Into Thin Air

I have been bribing Dallin for months now with a trip to the climbing gym and I finally made good on the offer. Thanks to our friend Bree we were able to get in for free and she also took these awesome pictures. Thanks Bree.
Dallin after his first climb which he topped out on with just a very little amount of help.
One of the things I was worried about was that Dallin would get scared of the height and freeze up and not let go to come down on belay. This fortunately proved to not be an issue. Dallin actually let his competitive side get the best of him. He climbed this route because he wanted to race a college aged girl to the top. He lost, but it was close.
This route was especially fun, as you can see it has a rather difficult overhang which at first intimidated Dallin to where he did not want to try. After watching dad try and fail and then Bree succeed Dallin had to defend the Rust family honor, Dallin almost made it to the top. During that climb he discovered his favorite part of climbing, using dad as a haul monkey. Dallin made me hoist him up he last 40 feet or so. So worth it.

Day 5

I have two points to make with this post:
1. I married the most amazing woman on earth.
2. My kids have the greatest mom on earth.
Julie decided that the boys should have an advent calendar this year and that it should have activities along with candy for each day. Today our activity was pin a nose on frosty the snow man, as you can see Dallin loved it. This is day five and Julie has done four other activities we have 19 left.
I am constantly amazed by Julie and what she does for our boys, it is all I can do to keep up with her and her crazy plans.

Julie Finally Graduated from BYU

We are so proud of Julie for this great accomplishment, it was a long time coming but she finally did it. Julie you are such a good example to the boys.
This was the turn out for the big event, unfortunately some of the girls just couldn't make it while the younger ones would have been bored out of their minds and instead joined us for dinner only. Eric had a commitment elsewhere and was unable to see Julie walk, I just hope he doesn't have to miss any other big events down the road. But most importantly, don't mom and dad look great they haven't aged a day.
Those darn hats just won't stay on some times, even with the help of bobby pins.
Man we look good that new diet and those skin care treatments have worked as advertised we seriously look seven years younger. Well, all Julie has left at this point in our lives is her internship hooray for us.

But Firefighters are Much Cooler

So if you ask Dallin what he wants to be you can get literally hundreds of answers, but most often it will be one of two things. A firefighter or a police officer. To be honest it bugs me when he brings up the cop thing, don't get me wrong I love police officers and am grateful for what they do. But there is a thing (call it sibling rivalry) between cops and firefighters where we like to pick on each other and complain about how stupid and easy there job is compared to ours. But we don't like it too much when others complain about them and we stand up for each other by telling the offending party they are full of it and don't understand.
So needles to say I am overly pleased when Dallin receives new police toys and uniform pieces like this lovely number. And I do everything I can to explain why fire is better than P.D. and that he should go get his turn out gear on instead. For the life of me though I can't figure out where he gets this desire, I was a firefighter and I work at the fire school I don't do P.D. stuff.
Well the following picture helped me understand a little bit better.


Dallin I guess it is my fault and I will never forgive myself.

Guy Would be Proud

Like many of you out there, Julie and I love to watch Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives on the Food Network with Guy Fieri. We have made it our goal to eat at all of the establishments he has eaten at in Utah, which isn't that hard since there are only seven. Well, in 3 years we have eaten at two. Moochie's was our second triple D establishment.
Waiting!
Enjoying some Sprite but still waiting!!
Served, the boys got delicious spaghetti and meatballs, which they were happy to eat.Dallin really liked the meatballs.

He wasn't alone, the meatbal sub was amazing as it is one of their two specialties. The other sandwich they are known for is their Philly cheese steak. I have to tell you I have eaten many Philly steaks in my life and this was like nothing I have ever tried. The sandwich was about a million times better. In fact it was so good that I have given up making my special Philly steak sandwich because there is no point. I can never go back now that I have had Moochie's and no I am not being dramatic it was really that good. If you don't believe me ask Julie, for some reason people tend to trust her more than me, whatever. Please try Moochie's! It is well worth the drive to SLC and yes the establishment is a little worse for the wear but the people are nice and the food was outstanding.

