I like this video especially because he goes and adjusts the sub-woofer, then the master volume, then goes and does a little speaker maintenance before he really gets down.

First post of a long time no updates. We had a great Thanksgiving in Boise, lots of pics to go with it, including licking the spatula, going to the zoo and a few other things. But wanted to post this pic of Joe at our favorite breakfast place in Boise, the kind of place there is usually a line (but they have free coffee). I have a video on the way, and more photos.

Lots of fun last weekend. We went to SLC and caught up with our friends Mark and Dannielle there. We all went to the Real Salt Lake game. They were playing Chivas USA in the first leg of the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs. We had great seats and Real won on a goal in the 90th min. The goal was scored on the end we were sitting. Joe finally learned what papa sounds like when he yells, and he did NOT like it....at first. However he very quickly figured it out and before half time he was standing on papa's lap yelling at the field and pumping his fist with juice cup in hand. Late in the second half the little boy behind us came back from the concession stand with his mom and a pretzel. Joe proceeded to take a page right out of papa's book and dirtbagged a piece of pretzel from the people. All and all it was a fun day, now it's on to California for Joe and papa as we go to see G and G shirley plus Aunt Joellen, Aunt Betny, and Uncle Mike. Maybe if we are lucky we can catch the second leg of the first round at Chivas in LA....hmmmm!?



Our seats were close enough that the game was interesting to Joe for much of the time.


At one point I think he lost a little interest in the game so he played "how many animal crackers can I get in my mouth".

He also took advantage of some down time to cuddle with mama.

Some pics from our recent exploitation of the nice fall weather, where-in Joe demonstrated his proficiency at handling un-level terrain, and discovered the doggy door to the doggy den.

New video, I think it says everything it needs to.

More Uncle Charlie pics



Is that a Patagonia ad?

Denver makes sure there are no chicken bits on Joey's face left over from diner.

Uncle Charlie was here visiting again for a few days, which means his camera got turned mostly towards Joe. So here are a couple of posts with some of those pictures.




That garbage can is one of Joe's favorite outdoor toys.

Those pesky tree rats just love the black walnut tree in the back yard.

"Blue Steel" or is it "Magum"? Either way it's a work in progress.

We spent a day in Salt Lake since mama had meetings down there. Most of the day was spent chasing Joe and picking up the things he dropped (in this case it's his juice cup)

A few more pics from the post hike swim.

Joe prepares for his speech!


More wadding out into the "deep" Joe really didn't want me holding his hand, so I let go.

Which inevitably led to Joe taking a face dunk, although I am pretty sure he did it on purpose, it definitely had Denver concerned though.


At that point we lasted another minute or so, and then I pulled him out because he was shivering too much. That of course made Joe mad, not because he was cold, but because we left the water.

P.S. notice the shirt, our friends Cassie, Eric, and Avery gave Joe that SWEET shirt for his birthday....Future Telemarker..we can only hope

Our friend Steve and his dogs Gonzo and Fibi, came into town to visit for few days this week. One of the days Joe, Diesel, Denver, and I took them up to Tony Grove (20 min out of town) to go for a little hike. The pictures that follow are from that.

Joe got warmed up in the parking lot. But he spent most of the hike in the backpack. We did let him hike about 50 feet of the trail. He only fell 3 times, it is a pretty rocky trail.



After the hike we went down to the lake to throw sticks for the dogs, Denver usually wins, because he cheats, starts running before you throw the stick.


Joe got jealous of the dogs running in the water!



So I let him stand in the water. Very quickly though he started walking out into the lake. Eventually he was waste deep....it was only about 65 out and breezy, the water couldn't have been much over 50 but he didn't care! The dogs were there and it was water dang it!

Wanted to post a link to my buddy Fritz's web page. He finally updated his cartoons, and I really like this one. If you get some time, he has posted some of his cartoons on foldsy.com, a place where you will soon be able to buy greeting cards from the artists that get selected by voters on the site. So you can go here to vote for the fritzcartoons images.

We recently made a trip to Cincinnati for Lindsey's cousin's wedding, of which we did not take any pictures. However, while we were gone our friend Joy (and her dog Everest) came up from Salt Lake City to stay with Diesel and Denver and we did some pics of that before we left town.

But the first pic is of one of the ways we can identify nap time...you will notice an empty milk carton in his hand (he now drinks real milk). Often now when Joe gets tired he will go and lay on Denver, he usually attempt to do this to Diesel too, but Diesel sleeps with one eye open (gripping his pillow tight) so he will get up and move before Joe has a chance to catch him.



Joy and Joe had fun playing with one of the large canning pots (they are standard issue in Utah, so you can hoard your 3 month food supply for the last days).



