So Small

You know they are tiny when a burp cloth looks like a quilt. Thanks again Mom, they are almost too nice for spewage.

Brant

Little Zirker Boy

For all of you and especially Kelly, our new little boy has been named. We used the Hospital's bottom ten names and came up with one no one was using. His name is Rett Lee Zirker. ( The Zirker part is what held us up) He weighed 6#8oz and is 19 inches long. We came home today, on Monday, and all are doing well. For those of you in the 21st Century you can see a news interview with Jaime, Rett and her doctor that aired today on channel 7. The web cast is at www.TheDenverChannel.com.

Not much happening in Moscow this week. The weather is ideal, Mom goes back to school tomorrow and the kids start on Wednesday. I cleaned part of the garage yesterday. Seth came over and changed the brakes on the back of their Rodeo. He also helped me rotate the tires on the Explorer.

I had an interview with James the Prophet today and told him he really didn't belong in our ward since it is a "student married" ward. I gave him Bishop Walker's name and told him what time and where the town ward meets. I'll have to call Monte and give him a little background. It's a little hard to keep a straight face as he sits there and tells you about his conversations with the Lord, how many people he has healed, etc. In the back of your mind you are thinking, "Is this a test", "is he one of the Three Nephites"?

That's about it for tonight.

Love, Dad and Mom

I Spy

An American Bison. I was going to say buffalo but some of you might have searched fruitlessly.

Daddy Daughter Campout

This weekend was our combined wards' Daddy-Daughter Campout. As part of the fun, the girls got to shave their dad with a comb and some shaving cream. It was a small turnout, but we had a lot of fun. We were also treated to an all night guitar concert by our next campsite neighbors- the hippies. We were all ready to go over there at 8:00am while they were asleep and start singing "Popcorn, popping on the apricot tree."

Saturday afternoon, was Tyler's last baseball game. He had some great coaches that worked with well with the kids. He had a lot of fun and managed a few good hits. We are already searching for talent scouts to sign him and start his pro career.

Today was Katie's birthday. The big number 2. Leslie did a great job making her a big crayon box cake complete with ice cream cone crayon tips poking out of the box. Thanks Mom for the great gifts. She is a little young for the new car, but we will put it in storage until she is 16. Seriously though, she loves the tu-tu and shoes. Thanks again.

Brant

No Name

Does the Erik and Jaime Zirker baby have a name yet??

Jobs, Jobs, everywhere

The past few weeks I've been madly applying for various jobs in Provo, mostly teaching/assistant teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) in the local schools. Two weeks ago I was hired through Alpine School District to teach an evening ESL class to adults. But it's only about 10 hours a week, so I had to continue my hunt. This week, I got about 4 calls for interviews for various other positions, which was kind of cool because I've never had several employers actually want me to work for them. This morning, however, I had an interview that I felt went absolutely terribly, which upset me because it was a job I kind of wanted. But while I was wallowing in the disgrace of a bad job interview, I received a phone call from someone in the ESL department at UVSC (where I had applied to teach over a month ago) who told me they had way more students sign up for classes than they expected, and they wanted me to come teach 2 classes. Did they want an interview? Did they want to talk to my references? Nope. They wanted to hire me immediately. And they needed to know within a few hours. So...I decided to accept it. And now I'm going to be thrown into teaching two classes I know nothing about and have no preparation for...I think they're nuts, but it's still pretty exciting.

It's time for your favorite game: "I Spy!"

An extension ladder.

First Day of School in front of the tree

Braxton survived his first day of kindergarten. If you notice we took a picture in front of the tree. Kevin said it was tradition. Then there was Kanyon, who never misses the opportunity of a picture. HE is ecstatic about Braxton going to school. Braxton seemed to enjoy it and talked about it while we walked home. I asked him if he made any friends. He said not really but it didn't seem to bother him that he didn't. Hopefully he'll find a little buddy. We only know one little girl in his class from church but obviously he didn't play with her. When I asked him this evening if he wanted to go back tomorrow he said "I don't know" I told him he didn't have a choice. He'll do great. His teacher is really nice, Mrs. Clutter. We went in yesterday for a screening with his teacher to see where his "levels" were and she was very impressed with him. I said way to go Braxton. I've tried to make a point of doing your best at whatever it is. So hopefully he won't be too bored in class.
I, too, survived his first day. I didn't even cry. I'll admit I got a little choked up when he had to line up and he got a nervous look on his face but I was strong and I laughed at all the other mom's who were crying. We'll keep you updated on all the fun things he gets to do throughout the year.

