DAY 5: Our first day in Ohio was mostly spent relaxing at my parents’ house.
Lee stopped over as we were having some lunch and introduced us to his girlfriend, Jen. We had a nice visit with Lee and Jen as we munched on french fries and BBQ chicken. Nicole took to Lee right away. She snuggled up to him as soon as he picked her up and enjoyed smiling at him and making faces.
DAY 4 CONTINUED: The airport experience with three little kids is a little crazy. The kids were actually quite good, but just the management of them all would have been 
impossible on my own. Once we made it through security, we stopped at a little play area before going to our gate. This provided a perfect opportunity for a potty break. Unfortunately, Charlotte managed to get her underwear wet while sitting on the potty so I had to make the trek back and forth to the bathroom with a fresh pair of “airplane underwear.†By the time I was finished (the play area was not close to the bathroom), I could only allow Charlotte 10 minutes to play before we scuttled them all off towards the gate.
DAY ONE: We were lucky enough to have Zach’s new job pay for a moving company to 
pack and move our belongings. I think if not for that I really would have lost my sanity. They came at 8:00 AM and worked until 7:00 PM packing and loading our things onto a gigantic semi-truck. The beginning of the day went well, Grandma Cochran took Nicole and Isaac went to school so I just had Charlotte with me and Zach’s Aunt Neta who had come down to help. We sat on the couch and talked as they worked through the morning.
Get a good night’s sleep. Pack a lot of caffeine. Bring all the sessions of General Conference and a couple of Robert Jordan books to listen to. Bring food, water, and extra newspaper for the cats. That was the plan, and for the most part, it worked out well. After 1900 miles of driving, I found myself in a new house, far from home, and completely depleted mentally, physically, and emotionally.
After two weeks, it’s faded a little bit and blurred together. I headed out from Orem and up Provo Canyon, through Heber, and up onto I-80. When I’m driving by myself, I can drive pretty hard, not stopping much, and that’s what I like to do. Here’s the view in back:
Cats, some clothes, and everything the movers wouldn’t take. I headed out across Wyoming. A lot of people tell me they dislike the drive, but I enjoy it. I like views like this one:
I wasn’t too far into Nebraska before it got dark. I left I-80 in Lincoln and skirted east and into Iowa, where I hit I-29 and went south. I passed Mound City in the dark; I didn’t have time to stop and check for Lamanites. I passed around Kansas City through Independence, and onto I-70.
About this time, I thought about sleeping, but the cats were getting upset. Late night is their play time, and they wanted to get out and be free. They were scared and sad. Their unhappy meowing meant no sleep for me, so I grabbed another energy drink and kept driving.
My GPS suggested I cut off on I-64 into St. Louis, which would have been a great shortcut, except it was closed. After a little route-finding, I made it over the bridge and into Illinois. Sunrise that next morning:
I-64, I-57, I-24. Then a jump over the Ohio River, and into Kentucky.
The drive through Kentucky was beautiful. It was a sunny day, with leaves changing all around. Can you see the extra day’s beard growth?
Soon I crossed the Cumberland River and was in Nashville:
Here I grabbed I-40, which is my new “home freewayâ€, the way I-15 was to me growing up.
Almost to my new home:
I left about 10 in the morning Mountain Time, and arrived at about 3 in the afternoon Eastern Time that next day.
That night, after I had the van unloaded and the cats settled, I went over to Rick and Dee’s for dinner. I was kind of a bad guest, I’m sure; I was weird and tired and wound up all at once. After dinner I found myself in a state of emotional disarray. I think the exhaustion and the caffeine combined with loneliness and homesickness to really smash me. All the uncertainty piled up on me at once; alone on my air mattress on the floor, with no family, no TV, no internet, none of my usual outlets. I read from the New Testament, called Kathleen, and finally fell asleep.
The next day, I felt better.
