Update #1 on Paces trip to Arizona

Just wanted to give a quick update on the first part of our trip to the Guymon's. We left SF at about 12:30 on Saturday. We stopped at Cove Fort. The missionaries did a great job! We watched a movie on the background of Cove Fort and how President Hinkley's grandfather left his family in Coalville by instruction from Brigham Young to go and build the fort. It took 7 months (with a team of hired workers) and then his family joined him. He had 10 children and 2 of them narrated the film.

Then we toured the fort and the missionary had a spiritual tie in for each of the 12 rooms. It was very interesting and well worth the stop. Here is a photo.
Then we went the rest of the way to Page Az.

The next day (Sunday) we stopped at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was awesome and even the kids liked it. Here are a few photos of that.
After we left I realized that I had not gotten a photo of our whole family together. Oh well.

Monday I had a business meeting in Gilbert. So we went to Ikea and everyone shopped while I went to my meeting. And we just hung out.

Tuesday we spent the whole day at the science center in downtown Phoenix. It was really great and they basically had to kick us out. It was a lot of fun.

Secret Time at the Library

I had a chance this weekend to do one of my favorite secret things: just go to a library and pick out 5 books and sit there for a couple of hours and see what I get. In one of the books there was an essay by Winston Churchill that he wrote just days after an escape he managed as a war correspondent in the Boer Ward. I thought I'd share a few passages that grabbed me:

(Regarding the propaganda being put out as "news") - "A month's feeding on such literary garbage weakens the constitution of the mind."

(On a moment during his escape from prison) - "I realized with awful force that no excuse of my own feeble wit and strength could save me from my enemies, and that without the assitance of that Higher Power which intereferes more often than we are always prone to admit in the eternal sequence of causes and effects, I could never succeed. I prayed long and earnestly for help and guidance. My prayer, as it seems to me, was swiftly and wonderfully answered. I cannot now relate the strange circumstances which followed, and which changed my nearly hopeless position into one of superior advantage."

(On the whole experience) - ".. all these things ate into my sould and have left an impression that will not prehaps be easily effaced."

I love a few good words put together well.

John Stuart Mill's Essay: On Liberty.

Fall in Atlanta

I was home for the second weekend in a row this weekend, and I'm telling you it makes all the difference in a Jill's life. Two weekends ago, I was a little disoriented about the time - like I was supposed to be celebrating a holiday I didn't quite understand. I went to the old stand-by of spending a decent amount of time in a bookstore. I also cleaned. This Saturday I started with the cleaning and was all done by about 7:30 am. I knew that if I got out early enough, I could beat the rain and go mountain biking for the first time in a long time. I found directions to some good looking trails and about 20 minutes later was joining many spandex wearing men (I don't know - I guess it's serious here!) in checking our chains and tire pressure before hitting the trail. Blanket's Creek immediately reminded me of the favorite trail running in Nashville. A lot of trees, fairly gradual climb and fun descents. I did the 4-5 mile loop once and then saw on the sign that I had gotten the predicted time between beginner/intermediate. So, I did the loop again to prove that I could still be an intermediate. I missed that time by 2 minutes and lost my legs in the process. So I couldn't go for a third... maybe this weekend.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Next is a picture of me rowing with the Baltimore Rowing Club(BRC). The club is pretty strong- strong enough to enroll novices like me in a course and teach me the basics of rowing together. I hated it a times and loved it at others. A few weeks ago, toward the end of the season, the rowing was in the dark. We hit a day marker(similar to a fixed bouy) with the boat! No one was seriously injured but the boat needed some serious repairs. Despite the difficulties, I really enjoyed it and am considering signing up again in the spring.

Here is a picture of the Halloween Carnival that our ward sponsored. This is a picture of some of the super heros that attended. This is an activity the family home evening group organizes for the inner city ward and Spanish speaking branch. We had trick-o-treating in the building- using the varrious classrooms as doors. We had the bulk of the activities in the cultural hall, which included a cup cake walk, ring toos and doughnut eating contest to mention a few. It was well attended and we'll most likely do it again next year for the third time.


And, today Thanksgiving 2006, Liza and I were invited by Susan Lynch(pictured with her family) to go to the 'blessing of the hounds'. This is serious- we had a minister of a Episcopalian church come out and bless the hounds that they would have sucess. It was cold- see the body language, and the blessing was short and to the point. The hounds were released and the chase was on. We took our time getting back to the car from which we followed the chase. This is called 'hill toping'. Ironically as we followed, the chase going away from us, we didn't see much of the hounds or the riders, but we saw the fox! Funnny! Susan also took us to the place where her children-Sara and Ben, learned to ride horses. It has been a very nice day. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Video Blog Test

Sorry for all the posts tonight. But I wanted to see if I could post a video from my phone. Please comment on if you can see and hear the video. It is low quality but it should work.

Pace Halloween Pumpkins

Xakoi carved her first pumpkin all by herself and did a great job!
Zander wanted his to be scarry.
Ezrie's was small and cute (just like her) and had glasses (just like her)
Jairus had a huge pumpkin and had to scrape away an inch of meat from the inside just to carve it. He did a haunted house and it has clouds carved on the back that project onto the wall.

Pace Halloween

Here are some photos of our Halloween. No photo of Zander yet. But here are the others. I was a hard rocker (same as last year), Becki was a Delta Rabbit football player, Jairus was a punk rocker (complete with 4 ear rings), Xakoi was Captain Jack Sparow, Ezrie was a witch, and Zander was a polar bear.



We went to trunk or treat (Becki can tell you what happened there) and then we went to Brody's and had a party. Jairus went "real" trick or treating for I think the first time ever in Mapleton. They went to all the rich houses and made a killing.

All I can say is “True Modern Art”

That is my one line review of the Blue Man Group. As you may know, Helen gave me tickets to this show for my birthday. It was on Monday night in the Delta Center. Becki was not too interested in going so I took Jairus. The seats where excellent on the floor on the 17th row. We would have been at about half court in the middle of the court if the Jazz had been playing. We could see the actual people better in real life than by watching the big screens. It was awsome. Here are a few observations from the show.

1) They do an excellent job of mixing modern media. They use all kinds of high tech stuff in the show. The lighting and effects are amazing. They have 3 big screens and many small LCD type screens all over the stage. They use video and audio together to make a complete experience. They even have what they call a MobKast that uses text messaging on the phone to include the audience. It was fun to feel involved in the show and the group also asks everyone to participate in several parts of the show.

2) It has a little of everything. It was funny of course. The blue men are silly, stupid, naive, smart, energetic, artistic, musical and wise all in one. The music was great and it was fun to see them play all their crazy instruments. But the show also has a serious side. Most of the songs had deep messages that relate to society today and tried to teach everyone something. They covered subjects like self-image, corporate life, finding yourself, being unique, saving the environment and finding happiness in our modern world.

3) It was very “stylized” in that there was a visual theme to the entire show. They stayed true to the stick man theme. Their music was consistent and high energy. Also all the screens often matched up with various colors and images. During the big guitar solo all 20 of the screens on stage showed fire burning for example.

4) Did I mention the music. It was loud (too loud). But all of it was great. The musicians where all amazing and the man and woman singers were great. And the blue men did their part to amaze and entertain.


With all those reasons, that is why I call this modern art. It has visual and audio. It has participation both physically and mentally. It makes you think and laugh. I totally enjoyed the show and would love to see them again sometime. Thanks Helen!