Uncle, Nephew Bonding

While we are separated by distance, nothing can stop the universal force that is family bonding. Friendships take years to develop, but family ties can be fastened by moments in time. An eternal "square knot" was forever cinched year ago between Uncle and Nephew. Uncle Matt was sharing a few tender moments with his five year old nephew Darren during an infrequent visit. Darren echoed, "Uncle Mack, Uncle Mack, Uncle Mack", to which Matt replied, "It's Uncle Matt". Siezing his attention Darren responded, "You're a butt head".

While the cats away....

Our family enjoyed a wonderful evening watching the Salt Lake City Bees (AAA team) play baseball. We sat in a suite. The game ended in the home team's favor with a walk off hit. The kid's went on the field to run the bases after the game. There was a fireworks display after the game. Our fun was matched only by that of our six puppies. Their father, Kenai, has learned how to open the back door if left unlocked. Finding the door unlocked while we were away, he assumed that we wouldn't mind if he gave the kids a tour of the house. Apprently it was the deluxe, extended tour as they were still roaming when we returned home five hours later. Imagine everything a puppy could do when left unattended and you can picture the state of our house upon return. Torn plants, shredded paper, etc. covered the floor. They apprently were having too much fun to use the outdoor facilities and did their business throughout the house. Not watching their step, they spread their business everywhere they walked. We spent the next two hours (until 1:00 a.m.) wiping and cleaning the entire first floor (fortunately puppies can't climb stairs very well).

Puppy Factory

We still haven't learned our lesson and again decided to become pet owners. About 18 months ago we purchased a male golden retriever (Kenai) and a female golden retriever (Ellie). They became best friends and apparently fell in love. After some unsupervised time alone and much to our surprise - eight cute puppies showed up (eight weeks ago). We've been able to sell the first two, but the remaining six are still orphans. We've found that these large breed puppies are a lot of work!

Pictures from Lake Powell

Assorted pictures from our last trip - Jordan Jessup doing a back flip off of a 50 ft. cliff, Tyson having fun at Camryn's expense, Darren and friends tubing, a couple of boats from our group returning from Dangling Rope and Taylor wakeboarding for the first time.

Lake Powell

We just returned from trip number two this summer to Lake Powell. We went with three other families including Bob Fogg (Kristi's brother) and his family. If you haven't been to Lake Powell, there are two primary marinas - Bullfrog (on the North end of the lake) and Wahweep (on the South end of the lake). We usually go to Wahweep and stay in Page, AZ. As usual, we had a great time wakeboarding, tubing, cliff jumping and soaking in the sun.

Taylor wakeboarded for the first time which made her mom so excited and proud.