USU bball, A Play, Trees and a toilet

What a great weekend we had! First, Grandma Great (Nancy) Olsen came into town with Grandpa Jim and cousin Crystal. We went to Heather's (another cousin) performance in "Hello Dolly". Heather did a great job as did the rest of the Desert Hills cast. Faye enjoyed the singing and dancing, but enjoyed the costumes the best. She had to visit every girl during the meet and greet to talk about their costume.

On Saturday we went to the USU v SUU basketball game in Cedar City. USU was playing pretty well and looked pretty crisp after that horrible loss on Wednesday to BYU. We met up with a couple of Bret's friends from work and with Paul and Tara Mogle friends of ours from our Aggie student ward days. Faye was in heaven 4 little boys to tease and share popcorn with! We even got to do the "winning team, loosing team" chant.

Sunday night we went to the Jubilee of Trees. It is basically just like SLC's festival of trees. We have some designer friends that participated that did a great job that some of you might know, Mary Snow (as in Paul), Terri Spendlove, and the Marshals. We got to watch the Desert Hills Chamber Choir and Women's Choir, plus a belly dance group from Sun River. It was a pretty good Sunday activity.

The biggest event of the weekend was that Lori got a new toilet. Jim and Bret put it in on Saturday. Lori has wanted a new one for a while and the old one began to overflow in the middle of the night so we got a new toilet. A big thanks to Jim for all the help and being willing to make 4 Home Depot trips in 2 hours!

Once Grandpa Jim uploads his pictures we'll link them here.

We hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, full of Family and Friends.

San Diego Pictures

We had a great time in San Diego here are some pictures.



ohh and here is Ben Crane again...

Halloween 2010

Hello everyone.

we have been having a pretty great FALL. It is one of my favorite times of year in SG. We have been harvesting allot of our garden this week. We got about 10 really good pumpkins and ton of peppers, some sad corn, a ton of spaghetti squash and enough potatoes to think we broke even on the potato experiment. We have had some great stuffed bell peppers this year.

We had a great party with Amy and Matt Dotson to carve our pumpkins. They were great hosts and Faye loved playing with their two girls.

We had a bunch of rain lately so Faye and I spent an afternoon playing in the gutter. Earlier last month we played with Marley at Washington City's park irrigation ditch.

Lori and Faye went to another Halloween party as Dorthy and the wicked witch. Faye loved sneaking up on the relief society ladies and snarling, "I get you my pretty!" On Halloween she was a fairy princess... she is fascinated with princesses right now.

Faye has been learning to play with sticks from some of the neighborhood boys. Instead of using them as swords or guns she likes to play 'pretty umbrella', magic wand and microphone. She even was banging on the car trying to turn it into a pink pumpkin!

Faye got to go to a giant witch party in SLC with Auntie Arti and Grandma Lori. She loved the witch dancing and the pretty red witch... it sounded like they had a bunch of fun.

Bret got to go to the CSU vs UofU game. Floyd ended up staying home so Cody and his boys plus Jim all came to a rainy and cold ball game. We got soaked, but had a good time cheering for the green and gold. Hopefully this weekend at the CSU vs SDSU game we can at least show our colors out side of our snow parkas. (Yes, we are going to San Diego for the weekend)

This month Lori has been to the Tuaccan Shows including taking Bret to Thriller. She has been supporting Bret in his MBA pursuit and learning to make bows that she hopes to sell at some Christmas boutiques. She also has been working with Rich on his album, ready to drop by Christmas.

We hope you are all doing well. If you are passing though SG on your holiday travels let us know so we take you to Faye's favorite cupcake store.

-Bret

My new second favorite golfer (after Bubba Watson) is Ben Crane

So I was disappointed when Ben Crane was left off of the Ryder Cup team, but after seeing how stuffy and nervous all the US players were... I just can't help but think that the world's 20'th best golfer should have been on the team. (12 players a team = 24 players total... how did this guy not get on the squad?)



I would like to see Philly MAC and Tiger be in this good of shape...

