Work Pics

Why yes, this IS what I do at work almost all day... drive around in the work van with Jeff and eat mints and take glamour shots! (Sigh) What a great job...

Nap Time? Nice Try, Dad!

So we tried putting Jeremy down for a nap the other day and he, uh, had other plans. Part of those plans was to throw EVERYTHING out of his crib. Yes, EV-ER-Y-THING! At least he left the mattress in...

Back Side Of The Moon With The Cefalos

Last weekend we were invited by our friends the Cefalos to spend the night at their family cabin (Back Side of the Moon) up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We BBQ'd dinner, had a fire, roasted mallows, made smores, and played the longest game of Apples to Apples I've ever played in my life. And it was a BLAST! Oh I also rocked the zip line. Kristy took pics and I'll be sure to post them ASAP. Until then, here's the rest of our weekend.

P.S. How is it that spellcheck doesn't know the word "smore?!" I'm disgusted!

Built CHEVY Tough!

My friend Colby called today asking me to help him pick up some sod in Salt Lake and bring it back to his house with my truck. So the girls went out shopping and we went down to pick it up. When we got there, there was about 1 and 3/4 of a pallet waiting for us. As we started stacking the sod, we started to get really nervous and skeptical that it would all fit in the truck. Colby was determined though! So we packed higher and higher, tighter and tighter, until sure enough, we got it all in! As you can see below, we were "loaded for bear." I know I sure had a silent prayer going that we'd make it back without blowing a tire or breaking down! So we took the back roads all the way from 7200 S 1600 E in SLC back to Kaysville. Yeah, it took over an hour. Thankfully, we didn't break down or die. What a trip! Long story short, sod delivered, backyard saved! And the truck rocked it like Grandma Olsen at a James Taylor concert! (Okay, maybe a little harder than that...) Built CHEVY tough! Uhnnnn!

Colby throwin' up the horns, ready to rock. Yeah,

we were sittin' pretty loooooow back there!

Special delivery!

Camp Out... Kind Of

So last night, Jeremy woke up around 2:00 A.M.. It should be noted that he has always been a fantastic sleeper and has slept through the night for months now! (Yes, we thank our lucky stars daily) Well, he had a really hard time going back to sleep and ended up in our bed. That would have been fine except he kept flopping around and rolling on Amber and wouldn't lay still and sleep in one position! So back to the crib he went... except he started bawling and wouldn't sleep alone. So in order to give Amber some rest, I took a blanket and pillow into his room and "camped out" on the floor with the little guy. He kept flopping and rolling in and out of sleep for a good two hours before finally finding an agreeable position around 4:30, so I didn't sleep much. But as I laid there awake, I couldn't help but smile as he snuggled into me. Any time I moved away and he didn't feel me touching him, he woke up and cried until I put my arm around him and told him, "Daddy's here. It's okay." Yeah, I missed a night of sleep. But I had a wonderful night with my son. It was again, one of the "good ol' moments" in life that you can't put a price on and wouldn't trade for anything. And somehow this morning, I wasn't that tired. I know that he'll continue to grow and will have other nights of bad dreams and no sleep. And some day he may not want to snuggle up to Dad anymore... but he and I will always have last night. And he'll always know, no matter how big he gets or how far apart we may be, that Dad will always be here and that it's okay.

The Girl I Fell In Love With...

Last night for Young Women's, Amber helped through a "Princess Party" for the little girls in the neighborhood. She decided to dress up as well and pulled out one of her old prom dresses from one of the school dances we went to together. When I looked at her, it was like a flashback to 8 years ago. It was like all of those emotions from our early dating years came flooding back and I remembered so clearly what it felt like when we were young. Even though we may not have understood it at the time, we were falling in love from the very first time we met. I met my wife when I was 16... and she's the only girl or woman I have ever loved. A lot of people (including our parents) were skeptical at first and worried about how close we were. But even then we knew that we were meant to be together forever. I fell in love with a princess almost exactly 9 years ago today. I knew from the moment I left her that first summer to go back home that I couldn't go long without her. We endured two years of High School seeing each other only once a month at most. We survived two years and two hemispheres apart and still she waited! And how lucky I am to have her by my side still as my wife and mother of our beautiful son. Just goes to show that fairy tales really do come true...

