Trip to Salt Lake

Last Wednesday we went with TJ to Salt Lake City, TJ had a check-up at Shriner's Hospital. He is still doing well, and we will be going down for his surgery in early spring...just before he turns one. They want to begin before he starts to walk.

It was a lot of fun. We stayed at a much nicer place this time, they even had a pool, so we went for a swim with TJ, he liked it. He even started falling asleep while we swam. After his check-up we went to the LDS art and history museum...very nice, too bad they are in between exhibits, their perminent displays were still up though. We also looked around at a few stores, then came home Thrusday night.

Bank Job

The last 3 days I have been working in Jackson Hole...that was a very long 3 days. We are doing a curtain-wall system in a new bank there. I can't remember if it is the 1st bank of Jackson or Jackson State Bank...or something like that...there's a lot of banks in Jackson, must be a lot of money there. But we got it all closed in, and should only have another day (or maybe 2) of flashing and punch-list stuff. We stayed at the Verginian Motel...crappy beds, thin walls and doors that don't seal tight, didn't sleep very well. Anyway, here's a few pictures, I am very tired and must sleep...after all it isn't Friday yet.

Pocatello Pump Photos

Here's the photos from the Pump. This first one was a night photo that I made Friday. It was about 10 min, lit from the campfire.



This is Kevin and Milton at the pump. I got them to wear t-shirts that I made with a photo of the city of rocks on the back and my logo & website address on the front. It was pretty cool...every time Milton got to the top of a climb he would shout "I climb for TylerHopkins.com!!)


Toph is really getting good at climbing. It makes me so proud to see him do some of these climbs. This first sequence looked pretty tough. It was mostly slopes and a couple thin edges. The second photo, he couldn't quite work out those moves. But it is still cool to see him make the moves.

Pocatello Pump

This weekend was the Pocatello Pump. The Pump is a climbing competition that the ISU outdoor program has put on for the last 25 years, this has been my 3rd year competing I think. It was a blast! OK, so on Saturday the wind and rain was blasting cold, but it was still fun. Considering the weather, I think that I did better than any other year (as far as not burning out too soon). This was the first time that I have competed and not burnt my self out in the first half hour. You have an hour and a half to complete as many climbs as you can, and only get two falls on each climb.

Bla bla bla….anyway I think I did pretty well. I only did 6 climbs, but flashed each one and finished with 52 points. I think that if the weather was more favorable, and I climbed in a heat by myself I could have gotten closer to 70-80 points. But I don’t go to compete. I mean this is usually the only time I get out and climb in a year. I go for the company and the fact that I can climb whatever I want at Ross Park and don’t have to set up (or take down) a top rope or lead.

Jess and the kids came with me for support and a little get away. We were going to camp, but with the cold weather we opted for Motel 6. Not too bad for $40 a night. We still were able to do a little campfire with Kevin and Tammie.

Toph had some fun climbing, and really amazed us with his bouldering skills. If he can make it to the top of anything at Ross Park next summer, we will enter him in the Pump next year. He’s got skills!

The awards party was fun too. Everyone that enters walks away with something. Everyone’s name is drawn out of a hat, and then you go up and pick your prize. This year there were a lot of good things to pick from…2 ropes, several packs, a sweet sleeping bag…and so much more. The first people drawn have best choice of course, but by the end of the night they start throwing everything else out to the crowd. I walked away with a Gerber multi tool, a shirt and a couple of hats.

I got some sweet photos of Toph bouldering! I will get them on another post...I am having a lot of trouble uploading them right now...so sweet photos to come.

What about the partridge?

We spent today cleaning, re-arranging rooms and even planted a tree. Not spring (for spring cleaning) or Arbor Day…go figure. We got a log cleaned, stuff put away into the crawl-space (glad to have it out of the way), and a bunch of stuff to the DI (glad to have that out of our house…we need to do that with even more stuff here). And the best part of the day…we moved TJ into the kids’ room! We have kept him in our room for much longer than the other two kids. But now we have our room to ourselves, not so cramped.



We have wanted to get a tree in the back yard for some shade. Well a week or so ago, dad put in a pear tree and today mentioned that if one of the neighbors had a pear tree too, they would cross-pollinate and grow more fruit (I think). So maybe we should be the neighbor with the other tree? We won’t see the fruit from our tree, as we are outgrowing our little house too fast, but this way we can have some of mom & dad’s pears.

Energy Independence

Ok, so I listen to a radio talk show, and a week or two ago (August 17th) he was talking about the U.S. becoming energy indipendent. Here's a link. Check it out. There is a lot of you who are much smarter than me. Tell me what you think.

http://www.glennbeck.com/audio/free-audio.shtml

Scroll down to "Glenn Beck Program 8/17/06 Hour 2" Glenn interviews David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue. There is some audio (about 40 minutes) and a few PDFs that I thought were interesting (what I could understand of them).

Just take a look and think of how great it would be to not have to worry about filling up the car anymore.

Eastern Idaho State Fair

Amongst all I have had on my plate I managed to get photos submitted into the Eastern Idaho State Fair this year. I have entered the last two years, as well, in 'advanced amateur.' This year I thought that I would enter in professional...Not necessarily because I am great or anything...But rather because I don't want my prints getting damaged. It is also nice to see them behind glass. I didn't expect to win any ribbons because of the caliber of competition, but I was surprised to find out that I did get a few. As Sally mentioned I got the Superintendent's Award, which ironically has no money attached. I got this ribbon the first year I entered too (I'm 2 for 3!). It makes me feel kind good about my photography! Plus, the premium money covers my entry fee ($35!), and some of the gas it takes to get down there and back. I hope that this exposure will also help get me some recognition.

This is also a testament that yes I am alive (despite the lack of blog postings) and am still working on my photography. I have been putting out resumes and interviewing for some things I hope to get a white collar job soon that I can utilize my crazy mad skills I got from 6 years of college.

I have also been racking my brain watching the training video, reading the 'For dummies' book, and experimenting with Adobe Go Live trying to redesign my website and to fix the little bugs that just bug me. If anyone out there is familiar with Go Live CS2, I could use any tips you have.

Here's one of my newer images that I put in the Fair. I can't remember for sure, but I think that this is one that won a ribbon.


If nothing else...I am still here.