Colton Hits the Hardwood (Literally)

On Sunday, November 2 - Clackamas Community College was hosting a basketball jamboree. These were mini match-ups, just 20 minutes/running clock. Colton and the Clackamas crew had five games, and as the third one started up, Colton went down, hitting his face on the hardwood floor. He was a little slow to get up and shake it off, and a minute later the ref stopped the game, noting Colton was bleeding. So off Colton went for some medical attention (and his team still won the game). Cleaned up the blood, and some steri-strips to keep the cut closed, and Colton played the remaining two games. 

Afterward ... looking at the gash, it was decided that he probably needed stitches. Luckily, last year I'd done a little reconnaissance, contacting our medical insurance to find out what Colton should do if he needed to visit a doctor or urgent care out of state (it wasn't something I was able to easily search on the insurance website). I had the name/address of a couple local urgent care centers, and he had a copy of the insurance card, so Colton went and got five stitches.

Keaton bopped that same area when he was just a little guy, and Grayson managed a HUGE gash (the final pictures in the Interesting Injuries blog post from several years ago) ... but the eyebrow area, while apparently prone to injury, is also good at camouflaging any scarring. 

Here's the game ... it happens right about the 1:00 mark

https://youtu.be/3CugyLRVxvc

You can see all of Colton's games from his Sophomore year (post in progress).

Hopefully no additional injuries!

He got the stitches out a week later. Everything seems to be healing well. 

Blackham Bunch Quarterly Recap ~ Q3

 July, August, September ~ 2025

The third quarter of 2025 was full of activities ... basketball, pickleball, Zumba, races. We had the 4th of July (and 24th), an anniversary, some birthdays. A few getaways. Colton home for the summer then back to Oregon for his sophomore year. A move for Landon, and the addition of furry friends. Milkweed and monarchs.

• Races: Gray has been a little step crazy (Symphony competition) and he had one 62k day! He did multiple half-marathons, two triathlons, the "Rooster Ride" (100mile bike) and a 10k with Colton and Cooper. Coop also did his first half marathon.  
• Basketball: Cal had several men's leagues and tournaments going, and pulled Colton in to join while he was home for the summer. Colton did a few tournaments with his buddies too. In July we got the sad news that Colton's coach has passed away (he had been having some health issues, but still unexpected). 
• Landon's New Position/Location/Companions: LKL asked Landon if he'd consider a new position at the Spanish Fork location. To reduce the commute, he moved from his Midvale apartment to one in American Fork. With BlackhamBoy muscle and Gray's trailer, they got everything shifted. And if that wasn't enough change, add in a new roommate (Valentina) and two furry friends (kitty Sabrina and puppy Pedro). Valentina changed jobs too, so newness all around! Landon promised he's still commute to family gatherings and pickle ... and he has! 
• Work/School: All the guys have stayed busy at their respective jobs. There was a bit of a shake-up at Coop's work, which has increased his responsibility (and pay). He's also trained to drive a forklift in the warehouse. Coop's work/DLP also happily welcomed Colton back, instant full-time employment for him for the summer. Nice that the boys could carpool (which came in handy when we needed to get cars into the shop).  Colton got settled back in his apartment in Oregon and classes started at the end of September. Kate left her job and is pursuing a Masters at UVU.
• Getaways: Cal&Kate had a St. George getaway. Colton joined his girlfriend/her family in Vegas. Cal&Keaton had a Moab retreat with work/Camson, and Grayson had his own Moab retreat. Many of his races ended up being overnighters as well. 
• Holidays etc: For the 4th of July, several of us went to watch the West Jordan drone show. Landon and Valentina had been to one in Park City as well. Jen went to see the "Parade Preview" at the expo center. G&J had their 33rd anniversary, and we celebrated birthdays for Coop, Keaton and Landon. The five brothers raced go-karts, and we went out to Rodizio for dinner. Lots of birthday cake!
• Coop's Crew: A couple of Coop's friends got married, and Cooper had some luncheons and receptions. He and his buddies also gather virtually online for "Minecraft Monday" every other week. One of Coop's buddies came over to check out some of our old Gameboy supplies.
• Extended Family: Gray and Jen got out for a Westra dinner date with Mom&Dad and Scott&Amy. Grayson and Scott got out biking a time or two. Landon and Valentina joined Olivia for a dinner, and Olivia gathered all the nephews for a "Top Golf" night out. She also insisted on taking Colton out (with Haley and Coop) before he returned to Oregon. I'm thinking there was a haircut house call sometime this quarter too.
• Injuries/Illness & Repairs: Colton fell on his foot badly during one of his basketball games. He went into the Instacare just to make sure nothing was broken. That sidelined his activity for a couple of weeks.  Landon was sick enough that he went to the Instacare as well, and it was good he went as he needed an antibiotic to treat an infection. The stove in the kitchen has been having issues off and on ... the repair cost is $$$, but the stove has actually been working since the diagnosis, so fingers crossed that it continues. Colton's Charger failed emissions and we had to have it into the shop several times for fixes before it finally passed. New tires and a new windshield as well, and we hope it gets him through at least another year. 
• Iphone Upgrade: It was past due ... Jen finally upgraded her iphone. She no longer has a home button! It's nice that the process is so painless. Easy transfer!
• One Wheel/Unicycle: Fully joining in the "one wheel" community, Keaton added another vehicle to his stash ... a unicycle (not the bicycle type!)  He joins community rides with other enthusiasts and does a lot of solo rides and rides with friends. 
• Disk Golf: Colton got into disk golf while he was home this summer. There are several local courses and he and his friends hit several of them. He introduced it to Haley (she flew in at the end of the summer for a few days, then kept Colton company on the drive back to Oregon). 
• Super Saturday Sourdough: Jen was asked to teach a little class on sourdough for the stake "Super Saturday" ... it took some prep and energy, but was a good experience. A good trial a couple weeks before with niece Addie who came over for a lesson (and shared a picture of her first successful loaf shortly after). 
• Monarch! A flash of orange, an egg ... a little caterpillar, a chrysalis, and a beautiful butterfly. It was a monarch summer (the experience got its own blog post/write up).  