Jeremy's First Step

I almost forgot the most exciting thing of all from this weekend! Jeremy took his first step yesterday morning! He was standing up against the gate and I was next to him. I said, "Jeremy, let go and stand!" He let go, he stood, and then took a STEP and fell into my arms!! You could tell he was stoked by the look on his face. It was like he was saying, "I did it, Dad!" It was so gnarly. I'm so proud of him. One of those just plain ol' radical moments in life. I'm so glad I was there!

You Can't Work Without Tunes!

Dad surprised me with an early birthday present this weekend. As he said, "You can't work without tunes!" He even made the shelf all by himself while I was doing a service project up the street. Yeah, he's the master! So we rocked out to 80's music while building Amber's cabinet and our other weekend projects. We also added additional outlets in the garage. That in itself was about as frustrating as anything. It sure would have been better if we had had a good GFI outlet. But in the end, success! And now we have our second fridge hooked up and icy cold drinks whenever we want in the garage.

Craft Cabinet

This would be the newest project to come out of the workshop. Dad and I build Amber a cabinet to keep her craft room a little more organized. Turned out pretty good if I do say so myself! We built a shelf cabinet on each side and put dowels in between for ribbons and such. We also added wire dividers so she can keep her papers organized as well. What a lucky girl!

Pool Party!

Since it's been so hot outside lately, we decided we needed to get a pool for the backyard! Jeremy LOVES it! So our new thing to do after work is to go for a quick dip in the pool. Oh yeah!

Jeremy's Hand

Well, we had quite the scare this week. On Thursday, Amber was getting ready for work and had her flat iron on her vanity, up out of reach (or so we thought). Jeremy pulled himself up on the vanity and reached his hand up and grabbed onto Amber's flat iron! Needless to say, he was immediately howling in pain. Poor little guy was crying for hours. He didn't want to be held or touched, but didn't want to be put down either. He wouldn't sleep, he wouldn't play, he was just hurting. He didn't even want to play in his pool. Thankfully he finally calmed down when Amber went to get some burn medicine and came back with toys as well. (When all else fails, bribery is the best policy!) It was just so hard to see him, so small and innocent, hurting so badly. And the worst part was that there was nothing I could do to take away the pain. When I called my dad to tell him about it, he said something really interesting. He said, "Well, you cried when you touched hot things too. But you didn't do it anymore. You LEARNED." As much as I don't want Jeremy to hurt, he needs to learn. There's a song by The Spill Canvas called "Appreciation and the Bomb" that has a line that goes, "If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we never feel the heat, until we get burned." Such is life at times. Sucks to get burned. Sucks to fail. But as my friend Bill once said so eloquently, "I have no regrets in life. Because as long as I learned from it, I don't regret it."

Well, the little man had some pretty intense blisters on his hand. So we wrapped him up and put a little mitten on his hurt paw. Of course, I talk about "learning from getting burned," but I guess I STILL haven't learned because I went golfing Saturday and didn't bother to put on sunscreen and... well, you'll see down below.

Jeremy's poor hand. He had blisters on his three middle fingers.

Nothing a little mitten, froggy slippers, and a sippy cup won't fix.

Jeremy "The Mit" Olsen. Still crawling, though!

Now THAT is a "farmer's tan!"

Quite An Eventful Few Days...

The past few days have been pretty eventful. There was Jeremy burning his hand, me burning my arms and legs, making stuff in the shop... Rather than try to squeeze it all into one post, and having to spend WAY too much time trying to PERFECT each picture position and every space between each paragraph, I'll just create smaller, individual posts for each thing. Yeah, being a perfectionist isn't always a good thing... Anyways, enjoy!

