It's a boy.

It's a boy, it's a boy, it's a boy. Yay for our family. However, I do have to admit- I just might miss shopping for little girls. Any name suggestions? I probably won't take advice, but who knows, since Cameron is still stuck on Cyrus...

St George Thanksgiving

I guess anyone who checks in with our facebook pages, has seen these pictures.. But I figured I'd update our blog page too. Our trip to St George was an awesome end to a fun week. Even Cori was blabbering on about all the fun she had... Airplanes, and boats, and the beach, and the car ride, and hiking, and swimming, and grandma and grandpa, and trains... Of course it's much cuter coming from her mouth. It was so nice for Cameron to be able to take the whole week off. That hasn't happened in... I don't know the last time. Too long.
While we were in St George, we were determined to get out and enjoy the amazing scenery, but our first day there the skies opened up, and poured. Did that stop us? Nah. We all put on coats that were at least semi-waterproof, and went on one of our favorite hikes with my Dad. It ends up overlooking Snow Canyon State Park, and is breathtaking. Isaiah and Ali fought most of the way, the stinkers. We found a big tree root that was in the shape of an A, for Ali- and that started a game meant to distract them from fighting. The "find letters made out of nature" game was a hit... but soon caused more fights. "I saw it first!" "No, I did!" "Cheater, you moved that!" And everything else you can imagine. But it WAS fun. It's amazing how many letters, and numbers they found naturally occurring.
Here's the pic of that first "A". About 3/4 of the way there, Isaiah got very pouty. It was kind of cold, but the rain was finally starting to let up. But not his attitude. "-) "I hate hiking." "Why did we even come?" " I wish I would have just stayed home." Wah Wah Wah. Ali was such a good sport. Cori, too- but she was carried most of the way so we didn't have to wait for her. She fell asleep about the time it stopped raining. She was totally out on her Dad's shoulders.This is Cori, Curled up for her nap, as her brother and sister played around.

We got to the top, and enjoyed the view (While I was freaking out about the kids being to close to the ledge.) Grandpa saved the day by bringing snacks, that lifted Isaiah's spirits some. Cameron started a game of hide and seek with Isaiah and Ali. They had a lot of fun.


This was Cameron's favorite hiding place. Isaiah wouldn't leave, so Ali found him pretty easy though.

See the smile on Isaiah's face? That was about the time I heard him say. "This place is so much fun!" Then he looked at me, saw that I was listening, and added to 'himself', "But I still hate it, and I wish I never came on the stupid hike!" He didn't fool us. The walk back down went a lot faster, of course. The sun even shone on us a little. We got back from the hike, and got busy making dinner. Cameron brought our turkey fryer, and we set about preparing a dinner yummier than Thanksgiving day. The turkey was scrumptious!


At night time, after the kids were safely tucked in at Grandpa and Grandma's house... Cameron and I went over to my cousins' home to play cards and visit. We did this a few nights while we were there, and it was a lot of fun seeing my favorite cousins!


Thursday we had our semi-annual Holt reunion. (My Mom's brothers' and sisters' families. ) There was only around 100 people there this year, a low number from years past. I love these reunions, the tradition is older than I am.
Friday, we took part in a newer tradition. For the last 5 years or so, the Holt family makes up the cast the first night of the Live Nativity at the Tuachan. Cameron is not as crazy about this tradition, although he is a marvelous actor. The kids enjoyed it, and loved the hot chocolate and donuts Aunt Jan provided for us after the show.
Ali loved playing an angel with her cousins Shaunelle and Briana.

Can you see the pure joy Cam feels to be there?

Aren't we a precious family?

Saturday, the last day before we went home, Grandpa Esplin took us to Red Cliffs State Park. I have always loved it there, I used to go hiking and swimming there when I went to Dixie. It was a perfect place for the kids to hike. Not to difficult, and lots of places to climb and explore.


Ali would have posed as Pocahontas every picture if I let her, but I am super mean- I made her smile some.Cori had such a fun time climbing up little rocks and sliding down hills.

Isaiah was as brave as his Dad, but gave us a heart attack when he was off on his own. We heard him scream, then start crying. I pictured him at the bottom of a cliff, or at least with a broken leg. But it was minor, he just fell down a bit, and cut his knee on a sharp rock.


Cori was Grandpa's girl for the hike.

Wrapping up the week, on Sunday, I was sick for the first part of the drive home Sunday. Blagghh. I fell asleep, and woke up when Cameron exited to find the hot springs he had been excited to find. It ended up being a really super fun place. The water was perfect, bathwater temperature. And it was so pretty. Absolutely unexpected out in the middle of nowhere.

