Well, as you may have read from Cami’s blog, we had a great family vacation this year to California. We tend to make it out there once a year or so and all love the beach more than anything else, although Disneyland is always a huge hit.
I won’t go into a lot of detail here because of Cami’s post. It pretty much sums it up for us all. But I do have a bunch of photos that I have uploaded to flickr that you can check out if you want to spend a few minutes.
Here are some of my favorites:
Even though it’s not the beach, the boys still loved the water at the pools and were there in the mornings (before the beach) and in the evenings (after the beach):
This is one of my favorite pictures of Koby and Spencer. They were on the boogie boards a lot and had a great time. Are they cool?
Here is one at Newport Beach of Cami and Clay. They were made for this.
Clay can never be left out of the action. He saw the older boys standing up on their boogie boards and skim boards and had to have one for himself. Finally he got up close enough to the water and it shifted under the wave a little and he thought he was pretty cool on his surf board.
Here are two more pictures of us. Cami and I together and then one of the family together. I love them all and seeing us in this setting is the best!
If you are interested in seeing about 380 more pictures of us in California, you can always look at my flickr set.
My last post was related to the motorcycle wave that I get from time to time, so I thought I would share the picture of the scooter that I got recently. It is nothing special and does its job of getting me to work (most of the time). It is not a Honda scooter, so therefore is not as reliable as it should be, but I only paid $200 for it, so I am not complaining. It is also in the shop now because the drive belt broke when Koby and I were on a ride one day. It should be fixed and back on the streets this week, so keep your fingers crossed. Anyway’s here it is:
In the Claybaugh family, we have 5 scooters between us. The kids love to get Scooter rides around town and we usually head off on Sunday afternoon rides. One of these days when we get them all together, we will have a serious scooter gang and go cause some trouble, so if you see us all around, just watch out. You certainly don’t want to mess with the scooter club.
Well, I will also post shortly about some fun things that we have done this summer. Things such as California (the beach and Disneyland), various camping trips and trips to the lake with ski boats and jet ski’s, and the boys starting school. Lots going on and lots to catch up on.
There seems to be a secret club our there that only those who ride motorcycle’s seem to belong to. You have all noticed when you are following a motorcycle down the road and they come upon a fellow rider and they have this little half wave with their left hand. Kind of like they want to shout out “hi” to the fellow rider, but are way too cool to do something like that, so they settle for this little half wave.You don’t see too many Honda Civic driver waving out the window at other Civic owners and being all cool and sly.
This last week, I became a member of a slightly less cool club, the Scooter Club. I have been riding my bike to work every day since we moved here and finally had the deal that I was waiting for come up on a scooter. It is one step up from the bike, but still not quite as cool as the motorcycle riders seem to think they are.
I have followed a few motorcycles already and have watched them wave at fellow riders, then blatently ignore me as I pass as if I don’t even exist. It is quite comical, really, and it got me thinking about the scooter club and if we had some secret sign that I didn’t yet know about. Like I needed to send in for my card or something.
Well, finally yesterday I passed a fellow scooter rider and he gave me the scooter wave. I was laughing about it all the way home and rushed in to tell Cami about what happened. She just rolled her eyes and laughed a little.
But anyways, I guess from now on I will wave at all the scooters I pass on the road (there are a lot here in Utah) and maybe you will begin to see more scooter waving at each other.
Yesterday Cami and I took the boys up the air show at Hill Air Force Base, in Ogden. I friend of mine from work was going to take his family up and invited us to go with him, so we went. I called up our old missionary friend, Brandon Morrell and picked him up on the way and we spent the day looking around the base at the airplanes, helicopter’s and even a Monster Truck (I’m not sure why it was there?)
Throughout the show, there were lots of different pilot flying over and performing their tricks and some amazing stunts. It is crazy to see what they do with their planes. We walked around and let the boys explore and see what was there. After a while, they were getting ready for the main part of the show so we headed over to sit on the grass and watch.
The main attraction were the F-16 Thunderbirds. They were awesome. I think I had more fun then Koby and Spencer. I really don’t know what to say about it, but it was amazing.
Here are some pictures of before the show started.
Then here are a couple of the Thunderbirds:
The top airplane is upside down
One of the cool facts about the airplanes is that they can go over three miles straight up. During the show they did go over two miles up and were nearly out of sight. It was amazing.
Here is a video of the complete show, although this was performed at another air show. They perform the same show all over the place and I found this on YouTube that someone else recorded. (It is much better in person)
It is amazing to me how slow time seems to move on a day by day basis, but how fast it really passes by. It seems like not too long ago we were sitting in the hospital and getting ready to go into the delivery room wondering if we were going to have a little girl or another boy. Either one would have been awesome and we are so grateful that he was healthy, strong and perfect. I remember that moment when I found out it was a boy right before I told Cami and thinking about how excited I was. Another boy! How lucky we felt.
Well, that was two years ago and Clay is growing way too fast. We had his second birthday this last Sunday, so I thought that I would post a few thoughts about Clay. (By the way, I haven’t read Cami’s post yet – she is working on it right now also – so if this is somewhat repetitive I apologize).
One of the things that I love about Clay, and the reason I titled this entry the way I did, is that he is obsessed with basketball. If anyone knows Spencer and how crazy he was about basketball then you will find it funny that I think Clay is as crazy, but probably more so then Spencer. He is constantly shooting the ball in the hoop here at our house. And it is not just a small ball. He has to use the full size one that doesn’t even fit inside the basket. He is getting much better too as we constantly find ourselves helping him get it out so he can shoot it again.
