Pursuits

An update on our pursuits:

Kirk continues to pursue his painting and has finished some really cool pieces for his next show, including this painting which is about 8 feet long!


If you haven't visited his website in a while you can check out his painting journal which he is trying to keep up with more lately. (He slacked off there for a while) You can check it out Here in case you forgot the link.

Also, Holden has been featured at art one with his showing of his latest - he's now on the sidebar on the gallery's website and you can see it Here.

He's also been really busy designing tshirts, hats and shoes for a clothing company he's started this summer called Royal Generation Clothing. He's doing it for fun, but I have to say, he's doing a great job! Check is out HERE!

Here's a sample of one of his shirts:



(There's more cool stuff on the website, seriously CHECK IT OUT!

I don't have a lot of talent for creative pursuits. But I have been pursuing an idea of getting smaller. So far since the middle of April I have lost 71 pounds. It's a pretty amazing diet. Next month I get a one month break and then I'll go back on it again in September (it's under a doctors care so I'm not just making up some random crazy diet).

Here's my weight loss chart I keep online - it updates whenever I add to it my weight daily. (it can only display the past 15 days or so at a time).

Get your own graph at skinnyr

Soon Brennan and Jordan will be pursuing a return to school. But before that we're all heading to Vegas next week for the Beetles Love show with Cirque De Soleil at the Mirage. We'll give you an update next week!

We hope everyone is well and having a great summer!

Alabama Hays Family Reunion

The 2008 Hays Family Reunion was held in the Old Church just across from the Riverton Cemetery where most of Great Grandpa Hays family were buried. There was about 60 people attend. This Old man (101) in Hugh Bryant he came all the way from Florida to attend. He past away a week after the Reunion.

When we first got settled into Moulton Alabama I got the phone book out and looked for Hays and found that there was a Roy and Ray Hays. I called and talked to them. In fact we had a couple of appointment to visit with them, but It never worked out. Roy and Ray are twins. I don't have a picture here of them together.

This is Sam Hays and his wife Jan, older bother of Roy and Ray Hays. I think these are the only Hays they spelled their name right, the rest spelled it Hayes.

Betty Hayes I the lady that we know so well and these are her brothers. They are children of Jake Hayes.

The community built a new church beside the old one. Someone got the idea to turn the old church into a fellowship hall. It was a great palace to have the reunion.

Summer Update...

What we've been up to lately:

Kirk has been busy painting and traveling for work - he was in Florida for a week and has to go to Colorado next week. His next show is coming up in September so he is busy trying to paint during any free time he has.

Also as the Ward Mission Leader it seems like we have a baptism every other Saturday lately.

Kirk's paintings are really turning out awesome. I think this is some of his best work so far.










Sometimes we just need to get away so a couple of weeks ago we ran up to Sedona with the kids and Noelle for the day.




















Holden has been trying to drive the scooter to work since his awesome 1972 car is not so awesome on gas! (AND IT TAKES PREMIUM!) Here are he and Austin Wheat messing around. Austin unfortunately had to wear my pink helmet.

Holden has been working very hard at the pool and on his artwork in what little spare time he has. He was asked by Kraig, the owner of Art One Gallery, to have a showing of his art work. Kraig usually has high school students show in the summer time to give them a unique opportunity that they would have a difficult time getting otherwise. The photos from the show are on a different camera but when we get them loaded I'll add one here.


We had a situation at the pools here where they had an outbreak of cryptosporidium which is a parasite that can make a person very sick. All the pools closed for a few days as a result. Holden was able to have a little break but quickly became busy with other projects. Brennan and Jordan were just plain bored without their pool schedules. So my friend Shannon Wheat suggested we take them to Disneyland for one day. I really had a hard time deciding to go - but I soon realized it would be the cheapest Disney trip we would ever do and it was only a couple of days so we went. The kids had fun and it was nice diversion for a few days until the pool schedule was back on. Here are some photos of the kids enjoying their time there.


The last photos show exhausted kids in the car on the way home from California. They slept a majority of the way home.

