You had to have been there...

You see the guy in the white shirt in the stands? That's not me, but we were just as close to the field. We were one section over to the left, and had a great view of this kick. I can't wait till we crush UCLA next week!!

Toilet Cleaning Instructions :) I died laughing when I read this

When I read this, I laughed so hard I almost wet myself. Mainly because I could envision Ashley doing this to our cats and loving and minute of it :) These are actual pictures or our cat Zee after a bath... no it wasn't what you think... I hope... :)

Toilet Cleaning Instructions:
1. Put seat and lid of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.

2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.

3. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close the lid. You may need to stand on the lid.

4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.

5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a 'power-wash' and 'rinse'.

6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.

7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can and quickly lift the seat and lid.

8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.

9. Both the commode and the cat will be sparkling clean.

Sincerely,

The Dog (Salsa)

Cats... And you thought I wouldn't post about them again!

Well, it has been too long since you've seen some pictures of our cats. So in order to show you our posterity of Felines, I'm giving you a family tree posting of our cats! You remember that Zee ran off and got herself knocked up exactly one year ago yesterday. 2 months later, she had three little kittens. Their names are Toby, Bruno and Jack. Bruno and Jack live in wonderful homes with some of my co-workers and are more spoiled than Toby and Zee :) (I know you don't believe me, but I swear it's true!)

So how bout a few pics! I think ya'll remember the whole gang.

This is Bruno. All of these cats have a thing for sleeping flat on their backs with their legs sticking in every direction.

Here's Toby doing the same thing.

I think Toby has perfected the art of sleeping on his back.

And Jack has it in his system as well.

Apparently these cats enjoy the cool porcelain of bathroom sinks and toilets. Very common places I catch these guys trying to drink water.

Here's Jack with the same habit of porcelain napping.

You can see that Zee is not always the best example for her young.

And here is Jack again, doing what cats do best... being lazy :)

And on a final note, this picture is of our "Monster Cat" as Ashley lovingly calls him/her. We're not sure what this cat is, but when his/her fur is long, it's a mean scary looking cat. Last April (or maybe it was October) while I was traveling to China, Ashley left the garage door cracked overnight. This was so the cats could come inside because they had snuck out. Well Ashley woke up to our cats hissing at something, and this was what Ashley saw. The "Monster Cat". It was like 3 or 4 in the morning. Ashley jumped out of bed and chased this cat around our house with a long shoe horn of mine, and Zee also chased and hissed. Finally, she opened the front door and the cat ran outside. I think Toby was hiding under the bed during this chase. Well, since then, our cats have befriended this stray cat, and he/she hangs out in our front yard all the time. He/she wouldn't let me touch her for a long time, but would come real close. About a week ago, this cat finally let me pet him/her and has been quite friendly. I'm pretty sure he/she doesn't have a home becuase of how skittish he/she is. So we've kind of adopted another cat that doesn't live with us, but likes to visit us outside.

Portland's Hood to Coast Relay Race

So one of the other crazy things I tried to make my body do was Hood to Coast. Also known as "The Mother of All Relays". Hood to Coast is a 197 mile relay race of 12 person teams that starts on Friday and finishes on Saturday some time. The picture below is my team. We started at 2:00pm on Friday and finished Saturday at 6:05pm. We were pretty proud of ourselves and had a blast training and preparing for this event.

All of the teams that compete have to use 2 vans to shuttle their runners back and forth to various exchanges. The vans are also decorated with many various themes and random themes. Here are a few pictures of our van and some other vans.

There are certain rules about drinking during the race... I thought this was a creative way around that rule.

This was after my first leg of the race. I ran 3 separate legs in the relay (every team member does), and my mileage totaled around 19 miles. This first one of mine was 6.9 miles long. I felt pretty good until I tried to run the second leg :)

One of the most challenging things to do was find a way to sleep. The longest amount of time we had was about 2 hours to sleep. We crashed at one our team members houses for those 2 hours and this is me trying to sleep on the love seat.

We were able to catch 15 - 20 min naps occasionally as well. There are 4 of us sleeping here, one hidden in the back.

