Tour of Utah

This past Sunday William, Mia, and I went downtown to watch the final stage of the Tour of Utah. It was a criterium race around two blocks. There were about 160 riders who averaged over 30 miles per hour for more than an hour and a half of racing. For those of you who don't ride, that is hauling butt! David Zabriskie, a Utah native, was one of the few big name guys in the race. Apparently, the race was very well supported this year and the organizers are thinking that this race could potentially draw some bigger names in the future.

Kingpin

My sister's family flew into town this past week from Virginia. Living on opposite sides of the country makes it so that we don't get to see each other as often as we would all like. We were all really excited to see Baby Colby, the newest addition to the family. He was born back in June and this was the first time that any of us had seen him (except for my mom and dad).

Last week I blogged about my intense miniature golfing experience. On Saturday I ended up being a last minute fill-in for the men's bowling team. Unfortunately, the same team that was so hard core on the mini golf course ended up as the first place winners, but we had a strong third place finish. That was pretty good considering my scores for the three games were 121, 117, and 123. Bryce Catten carried the team all morning long. I think this coming week we will move up in the overall team standings.

I know that this blog doesn't have a huge following, but if any of you have any recommendations for college loans consolidation, please post them in the comments. It's not that we are in a bad situation with what we have now, but Haize is planning on going back to school starting in January and I want to make sure that we know what all of our options are.

Haize and I saw this bumper sticker at the mall this past week and couldn't resist snapping a photo:

Hard Core Mini Golf

Last night I played in the mini golf event for the Salt Lake County Corporate Games. I guess I didn't really know what to expect going into it. I certainly did not anticipate playing with people who would treat it like we were playing in the U.S. Open!

Each four person team was split in half. Each two-some was assigned to play with a two-some from another team. We kept each other's scores to avoid anyone "stretching the truth." One of the guys we played with was over the top. He expected us to play full using full golf etiquette, right down to marking our balls and strictly adhering to who had honors based on scores from the last hole.

At the end of the round all four scores from each team/company were combined to provide an overall score. Long story short, we didn't do too well. We weren't sure how bad we did until while waiting for the presentation of the event medals, the event coordinator came up to me and very sweetly said, "If you are waiting around for the medals, it would probably be OK to go home if you want to." She then showed me the scores of the other teams. We finished 12 strokes worse than the next worst team! We got absolutely killed!

The nice thing about miniture golf is that no matter how bad you play, it is still fun, and yesterday was no exception. I would have liked to do a better job for the team as a whole, but we gave it our all and had a good time while doing it.

Baseball Cards

I have been an avid baseball card collector since I was about 12 years old. Luckily, my love of collecting is shared by my other love, Haize. I think she mostly enjoys the thrill of the chase - she loves opening packs of cards to see what valuable items might be inside. The hobby has really changed a lot over the years. I remember back when I could take a $1 bill down to 7-11 and buy two packs of 1987 Topps cards. These days packs can run anywhere from about $2.00 to $100.00! Instead of getting excited about pulling your favorite players, now the excitement comes from finding a memorabilia, autograph, or short-print card.

The purpose of me writing all this is to mention that this past week I found a helpful tool on www.beckett.com where I can enter in the cards we own and it will tell me what each one is worth and then what the entire collection is worth. I have been entering in cards since Thursday and have yet to even make a dent. One of the side benefits has been going back through the card boxes and finding things I had completely forgotten about. It is almost like being able to open the packs all over again! Even though I consider the value of my collection to be part of my net worth, I realize that it will never be something that I can use as part of my retirement plan. As a matter of fact, I probably have too much invested emotionally to ever be able to part with the majority of the collection. If I ever had to, I would probably end up with some kind of anxiety disorder!

Saturday was busy for the whole family. Haize, Mia, and Emma all took part in a two-family garage sale with the neighbors, the Hydes. They had good day and exceed their expectations in sales. To make things even better, as we were cleaning up, some people showed up and took away the last few big items that we had so we didn't even have to make a trip to Deseret Industries to drop it off!

I participated in the opening day of the Salt Lake County Corporate Games. Our 5k team (which I definitely wasn't a part of) finished 3rd in our division and got us off to a great start. Nicole Goeckeritz and I set up and manned the team showcase tent for about three hours before going to play softball. Traditionally, the company team hasn't been very good, but we played out of our freaking minds! We won both games we played and are now only two wins away from winning the softball portion of the tournament! I have to admit that it is a lot funner to play softball when you are winning!

This past week was bittersweet in that Emma has made the decision to go back to Puerto Rico for a year. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to find a job teaching elementary school for this upcoming year. Her plan is to spend a year teaching again at the University of Puerto Rico while she completes everything necessary to receive a teaching licence. That should make getting a job here in Utah a lot easier next year. While we will undoubtedly miss her, it is nice to know that she is just a free jetBlue flight away. I think it was a lot tougher when we had no idea when we would be seeing each other again because we had to wait for cheap flights. Just another blessing from Haize's job...

