Rivalry Week In Review

Now that the big game is behind us, I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon the game that was, the Holy War, between Utah and BYU...

The Heapsman Trophy

When it was all said and done, 54-10... I laughed, I cried, I loved it. All that's left to say is: "GO UTES!"

Ammon's Blessing

I had the wonderful honor and privilege of blessing our son Ammon at church. This is one of the most special opportunities that I have as a father and I love it so much. Such a great way to use the Priesthood. It's kind of funny with these things in that after it is over, you don't usually remember what was said, you just know that it was right. In retrospect, the main thing that sticks out to me is that we have been blessed with two INCREDIBLE boys who have very special spirits about them. Just holding them and looking into their eyes, you can tell that they're amazing. I just shake my head at how lucky I am to have such an amazing family. (I credit my wife. My side of the gene pool tends to be a little shallow... jk.)

Another great part of the day was being able to spend it with our wonderful family and friends. We have also been blessed with amazing people around us and it was awesome to see so many of them and get to honor them as well. And we had a pretty impressive spread!

Tim and his birthday present from Grandpa and Grandma... Uh, yeah...

After the crowd started to disperse, my Scouts came over to drop something off and I invited them in for some grub as well. Little did I know that within 15 minutes my house would turn into a WAR ZONE as squirt guns and rubber bands would be flying everywhere! Even Jeremy got into the action and soon the boys were running for cover and shooting back. It was awesome! The boys had a blast and it was nearly an hour later before we could get everyone calmed down. What a great day... Thanks again to everyone who helped make it special and for sharing it with us.

Labor Day in Montana With the Newly-Engaged

We had a wonderful Labor Day and were able to share it in my favorite place on earth: my home in Montana. Jeff and Maren, newly-engaged and ready to wed, had told me that they wanted to go up there sometime and Amber and I had discussed going up for Labor Day so... ROAD TRIP! We all climbed into the truck and hit the road on Friday after work.

Before leaving town, we stopped by the farmer's fruit/vegetable stand per Mom and Dad's request. I picked up a box of peaches and started loading up on corn. And this wasn't just ordinary corn, I was informed by the farmer. This corn was picked by 18 year old virgins in High School! And apparently he can guarantee that... Yeah. I almost put the corn back... ANYWAY, the trip up went well and, besides the virgin-picked corn, was pretty uneventful.

We rolled into the ranch around 11:00 and headed to bed. Dad was gone to Fort Bridger for a mountain man thing, so I figured I'd be bow hunting all by my lonesome, but Jeff obliged me with his company bright and early at 5:30 a.m. the next morning! We camo-ed up, grabbed a couple of apples, and set off across the river to look for elk. We did hear some nearby and there was plenty of elk sign, but no luck. When I say no luck, I mean we didn't see an elk. But Jeff did take this incredible photo:

The rest of the day was spent just enjoying the ranch: riding 4-wheelers, canoeing on the lake, exploring the forest, chilling at BAJAT, taking naps, playing in the sandbox, heating the hot tub, taking engagement pictures... You know, normal day. ;) It was great to be home...

Young love... napping.

That night, I decided to go back out across the river to the spot Jeff and I had sat earlier that morning. Jeff elected to stay in, so I went out by myself. I wasn't getting any response to my calls, so I decided to try a new one I'd just learned: the "cow in distress" call. Still no answer. It was now almost dark so I decided to head back to the house, about 15 minutes walking distance from where I was at. I'd made it about 5 minutes from where I was calling when I heard the wolf howls begin... If anything can make your blood run cold and the hair on the back of your neck stand up, it's a wolf howl! I picked up the pace a bit, but the howls were getting closer quickly! I'd hadn't even made it around the lake when the silence of the forest was broken by the howls, barks, and whines of the pack: they'd made it to where they thought an elk in distress should be! Well, I had 3 arrows, one with a blunt tip, and my knife. It was dark, I'm still 10 minutes walk away from the house, and there's a pack of wolves after me. No big deal. I was checking over my shoulders the whole way, moving from climbable tree to climbable tree as quickly as possible, but I made it back safe. Jeff was outside in the hot tub and heard the howls and was pretty relieved when I walked up. Haha what a story...

