LA with Smash

Ashley really wanted to go back to LA before heading back to Virginia for college. Who am I to say no to my girl?

I started looking for rooms that would suit us and noticed right away that things are speedy in LA. About to give up hope I started looking further out from LA figuring we'd have to commute in a little. Jackpot, we found a nice room at a motel $50/night cheaper than what was in LA. Reviews were pretty good so I sealed the deal and made the reservation. I told Ashley where it was and she got excited saying that it was in her mission but she never got to serve there.

Decent room right? After traveling to the room I started to notice a problem. All the businesses had bars and large garage doors on the windows, the streets were filthy, there was bullet proof glass at the motel check-in, and after going to Wal-Mart an English speaking white guy was the minority.

My co-worker later filled me in about Compton, even played me a rap song called straight out of Compton. (Oh my). On the up side I'm told that I've increased my street "cred" having stayed three nights in Compton. I later learned from Ashley that her excitement to go to Compton was because sisters were not allowed there. Only elder "got" to go there.

Apart from lodging we had a really fun time in LA. We saw some of her friends from her mission.

Went to the beach for some serious castle building, only to see the tide come in and dessimate our work of art.

We had to do the tourist stuff as well consisting of the hop on hop off tour. We did the US Bank glass slide......scary, and had some excellent Korean BBQ.

Yeah, can't forget Chinatown, tidepools, and just having an all out good time.

We had a great time. Sort of getting excited for Emma to come home so we can go visit her mission. Lol.

Germany 2014

I thought the communication gap was going to be larger than it actually was. It turns out we knew enough German and they knew enough English that more times than not we could communicate fine.

Where to start about our trip. I think I'll save the best for last, the real reason we were there, and start out with the typical tourist stuff.

First stop is Dom cathedral. What an impressive piece of architecture. It is massive to say the least. It's too bad the camera doesn't give a good representation to it's size. Standing at the base you can't help but be in awe.



This photo is a nice one of a spire that can actually be walked up. There is a spiral staircase consisting of 540 steps to the top. The staircase is very narrow and steep. Two people cannot stand side by side in the stairwell.


Here is one of Emma going up. The center of the spiral is typically designated for those heading up. Because of the steepness of the staircase it really doesn't offer a good footing. Coming down the center of the spiral would most likely result in death. Big feet just wouldn't be able to land on those stairs. You would tumble. once at the top the view is amazing. All.......the.....way......down.


Like all good cathedrals there is plenty of stained glass and interesting workmanship and architecture. These are just a snippet.




The Keukenhof. I had no idea how attached the Netherlanders are to their tulips. This was just acres and acres of every tulip imaginable. I'll check this one off the "been there done that". I can't say I'd do repeat visits there.






One of the best parts, because I like food, was eating at as many establishments as I could. There were a LOT of eating establishments to sample from. A lot of our group would go to McDonalds or Burger King. Not this old man. I went for brats and doners, (and anything else that caught my eye).

Their brats are very simple. No bun, just pick it up and eat it, after dipping in spicy mustard of course. They did provide a small roll. This tasty morsel was found in one of the train stations.


This is a doner with a side of fries and mayo. Basically shaved meat, wrapped in a puffy tortilla with veggies. It was most excellent. This one is in Alastad, or old town Dusselforf. It is situated on a street that has the highest concentration of bars than anywhere in the world, and these Germans start their drinking early.


Jumping back to the Netherlands. My cousin was all about trying to find this huge traveling sign. I AMsterdam. Every three weeks it changes locations. With the help of some locals we tracked it down to a place called the museumplein, basically a large chunk of town with museums. After some pics, and some walking around, now and behold I find the HardRock Amsterdam. Yep, gotta do it, so I did it, and bought one of their crazy expensive shirts.




Yes we did do more in Germany, but this would be one massive blog if i noted everything. Now on to the real reason for Germany..........Irish Dance, of all things.

In 2013 Emma qualifies to attend the WIDA European and Worlds competition. Honestly, she got in by the skin of her teeth. I was not, by any means, impressed with her performance. So for the next few months I really turned on the steam. As she was deadset on attending the Worlds competition, I was deadset on her having a better showing so I could a little feel better about spending thousands of dollars.

