BYU Sidelines

Monty and I have been roaming the sidelines of the BYU football games for over 16 years now. Monty a few seasons longer than I. It is hard to believe that so much time has passed by and that so many games have been played. Miami, Florida State, Texas, Washington, UCLA, Michigan, Notre Dame, Boston College...and on and on. Although when you look at the pile of sideline passes that I have kept from all of the games, it is easy to remember all of the good times we have had. We have met some very cool people as we have been down there. Great players, coaches from all over the country, crazy fans that wear some of the wildest get-ups, sports commentators, general authorities, great Americans who have been honored during the pre-game activities and others who have been invited to the field. We have also met dozens of very normal, yet interesting, people that we have stood shoulder to shoulder with on the busy sidelines. There is one photographer that has been there for years. We love to joke that we have known him for years...but don't even know his name! Not that we don't want to ask, we just do it to keep our streak going! Mont and I play our own little game within the game and it doesn't always have anything to do with football. We gave stood through rain storms, snow storms, fog, sun as well as perfectly pleasant fall afternoons that were just made for football. We have seen winning seasons and a few loosing seasons. We have helped opposing teams and officiating crews when things were good, and we have witnessed some sad scenes when emotions take the better part of good judgement. We try to be the smiling face and warm handshake to those who travel long distances to play our team and enjoy the beauty of the unique stadium that sits at the base of our majestic mountains. I don't know how many times we have heard the gasps of players and coaches who walk out onto the perfectly manicured field, see the 65,000 empty seats awaiting a sell out crowd, look up and admire the championship banners that hang above the west stands, and then turn around to see the towering Y mountain that leans over the east side stands "peering" into the stadium below. One player from Florida asked if the mountains could possibly fall over on us! Serious. To them they feel ominous...to us they offer protection and beauty. We try to be pleasant when we really don't feel like it...especially when Utah wins and then celebrates on our field. They probably feel the same way when we beat them in Salt Lake. We listen to complaints of stressed out equipment managers and staff. But most of all we hear how awesome this beautiful setting is and how welcome they feel as they come to Provo to play football in Lavell Edwards Stadium. When Notre Dame came a few years ago, 20 managers paid their own way, just to have the experience of seeing Cougar Stadium. Seldom do we see a team leave Provo without an expression of thanks and a compliment to the way they were treated...win or loose. It has been a good ride for us...and I guess it will continue for a few more seasons. Thanks Mick for signing us up many years ago...you probably didn't plan on us staying around so long! I thought I would post a few pictures from this season. I have others but they are buried somewhere in the digital archives. Mont and I have to share the sidelines with others. Its a pleasure, and part of our job!Some girls that are typical of the emotion and excitement in the stands on Saturdays

This is a hero. He is a colonel in the Air Force that flew daring missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars. If you look closely around his neck, you will see the Metal of Honor. Only about 100 of these guys left. Very cool.

Here are some happy UNLV fans (pre-game of course!) that were wearing some CTR shirts. If you read the back, they say "choose the Rebels"! I thought it was pretty unique. Very nice people who came to watch their sons play in Lavell Edwards Stadium.

Different but fun

Thought I'd post something I designed lately. Turned out ok.

The BEAUTIES of fall in Utah

Fall in Utah is one of the best reasons for living in this beautiful place. Every year the mountains become a glorious carpet of orange, yellow, green and red. The leaves in the mountains up Provo canyon are at their peak right now and it was a great excuse to get away from the valley and see a little of the Lord's handiwork. Erin and her friends decided (Saturday night at about 8:30) to head to the cabin for a "spur of the moment" girls get-a-way. That sounded great to us??!! Inside of 30 minutes we were packed up with chips, salsa, games and some stuff for breakfast. A quick stop at Albertson's and we even had smores with Reese's peanut buttercups. The girls had a great evening together talking and laughing and remembering stories that they have shared over the years. At about 1:30 am, after most of the mini candy bars were chomped (sorry Nana and Grandpa!)they finally hit the pillows with plenty of blankets to stay warm through the chilly night. Sunday morning came early... complete with hot chocolate, french toast, bacon and some left over chips. On the road by 10:00 am to get back to the valley in time for our Church meetings. The ride down the canyon, drenched in the morning sun, was really something to behold. The colors were beautiful...it was a sweet little road trip indeed! These are awesome girls...part of the beauty of fall. The road to the cabin
Pears from Nana and Grandpa's tree...plenty to share!

Peaches Peaches Peaches !!!

Well can you believe these beautiful peaches we harvested from our tree this year? These are so yummy ! Each year just gets better and better. I wish we could send some to you - one of my best gifts (a peach tree) from my amazing children, and it just keeps giving. Thank===you to all my amazing children. If you want to taste them you have to come to Utah!