And we even tried the tarp once. This was probably the most comfortable for everyone, but no one slept very long because of the bright light.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I would enjoy doing it again. I'd like to be about 10 pounds lighter next year and maybe stretch better as well :)

I made it through a Sprint Triathalon

So the beginning of this year, my good friend Scott comes up to me and says, "Hey, a bunch of guys from my ward are doing a triathalon. You want to do it with me?" And I had been thinking a lot about how bad a shape I was in, so I said yes before my body could tell me no :)

So Scott, here's a big thank you for helping me commit to something I wouldn't have done with out your support and friendship. As you can see, this is Scott and I right before the race. (And no, we didn't get to choose the swim cap colors. Although, I am a fan of baby blue!) By the smiles on our faces, you can tell that we haven't done anything yet. This was right before we tried to swim 1/2 mile.

I have no idea which swimmer is me, but I would guess for the one in last place... just a hunch.

We have some video I'll try to post later, but the next part of the race was a 12.5 mile bike ride. That was intense, but not nearly as hard as the swim.

The race finished with a 5k (3.1 mile) run. I took my time on that because my legs didn't feel like moving after the bike. About 2 miles into the run, my legs felt better and I was able to finish with a little bit of a kick. It was a blast though, and I was able to meet my time goal and my other goal of not drowing in the lake. All in all, I only cursed at Scott once for talking me into doing this, and it was during the swim so I'm pretty sure he didn't hear me :) I'm just thankful that Scott helped me to start training for something again, and we're way stoked for the next one. Here's a picture of us after the race. We're still smiling, but it's not as easy as before I think :)

My newest toy :)

1983 Honda V45 Magna - 750cc

Skydiving!!

Each year, Dallas and I trade off planning anniversary dates. This year was MY year. We've done some really fun things in the past, but for some reason I got this crazy itch to take Dallas skydiving. It's been on my Life To Do List for years, but I've never done it. So, I called, set it up, and paid the deposit. All without Dallas having a clue. Priceless. I gave Dallas directions and had him drive. Without realizing it, we drove right past the "Skydive Oregon" sign. Trying not to be obvious, I told him that we needed to turn around because I thought we had passed the turn off. Well, it WAS obvious, since there was a gigantic empty field right next to us with airplanes and a huge SKYDIVE OREGON sign. So he looked at me with this look that he only has when he's trying to keep a secret from me OR when he's really nervous, and said, "Are you serious? You're SERIOUS? We're doing THAT?! You're serious?" Hahaha...I'm so evil. It was the BEST EVER!! We are still waiting for the DVDs they took of us, but here are the still shots from the photographers.

Vacation with the Crazy Dixes

Here we are at Phantom of the Opera in Portland. We decided to check it out in Portland the night before we headed out to Victoria. We didn't really get any amazing pictures there, but of the 4 times I've seen it, this was the BEST!!!



Sorry Taylor, I had to put this one up. I love his face in this picture. Lol.



Here we are overlooking East Bay in Victoria. Beautiful view!



This is Plaster Man. I gave him money. He danced. We took a picture.



This was the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. This pic isn't the best, but this kid painted this picture with spray paint bottles. No brushes, just bottles and a couple of pieces of paper here and there.



Steph and me waiting for our Fish 'n' Chips.



This was our hardcore tour guide for the "Ghostly Walk." He had all sorts of great ghost stories to tell us about Victoria.



This is where the ghost of a little boy lives. He fell down the well and died and shows himself in pictures every now and again. Can you see it? I can't either.



Um...weird?



We visited a large castle.



After our Kayaking trip. We got to see several seals up close!

(Ashley tried to leave this sexy photo out!)

This is for the Simmons/Boyer Pro Golfers of Auburn Lake Trails! :)



Dallas and Taylor strategizing at the last hole.



This is Steph and "Noodle." He was a good ball.



Us at the Harbor in Victoria.



I know this picture's lame, but I LOVED this place. Roger's Chocolates. MMmmm Good. We went back here several times.



This little guy was amazing on the accordion. More people should learn to play this instrument.



Love him! This is us in front of some fancy schmancy glass art at the Glass Museum in Tacoma.



Seattle has a fascinating history of how it was rebuilt after a huge fire wiped the city out. Because of this, there were a bunch of underground tunnels created while the city was being rebuilt. We were able to take a cool tour and see it all.





The top of one of Thomas Crapper's Crappers.



The bottom. They sure spent a lot of time decorating these things back in the day.



Investigating...



After the Underground Tour in Seattle.



On the food tour in Seattle!



We just sleep in our underwear, but Dallas forgot to bring his "presentable pajamas" on our vacation. Since we were with company, I let Dallas borrow one of the 3 pairs of pajama pants I brought. Unfortunately, due to the audience of our blog, I could not add the subsequent picture of him mooning all of us as I was making fun of his sexy new sleepwear. He's got a nice bum though!