Carson Pass

Shot this picture on my way home from Carson, NV. in late November early December. About 7000 ft in elevation. FYI you can click on the pictures in the blog to make them bigger.

Merry Christmas

I hope you had a fantastic year, and Christmas.

San Francisco

The weather was absolutely perfect in S.F. while we were there. Long sleve shirt weather. The nights were chilly, but very tolerable. Both days it was clear skys as well. A veiw of the Golden Gate from where we were staying.

The Brinks

About 15 minutes after this picture was taken that table was a mess! I think Patrick counted 39 drink cups on the table when we were done. Nobody bothered to count plates, or flatware. Nobody could count that high. Except maybe Spencer, that guy can do anything.

Why is Sam Grimacing?

Just ask Sam the question "How do you find out if some one is ticklish?", and you get this pained smile.

The answer of course is: "You give them a test tickle."

He thinks that joke is sort of funny, but a bit irreverent for him I guess.

Little Miss Direct

I heard Georgia say to Sam on our way down to San Francisco yesterday: "Sam your breath stinks, and you can't sing."

Good thing Sam has a healthy level of self esteem. He just laughed her off and kept singing.

I took this picture of Georgia at a hat store that Corey, the kids, and I went to while Suzi, Cindy, and the big kids wandered around in H & M in San Francisco.

Sam Hates The Dump

I thought every boy liked going to the dump, for all kinds of crazy reasons.

Not Sam.

Me: "Hey Sam want to run with me to the dump. I've got to clean out some stuff in the garage."

Sam: (With a pained look on his face)"Ooooh, no thank you."

Me: "What? Why not?"

Sam: " THE SMELL! THE SMELL... I....I......I just don't like it. It stinks there."

You can tell it kills him to say no to me, but Sam apparently has the nose of a bloodhound. Has since he was a tiny guy. When he loves the smell of something he tells us, or hates the smell of something he tells us. He is so funny. You should see him in smelling action.

So anyhow, good help loading the car to the dump, just don't expect any help unloading.

Christmas at Temple Square

Suzi, and I made it a point to make it to Temple Square when the Christmas lights were put up. It's just part of kicking off the season for the Kelly family. It was a nice part of our trip.

Cougar Fans!

My little cougar fans. That's Alex Garces (cousin) there with Patrick and Sam. When Suzi and I lived in Provo we went to a lot of BYU games, and Patrick and Sam went a ton when they were little guys.

When Patrick was a tiny little guy still in the nursery at church, the church we attended was in the parking lot of the BYU football stadium. When we would pull in to the parking lot he would start in with the "I want to go to the game." I would explain that all the football guys were at church today and the stadium was empty. He would say "oh OK". Then he'd look over at the stadium, and start to cry "I want to go to the game". He was a hard core cougar fan at age 18 months. His nursery teacher said she would have to pull him out of the window because he would stand there crying and staring at the stadium with "I want to go to the game".

When we moved up north I took the boys to Utah games every now and then with me.
I thought when Suzi were living in Layton that I would be doing that often. However, life took a little turn and put us in Lodi. We love living in Lodi, however too bad Utah wasn't a little closer. Or how about I was richer so we could fly out PRN.

Thanksgiving

What a great bunch people. Look at all those beautiful children. More to come soon! Timmys! I don't want to hurry life along, but it's fun to imagine what this picture will look like in 10 years.

I can do that!

I love watching these guys. It's like they were born with a ball at their feet. I'm sure it was pretty close to that.

www.nikefootball.com

Kenji

I sent this message to my district earlier this year. I love this story, and thought I would paste it here. Thought you all would enjoy this too. Enjoy.

I have some neighbors who I absolutely adore. Kenji and Terri, a couple in their 80’s who have raised their kids here in the neighborhood. They have been living here in the same neighborhood since they were kids, except for the years that Kenji and Terri’s families spent in the internment camp during World War II. Kenji’s dad use to grow grapes right here in the neighborhood before it was developed.

Over the last year Kenji has been struggling with Kidney problems. There was a stretch of months where I didn’t see Kenji out much. He was pretty much laid up in bed.

I was out working in my yard this weekend, and my tiny, sick 85 year old friend Kenji rode by on his bike. His bike is half his height. He hollered “Hi Sean!” as he took one hand off his handle bar to wave.

