Shirts and Skins

Just after dinner tonight we played football in our front room. it's really more of a game of "tackle" as Logan loves to play. I'm not exactly sure how it became a shirts and skins game, but boys will be boys.



Logan is turning into quite the athlete. We played baseball when I got home from work today and he's actually hitting the ball when someone pitches it to him.

Man Camp (Warning material in this post may contain offensive material to women)

Friday marked an annual event celebrated by thousands of families throughout Utah. Friday was the eve of the Deer Hunt! Saturday morning with the rising sun, marked the time trigger happy hunters can unleash a furry of hot lead through the air to "bag their deer." This annual event has been celebrated for over a century now (unofficially dating back to 1847) in our state.

As for me and my house we come from a more refined family. When we need meat we prefer to go to Peterson's grocery store, or when there is a particularly good deal we have been known to go to Costco. While Costco sell a mighty tasty cut of meat, it's not as adventurous nor is there much of a story to be told. "Hey Brother Smith, last week I went to Costco and got me a rump roast," would get me laughed out of Elders Quorum.

In the spirit of the Deer Hunt opening weekend, each year I take my boys to MAN CAMP. This is an amazing bonding time for me and the boys, and it gives a much needed break to Jill who is pretty much with the boys 100% of her life.

Friday morning we began our journey to Man Camp when my dad and mom came by to pick us up in their truck. Why is your mother coming to Man Camp you might ask? When the boys heard Grandpa was coming with us to man camp they insisted on Grandma coming as well. Mom's help at Man Camp was terrific and the boys loved having her with us.

So were driving south and we find ourselves just North of Beaver and Logan cries out, "I need to go to the bathroom!". There isn't a town in sight, so we pull over to the side of the road and let Logan do his thing. Now peeing outside is just one of the many benefits of Man Camp. The one small problem is I hadn't taught Logan yet about peeing into the wind. So there we were on the side of the road and pee all over his pants. No problem. At man camp, I just grabbed his pajama bottoms and let him wear them until his pants could dry out.

We finally pulled into our mountain property in the mountains of Cedar City.




The boys couldn't wait to get out on the ATV's! So with Logan's newly dried pants we got on the 4 wheelers and went for a 3 hour ride!



Landon LOVES the ATV! Each day I take him and his brother out on an ATV ride down our canal road, but this ATV riding is at an entirely new level for him. We saw the beautiful fall colors, some sheep, and even some deer, that provided they took refuge on our property, might live to see next years deer hunt.



At night we had a fire to keep warm, and despite our efforts to tell the children not to touch the stove, we might as well have been telling them not to touch the "candy". They were both burned that night.



After the burns were taken care of we went to bed. Another great perk from Man Camp is when it's time to sleep we get to sleep in sleeping bags.


Man Camp is also a time that we drop the fence that surrounds the property to protect it from the heavy snow that falls each winter. Mom watched the boys while Dad and I dropped the fence.

The entire trip was so much fun. The boys were able to do so many things that are built into their DNA, but are bridled by societies social norms. They ate candy without limits, stayed up late at night, and last but not least their favorite part of Man Camp was:

See, you get yourself 3 or 4 good pals; then you've got yourself a tribe. And there ain't nothing stronger than that.

That line of course came from William H. Bonney a.k.a. Billy the Kid as spoken by Emilio Estevez in Young Guns.



I fully recognize that most of my avid readers are the women of the Bryant, Pearson, and Bunkall families. I thank you for following the life and times of "ME", but ladies if you will please hand over the laptops to your husbands because this entry is a MAN BLOG! Really anyone can read, however this entry isn't filled with pretty pictures of my boys or how I "feel" about something. This blog is a tale of guns, chainsaws, trucks, and of course words I learned while on the farm.




This is our family tree. When we bought our home 8 years ago there were only two trees in the front yard. We planted some trees along the park strip to ensure we would have some trees when we were ready to cut down the big cottonwood tree. Sure it is a pretty tree that provided much shade for our family to play under in the hot summer months. However everyone should know that cottonwoods are a poor mans tree. They grow quickly, but are very week and love to blow over onto your neighbors house. This tree is less than 1/2 the size it would grow to if we were to let it continue to grow. Short term it's a great tree, but long term it had to go. It would be a chore to remove, but the longer I wait the worse it's going to be; so I begin.



It all began on Saturday after Dad and brother-in-law Brian came over to go shooting. The ward had our turkey shoot where we went to the other side of Utah Lake and shot hundreds of clay pigeons. After a terrific showing at the competition (let's just say Jills got a turkey to cook sometime soon), Dad and Brian helped me fall the tree.



