Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad,
I am really struggling with the fact that I cannot call or swing by and tell you Happy Birthday.  I must be honest and also say that I am bummed this is the first year I won't be able to give you a hard time about being an old man.  I know that you cannot read this or see this, but I feel the need to express a Happy Birthday to you.  I know you always denied the fact that you were getting older and that birthdays (yours) were not important.  It was to me though.  I always had fun swinging by and giving you a little something and visiting (teasing) you on your birthday.  I love you and will be thinking about you on your Birthday.


Love,
JJ

Jayden's 2011 Football Season

Jayden had a great football season this year.  He is number 30 again this year.  He was moved to linebacker this year.  I thought he did really well for it being his first year at that position.  I think it was surprising to him how different the two positions are to play.  He struggled at first, but seemed to have a handle on it by the end of the season.  On offense he still plays wide receiver.  He doesn't get thrown to very often, but when he does he usually catches the ball.  I believe everyone he caught this year was for at least a first down or more.

Spencer in the ARL 10K

Recently Spencer ran in the Albert R. Lyman Middle School's 10K.  He did really well in it.  He took 2nd place overall and placed 1st in his category.  He ran the course in 43:26, so he averaged seven and a half minute miles.  Below are some pictures of him in the race.

Shaelyn and Spencer

Shaelyn and Spencer decided to participate on the middle school cross country team this year.

They both did really well for their first year. Both Shaelyn and Spencer were able to better their times each race. Spencer was able to place as high as 4th overall. Shaelyn was able to pass three girls right before the finish line. She has an amazing kick! I think they enjoyed doing cross country this year. I bet they do it again next year.

Spencer at the starting line in Monticello.

 Shaelyn getting ready to start her race in Monticello.

 Spencer Finishing the race at Monticello.

 Shaelyn finishing her race in Monticello.

 Shaelyn at the Starting line in Monument Valley.

 Shaelyn finishing her race in Monument Valley.

Spencer finishing his race in Monument Valley.

Father's Day

This is the first Father's day without dad. Today is good day, I am flooded with memories of my dad. I like the picture below because dad always had a great smile. He never showed his teeth, but you could always tell when he was happy. This picture also reminds me of going too Mesquite with me and Tammy. There is a funny story there, however in respect to my dad I will not tell it on here. The picture below is at an event that is great to me. This was at my wedding. I will never forget what he told me on that day. "JJ I have had plenty of experience at marriage(4 at that time). So when I tell you this you better listen! You are a very lucky man, you better keep her cherish her and love her forever." This is one of his fatherly advices I was prevlidged to recieve. Dad you were right and yes I am and I will.

I have so many memories of dad in the mountains. He always took me out with him and I am so thankful for that. I never realized how many "guy" things he taught me in those moments.

One of the biggest things dad taught me was the importance of family. He always sent a card and was at all of the kids' birthdays when he could be. Family was an important thing to him and after his passing I even learned more about how much it was to him.

Happy Father's Day Dad!!!!!

Shaelyn's Performance

A couple of weeks ago Shaelyn had her gymnastics performance. I am not sure how many years she has been doing it, but it has been a few. She is now in the advance class and does things I couldn't begin to do. Below are pictures of some of the moves she was performing. I know some of the pictures are blurry, it was hard to get a good picture with her moving so fast, but you will get the idea. Above Shaelyn is using a spring board to do tricks and then land on the mat. Below Shaelyn is doing some sort of round off on the balance beam.

The next two pictures are in sequence. I am not sure what they are called, except I can't do them. Ouch!!!!

A non-blurry picture. Shaelyn finishing a sequence of tumbling.

I think this picture is the start of the picture above.

Shaelyn showing off her flexibility. "I could do that!"

Hovenweep

The kids and I had Monday off for Easter Break, so Tammy took the day off and we went down to Hovenweep. It has been since grade school that me or Tammy have been down there, and we wanted our kids to see it. Before we went down we bought chicken at Clark's Market in Blanding. When we arrived at Hovenweep we found a picnic table and ate lunch. Most of the family stood in the sun to eat. It was a little cold in the shade that day.

One of the coolest ruins was the one pictured below. It is a ruin that is in an eroding boulder. What you can't see in the picture is that it is all by itself in the middle of the canyon.

Tammy and the kids posing in front of Horseshoe ruin. Spencer is distracted by one of the artist drawing the ruin. I believe the picture below is of the backside of Castle Ruin. It is probably the largest and most intact ruin at the monument.

The kids taking a break during the two mile hike. No Spencer is not sucking his thumb. He was taking a drink from the camel pack.

Me and Tammy getting our picture taken with some ruins and the canyon behind us.

The kids hanging out by some more ruins.

In the picture below the kids are actually way ahead of mom and dad on the trail, so we had to tell them to stop for a picture. This is how we were able to stay up with them. Kids have so much energy!

It was great day with the family. We even went to the movie "Hop" that night.

Easter Weekend

On Thursday night we went up to Grandma Sparling's house to decorate eggs. It was a little weird this year doing it without Shaelyn. She was up in Provo at a volleyball camp for a few days. The boys seemed to have fun coloring eggs. They are getting a little old for it, but still had fun doing a few and helping their younger cousins. Sunday morning the kids woke us up at about 6am to see what the Easter Bunny left. They were pretty excited about their baskets.

They were even more excited to start the traditional Easter morning egg hunt. The Easter Bunny always hides a dozen plastic eggs in our front room for each kid to find. The Easter Bunny was pretty rough on them this year. I guess he thought since they were getting older, that he could hide them in tougher spots.

The picture below is of Shaelyn holding her cousin Keira for her Aunt Courtney. We all got together for lunch at Grandma Sparlings.

As you can see below we had our traditional Easter Egg hunt at Granpa Sparling's. It was looking like we were going to have to cancel because of the rain. However we got lucky and the rain stopped and the sun came out for a couple of hours, so we could hide the eggs and the kids could find them.

Jayden had a blast helping Dominic find eggs.

We tried to get a picture of all of us at the Egg Hunt. It took us 3 or 4 tries. The picture below was the best one. We only had one person goofing off. Believe it or not, I was on my best behavior during the pictures.