Round Lake Hike

This past weekend, Jeff and I went on our latest adventure. We found a trail head to some lakes on our way up to a security job and decided to give it a shot. This trail head led up to three different lakes, Round, Sand, and Fish Lake. By our calculations, it would be about 3 miles to the first, 5 total. It turned out to be a little more aggressive than we thought, though, for only being 3 miles. It was a 2,000 foot raise in elevation and just about straight uphill and rocky the whole way! But the forest was amazing! And as for the projected 50% + chances of rain... didn't happen. So it was a beautiful weekend to go. We also used this as a chance to sharpen up our wilderness survival skills, taking no matches, limited food, and using only basic supplies in our packs. Overall, it was super ill. At right, this would be my best hardcore "Doc Ivory" pose. Oh yeah. Gnarly.

Afternoon 1! Afternoon 1! Fun for everyone on afternoon 1!
Typical Jeff and Jake pose pre-hike in the aspen grove. As the
old saying goes, “If you look good, you ARE good!” Word.

Morning 2! How 'bout you? Jeff eating food! Morning 2!

This would be the shelter we threw together the first night.

Everything there when we stopped was wet, but we still

managed to start a fire without matches using our flints. It

actually turned out to be a pretty good spot. Dinner: Mac &

Cheese for Jeff, Beef Stew for me. Thank goodness for

JetBoils and Mountain Home meals! Oatmeal for breakfast.

Morning 2! Morning 2! Didn't see a moose on Morning 2!

Another view of our camp at breakfast time just before

heading back on on the trail. And they said it would rain...

Jake Olsen, spokesman for JetBoil.

Jeff Treft*, wilderness man. This outfit can be
yours as well for the mere price of just $11 at
your local DI store, or online at www.di.com.
*Not to be confused with Bear Grylls

Quick group shot on the way up.

Yep, whole trail looked like this: uphill, muddy, and rocky!

Jeff is smiling because this is the only flat part of the hike.

Group log shot over rocky stream.

And this is Round Lake! It was such a
beautiful place to camp and we had the
whole thing to ourselves. We decided to
skip the last climb to the other two lakes
so we could spend the whole day here.
Well worth it for sure! What a view…

Let the shelter construction begin!

Jeff bringing in another log for the shelter.

Starting to take shape...

Success! Living like kings!

A mighty fine campsite if I do say
so myself! And another no-match
fire. This is what it’s all about!

Jeff, at home in the wilderness.

This would be my canoe I whittled for Jeremy.

Morning 3! Look at me! Morning 3!
Look out for the tree! Morning 3! I’d
much rather be… Forever in blue jeans!
Morning 3! Coming back down the
mountain. tB with love. Represent. 4eva.

New Jeremy Pics

Since I just compared my son to Gollum in my previous post, I thought I'd better show just how cute he can be when he's not being his alter ego, "Mr. Fuss." These are Jeremy's one-year pics taken by our good friend Kristy Cefalo. (http://www.kristycefalophotography.blogspot.com/) Enjoy!

My Wife, The Business Owner

Today was the big day: the grand opening of Artistic Expressions Hair Studio. Of course, the first client had to be several minutes late, which had both of us holding our breath and crossing our fingers. But she did come and the day was a huge success. The only real hiccup was Jeremy doing his best "Gollum" scream for most of the morning.

So he and I went to Grandma's so as not to disturb the clientele, which worked out great because we both ended up taking a two hour nap! Haha. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it is to have Amber home on a Saturday, even if she was still working. Just knowing she was downstairs was so nice. And she could come up whenever she got a minute and see us and that was rad. The best part by far though was just seeing how happy she was. It's like a night-and-day difference in how she felt today as opposed to a normal Saturday at her old salon. She feels better, she's happier, and has so much more energy. There's no doubt in my mind that this was the right thing for us and even though it was a lot of work, it has been SO worth it. Just the smile on her face made it all worth the effort. And how freaking cool is it to know that my wife owns her own business?! 24, home owner, mom, wife, business owner, amazing, beautiful, and everything else I could ever want or hope for... I'm so proud of you, Amber! Congrats on a wonderful day and a successful business!!!