Normally you would just fall the tree in one cut, but because I didn't want to take out my neighbors cars, house, or my house for that matter, we took the tree down in pieces. Sure a branch landed on the house and scared the bejesus out of Jill and Landon, but the tree came down without incident. So this is what we had at the end of a long Saturday.



Later the next week I spent hours digging around the tree and cutting out the root system so a neighbor could come by and pull it out with his truck. My neighbor came over and we pulled.....and pulled. Even his big diesel powered Ford truck couldn't pull this tree from the root system that held it in place. A few other neighbors came over and after 5 men spent 2 hours digging, and picking, and chainsawing, we tried again. This time the stump actually moved!...about 2 inches.

One of the neighbors had been teasing the other because he had been driving a Ford. After he continued to chide, we called him out, and he brought over his Dodge diesel powered truck. Surely with TWO high powered trucks the root ball would come up right? WRONG!



it did budge a bit, but did not come free. We spent another few minutes digging deeper around the root ball, and finally just before we were ready to give up, it happened!



It finally broke free and the two trucks working side by side were finally able to accomplish the task. I find it symbolic that it took the Dodge and Ford to perform the job. This of course can be used in a good Priesthood lesson about diversity and working together we can accomplish more. Old and Young, Black and White, let us rejoice in our differences and use our individual strengths to "pull out the rootball" problems in our lives.... For a minute I forgot my audience in this blog entry is for the men. Sorry Men. Better put, with 5 men digging cutting and pulling, 2 full size trucks, and the grace of God we pulled that damn thing from the earth that held it in her clutches!



Of course a huge shoutout to my neighbors who helped me. Without you this would not have been possible. It's good to know I've got such great "pals".

Viva la Sin City

Last week I found myself in, of all places, Las Vegas. It's been a few years since I have been to Vegas. In fact you have to go back to my college days when we would drive down for the all you can eat buffet. As a college kid who didn't particularly care to cook, eating at a buffet was a piece of heaven. I would try and eat my weight in food (215 lbs) so I could get a value out of the $15 I spent on dinner.

Early in my life I learned not to gamble. In fact before I was even legal to gamble, my Mother had taken me to the slots and I had spent hours of fun at the nickel machines. It was when I had lost some serious money, about $20, that I realized I work to hard just to loose my money in the Casino. It would take almost 4 hours of working in the motel to make $20, and I didn't want to loose it all in the turn of a card.

Which brings me back to my business trip in Las Vegas. Wouldn't you know that scheduled right at the same time as our Contractor Convention was the International Lingerie Show. I had to walk through this hallway each day to attend the classes for my work. I think it was one of those days that I had some serious reflection.

There were beautiful girls all over Las Vegas and they all wore clothing that would not satisfy the For the Strength of Youth standards. There is no possible way that Las Vegas could produce so many beautiful women. Many of these girls are transplants from other cities all over the country. IF I had a daughter, and IF she told me she wanted to go work in Las Vegas, I'm not sure how I would respond. It would probably be violent and get me into a lot of trouble.

Las Vegas is the City of Sin. At every turn in the Casino, wickedness was present. I am so used to the safe haven that home provides, I forget how it is out there on the outside. I am far from perfect, but in Vegas I felt like a saint.

Having performed a marriage ceremony earlier this year, I did try to magnify my talents and wed anyone who was looking for a beautiful last minute marriage ceremony. No luck.

At the end of the day Las Vegas is not a place I need to see again anytime soon. It was a nice reminder of all things good in my life. I have a beautiful wife, wonderful family, and a stable life. But don't have to get dirty to appreciate being clean. Being clean feels good all by itself.

College Football Season

It's a beautiful thing when the air gets a little cooler, the kids begin school, I don't have to mow my lawn EVERY week, and football season begins. Fall is an amazing time of the year and it all "kicked off" for me yesterday as I attended the BYU season opener yesterday. Sure the game was amazing as the Cougars rolled their opponent, but I would like to blog about the amazing experience the game provides to the high rollers.

Now I'm an important "big shot" at the bank so I get to do a lot of fun things in the name of entertaining clients. Yesterday's experience in Provo I got to watch the game the way the most elite cougar fans watch. Compliments of my brother (he got his bosses tickets) Dad, Jake, Becky Jo and I all went to the game a bit early and had the pre game dinner. The food was amazing! Not the, little hole in the wall best Chinese food ever, amazing. More like the little tiny roll with a small piece of meat and onion amazing. My favorite was the meat balls next to the BBQ sauce fountain. The food was good, but you could tell it was very EXPENSIVE. In fact one of the young starving students who was working for BYU Food Services was cutting the prime rib. I asked her, "is that a dull knife or is the mean just not very tender? Is it good?" Her reply "I don't know they don't let us eat it."