He looked like a kid in the candy store. He was having a blast. I must admit when I looked up and saw him I immediately panicked. He’s always been very fit, but he still moves a little slowly these days. I thought about what would happen if he ran into the car coming toward him that he wasn’t paying attention too. Fortunately after he stopped waving he saw it, yelled “whoa” and steered his bike back over to his side of the road. I just about passed out. He then continued to ride around the neighborhood grinning ear to ear for a good 30 minutes.

The following day Kenji’s wife Terri asked my wife Suzi if she saw Kenji out riding his bike. Terri asked the question with a tone that indicated that Kenji was going to get in trouble. My wife said yes, but included that he looked like he was having “fun” hoping that would spared him somehow from Terri’s not so terrible wrath. Terri really is an absolute angel, and she was just worried about her Kenji.

Terri then told Suzi that he wasn’t supposed to be riding his bike. She reminded Suzi that he’s having Kidney problem’s, he’s lost 20 pounds on his thin 5’5” frame, is extremely low on energy, and if he took a spill it could do some serious damage.

Terri had noticed Kenji’s bike wasn’t where it was suppose to be when she had got home from a baby shower. Apparently he had decided he was going to sneak in a bike ride while his wife was away.

I love everything about that story, and there about a thousand reasons to share it with you. I share it with you for a couple reasons.

The first reason was to remind us all to enjoy the simple things in life. Life is made up of millions and millions of simple moments highlighted by a few high moments, and some low moments. Work is like any other part of life, full of simple moments. Enjoy them, make the most of them, find joy in what you do; making life better for others and do it passionately like Kenji. If you make the most of your simple moments at work I believe you will find many great high moments hidden among the simple moments. You will be an instrument in creating them.

The second reason was to remind us of how blessed we really are. We enjoy good health, we enjoy good jobs, we enjoy a great company, and great co-workers. Capitalize on your good fortune. Make more good fortune by working hard, and by working smart.

Kenji has had a many hardships growing up here, and is facing many in front of him but lives life knowing he is blessed.

Mitt for President

I was visiting my buddy of mines blog, R. Jeffrey Davis of Highland Utah, and he directed me to an interesting poll.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15936002/

I've been reading/watching how the in the news media it seems to me that they have stated in just about every article I have read about Mitt Romney that he is unelectable due to the fact he is Mormon.

Seems the only people with hang ups of that sort are the media.

Georgia

Georgia wanted to drive us to Utah for Thanksgiving. I said heck yes! Mom thought it was too dangerous. Maybe next year Georgia. Click picture to enlarge.

Whose in Charge?

Why is it every time Suzi leaves the house she has to announce to the house "All right everyone your dad is in charge!"

Drives me nuts. And don't go blaming this on me. Save it. That's just crazy talk to try and blame it on me. That's what that is crazy talk.

Ancient History

I'm sure someone thought that chandelier was just fantastic. When Suzi and I bought the house, it was the first thing I wanted to go.

However, due to it's difficulty to reach, I was unable to remove it from my home. I'm just a wee bit afraid of heights. After getting ready everyday the first thing I would see as I came down my stair case was that light staring at me. It was like it was taunting me; "look at me I'm still hanging here, and whatcha gonna do about it?".

Oh, I just wanted to jump up grab it and swing on it until it popped out of the ceiling.

When we first moved into the house I must admit that it had many more "crystals", as though that might have added some type of charm to that hanging piece of lighted poo.

I came home from work and found a football stuck up in the lamp. So I asked the boys how in the heck that ball got stuck up there. Apparently the kids used to throw things at the light to knock the crystals from the light. Then

claim the crystals were diamonds,and the girls would fashion them into some type of jewelry.

Please note that only one light bulb worked on the light. That's because for the last 2 plus years I've been thinking "I'm going to pull it down any second now, why change the light bulb". So our entry way has always been rather dark.

Well we finally found a nice light to replace the old light. It got hung, and I think it looks great.

However, something odd has happened. I see the old foe who use to greet me every day, the old foe that took punishing blow with footballs, broomsticks, and other object to steal it's prized gems. The old foe who made me cringe every time I turned it on and was only greeted with a tiny bit of light, and I feel sad to see it siting in a box in my front room ready to be tossed in the garbage.

I have decided to send it out of our house in a glorious Kelly fashion. Suzi, and I are deep in planning to decide whose front yard tree this lamp will soon grace. Once we get it hung with care pictures will follow on the blog. As long as there is trash, there will always be yard trashing.

Quote of the Day

We were out on a walk after church. I'll let you guess who said it. I love it because it is just so perfectly her.

"Hold on Mom. Hold my purse so I can throw the football."

