Three day weekend with Colton and Malea 2/15-2/17, 2014

Colton and Malea arrived from Idaho fairly late on Valentine's Day.  

We still took time to watch 'The Jungle Book" which just recently 

came out of the Disney Vault.  It's pretty amazing on Blu-ray!

Colton and Malea slept in on Saturday 2/15, but Dad and I ran north to 

check out three houses for Katie and Tyler, and check in on Aunt 

Sheree who is in the Stone Henge Rehabilitation Center.  We made it home in

 time for lunch, but we missed the dance off and karaoke session.  After 

lunch we made our way down to Yuba.   Here's Dad, Colton 

and Malea on the newly constructed dam.  

Yuba is rather low, so the Sevier River is more like a creek right now. 

Here we are dropping rocks from the bridge onto 

the ice below to see if it would break through.  

Amazingly,  a few rocks just bounced! 

Although this is a new bridge, the mud swallows have 

already built homes to raise their young in the Spring. 

Most of Yuba is still ice covered, but some stacking has taken place on the dam. 

Andrea is thinking about finding an ice way out onto the thicker ice. 

This was just a pose for her future wedding video. 

Malea just launched a large, ice cracking boulder. 

This BIG smile is merely a foreshadowing of things to 

come.  Notice the upright ice block in the background. 

The challenge has been set.  Just break a piece off the ice block.

One, Two, Three!  A piece of cake!

 Notice the piece of ice in the water below.

" Let's see you do it again'" says Colton.  The ice is 

honeycombed so just hit the thicker piece a little harder.

 One! Two! Three! Give it all you've got!

This was the day Andrea had a personal experience with the third law of motion.

Quite frankly, it knocked her off her feet and let the wind out of her sails.

The squeals and laugher sounded like she as speaking "whale" in slow-mo!
Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRJDyF4ElTs

Andrea shows off her wet pants as the two connivers innocently 

carry on as if the whole event wasn't carefully planned. :) 

Grandpa was fascinated by the perfect rows of ice crystals in the ice. 

 This must be a unique form of honey-combing. 

 Colton demonstrates how easily the crystal shards break away and fall to the ground. 

Yuba looked a little like a lake in the Tundra. 

Andrea tried her skills in ice block surfing. 

The chill of her wet pants awakened some common sense 

and Andrea came ashore to Colton's dismay! 

 Colton and Malea coming down the concrete wall near the spill way.

 Andrea looks back to determine the source of this steady little stream. 

 Then she has to hang five toes...

 over the edge...

 

 to get a look at sudden death!

 Here Malea is back at home getting re-acquainted with 

ONE BIG CAT aka Milo Cheddar  Bartholemew Junior.

 

This is one of the last shots of Malea's beautiful long hair! 

 Andrea was not afraid to cut Malea's hair.  This fear came 

from imagining what Scott and/or Janna might say or do!

Ten inches are needed to donate to "Locks of Love."

 Too late to turn back!

 What was under this pony's tail? 

 This was what Malea hoped she would look like in the end. I have

 no post shots so you'll have to skype her or visit her in Rexburg.

Utah Olympic Oval Center Activity runs (2/7 & 2/8/14)

I had a bus run with the State JHS indoor Track team to the Utah 

Olympic Oval in Kearns on Feb. 7th. Due to recent family complications, 

I went back on Feb. 8th for Kathleen Kendall.

It is the indoor speed skating oval built for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

 It hosted the speed skating events for the 2002 Olympic games. 

The weight of the building is carried by outside suspension supports with no

 inside supports leaving it entirely open.  The cost of construction was $30 million.

Darrel recalled the cement for the oval was done by two teams in 

a continuous pour so there are no cold joints in the building.  

This project was job security for our family that year! 

Inside the facility the 400-meter speed skating track surrounds two international sized

 ice sheets used for ice hockey, and these are all surrounded by a 442-meter running track. 

 The facility is still used for the Olympic Team Trials.

Here you see the speed skating ice oval. The running track is just 

beyond it and the tracks are separated by the blue barrier.

 This is still an official Olympic training site. Of course all the 

athletes were at the Sochi Winter Olympics in so I didn't see any.

National flags from around the world are displayed the full 

length of the building. This is a good shot of the racing track.

Friday there were teams of High School and/or college students playing

 on the regulation sized ice hockey arenas. But on Saturday, this ice arena 

was divided into three equal parts. There were little, tiny kids were
booking around on hockey skates playing ice hockey. :)

The players appeared to be between 5 & 8 years old. 

 This is our US Olympic feeder teams! 

This is what a full sized, manicured ice hockey field 

looks like after being groomed by a Zamboni.

 There is so much ice in this 5 acre building that they have two Zambonis.

 These were more serious speed skaters who seemed
to be training throughout the entire track meet.

 There are public skating hours where the public can use this ice oval for fun.

In addition to everything else, there is a nice broad jump pit...

And a pole vault pit. It appeared to me that this space in 

this building could not be used more efficiently or profitably used.

This is a high dive training pool adjacent to the building.  That has been added since 2002. 

There is a fun water park that shares the parking lot as well.

Temple Trip with Uncle Blake 2/1/14

On February 1, 2014, Dad and I went back to the temple with 

Uncle Blake on his first visit since having all Priesthood blessings restored.

IT WAS A GLORIOUS, LONG AWAITED DAY!

This is what the Provo Tabernacle Temple looked like that day.

We stopped at Panda Express on our way to the temple for lunch.

Uncle Blake and Dad heading up the hill toward the Provo Temple.

This is me and Uncle Blake just before going inside.

Here's Dad and Uncle Blake in the same spot.  The session was extra sweet,

and I felt certain  Grandma was aware and pleased that we had come together. We were 

blessed to experience the newest new film. A great one for Blake's first trip back. 

This is the Temple reflecting pool as we came out of the temple. 

We felt like heaven and earth had connected and the reflection confirmed it! 

A nice patron took a picture with all three of us after the session.

One last look at the temple from our car as a token of Blake's victory!