Well the other big news at our house is that Kevin has decided to switch job fields. Our friend offered him a job as a Graphic Designer and the job was too sweet to pass up. Kevin has always wanted a job that would use his art more and this is a perfect opportunity. The position is through Aimco, anyone heard of it? It is supposedly a big nation wide company, at least that's what I think. So he'll be starting that Sept 14. Richdell has been very supportive of the job change, and will close down the Residential division of the company.

Mid-Week Blog

Old Faithful

"I'll stand where I feel like standing"

I love this shot. It is from Fishing Bridge, looking down the Yellowstone River and out into Yellowstone Lake as a storm rolls in.

Life has been a little hectic since we returned from vacation. Sunday we had the regular meetings, Matt and Kimbre were here, Seth and Lacey were here and I just didn't have time to write. This week I have had scout stuff, last night Mom and I visited four new families in the ward and tonight I trained Dave Johnson in his duty as the new Stake Physical Facilities Representative for the University Stake. Now, I think I'm through for a while.

Joe called from Ford and wanted to take the Explorer so he could put the old speedometer back in it. He came home and gave Mom a 2007 Ford Freestyle while they work on ours. It won't be done until tomorrow so we have a new car in the driveway. It is nice to drive but the sticker price is $31,287.00. I'm glad it's only a loaner (it has 23 miles on it).

Steve Berglund called the other night and wanted to know when we planned to go to the Stateline Speedway. We set it for September 12th. It will be Steve, Larry, and Me (Seth if he's not busy) and we will stop and get Matt in Coeur d'Alene. Just a bunch of old guys (except for Matt and Seth) re-living the glory days.

Mom's busy working on her next on-line class. The professor seems a little up-tight on this one so we'll see how it works out.

We booked flights and a car for the blessing of the two new babies. We leave Spokane on Saturday morning the 29th of September and leave Denver Sunday evening October 7th. We even booked a tour at the Denver Mint. I think were gonna make it this time. Hopefully you'll put us up for a few days each as we move around the city. We'll give more details as the time gets closer.

The weather has been fantastic. It rained last Sunday and Monday. The temperature dropped from the 80's and 90's to the 50's and 60's. Now it is in the mid 70's and the sky is clear and blue. The rain cleared all the smoke out of the air and gave the fire fighters a better chance at controlling many of the fires burning in Idaho.

Today's Adventure: I loaded up the Man-Lift in Lewiston this morning and headed out for a visit to Orofino, Kamiah and Grangeville. I visited Orofino and took care of the things on my list, then drove to Kamiah and unloaded the Man-Lift and continued on to Grangeville. All went well to this point. I left Grangeville and on the way back decided to turn off at Winchester and check out Winchester Lake and then go on down the "Old Winchester Grade" and meet Highway 95 at Culdesac. Things were still going well. As I started down the old grade I could see all the way to Lewiston and it was a beautiful sight. I had the window down and was eating BBQ sunflower seeds. Man, what a nice day. Then it happened. Something hit my outside mirror and I saw it glance across in front of me and disappear. Thinking it was a bug I looked around and couldn't see anything. At this point I was going down some very sharp hairpin curves and still enjoying the ride. Suddenly something stung me on the side of the throat. I batted my hand at it and a yellow jacket zinged across the cab. Now I'm a little jumpy. I look over and he's crawling across the passenger seat towards me. Remember I'm still negotiating the hairpin curves. I take a swing at him and miss. Then he's down on my radio phone. I grab my little black address/phone book and smash him on the phone. He falls helpless to the floor and I hear a small gasp as his life slowly ebbs from his body. Now I'm safe, still negotiating hairpin curves and thinking about anti-phalactic shock. My throat starts to sting and it moves out to my right shoulder. I start calculating how far it is to Lewiston and if I will make it or not. About that time I do the mind over matter thing, the pain subsides, I arrive in Culdesac and I am here to tell the tale. Mom's comment: "Why didn't you just pull over and kill him and then continue on your way?" Answer: "That's the easy way".