Ah summer ... pickleball every weekend, a growing garden, high A/C bills. Now comes the cooler weather, and Coop's fantasy football has started up, Colton's college basketball season will be starting up soon. What else will the final quarter of 2025 bring?

Here's one more "live" look at July, August and September ... One Second Style.

 

 July ~ https://youtu.be/kGOfhpZrSaU  

August ~ https://youtu.be/HeCgtAr0ef0  

September ~ https://youtu.be/Ty14kg3Iy34

Run Gray Run (even in the Rain)

 

Gray Black is a runner. He has a loop in Centerville from his Symphony Homes office and that's one of his routine runs. With his AppleWatch and Strava, he gets some fun feedback.  He started tracking this run November 2022 ... almost to 150 repeated runs!

Saturday, October 4, was one of the few "open" weekends for my half-marathon man. It was raining a lot, and I texted him (he'd headed North catching up on some work) that I was glad this rain hadn't happened last weekend (the half marathon he and Coop ran). But then I remembered Gray LIKES to run in the rain! And sure enough, he'd done a bigger run and did a little write up to me. It was eloquent enough, and with the Strava shares, felt like a built in blog post!

I had charted a big run up north and with the rain in the forecast was looking forward to giving it a go. After last week's disappointing half (for me) it was a chance to redeem myself, as if that is even a thing. I could see storm clouds in the west as I got to the office - some lightning. Up north I got prepped and on the run right around 6:00. Conditions were great - cool, not cold, no wind - few cars and pretty peaceful. As I reached mile 4 or so I could tell the storm had moved toward the east, where I was running. Some light rain began to build.

Within about 10 minutes the rain was in full swing - not torrential but very steady and pretty heavy. Soon a wind from the south was blowing. This would be a headwind for around mile 5 when my route turned to head back toward the office. I wish I had a camera that could show the conditions. It was something to see. None of this bothers me. The only thing that concerns me in a rainstorm is lightning. The odds are generally VERY slim at getting hit by lightning but it's still intimidating. I had one lightning strike seemingly directly above me at mile 5. There would be 3 or 4 other strikes that didn't seem particularly close like the first one. That was about it for lightning.

The rain began to ease around mile 7 or so though the wind kept steady, pushing against me. But I felt good. I wasn't gassing out. My legs kept their strength and didn't feel heavy. It was starting to lighten up around mile 7 or 8 and by mile 9 I turned back toward the north and the headwind was now a tailwind. Nice. Rolled back into the office feeling very content. 10.28 miles in all. Not a half but still a major run by my measurements. This might have been my favorite run of the year - it cycled from dark to light, from dry to rainy, from calm to windy - all in the same run. My body felt great. What a morning :)

 

It had stormed quite a bit the night before too ... lots of lightening. I know that is something that Keaton likes to catch on camera (A Little Look at Lightning) so I checked in with him to see if he'd taken any pictures during this storm. He had ...

Back to Clackamas ...

 

Colton's summer extended into September this year, but it was time to head back to Clackamas. To school, and basketball, and a little closer to his girlfriend (at least in the same state!) Haley had flown in to spend a few days in Utah, and then keep Colton company on the long drive back. They left early Wednesday morning on September 3 and arrived safely that night. 

Keeping in touch with a few texts, an email update (below, Sept20) and fun photos ...

Adjusting to life back in Oregon has been pretty easy, it was really nice not having to set up the room again and just being able to come back to the apartment right as we left it.

Haley met her mom and made it home, but hasn't been able to get back up to Oregon City since then as she's been pretty busy with working and getting ready to move herself to her house in Corvallis. I've still gone down to Lebanon a couple times, one time we went and watched her brother's football game, he's the head football coach at a high school called Scio. I'm heading back down to her house later today because we made little "boo" baskets for each other filled with little gifts. But I'll have to head back home early tomorrow morning because we have a workout with Coach Scott at 11:00, he's bringing up another group with lots of class of 26 kids and some returned missionaries.