When ever we are outside or in the car he is always wanting to find basketball hoops. He loves to count them and see how many we pass and gets so excited when we pass one. I am sure that it doesn’t help the matter any that we completely nurture his excitement for the sport. After all, Cami made a basketball cake for his birthday and we also got him a basketball pinata. We also let him wear his basketball shorts and shirt basically wherever we go.
Anyways here are a few things that I love about my boy:
- Obviously he loves sports (mostly basketball)
- He is a boy and so he loves to be outside (I guess girls at this age also love this?)
- He absolutely loves Koby and Spencer and follows them around everywhere and copies whatever they do – he has to be just like them
- He is generally obedient – If we ask him to pick up something, he usually does, he helps the boys with their chores most of the time
- He is not very obedient – I know this is contradicting what I just said for #4, but there are times when he, as with all kids, where they are blatantly disobeying to test their limit, or get away with things to test out Cami and I
- He is very healthy. With the exception of his tubes in his ears and the infections leading up to that, he has been very healthy and has been growing as he should. Cami took him to his 2 year check up yesterday and he is in the 98th % for his height and 85th% (I think) for his weight. Maybe he will be our 6′6″ child and can play center?
- He is constantly going 110%. He never seems to slow down. Cami always jokes about him being all the way on and running full steam ahead or all the way off, but this is only when he sleeps. I am not sure the other kids had energy like he does.
- He always laughs. With Koby and Spencer, there is mostly always something to laugh about, but even when he get hurt it is pretty easy to get him laughing and over whatever it is that is bothering him
- He likes bugs, but then again, what little boy doesn’t
- He has blue eyes – Until he came along, I was the lone blue eye in our family. Now Clay and I have that in common and this is great!
There are many more things that I could write about Clay. He is a complete joy to have in our home. As with the rest of the family, I love him so much and am grateful to have him in our family.
I have been slacking on my blog lately , but it is mostly because I go to work, come home, play with the boys, go to bed and then do it all over again. Not a lot to write about.
Sure there have been times that are blog worthy, but I either just haven’t gotten around to the, or Cami has written about them. And quite honestly does a much better job keeping track of our life.
But, this summer we have lots of intentions to have fun on days off from work. So I will try and post a little more regularily.
For the last couple weeks, Koby and Spencer have been asking if we could go hike to the “Y” on the mountain. It overlooks Provo and Orem and everytime we drive up through there, they find the Y on the mountain. Well, this week as they have been asking again, so we took off and headed up there today.
I also found an app for my iPhone called Trail Guru that tracks where I am, how fast I am travelling and what my elevation is (among other things). I can start it when I leave and stop it when I get back and it tells me everything that I need to know.
I am sure we will be going more hike and fun outdoor stuff this year and I will try my best to keep this blog updated.
If any one comes out to visit us and you are up for a challenge, the BYU hike is well worth the time.
From the Chicago Tribune:
DETROIT – Michael Jordan accepted a Hall of Fame jersey, looked at former competitors John Stockton and David Robinson and threatened to make another comeback.
“Every time I see these guys, I want to put my shorts on,” Jordan said.
The former Bulls great was elected to the 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame class along with Robinson, Stockton and his coach in Utah, Jerry Sloan. Rutgers women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer was also elected.
As remarkable as Jordan’s career was, a five-time MVP who won six NBA titles, he said this day was one he never imagined.
“I would never have envisioned myself at any point being in any hall of fame,” he said.
The announcement was made in Detroit, site of the men’s Final Four, on the day Jordan’s North Carolina Tar Heels will face Michigan State for the national championship. He won a title with North Carolina when current coach Roy Williams was an assistant in 1982.
Induction is Sept. 10-12 in Springfield, Mass., home of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
I also found this video on ESPN.com today that says it all. He is the greatest of all time.
Last week (when Cami was gone) the Koby and Spencer wanted to do some “science experiments” on our kitcher counter. One of them included getting water into a cup. Rather than simply filling it up, they built a contraption that let them spit the water into a row of straws and then into a cup.
There were a couple variations that they came up with, but what was really runny was that they were the ones that thought it up and how to do it. Then they were the ones that built the whole thing. I only helped show them how to put some tape on to hold the straws to the cups. Everything else they did themselves.
It reminds me of the old Rube Goldberg books from school. Does anyone else remember them?
A week or so ago, I had an opportunity to go to Koby’s school for the annual Dad’s Day. Every year the kindergartener’s have a day where they present a little program and only the dad’s are invited to attend. They spend time learning a couple songs and a little presentation. We also got to write and color with them in their journals, sit at their desks and also see the different stations that they play with during their day.
We were able to spend about an hour there playing with them and seeing the classroom. It was a lot of fun and I was excited to go and see him with his friends from school. He likes school a lot and does really well in his class. I am really proud of him and how smart he is (I think he gets that from me).
These were part of Koby’s kite that he made at school. I love how much he likes BYU. Every time he has a project that he works on he makes it blue and white, and if possible, includes the letters BYU somewhere.
This part of the presentation that the kids did for the dad’s.
I blogged about this before but one of the things I like about living here in Utah County is the depth of the sports program. I think that it is very valuable to the youth, as well as to us older guys. It is fun to get out and play sports with other members and get a little exercise in the process.
Our Men’s basketball team took 2nd place in the Stake tournament and were then invited to play in the Regional tournament. We were excited about that and knew that we would have some fun games. Cami has been at all of them except the one tonight, which was probably a good thing.
We have won 4 in a row in the Regional tournament and had some really good games. The team we played tonight though completely dominated us. They had one player that played for UVU last year, another that played at some college out of state and then another one that could have played in college. It was just bad from the start. The one guy that played at UVU had their first 20 points in about 4 minutes and we never had a chance.
No big deal though, we had fun and still get to play one more game (it is double elimination). We will play next Wednesday, so we will see how that goes.
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