That's it for now. I'm reading Volume 4 the Louis L'Amour's short stories. I've got about 300 pages to go.

We love you all.

Dad and Mom

Glowing Baby

We've had an eventful week. We came home from the hospital on Thursday, and Friday headed up to Fort Collins. Before we left, the nurse came to the house and said that Kori was jaundice and needed to have light therapy. So we took up a little tanning bed for her to be in all the time. On Saturday morning we had Von Forell family pictures. It was intersting with 7 kids. We were trying to get a family picture before my brother left for his mission. Tyler had a baseball game, so Katie, Kori, Brant and I headed back to Denver. The nurse needed to check on Kori again to see how she was doing. She was still in need of the therapy, so we headed back up to Fort Collins with the bed. Sunday we had the farewell for Michael at church, and our family sang, that is always fun. Then Brant, Katie, Kori and I headed back to our house so Brant could go back to work, and the nurse could check on Kori again. The nurse gave the OK, so she didn't need to be under the lights anymore. Yesterday was the first day she actually wore clothes all day. It was funny to see the glow in the corner. She is doing great now. Tyler and Aimee have been at my mom's house yesterday and today. We slept in until 10 yesterday, and I got 2 naps!! Today we will meet all of my family at the airport today to send my brother Michael off to the the MTC in Brazil. Then tomorrow we start school. I think then, we can finally begin to relax into a schedule. At least I've been feeling good!

The glories of the HOOD

No, I'm not talking about the "hood" like "neighborhood." I'm talking about the strange and somehow delightful hood that peeps get to wear when they get their Master's degree. To my great pleasure, I got to wear a hood this past Friday when I graduated. It is depicted below (isn't it cool?!). My family even came to Provo just to see the hood. Well, I guess they might have come for more than just the illustrious hood. They were here for a week, wherein we went hiking, did baptisms for the dead at the Salt Lake Temple (my little sister just turned 12 and it was her first time), visited with my scary, grumpy Grandma (who, after serious threats from my father, emerged from her house to attend my graduation- a shock to us all), went to the pool, ate tasty food, visited with friends and watched lots of Harry Potter.

My plans for the next few months include finding a job here, hopefully teaching/assistant teaching ESL (English as a Second Language). And if you're wondering, yes, we're still planning to go to Italy in the spring.
Or who knows. Maybe we'll sell all of our worldly posessions and be vagabonds for a year. :)

Kevin's Family

we went on a family camping trip. We went on a walk around the lake. Kanyon found some cattails. And Brother Baxter picked some cattails for everybody. Braxton went on a bike ride with dad. He rode a tag-along attached to the back of the bike. Kanyon went for a ride in the bike trailer with his friend, William. Kanyon and Braxton had fun sitting in the hammock. It rained really hard so we didn't get to roast marshmallows. We slept in our tent, everyone except Raya. She thought it was play time.

Everbody is throwing up in our house. Kanyon and Raya last night. Braxton and Adria today. I think we're on our fifth or sixth load of laundry.

The boys helped type this.

Kori Jan Zirker

Here is the best shot I have right now. I'll get a better one later. She was born on Aug 15th at 1:40 am. 7 lbs. 7 ozs. and 20 inches long. Everyone is doing well.

Brant

There have been some "I Spy" complaints.

Matt, we've made the rule that the hidden item has to be in the current view of pages (approximately within the last month). If you beg enough we'll tell you where it is.

Clue: "12" is on a page with Tyler. It's yellow.

The Trip

This is what it is all about.

I love this little train. If I had a zillion dollars I'd put one in our back yard.

This looks like trouble with a capital "T".

He finally got up enough courage to pet the rabbit.

Looks like fun on a hot day.

We are just getting settled after our arrival back home. I have the pictures organized and numbered but that's about it. I'll put a couple in this blog but will do better next time. I'll send a CD to those who asked for it (Lisa), any others?

Seth is back in town. He and Lacey are working to get their new apartment organized so they can live there.

