Where does the time go?

It has been some time since I have made a postingto our family blog. I have no good excuse other than time gets away from you and we lead a pretty boring life.

I have been a bit under the weather this weekend so I better take advantage of the "down time" to make a posting. We have had a wonderful fall getting ready for the holidays. I have been busy in the shop making a few items and Shirley had our Christmas tree up and decorated by mid November. Last year she purchased a pre-lit tree after Christmas. It is a beautiful tree about 13 feet tall and the best part is I did not have to string lights on it!


We still went with the family to cut down a tree up by our cabin. We have been doing that now for nearly 25 years and are not ready to give it up. We stopped at our cabin and lit a fire in the stove and by the time we got back to the cabin after cutting our trees it was nice and warm. We ate lunch and all wanted naps. After a brief nap we headed back home.


In October I had my 5 seconds of fame. I was interviewed by Ed Yates from Channel 5 on camera about a new EKG system we put into our place at our hospital. It was a good laugh to see me on the news. If you want a good laugh, here is the link to the story: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4596848


I will try and do a better job of posting in the future. If I do not get a chance to tell everyone - I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!

As a proud parent I am going to exercise my prerogative to brag about my kids. Megan plays for the Morgan High's girls soccer team. She scored her first goal for Morgan in one of her games this past week. She has been playing defender most of the year until just recently she was moved to the front line as forward and wing. She has to run quite a bit more but it is fun to watch her be more involved in the game. I took a few pictures at her last game.


I can foresee an awesome header coming!

Megan and Kenzie practicing some dance moves during a game!

Here is Megan making a break for the sideline.

It has been a difficult adjustment for all of us to accept the commitment (both time and financial, and energy) that is required to play at this level. It is all consuming for Megan as a player as well as Shirley and I to get her to and from practices every day.

So far, Megan's high school experience has been positive. Soccer requires she does well in school and gets to class on time. Now all I have to worry about is all of these older boys circling the herd like a pack of wolves! This is going to be a long 4 years!

Workin' it in the Booth!

Just so you know I didn't come here just to play, we finally spent time in our exhibit booth tonight. It was quite interesting as I spoke to physicians from all over Europe. Here is my list so far: Germany, Belgium, Serbia, Czech Republic, Saudia Arabia, Yemen, Russia, Jordan, Switzerland, Israel, Ireland, Scottland, and last but not least, New Zealand.

We did do a little shopping today after we set things up in our booth. We ate lunch at the Hofbrau Haus again and listened to the band play. I think I was the only one in the place not drinking beer - even the kids! And no, that is not a "dark" beer but Coke in a mug!!

I found my new car!

Today was a fun day - not that yesterday was not fun, it was just more up beat by virtue of where we went. We went to the Olympic park where the 1972 Olympics were held. It was very cool. They have a very tall tower like in Auckland and Toronto. We road the elevator to the top and took some pictures. It was not the clearest day so the pictures are not that great. Then we went to the Englishe Gartens and listened to the "oompa" band while everyone drank beer. We walked alot today and I am beat! We ate bratwurst and sauer kraut for dinner at the Hofbrau Haus in down town and it was quite the experience.

I forgot to mention, we went to the BMW museum and show room. Wow, there were some very nice cars! Like this one. It's blue.......and pretty.....please?? OK, I'll have it shipped home.

Guten Tag from MUNCHEN!

Well, I made it to Munich. The flight was brutal but I made it. I just don't tollerate those long flights like I used to. I have now been up for about 29 hours. I am trying to stay awake untill bed time so I can sleep through the night tonight. We arrived at o7:00 this morning and after checking into our hotel we jumped on the train and headed to Dachau, the German concentration camp used during WWII where thousands of jewish and political prisoners were either worked to death, executed, gased and then incinerated. It was a very compelling place to visit. I have a couple of pictures below. One of a huge sculpture of bodies symbolizing the bodys as they were tossed into trenches and mass graves. The other picture is of the place where they creamated the bodies.

After leaving Dachau, we went to the down town section of Munich and had dinner on a open air cafe. I had Sauerbraten and potatoes. It was quite good. Below is an example of some pretty interesting architecture in the center of town. It is the Ratskeller and has human sized figurines that move like a coo-koo clock on the quarter hour.

