Chacos

So i decided it was time, after countless miles in desert sand and mountain snow (or even mountain sand and desert snow), to send my Chacos in for repairs. They are Chaco flops and i have a hard time saying this but i like them more than rainbow sandals. Rainbows definitely win personality, the way they would curl up after getting them wet and leaving them to dry outside in the sun. During wilderness work I was convinced to buy some Chaco flops as we wilderness type received a crazy half off discount or something crazy like that discount. Pro deal they called it. They have been with me through so much.....



.....new year and a new me, i had a long stare at the old sandals and with the same smug of a lifelong dog owner finally admitting his rambunctious best friend should do no more harm procreating the world with more rambunctious offspring and said "Well lets get you fixed." It all happened so fast and then they were gone. Packaged and sent to Chaco town Colorado. Working in the basement all day i hardly noticed they were gone. And they sent me a new pair. How is that for awesome. Thanks you Chaco's for making me proud to buy US manufactured products and then backing it up a hundred fold.

THE MOTHERLODE

Its here again. Awesome pictures from the past.
I have found the motherlode of awesome old parent pictures. Motherlode studios that is. Family friend Bob Calkins has been taking pictures of my parents since before any of us kids came along. Each one is a classic. Especially the one of my fathers old VW bug. Only recently did I hear stories of the bug driving down main street in Placerville with its wooden bumper smoking next to the heat of the exhaust. The famous happy valley with my mother playing some kind of instrument.

Goodly Parents

Holy guacamole this took forever to get here, but here they are after two trips and copies from BYU's library a month an a half apart, from tif file to print screen function, to cropping in word to copying it into a spreadsheet, saving that as a web page, opening that and saving those as individual files in jpg form. Minus a few steps in between. Needless to say these are awesome pictures. From wence we came and where we are headed. The past holds important keys to the future.

Road Trip to the 25th power.

Crazy fast trip. Nothing but good times. Only almost died three times. Once leaving Colorado, big truck getting over into the lane next to me pushing the person next to me into my lane. All good. Again while driving up to Placerville, traffic stopped and I didnt, so i went into the lane on the left side of the freeway and went up another two car lengths before stopping. No biggy. Lastly on 80 towards Reno, a big truck decided to get in my lane and push me off the freeway a bit. Side of the freeway dirt and little fish tailing. All good we were protected big time on that one. I had to get off and think for a second after that one. But the real fun was had in the good company of the trip. Plenty of good music and car talk as the three almost strangers shared their love to be in California with one another for a good 8 hour drive. Maybe 9. Quick visits Friday night, a lovely lap around Natomas on bikes saturday morning followed by Placerville and Cache Calkins day. Even enjoyed a movie in the theatres with me pa. Eagle Eye, really good. Course when your watching a movie next to the old man its always a blast. Late night of dominoes with comrads. Sunday church followed by the return drive back to Utah and Colorado. Awesome trip. And I turned 25 too.

a week in the life of

So Monday, Zach and I go to the gym. He plays his basketball, I go for a swim. Instead of my usually mile straight routine I switched it up and did some sprints and even kicked a few laps. Lame. As always I get out before Zach does and go cool down while coming up with some ideas for our next website project. Zach comes out twenty minutes later and we make to leave. Just than a tall gangly fellow comes in asking for a wired magazine. We had been parousing a different magazine and replied that we had not seen a wired magazine. To which he proceeds to tell us he is a computer programmer and that "we are going to take over the world." Not finding what he was looking for he starts to leave the room and turns and blurts out "come here, let me get you guys some free stuff," striking at Zach and mine heart strings instantly. We follow him out to his bag and he pulls out some ski gogles. Holds them out to us and tells us to go put them on outside. Zach had just finished his third or fourth game of basketball and I had just swam a good distance, needless to say we were sweaty and after pointing that out to the gnarly dude he would just say, put them on, now stare into the sun. It was kinda bright. Meanwhile he goes inside the building and talks to the receptionist for about 5 seconds before coming back out. He is wearing a pair of Ray Bans and has another set of glasses on his head. Comes over and starts with how he has worked for Audi, Disney, Lamborgini, and now is the third man for Zeal Optics, something about how cool zeal optics are and then "See these ray Bans.... all crap!" and then tosses them onto the sidewalk and slides the zeal optics down over his eyes, real cool like. I pick up the Ray Bans and start checking for scratches before he asks for them back. This is were I failed. I should have remarked about how crappy they were and how I was going to give them to my cat or something. But as I was lacking in the clever at the moment I let the Ray Bans slip out of my fingers. Zach of course saw the opportunity to jump on the goggles and after some minor comments the salesman gave us an email address chicken scratched on a ripped piece of paper, we made loaded up our goggles and left. Getting back to the house we immediately did our research to find the goggles each running about 150 big ones online. I have a feeling we both made out winners of the situation. Dude won in the sense that we are now loyal promoters of Zeal Optics and their unbeatably awesome goggles. And we came out winners having walked away with some sweat new goggles that Zach and Kristy had already made plans to go get before the first snow fall. That was monday. Crazy.