From the Mouth of Babes

So, I need to share some of the things that Dallin has recently shared with our family. Not to brag, but to prepare those of you with younger ones or none ones, or to remind those of you with bigger ones.
1. The previous post talks about how Dallin was ill on our last road trip. Well, one thing it doesn't share is that in our family Sprite is a strong and effective elixir that we purchase for us and our children when we have upset stomachs (no idea how this got started but I received the Sprite therapy from my mother as far back as I can remember). Soda is a rarity in our family so that our kids relish the times they get soda even if they are deathly ill. Well, this picture was taken during a BBQ about ten minutes up the canyon from our house and on the road home there is a gas station that we purchased said Sprite from on our last disease ridden road trip. So on our ride home Dallin pointed out the service station as it came into view and said" Mom, Dad my tummy hurts we better stop at the gas station and get me a Sprite so I can feel better".

2. For FHE last week, we studied Nephi and when his brothers tried to attack him, Nephi's defense was to hold out his hand and shock his brothers with the spirit of the lord. So the next day, Dallin was playing with grandma who was trying to put him in jail. Dallin put forth his hand and warned grandma that he would shock her with the priesthood.

3.When I asked Dallin if he needed any more food for dinner he informed me that " I am full to the brim daddy".

4.So a while ago, Dallin told his Grandma Rust that she was "full of crap". Not our proudest moment to be sure but hard not to laugh about. So we were telling this story to some of our friends when Dallin not to be out done said " mommy you are full of milk for baby"

5.As many may know Preston has a hard time sleeping through the night. So, I went to Dallin for some counsel. I asked "Dallin why doesn't brother like to sleep?" Dallin responded " baby just wants to play in the pool all day dad and can't wait all night." So I asked " then why didn't you sleep very well when you were a baby?" Dallin ponder for a moment and then in his grown up voice responded " daddy I just wanted to play in the lake all day long and didn't want to wait all night".

6.Dallin came in the room Friday night to help me get over my sickness and he had his doctors bag with him, in it he had a stethoscope, syringe, B.P. cuff, mega bubble wand, cell phone, and gun. I was confused about the gun and asked him what the gun was used for. Dallin shocked me when he said " if people don't hold still then I shoot them till they hold still". Then, thinking I should cool things down I asked Dr. Dallin what the phone was for and he again surprised when he stated " if shooting people doesn't make them hold still then I call the police men and they shoot them for me until they hold still".

The Cabin Where Lives Are Changed

This look says it all, about three days before leaving for the cabin Preston started throwing up for no reason. He threw up nine or ten times that day and the next day was all back to normal. Dallin showed no signs of being sick, so we thought we had dodged the bullet. The morning we left for the cabin, Julie was awakened by Dallin throwing up all over her. We decided to still go to the cabin and hoped that it would work out. Poor Dallin threw up probably eight more times on the drive up to the cabin. The very next day Dallin was no longer sick and was good to go, so we thought that would be the end of it. Sadly Dallin gave his bug to everyone in the cabin and Aunt Amy was nice enough to share her cold with our family so we didn't leave without taking something home. We apologize to all family members and hope that you will still visit with us, especially dad.
Moving on, this cabin trip was awesome and for many different reasons. Something that was unique to this trip was our shooting outing because Aunt Beth went. Beth has never been shooting before and she and I have had several lengthy talks about guns where Beth expressed her dislike and fear for them and I my love and admiration for them. So I wrongly assumed shooting with Beth would never happen. However Beth surprised me by agreeing to go with us and shoot. I am very proud of Beth, not only was she a natural shooter with great potential but she stepped out of her comfort zone and tried something that was new and scary. Congrats Beth.
Look every one gets excited to shoot. Amy was delirious with excitement.
Dallin is now a shooting fixture and I assume he will go along from now on. Which is how I prefer it. Before long we will have our own little S.W.A.T. team.
Dallin dressed for success.
Dallin really liked the cowboy gun, but it is a little too big for his hands. If only some loving grandparent would buy this boy a gun that fights his hands so we can start earning scholarship money.
So a lot of people think that I am the funny silly one in the family, well world meet Julie. I love the person she becomes when we are around her family.
The good news, Amy did not cause any injuries to me this time. The bad news is she is still a little to small for this rifle. Regardless she was able to hit the targets with ease.
Julie, all I can say is I married the right girl. Not only does she let me buy these, sometimes ridiculously expensive guns she also shoots them with me.
My little operator.
At the cabin we try to do as many dangerous things as possible (fact: none of the activities we engage in are dangerous if done responsibly by competent individuals, but unfortunately the world is full of idiots who don't know what they are doing and get hurt and give the activities a bad rap) so of course next on the plate was motorcycle riding with grandpa Farmer.
Notice the perfect form.
Notice the screaming, Dallin has always had a special love for his grandfathers not that he doesn't love his grandmas but he just prefers playing with the guys. So to be able to do something this fun with grandpa is even better.
Dallin either forgot or didn't want to turn for the perfect photo.
Preston is a little small for the motorcycles so instead we presented him with a drowning hazard. The boy loves the water regardless of the temperature of the air outside or the body of water itself.
Grandma helping Dallin to enjoy one her favorite activities at the cabin, and as long as you aren't fishing in the canoe on a Sunday perfectly safe.
This was fun, Preston did not understand the point of being in the water but dry. He did his best to rectify the situation but Julie was able to hold on. Although it caused us to nearly capsize several times.
Bed time another fun part of cabin life with the young ones.
Preston choose to stay up until eleven fun for us.

