Bryan Adams - Heaven - Acoustic Live

Circus Fun

Yesterday we all went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus at the Energy Solutions Arena. What a fun show it was.
There were so many amazing acrobats and animal tricks

Our favorites were the Elephants and Tigers. The Elephants sat on stools, layed on the ground, did head stands and made a train. The tigers jumped through hoops, danced and rolled over.

There were so many acts. We couldn't believe all the tricks they could do. Dogs did back flips, an elephant disappeared, they rode bikes across a high wire, there were too many to mention.

The performers made their acts look so easy.
There was a lot of cool magic tricks too.

We had a great time!

Two ladies were shot out of a cannon

After the Circus Hayden got to go to her best friends the Arnold's while Jeremy and I went up to Kingsbury Hall for the Bryan Adams concert. Harmony won tickets on the radio and gave them to us. He was so good. It was him, his guitar and a piano player. He sounds just like he does on the radio. Almost every song he sang we knew. It was great for the two of us to get a moment by ourselves and what could be better than a bunch of loves songs?

Volleyball

Hayden decided to try volleyball this season. She was really excited and then when she went and discovered she was the shortest, youngest and was one of the only ones that hadn't played, she was nervous. She didn't want to go because she felt like she wouldn't measure up.
She had a really great coach and she learned a lot.

It was fun to see her progression through the weeks.

She learned so much and started to get excited about going.

Way to go Hayden!

Fall is my favorite

Life is crazy, and ours never seems to slow down. But, Fall is just about here. I love Fall. It is Utah's best season, in my opinion. I am thankful for the diverse climate we have here in Utah.

Things I love about Fall are:

• The temperature is mostly perfect. The only time of year I can come home from work and go on a jog and not die of heat or cold. I love to run outside, when possible, and to feel a light cool breeze on me is invigorating. I love to hear leaves crunch under my feet.


• The sun starts to go down sooner. I love summer nights when Hayden is out of school and doesn't have a bed time, but getting back into a schedule is more my style. When its darker sooner, we all go to bed sooner, this makes for happier people the next day.


• The smells. Old leaves and crisp air, pumpkin and cinnamon smells. I like the smell of burning leaves. It's probably from living in the country and that's how people get rid of them.


• I love all the Fall foods. I get excited to make pumpkin rolls and apple crisp, yummy soups and breads. They fill the house with such yummy smells. I love to bake and someday would love to go to culinary school. I make treats about everyday, its my hobby. ( Hayden recently had a vocabulary word that was "craving." Jeremy was quizzing her and she didn't know what it meant. He explained that craving is what pregnant people do, they crave certain foods while they are pregnant. Hayden's Brian started working a little too hard and she started to think that I must be pregnant. The next day she came in and I had just got done making peanut butter bars. She said, "Wow, Mom, you sure have been making a lot of treats, have you been "craving" them? I said, " not anymore than usual" I felt bad, because I knew what she was leading to. No, I am not pregnant, I just really love treats.)


• Halloween and Thanksgiving, some of my favorites. Halloween is so fun, especially with kids. Picking out costumes and walking around the neighborhood to get candy, what could be funner. I don't mind getting dressed up myself. Thanksgiving was always fun at our house because Cannon's birthday was right around there. He always loved pumpkin pie and so we made a lot of it. Homemade rolls and mashed potatoes and gravy that my grandma made were my favorite.

I know I could go on and on. I am just feeling thankful that in my crazy life there are things that always stay the same.

Tribute to TED

This was just printed in the Utah State magazine. Visit www.utahstate.usu.edu and look for Ted's smiling face. We love you Ted.

