"I stood at the top of the mountain"

This was the goal for today. This is the view of Camel Back Mountain....at least that is what the locals call it, from my parents home. For over 25 years we have enjoyed the view from the back porch but neither myself nor my father have ever been up on top. Today it was the day to take my Dad up there. You can actually see the Camel, just right of the arrow. The point just behind the arrow is actually Camel Pass according to the Topo Maps.

I picked my Dad up around 9:00 and headed up the canyon. He's doing pretty good for an 81 year old man, yet the Jeep was a bit of a pain for him to get into. His shoulder has some nasty arthritis and he felt every bump....but no matter what...he wanted to keep going. At one point he told me to hold his shoulder as he moved it and you could feel the bones clicking inside the shoulder. Nasty. Therapy isn't helping so he's going to try something different.

After a rather short drive we started to get a glimpse of Springville, Mapleton and Spanish Fork in the distance. The weather was perfect, and even though the temps hit 100+ today it was still rather cool up on top of the mountain.

After just over an hour of driving and almost 15 miles of pavement and dirt from Dad's house we came to a small turn off. We put the Jeep in 4WD and drove the next quarter mile or so rather slow. This was the first my father had ever really been off-roading in a Jeep. I think he was somewhat surprised. Finally we came out on top of the Camel and we were greeted by this wonderful view. The elevation was just over 7600 feet.

Dad had a hard enough time getting into the Jeep that he stayed in and enjoyed the view from the comfort of the front seat. You can see him waving his hand in the image below.

My teenage childhood home is down there....and that is still where Mom and Dad live. In fact, the first picture of this blog was taken from their backyard after the trip was over.

This is looking back at the hump of the camel. You can see the 4wd road that go from the main road to the point that overlooks Springville.

Little Rock Canyon and Springville in the background. The Three Sisters can be seen below. Taken at just about 8000 Feet.

The road goes - and keeps going. You can see Mount Timpanogos in the middle of the frame. Cascade on the left....and the road cutting through the trees.

Rock Canyon - - from on top. Crazy Rocks.

At one point I turned on my Ipod and switched to the Glenn Miller Band for Dad. While I know some of the songs...while I know some of the lyrics...he knew them all. He was singing along to a bunch of them. The trip was great. Story after story came out of my Dad. Many I have heard before....some that I haven't. The stretch from Camel's Back to Provo Canyon was a little longer then I planned but the drive was great.

After hitting Provo Canyon we drove up to Midway and then I took the road up to Guardman's Pass. Once there, down Big Cottonwood Canyon we went and a quick lunch at Five Guys. I figured if we came this far he needed to have a good hamburger.

Total time driving was almost 7 hours from the time I left home to the time I returned. Total miles were 211. Well worth the time. Dad repeated thanked me for taking him up there. He even made me fill up my tank when we got back to town and had to make sure I let him pay for it. Funny.

I don't think my Dad has a bucket list and I wasn't going to ask.....but in many ways I feel like I helped him cross one of the items on his list off. Hopefully the bucket kicking won't come for a long, long time.

No Shakes!!! Just a good burger and fries!

A rather uneventful Saturday. Helped the neighbors move the rest of their stuff out. They moved to Colorado a few months ago and have been trying to sell their home. No luck in the current housing market so they decided to rent it out instead. Luckily we had a good group of people helping so it went fast.

For lunch Cheri, Megan, Jessica, Christina and I went out to Five Guys for lunch. Adria was working this afternoon. Five Guys is the best. There is really no argument here. They have great burgers....great fries. Period.

Here is Jessica enjoying her burger!!

Not a very cool day. Saw the car temp hit 105 more then once. Yuck!

Girl's Camp & the Police!

Girl's Camp!
On Monday Adria, Megan and Drew left for Girl's Camp up at Heber Valley camp. Drew was serving as one of the two priesthood leaders. He came home Tuesday and then went back up for the rest of the week. Everyone came home Friday after a great week up at camp. The weather was perfect. The camp is incredible and the Young Women had a great time. Cheri stayed at home with Jessica and Christina. There was one slight road trip for Cheri, Drew, Christina and Jessica to see some friends in Brigham City on Tuesday....but other then that, it was an uneventful week while everyone else was at camp. Want to see some pictures? Well I will leave that up to Adria who has already posted a bunch here.

