This Blog is the journal/scrapbook/photo album etc. that is all about my family and our lives together. Here is where family and friends (and anyone else too, I suppose) can keep up on what's happening with us Mannimals! COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED!! ;) Check back often as we'll respond to comments and make new posts as often as possible!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Lee Fong Park Folf Course in Weaverville, CA

I decided to try and surprise the fam and tell them that we were going on a day trip to check out a new course. Of course in our hurry to get out the door and on the way to get some food and to Weaverville (a few hours into the 299) I forgot to tell Athena to stop at the folf store so I could buy her a new driver (she lost hers during our last game). I tried making phone calls to find a place to try and stop on the way to the course or in Weaverville and Athena ran into a few stores to ask in Willow Creek but no luck! :( I did at least remember the camera and enough batteries to make sure we could get some pics our first time on the new course at least.
After we ate some pretty good food in Weaverville (Athena's burger was especially tasty) we made our way to the course and got our game going. I was worried the weather people had lied with some gray clouds over head but they ended up not dropping anything and keeping temperatures perfect for us. Athena tried to throw the first round with the discs she had but she has gotten too good and has too much spin/power now to throw the low speed discs. The only loaner disc I had was too high of a speed and so she decided to call it good and be the camera woman for the rest of the game when it got stuck in to top of a big tree.


Here is Mat part of the way into Hole 1. Several of the holes were long, low, and fairly technical.


Mat lining up his shot for eagle on 1.


:) This throw looks like it will be horrible and early and bomb to the left at this point, but with the spin turning it over it ends up past the hole on the right. I have been throwing with a little more spin/power myself lately (not as much improvement as Athena, but I am working on it :p) and there were a few times this day I over shot the hole and were I expected to end up.


Saving the par with a decent put back to the hole.


I can't believe how much better Mat has gotten this season too!! He's really getting that side-arm shot down.


Nice shot pal!


Eying the hole.


And time for the shot.


About the only time I grabbed the camera this trip was early on for these 2 pics. Nearly all the other and great pics in this post are Athena's camera work. ;)


And the throw is away!


Athena showing the line of site from disc to hole. There were a lot of trees and low ceilings here mixed with the challenging distance.



Trying to bomb this one up high, over, and around all the trees to fall in near the hole but it wasn't quite high enough. :(


Shooting under the trees from where my disc fell after it hit tree.


Another good eagle try from Mat to get it up to the hole.


Dad's turn but it's only a par saver.


And it's good! :)


Lots of elevation changes for the tees, holes, and several of the fairways, but nothing too bad and then all the hill/rock bunkers. It made it a fun game to have the course set up more like a golf course in those ways. This isn't even all the way back on the pad and that yellow speck is the hole.


An approach to another hole that is perched on a hill.


Excellent! :)


Mat's turn up the hill.


Athena's turn and my last pic of the day. NICE SHOT Bub!! The park looked like a pretty cool one. They had the built in amphitheater there on the hill and fairly new and well kept both the park and the folfing and the facilities there.


Break out a Great White! For the difficulty of the course I actually have a decent score and have at least saved several hard pars with 1 nice bird on the day. Avi had fun checking out the new course. She was so good and we were moving fast and so we ended up having time for 3 rounds of the 12 holes they have. Mat played almost the hole time and so we both got in over 30 holes in a good amount of time.


Mat for Birdie!


Can't remember for sure in the 36 holes I played but I believe this might have been this time on this whole I got the bird.


Me and my boy!! This hole was crazy because you had to drive from up on the hill and send your disc hurtling right at the parking lot to end up coming back left a little at the end and the hole was only about 15 feet maybe from the lot.


Our little folf angel! Athena was walking and Avi was in motion both when she took this pic.



At one end of the course was some private property where someone lived. They had horses and cows and at least one donkey! We took a break and fed the horse for a bit. He was a good horse and Mat had fun pulling up stuff for him and feeding it to him (actually it was a her).


Here comes sunset just in time to play the last few holes of round 3. Mat throws a bomb towards the hole and into the sunset. :)


Oh yeah it was this round I hit the bird on that hole! ;)


Last pic of the day and Athena catches the bird in flight! :) I can't wait to play this one again sometime.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

May 2007 Utah Trip

We were able to get ready for our trip early for the first time and so we decided to use Memorial Weekend as part of it so Athena could get the extra day off work and we could stay longer. This was our most successful packing/getting ready and our most successful trip back to UT so far. Athena has been taking more pictures lately so there are many (and some INCREDIBLE) ones that she got on this trip. We took off in the early afternoon and Athena pulled some of her usual power-driving and we drove all night until we got to UT.


