Shining Armor

Teton Family Trip 2008

2008-08-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

We just returned from our best family vacation that hopefully results in an annual trip for many years to come. We stayed in a "tent-cabin" at the Colter Bay campground in Teton Nat'l Park. (Colter Bay is part of Jackson Lake)

Views from the Outside and Inside of our campsite. Not quite roughin' it.

The kids had a blast chasing squirrels, water-skiing on the lake (thanks Edgley's), burn stuff in the fire, trying to catch minnows, seeing foxes run through the camp-site, visit Old Faithful and the Mud Pots in Yellowstone, pony rides, and burn stuff in the fire, smores almost every night, and burn more stuff in the fire.

See you next year. Aug 2009

Political article that made me laugh.

2008-07-25T10:07:00.001-07:00

This article cracked me up. And thus, I share it with the 3 people who might stumble across this blawg.

Flat tire and a deduction of Man-Points

2008-07-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in the mechanic's waiting room while they repair a flat tire and give me a couple of new ones. It's really easy to "sell" me new tires for a fleet vehicle I don't pay for. It went something like this. Mechanic-"Mr. Knight, these 2 tires are a little uneven. Do you want to replace those today?" Me-"Yes."

I even lose some Man-Points b/c I couldn't change the tire. Better said, I couldn't remove the flat tire because of the wussy "might-as-well-have-been-made-by-Hasbro" tire iron included in the car. I did make a new friend from Roadside Assistance.

You must check out one of my favorite desserts. I try to explain these cookie/wafers to AK all the time. Well here they are. Check out the complete dessert here .

Happy Birthday LOML!

2008-06-30T12:05:00.001-07:00

Happy (insert your favorite low number here) Birthday! We (the boys and I) started the day early with wrapping a couple of unique gifts and cards the boys threw together. (I'm still working on the present thing.) The boys set the table while we mixed together some blueberry sourdough pancakes for breakfast.
Now the lucky birthday girl is off to the dentist. Can you celebrate a birthday any better?
Later, the plan is to head to Park City for a bike ride. Gotta head to the hills for some cooler evening rides...We love you.

Bobsled Video

2008-06-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is a video of the bobsled trail we did yesterday. There are quite a few of these videos on youtube. Maybe we'll make one this summer. The first few seconds are funniest, and no we did not try to jump any old cars in the trail, but Pat did see the guy ahead of us do it.

Late Mother's Day Love

2008-05-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

To AK, the Love of my Life, with the hardest career in the world, a Mother (and incoming PTA President), Hard Core Cyclist, Snow Rider, Flower Expert, & Book Devourer.

And to my loving Madre. Cub Scout Den Mother, Loudest Cheerleader, Best Whistler, #1 Cinnamon Roll Chef (just ask all my high school friends), Best Fan of Whatever Team I Was Cheering For (and would even call me to ask who to root for), Gardener, & Disciple of Christ.

Ice cream,

2008-04-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

The boys and I celebrated the 30th anniversary of Ben & Jerry's by lining up with 40 other frozen dairy fans for a free single serve of B&J's. H & I both chose Choco and PB swirl while O-dog went out on a limb with vanilla.
The idea at the ice cream giveaway was that all tips went toward some do-gooder charity, which is great. So H asked me why they kept ringing this bell while we waited in line. I told him about the tips for the charity, and then asked him if he had a dollar because I was broke. So after we collected our cool cones, we snuck out the front door with no ring of the bell. But the ice cream was good.
Real good.
By the way, Baskin Robbins 31 penny cone is tomorrow!

Triathlete

2008-04-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the athlete of the Family (along with siblings and mother) who just finished her first sprint triathlon down in San Jorge.

Spring Break 08 in the OC

2008-03-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

80 degree beach days for a solid week. I come home and wake up to 4" of snow at the house and 11" at the Bird. My only mistake was not continuing my vacation and headed out snowboarding this morning.
We had a blast going on long island walks with the kids, alone, and together. Big Corona with the boys. A short surf lesson for H down at Blackies/Newport Pier (we'll get him a wetsuit next time).
I went down to Trestles solo and then again w/ Mateo. Best waves of my life. Pedro's Tacos. Who needs the Magic Kingdom. The boys didn't even want to go. Thanks to Sue & Dave for the accomodations, Mateo and Clan for bbq, and Phelps for the hangout pad.