We were able to get on the rides super quickly because their friend Bennett has a leg brace on right now and has a fracture in his leg - We were off and on the rides so quickly we ended up with plenty of time during the middle of the day when the park was hot to run back to the hotel and relax. They ended up wanting to swim so I went out to the pool with them. They are so funny. They swam LAPS most of the time. It was an olympic sized pool with lanes marked on the bottom. I guess they really missed swim team because everyone of them would goof around a little in the water and then start swimming some laps. It kind of cracked me up. I never would have thought to do that when I was a kid.
Weirdly, I loved my time out at the pool almost as much as going to Disneyland. The weather was perfect that day and I don't get to sit at the pool and just relax very often. Even though we have a pool in the backyard, I am always feeling guilty like I should be in the house doing something or running errands, so it's hard to relax. A little bit of relaxation by the pool while in California felt like heaven.














There are also some photos at the beach. The first day we got there in the afternoon and ran over to Newport Beach for a while. It was a bit overcast and chilly for the majority of the afternoon - even raining at one point. WAY too cold for me to go in the Ocean, but the kids and Shannon braved the cold while I waited on the shore taking photos. I got some kind of cool photos of people's reflections in the sand and surf, so I perfectly content taking pictures while they were body surfing in the freezing water.




























We hope everyone else is having a great summer too!

BIG BIG BIG NEWS!!!!

Last time I posted I said that I had something in the works, well I just heard back from AT&T and I just got a new job!!!! What does this mean since I already sell AT&T phones? I currently work for a dealer of AT&T and my wage is.... well that's say it's a small enough amount that I'd rather not mention... I also don't have the resources to effectively sell to or help customers and the benefits are worse then the wage. I just got a job in sales with the actual AT&T company the wage is about $10,000 a year more then what I am making and commissions should be about $20,000 to $30,000 more a year. The benefits are great! And we are really excited! Tell you more later, until then here is some nice pics.

Hi everyone this is Kristi, we just got back a couple of days ago from my family reunion. Boy! it was fun with all of my nephews and nieces there running all over the place. We stayed at the college campus in Albion....the new owners are restoring it. The first night that we were there Troy participated in the activity.....he sumo wrestled with my sister Brandie, ha ha. Nicole had a blast watch her cousins go nuts and she figured that if everyone was screaming, then she could scream and laugh.

We all had fun, but when it was time to go to bed Nicole had other plans. She would wake up crying and I didn't get any sleep until three in the morning. The next morning we took her to my parents house I figured that she would be more comfortable there. We are so excited to see everyone in December.

Yesterday we had a going away party for Ashley, Michael and myself. We met at the park just down from our house. It was a lot of fun to get together. It was a bit sad at the end. We have wonderful friends here and we will miss them.

Matt and Jessica are both at camp this week. That leaves just Michael, Ashley and myself. It has been very quite. In some ways it has been relaxing with not as much going on. In other ways it has been crazy trying to close on two houses, switch over everything, and just being on the phone or computer all day trying to get it all done in time.

You may be wondering what we're up to...

Rest assured, all summer long it is some variation on swim and dive and lifeguarding and coaching swim or dive or judging swim or watching swim. It's a great way for kids to spend the summer. I know everytime you all talk about us living here in the summer you say "oh I'd die of the heat". But you wouldn't. Because you'd spend the entire summer in the pool or in the air conditioning like us. For the 4th of July we had a bar-b-que with friends and we all swam and played water volleyball. Here are a couple of action shots of Brennan and Jordan doing Butterfly at one of the recent meets (and we have another one tonight).

A lot to report

As you can see above Nicole is now mobile, she started to crawl on Sunday and has gotten better and better at it every day. When she first started she was really jerky but she's getting pretty smooth.

Not only is she crawling but she has also started to pull her sell up and stand (as long as she has something to hold on to.

Kristi is been asked to expand her client's web page by six pages, which is about twice it's current size. She has also been approached by a possible new client. Not to mention the fact that she is almost done with her own web page.

I got my bike up to 2000 miles a few days ago and had to stop my bike ride so that I could look at the Llamas, I mean how often do you really see llamas? Sorry if the pics aren't the best quality all I had on me was my cell phone.

We did have a great forth, spent it with Kristi's family in Albion and I even had time to take a quick 30 mile bike ride through the mountains (that's where I found the the llamas).

I've got one other thing in the works that I'll let you know about as soon as I know for sure.
Love you all.
Troy, Kristi and Nicole

Just a few new pics

Just a few recent pictures from a fishing trip, the 4th of July, and the latest addition to the Hays Family Zoo (Sandy the Ribbon snake and her babies - the babies were a surprise).