There were a few harsh conversations with her and the amount if practicing she was doing. (none). Luckily, as the competition drew near she really stepped it up. I was still a little miffed it took her so long. I think I got in her head a little too much when I told her if she didn't place better than 50% she would have to reimburse her share of the trip to me. I got a call from her teacher saying Emma was too stressed to dance good. Lots of crying. She was too worried about my "talk". So I backed off. Heh heh. okay, I really wasn't going to make her pay me back, I was using everything and anything to try and motivate her. 

Needless to say Emma's showing at Europeans and Worlds was great. At the Europeans she managed to take 11th place. Very respectable in my mind. We were anticipating a much lower placing at Worlds, competition was more stiff. Here Emma turned on the steam and managed to place 6th. Holy crap. That is phenomenal.

Excellent for her she did much better than 50% so I didn't make her reimburse me (not that I would of anyway, I was just trying to motivate the girl). All of her teammates that went with us had excellent showings as well. We definitely put Utah, and Legacy Irish Dance on the world map.







Will we go back next year? Hard to say. There is a 6th place podium to defend. I did mention to Emma that the ante was being stepped up. That airfare is a killer. If she is dedicated enough to raise funds for her airfare, I can see us making the trip again.

Currently she is determined on going back, has 9mo to raise some cash. The race is on!

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US 2013

What an eventful year 2013 has turned out to be!  So many ups and downs, comings and goings, yet we are still pressing forward!  Here is a pretty good recap of what has been happening with the Syracuse Lamborns.

Family
We've had some pretty entertaining outttings this year.  We went to the Hill Field museum.

 The kids went to the trampoline park many times.

Oh and how can I forget the master bedroom flooding.  Due to a small crack in the caulking around the soap dish in the kids bathroom, water had been able to work its way through, down under the tub, and pool against the wall, seeping in to the master bedroom.  After some cutting, fanning, and fixing, the leak was stopped and restoration work began.

Mike

If you know me at all you'll probably have a pretty good idea on what I'll be posting.  Dead critters.  I had three hunting tags this year.  Two of them have been filled, still working on the archery elk tag.  I may just have "tag soup" on this one.  With all the year end festivities it's getting hard to find time to get out.  For some hunting stories on this years hunts, refer to previous blogs.  Needless to say the elk and deer I've shot this year have made really good hunting stories and have been super tasty.  There was also an excellent fishing excursion to the Boulder Mountains, (also can been seen in a previous blog on toolyfolk.blogspot.com)

Kathleen
All of her time has been devoted to graduate school at the University of Utah, in Speech Pathology.  This way, after my accident(s), she can help me learn to speak again, assuming she wants to hear from me.  She is totally rocking in the program, getting excellent marks as well as having supervisors tell her she's going to be a great clinician.  As she sits at home, working on different methodologies to use in her clinics, I am astounded at the depth and uniqueness of each curriculum she comes up with.  Each client requires specific care and she is able to come up with a program for each individual, based solely on their needs. 

The whole returning to school thing was a brutal decision to make.  Some of the kids in her program are barely older than Ashley.  Looking at the bigger picture, it was seen as necessary for Kathleen to enter the workforce.  Much to our dissappointment weddings, missions, and college have a tendancy to not pay for themselves. 

Recently kathleen passed her Praxis exam for speech pathology, so assuming she can pass her last class she will be good to go. 

Ashley
A Senior at Clearfield High School, Ashley is giving new meaning to "tearing it up" at school, currently holding a 3.95gpa and scored a killer 28 on her ACT.  Also, thanks to concurrent enrollment and AP courses, she has all ready completed a semester of college course work.  Way to go Ashley! 

Ashley has decided to go on an LDS mission, and as such, will only be able to get one semester of college in before leaving.  As she is all ready enrolled at Weber State (from her concurrent enrollment classes) she has opted to do the semester there. 

Ashleys art and piano work have also grown this past year.  We all really enjoy her music filling the house, as well as the masterpieces she creates on canvas. 

Emma

Emma is still a dancing fool. She attended some competitions this year, where she got creamed, but we'll still keep her anyways. I'm not sure if it is a good thing or bad thing, but even though she got creamed, she still qualified to go to worlds competition in Dusseldorf April 2014. Currently we think we are attending. It will be a great experience for her, and hopefully the past competitions have given her the motivation to step it up.......literally. 

Like Ashley, Emma is tearing it up in school. Currently a sophomore at Clearfield HS and having a great experience there. 

As you may recall, Emma also obtained the title of Miss Teen Syracuse. This was a good program for getting Emma out of her shell. The once shy girl has been replaced with a confident girl. 

