Las Vegas

I attended a tactical handgun class with Garth and Jesse which lasted four days. The training was held at a place 45 minutes west of Las Vegas.
I had a lot of fun, but it was a lot of work. Three months prior Jesse was telling me all about
the class. He claimed graduates of the class will be better trained than military and law enforcement. I’m not sure if I bought that. I thought perhaps Jesse received minimal firearms training because the Army doesn’t care if their anesthesiologists can handle a gun.
But after taking the class, and after talking with law enforcement and
other officers in the military, I believe he was spot on. The training was awesome.


All of the instructors and even most of the students were very good with firearms. Most of the
students were military, law enforcement, or ex-military. The Lead instructor, “Chacci” was insanely competent at handling a gun. It was alot of fun. The first night before class
started we were at the hotel talking about going swimming, going running in the
mornings, and I brought a book in case I got bored at night. We ended up too tired to do any of that. We were up early and came home from class exhausted.

Routine:

Woke up at 5:00, showered, ate breakfast at hotelrestaurant, and drove to class. For two
days class was held in the morning for about an hour. We were then dismissed to the range. At the range, we had about 28 students. We were usually lectured for about a halfhour, and then shown how to do a drill, then went to the range and shot. This was repeated over and over. The class was broken up into two relays. So as the first relay shot, the second relay
coached, made suggestions how to shoot better, and made sure 1st relay was acting in a safe manner. Additionally, four to six instructors came around and coached. It really benefitted me because the people I was paired with knew more about handguns than I did. Day one I was paired with an Air force pilot, Day two an Arizona Highway Patrolman, day three and four a military contractor that had been in Iraq. All of these people were very good and I learned a ton from them. In addition to the firearm certifications, most of the instructors were accomplished in various forms of martial arts.


Chacci- Head Range Master at our Range (kind of looks like
Duane Johnson in Fast Five)



- “ I run a politically incorrect range”

- “GET RID OF THESE EMPTY CLIPS WITH DISDAIN!!!” “We
don’t place them gently on the ground so they don’t get dirt on them….” It was
funny to watch him throw the clips to the ground so hard they bounced off the
gravel.

- “Take a step to the left, physically, not
politically.”

- He made a Comment about how he heard other instructors don’t like to shoot in front of the class because instructors don’t want the students to see weakness. Then
calls those instructors a choice name, then proceeds with drill, and shoots
controlled pair to the thoracic cavity with the spread the size of a quarter.

- “Any gun will do if you will”. Chacci always talked crap about all guns are
inferior to the 1911.

- “Is it
just me or is there something sexy about a woman that knows how to handle a gun
properly.” All the guys were enthusiastically nodding and voicing opinion in agreement with him.

- How to take your gun belt off when using the
restroom.

- “In my neighborhood…”

- “Any questions? Not even from Garth?”

- “ I guess this is the wrong crowd to get my
rapper jokes”

- Moser putting bullets and rocks in my coat.

- Mrs. Walker (65 year old lady) giving me tips on
improving my aim. She knew what she was
doing.

- Guy from Indiana wearing hat that said “dumb
ass”. Reaction when Garth told him he played the Organ “No $#!x,” Funny to see his surprised reaction.

- Timing us to make sure we could consistently present out of concealment, and squeeze a controlled pair on target all under 1.5 seconds. Moving us back to 15 yards to make sure we were aiming.

- The competition was awesome at the end. Took hostage shot at about 15 yards, and two
bad guys at about 20 yards. The weather conditions were not good, it was windy and cold. This bad weather made it more like real circumstances. I was surprised what alittle stress did to everyone. I thought everyone was inconsistent. A marineknocked me out. The final winner was a
contractor.

It was fun hanging out with people that are dedicated toexcellence. We decided we are going to take our wives there nextyear. Wendy is already good at handling a gun and I think she would like the class.

David’s Nursery Rhyme

Once there was an accountant that suffered a type three malfunction

Trigger Pull
Side Step
Tip the muzzle
Lock the slide
Strip the mag
Rack Rack Rack
Load the clip
Tap hard
Rack the slide
Pull the trigger

Star Wars

Lisa and Eric's disturbing facial expression watching Star Wars on our 120 inch home theatre system.

Every day stuff

I can’t believe how fast time is going by and how fast the kids are growing. Below are some everyday interactions with the kids that may become easy to forget but might be fun to read later.

Lisa:

I was flexing in the mirror and Lisa saw me. I said “I bet you don’t know anyone as muscular as me” to which she responded very quickly, “Yes I do, my gym teacher Bruce”.

I took Lisa to a football game a few weeks ago. I had a lot of fun. Lisa wasn’t really interested in figuring it out. I had front row seats, but Lisa kept asking if we could go to the very top row to sit. So, finally I gave in. She kept looking over the edge as we climbed our way to the top. Once at the top she seemed satisfied. I think her favorite part of the whole experience was getting a $.99 corn dog at Dairy Queen before the game.