Camping Goes Best with an Aunt II

The easy part of camping is the first night where all you have to do is setup camp and cook dinner and light a fire and then finally go to bed. The hard part is the next day when you actually have to go do activities. We had no idea what we should do so we just drove north east on scenic highway 150 and it did not disappoint. We stopped here at Mirror lake to eat lunch and fish, the lake had great picnic areas and some easy to reach spots for fishing.
Preston loves the Camelback bottles, although I don't think he actually gets any fluid out of them. Camelback if you are listening, can you say baby model.
This was the stream running from the lake that goes by the picnic areas. Other than being beautiful, it also adds greatly to the wildlife in the form of very determined mosquitoes. Dallin is showing off a new pose not to be outdone by his brother.
We tried some fishing in the lake for about 20 minutes (a record for Dallin) with no luck, Dallin then discovered that fishing is much easier when the fish are dead in a shallow stream.
Preston he loves to drive and who am I to deny him.
On our drive back to Kamas we discovered this beautiful set of falls on the lower Provo River, they are the Lower Provo River falls. I highly recommend them the water is extremely cold but okay for wading.
The token family photo where only the parents are behaving.
Did I mention that Natalie is leaving and we will greatly miss her? Well, it is true. Anyways one nice thing about the falls is that there are I think three or four different falls so there is plenty to explore and keep every one happy and busy for hours.

Camping Goes Best with an Aunt

Julie and I have a goal to see as much of Utah as possible, and one of the ways we try to do this is by camping in different parts of the state. This time we went up by Kamas and camped next to the Provo river. It was amazing. Also, we had the chance to try out our new oven which worked great. Our next camping purchase is a tent trailer (only if we get enough donations, so make it happen people).
Dinner is always an adventure for us and the boys when we are away from home, and this picture demonstrates this point quite well. This is Preston's dinner table which worked alright. At least it prevented a fall from the bench.
Both of our children have an obsession with our sunglasses, I guess it could be worse.
Dallin loves to help bake, this time he and Aunt Natalie choose a peanut free dessert, brownies. Natalie is such a good role model, look at those white teeth.
Our children love to pretend they like certain things just to get our hopes up and then crush them. Example, Preston sitting on sleeping bags makes us think he will sleep. Maybe he will like the tent and bags and actually sleep tonight, that is until he wakes up at 1:00am and then 3:00 am and then again at 5:00 am at which point he has completely crushed any hope we had.
We both really like to sit.
Preston also enjoys playing with gas cans.
All three of the Rust boys like chopping wood with hatchets that are far to small for the task at hand.
Camping has changed, how much better would scouts have been with an iPod touch. Oh well my scoutmasters would have never allowed this to happen which is probably better anyway.
Dallin really does like to sleep in the tent. Sharing a tent with Dallin has actually proven to be one of my favorite things to do, and I am so excited for Preston to join us in the boys tent. Julie and Natalie shared the 6 man tent with Preston, thanks ladies.
Ode to Natalie, we are so blessed to have her in our family and even more blessed that she has lived so close to us for so long. Natalie moved to Provo 6 years ago to go to BYU and for two years lived by campus. The last two years of her college education she lived about 400 feet from our condo, and then she stayed with us over last summer until she got her place and job pinned down. Now she is leaving us for the big city and we can't think of anything more sad. She has truly been our sons second mother and they both love her so much, we will greatly miss her (yes I know it will only be SLC but it will still be hard on our family). Good thing we still have Janessa. Janessa perhaps you should not go home next summer.
I was really proud of my fire since we had logs that were far to big and a hatchet that was far to small. I was able to use the hugenormous logs and they burned literally for 18 hours what a fire.