Viva Las Vegas

So like I said Alicen and I went to Vegas for a weekend. We left McKinley at grandma Kettenring's house and Taitan was somewhere (can not be said). And we where off. We had planned on leaving Saturday morning, driving down straight to the game and then stay over a night and drive back. However on Friday, my great boss asked if I wanted to leave early on Friday and get a head of the snow storm. I said "No, we will be OK" but after a while of thinking about it. I thought it might be a good idea. So I called Allie and she found us a room for the night and I left at like noon and we took off. The weather did turn bad as we dropped the kiddies off but once pass Alpine we had blue Sky's all the way down. We stayed at the Luxor the first night and that was fun. That night we walked one side of the strip and went to the M&M store, Coca Cola store, and mostly mall stores at the Planet Hollywood Casino. We just enjoyed the Vegas night (even if it was cold). We did not go to bed until 3 am. Saturday morning we checked out, drove to Walmart because I forgot Alicen's Hair spray and got in major trouble. She will deny it but its true. Then back to Planet Hollywood to check into our new room for the next night. We really did not know what to do so we went to find the Nike store and I thought it was in the Mandalay Bay casino but only found Nike Golf. So we got back in the car and headed to the Pregame Party.
We got to the Sam Boyd Stadium almost right when the Pregame Tailgate party started. So we got free popcorn, we ate a cold Hot dog and Burger and got a free Monster energy drink. We bought some Hawaiian nut necklace to hang in the car and looked at a sweet lifted Toyota Tundra. I even got to sit in it. I was excited. Then we listened to the battle of the marching bands between BYU and Arizona. Arizona was louder and played great pep rally music. Then we went into the stadium to get the game started. We had pretty good seats. We could see the game really well. They had a fly over with F16 from Nellis Air Force base and Had The Hoff (David Hasselhoff) sing the national anthem, with a huge flag on the field. It was nice.
The game on the other hand was not a great. I mean on the first play BYU get a Personal Unsportsman like conduct. However its the first play of the game, tension is high. Bad call. Then BYU looked like they did not want to win or even play. Give Arizona props though, they played good and tough. They wanted to win. BYU's team was just off. The defense was slow, Max Hall has lost confidence in himself since the TCU lose and the offense just could not get things moving. Anytime something good happened, a penalty killed it. Also the referee's where horrible. They couldn't get a call right if it was told to them. I have never seen a crew of officials like these ones. It was bad, both teams by half time where booing them. Every call took 10 minutes with a review. Its was sad to see BYU lose, Alicen was mad to spend money on tickets and then not even see them win. Its just the way the game goes. BYU just needs to learn to win night games. They lost all three this year.
At least most of their offense is back next year and maybe they can make a run at the BCS again. We can only hope as Cougar fans. We left the game early and Alicen put in a complaint about the Referee's and a fan that got out of hand. Then we took off to dinner at P.F. Changs. We sat at the bar because we did not want to wait for a table. It was fun as Non drinkers to see the bar tender make the different drinks. We had to ask a couple times what he was making; and he in return asked why we dont drink and couldnt figure it out. We had a lot of fun talking. After we went out on the strip to look around. Found Nike and a couple other stores to look at.
As we went back to the hotel for the night, we waited for the elevator to our room we saw BYU's Offense Cordinator and wished him best of luck, and a good played game. He looked depressed and down. But he gave us a little thanks smile. As we got on to a full elevator we can some kids and parents think I was a player. They all looked at me and you could tell was trying to figure out who I was. Then when we went to get off they all said "Good game" and "Good season" I just had to laugh that they thought I was a player. Made me feel good even though they lost. That was pretty much our weekend. We head home the next morning. Although we stayed up until 2 am that night too. A nice little trip and vacation.

WaaaaHoooooooo!!!

I finally got a comment on my blog, someone might actually read my blog. I am so excited. I am as happy as happy can be. Some one took the time to read my post and comment. This might be the happiest day of my life. At least since my blog page has been up. I just want to run to the top of Mount Timpanogos and scream "Hallelujah!!!"