-Bret

Happy Anniversary Floyd & Marilyn

Here's a video I made to remember Mom and Dad's anniversary. The song is the one Rich wrote to perform at their 50th anniversary party. I still miss Mom, but am so grateful for forever families.

love, Lori

june pictures

Here are pictures of our latest adventures.
Bret and Holland replacing the sliding doors with french doors is there.
Faye at the Gunnison parade.
Faye in Cane Beds AZ on the 4th.
Lots of garden pictures.
The first lawn mowing after we put in sprinklers.
Fathers Day with Floyd and Holland.
Faye's new Dora Bike.

Faye hurt her toe and we put a bandaid on it,
she freaked out until we put toenail polish on the bandaid.

-Bret

I just wanted to write a little note about the 4th of July we had.

We left for Gunnison on Friday right after work. We got to the park in time to have dinner with Cody’s Familily and Mark Bucannan’s family. Faye loved playing on the playground with AO and PO. Mark has a 3.5 year old daughter that Faye took to and followed constantly for about 2 hours. We then got some shakes at Shelly’s and watched the fireworks and listened to a Neil Diamond impersonator with Kim, Cody and the boys. Cassie Brown let us crash at her home, she is so great.

Saturday morning we went to the loins club pancake breakfast at the park. Then we watched the parade. Faye loved the princesses, especially the rodeo and dairy princesses on horses. She got a ton of parade candy, once she figured out that she had to run after it and fend off the little boys that were faster and more aggressive. She called out for Jenny when the Browns walked their oxen up the street and got a big strawberry milk from one of Tanya’s boys! She also like to dance along with the drill team and cheerleaders.

At the carnival I got to meet up with Paul Mogle, Brenten Peterson Joe Mellor and Jared Young. We also got to hang out with Aaron and Tina Pickett, down all the way from Olympia, WA. Tina was a friend of Lori’s in college so they got to hang out. Lori also got to talk some with Nannette, that was good for them both. Faye liked the Dyreng’s mini train and the fish pond the best. She also got a snow cone and cotton candy… combined with some parade sugar she was wound-up pretty good.

We decided to skip the rest of Bro’s-day (sorry Mayfielder’s) and we headed to Cane Beds AZ, by way of highway 89. It was sure pretty going through the winding and green valleys on the way to Kanab. We did introduce Faye to the Ideal Dairy and punch bags!

Floyd was giving a speech on his families involvement with a historic school house in Cane Beds that his grandfather built and taught in during the 1910’s and 20’s. It sure was fun to hear Floyd reminisce about growing up (and liking it) in the sandy homestead (a literal homestead). We had a potluck there with a mixture of Polygamists, homesteaders, hippies, a Greek family, ranchers and some Native Americans. Faye collected rocks and played in the sand.

That night we parked in Paula’s Mexican Food’s parking lot and watched fireworks.

On Sunday David and Kendra’s family drove through town and we had fireworks in the street with them (outlawed in CA, crazy state). Lori’s Aunt Diana stopped by and said “Hi”. Little David’s and friend Alisa stayed the night and they both ate dinner with us on Monday night after a day in Zions NP.

Anyway it was a great weekend to see old friends and catch up with family!

We always seem to have great 4th of July’s.

Bret

Lori's LDS video

Here is Lori's video. Isn't she great?

-Bret

pictures post

These are some pictures from gardening and playing with Marly in the font yard. Lori did a photo-shoot for a head shot she needed. She is trying to get into some more church videos. I included a bunch that she will want me to take off later... We also have some photo's of cody and kim's last visit, but we didn't get any of cody or kim just the boys.

been to long....

Hello all:

I just wanted to drop a quick note about our lives lately. I think I will start with the most current events and move backward.

My mom served divorce papers to my Dad this week. He moved out last weekend. I don’t have a very good vantage point on all of the going’s on, but I do want to thank all you that are in SLC and helping out and such. They both need friends, that’s for sure.

This weekend we are going to SLC to see my Mom graduate from the University of Phoenix with her Bachelors degree. We are very proud and excited about her completion of this big step.

Friday night we will be going to the BEE’s baseball game with a lot of my family (Siblings and Snows mostly). We love the BEE’s. I purchased an online radio package that allows me to listen to every major league game (2434 games) so I have been listening to baseball too much lately.

