A Day in the Life

A Photoblog by Joel

Head On Collision

September 30, 2018

A Trip to Provo Falls

September 29, 2018

We bought a new(er) van. I grew tired of the 2002 Odyssey and the problems associated with age and miles. We now have a 2008 Town & Country Limited, fully loaded, with 94,000 miles on it. We bought it at auction with my friend Shad at Integrity Motors, and unfortunately it came with some issues associated with middle age, but those are pretty much taken care of now and hopefully it gives us some good years of service ahead. 

Today Alicia had a Relief Society Super-activity and was going to be gone from 9am – 4pm, so I decided it was time to take the kids on an adventure in the new car. I grabbed a bunch of DVDs, some water, my camera, and some snacks and we headed off for the Provo River Falls, which is along the Mirror Lake Highway. 

Hamburger and Fries in a tray.
Our first stop was at The Junction in Heber for some lunch. I got the Cowboy Burger. It was dang good. I’m a sucker for any hamburger with BBQ sauce and bacon
A little boy drinks through a straw.
Kids love straws. We had to take a few potty breaks on the drive because of how lunch started out.
A girl is eating pizza, her mouth is open showing the half-eaten food.
The Junction serves burgers and pizza, so I got a cheese pizza for the kids. Elle loved it, Emmett loved the fries.
3 Kids walking down the steps of playground equipment.
Halfway up, in between Francis and Kamas we found a great playground to stop and get some wiggles out. There was another mom there with her 3 year old so the kids had a friend to play with.
Cows graze at the side of the road
Mirror Lake Highway is an open grazing road, so sometimes we had to slow down and enjoy the cattle.
Beautiful fall colored yellow leaves lining a dirt road in Utah
Um. No comment needed here.
Provo River Falls in a drought season - not much water is flowing
The mighty Provo River Falls! Unfortunately, our destination wasn’t terribly picturesque – the water was super low! Last time we were here a few years back they were going strong.
A little boy climbs the rocks of a slow-flowing waterfall
Having the water level low meant a lot of river-bottom hiking for us. Emmett had a blast climbing all over. It was actually nice that the water was barely running as it made a safer play environment and took a lot of stress away from me!
Two kids aren't looking at the camera for a posed photo at the Provo River Falls
Unfortunately I never got a good picture of the kids at the falls. This is the best of the lot.

Revisiting Japan, Vol 1

September 28, 2018

It’s been about a year since I went through and edited my photos from our trip to Japan in April 2017. Tonight I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to see all the photos I took that I had forgotten about beyond the ones that I’ve shared online or have as my desktop wallpaper. Definitely a trip down recent memory lane! I love Japan, I can’t wait to go back again. 

A Tokyo cityscape that includes the moat around the Imperial Palace
This is the moat? around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, the first place we walked around after arriving.
A night scene from the Sakae District in Nagoya Japan
On my first night there, after dinner with my friend Taka, Alicia went to sleep at the hotel but I couldn’t do that quite yet, I needed to live it up! So I went for a walk around Sakae in Nagoya. It was so good to be back.
A 3rd floor view of a cityscape in suburban Nagoya Japan
This is the view from the 3rd floor balcony of the first AirBNB we stayed out. Nothing exciting, but this is suburban Japan. This is the setting I lived in for 2 years. I miss it so much!
A view of Toyota City from the Mikawa-Toyota train station platform
We had about a 30 minute wait at the Mikawa-Toyota Train Station. I wandered around the platform and took photos. It’s slightly elevated. This is the view. More suburban Japan.
A street is framed by a gate that is the entrance of a shrine in downtown Nagoya, Japan.
Before we headed out for Kyoto on Day 3, we took a walk around the Nagoya Station with our friend Taka. Not too far away was a little shrine, we hopped in for a short visit.

Sunday Afternoon

September 23, 2018
Mom sleeps. Emmett is too good for naps so he watches YouTube Kids. I lurk and spy with a camera.

A Date with Emmett

September 23, 2018

On Saturday my friend Joshten was going to be drifting his race car at Rocky Mountain Raceway. I wanted to take Emmett so he could see the drifting as well as the drag racing that would be going on. Sadly, it was also one of the last weekends that RMR was going to be open. I’m not sure why it’s shutting down, but this is the last season. Several years ago I was a track photographer there, working every weekend right on the track to take pictures of the dragsters. It was so much fun. It makes me sad to know that the tracks are going to be silenced. 

