Focker returns

Sometime after I married Tracey my in-laws gave me the nick-name of "Focker" (from the movie Meet the Parents). It had something to do with my uncanny ability to find myself in dumb predicaments, or just doing dumb things in general. For example getting a little too competetive playing dodgeball and knocking Traceys aunt Fawna off her feet. Or spiking the volleyball on some unsuspecting little girls head. Or maybe it had to do with the time I accidentally spray-painted my Father-in-Law Terry's whole upper body (very funny story), etc. etc...
Well if you take a look at the picture there you will see in the upper left corner a man horizontal to the blow up kids pen. Yea that would be me at Tristyn's birthday party at the Layton Classic Fun Center. I got this great idea that it would be fun to jump from the balcony above and land in the middle section there. I ran the plan by my brother-in-law Tyler, who of course encouraged me, and got ready to jump. After checking to make sure the 16 yr. old worker was distracted I made the plunge. In my effort to get plenty of air I pushed off the railing extra hard only to feel my foot slipping as I did so. Well it was much to late to abandon the jump, so all I could do was grin and bear it. Somewhere between the time I jumped and the time my body slammed into the concrete floor below, I realized that this was not the brightest decision I'd ever made. Luckily I escaped to be Focker another day with only minor injuries to my body and a major one to my ego.

Holes

This is Freckles. Freckles is a beagle. Freckles used to be a good dog. Freckles has a nice big back yard to run in. See Freckles run. See Freckles jump. See Freckles dig. Freckles isn't supposed to dig. Everyday now Freckles likes to dig. Freckles likes to dig big holes under Tom's fence. See Tom get mad? Tom is mad. Everyday Tom or Tracey have to fill holes that Freckles dug. See Tom mad. See Freckles run and hide. See Tom chase Freckles. See Tom fill more holes. Why does Freckles dig? Freckles didn't used to dig. Somebody please help Tom find out how to stop Freckles from digging. Tom is tired of filling holes.

swimsuit party

Tracey recently had a swimsuit/jean/purse party, which I guess is becoming more and more common these days. I felt the guys were getting left out so I decided to get in on the craze and hold our own swimsuit party. A great time was had by all. We had hamburgers and washed cars. I couldn't believe the amount of gear we moved. We even had wallets, zebra striped, leopard spots, alligator skin, etc. My only regret is that we didn't do it sooner. Here's a few pictures showing some of the fun that we all had. Thanks for everyone that came and helped make it a success.

Happy Birthday Tristyn!

Sunday was Tristyn's tenth birthday, so we celebrated on Saturday. We ended up going down to Classic Fun center in Layton. We all had a good time with only one near-death experience (more on that in a later post). We're sure thankful to have Tristyn as part of the family. She's such a sweet girl with a tender heart, we can't believe she's ten already. Happy Birthday Trist!

Ty nearly caused several pileups as he thought he was king of the road (or rink in this case).

Picture quality isn't all that good because we forgot our camera and had to take these with my phone.

Jim Bear

If you've ever had a hard time saying your sorry this is the perfect answer to that problem. We learned this as kids from our friend Spencer Burton (that's him second from the right sitting next to Mason). We used to like to pretend we were WWF wrestlers on Spencers trampoline. He had this giant stuffed bear that we called Jim Bear to practice all of our moves on. Well we got in a disagreement one time with Spencer, about something silly I'm sure, which meant we weren't talking for awhile. Well a week or so went by and nobody wanted to bridge that gap. Then one afternoon I got a phone call and all the caller on the other end of the line said was "JIM BEAR". Enough said! There was no need for useless apologies, or embarassing yourself by admitting fault. Jim Bear said it all. So if you have a hard time saying I'm sorry to a spouse or friend, or you haven't talked to somebody for a while because of a rift between you- here's your cure. Waste no more time, pick up the phone and drop those two simple words "JIM BEAR" all will be mended and you'll be back to drop-kicking stuffed animals on the tramp in no time.

Ghost of the "Jazzmobile"

When I started driving this is the beast that I got to start in. It was affectionately referred to as the "Jazzmobile" on account of the Utah Jazz bumper sticker that later replaced the one that you see here (if you can read this.....thank a music teacher), which I think my Mom is still mad about. Anyway I think the Jazzmobile had a mind of its own as evidenced by the things that it routinely ran into when I started driving (i.e. garbage cans, lawns, open muddy fields, sprinklers, jumps, other cars, etc.). It certainly wouldn't have been my bad driving. Or maybe it was the fact that I've seen yachts in the ocean smaller than the Jazzmobile.

Well the other night my brother-in-law Tyler called me and asked if I could come pick him up at the train station. It was around 11 at night when I pulled up to the station, found a parking spot and proceeded to back into it. I was suddenly overcome by the ghost of the Jazzmobile and backed right into another vehicle that was in the way. I know that the vehicle wasn't there when I started backing up so the only explanation was those eery blue and green lights I saw dancing in the starlit sky had something to do with the re-emergence of the Jazzmobile. So just a warning to you other drivers out there: When the moon is just right, and there's a certain calmness in the air, pull your garbage cans in a little closer to the curb, and stay off the roads for the Jazzmobile knows no bounds.

A cure for memory loss?

We were at my Mom and Dad's last night enjoying a nice meal and just hanging out. My brother Rich was browsing through the books on the bookshelf and came across this little gem.

"So Mom, did this really work?" (It's a family joke about how Mom can be a little forgetful lately).

That's when my sister chimed in "She forgot she bought it."

We all started laughing and looked at Mom who was laughing as well admitting this was true.

Thanks for the laugh Mom, that's a classic.