That's where I agree with BYU. By no means should the young struggling students be allowed to eat the same food that "WE" the high rollers in the Blue Zone should be allowed to eat. There is a class system that must be followed and those young undeserving students should not be allowed to blur the line between classes. It would have been nice though if she could have told if it was any good.

Not only did we get free food, but there were others there offering free bottled water and drinks that the regular fans have to pay $3 for. Also someone was there handing out ribbon wrapped LL Bean long sleeve Fleeces. Of course I took my fleece and left it in my assigned seat in the Blue Zone while I went out and watched the game.

It was the first time seeing a game in a seat rather than on the bleachers. The seats were incredible I sat right on the 46 yard line. Here's what I saw.



Of course at halftime we went back to our seat in the air conditioned Blue Zone and had some snacks. The snacks were more regular guy kind of snacks. Candy bars, cookies, drinks etc they were all really good. I was a bit hungry at the game because I had ran a race that morning and couldn't get full (1/2 marathon in 1:53 not to shabby for an old fat man).

The experience overshadowed the game as the opponent wasn't very good and the Cougs rolled over them. Next home game I'll go back to my regular bench seat and enjoy watching the game paying full price for my bottle of caffeine free diet sprite.

Good luck to the Cougs on their Quest For Perfection!

The Skipper and Gilligan

Some pictures are worth a thousand words. Others are like the Visa card commercial says are...."priceless".

Saturday I decided that the boys are now old enough to take out on a boat ride. One of the benefits of our home is that it backs up to a canal. From the time we bought our home we have had a canoe. It is seldom used until now. Logan and Landon LOVE riding in the boat. They love rolling up on the ducks and waving to children playing in their own backyard. I find it very peaceful paddling up and down the canal with the boys. They hold very still as to not tip us over, and love to ride under the bridge. When they get a little older and get their canoeing merit badge then...... Then, we can tackle the WATERFALL!

As for now, each day when I come home from work, the boys want to go for a canoe ride. As we finish our trip, I call Jill on the cell phone and she puts down her book (you all know which one), and she comes out to collects the boys.

When the canal drains we will have to put a seasonal end to this tradition, but until then each day we will set sail!

Race Eve

So my lovely wife is planning on running her 1st 10K fun run tomorrow. She's not exactly feeling the "Fun" part right now. She has some anxiety which reminds me of many times before in my life when I too was feeling a bit queasy about running.

Jill has prepared well and put in some good training runs leading up to this point. But it's right now (8 hours before the race) that you can't help but feel as if you should have put in more time in training. It's just like Thomas Monson has said many times quoting an unknown author, "When the time for performance has arrived, the time for preparation has passed."

I too have felt this way many times most recently a few years ago the night of my first marathon. Thoughts haunted me, "Why am I even doing this? I can't run this far, Running isn't even fun." But of course this is just Stinkin' Thinkn'. Lessons learned from running can be compared to lessons that we can apply to our lives.

Of course running isn't the most fun thing to do all of the time, but when you do it you feel so much better the rest of the day. The day of a big race isn't so much about running, as it is about following through with a goal. It's about challenging yourself to do something more with your life, and the race itself is a culmination of some terrific training runs. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith once sang, "Life's a journey not a destination." The training runs should be as much a part of the race as crossing the finish line. In fact even crossing the finish line doesn't end the journey. The last step of your first 10K is actually the first step of your next 10K.

One of my favorite things to remember before a race is some of the best advise Hollywood has ever given. It came from the mouth of a drunken baseball manager speaking to a woman baseball player who wanted to quit. He said to her as she complained that baseball just got to "hard". "It's supposed to be hard, if it wasn't hard everyone would be doing it. Hard is what makes it great!" No truer words have been spoken about all rewarding things in life, and it came from the great Tom Hanks as spoken to Gina Davis in A League of Their Own. (Malena post that clip on your website).

I have all the confidence in the world that Jill will run a terrific race. If anything it will be a memory for a very long time as she is surrounded by those she loves most who are also running tomorrow. To Jill, Jen, Shanel, Kandis, and Jodi, good luck tomorrow as you run, and know that it will indeed be "hard". Hard is what makes it great.




This is me crossing the finish line at the St. George Marathon, and my family gathered around me after the finish.