8 Scouts get Eagle at Court of Honor

8 Scouts get Eagle at Court of Honor: ENOCH – Eight Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 1869 were given their Eagle Awards at a Court of Honor Dec. 29, making a total of 11 boys from the troop who received their Eagles in 2012. The boys were D...

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Football2.jpg, a photo by JR Robinson on Flickr.

Now that we are able to move back into our basement, we decided to make the decorating in Tyrel's room truely unique. Here is one of the photo ideas we had.

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Football.jpg, a photo by JR Robinson on Flickr.

Tyrel and some of his teammates from our neighborhood.

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Football.jpg, a photo by JR Robinson on Flickr.

Tyrel Robinson and his friends and teammates from the neighborhood (Gus Mason, Logan Ekker, Dylan Jensen, Austin Russell.

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Angel's Landing3.jpg, a photo by JR Robinson on Flickr.

Introspection. It has bben said that the best look at one's own soal us from the edge looking back.

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Football.jpg, a photo by JR Robinson on Flickr.

Football- the poetry of the brash.

I have seen photos similar to this and thought I would try one of my own.

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IMG_0097.jpg, a photo by JR Robinson on Flickr.

We haven't given up on baseball, yet. The circle change-up...on the way!

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MinersBaseball 8.jpg, a photo by JR Robinson on Flickr.

I didn' realize it at the time, but check out the compression of Tyrel's bat as he hits the ball. By the way, this was a homerun! Can't hang your breaking stuff.

FAMILY REUNIONS

We have the good fortune of belonging to great families before we started our own. Great families have great stories and superb family reunions. The Robinson get-together was a meager 85 member contingency at the standard Horse Valley campsite. I can’t say for sure, but it is likely Parowan and Paragonah’s population wanes quickly as we establish Robinsonville on the hill, if only for a few days once a year. It goes without saying, the mosquitoes were definitely full and everybody had great camping faces before we left.



After feeding the mosquitoes we barely had time to stop itching and shower before we set out for Topic and the Munson Mixer. We spent time playing games at the park, swapping lies, playing tourist on mules in Bryce Canyon, eating, fishing, more eating, sleeping, yet more eating, and taking in the local flavor of Tropic. Suffice it to say, the company, food, and scenery were great.


As you might guess from the first paragraph, I am not a Tropic native but I can certainly relate to the characters each small community seems to have. After all, I grew up in Parowan. It is fun to compare the unknown but familiar characters in these small towns with their matches who lived around me while I grew up. The Munson Mixer ended with church on Sunday- I was disappointed it wasn’t fast Sunday. Small town Fast and Testimony meetings are the best!  Take a look at this as a real-life example.

Amy's Going to the Prom?

Amy and I were able to attend an awards ceremony in honor of some local police officers. As this was a formal event the preparation started for Amy some weeks ago. My preparations were admittedly easier as I had been issued my attire. Amy set out to find a dress at one of the local shops with Erin in tow. Erin, of course, was spell bound by all of the gowns, dresses, jewelry, and “other” accessories. Amy related to me that Erin seemed to have 10,000 questions (e.g. What is this? Where does it go? How does it fit on?  What does it do?). I’m thankful I was not invited on this excursion.

The ironic part of this whole shopping trip was it happened to be the same day as the Junior Prom for one of the high schools. Amy stated the stores were bustling and crowded as a result. As required by the laws of parenting, Erin singlehandedly embarrassed Amy by shouting one sentence while amongst the crowd. “But Mom, if you’re going to the prom who is going to watch the kids?” Apparently, the shop went quiet, everyone stopped to turn their heads, and all eyes were waiting for a response. I can’t say for sure, but I think the shopping was over for the day.

MISCELLANEOUS CATHING UP

Here are some things our oldest kids have been up to:

Dancing faces you towards Heaven, whichever direction you turn. ~Terri Guillemets

I love fishing. You put your line in the water and you don’t know what’s on the other end. Your inanition is under there. ~ Robert Altman

Have You Ever...

 ...played a baseball game in the snow?

Wait, An 11-Year-Old Lives Here?

Time has a way of getting away from everyone at our house. Tyrel is now 11-years-old and what a memorable birthday number 11 was. It started out the day before when Erin got the stomach flu, yeah! This was followed by Amy getting the flu for a couple of days. During Amy’s turn I too took a turn but was fortunate not to get the full blown version. Tyrel then had his turn just a day after turning 11. Happy Birthday! We all escaped all the better for the wear and hope Tyrel doesn’t have another birthday soon- we don’t want the flu back for at least 3 years.

Lego Nerds

Amy and I concluded we needed to make a quick dash to visit the California Faction of Robinsons before we became snowed in or deadlocked with sports. Despite having a 2-mile list of things to do or visit while on our hiatus, we instead opted to Legoland, the beach (too cold for fun in the water), and a movie (this allowed those too tired to catch up on their sleep).

Our visit to Legoland was a reality check for me on several points. First, it is amazing what can be constructed from plastic blocks. Finished projects varied from a full-sized car to dinosaurs and dragons, to life-sized Star Wars characters and on, and on, and on, and on. Second, I didn’t realize you could earn a paycheck building various things out of Lego’s. At each of the above mentioned projects a sign was posted detailing an assortment of facts. For instance, on the full-sized car Tyrel learned it took 5 adults 2 ½ month to construct it. The vehicle weighs near 3000 pounds and is hollow… Finally, Tyrel solidified his title as Lego Nerd after proclaiming several dozen times, “I could live here!”

