Just testing my ability to post a video.

Report from St George

Here we are in St George taking a few minutes

to tell you a little about our past month.
I took the picture to the right just yesterday morning. After 3 weeks of perfect weather we were hit by the same storms that smacked southern California. Yesterday morning we woke up to snow covered mountains in the distance with low clouds and red rocks in the foreground; a stunning picture. We weren't lucky enough to have views like this from the condo, but I didn't have to go far to snap this photo (and about 20 more). The red canyon in the distance is Snow Canyon which is a beautiful State park we explored last week.

In this shot, Ruthie and are at the end of Jenny's Canyon, a slot canyon near the entrance of the park. We think this makes us look a little intrepid, but it's really a short easy hike from the highway.

You get a better perspective of the canyon in this picture of Ruthie taken from a little more distance.

Early in the vacation we took a trip to Vegas to see the Jersey Boys show and do a little sightseeing. The show was great, and the next day we drove to Hoover Dam. They're building a new bridge at the dam to reduce traffic and security issues across the top of the dam. It was fascinating to watch the work going on overhead. We watched part of the construction crew being transported to the work area by way of a suspended cable car.

We're told that the water level in lake Mead behind the dam has actually risen in the past few years, but you can see from this photo that it's quite aways below peak levels (125 feet by my calculations).

We also took a day trip to Zion's Park and managed to get there on a perfect day (I think it's now covered with a couple of feet of snow). It's interesting to go through the park when the leaves are off the decidous trees, you see much more of the canyon walls as you're driving. We didn't see alot of wildlife, just some deer and wild turkeys, but it was a very enjoyable day.

We ate lunch in the park and our waiter insisted on taking our picture on the deck outside the restaurant. He was a nice guy and we don't really have many photos of the two of us together so we were grateful. He did get a slightly larger tip, but not as large as it could have been if had been more attentive to us during lunch. I think the offer to take our picture was an effort to make up for not bringing us water when we asked.

All in all, the past month has been very enjoyable, but we're getting anxious to head home. This is the longest we've every been away and it will still be a week or 10 days before we get back depending on the weather.

Morgan turns TEN!

We celebrated Morgan's first decade of life this fall with a party at our house. The house was turned out in shabby-chic fashion and looked FABULOUS! I met the girls at school and they all walked over to our house where they at cake, unwrapped presents and watched a movie. Morgan had a good time with them and they all went home with a goodie bag stamped with their names on them. Thank goodness for stamp sets! That's all I have to say! It personalized Morgan's party in a cheap but expensive-looking way and Morgan made bookmarks for all of her friends with their names on them.

My pictures of the house and the party things got lost in cyberspace, or the electronic equivalent of where socks go in the laundry, darn it! So here's pictures of the party itself...
We had a fun little family party, too, most of which Morgan missed because she was engrossed with a video game she got. She unwrapped it, plugged it into her DSI and that was it. Nothing else mattered. We called her over to sing "Happy Birthday" and, without looking up from her DSI, she walked up, blew out the candles, and walked back into the living room without missing a single key-stroke on her game. Never-you-mind that we had been sitting there watching and waiting to sing to her or eat cake! The three of us had a good laugh at her expense. She didn't know what we were laughing at until we told her what she had done. Fortunately, she had a good sense of humor. Or maybe, the cake was just too yummy to pass up. Whatever the case, Morgan decided we weren't all that bad and stuck around for cake and more presents.

We sure are lucky to have Morgan in our family. She is creative and spunky. She has recently discovered cooking and likes to make her own meals. We love you, Morgan! You are a wonderful girl!

Halloween '09 - OR - The Curse of the Mummy!

Morgan announced that she wanted to go trick-or-treating as a mummy this year so I dug around in the costume box and unearthed a pharaoh costume I had made for Kyle when he was in 5th grade. I bought several yards of fabric and ripped it into strips before tea-dying them. After that, I sewed the strips onto a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt. Morgan looked positively mummified. She arose from the dead just in time to go to go trick-or-treating. We met a friend and hit the neighborhood to the west and then ran around ours and dropped Morgan's friend off at her house. By the end of the night, Morgan was trailing bandages and moaning like a real, gosh-darn mummy!