MTC...the Russian saga begins

This is Elder Reid and Elder Mattee giving the "thumbs up" to missionary work by the sign in front of the MTC in Provo Utah. Elder Mattee is an Air Force cadet who also is a football player for the Academy. He is in Dustin's district. This is District "Comb-over Day"
Self Explanatory. Nothing is closed when D is in town!
Elder Reid and Turnbill in front of the Provo Temple
Elder Reid's district. left to right is: Elder Duffy, Crawford, Mattee, Whitehead, Fuentes and Sister Milne. Sister Milne is a first cousin to the Johnson's who live in our ward. We think she kind of looks like Jenny J.
A chance meeting of the branch. Always happy to see each other evidently!
The language is coming along very well. He says that he can "teach" the first lesson in Russian, which is something that he thought that he would never be able to do. They have been very blessed to have three apostles come to the MTC and speak to them. They have a devotional each Tuesday night. The most recent being President Uchtdorf. He has been keeping his journal up to date and using it to reflect on the things he has learned, noting that he is amazed at his own progress just since he checked into the MTC. His group is now the oldest of the Russian missionaries. He is excited for new missionaries to arrive so he can see how it is to welcome the new kids on the block. Dustin is also singing in the choir! Yes, you read correctly...singing in the choir. We knew he had a great voice, its just that he never really would sing in public. Now, he is enjoying the spirit of the gospel in a new way for him and he loves it. We hope that the missionaries will be asked to sing in General Conference. Elder D-4 is doing great. He says" Thanks for all your support"!

Elder Reid (#3) enters the MTC

August 13th, 2008 - Well we had the great blessing of taking Elder Dustin Reid to the MTC today. It was hard to say goodbye! It seems as though we should have been more prepared for this day (having done this with Christopher and Brad, as well as some nieces, nephews & friends) but it was sad to hug him for the last time and realize that we will not have his spirit in our home for 2 years. He will be missed !

President Brady and Elder Reid - August 12, 2008

The Grandma's
Nana and Grandpa
Ernie and Elder Reid

CaLleD TO SErvE

Baltic States Mission

Happy Birthday Grandma and Grandpa

One of the coolest things that happens in August around our birthdays that a letter arrives from Kelsi and Taylor with some awesome artwork and birthday messages in it. Here are some that we received as the 2008 editions.




Thank you, thank you Kelsi and Tay we totally love your pictures and cards that you send to us. They are posted on our bulletin board for all of our friends to see.











That is a great looking dolphin Tay!

A speedy car and train

Kelsi is in kindergarten and already can sound out her words and spell them on paper. Nice work!! Love the hearts too.

D's Un-farewell talk 7-20-08 Lexi's Blessing

The day seemed so far away right after D opened his mission call is here! He spoke so amazingly and had a powerful message about tithes and offerings. We are so proud of him. We are grateful for all the support we recieved from our familes and feel like he will work hard and be an amazing missionary for the Lord.

Summer 2008

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Visiting Lexi

The last part of our New York vacation was a fun visit to Rochester to see Brad, Becca and Lexi. We picked up a rental car at LaGuardia airport out in Queens. We got there in a good ole New York taxi equipped to carry all of our luggage. We were proud of ourselves because this is the first taxi ride that we had to take during our entire stay in the city. They are expensive, and sometimes very slow to get around, not to mention trying to find a taxi that will carry 5 of us. When we rented our car, we also rented a GPS system to get us out of the city. If you have never used one of these when you rent a car in a strange place...we highly recommend it! Dad tends to stress out when we take wrong roads and get lost, so this was certainly money well spent. It is like taking your own little guide with you. We programed it to take us out through the country side on the way to Rochester, so we saw some really cool little villages and towns on the way. It was so green and beautiful. A real fun drive.

This is Brad and Becca's home in Rochester. It is in a beautiful area because there a trees and plenty of grass to enjoy. It is named after a renowned professor at University of Rochester who believed that if you study medicine that you have no place in your life for a family at the same time. Interestingly, the complex if filled with Mormons and Asians with a bunch of kids running around everywhere! Brad and Becca have made some great friends who live here and they are very happy to call this home. It is a little over a mile to the medical school, so Brad is able to walk to and from class each day. He loves this time to think or listen to his podcast that he downloads to his iPod. His favorite is one called "The Naked Scientist". Don't worry, it is G rated and is very cool. Try it, you'll see.

We finally arrived in Rochester to get our hands on our little Alexis. She is so fun and was full of smiles and goos for us. Shelley was in Rochester just after she was born, so she was excited to see all of the changes, the rest of us were just happy to get our hands on her. She is a great smiler and very happy to have all of the attention that she thinks she deserves! It was so much fun to meet her and this was definitely going to be the highlight of the whole trip. Erin and Dustin had a bunch of fun with her.

Grandpa gets a little time holding Lexi. She is such a great little girl and loves to be held.

This was a photo that we took on the iPhone and it shows what a cute little face she has. Becca says that she has Brad's mouth and we agree. The beautiful eyes and cute little ears are definitely Becca.

Brad and Becca took us on a tour of the medical school. Dustin found the Nobel Prize that one of the professors at the school was awarded. This is the actual award...and Dustin of course had to hold it!

