I'm the Bike!

We mentioned Grace's birthday party and some of the other events surrounding her birthday from last weekend, but didn't mention her fun new addition...her very own Dora bike!

She absolutely loves it and it was fun to see how excited she was to get it as a present. We gave it to her after her friends had all left from her party and she was so excited to try it out. The Dora bike is cute, it has the little backpack on the front and we also got a fun bright orange bike helmet for her to wear.



Grandma and Grandpa (Derek's parents) were able to see her trying out her new bike and she was happy to show it off as well.

Derek thinks he can ride the bike too, he is just slightly too big for it...Grace kept telling him he needed to wear his helmet too...LOL!

She is growing up so fast, it is hard to believe!

Quest for Perfection -- Week 1 in the Books!

Well, my prediction was BYU 45-Northern Iowa 9, see post below, I wasn't all that far off.

BYU beat the Panthers by the final score of 41-17 today, so I was 4 off on the BYU side and 8 off on the Northern Iowa side.


Pitta was a beast today, what an amazing game! Nice to see BYU Football going again and I cannot wait to see how we fare against Washington next Saturday on the road, could be a very tough test...hopefully we are still undefeated next week at this time!

GO COUGS!

BYU Football Week 1 - BYU will destroy Northern Iowa

Check out the blog each week to see Derek's bold BYU football predictions.

I am really excited to get another awesome season under way. I love BYU and think they have a real shot of making some national noise this year. It is hard to tell until you actually see what they can do, but based on how well they have done the last 2 years and with who they have coming back...could be exciting!

The night before BYU's first game every year is like Christmas Eve...I hope I can sleep tonight~


Well, week 1...BYU opens at home against Northern Iowa, probably the easiest game on their schedule...with the exception of maybe Utah State or UNLV (which ironically play each other tomorrow in the TOILET BOWL OF THE CENTURY)!

BYU should look to get clicking early on offense and acclimate a lot of the new starters on defense. I think they will be hesitant to get starters out even if the lead is huge, especially since it is the first game and they need momentum heading into the tough road game at Washington next week.

Unga should have about 120 yards on the ground and hopefully Hall spreads the ball around to many of his other weapons. Our defense should keep them in the single digits.

PREDICTION: BYU 45 Northern Iowa 9

GO COUGARS!

Happy 5th Birthday Grace!!! Jo-Jo Circus Party!

Sunday was Grace's 5th birthday. It is hard to believe she is growing up so fast! She had some friends over on Saturday to celebrate.

It was a Jo-Jo Circus Birthday Party Theme!

Look at Derek's beautifully artistic picture, we have a professional photographer in the making.

Here were some of the friends that came to celebrate Grace's birthday with her.

We did face painting, limbo, twister, big shoe clown relays, decorated cupcakes and just lots of other playing!

Here is the birthday girl, all dressed up like Jo-Jo the clown! She also had an over-sized pair of scissors and an over-sized comb that everyone thought was lots of fun.

Here was a fun game of Duck-Duck Goose.

You've got to love Grace's bow-tie and clown gloves. It was also fun to decorate the house with balloons and streamers.

This is Ryan hanging out during the party, I think he was confused as to why 10 or so friends were intruding the house!

Grace, we love you so much! We are so proud of the polite and happy little girl that you are. We can't believe that you start Kindergarten next week, you are growing up so fast!

Grace has really been working on her reading and writing and had the chance to meet her Kindergarten teacher this past Monday. She is so excited to start school!

We love you Grace!

Eye of the Tiger - Derek's 10 Year High School Reunion

Go OHS!

I recently had my 10 year reunion. It is hard to believe that it has been that long, but in some ways it seems FOREVER ago.

We didn't take very many pictures, wish we had thought to take more, but it was really nice to catch up with many friends and people I have not seen in a long time.

The day activity was at SCERA park and it ended up being a really nice day for it. We all brought our families and met spouses for many people, etc.

The evening activity was at the UVU ballroom and was a bit more of a formal deal. The kids were required to stay home for this part, so it was nice to get away a little bit and are very grateful that my parents were able to watch Grace and Ryan.

I have a lot of memories from high school and have a hard time believing still that I have been married now for over 7 years and that I am a father of 2 kids. About this time 10 years ago I was getting my mission call. Crazy!

I am really thankful for Melinda coming along, I know those reunions can be hard for the spouse. She did have a lot of fun, though, and knew a lot more people than she thought she would. I am really glad that we decided to go and it was nice to re-connect with many old friends and to reminisce a little bit.

GO CLASS OF '98!!! GO TIGERS!

Side Splitting Laughter

We love Brian Regan! We have watched and own all of his DVD's and CD's. He has a new DVD coming out in September that Derek has already pre-ordered.

We had the chance to go to Brian Regan on Thursday, August 14th with our really good friends, Greg and Ang Ballard.

It was at Thanksgiving Point and was a perfect night for it. We were laughing so hard we were in serious pain at times. For anyone that has not checked Brian Regan out, we highly reccomend it!

Thanks Greg and Ang for a fun night, even if we did have to wait in the parking lot for 712 hours before we were able to get out. Oh...and thanks for letting us steal your pictures, too!

And of course, a big thanks to Derek's parents for watching Grace and Ryan so we could enjoy the show.

Take Luck!

Lagoon! It's What Fun Is!

We were able to go to Lagoon as a family recently and it was fun to go all together with some of Derek's family. Dan, Shauna, Issac, and Riley all came along with Derek's mom and dad and our little family.

It was so much fun to watch Grace and Isaac, who were in absolute heaven. They were hard to keep up with and ran around like crazy and went on a lot of rides. We were amazed how fearless Grace was, she went on a lot of the bigger rides and would have gone on even more if it weren't for the whole height thing!

Dan Hill (our brother-in-law) & Melinda

Ryan enjoying his feast!

Derek and his mom, Kathy

Grace and Isaac had SOOO much fun!

The only real sad parts of the day were that grandma got sick and wasn't feeling well toward the end and Grace lost her hat on the log ride. We didn't think it would be intense enough for her to lose her hat, but on that one dip at the end...sure enough, it flew off and was never to be seen again.

We will have to go again, it was so much fun!

Ryan's First Baseball Game

On July 25th we made our way back to Franklin Covey Field in quite some time to take in a Bees game. It was Ryan's first professional baseball game and Derek's old boss, Brad, brought him a ball so we could remember it.

It was weird for Derek to return to the place that he has spent SOOOO many hours in the past. A lot of people said hi to him and he had fun, but I think it was hard for him to try and just enjoy the game because he was so busy the past 2 season as the Director of Promotions for the Bees. He really is glad he has moved on to better opportunities, though.

Derek had to keep up on the Atlanta Braves score on his phone, of course, even with a Bees game right in front of him. The Braves won that night, too, by the way!

Grace took in some good food and fun!

Grace always loves coming out to the ballpark and we were really happy to have Grandma Kathy (Derek's mom) joining us as well for this fun game!

Daddy and Ryan taking in some baseball!

It was a great game! The Bees won 13-6 and there was an awesome Pioneer Day fireworks show after the game and we all had a fun time. After the fireworks we made our way down on to the field so Grace could run the bases and get a picture with Bumble.

-Grace starting her run around the bases-

-Grace crossing home plate-

Go Bees!