Holden's First Letter From College

Here is Holden's first e-mail from college:

Hey mom,

I'm in the David O'Mckay library right now doing some science homework. Everything is going great here. I really love all of my roommates, especially Bud and Mike. They are just cool and such a good example to me. Me and Nick wrestled last night and I gave him a bloody nose-- whoops! Then he tried to sneak up on me later that night and I put him in another headlock again and Bud gave him wedgie. Then when Bud left for work we set up the couches in a big wall between the kitchen and the family area and when Bud came home we jumped out from behind them and tickled Bud because he is really ticklish. Things are going really awesome. You can tell that Ryan is really looking for a wife soon because he goes out with like 5o girls in one day, its really funny because he is exhausted from doing so many things.

I just had my AF (American Foundations) class and it was interesting. Its pretty conservative in there and here at school but we were talking about Guantanamo Bay and a lot of people sided with me so that's good. A lot of them were arguing they had no rights because they weren't American and that made me mad and my professor could tell so he let me argue back for a little bit. He is conservative but he didn't agree with the Guantanamo Bay thing either. He said we all have inalienable rights such as life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that didn't look like the pursuit of happiness to him so that made me feel better. All while he was talking about the pursuit of happiness though I kept thinking of Eddie Izzard making fun of us because we pursue it like we do an animal. Anyways, I have to do some extra sciencebecause one of my group members decided to drop the class! LAME!

Love you mom!~Holden Glenn Hays (Hold)

It was a great experience taking him off to college. We had an excellent trip and got to spend a lot of time with him before hand. Lezlee posted some of the pictures below so I won't post any more here. We spent three days in West Yellowstone and the park. The first day we did the north loop. There is some new activity at Mammoth and so that was good to see. But we hit a snow storm by Mount Washborne and so we didn't get to see any wolves or bears. A huge bison did walk within two feet of our Durango though. I looked out through the passenger window and Holden's head was level with it's eye! It's back was taller than the Durango's roof.

The next day we did the east side of the south loop. I'd bought a spotting scope the night before and we used it to watch two coyotes for about 30 minutes on the side of a mountain hunting field mice. In total we saw four coyotes that day. A ranger told us the wolves up north were pushing the coyotes south. We had lunch at the Yellowstone Lodge--very cool.

The third day we drove down through Teton to Jackson and then over the pass throught Driggs and back to Rexburg.

Thursday we checked Holden into apartment and met is roomates--you get a flavor of them from above. There are three returned missionaries and three freshman. Bud--the apparently tickilish RM--said he liked one of their earlier roommates because he had otter pops. So we bought 700 otter pops--Holden needs all the help he can get.

His friend Austin lives just a couple doors down, so that's nice.

He stayed in his apartment that night and then we had dinner with him on Friday after he was done with some school things. Friday night we stopped in Salt Lake and then drove to Panguitch on Saturday and stayed in a cool old in. Sunday we drove into Bryce Canyon National Park before heading home. It was a very nice trip.

Thanks to Lara for her nice comment saying that she couldn't believe that he was old enough to be in college--which I interpreted as saying "I can't believe that someone as young and good looking and full of viality and charisma as you (meaning me) could have a son old enough to be in college. He must have gone to school early, which must mean that he's really smart. Which I can totally understand because he's your son and you're the most brilliant person I've ever met and probably that has ever been born." That was really nice of you to say Lara.

I think Lezlee and Moni worked out most of the details for getting together in Salt Lake before Jenny's wedding. Although I'm thinking about boycotting the wedding because she never calls me back! You've been warned sis.

Kirk

Family Trip - Taking Holden to College

To make the process of taking Holden to college a little less traumatic we decided to make it a family vacation. We drove to Flagstaff and stopped to say "Hi" to Holden's girlfriend Noelle. And then moved on to Utah stopping to see Monika and Kyle's families. Stayed briefly in Idaho visiting Lezlee's family and then drove through Yellowstone park for 3 days and made our way back to Idaho via Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We even had the pleasure of being snowed on while in the park. On our way home, we stopped at Bryce Canyon - can you believe we've never been there before? That was really cool. We had a great time. We already miss Holden a lot, but it looks like he will have a great time at school! Here are some photos of the trip:

Big Fish

Nathan and I had a legendary trip to Flaming Gorge.

