Quick post on the refurbished Media Cabinet...

...that Lindsay picked up off of KSL for $60.

This is the original product:


This is it after a little bit of work. I dismantled it a bit and made some new doors, threw on some new molding, made new drawer fronts, and viola: a "new" media cabinet that houses our bigger TV.


And here is the finished product. The doors fold back and slide into the cabinet, and the drawers at the bottom are for storage and for our reciever/DVD player, etc.


It was a fun project, but I think that Lindsay will think twice about asking me to do this kind of work again (mainly because she ends up putting the kids to bed by herself).

So it has been a little over a month...

I thought that I should finally post something. Granted, it has actually taken us nearly this long to get on our feet after the move and in a position that would allow for a little bit of "blog time". So, consider this a bit of a make-up post!



Toward the end of the summer Lindsay and I trained for and competed in our first-ever triathlon! My brother, Paul, put the triathlon on in Richfield, UT. There were about 40 participants and it was great competition! Because it was our first time, we decided that we would stick it out together and do the whole thing side by side--it was a BLAST!


We happened to be in the "fast" heat (because of our decent swim times) and Lindsay ended up being the second fasted swimmer there. In fact she beat everybody except for the overall winner of the triathlon out of the pool--I had to catch up with her on the bike portion because she was so fast! In fact, she enjoyed the training for the swimming portion so much that she regularly swims in the mornings up here in Heber.


Another thing that made the triathlon so much fun was doing it with family. We saw each other out on the biking and running routes and it was great fun to see everyone trying our best to look "tough". Lindsay and I have decided to make the Richfield Tri a yearly event, and I will be doing a couple more than that a year just becuase I want to see how much I can improve my time.

At any rate, we had a great summer. I figure that, as a family, we went on 3 camping trips together (I went on an additional two with other people), we went on a couple of 5-mile bike rides with the kids (Mae was a real trooper), we hiked so much and so often that even Ian was sick of it (though now he wants to go every day), we swam in the pool nearly every day and had fun every time (thanks Terri and Wendell), I went on two backpacking trips (one 3-day and one overnighter), we moved to Heber (and plan on moving again now that we are buying a house), I got a new job (which is great), and I refurbished a media cabinet just in time for football season (I will post before and after pictures later)!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my recent backpacking trip up King's Peak--the highest mountain in Utah:


The pictures never do it justice, right--this one especially. Craig is taking a nap only inches away from a 50-foot drop off on the literal top of King's Peak--Crazy, dude.


Us (and Craig's Camelbak hose) at the top of the peak. The view was great, and we were able to enjoy the summit alone for about a half-hour. There was no wind, not a cloud in the sky, and my only complaint was the flying ant that bit me.


We spotted some mountain goats on the way to the top--click on the picture... can you spot them? There are two in this picture.


Though the trip was great, we may have overdone it a bit (we did take the shortcut up "the chute" rather than take the traditional way to the top). I had a few blisters on my feet and Craig sported a bum knee on our hike out of the Uinta range.



Anyway, this is "the chute" from a distance--with the top of the mountain peeking through in the background. After we climbed the chute we still had about two miles of pretty steep climbing to get to the summit. Below is the view from the top looking down at the chute.


Anyway, it has been a great summer--and we are looking forward to many more with all of our family in Utah.

Noah... and a Little Family Update

Isn't he cute...he must be for me to actually be posting a blog. I have relied on Brad for the past several months.

Well now we are thrilled, because he is cute and has finally decided that walking is pretty fun (He is 15 months old). He walks the majority of the time now depending on his mood. If he is ticked about something, you can't make him even stand up let alone walk.

We think that he is proud of himself too...


Now the update on our plans for the future. Some have pointed out that the last we posted we were moving to Manila Utah. That has changed. Brad was offered a job in Heber City teaching at Wasatch High School. There were about 90 applicants for he position, so we are truly grateful that they thought he would be an asset to their school. I have always known he would be the best teacher any of these schools would be able to find, so I am glad that he was able to get a position at a school that he was excited about. We were both grateful for the Manila offer, and he was also excited about that, but Heber is 3 hours closer to family.

So the big move will be in about 2 weeks. We don't have a lot of packing to do, because most of our stuff is still in boxes. We will be renting a house of up there for a little while, and then we will see what happens. Ughhhhh, I am really sick of moving, but maybe this one will be the beginning to the end of our travels.

4th of July...

We had a BLAST--hardy har har.