The sun is just starting to come up as we cruise through eastern Nevada.



It's official. It's been an all nighter and the day has come. A few more hours driving and we'll be at Athena's parents to recover some before heading up to our camp at Jordanelle.


Athena took almost every picture this first night up there. There are some crazy ones in the mix from trying to use the night setting on the camera. This one's a ghostie pic of Nick.


I didn't have nearly the beer this trip as in trips past. :p I think everyone gets caught with beers in hand this trip more than me except Tom. LOL Of course some of the days with little or no beer I still had a few nips of my Gin and Chronic (trademarked). ;) Of course I shared but you'll never know who sampled. Could have been anyone from my Athena to that fine upstanding fellow Tom to anyone else around...


I believe this bust up was due to the comic stylings of Tom. Hard to be sure since there was LOTS of laughing that night. :)





Some wild camp fire pics and I can't tell who is breathing flames in this last one but I think it might be me.



I took the last couple to get either side of the fire and all the peeps from that night.





Avi ran out of steam. She did awesome and made it really easy going camping up there.


It's the next morning (well it's late morning anyway since some of us were a little haggard from the debauchery the night before).


Once we finally all had gotten going for the day we decided to bust out the portable folf basket Athena got me and do some putting practice and throw a few made up holes.



Aviendha had a fun time playing in the grass and blowing the weeds.


I made up a quick course setup for around the world to start. Looks like Tom is moving on to the next spot when this one goes in. :)



ROFL! Such an adorable and funny little girl! She's Dad's little sweetie!


We all were sucking badly at the around the world and finally decided to create a few par 3 holes to play instead.


Quite possibly the ugliest picture ever taken of me. :0 Am I taking a shit or throwing a disc?!


Now that looks much more like folfing than pooping. :)


High Five!


Athena, tinkering with the camera if not the ipod. ;)


I don't think many of us ever fully recovered from the fun the first night. These are from just relaxing around camp deciding whether to fish or what.


Hahaha, lots of times Avi will get mad at the sun in her eyes. This time she just squinted cutely.


Athena making us up the nights batch of Pot Chocolates (trademarked).


Looks like not everyone is too sure about this. ;)


Jenny arrived that evening. It seemed like Jenny and Steve had a fun time and were doing lots of talking. :) It was great to have gotten us all up there for some good times!


Avi makes a new friend. :)


They spent awhile playing that afternoon and Avi was laughing and having fun.



"I want Tom's chair!" LOL if Tom wasn't sitting in it, it was the first chair most people were trying for.


Rod pulled the silent disappearing act a bunch of times. One minute he would be there and the next he would be gone. He may or may not be right back. One evening he disappeared only to return to hang out with me right before dousing the fire around 3 in the morning. :)


The last pictures were from bumming/dozing around camp before we were all ready to try some fishing. You look too clean to be camping, Nick. :p


To the reservoir.


Sure I let Wagner use my pole for a sec and its a tangled mess! Actually the line on that pole was really old and shitty and kept messing with all of us.


I think fish must be afraid of beauty because none of us even got a bite with this fisherwoman on the shore.


Back from the fishing failure to do some dinner and hanging out. (We were hoping and I was REALLY hoping to have caught at least a fish or 3 to cook up for dinner!) It sure was GREAT getting to see a lot of Nick this last trip. We spent a lot of good time talking and having a bunch of fun!


The leaves on the trees were really trippy when the wind got blowing them all at once. Several of us were reminded of trippin in the old days. This picture however is extra trippy!


I stayed up partying all night our last night in camp. When the sun came up I started to get our camp all cleaned up and towards the very end (it was damn messy) I got bored and mischievous. Tom had left out the last of his eggs the night before and I found them under the picnic table in the morning. Since I could hear Tom stirring I knew he'd be out soon so I laid him a little trail of egg knowing he'd have to step on at least one! :)


Good Morning!


And SPLAT! I just missed him stepping on it while waiting for the camera to get ready for another pic from the last one. The crazy part is that Tom was up and in such a hurry to get going that he didn't even notice the eggs or the splat! I cleaned up the mess while he was off trying to locate a cart to pack his stuff up and had to go pass out before he made it back to camp so I could laugh and show him the pics.


