How Sweet It Is...

A magical game. A great date. My honey is good luck at BYU games. Got to take her more! Oklahoma fans are some pretty good sports though....Lots of congrats and concilliatory remarks by their fans. Significantly better than after a few Utah/BYU games I've been too where the Utah fans used "great language" and acted real classy. I know there are good Utah fans and I am grateful for them, but I've watched BYU in 3 or four states against every foe and the two games I've been to (one at Utah and one at BYU) it seemed like it was an avenue for some horrible people to say some of the most vile stuff I've ever heard.... at watching my little brother getting acosted at Rice Eccles Stadium.

This kid is our clown. His no arms skit is hilarious.

3 beds in the boys room but you know they all seem to huddle up....

My greatest blessings in front of the temple.

I thank my Heavenly Father for these children. Don't ask me how Brigham got the broken arm... we still don't know. He never cried, just didn't use the arm normally. Broke his radius and ulna mid shaft....it was like he didn't even care. The orthopedic surgeon just couldn't believe that he was running around his office with a broken arm. He confided in me a few days later that Brigham is probably getting pretty tough because he's the fourth brother... ya think?!?!

Summer Fun Part IV

The tomatoes once again have failed us in our garden this year but the squash, cucumbers, carrots, and peppers have been great.

We went to my familiy reunion in the gorgeous White Mountains of Arizona. We camped at 9300 just a few minutes from my home town and it was breathtaking! Cool wet weather, 5 days of no cell phone, no noise but the noise of children, no TV, no electronics, just visits with my wonderful family. This is the first time in 14 years since I have been to my family reunion in Arizona. It was a long time coming and it is probably the best camping I have done in 14 years! Lani and I won the couples horseshoe contest. We beat the ultra elite team of Coby and Heather (my cousin) who are the "Goliaths of horseshoe". I smack talked Coby and then really psychologically threw him out of his game by pitching in my dutch oven hotpad mitts. I think it just messed him up psychologically and I think I got in his head.....

Coby and Heather were good sports to let us win and we had a blast with my family.

There was a huge meadow with endless forests which the kids just ran and played in all day. My Uncle Bill set up a great "cowboy golf" course that was a hoot. My Uncles and cousins are some of the funnest people on the planet. It was good for my kids to get to know this vast side of my family. Thanks Uncle Bill and Aunt Sandy for such a great job on the reunion. The highlight of our year!

The forests are filled with massive Ponderosa Pine trees, aspens, and other coniferous trees. A very nice contrast. The forests are open and not so dense so it makes it possible to really penetrate and enjoy the trees all around you.

We cooked every meal out of our dutch ovens and frying pans over 5 days. Lani did a great job of preparing food and our dutch oven skills jumped by leaps and bounds. It was a lot of work but well worth the effort. The above biscuits and gravy were a product of our successful dutch oven biscuit attempt. The above picture is for my cousin Andy. Our favorite breakfast in the world!

Look at those beauties, right out of the dutch oven!

We also had my little brother's famous dutch oven pizza which was a smash hit. My mom's parents were the focus of this year's reunion. We marched in our little town's fourth of July parade. It was neat. The banner read: Vurrell and Iris Finch Family 63 years in the Round Valley of Arizona. 9 kids, 52 grandkids, 113 great grandkids, 1 great great grand child. My grandparents are my hero and have left a legacy of family, the Gospel, hardwork, and family togetherness. They are one of the treasures of my life. I can't begin to describe their impact on my life in so many different ways.

Next year, I've got to figure out a new gimick to throw off Coby so I can beat him in Horseshoes again!

Summer Fun Part III

No pics but I was the "medical staff" for our stake youth pioneer trek. We trekked for 3 days on a ranch the church owns up in Oklahoma. It was beautiful but hot. It was very impressionable, memorable, and spiritual. I just kept the kids hydrated, took two to the hospital, pulled out ticks, repaired lacerations and just otherwise told these "younguns" to be tough and deal with the physical challenges of the trek. It sure was an eye opener to see how some youth are just so adaptable and can deal with set backs and challenges while other youth are soft, cottled, and ill prepared for the tough world which awaits them once they leave the friendly confines of their parents family rooms..... It sure made me want to toughen my kids up so that they can be like the pioneers and push through adversity and have the "stick to it" to reach worthwhile albiet tough goals. I think that camping and similar activities prepare kids to deal with deprivation and austere environments. I think it sure can help them to be mentally tough to deal with physical challenges and lack of physical comforts. I remember as a missionary in Nicaragua that this was a real issue for some missionaries who came to the mission "soft" and the mental anguish of physical challenges was sometimes just too much. I wish I had some pictures.

Summer Fun Part II

My brother in law graduated from dental school in Oklahoma City

At his school they let a relative "hood" you for graduation which I thought was a cool policy and a nice honor for me.

I enjoyed and felt much more gratified at his graduation than my own. I am so happy for him and he is going to be a very gifted and solid practitioner

Summer Fun Part I

The Turnbow Grandkids on greatgrandma's front porch in Tabiona

Maxwell's first branding lesson: DON'T BREATH IN THE SMOKE!