Unfortunately, we realized what she was moaning for; Morgan woke us up in the middle of the night with the stomach flu. Yes, you guessed it, our little mummy was puking her guts up. Of course, it would have been easier if her guts had been kept in a canopic jar because it wouldn't have been as messy. I guess you can't have everything.

Once again, Liz has shamed me into entering photos and commentary to the blog site. This time I'm posting some photos from Disneyland, but not much commentary.

By the looks of this photo it's Morgan's driving that we need to be worried about.

The picture below is the whole family in the California Adventure part of the park. It's impossible to get everyone to look at the camera and smile so we have

to accept the inevitable frown or looking the wrong way.

I particularly

like this photo because it's so obvious that Kyle and Evan are having a great time.

I had a good time with Morgan and Kaelin in the park. Each morning as we walked into the park Kaelin liked to jump over colored squares in the walk way with a boost from me, and Morgan always likes a good back scratch. They're both great kids and a lot of fun to be with.

Anyti

me the girls go to

Disney they must have a photo on this staircase.

The two family photos at the bottom were taken in the Hollywood section of the park. Apparently you must have a cowboy hat to be in the second position from the right.

As Liz said below, we all had a great time in the park. I consider the event to be one of life's highlights because we were all together with nothing but fun and harmony for 5 days.

Grandpa

October 2009

Ok, so how sad is it that the Doman's, the Grover's and Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Jeff went to Disneyland in October and none of us have posted any pictures or information about the trip? So, here goes...
Grandma and Grandpa took us all to Disneyland in October. It was a WONDERFUL trip! We had a great time together. I tell you, I was never so blessed than to have married into such a wonderful family! I wish everyone could be as blessed as I am to have such wonderful people in their lives.
We arrived on Thursday, October 1st around 10:00 in the morning and went straight into the park. Heather suggested we get a fast pass for one of the rides >and then we went to ride the cars. While we were in line, Grandpa and Grandma called and told us they had arrived, too. They took pictures of us riding in the cars. The kids drove while the parents sat in the passenger seats. It was a taste of things to come for the Grover family, I think. Kyle is getting his driver's license soon. (Yikes!)
We ate lunch in Tomorrowland and watched the Star Wars show. The Jedi trained the little Padawan Apprentices pulled from the audience and Evan plotted how he could get chosen. We spent the rest of the day in the park bouncing around from one ride to the next and having fun. At the end of the day, we went back to the hotel and the kids jumped into the pool. (I know I fell asleep! I was exhausted!) We had dinner at the restaurant located in the driveway in front of the hotel; it was supposed to be like Mimi's Cafe, but not. Live and learn.
The next day, Friday, the Grover family went to McDonald's for breakfast and then made a dash into the park for Indiana Jones Adventure, which we rode, and rode, and rode until the line got too long. Then, we cut over to Frontier Land and rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad where we met up with the Domans and Grandma and Grandpa, which is Morgan's favorite. They had picked up Family Reunion badges for everyone and we wore them for the rest of the visit. The only time they worked for us was at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They scooted us to the front of the line.
I believe we also ended up at the Matterhorn, but that could have been another morning. It all seems kind-of a blur. By lunchtime, we were ready to split up and decided to meet up in California Adventure for the afternoon, I think. We rode the Tower of Terror, which was a whole lot of fun. Heather filmed it for her kids and convinced Kaelin to go on a ride. Evan never did. Oh well. The Grover family started mugging for the camera at the top and got a couple of really good pictures. One of them got printed up:

I heard a guy comment after the ride, "Look at that guy's guns on the back row! That's AWESOME!" I thought it was pretty funny.