AZ Baseball

2008-03-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a long drive. Along the way we stopped at the AZ Grandparents and a couple of Spring Training baseball games. I just wanted to emphasize the ratio of driving to pleasure time. The drive was worth it. We had Uncle Mateo and Zach to enjoy the trip with us. Thanks to the Grandparents for room and board, and to the Nally's for coming over for an early b-day party and pinata smashing event.

Trust me, It's fake

2008-03-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm talking about the fur around the hood on ak's jakt. Saturday snowboarding is the reward you get for getting H & O up at the cracatoa of dawn, feed them, scour the house for gloves and the rest of their gear. Then, once you've found parking at the 'Bird, you have to suffer the screams from breaking their ankles while wedging their feet into ski boots. Once they are checked into their lessons the reward begins. For ak, it was a nice powder day.
My day didn't turn out half bad either:

Tear the dishwasher apart in an attempt to fix
Church ball
Molcasalsa w/ JB (who was brave enough to ref bullet #2)
Hang w/ my favorite 6'1" sister DK
Cruising the aisles of REI w/ Penele

Squirrel Suit Base Jumping?

2008-02-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3y0IcmPcAw

This stuff is so crazy. AK still thinks this is so fake, but I'm a believer. She compared this to E.T. and Elliott flying across the sky.

Spring Training

2008-02-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

Looking for some warm weather (although not sick of the snow here in UT yet), we'll be heading down for some baseball in Phoenix. We'll hit the Peoria Complex to watch the Padres. Whenever I say Padres, H thinks I'm saying Pod-Race (Star Wars), and he thinks we're going to watch a Pod-Race.

March 7-9 in AZ, and the boys think they'll be swimming in Grammy's pool. They are brave.

Sledding Follow-up

2008-01-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

What's up with stores trying to jam me for $40 for a foam sled?! I guess when they know that all the Costcos are out of them they can jam you. I almost paid the asking price when O really wanted it but came to my senses. I waited a few days then picked one up for $19 once the trucks could make it through to refill the shelves at Costco.
We hope Mateo and the Gang drive safely back to SoCal. They stayed an extra day to avoid the much predicted storm we all thought would kill us. The minute they left this morning it started snowing. Timing.

Sledding & Scones

2008-01-01T21:31:00.000-08:00

We are rocking in the New Year with a sore coccyx and about 2 lbs. of sweet cream butter and honey that rode its way into my body through 2 straight days of deep fried scones. We made them apres sledding at Sugarhouse. Then a 3rd time we made a meal out of them after neither ak nor I knew what to fix for dinner. "Well, let's fry up some more of this fatty dough in some liquid fat, then we'll make Navajo tacos!" So that was dinner. Diet starts tomorrow! right.

Sledding was a blast. I'm surprised there were no breaks, concussions, or red snow. I did see a little kid get blasted by an inner-tube and rider at break-neck speeds do a complete aerial flip and live to tell about it. H & O caught some of the "best rides of their lives"!
We even found new uses for a Pottery Barn box.

Bob Vila Jr.

2007-12-28T23:23:00.000-08:00

So I've been working on the 3-month long "Christmas present" of replacing the bedroom doors, casings, and baseboards upstairs. I was pretty sore and tired when H came upstairs and started with this attitude of a been-around-the-block handyman.
"So Dad, how are the doors coming?"
"Really good," I said.
"That's awesome. They look great. Did you get new door knobs?"
"Yep."
"Dad that's great." I showed him around the rooms and what we had changed or added.
You should have heard his tone and enthusiasm. I let him run the shop-vac. That takes vacuuming to another level. The shop-vac.
I just should have had him put on his little orange apron from Home Depot. Icing.

Television drought

2007-12-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

We got rid of directv and replaced it with none of the equivalents (dish, comcast, etc). We replaced it with hours of me getting slaughtered by the West Regional Scrabble Runner-Up 2006 AK! We've got to find a replacement game fast. Suggestions? Battleship, Pick-up-Sticks, Pencil Fights?

My parentals got rid of tv for a while as a kid, but we had 5-acres to turn into a snake-catching, tree-fort building, zucchini-war fighting, rooster-roundup chasing, rabbit-cage cleaning paradise!