I started my MBA with the University of Phoenix last month. On Wednesday I will be finishing my first class. It is going pretty good, but it sure is taking up a lot of time.

2 weeks ago, Lori was cast in a MORMON MESSAGE and filmed a 6-8 minute section of an Elder Holland talk. She played the young Pat Holland stranded on the side of the road with a broken car and 2 young children. She loves to ‘practice her craft’ and she especially liked doing some film work. She’s pretty amazing.

Faye is talking and playing a lot. She and I spend most of Saturday outside working on the yard. We are putting in sprinklers in the back and she is my best helper. She especially likes to use the purple PVC primer as paint. She and Marley love to spend time exploring the backyard and getting into trouble.

Our garden is going pretty well. We ate our first radishes this week and hope to get some spinach and other greens before it gets to darn hot. I sure with Grandpa Alan was around for some gardening advice… Our Apricot and Peach trees had beetles pretty bad last year so we poisoned the ground around them in the hope of flushing out any remaining larva after we pruned last fall. So we will not be getting any fruit off the trees this year. We planted a Pear in the fall and Navajo Blackberries this spring. Ohh and my artichoke came back too, surprise, surprise.

We spent Easter and Conference with Grandpa and Grandma Snow in Pine Valley. Jim and Lori, Cody and Kim + boys, Arti, and Holland all came. Bob and Sharon+ Rex were in town too. It is always fun to get up there and just relax.

Our truck died, and now it’s gone. We are going to try to be a one car family until fall. Cody and Kim did it for much longer, so we think we can do it too.

Holland and I played some golf, once with Uncle Bob. I get smoked…

I passed a LEAN certification test with Society of Mechanical Engineers (SME), and had the high in the class. This is a certification that I have been working on since ’08. Now all I have to do is put together my peer reviewed portfolio… Lori has been calling me ‘black-belt’ ever since. Silly Lori… Black belt is SixSigma not LEAN… (I put that in just for you Brian M.)

Well that is enough about us. Remember we always have an extra bed in the guest room open if you are interested.

-Bret

RAM Company's new website

SO this is the link to RAM Company's new website.

http://www.ramcompany.com/
Come take a peak.
Dick Norris does the voice-over in the video.
Hopefully this helps move us to the top of some search engines...

-Bret

finally an update

Well it has been a while. Let me start with a Christmas wrap up. It was great. We spent it in Pine Valley with my (Bret) parents all my siblings and their immediate families. Grandma and Grandpa Snow (Stan and Betty) were there too. We had Mari with us and everybody very generous to her THANK YOU. It was a ton of fun; we played games goofed around in the snow and crashed our sleds.

Highlights in the photos are:

Grandpa Stan, Faye and the birthday tractor.
Faye and Mari loved pink curlers.
Bella puppies.
Snow tunnels.
Lori and the train whistle.

Soon after we came home it became evident that it would be best for us and Mari if she moved back in with her Aunt. So Mari is back living with her aunt for now. It was hard to admit (for us and her) that this was the best path. We hope she enjoyed her time with us and this newest change is going to work out. She really liked Grandma Lori and Holland.

Since then life has gone back to normal. We work on the house, we go to work, and we are active in the primary (Lori) and youngmens (Bret). Faye enjoys nursery, playing at Paiges’ house (her babysitter) and golfing with Daddy and Marley in the front yard.

Marley is getting very good at retrieving golf balls, we’ll have to do a video soon. She also is very athletic. Every weekend Bret works on her pen and after a few hours she finds a way out. She has proven that she can leap over 5.5 feet tall! She chewed through a nylon cable and broke a collar. She is unstoppable.

Faye is also being very cute lately. She is hiding things for us to find “Where is the pink book?” she will ask after she has hidden it under a blanket. She also knows that when Daddy isn’t home he is either “Daddy Golfing” “Daddy fix truck” or “Daddy working”.

Anyway finally I wanted to include the music video of a band from St. George that sings about the Twilight movies. Some blog readers (of their husbands) might relate. Lori thinks the line "... has the hots for teenage boys and thinks it's alright..." Lori is one of the only women I know that thought the books were "Lame".