Live from Kansas City International Airport

This morning I’m at the airport in Kansas City, Missouri (pronounced “Miz-UR-ah” by the locals). I’ve been in training this week for a new system that we’re implementing at work, and I’ve been accompanied this week by Ernie Lovato, our IT guy. It’s a very cool system that allows you to integrate document management with your business applications (like accounting, HR, and so forth). We’re looking forward to getting that up and running over the course of the next few months.

Kansas City has been a nice town to visit. It’s a sizable metropolis on the border of Kansas and Missouri built on the banks of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. We stayed on the Kansas side of the city, but we ventured out into other parts this week.

Last Sunday, we took a trip out to Independence and Liberty, both suburbs of Kansas City. Independence and Liberty are significant sites to members of our faith.

Now, let’s jump into the Wayback Machine for just a moment: After persecutions in Ohio became too severe, the early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints moved to Jackson County, Missouri. At that time, Independence was on the western frontier of the United States, and the Saints perceived the area as safer from persecution. They started buying land, which drove up land prices, and so many moved in that they started controlling the vote in Jackson County. The locals were quite displeased with both of those facts, and this displeasure resulted in further persecution of the Saints, including the jailing of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., in the Liberty Jail.

So, Ernie and I decided that we’d go out and see some of the sites in the area. We tried to find the visitor’s center in Independence, but we got lost, so we headed up to Liberty, where we found some tourist signs that directed us the the “Historic Liberty Jail.” We got there and were able to take a tour of the jail where the Prophet was held for a little more than four months. As we looked at the dungeon, I came to appreciate the nearly 800 square feet of space we enjoyed in our old condo a lot more. The space they were held in was about 120 square feet, and was home to four grown men; the ceiling was only six feet tall, so a couple of them could never fully stand up. The missionary sister who gave the tour bore a very powerful testimony of the restoration of the gospel, and the spirit we felt was very strong.

After our tour, the missionaries gave us directions to the other significant historical sites in and around Jackson County, so Ernie and I headed south to Independence where we found the Visitors’ Center. We toured the Center, which is laid out similarly to the Visitors’ Centers in Salt Lake City. We got to hear a presentation on families, which was a really good presentation. They showed a film about families, and in the film they talked about missing their Grandma and Grandpa, and I cried a little because I miss mine. It was a nice presentation. I’m glad I went.

We walked around a bit and saw the temple and large meeting centers that belong to the Community of Christ (formerly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Reorganized), and the temple site held by the Church of Christ (also another break-off sect from the Church). According to the Sister Missionary we met with, there are 25 different sects in the Jackson County area that are broken off from the Church. She kind of smiled as she told us about her missionary experience, and not having to have people pray about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith, because they already have a testimony of both. The big missionary task in that area is helping people understand that President Monson is the prophet. That idea is so foreign to me.

After our excursion, we returned to our hotel, and relaxed. We stayed in a Residence Inn in Olathe, Kansas (pronounced “Oh-LAY-thuh”, and not “Oh-LAH-thay” as I had guessed). It was a very well-kempt hotel, and we enjoyed our stay there. There was a Bass Pro Shops store accros the street (very similar to Cabela’s), and we visited it one evening. There was an Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue place down the street, and we visited it on two occasions. The barbecue was absolutely fabulous. Wow.

Well, they just started boarding for our trip, so I better get this posted. Have a good weekend, and maybe we’ll talk more about this trip on another occasion.

Movies I Should See

So, I don’t have TV, and I don’t go to any movie theaters, so I really don’t know what kinds of cool movies have come out over the course of the past year. Yes, I know I could do something like look on Yahoo! Movies, but I don’t.

What kinds of movies could you, oh faithful readers, recommend? Please note that the movie has to have been released on VHS or DVD, because I won’t be heading to a theater any time soon. And why would I? Who needs a crowded, sticky theater when you have Dolby 5.1 Prologic and HDTV... Oh, doctor...

I may live in the wilderness, but there’s no need to live like an animal. Leave your movie ideas in the comments, if you please. And thanks in advance.

Happy Fathers Day, Charlie Brown

I used to have an orange shirt with a blue stripe in the middle. There wasn’t any sort of zig-zag pattern, and the shirt was orange instead of yellow. But every time I wore that shirt, Julie called me Charlie Brown. There are certain things Man was never meant to understand, and Woman is definitely one of them.