My Wife the Wonderful Philanthropist

2007-11-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

Saturday night AK and I attended the event for which AK has spent dozens of woman-hours preparing. Countless latenight meetings, begging for items to be contributed for the auction all for the Junior League's annual B&W Ball. I think she was one of 5 ladies organizing their biggest fund-raising event of the year. Last year I heard this event lost money (in the red). This year, in ticket sales alone they raised at least $9k, and with auction items up for bid like a Tony Dorsett signed football, I'm sure the grand total raised went much higher.

I had an enjoyable evening stuffing my face with Citrus Grill catered (and donated) food while milling around the works of Andy Warhol at the Museum of Fine Art like a fish out of water.
Splendid job AK! Nice dress too.

Big Snow Year Predicted

2007-10-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

We can't wait for some deep snowboarding days this year, and these early season storms are making us more anxious. H and I visited Uncle Chip's shop in Park City on Saturday to see some snow and check out the new gear.
H is stoked for skiing this year, so long as I'm not his instructor after our last outing together.

Bread Snob

2007-10-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Can someone please tell me the difference between a baguette and french bread?? I'm a simple man. Born and raised in the Oregon plains (and a few years in a small desert-town, Phoenix). Reared on home-made whole-wheat bread. Maybe I didn't even spell baguette correctly for all I know.

The Funny Madre made a delicious bisque (that's a soup, for all of you readers in Glendale) and asked me to bring home a baguette. I became confused in the bakery after handling, inspecting, pinching, and sniffing the assorted bread shapes. Nothing was labeled "baguette". Do you think I'd stop and ask someone behind the counter?

I came home with a long loaf of sourdough I thought would work. It did work, but it was not a baguette according to FM. I've been known to cook a good loaf every now and then, but that's my limit to the bread world.

Great dinner AK. That "Home Chef" degree is paying off. Bisque every night.

I mean "snob" in the most loving sense of the word.

My Blog=Funny Madre Part Deux

2007-10-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

OK..OK. I'm not updating this blog that often because Funny Madre beats me to the good family topics!! What to Blog about? Huge kudos to the Funny Madre, my wonderful wife for being such a wonderful mother especially while I was out of town in Humid-ville (notice the hyphen PL?)

September 11, 2001

2007-09-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

AK, H, Tia D, and I pulled into Tulsa in the early early hours of 9/11/01 for a short-term move. I woke up that morning to AK running up the stairs to our temp home saying to turn on the television. I watched the burning towers collapse after the terrorist attack.

I'll never forget the attacks that day, nor the tremendous courage displayed by first-responders and leadership and reponse by President George W. Bush.

This was not the first attack by islamic-fundamentalist terrorists on the American way of life (ie. freedoms of religion, speech, capitalism), but may be the most memorialized and hopefully the last one of its' kind on our soil as long as Americans continue to remember that day and fight to prevent a repeat.

Saturday's ride

2007-08-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

Took a bike ride up to the top of Solitude Ski Resort and back early Saturday. It must have been 40 degrees and chilly. The last quarter mile of the ride to the summit was so steep, compounded by the fact my gears needed a tune-up and couldn't access my lowest gears, I ended up pushing the bike. The downhill was steep and very rocky. V crashed twice and left some blood and flesh on the hill. I want to ride the Canyons and Park City before winter.

¡No más!

2007-08-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

I think I've officially, at age 34, kicked the case of AMVS (you know, "Adult-Male Videogame Syndrome"). Listed the xbox 360 on ksl.com and sold the device within 24 hours for $300 more than I paid for it. I don't feel any different. No withdrawals. It can be done. I guess I've logged enough hours playing Halo2 online that I've had my fill and whetted the online-gaming appetite.

In other news, I fished the Low-Pro above Sundance last week with cousin Benny. Landed 3 or 4. The Provo ain't what it used to be. Still, it was an unbelievable setting to be fishing in the shadows of Timp with a gazillion stars overnoggin.

Sunday Afternoon at the Bird

2007-08-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon hikes at Snowbird are the best. These little guys just love chasing after the squirrels, hiding and scaring each other, and most of all--throwing rocks. Especially into water.
We discovered the rockin' new playground up there. I'm sure we'll hit the Bird several more times before snowfall.

July Fishing

2007-07-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Had a hard time finding a fishing buddy this trip.. Have been hearing about a river for some time so decided to check it out first-hand. The Ham's Fork River north of Kemmerer, WY (our old home state don't forget). This river has character. Park at the old cattle ranch house and leave $10 bucks in the box to fish on private land. The river was empty of other fisher-people which is a pleasant change to the crowded Green and Provo. Was glad the bro-in-law John could make it too (along with his camera).