Basketball's been going well, practices look a little different with Stamme running them. We have been going pretty hard everyday, and we have some new faces. Starting with the returners, there's Connor, Sam, Lincoln, Reggie, Jkari, Kobe, and Brooklynd. So no Nick, JB, or Miles. The new guys' names are, Jayden, Tremayne, Luke, Shea, Brody, Bailey, Jace, Warren, and Omar. Jayden and Tremayne are both from Vegas, they came and visited last spring. Luke is from Utah, came up with Coach Scott in the spring, although I never played against him in high school or anything. Shea and Brody are from local schools, Brody actually being from the same high school as Connor and redshirted last year at Portland CC. I'm thinking Jace, Bailey, Omar, and Warren are probably going to be redshirts this year. But I am liking how the team looks, Jayden and Tremayne are both really good and Tre especially since he is a good big man, about 6'6 and is actually pretty good in the post. Right now I would think the starting lineup would probably look like me, Jayden, Connor, Luke or Lincoln, then Tremayne at the center.

We went to Coach Weg's celebration of life last Saturday just at the college. There were lots of former players there so it was fun to see everyone. Gray even flew in from South Dakota. Vitaliy, Mason, Nick, JB, Miles all came as well. A bunch of us went and got tacos after, although I forgot to grab a picture.

Still a little over a week out from school starting, not looking forward to that. My only in-person class this term is going to be a lab on Thursday nights, similar to what I had last spring. That will be a fun class though since a bunch of us all got it together. I'm pretty sure it's me, Connor, Brody, Lincoln, Sam, and Brooklynd.

Men's Basketball (1 Credit)

General Accounting (3 Credits)

Principles of Microeconomics (4 credits)

Intro to Environmental Science + Lab (4 credits)

Elementary Statistics (4 credits)

 

It's been nice having extra time to get shots up outside of practice these few weeks.

I did apply to a few places to work but haven't heard back quite yet.

I had been trying to eat healthier this year, even counting all my calories and macros using this app that Steven showed me. I have kind of given up on the app already as it is kind of a hassle to always be inputting everything, but I am still making sure I'm eating better than I was last year. Not using my food stamps to just fill up my snack shelf again haha. Been eating lots of ground beef, but trying to make tastier meals with it. I've been commonly doing taco bowls and burger bowls. Usually at the beginning of the week I've been cooking up a batch of either chicken alfredo or stroganoff. I use a whole box of protein pasta when making them so they have a bit more protein in it. Although I couldn't find any protein egg noodles, so I just used rotini instead.

That's about all I have for now. I'll try and take some more selfies to send back haha. I love you!

 The basketball schedule is out ...

 I'm hoping I make it out to see some games this year ...

Last year, I kept a running record of Colton's Correspondence 2024-2025. I created a new page for this second year, and I'll and add any updates as they come along, attempting to include/copy some text conversations too ...  Colton's Clackamas Correspondence 2025-2026

Monarch Summer

I've posted about monarchs a couple of times before on the blog ...  Monarch Memories 2021 and Monarch Release 2019 .  We've kept milkweed and flowers in the yard in hopes of attracting the elusive orange winged beauties ... and it paid off again this year. 

The milkweed in the front yard (featured in the 2021 experience) would grow so large and ungainly, I wanted to eventually eliminate it. I'd shifted some seeds/starts to the backyard, as milkweed will also grow in shady, low-water conditions, where I don't have a lot of other plants. While we still had some of the milkweed in the front, we now had three patches in the backyard as well. 

I was sitting at my computer, positioned behind a window, looking into the backyard, when I saw a flash of orange ... I dropped what I was doing and grabbed my phone to double check (I had thought I'd seen a monarch earlier in the season, but it was so quick I hadn't been sure). But this time, I got photo proof, and happened to snap the shot right as Mrs. Monarch was laying an egg ...

There is some debate about "raising monarchs" in captivity ... but it's a wonderful experience, being able to see the amazing process close up, and 90% of eggs/caterpillars in the wild don't survive. We still had our enclosure from our experience a few years ago, so I pulled it from storage and brought the little egg into the house. Like the 2021 egg, if I hadn't SEEN it laid, I never would have found it on my own. So tiny!

We got to experience it all ... the emergence of the tiny caterpillar, the transformation into the chrysalis, the beautiful butterfly ...

It wasn't all without drama. I was a little worried the cooler temps in the house (I like my air conditioning) and thought Pilly might benefit from some natural exposure. I moved the enclosure out to the patio. I was sure to tell those who lived at home (Hubs, #4, #5) so that they wouldn't think something bad had happened, but #3 walked in without that info and exclaimed "oh no, Pilly! Where's Pilly?" I assured him Pilly was alright, just outside instead of on the kitchen table. But then ... Pilly was NOT in the enclosure. Really? There were a couple holes, but they were small. Of course Pilly was tiny, but still. There was a batch of milkweed three or four feet away, on the other side of the porch stairs, but that seemed like 1000 miles to a tiny caterpillar. No milkweed in any other direction. While I hoped maybe he'd somehow make it to the milkweed, I didn't hold out much hope. 

There was a family text thread following all things caterpillar ...