One last hurrah in Utah. I’m lucky enough to have found friends who like the remote places in Utah as much as I do. Yesterday I went out with Jim to roam around in the deserts of Western Utah. I love the House Range in particular. It’s got the formidable Notch Peak, one of the highest cliffs in the world and one of the most staggering views I’ve gotten from a summit. It has Wheeler Shale, which means great fossil beds. It’s miles from anything, which means you’re usually alone with just the sound of the wind in your ears and the occasional Air Force presence overhead.
We headed for U-Dig fossils, which is run by a very nice old man and his two dogs. It’s a pay site, but there’s the advantage of them pointing you right to good layers of shale and having it broken up in advance with some heavy machinery. It makes finding fossils very rewarding; I estimate we found more than 50 nice trilobites.
After spending a couple of hours breaking up layers of Wheeler Shale, we took our haul and hit one of the long, lonely, gravel roads. We drove along the east side of the House Range, with the Drum Mountains to the east of us. One thing I expect to miss when I leave Utah is the long sight lines.
Topaz Mountain is open to rock hounds, provided they use hand tools only to extract the crystals. The best rhyolite formations are higher up in the canyons west of the main dig sites. We parked and climbed about 300 feet up, but weren’t having a lot of luck breaking up the rock. After about an hour I started back down, but just about that time Jim found a nice pocket and gathered up some topaz. Below is the view from the spot we were working.
I will miss the hundred-mile vistas. I’ll miss the dry, harsh desert. I’ll miss being the only one on the long dirt road. Nothing gold can stay.
I think almost everyone who reads this blog already knows about our upcoming move, but there may be a few who we we don’t see often and don’t use facebook so for those few, here’s our official announcement: We’re moving from Orem, UT to Knoxville, TN.
When Zach first suggested taking a job out of state,
I was VERY opposed to the idea. I thought we would probably spend the rest of our lives here in Utah, perhaps even in this house. Of all the things I’ve come to love about Utah, living so close to my in-laws has been the absolute best and I will sorely miss living so close to them.
As the job interviews started to come, I couldn’t help but feel blessed at the number of good opportunities that Zach had available to him. We had been praying for months for a way to increase our income and improve our financial situation. I expected the answer to our prayers to keep us here, but at one point, Zach was in various stages of the interview process with 7 different companies in 6 different states and not one of them was in Utah. It took a couple of weeks for me to be ok with the idea of moving, but before long I found that my mind had been changed and I knew that a move was inevitable and I somehow found myself ok with the idea.
The next step was selecting the best job opportunity and though the process only took a month or two, it seemed to take forever. I was pleased when the decision was finally made that he would work for Jewelry TV in Knoxville, TN. Of all the cities that he interviewed in, Knoxville was my top choice. I have fond memories of Knoxville because it’s where my grandmother lived. I spent every Christmas there and a week out of each summer there for my entire childhood. It’s within driving distance of my parents and I have some extended family in the area as well.
This weekend I’ll be driving to Knoxville, Tennessee. I’ll be starting a new job, finding a new home, and making a new start.
I have mixed feelings about this change. I’m a Utah boy; I’ve sweated my way to the tops of the mountains, raced up and down the canyons, listened to the wind blowing over the deserts, and knelt in the temples. I’ve raged at the lingering winters and rejoiced in the lingering autumns. I sat on a hill in the first green of spring and watched rainstorms blow across the lake. In summer, I’ve baked happily in the dry furnace heat.
Utah was the base for my adventures. I’ve taken the roads in all directions. In old station wagons I’ve spiraled out to all the great Western cities and down the whole length of the Pacific coast. I’ve seen the Sangre de Cristo mountains and driven up Going-to-the-Sun Road. All these wonders are only a hard day’s drive from the cradle.
I can’t count the times I’ve come home over one of the passes to the sea of warm lights nestled in the valley by the lake. Every wanderer loves the trail home.