This is the biggest fish I have landed in a long time. Twentyone inches of rainbow scales. The tape measure doesn't lie.

H's Birthday

2007-07-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

Great outing for the 6 year old. Took H and some buds up to the Bird. A little chilly+ice cream sandwiches+rain=cold and wet boys and Dad. ak, O&P all came up as well. There are some monster fish in that little Snowbird pond by the way.

P's Blessing Day

2007-07-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

We had a great turnout of fam and friends for P's blessing. Not sure why I didn't just pick her up out of the "bouncy chair". Anet was the elegant mother at F&T mtg.

Fishing with my Dad

2007-07-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

The planets aligned and my Dad and I finally made a fishing trip to the Green River. I rounded up an extra pontoon boat (compliments of Chip). We floated the 7 mile section between the dam and Little Hole. Fish Count: Dad landed 5 to my 4. Captured in the foto above is one of the many rainbows in this river, but one unfortunate to be fooled by the rapala. Even with the countless rafters filled with kids (which have as much right to the river as the snobby fly-fishermen) we had an incredible day together. Hope to repeat it soon.

Good Laughs

2007-06-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

This Top 10 List (enlarge it) had Anet and I crying we were laughing so hard. We laughed harder at this than we did the Crested Chinese dog that won the Ugliest Dog Contest.

2007-06-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

I had the most rockin' Father's Day ever yesterday (even if it did start at about 3am with little O puking up a gallon of pool water he gulped down Saturday). I didn't deserve it all. Anet and my little ones are too kind. All of the attention made me feel a little guilty and inspired me to be a kinder/more thoughtful dad and hubsand (intentional).

Now the big 10 year anniversary! AK and I went to sushi at Kyoto tonight (little Penelope in tow asleep). We had some laughs looking back on the last 10 years and some thoughtful moments wondering where we'll be 10 years from now. Predictions???

3 Fish

2007-06-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

I had about an hour of daylight on the Provo River this evening to fish. Ended up landing 3 browns. Totally worth the drive. Next time...the Green. (This photo isn't one of them...) It's incredible to live so close to some great rivers.

CA trip fdbk

2007-06-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Added the Autobots insignia to the header...still trying to figure out what this blog should look like. Love the Transformers though. I would almost miss the bus in jr. high because I was watching as much as I could.
We (the entire Armor Crew) enjoyed a trip to the CA. Anet flew w/ PJ, while the boys and I took a very long trip to In 'n' Out for milkshakes and ended up in Newport. O must have asked 30+ times, "when do we get there???!!!".
Do you Wahoo?? 5x's! Two more days at Big Corona fighting SA for good sand real estate. No sunburns.
After Anet and PJ flew out on Sat, the boys and I left at 4am headed back to the beehive on Sun. morning. H&O were amazed to see the streets so empty that early.
No surfing to report due to some laziness to getting up early to head out.
Remember that part in "True Lies" when Ahnold rides the elevator up while on horseback? That part was filmed in the Westin I stayed in. So I rode the elevator several times because I could. Anet's highlight was visiting the Disney music hall place made of stainless-steel looking sails. Very cool.

The boys

2007-05-29T15:38:00.001-07:00

A photo of a day at Li'l Corona last summer. Headed to Shrek the Third in a little bit with the boys. They are pretty excited. Enjoyed Memorial Day. Visited 3 different resting places of the Grandparents on both sides of the family. Spent some of the day teaching (more like instilling confidence) H to ride the "two-wheeler"/bike, which he had balanced underneath him with no help from me within a few minutes at the school playground. Now he's a big-kid riding in the driveway one-handed. Showoff...

I want to be a fisherman

2007-05-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is what's on my mind driving me nuts right now....Too much to do, and no time to fish one of the top 10 spots in the lower 48. The Green River. The cicadas are going off, and I'm a short drive away...This is why I live in UT.

Dear Diary

2007-05-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

I may be mistaken, but around these parts I see quite a few blogs from ladies and next to none from any of my guy friends. Not that I'll be sending this site link to all my bro in laws and friends. I figured there must be some pleasure from speaking my digital mind and spouting my interests.
This may be a one and done. And if so, I'll shut it down and free up "Shining Armor" for another "Knight"