After running in circles and jumping up and down for 15 minutes, because, 'it's good for your heart.'... "Cori, do you want a drink of water? I just went and got it. It's really good water. And it's not even toilet water!"

Vacation week

This week has been a full week. Tara and I decided to use her Jet Blue benefits for the first time. We flew to New York to see the sights. We didn't want to stay overnight because of the hotel prices there. We just walked all over the city and sped around on the subway system. It is a colorful city, we were about the only white people we saw with the exception of tourists from Europe.

The Statue of Liberty was pretty cool. We were really cold and tired by the time we got there. The statue of Liberty has made its way into our group of immortal national figures, that artists and directors use regularly in their craft. Ben Franklin, George Washington, Honest Abe, The Bald Eagle, Francis Scott Key, Paul Revere, General Patton... in all these figures the Statue of Liberty embodies all the ideals that they stand for. I felt that most of the people there were just there to get a picture for their collection without realizing the gravity and the important message and purpose Lady Liberty has. Of course it was 30 degrees and everyone wanted to be on their way quickly.

This is a really cool poem about the Statue of Liberty. It is written by Emma Lazarus.

"The New Colossus"
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

That night, Tara had to go directly back to SLC so she could work on Sunday. I took the kids on the flight to San Jose, and we spent a day and a half with my Mom and Dad. We were at the Atlantic ocean one day, and the Pacific the next.

The kids had so much fun climbing the redwood tree. Ali got stuck, and I had to go up to her rescue. Isaiah climbed 2/3 of the way to the top. Tara couldn't have handled it, so it's good she wasn't there. At the beach, I dug a big ol' trench, and all the kids around gravitated to it. We were preparing for the beach invasion. While I was there, I beat Tara's score at Geo Challenge. It's pretty funny how competitive we are with each other. It's only a matter of time before she beats me, and I'll have to up my game again. That's how we keep the romance alive. Geo Challenge love.

Constitution of the United States

Constitution of the United States
Originally uploaded by The Adventures of Tiff & Sean

Looked like the real thing.

Catch up

Texaco Mexico Pepsico Calexico with the California kicks kicks kicks and the super cooley tricks. That is one of Ali's little jump rope songs/ryhmes. Sorry we haven't posted in a while tough times. I have been getting written up at both my jobs. Job security is good at UPS but not at the JLTC. All the orders I write up have a clause saying continuation of order dependent on funding. Funding might go away with Obama. We are going to St George for Thxgvg and hopefully take a trip to California for the first time on Jet Blue. The week of ThxGvg may be a problem.
Does anyone have a boss or management that breathes down your neck or watches your every move? I do and it stinks. I don't just stop at one mistake I dwell on it and get flustered and think about it intensely and then I make a whole separate mistake. I don't want to list all of them but I always get a UPS truck that takes unleaded. Last Saturday I get in my truck go to top off the tank and after I finish I realize I just put unleaded gasoline in a diesel engine. Hope they don't fire me after peak. They will use me until peak is over then fire me probably.
Good people of California came together and made their voices heard. The side that lost is now beginning to persecute the church. Its very touching that they put out these very personal human interest stories about how Joe was partners with Bob for forty years and they loved each other more than any straight couple ever loved each other and how they didn't have any visitation rights or whatever because they were "gay". I know how these journalists work. Just like Stephanie Meyer gets us to love Bella and root for her; these columnists make these characters in their stories very likable and endearing. Don't fall for it and let pure emotion and sympathy take precedence over righteousness and practicality. Don't be guilted into changing your view by people calling you "haters" hate the sin not the sinner as they say. If you haven't heard there has been a major increase in vandalism to LDS churches along the Wasatch Front. Broken windows and one attempted arson.
For those of you that have read the Book of Mormon I suspect that the Gaddianton robbers were homosexual. That I remember there is zero mention of females or children among them and they always want people to join them. Reminds me of the City of Sodom and Gomorrah "send your men out that we may know them". Genesis. I probably misquoted but that was the gist of it.
It is getting way late I am going to bed before I go further into abstract and meaningless subjects. Maybe I will write again this weekend.

A Halloween post, intending to make Christine so homesick- she comes home!

Cameron's sister, Christine, has been living with her husband and three boys in Turkey. Our goal in writing this post is to make her so homesick for her favorite brother, her in- laws, and all her nieces and nephews... that she realize that Turkey is no fun. Utah is better. Come home!