This is my eighth Fathers Day as a father (I don’t count the June when Julie was pregnant with James, otherwise this would be number nine.) and so far, this has been one of the most fun for me.

On Friday night, James and I got to go camping for a Fathers and Sons outing with our ward. We had a really great time. Our poor Elders Quorum President, Gary Ferrin, drove his Honda Accord, and from the stories I’ve heard, lost both a muffler and a tie rod on the rough dirt road. Fortunately, our 4Runner, while not techincally a truck, has a high clearance and a good skid plate, so we didn’t have any of those problems. One of the major (And I mean major; I doubt they get any more major than this one.) oil companies bought a few gorgeous tree-infested acres of land out in the foothills of the Wyoming range and created a small camping spot for its employees and their guests. One of the guys in the ward works for said company, and was able to reserve it for our group. The company, in conjunction with Trout Unlimited and a bunch of other groups, created a pond on the property for the raising of native cutthroat trout, and we got to fish in the pond on Saturday morning. James and I had a great time trying out his new rod, and catching a small mess of fish. We weren’t allowed to keep any, but we had fun anyway.

After we got home from our camping trip, we lazed around a bit, and then James said to me, “Dad, can we go fishing again this afternoon?” I told him I wasn’t sure, but that I would ask Julie. She thought it was a great suggestion, so we all piled into the 4Runner again, and drove up to Fremont Lake. Some of you may remember the design of this blog in one of its earlier incarnations, and Fremont Lake is the lake featured in the header photo. Here is a photo of Fremont Lake for those who don’t remember.

Lamentably, Fremont Lake was too windy for fishing. We would have been casting into the wind, and it just wasn’t feasible. So we tried the next lake up, which is Half-moon Lake. The kids asked why it was called half-moon lake, so I told the the legend of Aloucious Weizenheimer, the discoverer of the lake, who in his youth, was attacked by a grizzly; he survived the attack, but the grizzly got one of his buttocks, and Alouicious got a new nickname and that’s how the lake was called Half-moon lake. Julie tried not to smile, but she snickered a bit. The story went right over the kids’ heads, but hey, they’re seven and five; what can we expect? Half-moon lake wasn’t any better than Fremont lake, so Julie suggested that we try the CCC ponds, which are smaller ponds at the southern end of Fremont lake. Now, (put on your best professorial voice for this one) if we step back into the wayback machine, we’ll recall that CCC stands for,... what? That’s right Civilian Conservation Corps. There was a large CCC camp in Sublette county during the depression (one of the first in the country, according the BLM.), and the CCC built the ponds. They were nice little ponds, and there were plenty of fish, but we didn’t catch any. The scenery was lovely, though, and Anna learned how to cast by herself, so it wasn’t a total loss. We stayed up there until the sun went down, and then drove home where everyone crashed.

So, anyway, that’s what we did this weekend for Fathers Day. I don’t have any cute videos of kids singing, but I have great kids who love me and hang out with me and have fun even when we get skunked fishing, and that’s the best part about being a dad.

Well, here we go again.

It may astound and surprise you, but here I go again. I’m posting for the second time in as many weeks. Work has been busy, as predicted earlier, and I imagine that it will be even more busy over the next couple of days. Tomorrow’s tasks include the reconciliations of debt and fixed assets. If I were smarter, I would probably do a weekly update to keep my schedules in balance and be more aware of what is happening, but I don’t. So, I’m looking forward to a couple of long days. Such is life.

We had an enjoyable week this week. We got to travel down to Green River yesterday (Saturday) for a cub scout day camp. Julie is one of the den mothers in the area, which is why we got to go. An interesting aside: the Church is the chartered organization for purposes of scouting, but there are actually fewer LDS kids involved in cub scouting than there are LDS kids. I think it’s great; in Utah it seemed like everyone was afraid of scouts because it was a “Mormon” thing, but everyone up here is pretty comfortable with it.