Wednesday I managed to jump back in the pool and pull out a hundred laps straight. Counting laps with every breath as I was to insure accurate swimming. Its more a challenge of mind as it is of body. Around 30 thrity you go through this breathing struggles where you pull in small amounts of water that require coughing during underwater exhale. That problem runs on for about 5 laps. About lap forty you can start thinking, well if I am going to eighty I am halfway there, which is nice to consider. Fifty to sixty you consider each arm movement and reasure yourself that anything you are feeling will soon be done as you are almost to seventy. Seventy laps measures out to be a mile in a yard pool as is the usual goal. Upon reaching seventy I just made a choice to do another flip turn. Whats one more... the wall is coming up quick, time to flip, or do I stop....I will have to do another one just to get back to this side of the pool and end on an even number of laps.....flipped. Started swimming, than it came to me... whats 30 more. 30 breath... 30 ....breath....30. And so the counting down began. All the twenties took forever, the teens went quicker and bam I was done. 100 laps.

Work was slow as I search for a new web designer. No one really replies to many of my emails. Our old web designer is MIA in romania. Kinda sucks. The show must go on.

Friday night involved an interesting singles ward campout. I could go on all night, but in interest of my sleep, ill give the abreveated version.....
drive up: almost died,
food: only if its off a hot dog roaster over flame,
night hike: scaring foreigners and light time photo fun, fireside: spiritual message that led into communism jokes leading to cheesy jokes leading to everything was funny leading to a true canadian blood melting fat telling stories with fire glow lit face,
sleep: frosty starlit sleep in a happy face sleeping bag on a bright pink tarp,
breakfast: yesterdays frosted watermellon slash black bear food,
morning activities: dont matter what we play our team old men won it all,

And like that it was done. If you want the extended version, let me know.

Puerto Rico for five saturday night, doubloons please...
Sunday was nice and relaxing, got caught sleeping during priest quorum, everyone was looking at me as I was to give the closing prayer. It was a good prayer. A little linger longer and next thing you know I was wrestling in the part with the nephs. Have a good week everybody.

To hell with them, heres to us!

The world keeps on turning as each day beckons us forward to a new string of thoughts and feelings. Having recently experienced a paradigm shift from an in depth social atmosphere to a introverted contingency of personal reflections and ass-pirations, i have been rather emotional about the whole thing. But i think we can all agree that paradigm shifts can be a good thing. Especially when coupled with the right tools to handle the trip. One tool I found comfort in were the recent words from Elder Holland at this last weekends CES broadcast that really torqued with my soul. He opened with one of the prophet Joseph Smiths jail experiences and quoted many who have refered to that time as a temple of sorts. Encompassed about by misery, darkness and hatred the prophet received some of the most loving and kind words of scripture. Throughout the talk Elder Holland wrenched on the singles with the constant flow of love that he has for us. All the while constructing precise bullet points of the key points he wished to get accross to the singles. Refering to our own darkest hours and with reference to Gods love Elder Holland spoke: He does hear us, he does feel us, he is there with us, where he has always been. Elder Holland later gave a reminder of how it could be worse, the which he backed up with deep understanding of how on a bad day you are in good company, the best of company in fact. Toward the end of his discussion he measured out heavens kindess with the words: Bad days come to an end, Faith always triumphs, and that heavenly promises are always kept. And to finish it all off he gave everyone there an apostolic blessing telling us to hold on thy way, fear not, God shall be with you forever and ever. Truly strengthening words he spoke and they shall not be forgotten. Again the world turns and sleep beckons us in with hopes of a new tomorrow, a better me and a better you, and so good night, adieu.

The Nephs

Making memories with those you love....there are not many things more precious than this. Here in Colorado I have the fortune of doing exactly that. From bike rides round town to camping trips and just plain old swim lessons in the pool. These boys are good swimmers.