Graffiti

We dropped by the Pie take out in Salt Lake to pick up some pizza before the Utah vs. BYU football game.

I don't know what came over my wife but she started writing on the walls.

We ate with Doug, Angie, Raul, Steff, and Alex.























The Lodi gang: Sean, Suzi, Patrick, Sam, Hannah, and Georgia.









Of course the boys are going to want to do what Mom is doing. Sam's brick is in red on the top. Patrick's brick in in red on the bottom.

The Pie & The U!

Can there be a better pizza on the planet?

When I moved to Utah my truck broke down a couple of days after I arrived. I remember driving into the Salt Lake Valley. My little Dotsun pickup was going about 35 mph as I flew past tooele on I-80. When I arrived at my new basement apartment I had less than $100 after paying for my first months rent and deposit. I certainly didn't have enough money to pay to get my truck fixed. FYI, that truck never ran again.

That limited my ability to find a job. I had my bike, and my legs. I looked all over downtown, and there wasn't a job to be found.

I remember begging to wash dishes at the Sizzler. I mean I begged the manager for a job washing dishes. The manager said there just wasn't enough work, and he had enough people. He said it was summer and he was fully staffed. Not a lot of work with the students being gone, and lots of people looking for work. I tried every fast food place in town. I almost had a job at a gift shop in a hotel down town until she asked if I had a car. I said I had transportation. She pressed so I finally I admited it was my bike, and that was the end of that. She was worried I wouldn't be able to make it out to the airport where the other gift shop was, and what was I going to do when winter came?

These were the guys working the register at the take out Pie the day we dropped in before the Utah vs. BYU game.

I was probably in town over a week before I found a job. I'm telling you I searched everyday all day on my bike with a white shirt and tie on. That was all the clothing I had. I had just got home from my mission a few months earlier, and really didn't buy too many new clothes. I saved my money to move to Utah. My clothes from before my mission didn't fit. I had grown from 5'7" to 5'11", and from 135 to 160 lbs. So all I had were old white shirts and a bunch of old ties.

I was running out of money, and knew I wasn't going to be able to pay my next month rent if I didn't hurry up and find a job. I was eatting as cheap as possilbe. I could buy 33 cent hot dogs at the gas station around the corner from my place. I ate a lot of those. Even after I found a job. Free mustard came with the hot dog! Woohoo! Mmmmm free mustard.

I was walking toward campus, and there was a sign for a pizza place called "The Pie", but I didn't see where it was. (Go to the link there. Watch the front page of the Pie's website. It will show the outside of the Pie and you can see the sign I kept walking past, and see how I missed the stairs that lead down below the pharmacy. fun!) I must have walked by the Pie about 20 times my first week in town before I noticed it. The Pie is located in the basement of an old brick building under a pharmacy just across the street from the U on the westside of the U of U campus. I had been a pizza cook at Rico's, Domino's, and Little Cesars in California. It seemed rather divine to me that day. They hired me and I started that night I think. You'd think I had won the lottery I was so excited! I worked nights until 12 on weekdays, and 1-2 am on weekends.

A little later I got a day job at the University of Utah bookstore. I wasn't making much more than minimum wage, but I didn't have many bills.

I fell in love with that pizza place, and the U during that time period. They were my life savers.

Didn't leave a lot of time for Suzi, and I to date. But those two jobs were anwers to some pretty intense prayers.

I remeber walking up to the U bookstore through president's circle in the morning. I didn't have enough money to go to school, but I wanted to be going to school there. I loved it. Such a beautiful campus. After the bookstore I walked down to the Pie, and worked there late just about every night.

I have no idea why Suzi continued to date a pizza making, bookstore working, no car having, no money having, no school going, living in Salt Lake bum like me.

I worked at those two places until Suzi, and I got married.

Communication seems so easy

That's my beautiful one there on the end of the bench next to the gaurd rail.

She sure did do a lot of trash talking there at the Utah vs. BYU football game for one sitting so high and close to the rail.

She came into my office a bit ago and put down the kitchen garbage can. "I'm not taking out the garbage" she said and walked away. Clearly it was full. I said as she walked away laughing "I don't know why you told me, you've got two boys".

Patrick happened to walk by a less than 30 seconds later, and of course he was assigned the task of taking it out. Appearently I wasn't clear with the instructions. I said "Patrick get that garbage out of here."

He interpreted that as most 11 year old boys would. He picked it up, walked it back to the KITCHEN, and put it away.....full.

I guess I have be real clear. FYI, he did take it out without complaint when asked correctly.