We went to church the next day and enjoyed being back in the little branch I grew up in. It was pretty cool being able to bless the sacrament again, especially with Jeff. We enjoyed great testimonies and Spirit and all left fulfilled. On the way home, spotted this sight next to the road... Typical Montana:

Never leave your car unattended on the side of the road.

Grandpa and Grandma showed up for dinner that night. Not much to say about that, except Grandpa telling Maren a long-winded story about how it's such a "small world" because he knew all about her dad... Yeah, it wasn't her dad. Hahaha. Wow. But later that night, Dad came home. When "Papa" pulls in, we all pretty much turn invisible to Jeremy. He finally got his buddy back!

We all went into town the next day and Mom and Dad treated us to a round of teeth cleanings. The trip in did have one little hiccup... See, Dad likes to drive pretty fast. He could drive that road in his sleep, so that hour and a half trip into town has turned into an hour trip into town since Dad likes to "let the pony run." Well, I was trying to keep up with him and somehow ended up going 90 on the 70 mph highway... I'd almost caught up when he had to slow down behind a trailer going uphill and that's when the sheriff caught me... Yeah. 20 over, I figured I was screwed. I was preparing myself for at least a $200 ticket when the sheriff walked back up to my window... "Well, the bad news is that I'm going to give you a ticket and we have to be paid on the spot or we might not get our money since you're from out of state. So if you've got the $40 now we can just get you back on your way." Forty bucks? FORTY bucks?! Yes, $40. That's it. God bless Montana... Maren had cash to "bail me outta jail" and we had a good laugh all the way into town!

Jeremy's first tooth cleaning!

It was a great trip and we all really enjoyed ourselves. It was great to spend time with Jeff and Maren before they disappear for a few months... ;) Great way to spend a Labor Day!

Mirror Lake Camping

With summer winding down, we decided that Ammon was finally ready for his very first camping trip! (3 weeks is plenty old enough in the Olsen family!) Rob and Aerielle even decided to join us, with Mom meeting us the next day for a mountain picnic. We loaded up the teardrop with all our camping gear and headed up to Mirror Lake for the weekend.

It was absolutely beautiful up there! Everything was still green with lots of wildflowers. We found a great little campsite and even had a moose walk through the meadow while we were setting up the tent and trailer! We had a nice rainstorm sweep through while we were getting dinner ready in the dutch oven, but otherwise it was a beautiful night. After some delicious lasagna, we settled into bed.

We woke up the next morning to an gorgeous day! We had an egg casserole in the dutch oven for breakfast with muffins and Mom made it up just in time. We even found some deer nearby our camp which Jeremy was really stoked about!

"Getting firewood."

Wakey wakey, eggs and baky (in the dutchy)!

After breaking camp, we drove over to Mirror Lake. Like I said, it was a spectacular day and we helped ourselves to a little walk around the lake. Peep show:

About 3/4 of the way around the lake, we walked past a guy who had just caught a fish on his line. I said: "Look Jeremy! He caught a fish!" The guy heard us and asked if Jeremy wanted to reel it in. So I took him down to the water's edge and the guy gave Jeremy the pole. Jeremy reeled the fish in and was way stoked. The fish swallowed the hook and by the time the guy got the hook out, the fish wasn't going to make it. He asked if we'd eat it and I told him he would so he let us keep it! So Jeremy walked the rest of the way back with his freshly caught fish on a stick. Steezy!

We finished off the day by cooking up some hotdogs and having a picnic by the lake, taking a nap in the trailer, and playing in the stream. It was such a great day. Everyone had a great time. Even had a lot of interest in the teardrop! People were peeping it left and right! The thing is an eye-catcher for sure. Pretty rad to say we built it ourselves!

On the way home, we stopped in Kamas at Summit Inn Pizza for dinner. That please is on point for sure! The pizza is excellent and the cheese bread is legit! Top it off with some ice cream and you've got yourself a full belly and a smile on your face. Be sure to check that out for sure!