Gems

The title of this post does not refer to my wife or the kids, but refers to posts I find sometimes while engaging in the activity which, I understand, is know as "blog stalking.'' Blog stalking seems to refer to the practice of looking and following people's blogs who you have never met and would consider sitting in your car on their street watching them to see what interesting things they are up to...if you didn't have a life.  But since most of us are well-adjusted rational human beings and consider it too much trouble to open our own garage doors or actually get up and change the channel on the TV, I am about 50% sure I will never engage in said car-on-street stalking activity.

This blog entry http://idaholyoaks.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-09-05T08%3A36%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7 is from the blog of a professor at BYU Idaho who is concerned about the backlash against science and scientists in politics.  He has some authority to speak to this because he himself is a scientist.  Science, like most everything else in life, is imperfect but this does not mean its findings and results should not be considered and employed.  Unfortunately, even science that is basically unquestioned is ignored by good numbers of people-i.e., Utahns along the Wasatch front who refuse to do anything about our air pollution problem collectively or individually.  Anyway enjoy this post...or just skip it.  

I just hope he does not stalk me for posting a link to his blog.  

The Campout

 We went camping up Albion Basin over Labor Day Weekend. What a mess! We planned on camping with friends and family but Elena came down with Rosiola (hand foot and mouth disease) which scared everyone away. We offered to keep her home but they still didn't want to camp. Our brave nephew, Gabe, joined us and we had a great time. This picture is our tin foil dinner.

                              It was delicious: ham, turkey, potates, zucchini, carrots and corn.

 Our nephew accidently spilled water on Paul at dinner. Too bad he didn't pack another pair of shorts or pants.

 It was impossible to keep shoes on this kid.

 We forgot hangers for smores so Gabe made us some roasting sticks.

                                                                             Boys love fire!!

 It was freezing that night, the kids joined us on our air matress because they were freezing.

 Elena fell in the fire and I quickly grabbed her out but not before burning her hair, her left cheek and thumb. Poor kid! Her hair was most badly burned, I guess we will be cutting a short bob again.

 This rock was Elena's baby, she even rocked it and sang rock-a-bye baby.

                                             The boys protected Elena's "babies" from Paul.

                                          We hiked up Cecret Lake and it was beautiful (and crowded).

                                                    Tired and hungry after our hike.

                                                    Beautiful view on our way home.

Six Minute Mile

Who wants to be distracted from a view like this?

So earlier this spring Shauna and I made some goals for various parts of our lives. One of my goals was to train so that I could run a 5 minute mile. I had never really tested myself with the single mile before. I have been able to consistently run 10K at around a 7:30 per-mile pace.

I thought that a good challenge would be to lower my 10K pace by seeing how fast I could run the mile-something akin to a speed workout. I have been fiddling with the mile all summer long along, but this has usually taken a back seat to my longer runs and weight training.

Well I hopped on the treadmill this morning and started my run with about 1.5 miles at a 6:53 pace. At the 1.5 mile mark I kicked it up to a 6:00 mile pace. About .5 miles in I was pretty sure I was not going to be able to hold the pace for the next .5 miles because I could feel my legs starting to fatigue. (This is the one virtue that I have found with the treadmill--that it makes it harder to break your pace since it is constant task master.) Well, I decided that I was going to muscle through the last .5 miles and barely made it without falling on my face and being shot off the back of the treadmill. So now the bar is raised (at least on the treadmill).

Shauna says I should run with music and assures me it will help me run faster. I also recently read an article in the NY Times about this exact thing and the conclusion of the article was the same. Mostly though I don't want to feel like I need music when I am out on a beautiful trail running and I have plenty of thoughts to keep me company and motivate me. Also, the lawyer in me seems to think that more and more races will ban such devices for safety's sake. So why not just be ready and not have to ween myself for races that don't allow headphones?

The "Summer Harvest"

Well we had one of our largest harvests of the year from our garden.  We have several tomato plants which have quite a bit of fruit on them and we have been looking forward to large amounts of fresh tomatoes.  The problem is that one member of our family does not quite understand that one is supposed to wait until the fruit is ripe before you pick it (see below).  Ah, yes you have got to love that little turd Elena.  

