I know this is way ahead of schedule, but here's another blog post for all three of you.
Owen was struggling to get the right answers on his math assignment a few weeks ago, and rather than figure out the correct answers, he just signed off on it for me.
Here I am with Liz running along a trail in North Salt Lake. I've been doing two 2 miles a day, six days a week very faithfully. I don't eat as much anymore, either. I sure miss a 4,000 calorie meal.
The Sunday before Christmas, my mom had a "Christmas Open House" (for lack of a better name). Lots of good food and friends were there. If you're reading this, you were either there or invited. If you were invited but didn't come, you'll have to earn your way back onto "the list".
As part of a perk for a radio ad deal I did for my tax office, I was given some tickets to watch a Utah Grizzlies game from a luxury suite. We had it catered, and made a huge mess of the place with the "bottomless" popcorn basket. Vinny loved using the house phone to call for more popcorn.
Ordering Christmas cards from Costco's photo department is really easy and cheap. Unfortunately, that means that everyone else is ordering theirs through Costco, and this might happen. Next time I'm going to pick the ugliest one.
With all three of my brothers-in-law in town, we went to Brewvies for some food, diet coke, and a movie.
This was on our way to the Vegas Bowl, where the Utes got spanked by Boise State. One of the highlights of the trip for me was the drive through the Virgin River Gorge. It had been raining for days in the area, with flooding in St. George. There were dozens of waterfalls along the canyon walls, and the river was running very high and fast. The mist was low, concealing the sky throughout the whole canyon. I felt like I was driving through some exotic, foreign location used for filming Lord of the Rings.
You are looking at the steak/chicken combo nachos at Margaritaville. I'm pretty sure nachos don't get any better than this.
I think the Utes were up 3-0 during this picture. Their lead didn't last long.
After the game, we went to a place called The Burger Bar inside the Mandalay Bay casino. They had some pretty exotic burgers, one was $60! It had kobe beef, foie gras, truffles, and a bunch of other stuff I would never eat. We were there for ice cream though. Liz and I shared this banana split. The banana was cut down the middle, coated in some kind of candy and then fried to make the candy crunchy. So good.
After ice cream, Liz (who recently turned 21) wanted try her luck in the casino. We played my game of choice, roulette, and Liz won $80.
On the way home, the waterfalls were gone, but the river was still raging. You could smell the mud in the water everywhere.
Here I am bringing a second vehicle to Costco to help my mom bring home even more Christmas decorations. She has a disease.
Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's was very nice as always. All my siblings were there except for Kara. I'm not sure she's even had Christmas yet--waiting for Nick to have a day off.
Scott Wait, who only a few hours earlier had been Elder Wait, stopped by on his way home from the airport.
After dinner, we put together three Toy Story 3 puzzles...
...and the dogs made themselves comfortable at the dining table.
This was Santa's cookie plate. What is it about a child's poor handwriting that is so adorable?
My parents got the boys three DVDs of Tom & Jerry cartoons (40+ episodes) for Christmas. They had watched them all by December 26th.
To keep them from becoming totally sedentary over Christmas break, I took them with me to the Bountiful High track where they ran a few laps.
Yesterday, I took my boys and met up with two of my brothers-in-law and father-in-law at the gun range here in Bountiful. My brothers-in-law didn't even know their own dad was a gun owner! The boys love their new .22 rifles.
It's been almost four months since my last blog post. Is anyone still here? Last Saturday my mom texted me while I was still in bed to see if I wanted to go with her to Chicago for a couple days. After Shannon enthusiastically approved, I told my mom I was in. The primary purpose of the trip was to smuggle a Christmas tree to Kara, as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's Office of Holiday Decoration Permits was booked solid until St. Patrick's day. My mom pulled one of her boxed trees from her inventory of hundreds, and checked it at the luggage counter. It arrived unscathed in Chicago:
After dropping luggage off at Nick and Kara's, we picked up Nick and Henry and headed on what seemed like a three-hour drive to their chapel for the ward Christmas party. I'd go inactive if I had to drive that far to get to church. It seemed just like a ward Christmas party in Utah. Lots of ham and potatoes, and a few desserts.