This is at Granny Mann's house! This trip we were able to make it over for a good little visit 1 evening. She is my Dad's, Mom.


Granny is a character! In many ways she and I are alike. I was glad we got over there and we'll have to stop by again next time.


She was VERY excited to see Mat and have him give her hugs!


Friggin Aviendha! The cutest little monster ever!!


Don't leave your sun-glasses there Nick. Nick and Tom are the same in that they are fully capable of leaving a trail of all their stuff behind them throughout a day.


Off to the new water park in N. Ogden.


It was all kiddie stuff so I just got my feet wet and took lots of pictures.



Hmm...what's cuter to me...? The little girl wins but the legs to the right are a close 2nd. ;)




Avi had a pretty good time but was more concerned with walking around and looking at everything than playing in the water.


Mat on the other hand was off to the races and playing so much it took all of us to even keep an eye on him.




I'll leave you all to write the caption for this one. :)


Avi trying to steal a ball from the people next to us.


Avi and her cousins.



Toward the end Mat was alternating hitting the slide and playing spray the girls!



Grandma Maggie coming down the only adult slide they had. To slow and small for me to put the camera away and get wet. :)


Athena's turn!


One of the hotter things I have been privileged enough to see. Swimsuit model type stuff watching her come up out of the water...just not the fastest camera work to catch it all. ;)




The last 3 were some pics from the fun we were having at Craig and Debbie's that evening.




OK, this next group of pictures is FANTASTIC! Athena took all these next shots while Nick and I were battling it out in a 44-Hole official PDGA tournament. Especially the next 2 pics! They are probably the best that either of us has ever taken of the kids!! The lighting was excellent and between that and the expressions and Athena's camera angles they turned out surreal (especially at full size). Way to go Bub!!





My handsome big buddy!


And my adorable little angel!



ROFL! I've NEVER seen a dog smile like Harley was smiling this trip to be back with Grandma (Mom to him now). He was grinning so big from ear to ear a couple times he couldn't even see because his eyes where forced into such a squint!


Athena and I knew from our first trip out there with him that he would be perfect for Debbie!



Kisses for Grandma, Avi!


Craig cooked us up a fine meal for one of the evenings we spent together. It was delicious and just what we needed after too much eating out!


Sara and Cadence stopped over for a visit that afternoon.








Athena got a bunch of cute ones there too.


Our last Saturday there (we left Sunday evening). We threw a big party at Rods house and lots of the peeps were able to make it. It was good to see Robbie when he was able to swing over for a bit. Maybe next time we can get to see Regina and the kids too. Athena, it's way to early to get that trashed and that's a little too big to drink Eric! :)


Athena got a pic of Vanessa here. We got to see Jourdan and Vanessa a few times this trip like usual which was nice. Steph Dickerson and Alisha Ward both stopped by at Rods this night too and it was great to get to see them even if it was short. Next time we come we will have to all get together and let the babies play!


LOL Eventually it was a race to see who could keep upright in their chair and not pass out Me or Wagner. She was looking pretty tired that night and I was at the wall that not many people have ever seen me hit of fatigue to near full on delirium. I was having a great time though and I was still OK at this point.


Still doing ok, but when the power of this puffin tuff wore off I was DONE FOR!!


Tom you silly bastard!


Athena did more conserving of energy (and no 44-hole tournament in 90+ degree weather with heaps of Gin and Chronic) and was ready to party fools into the ground this last night! ;) You can't see it in this pic but Athena is wearing a super-cool and hot Alex Grey top. Oh yeah she did wear it to Coachella too if anyone wants to check it out. Alex Grey has some pretty nice artwork he's put to clothes.


Don't let Jenny see you take the pic or you get the faces. :)


Hahahaha... and here I am at the Wall and my tank well past empty! I have done all I can and I can do no more (I was trying not to fall out of my chair asleep)!! Shortly after this I stumbled into our tent and passed out until I woke up sick for a few minutes 3 hours or so later when it was just Athena, Jenny, and Steve still partying it up (I think). When we woke up Jenny and Steve had pulled an all nighter and were supposed to be heading to Lagoon that afternoon (not sure if they made it, lol).


Sunday afternoon and I am getting the car all packed up (with some help but I like to do the actual packing of the car myself) while everyone hangs out a little longer and gets ready to say our hard to say good-byes! We're sure going to miss all the fun and the people we spent time with until we get back to do it again A.S.A.P.!

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