The Land of Cotton - Part II

After my football trip to Memphis and Mississippi with my dad and brothers (see Part I below), I kept heading east to join Jaime and the kids in North Carolina for a much needed vacation.  Along with Jaime's parents and the families of two of her siblings, we rented a large beach house in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, where we had a fantastic time.   We were in the pool and at the beach every day for hours.  

While I lack the time or energy to write much about the trip, I will say that one of the best things about living in Southern California is the lack of large, biting insects.  We were there in the Outer Banks the week following Hurricane Irene, which left a lot of standing water -- perfect for insect breeding and hatching.  For the first few days of our trip, the mosquitos were so bad that my t-shirts were showing visible blood stains.  Some of my mosquito bites had mosquito bites of their own.  At one point I saw a Volkswagen being carried away by a couple of tough-looking mosquitos.  But then we got a robo-call from the local mosquito abatement authority telling us to stay indoors while they did aerial spraying.  It sounded like we were being dive bombed by Air Force bombers, but the spraying did the trick.  After that, everything was PERFECT!

Beach House

 The four oldest cousins had a great time sleeping in the bunk room together.  And while they all had a great time playing together, some of the battles over toys were epic.

Cousins all eating Moon Pies

Davis and Kate at the sand dunes

Sand dunes, anyone?

The kids visiting monster truck Gravedigger's home base garage 

 For Davis, the highlight of the entire trip was easily the few hours we spent at the garage/gift shop/cafe of the best-known monster truck on the Monster Jam circuit: Gravedigger.  When we passed the big sign on the road on the way to the Outer Banks that said "HOME OF GRAVEDIGGER!" Davis about lost his mind.  He had recently become a near-religious fanatic when it comes to his love of monster trucks generally, and Gravedigger specifically.  I had no idea that Poplar Branch, North Carolina, is where Gravedigger calls home.  The kids got to walk around and touch an older model of Gravedigger, ride through the mud and over a school bus in a modified monster truck, and have lunch in the Gravedigger cafe.

The REAL Gravedigger (at least one of them)

Gravedigger's daddy

The beach was great, and while we live just a short drive from the beach in California, we don't get there very often (at least I don't).  It was great being just a 5 minute walk from the water again.

See you soon, Outer Banks.

Celebrating Country and Family

In a few posts I'm going to try to catch up on the last several months.  Sounds easy, right?

For the Fourth of July weekend we went to Utah for my family reunion.  On the morning of the Fourth all the kids decorated their bikes, scooters and wagons and we had a family parade:

Mom helps the kids decorate

Kate decorates her bike

Parade gets ready to roll out

The self-appointed parade queens

The parade moves up the hill

The kids all had a great time.  We were pleased to discover later that day that my mom's pre-holiday craft shopping earned her a lifetime Golden Craft Card from Michael's craft store for her efforts at helping the sales staff meet their summer sales quotas.

We all went camping up Big Cottonwood Canyon on Tuesday night and had a great time despite the rain.  When it came time for the family talent show, however, Kate totally let us down when she refused to perform her choreographed routine to Beyonce's All the Single Ladies.  Too bad, 'cause I was sure we were going to take home the gold for that one.

I tried snapping a few family photos - some turned out pretty well, but unfortunately the best shot of all of the grandkids is the shot where Davis is trying to take a bite out of his cousin's neck:

Who knew that Davis was part vampire?

It was a great trip, and made me wish that there was less distance between me and my family members.  (Who wants to move to California?)

The Land of Cotton

Even in the Memphis airport, The King is the king.

Several months ago, after talking with a friend who mentioned that he and his three brothers have lunch together every Friday with their dad, I started to think about ways that I could get my brothers and dad together on a regular basis.  After quickly Googling "Alaska fishing adventures", "Tanzanian safaris" and "surfing adventures for non-surfers" I realized that I was overlooking the obvious: my dad and two of my brothers and I were graduates of BYU, and my other two brothers had attended BYU for a while before graduating from other universities, and we all loved BYU football.  So the idea of an annual BYU football trip was born.


We first considered BYU's road game to TCU, as one brother lives in Ft. Worth, TX.  But we ultimately opted for BYU's game vs. Ole Miss, which was somewhat equally inconvenient for all of us:  it was about an 9+ hour drive for my brother in Indiana, about an 9+ hour drive for my brother in Ft. Worth, and required flights for my dad and brother from Utah and for me from Southern California.  But it was in the heart of BBQ country, near Memphis, TN . . . perfect!







I arrived in Memphis first, and after my brother Taylor arrived we headed over to Central BBQ (an internet recommendation I'd picked up from my fellas over at the BBQ Brethren) for a late lunch:

Lovin' the pulled pork with slaw

My dad and two other brothers arrived a bit later (the fifth brother hadn't been able to make the trip), and we headed to the Bar-B-Q Shop, another recommended local joint, and put away more than our share of ribs, chopped brisket and other smoked meats:

The next morning we stopped for breakfast in downtown Memphis at the famous Arcade Restaurant, a favorite of Mr. Elvis Aaron Presley.    

Strangely enough, our waitress was from Provo, Utah (the location of BYU).  Stranger still was that she had no idea that we were BYU fans (despite the fact that all of us had BYU shirts on) until another customer asked if we were here to watch BYU play Ole Miss.  I'm guessing she didn't go to a lot of BYU football games when she was growing up.

Then we headed down to Oxford, Mississippi, to the University of Mississippi.  This is a truly Southern place.  The pre-game tailgating is like nothing I'd ever seen.  The Grove, the area where thousands of Ole Miss faithful gather for every home game, is a truly impressive.

We were lucky to be hosted by some locals who happened to be close personal friends of one of my brother's neighbors in Indiana, who was herself an Ole Miss alum and had emailed her friends asking whether they could host some visiting BYU fans.  They were great, and really showed us true Southern hospitality.

The game itself was a lot of fun, and those SEC fans really know how to get into a game.  BYU didn't play well but managed to get the win on a late defensive touchdown.  The best part was being there with my dad and three of my brothers (we missed you JB - next year!).

My, Its Been A While

Jaime reminded me that it had been more than four months since the last post here.

Well, you can't say that anymore . . .