In a sign of just how small our world is, Shannon's cousin Shaun and his wife Emily are in Nick and Kara's ward. He's at Loyola in his first year of medical school:
The ward dinner was fine, but as we were in Chicago, I ate VERY light at the chapel knowing full well we'd end up at Portillo's. There are several locations throughout the Chicagoland area ready to satisfy your craving for Italian beef and sausage.
This masterpiece is called the "combo" sandwich. Italian beef, italian sausage, and peppers with a "gravy" poured on the meat. Other options include dipping the whole sandwich, bread and all, into this mystical "gravy" sauce, or you can get a cup of "gravy" in which you may dip your sandwich. A rare sighting of Nick and Kara together. Nick's eyes are mostly closed because he's secretly resting for his upcoming 30-hour shift at the hospital.
After Portillo's, we dropped Nick and Henry off and drove 45 minutes in rain/snow to get to the Harrah's casino in Joliet, IL to see Maggie Speaks, a Chicago band that does nothing but cover famous songs. They are very talented and a lot of fun--we've seen them a few times before.
After the show, we ventured into the casino and played roulette for about 20 minutes. Kara is the ultimate gambling grinch. We won $30 on our first roll and she wanted to walk away right then. After 20 minutes, we were down $5 and walked away. On our way out, we discovered what is hopefully a sign of things to come in casinos worldwide: complimentary self-service soft drinks! (yes, I know it was Pepsi products, but they had diet Dew so they get a pass)
My mom and Kara admiring the Christmas decorations in the casino while waiting for the valet to bring the car out:
Rather than go back to Kara's place (it was midnight already), we drove to downtown Chicago and enjoyed the Christmas decorations and lack of traffic.
Kara's garage is a bit of a tight squeeze for two cars, and getting out of the back seat in such a scenario can be tricky. She says she falls to the ground like this two to three times a week.
Sunday morning, we went to a little shadier suburb of Chicago where Al Capone lived just out of reach of the Chicago police. Breakfast was at "The Depot", which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The food there was awesome.
After breakfast we went to Wal-Mart and I bought some snow bibs and handwarmers as I was going to be spending several hours outside in some extreme Chicago weather at the Bears game! Here I am heading inside Soldier Field: Free oven mitts were handed out on the way in. Lots of people were taking two and using them as gloves. I had an awesome seat (singular--I was there by myself). 9th row in the north endzone.
When I first got there, I thought I'd brush the snow off my seat, but couldn't as that is actually ice you see below. After warming it up for a few minutes with a precision tool, I was able to clean off my seat.
Here you can see a tractor with a large spinning brush clearing snow off the field. Between that and several guys with leafblowers working at every stoppage of the game, they were able to combine forces enough to not make any difference at all in the field conditions. But you could at least see where the field boundaries were.
Tom Bundchen-Brady and the Patriots took the field from the entrance right by my seat. Tom's hair was all bundled up inside of a wetsuit he wore to stay warm. Very disappointing to be so close to him and not see his flowing locks of golden brown hair. The kickoff from my point of view (note that the ball gets blown off the tee prompting everyone to line up again):
The Bears were down 33-0 at halftime. The Patriots were playing like the cold and snow made no difference at all. I headed to get a pretzel and hot chocolate. Tried to pump some mustard for my pretzel, but it was frozen solid.
Game over, Bears got spanked at home. Snow seemed to stop right as the game ended.
Soldier Field is right by "Museum Row", where you can see the Field Museum (below), the aquarium, and the planetarium all very close together.
A nice view of the Chicago skyline. The Whatchoo Talkin' Bout "Willis Tower" (formerly the Sears Tower) can be seen with the red and green antennae towards the left. Michigan Avenue. Not snowing anymore, but the sidewalks were not groomed at all. Exhausting to walk in.
Famous Chicago Theater sign
Two miles of walking later, I was at Daley Plaza (named for Mayor Richard Daley, Sr., because his name isn't in enough places in the city), home of Christkindlmarket from November 24-December 24. Lots of little shops selling German stuff, sold to you by real Germans.
Der Pretzelmaker
My hot cocoa "viss cream" and pretzel. Way better than the stadium version.
Unfortunately this eternal flame is fenced off. I wonder how many pigeons were kicked onto the fire before the fence went up.
The hospital is in a rough part of town. Nick spends a lot of time treating "puncture" wounds, which are primarily bullet and knife wounds.
It was a total maze inside. Had Nick not guided us in and out, we would probably still be in there looking for the exit.