There's a waiter in a Logan restaurant looking for sympathy from his white–shirted colleagues because he's not sure he's fully prepared for tomorrow's mid–term. He holds his fellow servers captive with amusing stories from the class and with jokes the professor tells during voluntary, bonus study sessions at night. But when he suddenly says “albedo,” the suspicions of about three–quarters of the restaurant are confirmed: he's a student in Ted Alsop's physical geography class. “That's right kid,” says one customer waiting for a table, “just remember, it's albedo…not libido!”
Such is the professor's gift. You may be 10, 15, even 25 years removed from one of his handful of classes at USU, but you'll still remember a concept or two — and you'll certainly remember the man, the bona fide Aggie legend. Year after year he gets some of the highest student ratings on campus. In 1996 he goes supernova — Carnegie Professor of the Year! But it's that gift, that unusual, reach–you–individually–through–a–sea–of–200–other–students gift, that is Alsop's legacy, not the accolades. He creates this environment somehow, an environment of impassioned learning, of deep laughing, of genuine surprise. You think. You appreciate. You engage. You wonder what college would be like if all your classes were like his — or if absolutely none were — and you realize you are blessed for having merely walked through the door into his odd, reassuring, separate world. Ted's World; crafted in accordance with the Law of Anything Can Happen. Like that day in the late 1980s, two or three years after Alsop's arrival on campus. He's holding court in the old auditorium on the first floor of Old Main, one of his prime, large–enrollment venues. The palpable silence of another mid–term envelops the dozens of heads buried in its pages, students scribbling, professor propped against the stage, the moment of moments. And in the middle of it all, a thunderous voice from the balcony on high: “This is the Lord… Keep your eyes on your own damn paper!” And it sounds sort of like Ross Peterson — one of the guys who hired Alsop — and you can be sure the Lord will have to answer to the professor later. But first they laugh. Everybody in the room laughs. You've never experienced such a hearty laugh. And you return to your test realizing this guy truly is a cut above and he's good for thousands of Aggies, and you pray your kids might someday get the chance to take his class and that he never retires. But this summer he does just that. Goofy, brilliant, Professor Ted takes his gift and retires — and you sense a new hush enveloping campus and the end of an Aggie era.
—Jared Thayne '99

City of Rocks

Our Labor Day weekend was eventful. Friday, Jeremy had a guys night at the Bee's game in SLC. He went with his brothers and Dad. He got to visit and stay the night at his parent's house. Hayden got to have a late night here at the house with 3 friends. My friend Marianne came over and we scrapbooked. I had made salsa, my first time, and yummy coconut cake.
Saturday Hayden had her first volleyball game. She did a great job for being the newest, youngest and shortest on the team. Then she and I went to the Farmer's Market and got some yummy vegan cupcakes, a fresh basket of peaches and homemade bread.

Sunday after church, we loaded up our stuff and went with my parents and Cannon to the City of Rocks. The 3 of us had never been there before. The City of Rocks is about 1 1/2 hrs West of Logan, by the very small town of Almo, ID.

Since we left late and it was a busy weekend, all the camping spots were full, so we stayed in town at an open field that they had converted into a camping area. It was a pretty exciting spot with a live band and people dancing. We all got out on the dance floor at one time, but just for one song :-) The Fugitives were an amazing band.

My parents stayed in their new enclosed trailer and us three in a tent of Ted's. Cannon slept right out in the open. Jeremy had packed and he had forgotten our tent, and brought me a kids sleeping bag, instead of an adult, and forgot Hayden's helmet. We all laughed, because Ted had us covered with everything we left home.

After breakfast we all got on our four-wheelers and dirt bike and headed up to the City of Rocks. The City of Rocks is a big valley full of huge rock structures. You can climb and hike all around. There were many rock climbers there that were fun to watch.

Here, Ted is talking in the rock, it amplified your voice like you were using a microphone.

All us young people climb up Bath Rock. A very huge structure with bath-like weathered holes in the top.

Hayden thought Cannon was great because he climbed and jumped and hung on every rock he could.

Hayden hid herself from Jeremy and Cannon.

Hayden could have stayed a week.

Jeremy found his own little pod

We finally had to go back home late Monday afternoon.

Next time we will defintely stay longer

We even saw a Mormon Cricket, big and ugly.