Eric:
I substituted Eric’s primary class the other day. He has trouble sitting still, but he is the first one to blurt out the answers to W. Inkley’s questions during sharing time. I also had fun watching him at the Christmas program for his preschool. He is very smart (doesn’t every parent think their kid is the smartest?), knows his lines, grasps what the teacher is teaching, and asks a lot of questions. He seems very happy and likes to interact with the other kids. He often has that smirk on his face when interacting with other kids and adults. Pretty funny to watch.


David:
When I acted out as a kid, my Dad would give me “the look” and I would immediately behave. I don’t have any pictures, but it is so funny when I give this look to David. As I give David the stern look, he stares me down while giving me his own look that says “You think you’re tough? I’ll pound you and everyone else to the ground if you don’t leave me alone!” And he means it.
The kids were opening presents on New Years and I guess the day before they all went to the zoo. David wanted to read the zoo pamphlet at the zoo but Eric and Lisa would not let him. Anyway, one of the gifts was a yearly zoo pass with maps and pamphlets along with it. He grabbed the literature and just took off out of the room. I’m not sure the kids were paying too much attention because they were just excited to open more presents. But we all thought it was funny he disappeared during all the fun and was finally able to read his maps. We later found out he was hiding in a corner in Eric’s room.

Wendy:

What do I say about Wendy—she is amazing. Wendy has been working a lot with contractors this year with our basement. She is able to communicate what we want to these contractors, knows how to tell them no, and understands this stuff well enough to offer alternative solutions that the contractors themselves have not offered. Sometimes I wonder if she knows more about this work than they do. With some of these people, I know she knows more than they do. I wish I was half as good with people as she is

Park City

Last weekend we all got together in Park City to hang out for a couple of days. It was fun to be with the family for a short while. Peter kept us entertained with his comedian bits (Home Depot and INS) and all of his ENT stories. I have never heard anyone use the term "dirt bag" since the 80’s movie Police Academy. It was also funny that Heather, Peter, Wendy and I had all been to Eubank’s institute class. Back when Wendy and I were dating Wendy would comment that she did not care for his class. I would respond that I thought he was entertaining. Heather was telling me how he calculated how much soil I would get in my cube during the millennium. That one was new for me. I always found him interesting but some of his theories are out there. No wonder they didn’t like his class.





Eric and Josh playing cards
















Swimming

















All the cousins eating dinner















Mom and David Looking Cute

Misc Stuff

Favorite Scripture-- I swear I have never read this until recently: Luke 18:1-8.


Priesthood meeting-- In our priesthood meeting at Stake conference a guy gave a great talk on the tree of life in the Book of Mormon. It was an excellent talk, but he kept talking about how we are not doing a good job on selling the benefits of the fruit to our children.

I don't like the word sell. Growing up my Mom and Dad (who I regard as the best parents ever) never tried to "sell" me anything with the gospel. Maybe I will have to expound on this later. Note to self--this should be a topic of conversation at the next family reunion.


Went bowling with Shannon a few days ago -- cousins bowling together:








David loves to be held by Grandma Saundra.











Lisa and Eric with Luggage

Day Off

Wendy traveled to Phoenix in the afternoon to look at some real estate we are interested in. So, I took the day off to watch everyone. I had been looking forward all week to spending a day just having fun with the kids. So I slept in, then took Lisa to the bus stop. She thinks it’s the coolest thing ever to have me walk her to the bus stop. Side note—Last week Lisa was going on and on about how excited she was to be the “helper” at school on Friday. She even picked out an outfit that she thought would be good to wear as the helper. Anyway, then I came home and asked Eric if he wanted to go to the store. He said yes. On the way out, David had a tantrum because he wanted to go. Going outside is D’s favorite thing, and he bolts out the door and is gone before anyone can catch him if not careful. So I took D and Eric. We went to the Nursery, and then to Lowes. We bought some fertilizer for the grass and some different stuff for our apple and peach trees. Then we went to DI (one of my favorite stores). Then we drove home, unloaded the stuff, took Mom to the airport, then came back, picked Lisa up from the bus stop, went home had lunch. Then we spent all day out in the yard, washed the truck, and fertilized the yard. We all had a lot of fun. Eric helped me turn on the weber water or what ever they call it here. This is amazing for him. He never helps me do anything except wash the car. Lisa said “Dad, I love it when you are here because we do fun stuff.” It was a fun day. Wendy’s flight arrived at 10:00 PM and I got the kids out of bed to go pick her up. It was funny because David was bright eyed and just wanted to play the whole time. He kept me entertained while waiting for Wendy. Lisa was half awake. Eric was sleeping the whole time. But the next day He was confused because he was not sure how mom got home and did not remember going to the airport at all. ************************************************************************************* *****************************************************************************************One week before easter.






***************************************************************************************************************************************************************David will often come up to me and either want a hand shake, a high five, or knuckles. He likes to give Lisa and Eric High-fives.