I tried once before to start fresh in a new place. After Superdell fired me, I went to Ohio and tried to sell computers. After six miserable months, I came home in worse shape than before. This time, I’m going on my own terms. I have a job at a good company. I have skills and experience.
My ancestors gathered to Utah to build Zion. From this cradle of strength, maybe it’s only fitting we go back out to bring Zion to the rest of the world.
On the way to the store 
last night, Isaac noticed a flag at half-mast and asked why the flag was hanging down. I explained to him that people fly the flag that way when someone dies, but that I didn’t know who they were honoring. He thought for a few moments and then announced that if we didn’t have any food, he would fly the flag at half-mast to tell everyone we were out of food. I told him that people don’t fly flags low to say they need more food. His next idea is that we could make a special flag to fly low when trains are on fire.
We’ve had Grandpa Bird in town, and so we thought it would be fun to have an adventure together. The last few times Grandpa Bird has visited, I’ve dragged him through Utah’s exotic deserts. I thought it would be a nice change to go to the mountains this time.
Normally I like to avoid crowds, so I stay away from the mountains and national parks when it’s a holiday. This was really our only chance to go, though, so off we went. It was Oktoberfest at Snowbird as well, so there were longer lines and some crowds, but nothing too bad.
Isaac noticed the alpine slide right away, so I went ahead and got a ticket since we were having a day out. He enjoyed riding the chairlift to the top, and after a bit of a wait in line, we raced on down.
After this we were ready for some lunch. Grandpa Bird treated us to some sausages and sauerkraut, along with German potato salad and potato pancakes. We listened to a silly little Bavarian band while we ate.
We’d planned to go to Snowbird for the tram ride to the top of Hidden Peak. It’s the easiest way to get to 11,000 feet in Utah, and is certainly the easiest peak I’ve done this year.
At the top, Isaac was full of excited questions about the tram:
After a few minutes walking around the peak and taking pictures, Isaac declared he missed his sister. “Which one?†I asked. “Both of them!†he replied. So we went back down and headed home.
It was a fun excursion, and great to have Grandpa Bird and Heidi along. More pictures below.
I don’t have anything really funny or inspiring to write. . .but I am very excited about a great 
deal I got yesterday.
Getting a good deal on something always makes me happy, but the icing on the cake is when I go out with the express purpose of purchasing a specific item and I get a good deal on that item.
So I was thrilled yesterday when I went out to buy some BYU clothes for the kids to celebrate the kick-off of BYU foot ball and found these outfits for just $3.00 each! Yes, you may all tell me how much I rock ;) GO COUGARS!!!
When I picked Isaac up from school he didn’t say much at first, but as we walked home he 
started telling me bits and pieces of his day and by the time we got home, he was very eager to tell me more and more of the details. He was especially eager to read some books for his reading log. He ran into his room and came back with two books on machines. Both books were not beginner reading books, but he was determined to read from them. I helped him with the words he didn’t know and we read a few lines in each book together. He was very excited about his reading and wanted me to write down each word that he had read and then talked about how amazed his teacher would be with his reading.
I walked Isaac to school this morning for his first day. 
Charlotte came with us and held his hand as we headed off to school. As he walked, Isaac turned to Charlotte and said “I love you, Charlotte†to which Charlotte replied “I love you too, Isaac.â€
At school he lined up right behind his best friend Sam Kelson. I was glad he had a friend in his class to help him get over his shyness. When they walked into the school, each time the line would lag a little bit, Sam would reach back and take Isaac’s hand to pull him forward.
As you might have guessed, I did cry a few times, but I’m not worried about him. I’m excited for him to begin this adventure and I can’t wait to hear about his day. I think I might be a little more nervous for him if it wasn’t for his friend Sam. I know that with Sam there he won’t get too lonely or scared.