Beast feast 2013

So I had this brain child idea of hosting a dinner gathering comprised of hunters, their spouse, and the game they have taken.  I'm calling it a "beast feast". I invited all the hunters I could think of in our neighborhood and the next closest neighborhood. Not knowing how things would play out I figured whatever happens, happens and I was going to make it a good time.

I received excellent feedback so my hopes were high with this festivity. Actual attendance turned out a fair bit lower, but it was still an excellent time. We had three families attend, so this was a small gathering.

Hunting stories were fun, listening to the women's side of the story was quite entertaining as well. The womens version isn't heard as often as the guys.

In this feast we had an excellent moose roast, marinated deer steaks, marinated dove breasts, elk stew, a smoked antelope roast, as well as some sides. All the food was top notch and very tasty. In the picture below you'll notice the only food that wasn't touched was the vegetables. Apparently when you are having a beast feast it isn't a good thing to have veggies. Lol. The below picture is after we had eaten. 

Unfortunately the doves and antelope didn't make it into the picture, as they were consumed. 

A good time was had by all, and we're all ready looking forward to the next beast feast. 

Cache Grande fondo 2012

I picked up my bike for cycling in August 2011.  I didn't know anything about the brand QuintanaRoo, but I found a bike in the local classifieds in the price range I was after.  After a quick search I learned that they are pretty good bikes, very common in the triathlon market.  This particular model, Tequilo, had some good reviews online so I decided to check it out and ended up buying it. 

In 2011 I had done some commuting to work, nothing huge, 16miles to work........16miles home.  My friend Brent tells me of these "big rides" or Grand Fondo's.  Sounds good to me, lets do it.  I only had one jersey at the time, signing up for the Fondo would get me another jersey.  For a spell I was more interested in getting the jersey than doing the ride. 

Apparently these Fondo's are huge.  Hundreds of people signing up.  It's a big deal in the cycling community.  They are usually advertised as 100 mile rides.  At this point there is no way I'm doing that.  I figure with my commuting miles I could probably squeak out 50 miles.  Lucky for me there is a 50 mile option, so that is where I sign on the line. 

A concern I was having about this ride is that is was scheduled for the end of July.  July in Cache Valley is really warm.  I'll be honest, I wasn't looking forward to 3 hours of bike riding in 100 degree weather, but I really wanted to do this ride. 

A week before the ride rain and clouds are in the forcast..........now we're talking!  They day of the ride it is overcast and there is drizzly rain going on.  I couldn't be happier for the weather.  Internally I am really nervous.  I'm always nervous when attempting something new, gotta get past that.

Here are a couple pics where we are getting the bikes ready. 

Yeah, you know me.  Gotta make a dorky face where I can.

The start of the Fondo is a mass start.  Brent and I are in the middle of the pack.  Here's a pic of those at the front of the pack.  These at the front are the cyclist that are taking on the 100 mile ride.  Good for them.  Maybe one of these days I'll be daring enough to tackle that.

I'm not sure why we have bib numbers.  Maybe it's to help identify the corpse when someone kills over from the long bike ride.  One of the things I'm not sure of it how the local populus takes to all these bikers going through town.  For the first 5 miles there is a police escort to get us out of the city limits.  The last 10 miles is through town where some roads are shut down to help keep the cyclers safe.  Honestly, when I come across a road closed sign I'm a little put out.  Loganites have to be feeling the same way.  Also there is the sharing the road.  Sometimes it can be difficult coming up on a group of riders.  I've never come up on a group of hundreds of riders.  I did what I could to stay right while on the road, but sometimes it was prudent to veer left to get away from the stickerbushes. 

Scenery was typical Cache Valley.  Houses and building in the cities and lots of rolling hills in the outskirts.  It really was pretty.

It was an excellent ride.  50 miles was just right for me.  The last 10 were a little uphill, so a little grueling after the 40 miles before them.  It took me more than the three hours I thought it would, due to refueling breaks and flat repairs (Brent accounting for the majority of those).  On a positive note, the hard core cyclists on the 100 mile loop were finishing up their ride about the time I finished up my 50 mile ride.  Holy cow they are fast.  Unfortunately I think I started this hobby a little too late in the game.  I doubt I'll every be able to ride that fast.

Here's one of me trying to cool off at the finish line.  The overcast clouds had dispersed and some good summer heat was showing through.  It was starting to get warm.

It was a great experience.  I'll add this to my list of things to do.  Who know, maybe one day I'll get that 100 mile ride in.