Monday Night Football Pictures

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Monday Night Football

The one good thing that came from our evacuations to Dallas was the epic football game at Texas Stadium! Andrew and Ashley Brown, Chris, Mike, and Jess and I were the only die hards that got tickets and dove into the crazy and intense texas culture of football pride. I got Jessica a official jersey of Marion Barber and I got a Terrel Owens Jersey and we were set for a crazy night. I have never meet so many crazy, yelling, drinking, high fiving, jersey wearing, cursing, LOUD fans in my life. The game was one for the history books. We never were Cowboys fans before but I think we are now. It was amazing.








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Hurricane Gustav and Ike

When we thought the summer couldnt get any more exciting...... it did.
On August 22nd we were all watching every news channel in anticipation to see where hurricane Gustav would hit between Texas and Lousiana. We had never been close enough to a hurricane so naturally didnt really know what to think, but on Saturday on our way out to work it seemed like half of the city was packing up everything they owned and heading out. Even the 2 state prisons evacuated their inmates. At that point i thought it pertainant to throw in the towel and attempt to evacuate as well. Within hours we had everyone packed up and heading to Dallas where we booked hotels for everyone for a week. The storm hit New Orleans and comically enough it did not even rain one drop in Beaumont. Ha Ha Mother nature.... we packed up shop and moved back by thursday.
But she definatly had the last laugh because not more then one week later along came hurricane Ike. The timing for another hurricane was impecable with Jessica's mom, Diane, visiting from Utah. I thought we would be tough and ride this one out so the day before it hit was spent filling up our cars with gas and waiting in long lines at the store for food, candles, ice, water, batteries, and anything else that would keep us entertained for days without power. Once we were all ready for Mother Nature to bring on the wrath we all chickened out and left the morning of the storm for Dallas again. Everyone was crying doomsday and "Curtain death" if anyone stayed. And sure enough it tore up Beaumont pretty bad and flooded more surrounding cities. While in Dallas assesing the damage and our options for ongoing employment in Beaumont we had a tough decision to make.... Ok. Where to now??? Concensous was to go back into the war zone of Beaumont pack up our stuff and move the whole office to Phoenix, Az. The problem was though that with in a 100mile radius of Beaumont there was no power, water, or gas and there was a strick curfew that they would arrest anyone out in public after dark. We all had to drive as far as there was gas, wait in line a quarter mile long for over an our to fill up with gas and pray that we could make it back out with the same tank of gas. It was dark when we left but luckly none of us were pulled over.
We stayed one night in Dallas and then straigh shot it over to Phoenix for 20 hours. We were all so so tired when we arrived and slept for days it seemed. But here we are now til the end of October in the bright sunshine 100+ degree weather! And getting closer to Utah with every trip.

God Bless Texas

Here we go again with the 3rd move of the summer to Beaumont, TX. Before Jess and I took for to Utah for a vacation the management decided to move the whole office (12 married couples most with kids, 8 single guys, and 8 techs) to Texas because of a better economy and market. Jess and I were really excited because it just so happened that Reno and Melanie Mendenhall who were are good friends from back home were working for APX in Beaumont and living in the same apartment complex that we were moving to, small world. Luckly we didnt have to make the drive from Miami to Beaumont instead just flew from Salt lake to Houston after our family reunion. Beaumont is exact opposite of Miami. It is a small town feel where people are allot nicer and layed back. However some Texans are still rough around the edges because within the first months being there we had one guy choked on a door step, another tackled on the ground and one get pistol whipped in the back of the head and taken to the hospital. We did have allot of fun though. Almost every morning the majority of the office would play sand volleyball and hangout at the pool. We also played alot of golf and tennis. These pictures are a big office talent show that we put on when Erika (jessica's sister) came to visit us. All the wives made up a dance, we had singing, funny talents, and skits. Never would have thought we would be in Texas and this point of the summer but here we are.

Utah Summer Vacation

We would have never thought a vacation back to Utah would be so much fun! It had been 3 months since we had been back to Utah together so it was good to stay in our home and enjoy time wtih family. Later on in the week we had a Peterson Family reunion in central Utah but for a few relaxing days we got to spend time with each other biking, jogging, eating out, and enjoying Utah weather. Jessica seems to be more and more active these days. She convinced me to run miles up Provo Canyon every morning and even bike the 21 miles from Utah lake to Bridaveil Falls and back. We enjoyed ridding scooters from Highland up through the canyon to Sundance and back. Ofcourse we ate at all the resturants we love that are not on the east coast; Cafe Rio, The Pie Pizzaria, Gandolfos, JCW's, etc... It was good to take the focus of work for a week.