Our hotel is not very much - its right on the highway which runs next to the railway. No air conditioning of course so we will have to have the windows open - good thing I have ear plugs!

I will try and keep te blog active while I am here so my family can keep up on the goings on.

Dog Days of Summer

It has been a while since I posted a new blog - sorry but our life does not seem very exciting. I figured everyone was tired of hearing about our trips to our cabin. For us, that is about as exciting as it gets! It is exciting for us this year now that we have a well and water in the cabin.

Speaking of dog days - our pups are growing like all the weeds around our place. I bought these two pillows for them to lay down on but this picture is of one of the few times they are not laying down next to each other on one pillow. They are such good buds and have a great time together. I have never had a single incidence of them running off. They are very content to stay around the house and by my side - almost to an annoyance.

Today we were privileged to support Ben and Megan in the blessing of their son Tafton. It was a great day with lots of family support from Megan's family. They had many family members in from out of town for a family reunion over the weekend. I think we over ran the church. We certainly would have over ran Ben and Megan's house so we had it at a park by their house. It was very nice.

August also brings the dread of knowing that school is just around the corner for Shirley and then for Megan shortly after. We still have many projects we would like to get done but as always, the time and funds run out long before the ideas!

This year, August also means preparing for a trip over seas. I have the opportunity to attend the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich, Germany. The best part is that the tab will be picked up by Cardiovascular Credentialing International who I do consulting work for. I have mixed feelings - on one hand I am excited to go back to Germany. It has been a long time since Grandma Passey and I went to visit Hudson and Carol in the fall of 1975. On the other hand, it would be much nicer if Shirley could go with me. I wish these trips could happen while school is out so she could get away. Also, I have done very little to get ready for the trip.

Shirley was doing some cleaning down stairs and came across some great photos. I thought I would include the one below. I remember Shirley organizing an Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house every year. This year was 1989 and we were fortunate to have some of Carol's kids there. Just like puppies and weeds kids grow up too! If you look close, it looks like Ben is sporting a wicked mullet! I would say they are pretty cute kids.

I Almost Forgot!

I meant to mention in my last post (sorry for the spacing issues and multiple typos) that as we were coming down off of the mountain we came across a guy and his family who's truck got stuck in a mud bog. We were able to help him flag down another vehicle to help pull him out. This brings up the "touchy" part. The guy was driving a Ford F-150 which was embarrassing enough, but the vehicle that pulled him out was a Toyota Four Runner. OK - I invite all of you Englands to make your comments. I was going to take a picture of it but could not bear to relive the site of it.

The Simple Pleasures of Life!

It may seem like all we ever do is go up to our cabin in the Uintahs. Well, actually, that is pretty much the truth. It has only been recently that we have done other things. Anyway, last year we made a significant investment in our property in the Uintahs by contracting to have a well drilled. There were three of us who went in together; my good friend Doug Illum who owns the lot next to ours, and his son Cody who owns the lot on the other side of Doug. It's a good thing 3 of us went in together on this because it wound up costing us more than 3 times what we expected. I have been working frantically this summer to finish plumbing the cabin so we could enjoy our investment. I am happy to announce that we now have water! I meant to take a picture of the toilet flushing but forgot. We have hot water and it is sop nice to be able to take a shower, to be able to do dishes without having to heat water on the stove, etc. I can't believe we have waited 26 years for this luxury.

We took a drive over to Whitney Reservoir to go for an ATV ride. It was a beautiful ride bit the trail was a bit dusty.

Shirley and Megan enjoying the view.

We came across a beautiful meadow with wild flowers and it seemed appropriate to take a picture of Shirley in the middle of the flowers.

Somewhere in there is Natalie washing the dust off!

We love the mountains and spending time at our cabin with our family. And now we can enjoy the simple pleasures of life such as a flush toilet rather than the "one holer" on the hill!