The drift races were the street legal Midnight Drags, which are a lot of fun. It’s always a surprise which two cars will come out head to head. I post a video down below of 2 Nissan GTR going at it. The white one pulls a 9.83s 1/4 mile at 141mph! Crazy fast.

Before getting to RMR, we took a side stop to The Train Shoppe in Salt Lake and took a look around. It’s a fantastic store! They have a ton of trains and tracks to sell, as well as several model trains set up to run around. It costs 25c to run a train for 2 minutes, but you get to be the conductor and choose the speed, etc. It’s a pretty cool place. Emmett wanted to take home a lot of the trains. Unfortunately, they’re a pinch out of our price range.

A boy chooses a model train from the display wall.
I’ve never really looked in to high quality model trains before, they’re quite impressive. And expensive! Averaged $250-$450 for 1 engine!
A little boy controls a model train set
The Train Shoppe had several models set up like this for kids to play and drive the trains. This is the set up for the Polar Express.
A little boy controls a model train set
Right next to the Polar Express was the Hogwarts Express, you can see Harry, Hermione, and Ron waiting to be picked up. The Quidditch Pitch is in the back, and around the bend to the right is Hogwarts Castle
A large crowd waits to buy tickets at Rocky Mountain Raceway in West Valley, Utah
We had to park about 15 minutes away from RMR, and then stood in line for at least another 20 minutes to get our tickets to go in.
An out-of-focus truck belches black smoke into the sky before racing the quarter mile.
Just as we got in the park, this blue diesel was getting ready to make it’s run. As it waited for the green, it revved up the engine and belches out so much black smoke, it was crazy! My camera mis-focused on the fence, and before I could fix it the truck launched down the track. It was *really* fast, I didn’t see the time but it was probably at most 10 second 1/4 mile.

Elle vs Duck

September 22, 2018
A little girl crouches to get a closer look at a duck.

My kids

September 22, 2018

Ever the stars of my stories of late, meet Emmett and Elle. Emmett just turned 5 in August. He’s a happy, loving, sweet little boy that loves trains, and legos, and cars. He’s definitely a fan of the mechanical. He builds fancy tracks all over the house and is very creative with his legos. He’s a slightly picky eater, usually chomping down his veggies before his meat. He started Kindergarten a few weeks back and is a great student, thankfully. He sits still, listens, and is eager to participate. His favorite color is red. 

Elle is a few weeks shy of 3 and is such a sweet little girl. She loves her characters – Bubble Guppies, PAW Patrol, My Little Pony, and Peppa Pig. She loves their shows, and loves her clothes that feature them. Pink is her favorite color, and she’s asking for a Pink drum for her birthday and wants me to play my Trumpet with her. That’ll be fun! And noisy. Oh so very noisy. She’s terrible to put to bed right now, drawing from what seems a never-ending well of energy. 

We recently put them in the same bedroom to make room for our exchange student Sho from Okinawa. It’s been rough! But, that’s good, because that means they play really well together. Fights happen occasionally, but more often than not they get along great.

A 5 year old boy with scraggly hair looks at the camera.
You’ll notice he’s missing a tooth. He had an abscess about a year ago and it was easiest to just pull it on out. It’ll be awhile before that gap is filled.
A 2 year old girl poses for the camera against a brick wall.
I had to really bribe this little girl today to get her to stand where Emmett had stood. She had found a sudden interest in Jelly Fish so I promised her a YouTube video to watch. She made this pose on her own.

A Walk to School

September 20, 2018

Emmett’s elementary school has a program called D.O.G.S. – Dads of Great Students. It’s a fun program that aims to get dads more involved in their kids’ school experience. We can all volunteer to become a D.O.G.S. member which means we get a 3 hour shift at school to hang out with our kids and help out in class. 

Tonight was an orientation pizza party at the school, and Emmett and I decided to enjoy the spectacular evening and walk over. It was fun to chit chat, be surprised by things he knew, and of course take a few photos along the way.

A 5 year old boy is running and jumping away from the camera.
Emmett was sure to not only not step on any cracks, but to enthusiastically jump over them.
A sunflower is illuminated by the sun shining bright behind it.
Everyone loves Sunflowers, right?
A little boy walks away from the camera into the sun while a sun flare occurs on the lens.
I tried to be candid, which means I mainly shot him from behind. #sunflare