It's a boy!

We had the "big" ultrasound yesterday and we are having a boy. Jacob is thrilled -- he told me that he wished really hard and his wish came true. Anna's response was more muted -- OK, she cried. But she recoved quickly and is excited to have a new baby brother. We let her buy him some clothes last night and that seemed to help.

Is it love?

Jayme and Kim were nice enough to watch the kids last week while Jen and I vacationed in San Francisco. As no good deed goes unpunished in this family, I thought I would share this picture of Kim and her man-friend. She accidentally left some pictures at our house so I naturally look through them and found Kim engaged (funny word play, eh?) in hugging a man!!! I -- like you -- was shocked and thought I would post the picture on our blog. The male offender is Chris, and Jacob likes him because he has "spikey hair." 

Running 173 miles

We've decided to create a team at Winder to run the Wasatch Back Relay, a 173 mile relay race from Logan to Park City, Utah (http://www.wasatchbackrelay.com). Our team consists of 12 people, and each will run 3 5-mile segments in a 18 hour period. I started training this week and my !@#$% hurts! The race is June 23 and 24th, so if Jen goes into labor early I may be saved by the bell....err, baby.

Ski lessons wrap-up

The kids completed ski lessons yesterday. It's amazing what they can learn in 5 weeks. Now they can snowplow through all the green runs and many of the blue. Jacob even took us down a mogul run on accident -- now the kids think they can "ski the bumps."

Injury report from ski lessons:
- Jacob ran into one tree. He ended up giving it a hug and kiss afterwards becuase he was sorry.
- Anna fell off the ski lift. It was at the beginning of the lift and she ended up catching herself by wrapping her arm around a pole -- they stopped the lift with Anna hanging about six feet off the ground. The lift operator held her feet as she let go, resulting in no physical damage to Anna, though we are still evaluating the emotional scars.
- Both kids decided to try to their luck on a jump. Jacob landed it (kind of) while Anna had a "Wide World of Sports"-like wipeout. She popped up afterwards and shouted with excitment, "DADDY, did you see my double sommersault?!?"
- And finally, Jen had a minor heart attack when I explained what happened after each lesson.

As for the race above -- Anna took Gold and Jacob Silver.

Skiing Lessons

The kids started skiing lessons this week. Upon arriving at the resort we were greeted by their instructor. His name is "Coach" (which made he highly suspicious), and he told me that the first day is mostly orientation and sometimes all they accomplish is a few snowball fights. So I pulled Coach aside and told him I did not sign the kids up for daycare, and if they were not skiing today that the kids and I would slash his tires. He looked at me like I was psycho -- and I assured him that I was -- and then said he'd do his best. I checked in on the kids throughout the day and they were skiing their little fannys off.

Jen cannot ski this year because she is w/ child, so I spent the day skiing alone. It was actually great -- I loaded my iPod with a bunch of songs I liked in high school and rocked out down the mountain. I was in the zone -- some guys tried to talk to me on the ski lift and I just pointed to the headphones. I was rad.

The best thing about the lessons is I get to spend the day with the kids doing something fun, and Jen gets a full day of rest. I'll take my camera next week and post some pictures.

What do I do for a living?

I called home from work today and my son answered the phone. He asked me how I was doing, and if I was "making good milk today." For the last few months he has asked me lots of questions about how I make milk, so today I decided to break the news to him that I actually do not make the milk. I told him that I manage people who make milk, drive it to people's homes, etc. He then asked "what does manage mean?" By this point my wife was on the phone and she tried to bring the conversation to my son's level, and told him that I was the boss. My son's reply was classic -- "Oh...so you don't do anything!" :-)

The Magic of Disney

This month we took our kids to Disneyland to celebrate their birthday. We spent two nights at the Disneyland Hotel and visited both parks. So why blog about Disneyland? Because their attention to detail and quality customer service is magic. Consider:


- Upon arriving at the hotel, the valet attendant noticed we were from Utah (becuase of our license plate -- attention to detail). He happened to be from Orem, and comp'd our parking.
- The Disneyland Hotel learned that it was our kids' birthday and gave each a special pin to wear inside the park. Throughout the day the Disney "cast members" noticed the pin and stopped to wish the kids a happy birthday. Even during the evening parade the Princesses stopped their march to talk to my daughter.
- My parents were with us and my father is in a wheelchair, which makes it difficult for him to navigate through restaurants, rides, etc. The cast members were very helpful and accomodating. There were a few times where the situation was not to our liking (i.e. table assignments), and at the first sign of frustration from us adjustments were made. Simply incredible customer service.
- We took the train that encircles the park, which at times passes through backlot areas -- parts of the park that are not part of the "stage. Even these areas felt like Disney -- clean, painted, fun. Thoughout the park, in the restaurants, in our hotel room, etc. etc. every detail was attended to. From the Mickey ear-shapped soap, pancakes, crown molding, wallpaper, faucet handles -- Disney is in a class by itself when it comes to living the brand. I need to find a way to re-create this type of environment at Winder.

So we had a great trip. On a side note, a friend told me about the pin trading that has taken off at the parks. The net net is you buy some pins and trade with Disney cast members and other park guests. He also told me that I could buy pins cheaply on eBay -- about $2 a piece vs. the $10 in the park. So we bough a set of pins on eBay and my kids had a blast trading in the park. You can see some of thier pins in the photo with Mary Poppins above.

Kids turn 5

The kids turned 5 today. They were sooooo excited. We had a mini party with the Clarks -- the big party will be this week at Disneyland!!

Christmas Pictures

We were too lazy this year to get Christmas pictures. I also have a chuckle each year when I get the pictures of families all dressed in matching clothes with the accompaning letter that brags about children and provides a travel log.

So we are rebelling this year -- no picture where we match like the Smurfs and no chest-thumping letter. Just a simple Merry Christmas card and this picture. This picture summarizes our activites in 2005 and was built using the collage feature in Picassa.

The kids

I am told a blog must have pictures. Here's a recent one of the kids. They are very excited about their birthday trip next week to Disneyland.

Welcome to my blog

Well -- it's time for the Dutton family to join the blogging craze. I am not really sure what we will write here, but I thought it would be fun to give blogging a try. I think the motivation is coming from a desire to keep a journal/family history (which I've been preaching to the 14 year olds that I teach in Sunday School), keep family updated in faraway places, and to find out more what blogging is all about.

Anyway, we'll see how this goes.