Alaska via Cedar City

I had promised Shirley I would take her to Alaska after she finished her Master's program. After receiving a pretty nice bonus from work things were looking pretty good. After looking at some of the projects we wanted to complete this summer we decided that we couldn't do it all. Megan had been invited to go to SUU with the Morgan High girls soccer team. There was a little anxiety on her part because she went to a soccer camp at BYU the summer before and got a little home sick. We decided to support her and go to Cedar City for the week that she would be down there. We really had a good time. We went to 3 different plays at the Shakespearean festival. We also went to St. George and did a session at the St. George temple. We drove back the long way and stopped at the Mountain Meadow Massacre site. We also drove up to Brian Head as well as over to the Cedar Breaks National Monument. It was very impressive. The nicest thing was that we were really not pressed for time and pretty much did whatever we wanted, when we wanted to. We watched Megan play soccer at least one game a day, shopped, and ate at some nice restaurants. It wasn't quite Alaska but it was fun anyway.


This is a picture of Megan during one of her games. She is the one in the center with red shorts. She played most of the time and was seldom subbed out. I was a little worried she would be intimidated by playing with older girls but she played well and I was very proud of her.

Finally - nice weather in the mountains!

We just spent a wonderful weekend at our cabin in the Uintahs. Nate, Kristen and Aiden was there as well as Ben, Megan, and Tafton. Natalie had to work but our Megan was able to come. Things were a little cozy but we all made the best of it and had a greagt time. The little boys were so good! I guess I need to think about adding on as there is not enough bed space when everyone comes up at the same time. Thank you Ben, Megan and Tafton for camping out in the living room. I hope everyone had a good time - I know I did. Special thanks to Kristen and Megan for supporting their husbands in their desire to come up to the cabin. It has been a big part of our family for their entire lives. I hope you learn to love it as much as they do. I will work on the "conveniences" so it will be a little nicer. Shirley and I love you all and enjoy spending time together and watching you have fun even if you kick our butts in "scrooge". It was a wonderful Fathers Day - thank you all.

Dad

Will Summer ever arrive?

OK, two weeks ago we went to the cabin and got snowed on and this is what we woke up to this morning! As much as I like getting moisture, I would really like it to dry up a bit at the cabin. Since we dug trenches for the water lines last fall, all we have is mud and rocks. Shirley and Megan did some cleaning while I did a little plumbing. We decided to come home early today to get some things done around the house.

Just a good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm....

Meet the newest members of our family. This is Bo and Luke - The Dukes of Morgan.

I have been wanting a dog for some time and decided this was the year. I came home with one dog and Shirley and Natalie insisted that we get another so he wouldn't lonely. They are cute little guys but they are definitely puppies! Actually, Natalie bought the second one.

Workin' hard at the Golden Gate City!

Every once in a while life deals you real sour grapes. I am stuck here in San Francisco for 5 days at a trade show. The work is brutal and the food certainly not what I am accustom to. Some how I hope to survive.

Actually, yesterday was a play day. We spent a grand total of about 30 minutes setting up our booth on the convention floor and then split to do some site seeing. It was a very nice day and extremely hot by San Francisco standards. Every time I have been there it is windy, overcast, and cold. Today it was sunny and near 90 at the coast and over 100 a short way inland.

I'm sure most of you youngsters do not know the significance of the picture below. It is a crossroad in a neighborhood in S.F. that has some interesting history. Any ideas??

The Haight/Ashbury section is well known as the birthplace of the "Hippie" movement in the U.S. during the 60's. Just to let you know that they are doing their best to maintain their image - I think I had a secondhand contact high by the time I stepped out of the car and onto the sidewalk! Maybe they just pipe in the cannabis smell for tourists but it was there. We browsed through some shops and I almost bought a killer set of tie-dye bed linens but was afraid Shirley would kill me. She makes fun of a shirt I have so I suppose the sheets would have been a little over the top. After lunch in a local cafe, we headed over to Golden Gate Park and walked trough a Japanese Tea Garden. I had to include a photo of this for Shirley the gardener of the family.

Today is Thursday and I am trying to mentally prepare myself to spend the next 3 days in a 6' by 6' booth at the trade convention. I know, I know..... it will be tough but I will make it.

Tafton's Here!

