Church Ball Brawl

I don't know how many have seen that t-shirt that says: "Church BasketBall, The Brawl that Begins with Prayer." Well at our Young Men's basketball game today we had one of those games. We are in the play-offs. I am coaching the team and so far we hadn't lost. We were playing this team known for their tempers (their Old Men team too). So the game is going along just great. The game was pretty close. There had not been a lot of fouls or physical play until four minutes left in the game. There ends up being a loose ball and two players grab it, one from my team and one from their's. The referee's call a foul on our player and after the whistle the two players were still fighting for the ball. The other team player pushes our guy, he pushes him back, then their player shoves our guy, and our guy throws like a chest pass back at the guy and the ball hits him in the thigh. At this point I'm thinking oh no our guy is going to get a technical foul, after a few seconds the opposing player decides it's not over and runs at our guy and tries to kick him. So now I start yelling and heading over there to break it up and before I can get over there the opposing player throws two closed fisted punches at our player and hits him in the eye. Our player basically walks away as we break it up. He had one big shiner. It was crazy, never seen that happen before in a game. We ended up losing by a few points which isn't important. Our guy is okay but the thing that makes me mad is the Stake Young Men's President doesn't think the player that threw the punches should have to sit out the rest of the tournament. I think something's wrong here. So we will wait and see what happens. So there was my exciting Saturday. Got to love Church Basketball.

Saturday Drive

So we woke up Saturday morning and it is just a beautiful day. In the 70's, blue skies, just amazing and we thought what should we do. Why not go to the beach? But what beach? We thought we would try a different beach area. Jackie's Mom is always talking about this Mexican restaurant in Laguna Niguel so we decided to go there. So we went to Las Golondrinas. It was really good. Really authentic Mexican food. We then went and saw Aunt Nae and Amy since we were down there. It was nice to see them. Afterwards we went and walked on the beach and then drove up the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway. So we drove through Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Redondo and Hermosa Beach. We stopped at a Fashion Island Mall in Newport and then later at Cold Stone for Jackie. It was a great day and nice to get out and enjoy this amazing weather down here.
The sunset on PCH near Huntington. Great job with the picture taking as I was driving at the time. I know, impressive and even more impressive that I didn't get any cars in the way or get the side mirror in the picture.
Dana Point Beach
The Ritz Carlton at Dana Point. Let's just pretend we stayed there.......
The Mexican Restaurant, great place, one of the Mexican food places where you just go in and order and there is no places to sit. It was good!!!!
Another one of my great pictures while I was driving. Just Impressive!!!!!

Tired of Bad Weather

It's been rough here the past couple of weeks. We went from 70 degree weather with sunny blue skies to 60 degree weather with non stop rain. I didn't know that it could rain so much. We have had days and days of rain. Haven't been able to keep a clean car for a couple of weeks now. Sure is a pain living by the ocean and in a place that has crappy weather like it does down here. Just kidding, yes it has rained a lot but our bad weather has been nothing like what the folks up in Utah have had. Have I ever mentioned, I sure don't miss driving in the snow. Well if I haven't, I DON'T MISS DRIVING IN THE SNOW. Jackie had an interesting experience at work. I get this phone call asking to go help over at Victoria Care Center (that's where Jackie works) because it was flooding over there. They said the fire department and news stations were there. So I hurry over there and this is what I find.


So they have this courtyard in the middle of the building that the drains were clogged so the courtyard filled up with water which then leaked through the sliding glass doors which then flooded 16 rooms. So they had to move 29 patients to other parts of the building. I get over there and find where all the action is and all I see is firemen, and then all of sudden here comes Jackie pushing water out of the rooms. She was right in there with the firemen. Her pants were wet up to like mid calf and she was soaked. So I grabbed a squiggy broom and started helping push out water as the firemen vacuumed up water. After a couple of hours for the most part everything was cleaned up. The rooms are still empty as there is still some clean up to do, but in a couple weeks everything will be back to normal. I will say I was proud of my wife, she sure showed those firemen how to work. Well that has been our exciting week. On a side note I had my coaching debut and I will have to say we won 42 to 18. Undefeated as a coach. I'm pretty happy. So here's to a long grueling season (a whole two games). It has been fun. Hope the snow is finding you well!!!