Green River is about 2 hours south of Big Piney, on I-80 between Rock Springs and Lyman/Fort Bridger. It’s actually quite a pretty town, with lots of trees and grass (which my wife and kids so graciously pointed out [rubbed in my face], is quite unlike the barren desert where they live), built in a sort of wide canyon surrounded by tall sandstone cliffs and high desert hills. The town derives its name from the famous Green River that flows through the town. I learned yesterday that the town is the site where John Wesley Powell originated his famous float trip down the Colorado. I also saw for the first time in my life, municipal horse stables. Apparently the town makes available (I don’t know if you rent or buy like timeshare or what) stables for the folks who like to keep horses. The area taken up by these stables was quite large; it seemed big enough to cover all of the area held my the Midway Mall, and then some. But I digress.

For not knowing where we were going, nor how to get to the camp location, we got there with little incident. I missed one turn, but was able to save that with minimal loss of face, and then we drove right past the turn to the park where the scout camp was, but realized that quickly, and got to our destination a few minutes later. The weather was not cooperative yesterday (we saw a few snowflakes at home after we returned from camp), so the activities were all done inside a large barn that had been transmogrified into an archery range. It was dusty and noisy (oh boy was it noisy), but the kids all had a lot of fun. The leaders were all ready for whiskey and sleeping pills afterward, but we all survived. After I get a chance to do a little resizing and retouching, I’ll get a couple of photos up here for everyone to see.

Today we all enjoyed church together. Everyone, that is, except the congregation who had to suffer through my poor attempts to substitute as an organ player. Yikes. I played the first two hymns according to the direction of the chorister, as an accompanist ought to do, and boy did they drag. There are few things I hate more than hymns that are played slower than they should be. After the sacrament I sat down with Julie (who is friends with the chorister), and she explained that the chorister doesn’t really know how to lead, and she just follows the organ. Well, I tried to perk up the last two hymns of the afternoon, but I wasn’t very familiar with the last (I’ve sung it, but this may have been the first time I ever played it), and I hit several sour notes. Blech. I can tell it’s been a long time since I practiced regularly.

Well, that’s all I’ve got to say about that. I’ll sign off with a quick plug for Big Piney as a vacation destination. We’ve already got people making reservations for the summer time (and it really is gorgeous during the summer), so hurry and let us know when you’re coming before the dates you want get filled.

Life in Marbleton

Life for the Clarks in Marbleton continues. We haven’t gotten stuck in the truck, or lost any children to the wolves. I am always amazed by the wildlife that I see while I’m out running errands. I used to think that eagles were mystical creatures that nobody every saw except on the nature channel. Nah. We probably see either a bald eagle or a golden eagle every other week (and they are stunning to see, even when you do see them regularly). Every twice in a while I see deer in our neighborhood. Back as it started to get cold, I saw a huge 5-point buck browsing in our neighbors backyard. And pronghorn antelope are so plentiful, that you’d pretty much have to be blind not to see one. Moose are a little more rare, but in the nearly 12 months that I’ve lived up here, I’ve seen more moose than I saw in 30 years living in Salt Lake.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been up here a year. I’ll celebrate my one year residency on June 11th, and the kids and Julie celebrate theirs on or around the 27th. The time has passed quickly; I guess it’s true what they say about time flying when you’re having fun.

For those of you readers who may not know, or have only heard rumors, Julie is indeed with child. We’re expecting number three sometime in November. We’ll actually get to go on June 11th to the doctor for an ultrasound. I can hardly wait. When James was born there was huge anticipation for the ultrasound. We had it scheduled weeks in advance because our doctor didn’t have equipment in her office. It made the whole experience exciting. With Anna, we showed up at the doctor for an appointment, thinking that we might get to listen to a heartbeat or something like that, and then the doctor wheeled over an ultrasound, said, “It’s a girl” or something like that, and that was that. There wasn’t any anticipation, so it wasn’t quite as exciting as the first time, but it was still a great memory.

This is the first week of June, which means that I’m looking forward to a very packed week at work. The first week of a month is always busy because we’re trying to close our books. Last month was particularly hectic because of the board meeting. I’m hoping that this month will be a bit smoother, but I hear that there is lots of new debt and new assets, so I’ll be busy for a little while with reconciliations.

So, that’s what’s happening up here. I hope your life is just as exciting as ours. It looks like our next definite travel date in July 24th. We’re looking forward to the parade and seeing some people we haven’t seen for a while.