Chillin' in Monterey

It has been two weeks since my last post. The primary reason is that we spent most of the past week in Monterey, California. I was on Navy orders at the Human Resources Center of Excellence (HRCOE) located at the Naval Postgraduate School from July 17th through July 23rd. The nice thing was that I was able to take Haize and Mia along this time. Although I spent the majority of the time working from 7:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. each day, we had a really good time together. The biggest surprise for us was how chilly it was. I don't think it got above 65 degrees the whole time we were there. A jacket or sweatshirt was pretty much mandatory in the morning and evening. It was a nice break from the 100+ degree temperatures of Utah, but it was tough for Mia to understand why the beach wasn't warm enough to play at.

On the trip Haize and I experienced acupuncture for the first time. My direct supervisor at the HRCOE, LCDR (Sel) Phoebe Kim's (congrats to her for recently being selected for promotion) husband is an acupuncturist. At lunch on our first day there, Haize mentioned that her wrist was bothering her. Phoebe offered to bring her husband to our room the next day for a treatment. She had one needle placed in her foot and two in her knee. Within a very short period of time, the pain had all but gone away! It was at that point that I mentioned my softball leg injury. He put a needle in my cheek and another in my knee. I was amazed at how much better if felt afterwards. I think there really might be something to oriental medicine. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to go back to him again.

On my one free afternoon, we were able to visit Point Lobos State Reserve. What an amazing place! We almost felt like we had been transported to a completely different world. The views were absolutely breathtaking.

Point Lobos - Mike and Haize at China Cove

Point Lobos - Mike and Mia at Hidden Beach

Point Lobos - Haize and Mia at Sand Hill Cove

I have more pictures from the trip that I will post on Facebook.

We have been so blessed by Haize's job at jetBlue during the past nine months. It has allowed us to do and see some awesome things as a family. We have created some unforgettable memories. I remember reading that, "Life is a rough biography. Memories smooth out the edges." And also that, "We do not remember days; we remember moments." I want to publicly thank my dear wife for her hard work and efforts to help make our family's memories.

Never a Dull Moment with Mia

Mia's Mimi (Grandma Emma) set up a pool in her back yard. During the past week, not a day has gone by that she hasn't spent some time in it. As long as she has her goggles on, she has become quite gutsy and daring. She will actually swim all the way across the pool underwater! Another one of her favorite pool activities is to play catch with the Velcro mitts and tennis ball. She always wants me to throw the ball "as high as the trees" so she can try to catch it.

You will notice that there is no one else in the water with her. This particular pool is only heated by the sun, so it is still WAY too cold for us wimpy folks! Luckily, her Tio William is a little tougher than the rest of us and will jump in and play with her on occasion.

Yes, in the above picture, Mia does have her head stuck in the sink! We probably should have taken the plates out first, but that is another story for a different day. Anyway, Mia was playing with some slimy goo that she got from the Hello Kitty store the other day. She had stretched it out and was swinging it around her head when, Pow! It got stuck in her hair! The only way to get the goop out was to run hot water over it. Crisis was avoided!

More of the Bees

This year we decided to hold the Cyprus summer party at the Salt Lake Bees game. Before the game we had dinner out at the Left Field Pavilion. They served us typical ball park food - hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, chili, and soda. It was all pretty good. After eating, we all headed over to our seats that were along the first base line. We sat next to the Smiths, Buddy (special thanks goes out to Buddy for entertaining Mia and Jacob for a good part of the game )and his wife Brittney, and Katie and her roommate (I can't remember her name right now). We all had a fun time hanging out and watching the game. Unfortunately, the Bees lost to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in ten innings, but the game was a good pitching battle.

After the game, the kids were able to go down onto the field and run the bases. Afterwards, Mia decided that she wanted to give a hug to Bumble, the mascot of the Bees. for those of you who know Mia, you will quickly recognize this as a HUGE accomplishment. In the past she has been scared to death of anything in a costume (she comes by this naturally because my parents tell me I was the same way as a kid). With a lot of encouragement from us and a few trips to Disney parks, she appears to be slowly overcoming her fears. We were so proud of her!

One other interesting note about the game was that the Famous San Diego Chicken was there performing. He was as funny and clever as ever. The same guy, Ted Giannoulas has been performing as the Chicken for more than 35 years - I remember seeing him when we used to go the Salt Lake Trappers (rookie league) games back when I was a kid. Apparently, he is considering retirement, so I was really glad that Mia got to see him at least once in person.

On Saturday afternoon there was a rare sighting at the Walters home - Mike doing yard work! Working outside in the yard isn't my favorite thing in the world. It's not that I don't like having a yard that looks nice, I just don't particularly like doing it myself! However, I actually ended up getting the lawn mowed and the front yard sprinklers fixed. This next week I plan on attacking the back yard sprinklers and the front porch balcony. I need to strip the flaking paint off the balcony and then repaint it. Sounds like fun!