Since I was a young boy I remember dad telling me stories about Flaming Gorge and the gigantic lake trout roaming the deep submerged canyons and famous fishing holes like: antelope flats, pipe line, anvil, hide out and many others. Dad also told me a story he read in Out Door Life magazine that talked about Ray Johnson. The story goes that he spent the entire year living in a cave along the shores of Flaming Gorge, suffering the terrible storms of Wyoming. He would fish day and night for the elusive lake trout and he made a diary of how many lakers twenty pounds and over, where he caught them and what he caught them with. I remember dad saying he would not where gloves because the slightest pull on the line would indicate a giant from the deep had taken the bait.

Now was the time that Nathan and I would have to fish these same waters. Even better we were going fishing with some friends of mine who has caught many twenty plus lake trout. They have been fishing this lake for years and know where the lunkers hang out, what bait they will go for. They also have a nice boat and the latest fish finders and GPS systems.

We left home early on a Thursday morning and arrived on the lake at 10 am. We got in the boat in the water and headed off to Antelope Flats. As we slowed the boat and circled the area looking for lake trout on the fish finder and plotting our course with the gps we noticed a small boat with a single person in it. Dan (our host and guide) picked up his binoculars and looked at the fisherman and said, “ there’s Johnson”. I asked him, “Do you mean Ray Johnson”? “Yes but we will keep our distance, he’s a crazy old hermit who had a dispute with another fisherman about a fishing hole and was never seen of again”. Not long after we arrived at Antelope Flats Johnson pulled up and left to another fish hole. Now let the story be told to my some day grandchildren that we had kicked the great Ray Johnson off his fishing hole!

Now the game was on! Could we catch an elusive 20 plus pound laker? Dan told us that it takes the average fisherman 100 hours of fishing for the big fish before they land their fist big one. We were instructed to lower our lure (a giant 9 inch rubber rainbow trout look alike that weighed about a pound) to the bottom and then pull it up five cranks on the reel. From there the lures would imitate a school of rainbow trout swimming along the bottom. Next we would all stare intently on the fish finder screen waiting for the signal of a giant laker to come up off the bottom and head for our lures. Dan would say, “fish coming up” and all of us would bend our knees, feet apart, fishing poll tipped down ready to explode our fish set with the slightest of bumps to our line. The problem was we did not know which of the four lures the fish was following so everyone had to be ready. This created a knot in my stomach for I new there was a chance of the biggest fish of my life.

On Friday morning we were fishing for big lakers when I got my first hit. I exploded, springing my legs and lifting the tip of my pole high in the air he was on! He let me know he was there as he bent my pole in half and ran out line down to the bottom. I was able to lift my pole tip up and reel down. Then he was off. It wasn’t more than two minutes I had him on but my heart was racing and I was excited to try again. Then my second chance came, once again I went through the actions as I hooked him and he bent my pole again. This time he must have been on for five minutes before he got off. This would be the last time I would be able to hook a big fish on the trip. But Dan hook a twenty ponder and brought him in. He wanted me to hold the fish and get a picture with Nathan and I. The next day Derrick hooked and landed a twenty-five pound lake trout.

Nathan has turned into quite a fisherman, he out fished his old man and caught five smaller lakers on our trip and I only caught one. He was the first in our family to catch a fish by using the jigging technique and stayed out on the water as long as any of the other guys. He was definitely part of the clan and looks to return to Flaming Gorge for another legendary trip.
















This fish Nate is holding is actually the bait for the big fish!

New Year's Reunion

This blog entry is to start planning for our family's reunion on New Year's. Obviously the most important part of it will be Jenny's wedding on New Year's Eve. We've also discussed doing some things together as a family. In planning things though we need to be very careful not to intrude on Jenny's big day or her need to prepare for that day.

We have not finalized our plans but will probably arrive in Salt Lake a day or two before the wedding. We will then be heading out on New Years to go to Yellowstone to get in some snowmobiling and to drop Holden off for his second semester of school.

So this is an invitation for people to make suggestions about what they want to do for the couple of days when we're all there. Possible ideas are going sledding, having a dinner, going to the movies or Chucky Cheeses, etc. Please leave comments to this posting with ideas you have and timing issues. Jenny, your imput is especially important so that we don't interfere with your plans.