A few days later, I glanced at the milkweed by the back porch and ... there was Pilly! He'd grown, had eaten a few leaves, left behind little poop pellets (that's actually the first thing I noticed). It was close to chrysalis time, so I moved him back into the enclosure in the kitchen, so we could keep an eye on him. 

The whole family was over on August 31 (Keaton's birthday) when Pilly climbed to the side of the enclosure, right on the zipper (was he trying to get out again?) and formed the "J" ... I was trying to watch, as the transformation is pretty amazing, but I missed it. One look he was still a caterpillar, then next, he was a green blob. Still squirming, missed it by a minute! Over the next couple weeks the chrysalis continued it's transformation ... due to the placement in the enclosure, I wasn't able to get good pictures (and couldn't open it up either, good thing we only had one caterpillar in there, as I wasn't able to replace the milkweed). 

Friday, September 12, Keaton stopped by again and noticed that the chrysalis had darkened. He came over again Saturday morning, hoping to witness the emergence. He and Coop went to a movie and while they were gone ... it happened. I was home, peeking at the enclosure every time I walked into the kitchen. One time I glanced over, I saw a larger shape, newly emerged, wings still wet. Once he (I do think it was a male, dots on the wings) moved, I was able to put a couple flowers in just in case he wanted to feed, but mostly he was just recovering, getting fully filled out. Keaton came over the next morning again and we let him handle the release. 

While Pilly was in the chrysalis stage,  I was in the kitchen and again, I saw a flash of orange out the window! I ran outside, and we had a monarch visiting, and again, we got a single egg ...

... as our enclosure was  occupied, and we'd already been lucky enough to experience the monarch cycle, I decided we'd leave this egg in the wild, watching where we could. Unfortunately, the egg never hatched (non-fertilized?)

Will we see monarchs next summer?

Blackham Bunch Quarterly Recap ~ Q2

April, May, June ~ 2025

Another three months have gone by ... it's been an active quarter, with Grayson leading the way, both at Symphony (step challenge there at his work) and at home! Colton finished up his third term at Clackamas and came back to Utah for the summer. Some extended family gatherings and holidays (Easter/Mother'sDay/MemorialDay/Father'sDay, B-Days for Valentina and Kate, Graduation for Aiden, Lake Day) and some new foods added to the rotation (Eggs Benedict) and Keaton's new One Wheel made these months memorable!

• Clackamas Colton: The third term ended in June, and Colton achieved another 4.0. He trained with the track team, but only ended up running with them once, due to a strained his hamstring. There was Spring training with basketball, and he spent any spare time with his girlfriend, Haley. He (and Haley) drove the Charger home at the end of June. He'll be keeping the same apartment and roommates for next year. He will be working with Coop at DLP during the summer.
• Travel: Cal and Kate took a trip to Italy, and Landon and Valentina went to Portland. Both boys did little write-ups for Mom, so they have their own blog posts ;) 
• Grayson a Go-Go: Gray had been biking and running and winning the Symphony Summer Challenge! This quarter he did five half marathons and a 100mile bike ride. He's training for a triathlon too.  Sometimes we do get him to join us for pickleball.
• Other Family Fitness: Weekly pickleball. Jen plays with a ladies group during the week and gets in Zumba several times as well. Landon and Coop did a hike up Bell Canyon and Coop did a neighborhood 5k and actually challenges Gray on the winning step count. Cal has continued to get in some basketball games.
• Journeyman Status: Keaton has been studying and testing and passed the journeyman test.  After telling me some of the steps along the way, I asked him for a write up (here). 
• Coop - Concerts, Courts and Kittens: Coop went to a concert (Your Neighbors) and got invited to try some new pickleball courts (RonWoods) with some friends. He continued to play with random strangers after his buddy left, staying out late (as those courts have lights). The neighbor had kittens, and we got in a cuddle session before they left to their new homes. 
• Westra Family Gatherings: We had the grandparents over for dinner and games in May, and attended the annual Westra Father's Day shindig in June. Jen instigated a scheduled call to Mom, starting in May and they've been happening weekly since then.  Gray has gone biking with Scott a few times, and we had a double date for Chinese food. 
• Blackham Family Gatherings: After the Westra gathering in Highland, we stopped by the cemetery. We got together for a quick bite when Jami was in town in May, then again for Mother's Day, and again for a graduation BBQ for Aiden in June.   
• Derby! It's been a while (pre-Covid) but Grayson had been asked by a friend to run a Lego derby ... so Gray pulled out the derby stuff and legos (lego derby, not pinewood) and enlisted Landon to help. 
• Family Feasts: Lots of food ... we had the boys over for several of the NBA finals game  (steak, marinated chicken, salmon, burgers, nachos ...) and some big breakfasts where Grayson has been perfecting eggs benedict. We had Kate's parents over after pickleball for brunch one week.  Gray ordered more from licorice.com ... yummy!
• One Wheel: Keaton got a one-wheel, a motorized "skateboard" that can go fast and far between charges. He's been going to meet-ups and riding with other groupies, and riding a lot on his own (one bad tumble that scraped him up all along one side ... he does wear a helmet). There's an app to track achievements, speed, routes ...
• Yard & Garden: We've got vegetables (pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers) and tomatoes coming up in the garden, and quite a few flowers (marigolds, hollyhocks and the hibiscus). A little sharing garden with starts out by the Little Free Library. The neighbor was having some landscaping done, and we had her guys take out a tree and do some trimming, and add a border to two flowerbeds. 
• Lake Day! We got the whole crew out (including Colton's girlfriend Haley, in town for a visit). Jordanelle was the chosen reservoir, as they allow dogs, and Cal and Kate wanted to bring Vera (and were actually spending a couple days there camping). I need to get blog post with a write up and all the pictures. Fun day. 