Tafton Jay Passey, 7 lb. 2 oz., 19 inches born 4/28/08. Cute little boy with a head full of hair! Sorry about the poor quality photo but it was taken with a phone. Not to be outdone by his Dad, Tafton had to make things a little exciting. When Ben was born he was wisked away to the NICU. Well, Tafton followed suit and is currently in the NICU at Ogden Regional. He did not oxygenate as well as they would like and so he was taken to the NICU for closer observation. He is doing better - they would lik him to eat a little better before they let him out. Megan will probably be discharged from the hospital tomorrow but I think Tafton will stay for a little longer. Keep an eye out on Ben and Megan's blog for more information ad higher quality pictures.

Soccer Chic!

Thought I might brag a little about our little soccer chick. Megan plays on a competition soccer team. Next year she will be in 9th grade and a freshman at Morgan High School. She was invited to go with the Morgan High soccer team to a soccer "team" camp in Cedar City this summer. It is a great opportunity for her and we are proud of her.

Spring Break

I am so ready for nice weather! We just got home from a trip to St. George where we spent 4 lovely days enjoying the sun, heat, and each other's company. It was especially nice not to have to meet schedules, hound Megan about homework, chores around the house and an escape from the Box Elder bugs!


We had a great time although we didn't really do anything very structured. Time by the pool catching a few rays. (you haven't seen that much white meet since Thanksgiving!) Now we are all sporting a little pinker skin. We went to the movies and took an impromptu hike in Snow Canyon. We also spent quite a bit of time just driving around and looking at houses and landscaping.


The girls also helped out the local economy by taking a few trips to clothing stores. We also went out to dinner at some nice places. Last night I had to sit strategically so I could see the TV in the bar area to keep tabs on the Jazz. The food was good, the game was spectacular!

It was a great trip and now I am officially ready for summer. I had to change our blog template to represent the great outdoors as I am excited to get to the cabin and hook up that $15,000 toilet!

We Love Conference!

Today we held a "Conference Brunch" at our house. We ( I should say Shirley, Kristen, & Megan) cooked up a breakfast buffet. After breakfast we watched conference on TV. It was great except simple math teaches us: good food + comfortable chair = sleepy boy! My grandson Aiden had to holler at me to wake up. It worked for me but not for Nate. It was great to see Kristen, Nate, and Aiden. Aiden is getting so big! I can't wait for him to follow me around the house and barn asking a million questions. Things only get better as Ben and Megan will have a new baby in about a month. We are excited for them.

Sleepless in Seattle

Shirley and I decided to leave town for my birthday. I had a companion fare coupon for Delta airlines and we decided to fly up to Seattle for the weekend. It was a quick trip and full of excitement! We were all aboard the plane in SLC ready to depart when the captain said there was a problem with one of the engines and they had the repair manuals open and were trying to fix it. Enter a little anxiety. It was decided that this plane was unfit to use so they were trying to find an alternate airplane. We were told we would stay on board until it was decided what we were going to do. I kept thinking of Jet Blue, 12 hours on the runway, etc., etc. After only about 10 minutes they had us exit the plane and walk four gates down the concourse to another plane. Although we had to go through the entire boarding process again we were happy to finally get on our way only an hour late. As we were beginning our decent into Seattle the Captain came on the intercom to tell us we were experiencing some problems with one of the engines but he did not think it would be much of a problem. He also said that as a precaution, there would be multiple fire and rescue vehicles on the runway when we made our landing. Turn up the backside pucker factor a little! After landing the plane stopped and we were encircled by fire vehicles as they checked out the plane. Every seemed to be OK and we taxied to the gate. After getting our rental car we finally made to our hotel just short of Midnight.

In the morning we got up early and had breakfast and started out on our day. We had planned on going down to Pike's market and shop around.

After spending the day shopping and driving around seeing the sites, we stopped at the hotel for a quick check on the NCAA games and it was off to dinner. We had reservations at a restaurant across the bay from downtown Seattle. Great seafood and the view was fantastic as the sun set on Seattle and the lights came on.

We woke up early today and was off to the airport and back home again. It was a quick trip but very nice to get away for a few days. All was well when we got home.

March madness!