We are heading up to Salt Lake this weekend. Friday we'll be in Flagstaff. Saturday we'll be in Salt Lake and would love to get together with Kyle and Moni. Sunday we are going to Rexburg. Monday through Wednesday we'll be in Yellowstone. Thursday and Friday we'll be in Rexburg and Saturday and Sunday we'll be traveling back to Phoenix.

A few weeks back Rafael wrote me an email and said he was coming to the USA and would be going to Chicago, Louisville and Moulton Alabama. We were delighted that he would spend his
valuable time in America seeing us when he could be with his girl friend.

We took him to the Huntsville Space Center and he enjoyed the museum and the space rides.

When he got out of his rented sports car he had a smile on his face and flowers in his hand. It was wonderful to see him again.

LOVE

We took the kids to Las Vegas this weekend to see the Cirque De Soleil production of LOVE, which is all set to Beatles songs. It was awesome. They had amazing dancers and acrobats flying through the air, incredible music and the most amazing sets I've ever seen. If you get a chance you should really go.

On the way we stopped at our favorite hot dog place in the middle of no where--Wikieup Arizona.

While there we stayed at Treasure Island.

Here are some photos that Holden took around the hotel.


We also went to Madame Tousoud's Wax Museum. Here are some photos of us with famous people. Lezlee wouldn't let me put the one of me with the Playboy bunny.

Lezlee with her movie crush Johnny Dep (John Cusack wasn't there).


Brennan taking it to Shaq.


Jordan would love Simon Cowell's job!


Brennan hanging with Stevie Wonder.

The real Rumble Down Under!


Holden doing his impression of George W.

And here is us hanging out at the pool.

It was a fun trip. Our next trip is to Rexburg and Yellowstone the beginning of next month.

Here's me working on a painting I finished this week and the final painting.



Nobody said anything about the location of our next family reunion. Does that mean you're too lazy to comment or too lazy to have an opinion? Unless I hear an objection by next week, I'll start planning for house boats on Lake Powell.

Hi From Kirk

I haven't written for awhile because every free moment right now is spent in the studio or doing things with the kids before Holden goes off to college. But Lezlee has done a great job of keeping you apprised of what is going on with our family.

Painting for the show is going well. I like every one of the paintings I've done so far and think this is my best work yet. Taking ten months to get ready instead of half that time has let me be more selective about what I'm going to show and take more time on each piece.


The thought that Holden will be leaving home to go to college in a few weeks is a little surreal. How could that little baby we brought home from the hospital be striking out on his own? I'll really miss him; he's so much fun to be around. But Lezlee and I are trying to focus on what a great milestone this is in his life and be happy for him.

Holden's show at the art gallery went well. He's sold one piece so far but more importantly it sparked a really creative side of him. He's spending most nights working on his clothing business. And the stuff he's doing is really cool. I keep trying to get him to make me some t-shirts but he's always so busy doing shirts for other people that mine always seem to get pushed to the back burner.



Meanwhile Brennan is growing into an amazing young man--so he'll be my new buddy. Yesterday he spent a big chunk of the day cleaning the pool so he could earn enough money to buy the newest Stephanie Meyer book. He'd read the entire thing within 24 hours.

Jordan continues to work on her shoe business. She's sold dozens so far and always seems to be working on them. But if she's not, she's doing a fashion show, pestering me to go on a bike ride, inventing a new filing system or writing a multi-media presentation for her latest project.



We need to start thinking about what we want to do for the next Hays family reunion, which should be next year. If we can do it before summer Holden will be able to attend before he goes on his mission.

Ideas we've discussed include West Yellowstone and house boats on Lake Powell. If anyone has any other ideas, speak now or forever hold your piece. I like the idea of house boats on Lake Powell. That would be fun. Unless anyone has any objections I'll start (read I'll have Lezlee start) gathering information on renting boats and other things we could do there.

Love you all. I'm really looking forward to Jenny's wedding so we can all see each other again.

Kirk

Sorry no pics

Without pictures I doubt anyone will read this but I hope that's not the case because otherwise it might be difficult to contact me. As of 8/6 THE #208.312.0789 WILL NO LONGER WORK. AT LEAST FOR NOW YOU CAN STILL REACH ME AT 801.913.2521. That might change as well soon, but I'll keep you updated. ALSO MY NEW EMAIL IS hays.troy@live.com

All of Kristi's info will remain the same.

HAPPY B-DAY CHASE!!!!

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.