We rode Soarin' Over California, the rollercoaster at the back of the park, and then we tried to get Kaelin to ride the other free fall ride but she chickened-out at the last second. Cutie! I guess it was actually seeing how high she was actually falling that made her nervous. She went on a lower ride with Morgan and was ok with that. The kids rode the Wild Mouse and then Liz and Tom got headaches. (Too much low bloodpressure!)
We watched a Pixar Parade after that. The costumes were amazing! The kids were ready to swim so we went back to the hotel and I manned the pool, this time. Heather and I searched the internet for Disney trivia we could use in the park on Saturday. We had pizza for dinner in the hotel commons area and played games. One of them was a game Grandma made; Flinch. Morgan has been begging to play that one ever since.
The next morning, which was Saturday, the Grover's jumped up really early and jetted over to Space Mountain and rode it a couple of times. It was really cool! Heather joined us and we got tickets for later in the day. Then, we ran over to Indiana Jones and rode that for a while before we met up with Grandma, Grandpa and Tom and the Doman kids. We rode the Indiana Jones ride again and then went for more park stuff. (It all seems to blur together!) We met-up again out in front of the Pirates of the Carribbean ride and take a picture on the famous steps with everyone between New Orleans Square and the Haunted Mansion after splitting up for awhile. The park employee was really nice about it. I know at one point, we had lunch in California Adventure. There was a joke about taking a picture in the "A" hole of the big "CALIFORNIA" sign out in front. That must have been when we all walked over to the park when it opened so we could ride the Tower of Terror some more.
We spent some more time in this park but I think we must have ended up in Disneyland at the end of the day. It must be noted, this day was the beginning of Gay Days Anaheim '09 and the park was absolutely flooded with people wearing red shirts for the rest of the weekend. The Grover's tried to stay in the evening but the park was so full that it was a mad-house and we ended up going home.
One night, I think it was Saturday night, The Grover Family had dinner in a yummy italian restaurant in Downtown Disney. It was good pizza! The Doman's had dinner in a take-out place (?) not too far from there and I think Grandma and Grandpa ate with them.
On Sunday morning, Heather and the Grover's ran into the park again for another break-neck day of ride-hopping, starting at Indiana Jones. It broke down so we decided to go for Space Mountain, which also broke down. We were two for two so we wandered around, rode a few rides in-between before hooking up with everyone else, and then waited in line for California Adventure. We hotfooted it to the back of the park and got in line for the Toy Story ride, which was really cool! It was a ride where you shot at different shooting galleries, like the kind at a carnival, but you wore 3-D glasses and all the things you were shooting at were animated. No wonder the line was so long!
We shuffled around CA for the rest of the day until it got cold. Shawn didn't want to go back to the hotel for warm clothes so he sprung for all of us to get sweatshirts in Downtown Disney. After that, we went out for dinner. (Thanks Grandpa!) It was yummy food and we all got warm inside. On the way back to the hotel, the Grover family stopped for bread pudding and beignets from a New Orleans Jazz restaurant. Shawn had been wanting to eat some for a while. They were warm and tasted good! We drank hot chocolate on the way home and realized there was a winter storm to go back to in Idaho. :-(
On Monday, we got up, packed and stored our suitcases for the rest of the day before checking out of our hotel rooms. After that, we went to McDonald's and had a nice, leisurely breakfast before going into the park. We rode the Matterhorn again, wandered around, rode a few rides and had a good time together. The last ride we rode before Grandma and Grandpa had to leave was the Pirates of the Caribbean. We went to the statue of Walt, took pictures and hugged good-bye.
The Grover's and the Doman's ate a yummy lunch of gumbo in New Orleans Square and then went back toward the castle in Fantasyland to pick up some stuff Shawn and Liz had bought. Evan wanted a big pickle and Kyle wanted a pretzel with cream cheese so we split up and then planned to meet back at Walt so we could hoof it back to the hotel. It's a good thing we did because the driver of the limo service was early!
We all loaded up into the van and drove to the airport footsore and tired after five days in Disneyland. As the driver dropped us off in front of the airport, who should we see standing out in front of it but... Grandma and Grandpa!
Yes, the teary good-bye in front of Walt was all for nothing! We are such drama queens!
So, we sat in the airport for a few hours waiting, and waiting, and waiting until they announced our flight. Woo-hoo! We got on, took off, and went home. (Can you see us waiting and waiting and waiting?)

So, Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa for a memorable trip! It was such a pleasant way to reconnect and spend time together. I sure enjoyed the time with my whole family! You are such a wonderful group of people to be related to! I am so glad to call you mine!
-Liz Grover
P.S. I didn't have pictures on the computer to download so if you have them, please download them!

Catching Up

I have to admit that Liz & Heather put us all to shame for neglecting the blog site, particularly Liz of late. I don't know that I have the stamina to write about everything that we've done in the past few months, but I'll post a few a little bit now and try to post more later.




Probably the biggest event was our cruise to Alaska. I've never been real keen about going to cold rainy climes to view the scenery. While we saw some very beautiful places and sights we'll never see again up close, I don't think we'll cruise Alaska again. The pictures above and below are of Mom and a Bear (how's that for being a straight man).



I think the highlight for us was seeing icebergs and then Dawes Glacier as shown in the photos below. The icebergs were notable for the deep blue color that was a surprise to us. Mostly we saw small icebergs that he captain referred to as "bergy bits". We didn't get real close to the glacier because of the number and proximity of icebergs in the area. If you look real close at the photo, you'll see a small ship (probably 75' long)in the distant foreground that gives you a better feel for the immense size of the glacier.




Right now we're all getting ready to to to Disneyland for a few days (Oct 1 - Oct 5) and we're really looking forward to the time together. More pictures to come - maybe even from everyone.

Love, Dad

Trip to Wisconsin

Shawn and Liz took a trip to Wisconsin to celebrate a 70th Anniversary for the Sartori Cheese Company and had a long weekend. It is really pretty there! We saw some BIG cows and a lot of barns.

Shawn told me NOT to complain that he never took me anywhere - We drove right past Belgium! We also walked around the shore of Lake Michigan and looked at Sheboygan Falls. (See the enclosed Pictures... ha-ha!)


We had a fun time being together. The trip was a blast, even if it was in the wilds of Plymouth, Wisconsin.

Labor Day BBQ

Shawn smoked ribs for Labor day and they were gooooood! It's too bad ya'all were'nt here because we had smoked calico beans, mac n'cheese with black truffles, potato salad and homemade bbq sauce served up with our ribs. We guzzled it all down with fresh squeezed lemonade or root beer. Shawn spent all day cooking. It was like thanksgiving came early. We stuffed ourselves silly but it was fabulous!

To end the evening, he made a heavenly dessert from the French Laundry cookbook with a cinnamon icecream and a light and fluffy chocolate molten meringue concoction on the top and a yummy cookie on the bottom. I'll insert a picture so you can see what it looked like. (I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like when he served up the real thing so I had to take one when he did the reproduction with the stuff that was left over the next night. It may not look as pretty but it sure tasted good!)

I'll try to upload the video I took of the table and the carving of the ribs. Poor dog wanted to eat bbq too but we had to tell her, "Dogs don't like ribs!" (I don't think she believes us.)

First Day of School For the Grovers in Idaho

School has Started in Pocatello and we are so excited! Can you just feel the energy??? The kids were up bright and early and ready to go - NOT!

It was a really sad wake-up call at 6:30 this morning. The kids dragged their sorry butts out of bed grumbling the whole time. Kyle even asked me to call the school last night and excuse him for the rest of the year due to a coma. When we woke up to 56 degree weather and a down-pour this morning we figured the rest of the day just had to get better!


Cheer up, kids! At least the day isn't a full school day, yet. You get to do that tomorrow!

The Grovers visit Yellowstone

In July Shawn and Liz took their family to Yellowstone as part of a family reunion with Liz's family. We camped out for a week and looked at all the hot water. At one point, the kids were heard complaining that if they wanted to watch boiling water, they could have stayed home and watched it in the kitchen on the stove. Nice.

Any how, we got to see one of the most beautiful places on earth.