We were glad for the furlough. Thank you Cole and Julie for letting us invade your lives.

Tyrel and Erin have singlehandedly made the Tooth Fairy go broke. It seems like Tyrel has pulled 2 teeth in less than 2 weeks. The end result is he looks like a horse when he smiles- you know, in the front there are only 4 teeth on the top and 4 teeth on the bottom. Then miles of no teeth before reaching the molars in the back of his mouth. I think he is in an elite group who can eat corn on the cob through a picket fence.

Erin, on the other hand, doesn’t pull her teeth. Instead, she waits for them to fall out of her head. Her last tooth fell out while drinking water. She too has lost a couple of teeth in the past 2 weeks.

Ryann has beat them all but doesn’t have a tooth in her mouth.

The whole crew may indeed make the toothbrush aptly named. For the rest of us it should be called a teethbrush.

THE WRETCHED SEASON

This is the roughest time of year. The weather teases us with a day or two of great weather and then snows again by the end of the week. This isn’t too different from fall weather in Color Country but there are other activities to keep your mind occupied (hunting, fishing, hunting, and fishing). The weekly respite of pro football is no more, spring baseball is still far enough out that it hurts, and the frenzied pace of rivalry games and March Madness are close but not close enough. In late winter everything just seems to be in a holding pattern until...

Tyrel has finished his last basketball game. Here is a summary of his season. The CAVS won some games. The CAVS lost some games. The CAVS learned some basketball skills. The CAVS learned some basketball concepts (but the seemingly simple concepts of spacing and timing remain abstract). But most importantly, the CAVS had fun and got tired in the process! I have learned a tired 10-year-old may be the most advantageous.

NORTH FROM SAN FRANCISCO

Work recently took me to northern California. After seeing things I had never seen I must admit I was stunned at the scenery and amazed at the stark contrast to southern California. In additional I partook of strange food in an atmosphere and portion of San Francisco I would never have found myself lost in.  

Our final destination was Eureka (Humbolt County). For those of you wondering, you can’t get there from southern Utah- you have to go to about 5 other places first. Mapping our route by car would take 17 hrs and took us only 16 ½ hrs to fly.

While at Fisherman's Warf we stopped for a while and watched this street man earn his money. Check it out here.

Smart planning allowed us 2 days to get to our destination, but because of the nature of the trip it was an epic, single day journey back. The travel portion of the trip quickly lost it's charm.  With a Rock Star or two later we arrived back home.  Here are some photos of the sights.

“IT’S UNSANITARY!”

I had an experience like no other to this point in my life. In hindsight the general theme of the message the narrator was conveying was spot on, however, the delivery was comical. So with no disrespect intended to the unnamed narrator let me enlighten you.

The Robinson tribe made a pilgrimage south to witness, and participate in, a baby blessing. For those of you familiar with these events, let me remind you these blessings typically occur on fast Sunday.

The testimony portion of the meeting began when a ward elder (denoting generational age rather than office) took the pulpit to recount what he had witnessed on TV sometime prior.

This gentleman relayed with intricate detail what he described as an “open mouth” kiss. Apparently this TV scene degenerated to a point where he told his wife to take note of what was happening. Obviously appalled and maybe slightly confused, she asked her husband what the two were doing to which he replied, “It looks like they’re trying to eat each other!”

About this time, I was struggling to stifle my laughter, but wasn’t quite sure if it was just me and my mood am was in or if this gentleman had gone off script even by the ward’s standards. A quick glance around the chapel led me to believe this type of pulpit discourse was par for the course. This did little to help me keep my laughter inside.

Finally, this seasoned citizen enumerated the woes of such a kiss the first of which was it is extremely “unsanitary”. I’ll concede the remainder of the points he made.

I could no longer contain myself. After the meeting I told Amy we needed to make an appointment to see the doctor and get a shot. The rest of you clowns better get in line behind us!

STREET NAMES

Nicknames have been a part of my life since I could remember. I probably developed this affinity for terms of endearment while working with Grandpa Tuffy. He had nicknames for everyone we ever seemed to talk with- some good and some otherwise. We were among this list of seemingly endless names. For some unknown reason I was Little Joe.

I have taken it upon myself to give the Robinson gang their own nicknames as I know of no self-respecting gang who does not have a solid nickname. Amy is a bit upset with the publishing of these names because I don’t seem to have a nickname. She didn’t have much of defense when I pointed out it she was derelict in giving me a nickname. After all, it is a party foul to give yourself a nickname. Let me introduce the Robinson gang:

DERBY MANIA IN THROWBACK STYLE

The time honored, and church sanctioned, mania of pinewood derby has come and gone once again. For whatever reason, this event seems to find itself in our schedule at inopportune times. If it isn’t one thing it is another that seems to prevent Tyrel and I from starting this little project without having to rush.

This year was different- in a bad way. Tyrel reminded me the afternoon of the race that he needed a pinewood derby to race. Rather than go into a panicked frenzy to make a car in a couple of hours it was decided we would race on a throwback theme this year- race a car we have raced in years past. So Tyrel loaded up all of his cars and didn’t decide on what car to race until scouting out the competition.

This story has a happy ending as Tyrel had the fastest car of the day.

All derby tomfoolery aside, Amy and I were more proud of his Cub Scout awards and accomplishments. At this pack meeting, Tyrel received his Weblos patch, Arrow of Light, his final activity pin (he earned all 20 pines). Make no mistake about it; this is the end result of the hard work of good Cub Scout leaders. We owe Joan Young and Linda Russell and huge “Thank You!”