What We Did This Week

Here's what the Kirk Hays Clan has been up to this week.

Sunday we went back to the Desert Botanical Gardens with my friend Suzette and her boyfriend and then out to dinner. The next day he sent her a text message that said: "I realized last night at dinner with your boss, that we aren't right for each other." Yes, apparently I ruined her relationship. And yes, that is the same friend that I talked into going racing with me and Holden a few weeks ago and she burned out the clutch in her car. Yes, I feel very bad and am surprised she's still my friend!





Suzette and Kevin right before the ill-fated dinner.



We also went to the Arts district and Lezlee bought this necklace. I told her it looked like salt water taffy and got in so much trouble I had to buy her earrings too!



We also started work on the new outdoor kitchen we're building in the back yard. This is me with the metal artist that is building the structure, the gates, the table and bar and the fire pit and the landscape architect that masterminded the design. Saturday we ripped out the grapefruit tree, about 7 oleanders and two sheds. Tomorrow we remove all the existing lawn and plants and jack-hammer out the concrete. Fun stuff.


After all that hard work I took Brennan and Jordan to the Roller Derby with their friends. It was a BLAST!! We had so much fun rooting for the Brawlerinas and their star players Diana Saurus Wrexx and the Bone Setter. And our team won!! Jordan and Brennan competed at half-time in a game of musical chairs and Jordan almost won until one of the roller derby girls body checked her and knocked her off the chair!! But she ended up winning a t-shirt and bunch of other stuff in a raffle.






And finally, Holden put in his mission papers Tuesday. We're hoping he gets his call this week. So watch here for more details.

It's also the kid's spring break this week and I'm going to take some time off to spend with them so we should have a lot of fun.

Love you all. Take care. Kirk

Missing In Action

Its been a while since I've posted. I recently discovered Facebook and have been catching up with old friends from high school and my mission.

Holden came home for Valentines Day weekend, which was awesome. I took a day off work and we went to Phoenix International Roadway and took a high performance driving course for a couple of hours and then got drive the race track with instructors, finally culminating in racing on the track by ourselves. Holden did amazing. I on the other hand lost it twice and ended up in the gravel pit at 60 miles an hour. That's pretty exciting! All day Holden kept repeating "we should do this more often." Unfortunately, my friend who went with burned up her clutch and had to be towed off the track and to a mechanic! Ooch.





We also went to the Highland Games last week. Brennan ate his first meat pie and haggis and liked them both so I guess he can go to Scotland with us next time. But Jordan wouldn't try the haggis. You can't go to Scotland if you won't eat the haggis!! They had bagpipers competing, Clan booths--including for the Hay Clan--kaber tossing (throwing a 100 pound 18 foot long post), tons of booths, all things British and terrible fish and chips.







Lezlee is doing much better. She gets around without crutches and hopes to get the brace off soon. She was hoping that she'd be done with physical therapy soon but they told her yesterday it may be another 6 months.

Grandpa's Birth Facts...

So Grandma called me up today to point out two factual inconsistencies in the story about Grandpa's birth. Really, just two? Did she not read the post? Anyway, she said that Grandpa wasn't born in a hospital or in Magna?
So the question to all of you is, where was he born? (In a manger has already been taken)...

Let me tell you a story...

I don't know if you remember this but when I was young and use to go visit Grandma Hays she use to confide in me...she would tell me stories of her youth, share with me her dreams and even sometimes expose her deepest, darkest secrets. Of course who could blame her, I was a precocious and empathetic 8 year old who lived to please others, never selfish or self-absorbed...but this isn't a story about me, it is the story about a young mother and her youngest child. Shortly after giving birth to Wayne in the hospital the nurses and doctors quickly noticed how special a child he was. In his cradle, one of the nurses accidentally left the nose-bulb next to the infant and he became hungry and his cries went unanswered the infant placed his fingers around the nose bulb and threw it against the wall...the old janitor still tells the story of being called in to patch the hole in the wall that went through the next three rooms from the force that bulb was thrown. For a small town like Magna, to have such a phenom among their residents was a source of great pride...when as a young toddler he pitched in the Little LeLeche League for the Pre-School Panthers baseball team and brought home the golden pacifier trophy the town threw a parade for him...as he grew older his talents were noticed outside of the small sleepy town by for the coach granite district little league that was struggling to be financially viable during the rough and tumble times of the depression...if only there was someone whose pitching skills could bring in the crowds and fill the stadiums, if only the Granite District Beat Diggers could win the state championship then the coach could live his ultimate revenge and beat Carlos Espanolao his Cuban Nemesis. This child from Magna was his only chance but there was only one problem....he was too young to compete and to add insult to injury he was too young by just one day. But the coach hatched a dark and evil plan to change the age of the young baseball phenom Wayne. The plan seemed so simple that it couldn't possible fail, and really who would be hurt by a change a birthday by one date? No one. Right? So he put his devilish plan into action. He recruited one of the top astronomers of the day to testify in front of the Utah Senate about how Galileo miscalculated the earth's rotation around the earth by 1/100 of a second and that if you add up all of those fractions of seconds all of our dates would be off by one day. Well everyone was in a panic about this, what would happen to us all? Would this cause all sort of technology and things that were dependent upon the clock to go haywire, could the earth spiral into the moon and explode in raging ball of fire? Who would save of from the perils of Galileo's gaff? One man stood up and led the masses to a solution. He suggested that they choose a day and remove it from existence...but what day would it be? The day he chose was February 19, 1941. Everyone rejoiced for they were saved! All documents were required to remove the date Feb 19, 1941 from all official documents and that date was replaced with Feb 18, including birth certificates...and that is why although you all celebrated and called him to wish him Happy Birthday on February 18, only I got it right and wished him happy birthday on his true birthday!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY POOPSIE PINGLE!!!!

