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Our water heater finally bit the dust the other day. We knew it would soon because it's like 15 years old. Man, even in 90 degree weather, taking cold showers just stinks. It takes me back to my good ole Uganda days. It takes guts to jump into that cold shower, it takes me a minute or two just to buildup to doing it. It definitely keeps the shower very short- 30 seconds to get wet, a minute to put on the soap and a minute and a half to get the soap off. Seriously though, if I wanted to torture someone I'd put under a cold shower like 5 times a day, that'll get em to talk.

Cold showering builds character.

College football has prevented me from getting any work done lately. Boise State to the Mtn West, Nebraska to the Big 10, Colorado to the Pac 10, and Utah to the Pac 10. That last one was kinda sad, it was like breaking up with a girlfriend. We had some good times, some rough times, some more good times and some fun times looking at their devastated faces after we beat them in a gut-wrenching thriller. You can't blame them for leaving- more money and more opportunity to do good things on the national stage. It's just tough because it won't be the same again. Yeah, we'll still play them but the rivalry will be dampened a little bit. My partner is a big Utah fan and he's been surprised at how well I've taken it. I can definitely understand how some BYU fans feel like we're left behind, because we are, there's no way around it. But this whole thing has just made me realize that BYU is different. It's different from Utah, from Texas, from Duke. Because the Church runs BYU, emphasis on sports will always take a back seat to religion and education. We're lucky BYU even has sports, I'm sure there are some among the brethren who wouldn't mind doing away with BYU sports. There are reasons BYU is where it is and why other conferences want BYU (even though it's more superior to Utah in sports and academics), and it's these same reasons that make BYU one of a kind. So I'm good, thanks for those of you who may have prayed for me in this difficult challenge. BYU is still awesome, and though we're different and may not have the same sports' opportunities as others, stuff happens, live with it, accept that BYU is different in a good way.

Having said all that, burn in heck Utah...

Emmy and I went on a great vacation, we both were just dieing to get away from it all. We spent more time together than we did on the honeymoon and any other vacation. Here are some of the highlights:

Our trip started out through Vegas where we had a fun day with Emily's sister, Becky. I wish we took pictures there, it was a lot of fun.

Then we stayed the night with Gavin and Emily. Again, I wish we would have taken pictures. It was really nice of them to let us stay with them.

Then on to Sequoia Natl Park where we went camping, did lots of hiking, and saw BIG trees.

This is a tree that fell over and was uprooted, it's HUGE!

And we saw bears, a ranger stopped us from going any further on this hike by screaming at the top of his lungs, "STOP! The bear will kill you!" The two cubs came down the tree to hang out with Momma bear.

At another point on the hike I took a picture of the bear behind Emmy and tell her there's a bear while I'm taking the picture...she didn't believe me.

On another hike, we ran into a bear and Emily believed me and got the heck out of there, I didn't catch up to her until like a quarter mile down the hike.

These pictures are in memory of Colby.

I gotta get my hero shot!

So cute
And then we went to Yosemite that tells you about bears every 10 feet.

We did a lot of cool hikes and saw beautiful scenery!

Yosemite Falls is the fifth tallest falls in the world and the tallest in the U.S.
Pork Chop came on the trip too

Then, on to San Francisco! We first just hung out in the hotel for a day, eating Jack in the Box and swimming.

We went to Six Flags for a day.

We did a lot of fun things in SF. This is where we ran into Donny and Marie.

...and Al E.
We saw what our kids are going to look like

Yes, our kids are going to be very ugly

We saw a heat-sensing mirror which confirmed what we already knew, Emmy's hands are ALWAYS cold, along with her nose.

We went on a trolley tour of the city
And saw the Golden Gate Bridge!!

But the fog covered it up two minutes later once we got off the trolley

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!! Our favorite thing about SF is probably the clam chowder bread bowls.

And our favorite thing about Oakland is Fenton's!!!! We met up with Becca and her parents who were so nice and treated us to the JUMBO sundae. We told the waitress to tell the chef we dared him to make something too big for us.

Again, why didn't we take pictures of the Andersons?!?!

On our way back we stopped at Sutter's Mill where James Marshall discovered gold

We drove by Lake Tahoe

And saw a Blockbuster relic

We stopped in Reno and really enjoyed it, as our smiles show