Marc Urmston Family Christmas Vacation

Marc, Linda, and family came to visit for a couple days during their week long whirlwind tour of Utah. They came just in time for all the snow. It was fun to have them here. Click here to see some more photo's.

Is it Sunday again?

I'm not sure where the time goes. Decks are done, garage doors are in, closets are ready, the gas gets turned on this week so we can turn the furnace on and start painting. Hopefully we'll have it done in time to lay the hardwood when we have all the extra helping hands during Christmas. We celebrated two birthdays this month, Addi and Kaitlin, both had great birthday dinners. Pizza and Chicken Curry. Addi wanted purple cows (grape floats) instead of a cake for dessert and Kaitlin had Key Lime and Turtle pie. Thanksgiving was spent over at Lee and Alicia Benders house. Bronson had his final piano recital last week. He finally won the battle of wills and is no longer being forced to endure the torture that is piano lessons. (sounds like someone I know) We're going to have to find something else for him to do. Kaitlin had her first game of the season last week. $5 a piece to get into a pre-season, non-league, sophomore GIRLS, basketball game. Are you kidding me? They have a couple pretty good players on the team and it should be a fun year. Cooper has a few more swim meets before his season is over. He seems to take a few seconds off every event at each meet and really has a good time. Addi may be taking Bronson's place at piano. Everyday she'll sit down and plunk out tunes she knows. Think of me from Phantom of the Opera is her favorite. Wyatt just played a number at the Spanish Fork Middle school talent show. He enjoys it and is really having fun in scouts. (sounds like someone I don't know) Now I need to go take my Sunday afternoon nap.

A few more house photos. We love the rock.. ...

..and the coupola. Waiting for the weather vein.

for LeGrande

all

the

pretty

little horses........

we did not skip halloween

masquerade....girls choise, he was chose, Coop & Kelly.....caveman fun

pumpkins......almost ornately carved Jack-o-Lanterns......ooooo

addi & brons....cute cheerleader pretty princess.....Hot

carmel apples....fresh juicy romes from Josies orchard, sticks from the Yard, gooey Brachs carmels, Angies borrowed chocolate, pecans from the Bag....yummy

crazy hair day....crazy kids......cute

House Update...

Here's a few recent photo's:







The decking we are using is from an old feed lot in Northern Utah. Hopefully we'll have enough. It took 50 years to get it to look like this.






Drywallers should be done this week. It seems almost weird to see the house with walls.

I give up...

I swore I wasn't going to post another entry until Elaine updated their site. You win Elaine! It's been a while so here are few highlights.

Quick trip to Bakersfield for Jordan's farewell, it was so worth it!

Leslie and the kids(and the dogs) took a trip with Grandma to San Rafael Swell to look at the pictographs and the petroglyphs, Pretty Cool.

Cooper went on his first date ......

Progress continues on the house... Drywall is up, even got the driveway poured with some help from the neighbors....

Lest we Forget.....

Every year for the last six years I get a phone call from a good friend of mine on Sept. 11th and we rehash our experience of this day back in 2001. We were in Atlanta at a Microsoft trade show when we started hearing rumors about a plane hitting one of the towers at the World Trade Center in New York. It didn't take long before the show was shut down and thousands of people stood in front of t.v. monitors watching the events unfold. I remember thinking how odd it was as we all just sat there in silence, shock really. Early on I was a little concerned about the fact that I was so far from home and really had no idea what was going on. I called Leslie to see if she was watching the news. She wasn't so I told her to turn it on and call me back. She called and of course had convinced herself that this was the end of the world. I think she had watched Red Dawn one to many times as a kid. The microsoft show was shut down and we were left with nothing to do. A group of us decided to go play golf of all things. I look back now and think what an insensitive thing to do, but it sure got us away from the inescapable onslaught of information pouring from everywhere. Stone Mountain Golf Resort is a great golf course and I'm pretty sure that it would be difficult to go and play that course again and be the only group playing. That was kind of erie in and of itself in light of everything that was going on. That night of course we sat in front of the t.v. as the news footage was played over and over again. I was numb. I kept thinking there must have been 30,000 people in those buildings. The next morning we were told that the show was shut down for good and that the larger vendors had rented busses to get there people home. All flights had been grounded and nobody had any idea when they would be allowed to fly again. There were five of us, two rental cars and a lot of ground between Atlanta, GA. and home. We started driving on wednesday afternoon and didn't stop except for food and gas until we got to the Salt Lake Airport on Thursday night. You really get to know somebody on a road trip and we have been good friends ever since. I'm reminded of how a senseless attack on our fellow Americans brought us all together as a Country. There wasn't a single person who I spoke with that wasn't ready to do whatever was necassary to find who did this and take care of business the best way we knew how. I remember that this was when we all stood together as a nation and said to the World, "You are either with us or you're against us". We havn't called french fries, french fries ever since. The thing that I can't figure out now is how it is that a short 7 years later we are all at each others throats again. That the only thing I hear on the news these days is bickering and finger pointing between to very divided groups of Americans. He said, she said, like two kids on a schoolyard who are fighting over who's turn it is on the swings. I'm not saying we all need to gather together in a circle and hold hands and am not so naive as to think that we are all going to have the same viewpoints an ideaology, but what I'm witnessing in the media today is pathetic and the only alternative I have is turn it off. I heard someone say onetime 'From crisis comes strength' and it almost happened with 9/11, only we couldn't sustain it. I think it's safe to say that we are back to business as usual. The battles have been taken far enough away that even those who were ready to go to ends of the earth to hunt down those responsible have now found a way to point fingers again and somehow place blame because it's taking too long. I think our forefathers would be ashamed of us when you think about the sacrafices they made to keep our country free. I'm glad I get a phone call every year to remind me of the lives that were taken that day and the lives that have been freely given since then to make sure it never happens again. We can only hope.