This first picture is poor, sorry! It's the very end of the night, and every kid in sight was chasing and tackling Jason, because they didn't want him to go.


Right before we left, Cam was teasing Ewan, tickling and grabbing him from the car. I picked him up and handed him through the window to Cameron, and Peter said, "Yes, take him home please, he eats way too much. You can keep him." Anna ran into the house crying. Peter and Wendy thought it was because they had told her she needed to go change into pajamas... Nope, she really thought her Dad was giving Cuppy away.

A Halloween video at the Morkel's home.

You Missed a good party! And they even had real, ORANGE pumpkins!Ali Jump roping from house to house. Cecily made a cute bumble bee.

Ewan said he didn't get that scar when he fell from his second story window, into the basement window well below... It's just part of the costume- don't worry.

This one you really have to strain your eyes on... They were running so fast they were too far away to get a good picture. It's Anna, in her pink princess gown, chasing Isaiah, the fearless ninja. As you can imagine, he deserved it.

Cam borrowed Ewan's glasses for this Gandhi Pic. This is between hunger strikes.



Here's Ian, Peter and kids on the trick- or -treating circle.

Happy Halloween

So getting Cori to wear a costume took bribery... Luckily we happened to have candy on hand. She was a slow poke, so she ended up on Daddy's shoulders half the time. Can you see her hiding behind her Nemo costume?
Ali and her cousin, Jessica at the Springville main street trick-or-treat.

Looks likes a candy coma, doesn't it?


Isaiah, the Ninja... he is a sneaky little crapper.


Our angel, Ali at the school halloween parade.

Saturday drive to Dugway

Way sucky got tired had to get out to do some jumping jacks to stay awake. Went to Crystal Hot Springs with the kids again. Had a super bad tooth ache had to leave church with the kids in tow. Had a root canal today way fun by the way. Feels like someone used a dewalt drill in my mouth. Jack hammer is more accurate as to how it feels now. Not even the 800 mmgs ibuprofen fully takes away the pain. Cori had her tiger cake for her third birthday. Tara thinks she liked her little animals and dolly the most. Savers toys!, awesome, she doesn't know the difference. Fighting a cold and a cough it is crappy will be looking for jobs again this next month. Tara will be adding more pictures of Cori's party we used a different camera and it will take a while to figure out how to transfer the pics. See you next time something out of the ordinary happens.

copyright infringment

I read my wife's cousins blog tonight about her quirks. I thought to myself that those aren't very strange quirks except for maybe the one about not liking to run into people. I gave it some thought and found out that I have some pretty odd quirks too. I don't know if I will be able to come up with seven tonight but there are a couple that stand out.

1. When I eat cereal in the morning I pour milk into the cereal until I see the first flake or puff or FMW or cheerio move. Then I proceed to rotate my bowl clockwise and tamp down the cereal into the milk so none of it is extremely dry or sharp on my gums.

2. I firmly believe that 2% milk is the only way to go. I have a near philosophy on the matter. Why drink milk at all if it is closer to being water than milk. Why is milk good for you?... because of the calcium right? Well calcium is white and when the color of skim milk is opaque or less white than the two percent that would indicate that something has been lost. Women that drink skim milk are drinking it because they don't want to exercise to work off the chub they accumulate from watching three hours of soaps a day. I compromised with my wife and drink 1% but whole milk is another story. If you are going to drink whole milk why not just buy a cow. There is a scripture that says "delight in fatness" so a little fat isn't all bad.

3. Hamburgers. I eat them a certain way that nobody I know does except maybe the people that have seen the superiority of my method. I set the hamburger on top of my hand and rotate it depending on where the drips come out of. Clockwise too by the way. After all if its good enough for Father time its good enough for me. My method is cleaner and more effective. Your hands don't get greasy by squeezing out the guts of the burger they remain clean and clear of any sauce, grease or other debris that comes out of the hamburger. If you are skeptical try eating a Carls Junior six dollar burger, (specifically the guacamole bacon) without spilling anything out of it. I have accomplished it with my hamburger eating method. Let me know and be honest zero spills.

4. If I wake up in the morning and stub my toe or something super crappy happens in the first fifteen minutes of being awake I am next to certain that my whole day is going to suck badly.

5. At UPS I have to throw my last bag on the belt or disaster will befall me. Other people can throw the others on but not the first or the last. It is a serious superstition.

