony, so I got a little upset with them.  I told them that they needed to get up.  They asked why and said they didn't need to attend.  So, I just told them straight up that it shows respect for the flag of our country and shows an example to the other young men that were there.  They got up both Friday and Saturday.  But, they were also great the whole time, having fun and getting along with everyone.  Ethan even helped Friday night with our group devotional.  The topic was missionary service.  He told the young men that the #1 thing is to have a "desire to go".  He was sincere in telling the others about his desire to serve.  

there were other rafts out on the river which had big groups.  Other rafts had up to 16 people on theirs.  The smaller rafts seemed so fun.  So, it's definitely more fun with fewer people and a smaller raft

Brad Erekson doing a back flip off the raft

David Driggs doing his back flip.  James Johnson was the only boy brave enough to do the back flip

From left to right: Rob Lewis, Brad Erekson, James Johnson, David Driggs, Nathaniel Hanna, Ethan, Brayden Christiansen, Adam Baca, Brad, Mitchell York, Liam Byrne, myself

This was part of the High COPE course.  This was super fun with the zip line at the end.  A funny thing happened on the zip line.  On the way down the line, many of the boys that were on the ground were throwing buckets of water on the person coming down.  It was great, but Ethan told everyone he did not want to get wet.  Well, you know what that means.  Since he was the only one that did not want to get wet, he was the one person we had to get wet.  Brad nailed him straight on with a bucket of water and Ethan got sooo mad.  When I realized, and this was pretty quickly, that Ethan was not being a good sport about it, I told him to chill and just relax and that we're just here to have fun, and not necessarily have fun at anyone's expense.  Brad just wanted to have fun with ya.  Regardless, it was super hot outside and I told him that the water must have felt great and if even not, he'd dry off pretty quickly

All in all, the trip was a success.  It was awesome to spend some time with both Ethan and Brad!!

Getting together with the Ralph's

My sister, Deborah, was in town so we decided to get together with the Ralph clan. My brother's Dale, Darin and Don came with some of their families. David was out of town, so he was a no show.  It's always good to just get together and visit.  BBQ was on the menu for this get together with chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs.  My dad was the main chef this time, but with only some remarks and requests from Dale that Dad not overcook the chicken and hamburgers.  Dale says that Dad will often times dry out the meat when he cooks.  Each of us seems to have our own ideas when it comes to a good bbq. I like to slow cook my meat and turn it over numerous times throughout the cooking.  It seems to keep the juices in the meat a little more to almost tenderize it.  

Mom and Dad got a new car. I guess they're going to sell their Odyssey van to Deanna.  My dad has always been a Toyota or Honda man the last few cars that he's bought, but he didn't want to spend $40K on a new Honda Odyssey, so they bought a Subaru Forester.  Both mom and dad seemed happy with it. It set them back $25K with 0% interest over 4 years. So, it seemed to be a pretty good deal for them.  My dad made a snide remark by saying, "heck, maybe this will be our last car."  He turned 80 this past April and Mom is 78.  I would hope and think they'll be around for quite a few more family get togethers.

Timpooneke to Battle Creek

This past weekend was a blast.  We got together as a Deacons group and some of the dads and went on a backpacking trip.  This was an 11-mile trek up in the beautiful mountains just around Timpanogos.  This was a little more fun because as opposed to hiking straight up the mountains for the first couple miles, we just started right at the summit which was the Timpooneke campground.  

 In the back: August Spangler and myself.  August is now the Second Counselor in our Bishopric who took my spot.  He brought two of his sons on our backpacking trip, little Josh and Caleb.  August is a great guy. I am his home teacher but we also hang out every once in a while at the Legacy Center working out.
Front row from left to right: Jake, Kohler Barton, Caleb Spangler, Josh Spangler, Aaron Hanks, Elijah Hanna

This is the same group obviously just a picture with Lewis Barton, the Scoutmaster. The kids love Lewis who is super fun and always plans great outings

Jake thought the mountains were beautiful.  Jake likes to watch a TV channel called HGTV and loves to look at houses.  He always asks about where I would love to live.  We talked about that for a long time on our hike. He would ask,  "Dad, would you prefer living on a beach or up in the mountains? Dad, would you prefer living in Australia or Washington? Dad, would you prefer living in a cabin or a beach house?"  I told him the ideal would be to have a mountain that has a beach at the end of it so we could have the best of both worlds.  I love soaking up the sun on a beach, but I also love the beauty of the mountains and its peace and serenity with its amazing beauty when no one else is around.  To just be out in nature and enjoy what God has created is just breathtaking

Dan Pressley was with us as the other leader here in yellow.  He is the Assistant Scoutmaster.  He left early Saturday morning. He was just diagnosed with Celiac Disease and got sick

At one point, we got talking about our nicknames. And, I let the other adults know that Jake has always been known as "Jakey Juice". They all thought that was cute. I sure do love this kid. As he was walking in front of me at one point, I was noticing the shape of his legs and how much this kid of mine looks just like me. A mini version of his papa

This was at the start of our 11-mile adventure.

The beauty of the Utah mountains...it's a different world up here!!