Fish Man

Joaquin and Paul went to Aunt Rose and Uncle Gus' for a pool party on Saturday. It was a dream come true for our fish man. You have to watch this kid close because he has no fear of the water. When we were in Kauai last year, he would just run and jump in the pool when no adult was around. If we saw him heading for the adult pool we had to chase after him and pull him out of the pool sputtering and choking...but five seconds later he was jumping in again.

Well, it was more of the same today, although his swimming lessons are starting to pay off as he can now flail his way to the side of the pool. He went off the diving board what seemed like several thousand times (this was because I (Paul) had to tread water under the diving board waiting for him to jump).

Vince's kids were also there and Joaquin had a blast playing with them. We also enjoyed the hamburgers, watermelon, root beer, cookies, and brownies. This was really quite a day.

Joaquin off the deep end (Nana needs some work on her photography skills).

Not at the BBQ, but earlier with some friends.

Dad and Joaquin enjoying the water.

Esther with Vince's kids battling with squirt guns.

Vince with the serious beard. He also plays a mean didgeridoo.

The Shutts hanging out.

Nana and Rose. Two very similar personalities...right.

We had a fun afternoon with some of good friends from Ridgedale today. We all went to the park and had a picnic and let the little ones run around and play together for awhile. Then we went and got ice cream. Here are the results.

Laney with chocolate face and hands, and feet, hair, etc.

Some of the Ridgedale friends.

One more of the chocolate covered child.

Scout Camp

Paul survived scout camp this past week notwithstanding the gasoline, guns, mountain bikes and bears. Fun enough it was the moutain bikes that turned out to cause the most causualties. The last day they also had a major marshmallow gun war where the arms race was in full display with Bro. Jordan ending the battle shooting chewed up marshmallows. It was a fun week and the stake and potato dinner was awesome.

Brother Jordan in his scout shirt.

Brother Cope with his scout seat. Cardboard? Really?

Sean showing his rifle skills.

Nice work Zak.

Bishop Fuller making sure all is safe and well at the range.

Summer Activities

Paul had Youth Conference and Scout camp this past month which was wet and cold and hot and dry which is what you should expect in the mountains.

One funny story happened at lunch one afternoon when all of the youth and leaders had just sat down to eat (about 200 people). The Stake Young Men's President stood up with an announcement and promptly stated that we would all be "making love." Well, you can imagine how this went over with the youth, when they all started to laugh and cheer, and one young man next to me said "finally!" I am not sure what he was trying to say, and I know he had just had surgery on his vocal chords, but man....it was the funniest thing I have heard in a while. Good times at Youth Conference.

All in all it was a blast and a great experience for youth and adults alike. Here are a few pictures from Youth Conference.

Ethan looking like Lawrence of Arabia.

Ahh...true Christians.

Jake after washing hair on day three.

Paul trying his hand at the sling.

Ludwig Family Reunion

We had our 2nd bi-annual family reunion in a beautiful home up in Midway, Utah. Midway is a quaint little town with lots of character. We loved being together and watching the cousins interact. Some highlights were boating and kayaking on Jodanelle, riding the alpine slides and coaster (for the little ones it would be riding the merry-go-round and up and down airplanes), running/hiking trails, listening to Mike's band play at a white trash party, making smores around the fire pit, staying up way too late, and playing a fun new card game (Mormon Bridge taught to us by Tiffany).

Tahoe Relay

Shauna and I like a good challenge--the problem is this often works to our detriment. We usually do several road races or triathlons during the year despite our lack of time to train. Jon Glen can relate to this. We have done the Tahoe Relay the last two years and it has been a blast. For those of you not in the know--the Tahoe Relay is a 72 mile relay race which winds its way all the way around Lake Tahoe. There are 7 legs of roughly 10 miles each. Our team has done relatively well coming in somewhere in the mid twenties out of about 120 teams the last two years. Below are some photos of the race as well as some R & R after the race.

Elena and Joaquin fueling up on ice cream. I think this was bowl number 3.

Here is a shot I took just after sunset on the north shore of Tahoe at King's beach.


Our team "A Herd of Turtles" at the finish line. I cannot recall everyones name, so maybe Shauna can add them later when her superior memory gets home.

Elena and Joaquin doing what they love to do--play in the sand and water.

Shauna powering up the hill from Emerald Bay.

Elena looking just like her mother powering up the beach while being shot at by an Amish kid.

Deer outside the cabin.