Hello from snow filled Bountiful. Actually, it isn't too full yet, but it is sure coming down. Yesterday, there was no snow on my front yard. It was so nice, I wrongly thought "Spring is in the air."
Last week Michael, Ashley and Matt were home sick. The stomach flu. Luckily, they are feeling better and are back at school today. Eric doesn't feel too great though, he did go into work today, we will see how that goes.
Ashley and Michael just finished a reading marathon. Michael read 11 hours for the week. Ashley read 9 hours and 40 minutes a day which equaled 64 hours. The first morning she woke up at 3am to read. It actually worked out for her that she was home sick 4 days last week.
I am trying to make carmel from scratch. I say trying, because last time we tried it took forever and didn't turn out the way we wanted. The last recipe we tried we stirred the carmel continually for over an hour. This recipe takes a long time, but I only have to stir it every five minutes. I hope it turns out. I went to an enrichment meeting where they taught us how to make carmels and also fondant for candy making. The fondant looks extreemly complex and time consuming. So I opted to try the carmels instead. Of course, it could also be because I don't really like cream filled chocolates, and I love carmel.
We were able to go to the Draper Temple open house as a faimily. It was a great experience. The kids are old enough that they were interested in the temple. We were also able to have them look into the mirrors in the celestial room and see how their reflection kept going. The paintings were wonderful, there were a lot of paintings just made to hang in the Draper temple.
I have been kicked out of physical therapy because I was doing so well. I still do physical therapy and an excercise program at home. It will be a year to a year and a half for me to finish healing.
My physical therapist told me to do things that I haven't been able to do in a long time. So my house is looking cleaner than ever. I have been working on baseboards and floors at the moment. Michael is going to see the Harlem Globetrodders tonight. He is very excited.
Monika

Oh and I forrgot

I totally forgot the coolest part of my trip on the way there on the fairy I saw a whale and dolphins :)

Cimi , and more

This one is of the Queen Marys sumerenie


The most awesome person Ever

In this pic I was really tired !! :)



Me and my Crazy friends



Hey I have been doing a bad job at remembering to do blogs for a while ! So I am writing a blog today about a couple subjects so bare with me . First on the 14 , 15 , & 16 I went to Catalina and had so much fun :) I'll start with the drive there we drove to LA and once there we got on a 3 hour fairy ride ( and luckily I wasn't sea sick ) The Island is beautiful I mean just Fabulous I love it there it is very Green and amazing it is great !!! I have some pics above of the Island !! When we where there we did soooo much stuff ! Here was my day while I was there wake up eat , get ready , go to class ( classes / labs were so much fun and I had 4 or so a day at one lab I got to pet sharks and another study plankton , and observe Octopus (ect .) then I did the funnest parts of the day SNORKELING you see every group has 10 or so people and they all have a instructor who teaches you on the way :) after you take a class on what to do while snorkeling and how to use equipment you get suited up !!! Sadly the pic of me in my suit didn't turn out :( When we went snorkeling I saw sharks , sting rays , a sea lion in the bay , and so many schools of fish , plus stray fish ! I went on two snorkels in the day and one at night:) The night snorkel I will never forget you see twice as many things and there is a plankton that lights up there at night when you move it and it looks like stars in watter ! I also dissected a squid when I was there . I had a blast and if any one has any Questions I would be happy to answer :)

HOW MY MOM IS DOING !!!

MY mom is doing much better :) She is still going to be on Crutches for a while but is doing as good as she can at this point ! She is going to Rehab for her knee 3 times a week and is having a good range of motion so far . My Grandma and Grandpa Peterson are in town helping us out around the house . We are all doing good !!

Brennan
Is practicing Piano none stop and is still reading non-stop !!

Kirk/ my dad
Is being a lawyer non-stop and is know doing life drawing .

Holden
Is still up at collage having fun in negative weather but is coming down next week for Valentines day weekend ( Noelle is also coming down from N.A.U )

Me
Besides C.I.M.I I am having some teeth pulled (4 ) and some other dental work done :|
I love having this blog and hearing from all off you what your doing and sharing with you what I am up to :)

Vicki could see this large bald eagle from up on the highway but had no idea he was in our front yard until see drove up to the Riverhouse. It cooperated nicely by waiting until see came in, got the camera and took his or her picture. Unfortuenatly it was evening so his white plumage didn't show.

These turkeys have a novel way of eating from our 'small bird' feeder

Wayne feeding the turkeys pretty red berries from the tree. They said yummy!

Lezlee, we hope you'r feeling somewhat better. Our mission has forced me to establish my own email. It is wshays@gmail.com. Would you please give me blogg access and add me to your email list.

Calling All Fisherman!

On July 14, 15 & 16 a salmon fishing charter will be leaving the banks of Lake Michigan... Ken would like to extend an invitation to anyone who wants to attend. The charter has already been paid for and there is 5 more slots for people to attend. The charter includes hotel room, licenses and stamps, and fishing gear. The charter is completely taken care of all you need to do is show up!
If you want to come along, just let Ken know. His work email is kenneth.burkhart@parsons.com
Visit the charter site to see the details, the trip that is booked is the Fisherman's Special http://www.nickyboycharters.com/index.html

Dale Chihuly v. God In Beauty Smackdown

Monday we took the kids to the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens where they had giant glass sculptures by world famous glass artist Dale Chihuly intermixed with the cactus. The glass pieces were stunningly beautiful. But you didn't have to look far to see one of God's creations that challenged it in beauty. It seemed to me like the ultimate artist's smackdown. You decide who won.