Finally Joe discovered that Everest is just as chill as Denver, except he licks more, which Joe found to be pretty funny...


But Everest is not as big a fan of a pot lid on his head.


p.s Moran, sorry there are not more doggie pics but this is a start right?

Shortly after Joey was born our friends Jake and Steph gave him a Tonka dump truck. Lately he has really started having fun with it, especially when Papa runs him around in it. It has become one of the number one ways to forget about falling and hitting the head on the ground, table, box of crackers etc...

Lately I have noticed that every task I try to accomplish takes any where from 25% to 75% longer. I thought it may be related to the new environment and adjusting to the move. But we have been here long enough I am pretty sure that it not it. So I am going to go Google "project efficiency" and while I do that you can enjoy these recent pics of the boy.


Copper tubing is COOL! (and expensive, have you all seen what the price of copper is these days)

"HEY! This pot is empty!"

"Perhaps I should put a wrench in it, Papa won't need this for a while."



"Never mind, I'll just put this lid back on top and bang it for a while!"

Time to catch up on some photos. These ones are from our trip to visit my folks. It was really hot while we were there, so we decided to go to the beach. Joey loves water so we figured he would really like this. Unfortunately it was about 70 at the coast, and there was a really strong breeze. The water was comfortable, but with the air temp so mild it made swimming really cold.


Grandpa held him up while the waves came in.

With the cold air getting totally covered did not seem like a fun proposition

But the rushing water on the way out was pretty cool.

The best part was cuddling with Grandma when he was done swimming, she even let him drink from her water bottle.

Lindsey, Joey and I went to our first Monday Night Football game last night. It was Real Salt Lake vs Toronto FC. Currently RSL is sitting in first place in the Western Conference of MLS. We got to the game about 20 min early and were able to purchase tickets in the 7th row on the corner (one of my favorite places to watch a game from). Once we got into the stadium we realized the reason there were so many seats there, it was one of the only places in the stadium still in the sun. By the way RSL currently plays on the U of Utah football field, which is turf, a horrible soccer pitch. Anyways, the sun was only on us until about half time, to keep Joe cool we dumped some water on him, which may have been his favorite part of the game.

Our seats were directly behind the Real Loyalists, they had about 3 drums and a collection of people doing cheers the entire game, that definetly made it a lot more fun. Joey really seemed to enjoy the drums and occasionally partook in the clapping. Most of all he liked climbing the stadium steps.

For most of the first half RSL dominated play, there were a few break aways for TFC and even a shot off the post, but no it remained 0-0 at half time. The second half RSL was attacking the goal at our end of the stadium. They continued their first half pressure and finally in the 63rd min. one of their center backs, Olave, broke through for a goal. Up until then he had played an exceptional defensive game, with the excpetion of one ball "stab" that let his man get in deep to the box with the ball.

The game looked to be in RSL's hands until the last ten minuets of the game Olave commited a foul just outside the box, directly in front of the goal. It looked as though the player actually tripped on the turf, but Olave had made a sliding stab at the ball, so that will often get called, he should have just stayed on his feet. This tied the game with less than 10 minuets to go.

RSL went back on the attack, and had several good attempts, until finally in the last 3 minuets RSL ripped a shot from about 20 yards out, the keeper deflected it toward the top of the box, Robbie Findley collected, beat two defenders and put a shot low to the keepers left to put RSL up for good.

So some parent lessons learned from the game. Joey only really watched the game when the ball got close to our end, but at least he showed some interest. Try to get seats in the shade or bring a water squirt bottle. A baby carrier back pack is crucial for the long walk, and for dancing to the drums during the game. When a home goal is scored cover the boy's ears, because he does not like the sudden explosion of sound.

One final note, not soccer related, but it did put a good cap on the evening for Joey. As we walked to the cars, Joey in the backpack, the University was watering their lawns with large sprinklers. Much to Lindsey's disapproval Joey and I wandered through the sprinkers, this was met with large squeals of laughter and joy, and also a lot of bouncing in the pack.

We only had our camera phones (we forgot the good camera), so here is a photo I took.

Quick post from Joey's birthday. Not a lot of photos, I didn't take them, Lindsey's brother Charlie did. My thought is why take photos when a professional is in the house. He is really good at what he does, and knows his craft, so here is a link to one of the photos he took.

A couple of videos from our visit in Idylwild. Joey was a little tired and a lot giggly. My Uncle Keith is playing throw the gladware back on the couch with him.



The second video is more of the same.

Few new pics. Grandma Shirley was making a cake for Aunt Joellen's birthday, and she gave Joey some of the frosting, he decided to share it with Grandma. The next day we ate breakfast with Great Grandma Tiefel, at which time Joey decided to give our some of his much coveted kisses.