Because we were staying at Bear Lake (more on that later) we started the day with a hike (at least, I did while Lindsay watched the kids). White pines lake was the goal and it was actually a very fun, easy-going hike that was pretty and rewarding at the end--it was a pristine mountain lake surrounded by two towering peaks (Gog and Magog).


This is toward the beginning of the hike--Jen leading, BJ (and Jayden), Buck, Joyce, Heidi, and Ashley trailing. There were a lot of wildflowers a plenty of wide open spaces for me to yodel.

Jayden couldn't quite making it the whole way without taking a little cat nap in his carrier.

The kids loved the few fireworks that we had for them--one really can't go wrong with a few sparklers, a few glowsticks, and a few "borrowed" fireworks you watch from your back deck that others light off over the lake.

June at the Foster home...

I guess we are at the point with this blog that we post one GOOD post every month or so! Oh well, I guess it will do. At any rate, what a great month we have had--full of camping, hiking, swimming, road trips, family, and fun!

The month started with a great little camping trip with some family in Beaver. We set up camp in a little area at the base of the mountains called south creek--just a side-of-the-road set up, not an established campsite (something we prefer). We met Paul, Molly and their kids at the site and set up camp. The kids had a great time and we had some REALLY yummy food--especially the peanut-butter s'mores (thanks, Molly).

We actually rarely saw these two apart--they played in the dirt, gathered firewood for us, played "guns" with sticks, and otherwise roamed until there was food to be had.

Grandma and Grandpa Foster came up to visit throughout the evening to eat, to chat, and to tell a "spooky" story to all of the kids.

Mae and Nora are a great match for each other--they both have great imaginations and love all things "girly".

The following week, our little family headed down to Vegas for a little getaway. We had heard that the Mandalay Bay Hotel has a great pool for kids and families--and it is true. The kids had a great time and we all had lots of fun--big thanks to Wendell and Terri for accompanying us and helping us watch the kids during our make-up "Anniversary".

Anybody who knows Ian even a little bit knows that it is difficult to get him out of the water--now imagine trying to get him out of a fun place like the Mandalay Bay pool! He especially loved to visit the hot-tub after getting out of the lazy river (because it was kinda cold).

Noah even had a great time at the pool and especially liked to eat the sand and play in the shallow end of the ginormous wave pool.

Mae was enjoying herself all the way around--around the lazy river, under the sand, in the wave pool, and definately in the hot tub.

We took the kids to the Bellagio water show and they were all amazed at how cool it is--I have never seen a reaction on Mae that combined the expressions of wonder, amazement, awe, and excitement all at once.

So... on to the REAL excitement for the month: Hiking the SUBWAY.

It started out well enough--Brad planned the whole thing, and it looked as though it was going to be a lot of fun (and it really was, we just hadn't planned on the extra six miles or so that it took us to finish).

Craig, me, Jeni, Lindsay, Paul, Molly, Shane and Dana (Molly's Sister and her husband) all decided to take the plunge. Long story short--I missed the turnoff to the SUBWAY and we ended up hiking about three miles out of our way (I left the map in the car--BIG oops!!!).


This is a shot of the beginning of the hike (after we had hiked back to the beginning) and this is also before you drop in to the beautiful canyon you have probably seen pictures of.



The water was really cold and by the time we were deep in the canyon we were all freezing while we waited for everyone else to enter the part of the hike that is known as the "subway".





The hike out was beautiful, but longer than we expected. The above picture is a sight we were all used to by the end of the hike because Paul and Molly led the way the entire time--they are great hikers and were anxious to get home to their kids.

All in all it has been a great month--and we still have a week left!

What have we beenup to lately?...

Well, let's see...

There were the hikes we did at Zions--Mae and Ian were troopers, hiking roughly 4 miles in a few hours with only a few breaks at the top of the hikes for pictures and some fun. Uh... and, yes, that is a 4 and a half foot long rattle snake that I took a picture of on the side of the trail.


If you look closely, you can see a herd of Desert Big Horn Sheep in the background.



Mae graduated from her Kindergarten class and even has a diploma to prove it! She loved her class and absolutely loves her teacher, Mrs. Brandon.


We have also been on a camping trip--to Pine Valley--and it was very pretty. All the kids had a great time hiking up to the old cabin Wendell used to own, and they especially had a good time roasting marshmallows and hot dogs!

Here is a quick video portraying the evidence of how much fun Noah had on the hike.

Noah's evolution of crawling...

Some of you have seen this one--all he needs is proper motivation.

This clip shows Noah's first and second gear. He will go slowly to sneak up on his prey
and then try to surprise them with a sudden burst of speed.

Here Noah has changed his strategy--taking after 'Mater in his back-up skills.