Isaac has been really interested in going bowling since he saw the icon for it in his 
magnetic calendar. The longer he had to wait, the more interested he became. He checked out books on bowling at the library which he chose as bedtime stories multiple times and talked about it periodically through the weeks it took us to get around to actually going. On the day of the big trip he saw a truck filled with tall skinny propane tanks and excitedly announced that the truck was filled with bowling things (because they looked like bowling pins to him).
On the way there and on the way back he excitedly intoned “Bowling is a fun sport?!†When we told him his score at the end he proclaimed himself the winner. To see a video of Isaac bowling, click here. To see Charlotte bowl, click here.
Ok, first of all, I have not felt any inspiration to blog lately so hopefully this post will end my 4 week hiatus and I will start blogging more often.
Isaac is a very creative boy. 
Often when we talk about events or other such things, he suggests we make a sign. On memorial day when I told him about my Grandma, he wanted to make a special sign for the yard to tell everyone that we were remembering Grandma O’Bryant. Today, he really wanted to make a sign to announce that Grandma Bunny was going home and he wouldn’t be diverted from his idea. He got the paper out, he found scraps of wood, attached the paper to the wood with tape, and asked me to write the words. He had taped the paper so that there were two flaps and on one he had me write “Grandma Bunny is leaving†and on the other one he asked for “Grandma Bunny is coming.†Next he found a scrap of wood with a pointed end and asked me to attach it to his sign. Once attached we had to find a spot in the yard and hammer it in. He is very proud of his sign, unfortunately the sun was in his eyes so I couldn’t get a great picture of him looking up—but you get the idea.
Today was my ultrasound and of course the big news is we’ll be having another girl. I’m always amazed at all the different things that they can see and measure and I can happily report that she passed every test and measurement. Our fourth child now holds the record for giving the doctor the hardest time and for providing us with the worst ultrasound pictures.
I was very impressed with this hike. One of the most beautiful places I’ve been. I think Deseret Peak and the surrounding wilderness area compare very favorably to Timpanogos.
I’m a little thrashed; due to a road closure and some “scenic†route choices, we wound up going about 17 miles today, gaining about 4500’. We were expecting about 8 miles and 3600’. Still a great day in the mountains.
Here’s a slideshow:
It turns out my assumption that Nicole is too short to climb into the bath was wrong. I’ve 
seen her along the edge of the bath lifting up her little leg up to climb in and she’s never even gotten close.
Yesterday, Charlotte had a bath in the middle of the day (she has been suddenly deciding that she’s dirty in the middle of the day). I was helping Isaac with something when I noticed Nicole wasn’t in the living room. As I started down the hall to locate her I heard Charlotte yell out “Mom, Nicole is in the bath†and sure enough there she was, fully dressed and happy as can be.
There’s some unspoken rule where you’re not allowed to say which of your children is your favorite or which of your siblings is your favorite—I guess I’m breaking that rule now. (I honestly couldn’t really say which kid is my favorite, but that’s a tangent).
Krista and I have been really good friends for most of our lives. We shared a single bed when we were kids, although now I can’t really remember when that started or why—she did have her own bed.
I had the kids make cards for their dad for father’s day. Basically, we make a little book and I ask the kids what it should say and then they draw and I label. Their books always make me laugh. To see the cards, click on the link below
There are some things that instantly remind me of a time or a place or a person. Today 
I was at the store and saw a box of ‘Danish Style Butter Cookies’ on sale and it instantly reminded me of my grandma O’Bryant. During Christmas time, she always had a tin full of these little cookies that looked much like this picture with the pleated cupcake style papers and stacks of shaped cookies. My favorites were the ones with the big pieces of sugar on top.
I also can’t see someone throw pizza dough in the air without thinking of my grandpa O’Bryant or smell lilies without thinking of grandma.
**Hey Cousins: Do any of you have a copy of that picture of grandpa in grandma’s kitchen throwing the pizza dough in the air? I also want pictures that show any part of grandma’s room, the red room, or the basement. I’m particularly interested in pictures of grandma’s ceramic painting tables or grandpa’s plane.