As a side note: Cooper went on his first date last weekend. Homecoming dance. He's got a great group of friends and it sounded like they all had a good time. Leslie spoke in the Adult Session of stake conference last weekend and, of course, did a great job. She and our ward's YM president were both asked to speak about our YM's camp. They wanted to hear Leslie's perspective as she watched from the sidelines. Pres. Hales and Pres. Shepherd of the Stake Presidency also both spoke about thier experiences on the Mountain. It was a really good meeting. Looking forward to going to Bakersfield this weekend to hear Jordan speak prior to leaving on his mission.

classic...

JC Penney catalog circa 1977. Say it ain't so. I was only eight. Did people really wear this stuff???

Here's are next dining room set, which is apparently made by adding upholstery to old barrels:

Also, I am totally getting this for our bathroom:

There's plenty more home furnishings where those came from, however I'm not going to bore you with that. Instead, I'm going to bore you with something else. The clothes.

Here's how to get your butt kicked in elementary school:







Just look at that belt. It's like a boob-job for your pants. He probably needed help just to lift it into place. The belt loops have to be three inches long. And way to pull them up to your armpits, grandpa.

Here's how to get your butt kicked in high school:

This kid looks like he's pretending to be David Soul, who is pretending to be a cop who is pretending to be a pimp that everyone knows is really an undercover cop. Who is pretending to be 15.

Here's how to get your butt kicked on the golf course:

This "all purpose jumpsuit" is, according to the description, equally appropriate for playing golf or simply relaxing around the house. Personally, I can't see wearing this unless you happen to be relaxing around your cell in D-block. Even then, the only reason you should put this thing on is because the warden made you, and as a one-piece, it's slightly more effective as a deterrent against prison-rapery.

Here's how to get your butt kicked pretty much anywhere:

If you look at that picture quickly, it looks like Mr. Bob "No-pants" Saget has his hand in the other guy's pocket. In this case, he doesn't, although you can tell just by looking at them that it's happened - or if it hasn't happened it will. Oh yes. It will. As soon as he puts down his matching coffee cup.

Here's how to get your butt kicked at the beach:

He looks like he's reaching for a gun, but you know it's probably just a bottle of suntan lotion in a holster.

How to get your butt kicked in a meeting:

If you wear this suit and don't sell used cars for a living, I believe you can be fined and face serious repercussions, up to and including termination. Or imprisonment, in which case you'd be forced to wear that orange jumpsuit.

How to get your butt kicked on every day up to and including St. Patrick's Day:

I don't believe that color exists in nature. There is NO excuse for wearing either of these ensembles unless you're working as a body guard for the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

In this next one, Your Search For VALUE Ends at Penneys. As does your search for chest hair.

And this -- Seriously.

No words.Oh wait, it turns out that there are words after all. Those words are What. The. H*** . I'm guessing the snap front gives you quick access to the chest hair. The little tie must be the pull tab.

Also, judging by the sheer amount of matching his/hers outfits, I'm guessing that in 1977 it was considered pretty stylish for couples to dress alike. These couples look happy, don't they?

I am especially fond of this one, which could be entitled "Cowboy Chachi Loves You Best."

And nothing showcases your everlasting love more than the commitment of matching bathing suits.

Enough I can't take it anymore......

Spanish Fork Young Men's Camp.....

This weekend we had the first ever Young Men's Camp in our Stake. After hearing all the awesome experiences that were being had at the camps down in California we could only hope that we might have some of those same experiences. We got more than we could hope for. Everybody made it up the mountain, including all three members of our Stake Presidency. I think it was more of a hike than everybody thought it would be, especially for some of the adult leaders. It was amazing to me how throughout the whole planning process nobody really got what we were trying to accomplish. We had quite a bit of opposition, even one ward that just decided not to participate. Funny story there. Leslie got a phone call on the Tuesday before we were leaving from one of the Mom's in this particular ward. She had been at a meeting when we were presenting the idea of this camp to the High Council. She had been waiting all summer for word from her ward leaders when it was going to be. Because she hadn't heard anything she called the house to find out when it was. She wasn't too happy when she found out we were to be leaving the next day. Needless to say we had three young men attend that we hadn't been planning on. It was a great time. We hiked to a spot just below the summit on Thursday. Some made it to that point in about 5 hours. We had one young man and his 'motivational team' (his YM's President and one of the Stake Presidency) take about 12 hours. Three steps at a time, but he was going to make it. It was neat to see all the others rally around him. It was a great experience for all of us. We really had some neat experiences on that mountain that can only be appreciated by those who were there. I will say this, miracles happen still today and prayers are answered. We had 35 young men and 15 leaders who's testimonies are stronger because of the experience. Now we'll have to start planning for next year. .