While we were there, Claudia, Bob Wrathall's wife, bought the book Deaths in Yellowstone and we read the hair raising stories around the campfire. It was like some sort of horrible car accident and we couldn't look away; we kept returning to these stories like moths to a grisly flame. It was oddly fascinating.

We drove around the loop of the park and looked at the beautiful formations and watched Old Faithful erupt a few times. Got eaten by bugs and slept in a tent on top of some roots. It was camping in its glory. By Thursday we were so grimy that Liz and Shawn washed their hair in the cold water out of the tap. It was zesty!(Dad and Claudia went and paid for showers.)

Kyle and Morgan made walking sticks under the direction of their Uncle David and they both turned out really cool. When the peeled bark got toasted, they carved designs into the blackened wood. Kyle found some cord and put it around the top of his stick and Morgan carved her name into hers.

At the end of the week, we left and gratefully drove home toward showers and our own beds. Morgan was just glad she didn't have to share the bathroom with any more spiders!

Here is a photo from last Friday night when the Grover clan got together for a nice dinner with Grandpa at Silverado. Everyone had a really nice time and it was fun to see Grandpa and laugh and visit with everyone! I'm sure my Dad will add some more photos too. - Heather



For those of you who are interested, Tom finished the sprint Triathlon in about an hour and 15 minutes on Saturday. He was pretty happy with that time for his first one. He swam for 350 meters, biked 12 miles and ran 6.1 miles.

Latest Book

A month has passed and still nobody posting but me. Hmmm. Here's the latest for the book collection. I downloaded the text from Project Gutenberg and reformatted it in Word. It's 8 inches high and 4 inches across, about 200 pages all together. The cover title plate is also a Word creation.

The next additions to the bookshelf will be a collection of classic horror stories ... Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde to start with.

Food Porn

Seems like everybody is giving up on this blog ... here's something new for ya.  We had carnitas for dinner the other night.  Since I had leftover pork, raw torillas and all the other good stuff, but not enough for everybody to make tacos, I made Mexican ravioli instead. The kids scraped everything off of course.

For anybody who might be considering the book business, I put this one together to see what the actual time & cost was.  

This is about 9x6, 398 pages (heavy bond paper).  Etsy has about 180 pages of blank journals; based on what I saw, this one I might be able to sell for $50.  Cost of goods was $18.50, total hands-on time about 3.5 hours.  That would make my hourly rate $9.00.

The first book I posted is bigger, about 10x7 but it is also made of a nicer paper for the text block.  Half the number of pages but 3.5 times the material cost.  I'd have to sell that one for about $70 to make my $9/hour.

So they're interesting to make and unique to give away, but I can't quit my day job.  Dang.

Here's the latest book for anybody who might be interested.  It's sewn on cords and quarterbound in leather (salvaged bomber jacket).  I was planning to keep this one for myself but I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

Happy New Year!

Woo hoo! 2009 is here at last. Hopefully it will be a nice, quiet, peaceful year.
Tom gave the kids a giant bubble making kit for Christmas. Here are a couple of giant bubbles for you.

Merry Christmas from the frozen wastelands of the North.  I don't know how much new snow we received last night, but the wind definitely rearranged the foot we received on Monday.

Since it's Christmas, there have to be cinnamon rolls.

Sunrise Picture

OK, after much pressure and a little applied guilt (Heather), I'm posting the sunrise pictures that I took the last time we were in Salt Lake. These were taken from Heather's back yard on Oct 31, 2008.

Not for the faint of heart!

I am posting a couple of disturbing yet interesting photos today. This is what happens when other people don't post interesting and pleasing things for the family to look at. I get desperate.
The first photo is of some cheese slices that I found in my garage fridge. It has been in the cheese drawer ever since we moved in 2005. The cheese is three years past it's expiration date. If you ever wondered what three year old provolone slices looked like, this it your lucky day.


The next photo is of something Kaelin found on her plate after eating some flounder that I bought at Wal-Mart. Yes, I do believe that is a parasitic worm. Needless to say, we ended up having cereal for dinner that night.