One Game; Two Numbers; Endless Possibilities...

LOL... It sounds like I came up with the team slogan for this year. All I can say is that:

14-13

never looked so good. Congratulations to the Cougars. It was a great weekend for sports in our house. Utah trounced Utah State, which made Sara happy. Boise State stomped Oregon, which made everyone in the entire world happy (note to Oregon: your uniforms are still ugly). The U.S. Men's National Team beat El Salvador and essentially locked up a spot in the World Cup 2010. And then, of course, the improbable victory over what was supposed to be an excellent Oklahoma team. it almost makes all those bad sports weekends seem worth it.



And yes, we watched the game after we got home from the Jon Schmidt concert at Thanksgiving Point. I would have watched the U.S. Men's National game (played here in Sandy at Rio Tinto Stadium) but the DVR didn't record it right. Oh well, it was pretty late by the time we finished watching the BYU (and replaying all the important plays over and over).

I'm starting to think that I am jinxed. We were in Korea for the Miami game (which BYU won) and I was at a concert during the now infamous (but badly played) Oklahoma game. I didn't attend or watch either of them live. I guess the exception to the jinx rule would be the 1996 team (I was at the Texas A&M game and the Cotton Bowl when BYU beat 5th ranked Kansas St.)

Go Cougars...

Ahhh... College football is upon us. Enjoy the ride everyone (and go U.S. Mens National Team in a World Cup Qualifier against El Salvador tonight at Rio Tinto Stadium here in Sandy, Utah).

You Are Working Too Hard When...

We were quietly at church last Sunday. We were fasting so rather than engaging in my typical practice of "borrowing" and eating snacks and treats from the little kids that sit around us (and more particularly Seth and his parents, Chad and Melanie who are nice enough to let us sit with them), I was simply "borrowing" the snacks and putting them in my pocket to eat later. Suddenly, Seth got a glimpse of my right hand, which proudly presented three Band-aids to all onlookers. Seth's glance went from the Band-aids to me and back to the Band-aids. A slight grin came across his face and he started to chuckle as he loudly proclaimed, "Whoa, you have too many band-aids!!!"

Everyone laughed. Especially Sara. But I was proud. When a three-year-old who is as adventurous and crazy as Seth tells you that you have too many Band-aids, you pretty much know that you've had an excellent weekend. More Band-aids = More respect (or at least that is how it should be).

Sara is the Best and the Bestest Ever...

The reasons are too numerous to list, so I'll give you 2000 words (plus a couple extra via captions):



Can't beat the Slurpee and the Subaru WRX STI. And there are several additional "features" we plan on adding over the future.



I apologize for the screen but I doubt Sara would have wanted be to take a picture of her mowing the lawn. Seriously though, she mows it all the. It is the best!

Greatest wife ever. I know there are some other good candidates, but no one really stacks up. Good try by everyone else though. Keep up the good work. Between road-tripping, to rocking out while racing Evo9s in our STI, and our mutual love for sweet-potato fries, the combination clearly was intended from the outset.

Harry Potter

We went to the new Harry Potter movie with Tyson's family last night - (all of his siblings were there - Melissa, Brant, Jet, as well as Tyson's mom, Cindy, and two of his nephews - Josh and Hyrum, and Brant's fiance Jordann). Totally fun!

Fun times with old roommates ....

The roommates aren't actually old (they aren't 80 years old or anything) - they are just my FoRmEr roommates. I just took a really fun (although short) roadtrip with Heidi and her little boy Pona, who is so darn cute that unless he is in a shirt that says "hey, I'm a boy" gets all sorts of "oh how pretty" comments thrown his way. Seriously, though, he is a little sumo wrestler and was a champ for all of the driving and hanging out.

We drove to Colorado to visit another old/former roommate - Alicia and her hubby Mike and baby Roman. Roman, a little older than Pona, is a little greek god with tons of teeth and had the one-up on baby Pona 'cause he could crawl (and was more adept at biting). I miss my roommates! Oh the fun times we had!

Here are more pics (did I mention that we spent a day at a lake - playing in the water, on the boat, and wave runner ... and eating lots of great food):

Salt Lake Bees Baseball

Before I get started, no comments about the awesome Relient K videos? Seriously? People get comments when they simply complain about the weather outside (granted, for those of us in Utah, we've had plenty to complain about the last few weeks -- now I know what it feels like to live in Seattle). I guess my posts or so descriptive and thorough that no one else really has much to say.

Anyway, in what has become quite the tradition in our family (family, friends, neighbors, friends' kids, neighbors' kids, etc. all fall within that category), we went to the Bees game last night at Spring Mobile Park (formerly known as Franklin Covey Field). It was a grand old time. Literally. Brandon Wood blasted a grand slam. We were all pretty stoked about that. But the excitement didn't end there.

