Camden's Birthday!!

It's hard to believe that Cam turned 2 this month. It feels like we just brought him home from the hospital. Everyone tells you to savor every moment because kids grow up so fast but you don't comprehend it until you have one. I look at pictures from when we first brought him home and how small he was - What Happened?!?!

He is so big now and so not a baby any more. He's talking, swinging a bat, kicking a soccer ball into a goal, throwing, hitting, swimming, climbing, etc, etc, etc.... it all just keeps happening so quick. Every day something new!! The past two years have been the greatest. Every year since I met Amy it seems my life just gets better and better. It's getting to the point that I can't wait for the next adventure to happen in our lives.

I know it has been a while since my last post but things have been a bit crazy for us. Starting with Cam's b-day party (more on that in a bit) than UT gets busy this time of year. The Outdoor Retailer and Sundance Film Festival both hit at the same time so there were lots of folks in town (On a side note - I ran in to the owner of the coffee shop Amy and I looked at to buy in Hood River while having sushi downtown) So, right after Cam's birthday party which included Keith and Stacey and the boys visiting for the weekend, I had meetings all week with the boys from New Zealand that I am partnering with to form the Altitude Training company some of you have heard me talk about. They are still in town and we have set up our first simulator at Momentum Climbing Gym in Sandy. We've been busy the past two weeks with putting together a business plan and figuring out the best way to structure our US based company to serve as the sales and marketing arm of our US operations. I've been busy with this and writing the contract to form another partnership with a different New Zealand company to manufacture and distribute mountain bike apparel here in North America. All of this while still maintaining a full time position with my buddy Eric at the car wash business (which is going really good as well - we have some things in the works that will be huge for that company and are really excited but hush, hush on that until announced) Well, enough with my excuses as to why I haven't been keeping up with this blog and on to the important stuff - CAM'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!

What a great time. We invited 13 of Cam's friends to The Kid Barn, which is basically a warehouse full of big bouncy castles/slides/etc. He went crazy! Every time a new buddy would show up, Cam's eyes would get so bright and would run all over so excited. He had to chase all the older boys and keep up with them over every big slide in the place. We had pizza and cupcakes for everyone but couldn't keep their attention long enough to open presents, so back to the bouncing!!! The party list included his 2 cousins - Jared and Travis (who spent the weekend with us and brought their Wii - FUN!!), John's (from my Moab team) 2 boys - Devin and Ryan, Katherine and Bret's 2 boys - Jacob and William, our neighbors boys - Brit and Grayson, our daycare provider Tracey and her 2 boys - Jordan and Justin, and Cam's (and our) newest friend from Little Gym - Noah (and his mom Ashley). At one point or another Camden took turns running around with each and every boy there to go jump or slide or climb or just run and scream!! I think I had just as much fun as he did trying to keep up with everyone. Below are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

For some reason, this picture of Camden running after his cousin Jared is my favorite from the day. He's just running along swinging his arms up in the air and singing "ya, ya, ya" He is just sooo happy that it almost makes me want to cry (I know sounds gay but seriously) Seeing him like this brings a feeling of joy that I just can't explain!

Here are a couple more of just absolute glee

Here are a couple action shots from the day and some of Cam getting a boost from his cousins up to the top of the slides:

But don't think that Camden was the only one in this family to have fun on the bouncy slides - check out the smile on his mom's face as she starts down the slide:Here are a couple from the pizza party. I was really impressed how all of these boys actually sat down to eat and sing happy birthday. It was fun to watch the expression on Cams face as everyone sang to him - not sure what that was all about!?!?

Of course I had to include a couple cup cake eating pics!

Cam with all his buds!! How grown up?!?!?

Check out this great shot of John's boys - nice party favor hats!! I think it sums up the party pretty good - sweating, tired, and ready to go home. Carol said they had gone skiing in the morning and these two never stopped once during the party - I bet they were asleep in the first minute of the car ride home.

We finally made it back home and Camden got to open all his presents with his cousins to help. He made out like a bandit.

Amy Turns Thirty - the big 30!!

Yup, Amy turns 30 on the 14th. We celebrated her birthday on Sunday as that was the only day we could secure a babysitter.

Saturday Amy and Cam met up with Amy's friend Aerste and her little one at the mall because she and Cam both had some gift certificates for their birthdays (Cam's is the 18th). I took the opportunity to hook up with Doug and his friend Dan, to go climb Mt. Olympus. We took off from Wasatch Blvd right in the valley and climbed up over 3000 ft. The day had started out pretty grey in the valley but ended up beautiful. The sky was a very deep, dark blue from over 9000 ft. It was warm and no wind. The snow was deeper than I think any of us expected and the trail had little travel on it before us. We still made pretty good time and hit the saddle right below the summit in about and hour and a half. Doug and I use to run this trail a couple times a week when we worked together and could make it to this point in just about an hour! We decided not to do the last scramble to the top as we were all getting short on time. It was great to get out in the mtns again with Doug - it had been a while since we've gotten out like that and I miss it. The picture below were taken with my phone so you can't tell how blue the sky was but you get an idea of how warm it was by looking at how lightly dressed we are over 9000 feet high in January.

Sunday we woke up to light snow and cold/grey skies. We stayed in the first half of the day and played with Camden.

