Happy Birthday, Jessi!

I love you, my 29 year-old hottie.

Twin Falls Temple

We toured the new Twin Falls Temple on Saturday. It was a marvelous experience. If anyone has never been inside a Mormon Temple before, you should go. This is your chance. I think that the open house is for another two to three weeks. And you don't need a ticket or a reservation.

I promise you will not regret it.

Twin Falls Bowling

Bowling is a secret family pastime for the Coletti's. We went with our friends, the Anderson's from Twin Falls.

And I am getting better.

Craters

One of the strangest places on Earth is right here in Idaho.

On Saturday, we stopped on our trip to Twin Falls and walked on the moon.

Craters of the Moon is one of the largest smears and piles of lava flow you'll ever see. Get one glance at this spot and you'll instantly wonder how it all came to be.

Eruption after eruption after eruption created this massive glob of lava rock over several thousand years. Some spots literally look like thousands of dump trucks came and unloaded tons of lava rock all over the place.

We toured some of the strange lava formations, and climbed up dormant volcanos.

Jessi showed off her musculos for the camera, right in front of a decrepid tree.Then we dipped into some of the lava tube caves in the area. But with flip-flops, crocs and shorts on, and no flashlights, we were not prepared to go too deep. Nevertheless, it was enough to capture Jaydn's attention.

We even saw some wildlife in this forsaken place.

That... was a hawk.

What a fun way to spend a few hours.

They know more than you think

I'm used to hearing, "look, mom, a golden eagle" every time we drive somewhere. Seriously, every large bird in the sky is a golden eagle.

So when we were watching Planet Earth a few days ago, a large bird could be seen in the distance on the screen. Jaydn instantly said, "that's a golden eagle." I smirked.

Then, David Attenborough: "The golden eagle soars through the air . . . ."

Huh. I'll never underestimate him again.

Lagoon

OK, so I struggled my way on a two and 1/2 hour car ride with a sore back to Lagoon. But things are going better for my back, thankfully.

We stayed with my cousins, Joe and Lori Oliver. They are great friends, with a similar family to ours. Jaydn really enjoys their kids, Emma and James. Jessi really gets along well with Lori. And Joe and I are as similar as cousins get.

On Wednesday morning we entered the park. Normally, you'd probably make your way to the big roller-coasters first, right? But when you're with kids, Kiddieland is your first stop.

I don't know what the deal was with the kiddie ride that gets you soaking wet. Kids love to get wet, even with clothes on! Sheesh! Jaydn, Emma and James LOVED this ride:Then on to spaceships, airplanes, dragons, bumper cars, and captive animals, and it was then time for us parents to find a ride of our own!

We went on the new ride, Wicked. Wow. That thing really packs a punch! Jaydn joined us on a few big boy rides as well. We love the ferris wheel.

Get a load of this--The "Catapult," which literally catapults you up hundreds of feet in the air, has a handicap entrance. I must be near-dead, because I wouldn't step one foot near that thing.
Lagoon A Beach was really fun. We spent most of our time there. Jaydn even went on several hefty waterslides without a flinch.

Then, after getting dry, the kids wanted to play in the central water-shooting thing-a-ma-jiggy. So they were wet again.

We finished off the day with a great big dinner at Sizzler, said goodbye to our friends, and, drove home?!

Oh man, am I tired.

Awesome

On Tuesday we left for Lagoon. But, backtracking a bit, a little after lunch I made my way to Rigby for a hearing. I was a little short on time, and I needed to meet my clients quickly. So I didn't take the first Rigby exit. When I got to the second Rigby exit, it was closed! I had five minutes until the hearing, and there was only one lane open because the road crew were working!

So I drove another five miles until I could turn around. Coming back, the OTHER Rigby exit was closed! Oh, man, by this time my hearing was probably starting! I've never wanted to be late to a hearing; certainly not this one! So I had to drive all the way past Rigby, make sure no police were around, and take the emergency turn to get back on the highway so I could get into Rigby's first exit.

By the time I got to court, my mind was scrambling on how to explain my tardiness to the court. Do I blame it on the road crew? Judges hate it when you blame things on others. Do I just say "sorry"? That won't work, because then he'll think I was late for my own reasons. I settled on telling the judge that I got confused by the exit closures.

Luckily, his previous hearings were running late. Phew! I got there just in time--10 minutes late, to be exact.

But I can't tell you how wonderful this hearing was. Nonconfrontational. No opposition. We won. The absolute best of my extremely short career so far. In fact, I almost cried.

Instead of telling you about it, I'll let my friends do it.

Ouch

I was putting on my socks Thursday morning at the athletic club when something really bad happened.

As I stood on one foot and lifted my other one up to put on my sock (you can see it coming), I felt something go out.

My back.

I fell on the floor, on hands and knees, in terrible pain. Guys in the locker room stopped what they were doing and wondered what I was doing on the floor. My pride made sure to let everyone know I was all right, that I didn't need help.

Except it took me 30 minutes to get dressed, and I never got my socks on.

All I could think about in this moment was, "how am I going to get to work?" I mean, it was an important day at work and I had a big project to finish. WHY does my back have to go out on a day like this?

Needless to say, I am getting through it. Life goes on. My mother has a bad back. My father has a bad back. My grandmothers on both sides of my family had back surgery. I, am destined.

I don't know why I am telling you all of this. Maybe it's to rub some of the pain off onto you. Maybe I just needed to blog again after doing piddly nothing for so long. Or maybe I have no good reason.

But there has to be a point. Ah yes! I have to keep telling myself that everyone, everyone (even Arnold Schwarzenegger) has at least ONE physical ailment or defect (except maybe my wife). I have extremely many. But this one is probably going to be the worst. I don't have to ask God "why?" every time it goes out. I know I am not alone in the dysfunctional body club.

There! A blog entry to make me feel better. Now if my back can only look like "Ah-nolds" someday . . . .

My Mom's Patriotic Cake

It was good.

Father's Day Pic

Not sure why I didn't add this to my Father's Day blog--

Jaydn at the Air Show

Had to get this one on the blog --

But seriously...

We had a great Independence Day. We went to the Idaho Falls firework show. Melaleuca calls it the "biggest west of the Mississippi." I'm not sure where they get that. Bigger than firework shows in cities covering more than half the size of the United States? Houston? Phoenix? Salt Lake City? Los Angeles? Seattle? I'd like to see some quantitative proof. Oh well. At least it was fun.

We watched from the grass of the new Hilton Garden Inn Hotel. My parents came, as well as Jessi's parents, Jared, Chandler, and Jared's boys.
Just getting out of the parking lot took us more than 30 minutes after the show.

On Saturday, we had a barbeque at my in-laws' place. This has kind of become a tradition since it's Chandler's birthday on July 5. Then we went out and saw Iron Man while the kiddies did fireworks.

We're really blessed. I can't think of another place I'd rather be than here!

Happy 4th

From the Muppets.