Here's some LIVE ACTION, the One Second Every Day highlights ...

April 2025

https://youtu.be/7XlZCAlWpFc

May 2025

https://youtu.be/xri69vWfvcA?si=yvK0MnmlwIFhwPnb

June 2025

https://youtu.be/JgjFRl9sSe4?si=dLjDbIRfklWcSsNk

Parade Preview and Holiday Plans

The 24th of July ... what was on deck for the Blackham Bunch on this Utah holiday? Both Camson (Cal and Keaton) and DLP (Coop and Colton) had elected to work on Thursday, and have Friday off. Gray's work gave the day off ... but Grayson still went in ;) Landon had the day off and took off Friday as well for a little St. George getaway. My usual Thursday activity (pickleball with the ReliefSociety ladies in another stake) was cancelled for the holiday. 

There would be the usual Days of 47 Parade ... I don't really have an interest in watching that, but I have enjoyed checking out the floats up close in the annual Parade Preview at the air conditioned expo center in Sandy. We've hit it sporadically over the years, me, with a kid or two (2010, 2012) or at times all five boys and extended family (2011, 2017) and a couple of times just Gray and I (2014, 2013) and last year ... I just went by myself. And I did that again this year (after Zumba on Monday, July 21, just as it opened at 11:00, and already very busy!)

I think this QuickQuack car wash was one of the more popular ones, with people standing in line to receive the swag they were giving away (little "duck" blower whistles and sunglasses). 

I thought the taffy pull was cute - I have memories of pulling taffy in my younger years.

Some of the usual sponsors ...

Chick-fil-a, KSL, BYU as well as other Utah things, like Fry Sauce!

 

Cal and K8 Go to Italy

In May 2025, Cal and Kate had a vacation to Italy in the books.  They took a lot of pictures and Callahan even kept a journal to share with me, documenting their adventures.  You can read his recap below ...

Italy Trip, Rome/Positano/Naples

May 4 & 5 (Monday & Tuesday)

We flew out at 9pm from SLC to Amsterdam, connecting flight from Amsterdam to Rome. First flight was 9.5 hours, and the second flight was 2 hours with a 2 hour layover in between. We arrived in Rome around 7pm on Monday night so it was seemed almost like 24 hours of travel, but it was only around 14 hours because Rome is 8 hours ahead. After we took a taxi from the airport to our Air BnB, we wandered the streets a bit and got dinner. I got fettuccine Alfredo that was pretty good and Kate got a pesto pasta.

May 6 (Wednesday) 

We didn’t have anything set in stone this day because we wanted to walk around the city and get ourselves more acquainted. We started at Trevi Fountain, got some croissants and OJ right by it. This was around 8:30am, and it was already pretty busy. But we did walk by it again around noon and it was even more crowded. After Trevi, we walked to the Pantheon and stopped by a church along the way. The church buildings don’t do anything for me, but in a construction sense it is pretty amazing the detail in the paintings and the architecture in general. The church buildings generally spook me out more though. After that, we went to the Spanish Steps.

We went back to the AirBnB for a bit to chill, and take a nap. Then we went back out to a lot of the same sites to see them at night. We went to Osteria Da Fortunata for dinner, this was probably the best overall dinner of the trip. I got Fettuccine Ragu and Kate got the carbonara. Both dishes were very good, but for dessert we got a slice of cheesecake and it was so, so, so good! We went and got some gelato from Giolitti (my favorite gelato place that we tried) then walked back to Trevi Fountain to see it a night. It was very busy once again and they do small “light shows” every 15 minutes or so. We stayed and watch one light show, then went back to our AirBnB

May 7 (Thursday)

Before we started our tour for the Colosseum, Kate and I were walking around and a photographer asked if we wanted to do a free photoshoot (we could buy the pictures later if we wanted to) so we did that for 20 minutes before our tour.

Our tour guide had a pretty thick Irish accent which made it difficult to understand a lot of what he was saying. I think Kate was able to understand more, but I think I understood 50% or less of all the words out of his mouth lol. The Colosseum was pretty cool, it would’ve been a better experience if I understood the tour guide. Got gelato this night from Gold Ice, still very good but I thought Giolitti was slightly better. Most times I’m getting some sort of Carmel flavor for my gelato. (Later in the trip I got more fruity ones)

May 8 (Friday) 

We did a cooking class in Rome where we made 2 different pastas and tiramisu. There were 10 total people in the class, all spoke English but none of them were from the US. In pairs of two, we all made some dough for the pasta, just had to measure our flour and water and mix it together. All that dough got mixed together in the end and Chef Max cooked the pasta as we started to make the tiramisu. The ravioli was really good, and the spaghetti was dished up with a pesto sauce that we helped make as well.