"You will see light in the darkness. You will make some sense of this"
The weekend finished up with Drew and Cheri at the Usana Amphitheater in SLC. The event was the Police Concert. Elvis Costello opened for them. We are no Costello fans so there isn't much to say about that. Drew was somewhat surprised that Costello was opening for The Police. Near the end of their set Sting actually came out and sang along with Elvis for one song.....but not much else that we found thrilling. Now, the Poilce on the other hand.....WOW! The old Police boys can still rock the house. They played all of their favorites and quite a few of them with different arrangements and harder guitar riffs. A very nice change. Prior to the concert we probably wouldn't buy a live album if they came out with one, but some of the arrangements were different enough that it will have to be added to the collection if they release one.

The concert was very cool. Sting looks rather buffed for a man his age. Andy looked a little weathered but could certainly still rock. Stewart looked rather cool sporting a cool Ghost in the Machine shirt. He switched from standing to sitting more then once which offered a different view. They even had one camera mounted below a drum and shooting up through it at Stewart.

Cheri picked up a shirt for herself. Drew picked up a couple of shirts and a signed copy of Sting's book called Lyrics. A very cool insight into the songs he has written over the years.

The play list for the concert was the following, or at least I think so, if my memory serves me right.

Message in a Bottle

Demolition man
Voices inside my head
When the world is running down
Don't Stand so Close to Me
Driven to tears
Hole in my life
Every little thing
Wrapped around your Finger
Do do do dah dah dah
Invisible Sun
I Can't Stand Losing You

Roxanne
King of pain
So lonely
Every Breath you Take

Next to You

Overall? A rather great concert. We really enjoyed it. The boys could certainly still rock the house and it was just fun!

Salt Lake City Farmers Market

The older two girls went rock climbing today so Cheri and I with the little ones went up to the Salt Lake City Farmer's Market. It was a bit busy but larger then the last time we came. More crafts, not as much fruit quite yet this early in the summer. We'll have to go back up when the fruit season is in full swing.

As we were walking around I saw this sign that just made me laugh. I actually hate the taste of coffee but I liked the concept of this guys marketing idea. You have to give him some points for originality.

DOGS! DOGS! Every there were dogs. It's one of the reasons I actually wanted to go. I wanted Sophie to have some interaction time with other dogs and get use to the crowds. She has grown use to the car rides but not use to other dogs or crowds. So while Cheri was picking out a bracelet Christina, Jessica, Sophie and I hung out with some new friends....

The girls bought umbrellas. They were actually rather nice and rather inexpensive. They were only $7.00 each. Christina started getting a blister walking back to the car so I did what Dads do and helped her out. Cheri thought it was rather cute and had to take a picture of us.

And of course there were musicians at the Farmer's Market....this guy was playing this long flute link thing. He was pretty good.

Gettysburg

I'm current in PA on business for the week. Flew in Sunday so we could do setup on Monday. We are training some students on how to use our product in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. As a result I took a little time to run down to Gettysburg. I remember coming here once as a child and thought it was BORING. As an adult I have a much different view then I did as a child. There is a spirit to the place. It's hard for be to describe. Sad. Sorrowful. Cheerless. I can't really find the word to describe it. I would not say it was depressing....it was more sorrowful then anything else. It was a strange feeling. It's an interesting place. We showed up just as the sun was going down. I had the GPS with me so I looked up to see if there were any geocaches in the area. First I found this one - - http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d0384723-04b4-43b2-863b-9d5ec4fd134b which was rather cool. And then we found this one - http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=07538fda-4a5a-4231-bac8-6d462cd7029e which was very cool as well.

This picture was taken from the top of the 2nd cache. It was dark - - and getting really dark...but it fun. Apparently there once were five towers that were placed and over 650 up. A bunch of steps - and you have a great view of the battlefield.

Fireflies - - Ah - I miss them. As we were driving through the battlefield I started seeing fireflies. I really miss them. It made me think of Cheri and I tried to take some video of them - - but I don't think it came out. We'll see

The Fourth of July Boom Boom Boom Boom

So it's the 4th of July......2008. And the Bowen's came down to spend the day with us. And like kids will be they came up with their own little song. A song that for some reason had to be repeated over and over and over again. It's pretty easy to learn - - here - take a watch and listen.

Video Courtesy of Adria

We have a good time. Just hung out, ate food, flew kites and of course fired off some fireworks at night.

Mondays

The only thing I really, truely enjoy about Monday is that my day starts with a conference call at 7:00. I have learned that if I take this from the car on my way into work I kill two birds with one stone. First, my day starts a bit early. Second, I can do something somewhat productive between home and which ever office I go to.