Halloween 2012

We had a fun time tick-or-treating this year.  We stayed in the ward boundaries which is fun becasue everyone knows everyone.


Eric's Stash

Lisa's Stash

David could not wait to get into this chocolate pudding.

David had to work very hard to walk all the way up to the doors and then to ring the door bells.  It was fun watching him.

Dracula, Mummy, and Pooh

 Lisa, Eric, and David trick or treated with Ethan and Ollie.  Then David started to slow down and I went D the rest of the night.  We all worked our way back home and Lisa and Eric went with Mom and D and I answered the door.

David gaurding our pumpkins.

Bear Creek Trail

A friend of mine told me about "Bear Creek Trail" in Fruit Heights.  so we decieded to hike it this last weekend. We hiked for maybe two miles and then David started to get tired and the trail started to get difficult.  The trail leads to the Farmington  Radar Station.   It was a nice hike.

 

 Eric leading.

 

 

                                              Fall Leaves.  Very pretty.

Summer recap

BK (Before Kids) Wendy and I traveled around and camped a lot.   This summer we camped the most since we had Lisa 8 years ago.   And the kids loved it!

 

 

2011  Eric was working up a sweat harvesting these pumpkins!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2012

Lisa and I planted this pumpkin.  It is bigger than she is.  Rare moment- David wanted his picture taken next to his pumpkin.

 

 

 

Lisa showing off her new cowboy boots.

 

Trees we planted last week.

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa's skirt

Lisa picked out the fabric and made this skirt with Grandma Judy.

Various

What the kids want to "be when they grow up".

Lisa- School Teacher  - Maybe she can correct the bad grammar I see on all my posts.

Eric-Scientist

David-Criminal

Eric’s prayers are entertaining—it’s not necessarily what he says, but how he says them with such enthusiasm.

Eric’s prayer on the food yesterday:  Dear … We are thankful for this pizza… We are thankful for the pizza because we are so hungry…Please bless it, because we are starving…We are so starving and we are so thankful for the pizza. Amen

Eric’s evening prayer.  Dear … We are thankful we had so much fun today at the beach… We are thankful we were safe…We are thankful for boats…  We are thankful we could go boating at the beach and that we were all safe… Please bless us that we can go boating again.

It was funny last week we went up to Pineview with Shannon.  We were on the water coming in to the beach camp.  Sean was driving, Eric was "sitting" in the navigator’s seat.  Eric was yelling commands at all the strangers telling them they were too close to the boat and that Sean was going to run them all over.  It is awesome how much he has got into boating.  Actually, the whole family is into it pretty good.

Camp Out

This Easter picture shows the personality of these kids:

Lisa- Angel
Eric- "I wont fight you to take my picture because the sooner we are done the sooner I can play with my trains."
David- "I'm going to make you pay for taking this picture."

Eric when he arrived home from pirate birthday party.  Nice ear ring Eric.

I took Eric to our Fathers and Sons campout.  He was really excited to go.  When I got home from work on Friday he got in the truck and just waited in his car seat for about 1.5 hours until we left.  He really got into the camping. 

Eric set up the tent

Playing in the dirt

Everyone was excited that Star Wars on the big screen was part of the program.

 Eric liked the popcorn.

  I liked eating sunflower seeds during the movie not having to worry where I spit. 

 Brent Wride's peach cobbler. 

 Randall Hill's schloskies bratworst. 

 Eric sleeping in the next morning.  I must be the only one that does not sleep camping.

We set up out tent next to this river.

Lisa wanted to camp in the back yard when we got home.

David liked to take random tent poles and put them together. 

Funniest thing in the workd is when David sees me eating sunflower seeds he goes around spitting.

Court

I was pulled over a few weeks ago for passing someone in a no passing zone. We were proceeding east bound on Glovers Lane. The car in front of me signaled to pull into the driveway on the right, and I passed him. The cop pulled me over for crossing a double yellow line. The officer was a punk, and, I think it was a silly charge because I was driving safely the whole time. So, I decided to fight it in court. 10 days after the alleged infraction took place I met with the DA and he said I could jurisprudence in abeyance which they meant I could pay the ticket, plus pay another $20 for court costs. The ticket would not go on my record if I avoided trouble for the next 12 months. That's the best they could do when I did nothing wrong? So I rejected the offer and set up a court date with the judge.

