August Family Pictures

Last year we accidently ended up taking family pictures on our anniversary. We liked it so much we went ahead and did again this year. I found a few pictures to fill in some of the gaps. It's funny to see how much we've changed in the last five years.

2010

  

One and One (Eharmony - August 17th)

We did not have a family picture in 2010, but we do have two pictures that are important in our family history; our eharmony profiles. We were first matched on August 17th. Ben took his profile picture in his townhouse with a self-timer and a tripod.  Wendy's profile was taken at a the Living Planet Aquarium while on an excursion with siblings. 

Ben's Eharmony profile picture

Wendy's Eharmony profile picture

2011

Two (Married! August 1st)

This might be the most plentiful year for our "family pictures." Between the multiple engagement shoots, the wedding shots, and the reception shots we have many nice pictures of the two of us. 

At the Salt Lake City Temple

2012

Three (Andrew's Blessing - September 2nd)

Andrew joined us 11 months after the wedding. Unlike the previous year we did not take many family pictures during August.  We have a metric ton pictures of Andrew, a lot of pictures of Wendy, and a fair number of pictures of myself.  Few pictures contain all three of us.  This picture is from Andrew's blessing. 

With Andrew right after his blessing at the Brookshire Ward

2013

Three (August 17th)

Surprisingly, 2013 was even worse than 2012 for family pictures. The only full family picture in August was a random picture taken outside of my work. Yes, that is me with scrubs and an earpiece in our family picture. Less than ideal.

Work pictures are so...flattering

2014

Four (Accidental photo - August 1st)

Cameron  joined in the family picture fun this year. On a whim we visited the site of our reception (there are only so many places you can take a two month old!). Thanks to lot of trial and error using a tripod and a 10 second timer, for the first time in three years of marriage, we finally had a formalized family picture.

2015

Four ("Stuart Photography" - August 1st)

For 2015 we decided to forgo the self-timer and have someone else behind the camera. The Stuart parents and Debbie accompanied us up to Jordanelle. We tried bribing my father by paying for a hamburger joint; instead he payed for us. I am not proficient at bribing. We spent the night before giving all of the boys in the family a matching buzz cut. It was Cameron's first real haircut. I hardly recognized the little boy as my Cameron he looked so different sans curls.

Bonus timer picture

2016

Four will be Five

We plan to continue the tradition of taking our pictures at Jordanelle Reservoir next year.  Excitingly, another member of the family will join us for that photo shoot. The storks pictured below are two months into their nine month flight to bring us our new little one.

Estimated Date of Arrival: March 18, 2016

Engagement Pictures

Childhood model.

I should have submitted this to an agency.
I could have been rich and famous!
















The picture was taken when I was six years old at Snowbird Ski Resort.

Trip to Idaho

A few months ago I had the grand idea to make a trip up to Idaho. The purpose of this visit was really twofold. The first was to visit my grandparents whom I haven't seen in a while. The second was to visit the cousins. I managed to convince my two sisters that it would be fun to go up as a group. It didn't really take too much convincing.

We left late one very rainy Thursday night. I hadn't traveled on a road trip with my youngest sister recently so was surprised at some of the bad habits that she has developed. Her camera instantly came out and her two older siblings were submitted to several minutes of picture taking.   I guess it's the reporter in her that demands that one must document everything one does. I will admit though; that I was somewhat startled to learn that this extended to taking pictures of me washing the car windows at a gas station.

Since I have to be at work fairly in the morning my body has adjusted to waking up early. One of the unfortunate side effects of this adaption is that even on the days that I'm able to sleep in...I can't make it past 0830.  My two partners on this trip have a much later personal clock.  So I decided that instead of waiting around and twiddling my thumbs I would have a try at riding my new bike. The new road bike that I had rather impulsively bought the day before. Since it was recently purchased I hadn't installed the bike computer yet. I managed to get the wires in the right spot and was attempting to put the battery into the computer. I managed to lose the battery in the grass. While I was searching in the tall grass (Note to self; dealing with small batteries is not the best thing to do in grass) Grandma, Grandpa, and one of the Elder's who lived nearby came out to see what I was doing then proceeded to help. This would have been the perfect time for one of sisters documentary pictures. 4 people on their knees searching for a tiny battery in the grass. Finally, my grandfather being the innovated man he is went and got a bar magnet. Within a couple seconds he found my battery. I installed in and went on my way to discover the dangers and thrills of a road bike.

By the time I returned, alive fortunately, my sisters had arisen from their repose. I managed to convince the two sisters and my grandmother to participate in a card game. Of course I also convinced them to play my favorite card game Canasta.  It's a part of my insidious goal to convert people to the game, mainly so I have some competition when I play. Really miss the games I had with my friend a few years ago. One of these days I'll convert someone to it. I think that the four of has a decent amount of fun though. Me and grandma whooped on the two sisters.