While in New York, Dustin was able to go through the Palmyra Temple to receive his endowment. It was a very special experience for us and will always be a wonderful memory for Dustin. The Temple is beautiful, and it was very quiet with not many visitors there. When we arrived, they rolled out the red carpet for Dustin. The workers there were like angels and they made our visit a very spiritual experience. Both Dad and Brad were able to be an escort for D and so we all were able to meet in the President's office for a nice instructional visit and hear his testimony. After our visit to the Temple, we went down and took a quiet stroll through the sacred grove. One of those days never to be forgotten.

And if there are roller coasters around...well we just can't resist! A quick one hour trip to Buffalo and we found some awesome coasters and that is where Dad, D and E spent the day before we came home. This one had a 240 foot drop. Good times! As usual though, we found good coasters...bad food. We hurried home and went out to eat at Dinosaur BBQ... a restaurant you just can't miss if you visit Brad and Becca. Sooooo Gooooood for us to eat! We didn't have to convince B & B to go either!

The next day we were up early, packed and off to our little home in Cherry Village. What a fabulous adventure and we are very thankful to have been able to make the trip happen.

Thanks for a fun time in Rochester Brad, Becca and Lexi! We miss you guys and can't wait to see you soon.

More pictures of our New York City trip

The Fabulous New York Tour 2008

Well, we are finally getting around to putting some stuff on the blog about our wonderful family vacation to New York. Brad and Becca say it was to see the big city, but in truth, it was to see our new little grandaughter, Lexi. And to put it mildly, we had just about the greatest time for 10 wonderful days away that a family could have. We had a ball. We started our big adventure out by flying the RED eye out of Salt Lake City on JetBlue. Now, we love JetBlue....but the midnight flight leaves much to be desired. Actually, the flight was very nice. Smooth as silk and we had the great inflight televisions to pass the time. The flight attendants don't bug you too much and everyone is trying to get a little sleep anyway. The only problem is that when you arrive at 5:30am at JFK, you have basically given up a night's sleep. At first we were so charged up, that it really didn't seem to matter. But we quickly found out that it was definately going to be a long day. With our plan of attending a Yankee's game in the old stadium before it is torn down this year, Christopher just couldn't let that dream go by...so he took a couple of days away from the office and joined us. His flight arrived 10 minutes after ours did...perfect timing! He found us and we waited for our ride to the city. We had arranged for a SUV to pick us up because of all the luggage and bodies. Much to our pleasant surprise the service rolled up with a 10 passenger stretch limo! What a way to ride into the big city....cool. We could not check into our hotel until 3:00 in the afternoon, so we just planted our luggage in the lobby storage and headed out for some early morning food and fun. We quickly found out that the food was going to be one of the highlights. Not only is it everywhere...but it is GOOD. Especially the pizza. There was a little deli across the street from the Hotel Stanford called Speedy's and we found ourselves there on a fairly regular basis. We bought some tickets to the RED double decker bus to take the lower tour so that we could get an idea of where we wanted to go. Good idea, especially since we were so tired and wouldn't have lasted long walking or navigating the subway. It is very crazy when this is your first view of New York because it all seems so big and unbelieveably busy and wild.

This is Erin and Christopher and a shot of Madison Square Garden (which is round). We finally checked into our hotel room and everyone decided to take a "short" nap. Well....that ended up being the end of the first day for Mom, Erin and Dustin. Night night!! Christopher and Dad couldn't sleep that soundly, so we packed up and had a father son trip to Times Square for the evening. Christopher only had a couple of days, so we made the most of the time he had.

Times Square Ernst and Young building.

Grand Central Station. We found this to also be a good potty break!

One of our dreams was to someday watch a game in Yankee Stadium. Because they are going to tear it down this year, we knew that this would be our last chance. So we made it happen! Whether you are a Yankee fan or not, being in the stadium and seeing all of the history of the game that has happened there is very exciting. Above is a memorial that they have to some of the greats that have played for the Yankees. Pretty cool. Below is D standing by his babe! This is all we will allow until he finishes his mish!

The Yankee Crew. We went out in the 3rd inning to get some food and one of the foul balls hit between Christopher and Dustin's chair! The little kid behind us got the ball. Bad deal. Another came close, but not close enough to get to. Below is the field view from our seats and then a picture of the new stadium that is being built across the street from the old park where we were.

It was a fun time. After, we hung around and waited for the crowd to thin so the subway wouldn't be so packed for our trip home. We went down to some stores and bars across the street from the stadium and watched the party. Yankees beat the Padres 9-0. The subway ride home was another adventure. As we got close to home, Dustin was worried that mom would have to walk quite a ways if we stayed on the 4 train. So we all decided to switch to the R train which would come right by the hotel. Well....we managed to jump on the R, but in the wrong direction and we ended up out in Queens at about 11:30pm. We had to do some navagating, but we finally made it back to the hotel and collapsed into bed after a long day of fun and adventure.

We will try to post a slide show with more pictures as soon as we figure it out. The second half of our trip was enjoyed in Rochester with Brad, Becca and Alexis. That blog is to come.