Mom took Aunt Tami to Lewiston today to catch her flight back to Roosevelt. She was going to stop by and give Kelly her telephone charger. Kelly, did your folks make it in OK?

I'll write more as time goes on.

Thanks again.

Dad

Twelve

I found the number "12." That was a good one Kevin.

Brant

Where have we been?

It's been quite some time since we posted so here's what we've been up to. Last week we went to Moscow to my 10 year high school reunion. We left Wednesday and drove to Pocatello where cousin Darrick inspected Kelly's wisdom teeth with his new space age CAT-scan thinger. After some visits and dinner at the Pita Pit we drove north through a smoke-filled Montana and spent the night at one incredibly well-lit and noisy rest stop. Thursday took us to Matt and Kimbre's where we did all of the things Matt talked about last week in his blog. Friday was spent on Lake Coeur d'Alene and we ended up in Moscow for the night. Saturday we had a tour of the high school followed by a stop at Markettime Drug for some Chewy Sprees. That night we had a dinner/get together at the University Inn. All in all there was very little bragging, lots of new stories and 90% of the people looked the same as the day they stepped out of high school. I was rather impressed with the fact that most of the people had done something with their lives (college degrees, military service, managing fast food restaurants) and that most of the people that were there with a significant other were actually married and not just shacked up. Sunday morning was brunch at the Pantry, church with the Prophet James, dinner at Richards and a drive to the rest stop just east (maybe a little south) of Boise where we enjoyed a quieter, darker and possibly windier night's rest.
Mom, Dad, Lacey and Weston came to visit on Wednesday and a great time was had by all. Now it is Sunday and Kelly is at a friend's house playing Settlers of Catan while I finish my book and think about what must be done before Kelly's family arrives tomorrow. Kelly officially graduates this Thursday/Friday and I think she is most excited about that fact that her graduation robe will have a hood on it.

This picture is of Kelly wearing my new sparing pads. For some reason she thinks that just because she has pads on she can kick and punch me as hard as she wants and it won't hurt. Just ask Mom, Dad and Lacey. They saw her rage on more than one occasion.

Trailer: 2; Trucks: 0

Dad, are we going to see pictures from your vacation for the next year and a half. If you put two or three on each blog it should take that long to see them all.

Brant, nice pics of the campout. Tyler, how did you do at archery? It looked like you did a lot of fun things. Aimee, when is it your turn to camp?

We're planning a campout for this Saturday with a few families from the ward. Erik, any possibility of you attending? Isn't your wife supposed to have a baby in a couple of weeks.

Lisa finished Harry Potter, I worked Saturday with Braxton's help, and Kanyon is participating in a sleep study. Oh yeah, and Adria launched all over the bench, Braxton, his tithing envelop, and me today. Did I mention that this was right in the middle of the sacrament administration. Sorry, it seems that I always mention the most appropriate things in my blogs.

Thanks for the visit Dad, Mom, Lacey and Weston. We enjoyed it.

Hey Travis, how did you ever get the dent out of the Ranger's rear fender? My Mazda now has one to match.

I spy the number "12"

Father and Sons Campout

This weekend was our Father and Sons Campout. We figured it would be our last big adventure for a while. We arrived Friday evening, got our tent up, and visited friends around camp. About 8:00 pm a frantic dad annouced that he could not find his six year son Samuel. Needless to say by 9:30pm the campground was ablaze with lights from county sheriffs and search and rescue vehicles. They told all the dads to get the small children to sleep and then if possible join the search. Tyler and I went to sleep to sounds of "Samuel, Samuel...." When I woke up the next morning, I discovered that they had found the boy about 11:00 that night. He was about 500 yards away from camp on the opposite side of the original search area.

The pictures are the Saturday morning activities. They put a lot of work into the various activities. We had marshmellow guns, a zip line, a rope course, air rockets with 2 liter bottles, and an archery range.

I think my next project with Tyler is making an air rocket launcher. Those bottles shot pretty high. We even had a few get caught on top of some trees. It was made out of some 2" PVC and a 3/4" sprinkler valve. I think I can get my hands on some of that kind of stuff.


Have a great week!