Three week Summer Vacation

Whelp I guess my summer vacation has come to a close as I have left the bustle and good times of Folsom to return to the basement of my brothers Colorado sweatshop. We came to the conclusion that in the upcoming months as the weather takes a hard turn to colder weather, our business relationship will more and more resemble that of Ebenezer Scrooge and his assistant Bob Cratchit. Only without those ridiculous accents. Sacramento was a blast. I enjoyed every minute of it. A weekend trip to Half Dome was also very thrilling. There are few places where you can find the boost that you receive from all the hikers making there way toward the top. The comradery that is found on the trail to Half Dome rivals that of Olympic events. An 85 year old gentlemen started his trek to the top at three am while we in our youth waited till 630 to begin our accent. His presence was a great example to all on the trail that day of a great man. And after a memorable trip to Yosemite, what better way to finish it than with a tasty burger from a locals only bar in Oakdale called Shively's. One of those places with double swinging doors and where you walk in the door and the music stops as everyone looks at you. The embarrassment was well worth it as we enjoyed the yummiest burgers and service that included the waitress/owner squeezing our own lemons into our waters. Real hometown feel to it.

And so whether it was swimming in Lake Natomas, biking, volleyball night, working with Dad at the bakery, more biking, running at the high school, swimming laps, biking, or just chilling with good friends on golf courses or Folsom high late at night, and finally a jambalaya evening visiting friends and family with a hint of happy valleys beauty to top it all off. The evening included driving mothers sacred mini cooper that came at an enjoyably fair price for the evening. Logan and Jennilee were happy to join the ride as we enjoyed again yummy burgers from the hometown folks of Placerville (which is also my hometown). We were fortunate to have celebrity country singer Christy Riley agree to come with us as well. Who happens to be singing / competing this upcoming labor day weekend at the California state fair.

The return to Colorado trip was eventful as well. As planned months ago, the trip was supposed to include a week stay in the this country's most wondrous places, Havasupai. While driving out to Salt Lake I just got the urge to skip out on said week for a jump back into the sweatshop and working on the online projects we are trying to get started. So I drove to Salt Lake on Wednesday where I met with my parents and Sierra and Art for Arts graduation. Good family fun mixed with good food. Cant beat that. Another highlight of the weekend in Utah was working for my old roommates mechanical bull business. I went with him on two separate gigs, one was nestled in the hills behind Park City on a sprawling ranch with horses. Needless to say we were the main attraction at the event as the other inflatable fun had little to no use throughout the evening. The event was a young single adult activity for a group of lively folk out of Bountiful. The other was a birthday party in Sandy where the people were thrilled by our interaction with them and our relentlessness to keep them from staying on the bull for too long. No old people were maimed during the evening however i did manage to make a young girl cry, i mean the bull managed to make a young girl cry. The girl was however the best rider of the evening. So it was after a long eventful weekend and a random church attendance that I got back in the car and made the final leg of my journey through the night to Colorado's northern gem, Boulder.

Oh yeah, come to find out on Tuesday that the greatest place on earth was flooded over the weekend we were supposed to go down. So thanks to those involved in whispering in my ear as i drove to salt lake about not going.
Here is a good view of what we missed out on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SX2sBmcHGo

Colorado

Perfect timing. I was persuaded into coming out to Colorado for a stint of work on website business with my brother Zach and so here I am. In the lovely clean air of Colorado. Not a puff of smoke in the air. The summers here have been rather mild. It never too hot that you cannot go out and enjoy yourself. The journey here began with the baptism of Kaylee. A wondrous occasion with most of the family there to celebrate. Nieces and nephews everywhere. There is so many these days, it is getting harder to be the best uncle as there are so many kids. Work has been fun. Zach and I have been listening to a wide range of music and survive off of pandora. The website is progressing well as we deal with designers and programmers. Its a long process and we are finally seeing results. If you would like to see them too and maybe give us some feed back that would be greatly appreciated.

The website is not online as they say yet, it is being hosted at this address until it will be posted on the actual domain name: wormfarm.com

So until we are done the address is: hostingarcade.com/wormfarm

Love you all. See you soon.
Jed

Happiest of Times

Just when you think you know somebody they go and do that, and totally redeem themselves. I am of course referring to the young single adult group of the Shingle Springs and Folsom Natoma wards. Such a people are capable of creating friendships and bonds that are really hard to find anywhere else. The government might have checks and balances but here we have the priests quorum and relief society. We look out for each other in a fashion that borders annoying. My thoughts and words go out to them at this point because I miss the warmth of their presence. This last weekend we took a trip to camp Ritchie prier to their opening for the long estrogen packed months ahead of girls camp. A night of good eats, staying warm by the fire, and group snuggling / star gazing was then followed by a morning of cleaning, hiking, and rowing across the resevoir there. Bonds were made, memories had, and in the end a blanket was lost. Yes holga the great 30 pound down blanket and I were seperated by mere stupidity. Its all my fault.