3/20/2012 I arrived at the court. The officer was talking it up with his other officer buddies. The DA called me out of the court room to the conference room. He read me the charge. Then he said "Are you sure you want to go to court. What is your defense? I told him that "I have not had a traffic ticket in the last 20 years, and I am a safe driver, and I think you need to drop the charges." He just looked at me, leaned back in his chair and said " This is not about you being a safe driver but is about you crossing the double yellow lines" I was thinking yes, I know that, you want me to outline my defense for you before we even go in? I said I wanted to challenge the ticket.

So, we went into the court room. The DA was chatting it up with the officer that was going to testify against me, and really was not paying attention. But hey, this is only traffic court after all. The judge went through the procedure for my benefit. The DA then got up and read the charges against me. Then it was my turn. I repeated myself and told them what a safe driver I was. Then the officer took the stand. The DA started quickly and confidently asking questions to the officer like are you ___certified? how long have you been an officer? All the questions to establish credibility to the officer. So, then the officer drew a picture on the whiteboard on what happend. Surprising to me, the officer told the truth. I had a whole page of questions prepared and I was going to play the "gotcha" game. Since he was telling the truth I only asked him one question "Do you know the precise address of the driveway the car was pulling into?" "550 West" he said. "Thank you very much officer, that is all"

So then I went to present my side. I told the judge "My ticket states the alleged infraction took place on 500 West. The officer just testified with such confidence that it was on 550 West. I have proof that there are not double yellow lines anywhere near that address. I would like to present these pictures where the incident took place into evidence." This blindsided the DA and the police officer. All the sudden they had a worried look on their faces and were huddled together talking franticly.

So the DA objected to the evidence. Judge - " on what basis"

DA went on and on and on how I doctored the pictures (in a very nice way), and how the pictures don't really show anything. The judge denied his motion. So then the DA cross examined me about the pictures. Asked me several dumb questions such as " Were these pictures taken at the place the officer stopped you?" Of course not, they were taken at the place of the infraction. It was obvious this know-it-all was not prepared and was caught off gaurd. Then I was excused. The DA was given time to refute the evidence. He went on about how the pictures are bad. Then he stopped and then started a whole new line of defense by saying the police officer just got the address wrong. So he called the cop back up to the stand, and they re-did his testimony. The cop diagrammed a whole new picture about where the incident took place. This new testimony took about seven minutes. Then the judge asked me if i would like to cross examine the witness. I was getting worried. That the judge would allow them to do a "redo" on the testamony illistrates what an uphill battle the little guy has in court. I know It is common for this court to plea bargain down a charge but they never dismiss tickets. I was fighting an uphill battle. So I cross examined the officer but felt like I needed to get my point across becasue the DA is doing all of the talking. So I confrontationally said " 5 minutes after the police officer pulled me over he wrote the location of the infraction on the ticket. And today I asked him if he knew "precisely" where the address was and he said '550 West'. You can't change it now that I have proof that there are no double yellow lines." The judge sternly told me I out of line and asked if I had any questions for the officer. I said no. Then it was my turn and I said a couple of things and went back to my seat. The judge said he would take a 15 minute recess and then would give his decision. During the break the DA decided he was going to look this up on google so he left. I already had a google print out but elected not to give it to them because I thought it would be to my advantage (which it was-- The DA waisted five minutes expounding on how the pictures were bad, and crossed examined me with several questions about the pictures) The police officer was still there so I was talking to him about San Diego and Tampa. I wanted to make sure he knew I was a nice guy and was not out to get him. I don't want him camping out at my house waiting to bust Wendy or myself. I asked the police office if it was normal for a traffic ticket hearing to last 50 minutes and he said "no" I then asked him how long the judge usually takes for recess. The officer said "I don't know, I have never seen him take a recess over a traffic ticket"

Then the DA came in, consulted with the police officer, and basically said " you are right we are going to dismiss the charges" So he went to the chambers and told the judge they were not going to press charges. This ticked me off because now the DA can still say he has a perfect, or near perfect judgement record.

Oh well, we know who really won that one!

My Consultants taking a break.