I think this was called the "intern call room". Nick can take a nap on that bed there during his 30-hour shifts if he gets a moment to spare. What you see is all there is--it was a very small room, but Nick has made various improvements to make it a little more livable. This was some kind of break room with a few couches and a really old TV that Nick says is about to be replaced. The A/C unit in the wall next to the TV is frequently turned on in the wintertime because the room gets so hot. It was Kara's first time in the hospital as well as mine, and it was fun to see where Nick spends so much time.
Kara's car had a headlight out, so we made one last stop at Wal-Mart for a few bulbs and swapped it out in the parking lot.
Dinner #2. See Portillo's captions above.
My hand and footwarmers were still warm from the game earlier in the day. I was quite comfortable at the stadium thanks to these.
Monday before our flight home, we had lunch at Giordano's, a famous deep-dish pizza restaurant with multiple locations throughout Chicago.
It's a good thing I don't live in Chicago, because the food really is amazing and before long I'd look like this: Had a great time with my mom, Nick, Kara and Henry. Can't wait to go back again. Thanks for reading!
Owen was struggling to get the right answers on his math assignment a few weeks ago, and rather than figure out the correct answers, he just signed off on it for me.
Here I am with Liz running along a trail in North Salt Lake. I've been doing two 2 miles a day, six days a week very faithfully. I don't eat as much anymore, either. I sure miss a 4,000 calorie meal.
The Sunday before Christmas, my mom had a "Christmas Open House" (for lack of a better name). Lots of good food and friends were there. If you're reading this, you were either there or invited. If you were invited but didn't come, you'll have to earn your way back onto "the list".
As part of a perk for a radio ad deal I did for my tax office, I was given some tickets to watch a Utah Grizzlies game from a luxury suite. We had it catered, and made a huge mess of the place with the "bottomless" popcorn basket. Vinny loved using the house phone to call for more popcorn.
Ordering Christmas cards from Costco's photo department is really easy and cheap. Unfortunately, that means that everyone else is ordering theirs through Costco, and this might happen. Next time I'm going to pick the ugliest one.
With all three of my brothers-in-law in town, we went to Brewvies for some food, diet coke, and a movie.
This was on our way to the Vegas Bowl, where the Utes got spanked by Boise State. One of the highlights of the trip for me was the drive through the Virgin River Gorge. It had been raining for days in the area, with flooding in St. George. There were dozens of waterfalls along the canyon walls, and the river was running very high and fast. The mist was low, concealing the sky throughout the whole canyon. I felt like I was driving through some exotic, foreign location used for filming Lord of the Rings.
You are looking at the steak/chicken combo nachos at Margaritaville. I'm pretty sure nachos don't get any better than this.
I think the Utes were up 3-0 during this picture. Their lead didn't last long.
After the game, we went to a place called The Burger Bar inside the Mandalay Bay casino. They had some pretty exotic burgers, one was $60! It had kobe beef, foie gras, truffles, and a bunch of other stuff I would never eat. We were there for ice cream though. Liz and I shared this banana split. The banana was cut down the middle, coated in some kind of candy and then fried to make the candy crunchy. So good.
After ice cream, Liz (who recently turned 21) wanted try her luck in the casino. We played my game of choice, roulette, and Liz won $80.
On the way home, the waterfalls were gone, but the river was still raging. You could smell the mud in the water everywhere.
Here I am bringing a second vehicle to Costco to help my mom bring home even more Christmas decorations. She has a disease.
Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's was very nice as always. All my siblings were there except for Kara. I'm not sure she's even had Christmas yet--waiting for Nick to have a day off.
Scott Wait, who only a few hours earlier had been Elder Wait, stopped by on his way home from the airport.
After dinner, we put together three Toy Story 3 puzzles...
...and the dogs made themselves comfortable at the dining table.
This was Santa's cookie plate. What is it about a child's poor handwriting that is so adorable?
My parents got the boys three DVDs of Tom & Jerry cartoons (40+ episodes) for Christmas. They had watched them all by December 26th.
To keep them from becoming totally sedentary over Christmas break, I took them with me to the Bountiful High track where they ran a few laps.
Yesterday, I took my boys and met up with two of my brothers-in-law and father-in-law at the gun range here in Bountiful. My brothers-in-law didn't even know their own dad was a gun owner!
The boys love their new .22 rifles.