Our friends Eric and Nancy offered to babysit Camden for us in the afternoon so we could go out for Amy's b-day. I had planned for an afternoon of skate skiing at Solitude and then dinner but with the ugly weather (we're spoiled when it comes to playing in the snow here) we decided to take a rain check on the skiing and go see a movie. I know what your thinking - "why waste time on a movie for a b-day date?" but when you have not been to a movie in 2 years because of how rare it is that we have a babysitter - it was kind of a big deal for us. We ended up going to see Atonement and eating at Bambara down town. Very good but very depressing movie and a great dinner. Even though Monday is Amy's real birthday, I was able to talk her in to opening her presents when we got home with Camden that night. Here are a couple pics of Amy and Cam with her presents. Notice naked Cam - we were getting ready to get him in his pajamas when we decided to have Amy open her presents.Check out Amy modeling the new boots I got her. She was surprised that I would have gotten her boots like this and I love to see her face lighten up when she opens something from me that she would never expect! Considering most of the time I get her something like biking clothes, ski coat, or like the other b-day gift this year - waterproof trail running shoes, something like these boots are unexpected.

Sir Edmund Hillary

It is a very sad day in the world. Sir Hillary was known for his achievement of being the first to conquer Everest with Tenzing Norgay but he was much more than that. He is the last of the true great adventurers and did so much for the people of Nepal. If you've never read High Adventure than you need to put it at the top of your list. Thanks to my friend Chris I have a signed copy of the book - something I will treasure forever.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22597658/?GT1=10755

A great man has left our world!

Snorkeling in Maui

Amy reminded me that we had some photos from the underwater disposable we got for our snorkeling trip in Maui. These are some pictures from "Turtle Town"

This spot is rightfully named as you will see from the pics below:

Here is the poor turtle I chased around until my lungs began to burn just to get a few pics. I figure the boats come here every day so he's probably use to annoying tourists chasing him for a picture!

Here's a shot of "Scuba Dan" and our boat in the background. He was having problems with water getting into his mask - most likely through his mustache. You would think that with all the years I spent scuba diving that I would have remembered to tell him to bring a little Vaseline for that:

Here is a shot of Amy checking out the sights and turtles! I tried to get a picture like this of Amy and her sister, but sorry Serena - all you can see in that pic is the bubbles I had just exhaled.Here I am testing the lungs and ear drums. It had been a while for me since I'd been diving but it's like riding a bike. I love the feeling of flying you get when swimming through clear warm waters. It's so peaceful and serene!

Some more shots from the reef:

I was able to find Dory from the movie Nemo for Camden - but she didn't remember being in the movie

Anniversary!!

I know I've said it before - but I am truly lucky to have found such an amazing women to put up with me. I'm sure my beautiful wife probably thinks she is raising 2 children already. I think we were meant for each other and feel blessed every day.

For our anniversary we spent the morning with Camden and then went out - just the two of us. We first headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon for some snowshoeing that included some cliff jumping into some very deep snow. The traffic coming down the canyon was terrible as we were leaving at the same time the resorts were closing. We took turns changing in the car for dinner. We ate at The Paris restaurant in Sugarhouse. It's great but the portions are pretty small for a couple who had been snowshoeing for 3 hours before!

I'm so glad I married someone who can go from winter/snow-covered gear to dressed for a nice dinner in just a short car ride!!! How awesome is that?!?!

Here are a couple pics from snowshoeing high above Brighton Ski Resort:

Maui is Amazing

I'm not going to post many pics here from Maui since I have them on line in the post below but here are a few shots of the scenery. We had a great time and I really want to Thank Amy's mom and dad (Brenda and Dan) for putting this together and getting us this great place for the week. We really had a Christmas to remember - SO MUCH FUN!!

Here is a link to the place we stayed - it's great! It's in the historic town of Lahaina which is a great place to stay and I highly recommend this place over any huge resort (those places feel and look the same all over the world!) This place rocks: http://www.ainanaluresort.com/


I'd also like to thank West Maui Cycles for taking me out on a great mtn bike ride that thoroughly kicked my butt!! If you're ever in Maui and you want to get a taste for some great "Locals Only" riding - look these guys up. http://www.westmauicycles.com/

The mountains were amazing!

I went mtn biking just north of here.

Sunsets were incredible - this pic was taken during our Christmas Luau.

Of course I had to include one more of the little man.
Check out the stud scoping for chicks on the beach!!

Christmas Is Over!

Isn't that just a sad thought? All the anticipation and preparation and it is all over just like that.

We had a great Christmas this year with a lot of exciting things going on. First Amy, Cam and I had our own small Christmas at home on Saturday before the 25th. Santa had to come to our house early as we were leaving Sunday for Maui to spend the holiday with Cam's grandparents and aunt "Rena" To see the pics from our trip click here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=s83bs6l.7mfk6z7x&Uy=l6h3lg&Ux=0

Camden was so much fun this year as he finally figured out that there were toys in all of those wrapped boxes. It was a chore to get him to move on to the next present after he opened one as he just wanted to play with that one. Each present just kept getting better and I thought he was going to pop from an overload of excitement from it all.

Our tree was quite a bit smaller than trees in the past (7' vs 10'-12') but look at the amount of presents under there. You'd think we were the typical Utahn with 5 kids - nope just one spoiled boy!! (Well, 2 if you count me)

I actually made out like a bandit this year! Amy got me new mtn bike shoes (my others were about 7 yrs old), new cycling pants to keep me warm this winter, a new down vest, socks, hat, and on and on.....

Amy got a really nice Camera (take a look at the quality of the Maui pics in link above) that came with classes on how to use it. She also got some sweaters, and some Victoria's Secret stuff (ok - maybe that was for me too!)

Camden is helping me open his Thomas the Train set!

"Ball, ball!....Hit!...Ball...Hit!!" over and over while I was trying to open the package before getting hit with the bat
He is a little small for the Smart Bike but it doesn't stop him from trying

The Sit and Spin from Aunt Stacey and Uncle Keith

More Matchbox Cars and tracks - always fun!!

The fun just never stops with the little guy. I don't think I've been this excited about Christmas since I was a kid!!