Kimball's first vaccination lesson: DON'T POKE YOURSELF WITH THAT BIG HYPODERMIC NEEDLE!

Big sister helping little brother get through the fence.

Big girls helping little girl cousing across the irrigation ditch with their make shift bridge.

Since we last spoke.....

Wouldn't you know we had "dessert" first for April fools.... Gotta love the chocolate icecream cones (refried beans with tostada shell cones) with whip cream (sour cream) and a cherry (cherry tomato). Gotta love that lime sherbert (guacamole). Do we just love food in this house or what?

After "dessert" we had our "main meal". Hamburgers (vanilla wafers, grasshopper mint cookies and frosting), chicken strips (twix covered in coconut), and french fries (sugar dusted roll).

Relief Society was a dessert fest where each person brought a dessert to share that "described" them. Lani made a beehive with bees.... Very cute. She is one of the most industrious, always up to something good, people I have ever met. Did I mention to you that we like food in this household?

I can't believe that we (we in the sense of "she" mostly and "me" not so much)are sooooo skinny for how much we like food. Some of us are skinnier than others.....

12 years of wonderful (if you ask me) marriage. We took a trip to Montana/Northern Idaho for our anniversary. It was a blast to ditch the kids (thanks Nate and Carol, you survived!) and figure out, after 12 years of marriage, if we were going to finally "grow up" and settle down.

Life is fabulous. I am the most blessed person on the planet. I don't completely comprehend why I am so blessed.... if my wife get on here and sees this post she will tell you that when I think about food and Mrs. C, I get very happy and go on and on about how good life is.

She'll say that this post proves it and I guess it does. What more could a guy ask for than great food and the pinnacle of woman for a wife. Did I ever mention how much I like homemade salsa?

While up north we finally got to visit the "Prince" Conner, for the first time. He is so cute and his dad isn't that bad looking either....Conner and I hit it off right away. I am very happy to say I was found in his good graces to be an acceptable member of the family (distant tho it be).

I pinned on Major this week (after being selected like 1.5 years ago). My co surgeon's wife made this delicious cake (I know another food reference).

It was hard to restrain myself. I guess my military officer's bearing (which means you shouldn't be too much of a cut up or nerd or silly because it doesn't reflect well on the office which one holds) needs some work.... at least that is what my superiors keep tell me. It is hard to act respectable, noble, and honorable when you grew up in a no stoplight town, peeing off your front porch (which was a plywood porch on the front of the trailer), catching grasshoppers, catching crawdads in the ditch, and wearing boots to church...... I'm a lost cause.

Disney Drugs.... Kids on Crack

I pretty much escaped the souvenir/food money pit trap at Disney until I found these two shirts and then I couldn't resist. My wife and kids think these shirts fit me to a teeeeeeee.....

You know it was a great trip FILLED to the brim when you come back and you have to put the baby in the hospital with croup and pneumonia. That hard schedule was hard on the baby.

The wonderful trip started with a stop in Destin Florida for a few hours on our drive to Orlando. The most beautiful beaches with the softest/finest/whitest sand I have ever seen. Hands down this is the most beautiful sand I have ever seen on a beach. At 8 am on an overcast Monday, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves for a few hours. It was magical.

The sun peaked through at times and it was very warm for being so cloudy and early.

The ocean wasn't nearly as cold as the ocean in California or Virginia where we had been before in non summer times.

Jumping for joy at the beach to start off this wonderful week.





Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana were beautiful, green, blossoming and gorgeous this time of year. No hot humidity. No dead/brown looking surroundings. Lush green, temperate and exciting. We even passed Colton's future home. Not as pretty as Tallahassee but I am so excited for Colt's next big adventure.

We arrived! Happy and excited. I don't know what it is about Disney that makes kids act like little crack addicts but they go till they pass out and then wake up for more! I think it is in the air because we brought all our own food for the entire week so I'm thinking the "kid drugs" are in the air.

Sometimes it was hard telling the characters/animals from the children.

The kids were "super" for this trip.

They rode...

and rode.....

till they felt like puking! Mission Space was the limit for mom and Kimball. This crazy ride almost spun the food right out of them.

The Mrs did a fabulous job of bringing the greatest collection of homecooking for a whole week to Disney and it gave the needed energy for the daily binge of pure excitement.

It just about wiped us all out, we had so much fun.

Disney animals are very discerning and wise. They know which kids you should keep a safe distance from....

Aunt Carol Lynn's supershirts were a huge hit at Disney and helped us keep track of the troop. We had multiple people ask us where they could buy them at Disney. Maybe Aunt Carol should should open up a business.

It was magical. We have to thank Lani's parents and Aunt Carol for helping. The almost 1:1 adult to kid ratio kept the trip a ton of fun. We partook of the Disney magic and it wore us out. Hopefully the memories will be long lasting so we don't have to do it for another 10-12 years!

I am embarking on a couple months project so my posts should slow down. Sorry. No rest for the wicked.