Dinner at Roma Sparita, really good pasta in a parmesan bowl. We only got 1 and shared it, but we should each got our own because it was that good. We branched out and tried the grilled lamb chops as our 2nd dish to share, and that was a mistake. The lamb had no flavor and was charred along the whole exterior.

May 9 (Saturday) 

We checked out of our AirBnB in Rome and took a train to Naples. Kate booked this train a while ago, and it was a nice, comfortable ride. We had reserved seats, the seats were bigger than your standard airplane seats. Private car from Naples to Positano, our driver played “Ghetto” by Akon and then “No One” by Alicia Keys right after. Seems like a good start to this part of our trip. I’m glad I didn’t have to do any driving in Italy. These drivers are crazy. In busy areas it would be really difficult because there are so many pedestrians and motorcyclists, and they all kind do whatever they want and just trust that the cars won’t hit them lol. There were multiple moments on our car ride to Positano where Kate and I would look at each other after our driver did something sketchy.

The town is very walkable, road are very narrow and seems like the roads can get backed up easily because of pedestrians. Walking from our AirBnB, down to the beach was pretty easy and only took us about 10 minutes. It’s all downhill and/or down stairs. The walk back up to the AirBnB is slightly more difficult, but it just helped us get our steps in.

Positano and Naples are famous for their lemons and limoncello (alcohol). I don’t care too much to try the limoncello, but I am going to try the lemon sorbet dessert that they serve in a scooped out lemon. You can buy them at basically anywhere that serves food or snacks, and they are really good.

May 10 (Sunday)

We rented an umbrella and two loungers out by the beach of Positano and spent most of our day out there. They were rented for the whole day so we started by laying out in the sun for a few hours, we got in the water for a little bit once I was too hot. It was only high 60’s, low 70s our whole trip, but it felt very hot when the sun was out. The water in Positano was very cold so we weren’t in it long. I always forget how salty the ocean is, so once I put my head underwater I was ready to get out. Getting all that salt in your eyes and mouth is no fun.

We got lunch at a restaurant names Lulu’s and got some fish and chips. Everything in Positano is really expensive, but the fish and chips were only 14 Euros and they were pretty good. At this point we were pretty much over pasta and pizza. We ate our lunch by the beach and laid out in the sun some more. Kate really loves to lay out in the sun while on vacation which is fine with me. I thought I was going to get pretty sunburnt, but I think I put just enough sunscreen on.

We went to dinner at Restaurant Bruno and had an overpriced meal. (Everything in Positano is expensive unfortunately) For most dinners we have been sharing 3 different dishes, usually one appetizer and 2 other dishes. For the appetizer we got a chicken Caesar salad and for our other dishes we got gnocchi, then we got “Meat rolls, filled with cheese and an onion sauce.” The gnocchi was good, and the meat was fine but it didn’t have much flavor and 75% of the plate were onions. There were only 4 “rolls” of meat.

May 11 (Monday)

Got on a ferry at 9:30 to go to Capri. Ferry ride was about an hour, much smaller than the ferries we would ride in Seattle. We did a kayak tour of some caves along the island, at 11am. We were very late to our tour because the ferry arrived slightly late and we were waiting for a few other ferries to leave before we could dock.

Once we got off the boat we started walking to our kayak tour, which was on the other side of the island, lol. So our whole walk was up a bunch of stairs or walking up an incline, until we got close to the top, then we started going downhill and down a bunch of stairs to the beachfront on the other side of the island. It was quite a walk, and since we were already running late we were kinda stressed. I didn’t wear my Fitbit this day because I thought I’d forget to take it off when we did the kayak tour, but I’m wishing I wore it just to know the distance we walked.

We got to our tour about 25 minutes late, but it was no issue because only 2 other people signed up for the tour at this time. We knew the weather wasn’t going to be great, it showed clouds basically all day, but we were not expecting rain. We got out on the water in our kayak and the water wasn’t too cold so it seemed like it was going to be a good time. We saw 2 caves before it started raining. The ride back to the shore felt like forever because it was raining pretty good and we were freezing lol. Once we got back to the shore we dried off, but were still pretty cold. We did not prepare very well for the possibility of rain. We didn’t have any other plans in Capri and both of us were ready to go back to our AirBnB in Positano.

I’m writing my recap for this as we are on the ferry back to Positano and Kate is asleep next to me. I didn’t expect her to sleep on the way back because it’s kinda hard to sleep on a boat in my opinion. (And I’m a very good sleeper lol)

The NBA Playoffs have been going on the whole time we’ve been in Italy. The NBA makes it very difficult to watch games internationally. Even though I pay for YouTube TV, I can’t watch it when out of the US, which I didn’t know until I tried to watch games in Italy.