City Center- Las Vegas, NV

So over the weekend Alicen and I went down the Las Vegas Bowl to see BYU play and the night before the game we walked a little of the strip. What we saw shocked us- the new place going up call the City Center is huge. Its owned by MGM and will be opening next year. We had to actually ask a cab driver what it was. We where so surprised by its size we had to take pictures (however these are from online).

We could not believe its size. It takes up a whole city block (we where told about 76 acres) and that it would have its own zip code. Its own zip code!! It is a monstrous place. It will have a hotel, casino, sports arena, Condos and shopping centers. Really everything a little city could use. It is just huge. We could not believe the work being done on it. What was funny is I took a picture and sent it to one of my works outside salesman- Chase. To show him and have look at the project. He was not too excited about it. Not sure if it was the text (not a texter) or the fact I sent it to him at 2 am. Either way he was not impressed. I just cant believe our salesman did not travel to see if we could get any concrete material sold. Just to see this thing makes me think- and we are in a recession. Anyway I showed construction photos but the last one below is the finished product to be seen. Its going to be cool to visit when done. Take a look.

(The picture just does not do justice)

Kettenring's Christmas Outing

So Tuesday night (Dec 16th) was the annual Kettenring's Family Christmas Outing. This year it was just the adults and/or kids. No grand kiddies allowed. So Alicen and I got Sally to babysit the kids. The Kettenring's met for dinner at the Blue Iguana to eat. Its a Mexican joint in the heart of down town. We had my parents, Mike/Robyn, Alicen/I and Jayson/Paulina (his girlfriend).The food was OK usually its way good, I got the De Pollo salad thinking it would come in a shell. No such luck! It was a weight lifters dream meal though, it had lettuce, onions and a hefty plate of chicken. All protein there. It was good though. I am not sure what anyone else got, I did not ask either. I tried to get Jayson to eat the Burrito Grande with me but he was a chicken, because he claimed to be sick the night before. Hence the salad. But I think he was just scared to try and out eat me on the burrito.

After Dinner, we went to the Clark's Planetarium to see Santa vs the Snowman. Its a short movie about Christmas. It was even in 3D too. We had to wear these funky glasses. The movie was pretty good. The kids tried to grab the 3D effects when they were on the screen, as did my Dad (a kid at heart). The movie was only 30 minutes long but in that thirty minutes it gave you a head ache and made your eyes sore having to really focus. It was still cute and fun for the kids and kids at heart. After we went for ice cream shakes at Arctic Circle and spent time talking to each other. Well kinda! The best communicating we Kettenring's can do when we are with each other. Merry Christmas to all.

Freak of Nature

What a Freak of Nature!! But so cool if it was really possible to do. Who's on board to do this with me?? Any takers?

End of the semester!

So as of Tuesday night I am done with this fall 2008 semester. And boy is it long over due. I did not think it would ever end. By the end of Tuesday, I only had my Anatomy final and a math test to finish up. My anatomy final didn't start until eight pm. So I got some extra study time not that I really took too much effort into studying. The harder I have test for anatomy the worse I have done so I looked over it all and get with what I knew. Not the smartest thing to do but I think I did better. We will only see in time (I will not know until Monday) because my teacher will fail me if I ask before Monday, he is the Anatomy Nazi of SLCC (and he said it him self). As for math, I took that test after my final and I got in the 90% range. I have not done that all semester. So that class is looking up.
Now that the semester is over, I do not know who is more excited for me to do done for a while. My wife or me. She has been stressing over school more then I have. I am happy to be done and have a brake. I have not had for over a year. I have gone fall, spring, summer and fall again with out stopping. So this brake is needed for me and my little family. My kids have grown big with out me. And now my wife can calm down a little. A little brake before going into my last semester for my associates. Yeah. I am just happy to be done for a little while. I am tired of going from work all day to school all night.

Oil changers should be shot! Maybe twice!!