Last Few Weeks

We haven't had very much exciting going on for the past few weeks. We have just been doing the normal everyday working stuff. We had a nice relaxing New Year's. Hung out in Santa Barbara on the 1st. I received a second ward calling. I am coaching the young men in basketball. Never thought I would do that. So we have had a couple of practices so far. It should be fun. Today we went for a drive and a hike in the hills above Malibu. It sure is beautiful driving up and down the coast. We went for a hike and ended up in a little valley where they filmed the TV show Mash. It ended up being little over five mile hike altogether. So not much new with us.


It really is 27 miles of scenic beauty.

This is a left over truck from the Mash show that is still up there.
Huge front gate of a house in Malibu. If you think this gate is nice and big, you should see the house.

Christmas Weekend

So after work on Friday the 21st Jackie and I decided to make the drive back to Utah. We made it in record time. I ended up being really sick all weekend and that was no fun. We met up with Brian and Abby and Ryan and Amber for lunch on Saturday and it was nice to catch up. We sure do miss being able to hang out with them. That night we had the Vincent party which was fun. Grandpa put on the Santa Suit so he could take pictures with the great grandkids. Christmas Eve we went and saw National Treasure and then spent the evening with Jackie's extended family. It was a lot of fun and had some great food. We got stuck in a blizzard that afternoon and it sure did remind me how much I hate driving in the snow. We were able to see Candice, Dallas, and Cohen that night for a little bit. Spent Christmas morning with Jackie's parents opening gifts and eating breakfast. Thanks to Jane for all the great food she cooked this weekend and for letting us stay with them. On our way out we stopped by my Mom's to say goodbye and play with Cayman. It sure will be fun to have kids some day that will open gifts. Hopefully everyone had a Merry Christmas like we did!!!!
Cayman and me, I think I had more fun in the pop up tent than she did.
Jackie and Baby Hannah
Opening presents at the Johnson's

Me, Santa (aka Grandpa), and Jackie
Kyle, Jackie, and Jake on Christmas Eve
Jed, Jake, and me on Christmas Eve
Baby Cohen and his favorite Aunt Jackie
Playing in the Snow, oh how I don't miss it

Weekend in Salt Lake

So we had a chance to go back home last Thursday. We landed late Thursday night with a little bit of snow coming down. It was so cold!!!! We spent Friday running some errands. We stopped by Jackie's brother Scott's work and said hi. We went out to lunch with Sarah, baby Kayla, Natalie, Debbie, and Allison. We enjoyed Rumbi's grill and it was fun for Jackie to catch up with her friends and just talk. That night we went to the Bountiful Temple for Candice's first time and it was nice to be there. We met Ryan and Amber for dinner at Cafe Rio, and McKay joined us too. Saturday we went to a luncheon for Candice and Dallas and then to their Sealing. President Stanely who performed our Sealing also did theirs. It was great to hear his counsel again. That evening we were able to hang out with Terry, Jane, Tim, Ashli, Wyatt, Scott, Kristy, Kyle, Jed, Jake and Colby. Sunday we celebrated Christmas with Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Cory, July, Cayman, Candice, Dallas, and Cohen. It sure was a lot of fun being with everyone. It does make it hard to come back to California. We are looking forward to Christmas, it should be fun like always.

Cohen (six months) and Cayman (fourteen months)

Grandma, Grandpa with Cohen (one of sixteen great grandkids)

Me and my beautiful wife

Jackie and Cayman playing

Jackie and Wyatt (seven months)

Me and Wyatt (I think I am his favorite Uncle)

Top of the Joseph Smith Building (where I wanted to propose to Jackie at, but couldn't seem to find it, boy was I dumb)

Wyatt, Jake, Colby, and Uncle Timmy

Momma Jane and Jackie

Happy Birthday Jackie!!!!

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Wife Jackie!!!! Thanks for making the past few years the happiest of my life!!! I love you!!!!!!