I found a bar in Positano that was streaming the Denver/OKC Game 4 and I stayed there the whole time to watch it lol. Italy is 8 hours ahead of SLC, so the game was going on at 1:30PM in Denver (and SLC) but it was 9:30pm for me. I was so happy when I stumbled upon that bar and was able to watch the full game.

May 12 (Tuesday)

Today we left Positano via our private driver at noon. We checked out of our AirBnB at 10 and spent our last two hours in Positano by the beach soaking up the sun. Our drive back to Naples was around an hour and a half. Hard to sleep in the car when driving out of Positano because the roads are so windy.

Naples was the city I was least impressed by, at least when comparing it to Rome and Positano. It just seemed gross, loud and busy all the time. Our AirBnB in Naples was pretty nice though. This was our first AirBnB to have Netflix which we were excited about. We weren’t able to relax and watch much tv at our last two AirBnBs.

Our first meal in Naples was a pizzeria that was very close by. Most of the pizza tasted the same to me and I wasn’t super happy with it. All of it was good, I was just expecting it to be better to be honest. After we ate, we explored the city a little bit, got some small desserts if we saw something that looked good. Kate got a cup that had sweet bread and chocolate in it, hoping to fill her chocolate craving but it did not, the top of the bread must’ve been soaked in some sort of liquor, so the whole thing was disgusting. I took one bite and was repulsed lol. We also sampled the famous “limoncello” alcohol this same night, and seriously just one sip of it made my stomach turn.

 ... an assortment of the edibles ;)

May 13 (Wednesday)

Today we took a train from Naples to Pompeii for a guided tour that started at noon. We got to the train station around 10am to get a ticket and make sure we knew where we were going. This train was much more crowded and less comfortable than the train we took from Rome to Naples. The train had far fewer seats, no reserved seating and was much more like a Subway. Kate and I had to stand for our whole ride, which was about 30-40 minutes.

We got to Pompeii a bit early so we ate at a restaurant right outside the train station. We both got a form of chicken sandwich (at this point I wanted something that wasn’t pizza or pasta) I thought it was pretty good.

Our tour guide for Pompeii was MUCH better than the one we had for the Colosseum in Rome. She still had a good Italian accent, but it was easier to understand than our previous guides Irish accent. Our guide’s name was Rosanna and she was very friendly and kept getting stopped or interrupted by other guides during our tour. It seemed like she knew people everywhere we stopped lol. She was very good at enunciating which made her easier to understand.

Once our tour was over, we wandered around Pompeii a little longer by ourselves, but at that point I was ready to get off my feet. We got back on the train and headed back to our AirBnB once again. Not much to say about this train ride, it was similar to the ride there. Train loaded with people, most of them are standing, lots of them have luggage with them. This train seemed to “stop and go” more than the last which frustrated a lot of the passengers.

Our final dinner was pizza, once again. I wanted to get something else, but didn’t have much luck looking at menu’s of restaurants that were close to our AirBnB. Kate was pretty happy with the pizza so I didn’t have an issue going one last time.

Then it was back to the AirBnB to pack up because our flight was at 6am the next morning. We had a taxi booked for 4am to take us to the airport for our long travel day home.

Keaton's Journeyman Journey

Keaton has been working as an apprentice electrician with Camson (and Callahan) and has been taking the classes and tests to move up to Journeyman status. That has two parts, residential Journeyman and Full Journeyman. Keaton had completed the necessary requirements for the first a while back, and had continued moving toward full status, studying for the exams, finishing up the hours and schooling.  He had some funny stories to tell as he wrapped it up these last few weeks, and I asked him to write it all up in his own words.  So here's Keaton's Journeyman journey ...

When I took the residential tests, I don’t think I was that nervous. Probably because I didn’t fully grasp how difficult the tests could be. Somehow I was able to pass all of them first try.

The practical was pretty easy. The 3 way / 4 way and doorbell were easy because I do those every day at work. The torque wrench was also easy because at that point in time, Cal and I had got our own torque wrenches to start using on equipment in the field. The only tricky one was the motor control / swamp cooler and that’s because it’s what I was least familiar with. Houses nowadays don’t have swamp coolers typically, but this is one of the only semi-complicated motors you would ever see in a house, so that’s why it was included on the test. But even that wasn’t that hard after looking up some YouTube videos.

Then I took the code test. Looking back, I should’ve scheduled the theory test and then the code test. I think theory is easier than code in general. That way the tests are being taken easiest to hardest, in hopes for a snowball effect. The code test is 80 questions in 180 minutes. Roughly 2 min and 15 seconds per question. That’s a tight window. Especially because, for each question, you have to find the answer in the book, so flipping through the pages takes some time, and you have to remember to use the correct formulas, look at exceptions, etc… I finished through to the 80th question and I had 30 minutes left, but I was unsure on about 20 questions. So I took the time to double check those and the rest of my answers, leaving me with 5 minutes left and 5 questions still “flagged.” I was able to find 1 more answer and then I submitted. They emailed me back the scores within a few minutes. 76%, 61/80 - barely passed.