The evening was spent hobnobbing with the cousins. The original plan was to have a dinner at my Aunt's house and to have all of the cousins come over. As is usual with many of my plans; things started falling apart. The Aunt got sick and didn't want to pass it on so the meal was moved to a cousins house.  Two of the cousins were out of town and the wife pled prior commitments.  It ended up being 2 cousins only. Despite my initial misgivings about this it actually turned out to be a pretty nice visit. The meal was a bit random however. I'm not sure how taco salad and bbq hot dogs really relate. We had a good visist. It was shocking to see how big all of their kids had gotten. The kids I remembered as being 2-3 year olds were now going on missions and graduating from high school. I'm getting old. :( 

Up next on the docket was a visit on the following day with my brothers family. My brother has a real job at his ward so he spent a fair amount of time in the morning doing church work. (One convenient side effect of never being at your actual ward is that you never get these inconvenient callings.) We took advantage of the time and played soccer. I rejoice that my brother has actually allowed my nephew to play a real game. After several seasons of baseball I was starting to get worried.  I taught my newphew some dribbling moves. Some of them he caught onto pretty quickly, such as dribbling between the defender's legs, others he didn't quite understand (The stepover).  During one of his efforts to take the ball away from me I popped the ball into the air and then headed it over him. His immediate yell of, "WHAT DID  YOU DO??!!!!" brought my brother out of the house wondering what was going on. I was amused by both my nephew's and my brother's reactions. I haven't asked my brother but I've been curious if the nephew used any of what I taught him in his next soccer game. When my nephew was taking a rare break Debbie decided to give a try at making it past me. I schooled her.

Once my brother was able to  finish his church work we were finally able to get on with the real plans of the day. A bike ride! My brother had noticed that I had a bike and had arranged to get two bikes for my two sisters. We went to a nearby river walk and had a nice little bike ride.  My sisters, me, and my nephew on our own bikes. My brother on a bike pulling a trailer with my niece.  We thought the it would be best for my nephew to lead: I think my brother regretted that decision. We set a decent pace of around 10 miles per hour for the duration of the ride. The trail was absolutely gorgeous. It meandered through forests, baseball diamonds, and along both a river and several lakes.  Next time we're up there I think I'll actually try to bike the whole trail of around 17 miles just to see it all.  We were only able to do a some of the trail that day. It's been a long time since I've been on a social bike ride and it was fun.

That was the end of the planned events. The only occurrence of note that took place the rest of the trip is that I played Mario cart on the Wii with my niece and nephews.  The oldest absolutely destroyed me. I think there was one game in which he actually lapped me. It's always a pleasure to be soundly beaten by a 7 year old. My niece I beat; but she really didn't care. All she cared about was that she got to play the pink character.  My youngest nephew; I think all he cared about was being able to hold the wheel up.

Masquerade Ball

I still remember going to the Capitol Theater to watch Phantom of the Opera with the family.  One of the scenes that I remember the most was the scene in which the actors are all in a masquerade ball.  Since that time I’ve always thought that attending a masquerade ball would be a fair amount of fun.

Debbie several weeks ago sent an invitation to go to a masquerade ball that was to be held at This is the Place State Park this past weekend. My immediate thought was, “Hey, that could be a lot of fun!” Shortly followed by the realization that it was a formal so I would have to attend in a suit. Despite this drawback I determined that it would still be fun.

I managed to invite a young lady to go the formal masquerade ball with me as a date. We had grand plans to manufacture exotic masks that would amaze all other attendees.  Unfortunately the young lady canceled on me and I was left dateless…and more importantly maskless.  It appeared that my masquerade experience would have to wait until the next opportunity.  Then Debbie went and ruined my martyrdom by letting me know that it was not a date dance…aka I could still go dateless. So I hurried up and got ready for the dance. 15 minutes later, my suit on, I checked on how Debbie’s preparations were coming. I was immediately reminded why I was glad I’m a guy instead of a gal. Between the hairdressing, the make-up, and the gowning Debbie lost 2 hours of her day. Of course; the efforts turned out really well.

Attending the dance shattered some of my delusions.  I  envisioned at least a token bow towards the traditional dances performed at masquerade balls.  The waltzes, the huge fancy line dances, ect. Much to my disappointment I found that the music would follow the typical pattern of high school dances;  long stretches of hip hop music followed by an occasional slow song or country song.  I just don’t understand why the dominant music played at school and church dances is music that you can’t even dance effectively to. Seems counterproductive to me. We did manage to have fun despite this however.