I am in the height of glory - Lazy boy recliner, cold drink, remote control, and basketball galore! I am a huge fan of the NCAA basketball tournament. Then, to top it off, Jazz vs. Lakers later tonight. You would think it was my birthday - oh wait - it is my birthday! Well, it is this Saturday. Shirley and I are heading up to Seattle for my birthday. We will spend a couple of days there seeing the sites and enjoying some fresh seafood. I will post some pictures when we get home.

Here's mud in yer eye!

Oh Nate, I wanted to tell you I saw Christin Laettner in the Raleigh/Durham airport this morning. I was going to get you an autograph! Actually it took every ounce of self control to not bust out in laughter and yell "Duke sucks!"

Tar Heels stick it to the Dookies!

I had to take a business trip to Raleigh, N.C. for a few days. I was pretty excited because I was invited to go golfing at Pinehurst which to the non-golfer is a renown PGA golf course in N.C. I was pretty excited. Also, I noticed that the North Carolina Tar Heels was playing the Duke Blue Devils at Duke. Again, to those not into college basketball, this is the number #1 rivalry in all of college basketball. Two schools, 15 miles apart from each other and a bitter rivalry. I joked with those I was coming out to do business with that they should try and get tickets. I took a quick look at ebay to see what they were selling for. Well, depending on the seat they were $2000 - $3000. I guess watching it on TV was about as close as I would get. Because I am a huge North Carolina fan, my business associate suggested we take a ride over to the Duke Campus and check things out. Because Cameron Indoor Stadium (basketball arena @ Duke) is older and small - I think it seats about 8500 - the student body (better known as "Cameron Crazies") camps out in tents for days leading up to the game to get tickets. It is such a tradition they have even named the area after the coach - don't even ask me to spell it - see the picture below.



The Raleigh area had torrential rain fall for the past few days and it looks like the "crazies" paid dearly. I looks like pictures I have seen of the Woodstock concert. Trashed tents, soggy sleeping bags all over - a real mess.



Oh, I forgot to mention, because of the rain, there was no golf! :(


After we left Duke campus my friend drove us over to Chapel Hill and the campus of North Carolina. History Lesson: UNC is the oldest public college/university in the USA founded by Alexander Hamilton. After taking pictures of the "Dean Dome" where UNC plays their basketball games. He took me back in the woods to an old stone castle that was the site of the original "skull and bones" portrayed in the movie "Skulls". This was a secret society that many prominent US leaders were part of. The castle was the site of ritual meetings and ceremonies.



We decided to go to a restaurant in down town Chapel Hill and stake our claim to a spot to watch the game. We arrived at the restaurant at 4:30. The game however was not until 9:00! It really was a pretty fun atmosphere as students started to arrive. The local TV station was making live broadcasts from the restaurant throughout the game. By the time the game started there was no standing room in the place. It was almost like being at the game. They had a projection TV and the students were leading everyone in chants of "DEFENSE" and "TAR HEELS". The game was close and exciting. After the game, all of the students in all of the restaurants flooded out onto the street and started lighting fires in the street. Traffic was diverted and it was an amazing site! All in all, despite not being at the game, it was a pretty cool experience. But, as with all of my travels, it is sure nice to be back home!

Kitchen pass granted

OK, so I told Shirley I needed to go up to the cabin and do a security check to make sure everything was alright and that nobody stole our well. (she actually fell for it!) I had to twist Doug Illums arm into going with me. It was a quick trip - 2 nights and one day. It was very nice up there. I believe there was more snow up there than I can ever remember in 25 years. You could step off the deck into the snow that has slid off the roof. They had groomed the road all the way up mill creek and Doug and I made first tracks. It was a relaxing time as we didn't do much other than a nice ride and watched old cowboy movies. In a couple more months we should be able to drive in and hook the well up to the cabin. It will be so nice!

Persistance pays off!

I have been playing with this all night and finally got a slide show to play with our own pictures. I was going to call Nate for help but didn't want to admit defeat just yet. Now, if I can only figure out how to make my pictures big enough to see them. I guess that is my next project.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!

OK, I am sure my tech savy kids think I am probably too old to do something like this. I have not officially launched my blog yet so if you happen across it, it is still a work in process.