6. Toothpaste should exit the tube a certain way. From the bottom up. Not from the middle out or from top to bottom. I am pretty sure I picked that one up from old Dad. No excess needs to be left gumming up the cap area.

7. Since basic training I fold my shirts just a certain way. If they are folded otherwise I refold.

8. I am particular about the way I hang my pants. I place the first two belt loops together on each side of the button or snap. I don't rehang pants though not as big a priority on my list of quirks.

9. Sorry girls but I cannot drive as a passenger to a woman without being very nervous to the point of near hyperventilation. This is attributed to Alice Martineau who rolled her Geo metro in a blizzard on a mountain pass in Northern Nevada with me as the passenger.

10. I am ultra sensitive to the ground shaking ever since the 7.1 earthquake of 89 in Los Gatos Ca. if you want to play a good joke on me lift a desk up and shake it a bit while I am sitting on it and you will see the worlds fastest human.

So I came up with ten; more than I expected but I think they are diverse quirks and some of them I take some pride in as you may have been able to tell. My youngest daughter takes after me and she can be very difficult sometimes. So yes I know I need to keep these things to myself to avoid warping my childrens brains.

Provo trip

Robyn and me went to Provo and picked grapes at one of my sisters past places of residence. I am terrible at doing video I don't talk enough or I talk too much. I either keep too still or I move around too much. You will see what I mean when I post these videos. Watch for the fabled you'll put your eye out actually happen with Isaiah and Ali on the fence. Bed time see you next time.

soccer

Here are some recent videos of lagoon and soccer. My wife erased one of my posts that had some cool links on it. Dadsagainstdrugdealers.com, kirstin roper photography, and weburbanist.com. I have a secret everyone; something that Tara doesn't want her mom my aunt Robyn to know about. I played another game with gays and dolls, oops guys and dolls coed team last night. I didn't have such a good night as last time. The coed teams only allow guys to touch the ball three times per possesion, that really lowers your chances of getting a goal. I think I might join a mens team instead. Our van got a flat, lame. We go to Provo soon I will take pictures of your old house Christine maybe get you homesick enough to come back.

Here's a horrible pic (I need a new phone.) of Cori going to town with her, "Chocolate Hot." She loves it.
Cori's funny joke of the day... She made it up. You can't tell where her political influence comes from, can you?
"Knock Knock." "Who's there?" "Obama eats poo-poo."

cori's only swimming pool

I have taken my kids swimming quite a bit throughout the years. Our third child Cori always is a party killer when it comes to swimming though. "I'm cold daddy I want to go hooome." So this weekend I thought I would try out Crystal hot Springs in Honeyville Utah. I took her there once before but she was still scared of the water. I guess you could say it didn't go over too well. But we have been to other pools since and she has gotten in and played for a little and then gets cold and wants to go home. At Clearfield pool and Bountiful Recreation Center they have hot tubs that only adults can go in. Can you guess where I am going with this?... So I go to Clearfield last week and I try going in the hot tub while watching Cori play at the other pool but she decides to throw a fit because she can't go in the hot tub. So we leave in order to spare everyone their ears what a shreiking screaming little turd. So I decided to try Crystal again last Saturday thinking she has had more experience with water and swimming environments since our last time there. It worked great all except the part where they close and my kids don't want to go home. So now all three are on the same page for Crystal. It is the best with the exception of Lava according to the two oldest ones Isaiah and Ali. I like Lava too but Crystal has an unregulated way about it that I like very much. Very few rules exist there, no lifeguards telling you not to run, all you have is your own good judgement which is just how it should be. Anyway here are some pics of Cori getting used to the nice warm water and one of our traditions of getting popsicles after going swimming at Crystal. Cori didn't look to happy in the picture but lets just say she warmed up to it, ha ha ha get it, hot springs, warmed up to it. What a nerd I am huh. She almost drowned by the way, thank goodness her dad looks out for her. I was in the hot tub trying to track all three kids in different directions and when I came back to Cori playing in the chlorinated pool on the other side she had lost a hold on the bar by the stairs and was drifting out splashing and panicking wow I felt like it was slow motion but when I got back to the hot tub the lady that was sitting across from me was looking at me in half shock and said "I have never seen anyone move that fast!" Cori didn't have any negative effects from the experience and wanted to go right back to playing thank goodness. Ali felt left out and had to tell them about the time she almost drowned in a swimming hole we found up in the mountains and her dad jumped in with his clothes on and boots and cell phone in his pocket to save her. The experiences with swimming wow. I will leave the Mexican Log jam story for another time.