Brant

We Made It

Just a note to let you know we make it home today about 6:30pm. When we catch our breath and slow down a little we'll tell you all the details. Mean while, thanks to everyone who put us up, fed us and helped us along the way. We enjoyed seeing you all.

Dad and Mom

Moscow Visit

Kimbre and I snuck down to Moscow for what was supposed to be a quick visit. Our main intention was to pick up a bicycle for Kimbre to use in an upcoming race. Some members of our ward are hosting a 5k/10k walk, run, bike race. Kimbre wants to bike it, I'm foolish enough to think I can run it. Anything for a t-shirt.

While in town we visited with Grandpa for an hour and talked about life in general. We also visited with Brenda for a little while. Kimbre and Brenda went to Tiffany's place to help babysit, so I bailed out and went to find Bishop Berglund. I went for a few laps around the field in his combine and caught up on all my farming knowledge.

Chuck and Brenda invited us out to dinner and a movie, so we ended up staying a little longer than we planned. We hit up Quizno's in Pullman, then went to see "The Bourne Ultimatum." It was a great movie and we both highly recommend it. Just a word of caution though...Dad, you may get a little motion sickness from the high speed camera work.

Travis and Kelly became our first official overnight visitors last week. They came into town on Thursday afternoon, so we hit the road and did the Kootenai County tour and did some real estate prospecting. Travis and I also played in a city league softball game in the evening. Friday we had a great breakfast of Safeway donuts and drove 45 minutes to the cabin for a day of fun and sun. Travis, Kelly, Aaron Powell, Kimbre, and I took a boat trip up the Coeur d' Alene River and had a swim in the browmish water of Blue Lake. We then hit the diving board at the Harrison Marina and did our best to scare away all of the local kids.

Uncle Rodney

Mom's Uncle Rodney(I think that's the right relation, our grandma's brother) passed away this last week and I found his obituary in the Deseret News.

Here it is if you want to see it.

http://www.legacy.com/DeseretNews/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=91929304

I Spy

As I was looking around I spied a couple of Tootsie Roll Pops. It is amazing what one can see as one sails upon lifes journey.
Dad

We're Here

We arrived in Denver Friday afternoon about 5:30pm. Our trip has gone well so far. We left Moscow at 7:00 am Wednesday morning and drove to Livingston, Montana. Nothing too exciting, just a forest fire just off the freeway, lots of nice scenery, and thousands of bikers heading for Sturgis. We stayed in Livingston along with thousands of fly fishermen for their annual convention. Thursday morning we drove 60 miles to Yellowstone and started our tour. Along the way we decided rather than rush through the park to get to the Museums in Cody we would take our time in the park and see Cody next time. We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs and walked the boardwalk out over the hot springs (mostly dried up at this time), then drove on south. We saw an elk out in the valley and while we were looking at it two more crossed the highway just behind the car. I was particularly interested in the regrowth of the forest after the 1988 fire. There were millions of trees about 15 to 20 feet tall. All new since the fire. We made it to Old Faithful in time to watch the eruption, buy a few things, eat lunch and see our first buffalo. From there we drove up the west side of Yellowstone Lake to Fishing Bridge. We really didn't see very much wildlife until we turned at fishing bride and ran smack into a small herd (5 or 6) buffalo. The old bull was standing in the middle of the road and was not going to move for anyone. I jumped out and took some pictures (I'll post some next week when I get home). We did a little shopping at the Fishing Bridge Store and headed east out of the park. We stopped at the north end of the lake for Lacey to take some pictures. Just after we left the park we stopped with all the other tourists to watch a bear. He was a ways off but it was definitely a bear. We stayed in Cody and then on Friday morning we headed for Denver. We cut diagonally down through Wyoming (not much to see except antelope), came out at Casper and headed south.
We attended Hallee's baptism yesterday. It was very nice and lots and family and friends attended. Right now we are about to leave for their church and then we will go to Kevin and Lisa's ward to help bless Adria. I'll fill in more with pictures next week.
We heard from Travis and Kelly. They made it to Moscow and the reunion. We'll see them in Provo on Wednesday.
Love you all.
Dad and Mom

I Spy with my little eye...

A foam cup in a cup holder