Later, with a man on third, the Bees went with the squeeze play. You don't see the squeeze play used that much in baseball these days so it was great to see the guy essentially steal home while the pitcher and catcher were scrambling for the ball. Of course, even more exciting was the fact that the squeeze play bunt turned into an in-the-park homerun (albeit scored a triple and an error). I don't think I've ever witnessed a bunted homerun (at least not since I played little league). It was fantastic. The weather was beautiful and we had a great night.


As you can tell, we were sitting on the berm in right field. Several members of our ward were with us, including the Moores, the Buxtons, the Joneses, and the Harrises. Great night for baseball.

Relient K and Owl City with the Whites and the Platts

So, about a month or so ago, I got an email from Aaron White (a neighbor and friend). He noticed that my Facebook profile included a reference to Relient K as a favorite band. Unbeknownst to me, Relient K was coming in concert and Aaron wanted to know if I was interested in going with him and two of his boys, Weston and Jackson. It was a no-brainer. The concert was Thursday, June 4th, at the Murray Theater. It was fantastic. Lance Platt and his daughters came too. Lance, Aaron, and I may have been the three oldest guys there. But hey, good music is good music right? It's not like you get that many chances to see Relient K live after all. Check out the videos of the White boys rocking out.






I also have a video of me and Jax in the mosh pit but, as you can guess, it is a little shaky. Besides, I'm not sure that Laurie would appreciate knowing that I took her little boy into the mosh pit (it was it his request, I promise!). Good times were had by all.

Owl City, one of the opening bands, is really good. Sara has been listening to them all weekend. There is an excellent review / description of them in the Deseret News:

If your household appliances wrote love songs while you were away on vacation, their cheerful blips and bleeps would pour out the windows, sweep through the neighborhood like candy-coated tidal waves, and you would return home to find crowds of people standing on your lawn, clapping and singing along to the happiest pop melodies imaginable. Welcome to Owl City. Based in Owatonna, Minnesota, Owl City features the music of Adam Young.

You should definitely check them out at http://www.myspace.com/owlcity. To keep the concert theme going for the weekend, Sara and I took my cousin, Zac, to the Ryan Shupe concert at the Sandy Amphitheater last night (Friday). The weather looked a little sketchy but it all turned out well. I'll post pics and videos when I get a chance.

Memorial Day Weekend in St. George

If you haven't heard of the infamous St. George Memorial Day weekend extravaganza yet, well, you must have not been there. Here is the deal. Back when we were in law school, the stars misaligned and this odd group of even odder characters ended up in the same study group. Now, being unable to forget those "glory years" of law school, we try to bring back those fantastic memories by crowding everybody into a single house (after we force Mark's parents to go stay in a neighbor's house so we can have complete run of the place).

Anyway, we had a great time. Golf, Wii, Shopping, Pizza, NBA Conference Finals, Swimming, more Golf, and lots of getting ganged up on by a bunch of kids (well, I think I was the only one lucky enough to experience that). Special thanks to Henry and Mary for being so hospitable and providing for our room and board. Here are some of the select pics:

























You can make up your own captions for the pictures. There are too many inside jokes to even start. If you don't get 'em yet, you're never going to get them. For all our law school friends who like to keep tabs on me and my burgeoning legal career, yes, that is Chad (Hoopes), Mark (Mendoza), Layne (Smith), and Sara (my wife -- hands off). We were short a couple of people but hey, their loss (except for the Avaloner; Costa Rica is a close second to spending the weekend in St. George).

The Snows Love Sushi - I Mean Really Love Sushi

Most of you who know us know how much we like sushi. Sara absolutely loves Vegas Rolls from Happy Sumo but we have found several sushi places around town that we really like, including Benihana's (all you can eat) and Mizumi, which is a local place here in Sandy that is fantastic.

But what happens on Sunday when we can't go out for sushi? Well, we found out today. We just made our own. It actually ended up tasting really really good (I like to think that living in Seoul, South Korea for three years and then in Japan helps me in my sushi making skills). The presentation left a lot lacking (and I'm sure the Iron Chef judges would have beat us up pretty heavily on the presentation issue) but, my biggest concern is taste! And with that, I was well pleased. We made four different, but similar rolls (and Sara even threw together a nice yummy asian salad). Enjoy the pictures of our lovely Sunday dinner:

From 090503 - Sushi

From 090503 - Sushi

Like I said, when it comes to taste, it was fantastic. It was actually pretty fun to make too and didn't take too much time. Nor was it particularly hard to make. And when you're paying $15/roll at a restaurant, you certainly get more bang for your buck.