So I finally got a Saturday morning to get out and change the oil in the Tahoe since we have had it. The sensory system in the SUV has been saying it for a good week or so. Anyway as I got under the Tahoe to get started I noticed the bolt looked a little stripped (like the one pictured above). I thought I would get it off anyway. NOPE! I worked in it for an hour, then had my cousin Danny look at it, he tried with some sockets and vise grips but to no luck. That thing was stuck and the grips has just stripped it more. So I had a couple more options, I took the closest one, I went over to Bill Platts house to see what he could do. He builds fords (mostly mustangs) from scratch and such, I thought he might have something. He tried sockets and a power wrench, the bolt did not move. He said the first problem is "its a Chevy" and second "its an aluminum bolt, so its going to strip easy." Not want I wanted to hear. Finally out of desperation to get the oil change I called my father in law, the "All Fixing Guru!". If its broken, stuck or fixable he can do fix all. So we drove out to Allicen's parents house and after 10 minutes he had the bolt loose. He had to hold the wrench on the bolt while I used my foot to push the wrench. It came off though. We got the oil changed. It took all day, four people and four trips to the local Check auto parts to get the Tahoe running. Don't ask on checker problem- just remember when a hot chick in tight pants is in that store no good service rep comes your way. So much for studing for finals today.

Christmas Aloha!! Brah!

So we decided to go to my parents Christmas party for their ward. Their theme for the party was an Aloha! So everyone wore shorts, Hawaiian t-shirts and when you walked in the bishop brick gave out lays. It was really a fun night. I think McKinley had more fun running around with the other kids and creating havoc. They served pulled pork, shredded chicken and rice. It was an OK meal for a huge ward. For entertainment, they had their bishop read- "A Hawaiian Christmas story." It was so funny, he tired to sound like an surfer dude. It was full of words like brah, dude and sweet. It totally rocked! It was just nice to be back in my parents ward and talk to the people I knew that where still there. No too many left.

The best and worse part of the night, was going home. After clean up was over and done my mom realized, she had left her keys to the car on the table and most likely had them thrown away. It would have been ok, if it was not for the fact that those were the only keys to the car. So being the good son (and the fact she would not let me go home with out helping) I got gloves and started checking the dumpster out side. As we looked around inside the church, many of the Men in the ward asked what was going on, and once found out were like "too bad for you" and took off. Only two guys asked to help, the biggest help was Bro. Provert, he is a stud. He got all excited, jumped into the dumpster and started throwing bags out. He had a hard time getting in and said "how to bums get into these things?" and when he went to get out and struggled he said "how do bums get out of these things?" He is really funny. Lucky for us, the Lord was on our side and the first bag out of fifteen was the bag we needed. I had already made a mess of one tables scraps, so it was not all in vane. We are just lucky we did not have to go through all 15 bags. It would have taken forever. My mom was praying to find those keys. We took pictures and had a good laugh about it. Bro. Provert had cake icing all up and down his sandals. Which we felt bad about. It was a good ending to a bad situation.

Christmas Tree Hunting 2008

So we did our annual Christmas tree hunt over the thanksgiving weekend. Like usual it was hiking up and down the mountains to find the right one. We went up above Kamas in the Uinta mountains. Its the usual place we go to find tree's. Alicen does not like the area so finding the right tree is hard for her in that mountain area. Once we got bundled up and ready to go we first went down the mountain and hit a river, no luck with tree's in that area. Then my mom called from the higher mountain area and we went that way just to find no good looking trees. The trees are good from afar but far from good (when you get close to them). We figured we would have to top a tree to get a good looking one. But at last no good tree. Alicen decided to go further up the mountain road to see if there was anything else. So we did. From there we found our tree. Alicen decided the tree she like was down a steep slope and on an island surrounded by the river and stream brake offs. So I was the lucky one to go get that perfect tree. I made my way over and lucky with out getting too wet. The perfect tree was thin, shorter and really nice. So I cut it down and rather then carry it across the river and streams I decided to slide it across the ice to Alicen. Well as I did that it slide to the middle of the stream and stopped. Our tree was out in the middle. Duh!!! So lucky I did it by a man made dam and I helped it a cross. I am just glad the dam held. Once we got back to the group of us that went we realized we had the wrong tree, it was really short and not full looking at all. It looked better out on the Island. But it was too late. At least the ranger did not stop us or it would have been a hefty fine. Once we got home we put it up to find Alicen did not like the tree at all and it was too thin, no body to it at all. But we made it work because that was the tree she wanted. I was not going to get a new tree and/or buy a new one. It looks a lot better with decorations on the tree. It was just funny how much she liked it until we got it in the house.