Next was theory, scheduled a couple days later. Figured I’d want a day in between to let my brain relax. That backfired because my buddy Marko texted me saying it was the last day to take our midterm test for school. I definitely forgot about that. I had to revert my brain into everything I was learning at that time in school, which was way more specific than code and theory. So we took the test, aced it, and then the next day it was time for theory.

I didn’t know what to expect on theory because the topics were very vague. Unlike code, which tells you how many questions are on box fill, or grounding and bonding, or definitions and general requirements, the theory topics just said voltage, amperage, power, resistance, and voltage drop. I knew the equation for voltage drop so I wasn’t worried about that so much, but I didn’t know what kind of questions the other topics would be. Turns out I was worried for nothing, because most of those questions were basic ohms law or terminology questions. Either I knew the answer off the top of my head, or it was a very simple equation that I had memorized. I finished the theory tests with over an hour to spare, and I scored 94%, 57/60.

With that, the resi tests were over and I could relax again. 

That was almost a couple years, so fast forwarding to now where I had to take the full journeyman tests, I had quite a different testing experience. I was a lot more nervous this time around. Probably because I had taken the tests before, but also because I knew they were going to be harder. For the practical, I’ve got to bend two pieces of conduit and wire a motor control with a relay, neither of which I do at work. And for the code, I have to incorporate everything else I learned in third and fourth year. AND remember to change my formulas whenever they’re incorporating commercial wiring instead of residential. I didn’t think the theory test would be that different or that hard, seeing that I got a high score in the resi theory test. So I decided to take that first.

My full journeyman tests, there was a lot more things that happened. So get ready.

• CODE: Right before taking the test, I was super nervous. I shouldn’t have been, because I was feeling good on the topics, I knew I had crushed it before, and I studied, so everything should be fine. I got 10 questions in and I realized I severely overestimated this test. It was already way harder than the resi. I wasn’t even sure about half the questions at this point. I figured I wouldn’t finish an hour early this time, but whatever the question is, I’ll figure it out one way or another. I get to the end and I’m feeling a lot better. The first 10 questions were some of the harder ones. I go back and double check all my answers, figure out the equations for the ones I didn’t know, and submitted. This time, no response. I’ve heard sometimes it takes a little while for them to score it, so I just went to bed, very nervous. I was pretty confident I passed, probably not as high of a score as last time, but that’s okay. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw they sent my score. I couldn’t wait til later to see, so I opened it then. FAILED. That. Sucks. It was 2:00 in the morning and I felt like crap. I didn’t fall asleep for two more hours, and then I went to work. I was pretty depressed that morning, but also angry because the score they sent me didn’t actually tell me my score. Not a percentage, not a number out of 50. It should say that, so I called them that morning and asked if they could find my score and tell me. They said they’ll work on it and send me another email. So the day went on, and I was a sad boy, but then they emailed me back in the early afternoon. I figured it had my score on it, so I checked to see how bad I did. 88%, 44/50, PASS. It took me a second, but I quickly realized that it was a technical difficulty. That was my score, and I did actually pass. No more sad boy. That made my day. I had already told a couple people I failed, so I texted them back, “JK I actually passed. There was this thing, blah blah blah, yay.” And with that done, we got the snowball rolling once again. 1 down, 2 to go.
• PRACTICAL: I scheduled the practical next. Figured it’ll be harder than the last practical, but not as hard as the code test. Marko and I had been practicing bending a bunch of conduit in the garage for our labs, so we did it once more before my test. We looked at the motor control boards we wired at the labs and I figured that’s about as much as I can study for that. When I got there, the proctor let me pick which task to do first. That was very nice of him because I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to do the conduit first and be all sweaty for the next two. I chose the motor control, he gave me the line diagram, and clicked the timer. One thing that made me nervous was that in the past, the proctor lets you choose which line diagram to wire. This time, the proctor said that wasn’t an option. Everyone has to do the ice cube relay. I didn’t like the sound of that because the ice cube relay is the harder variant for me. I looked at the line diagram, started wiring, and finished with plenty of time to spare. Called the proctor over, we plugged it in, everything worked, onto the next. I did the transformer next. I was not worried about this task at all. It’s color coding. You memorize the colors in the right order and you wire it. I did it in 30 seconds, called the proctor over, he said it’s good, onto the next.
• CONDUIT: Conduit was last. We had to bend a 4 point saddle and a 3 point saddle. Those bends were exactly what Marko and I were practicing, so I was happy to see it. They had rolling box offsets which kinda sucked, but I figured it wouldn’t be that bad. I did the 4 point saddle. That looked pretty good and didn’t take a lot of time. Then I did the 3 point. I don’t know how this happened, but when I went to cut my pipe to length, I forgot that I flipped it around. So I ended up cutting off the wrong end, which in turn ruined my whole pipe. My saddle was a few inches off center and there was no easy way to fix it. At the point, my heart sank and I accepted failure. That was a critical mistake that I figured I could laugh at a year from now. But I didn’t want to not have a pipe to present, so I decided I’m going re bend this pipe and just try to get it to fit on the board as best I can. Then, in my mind, I didn’t completely give up. I un-did all my bends and this pipe was looking wonky. It wasn’t straight, it was doglegged, and kinked. But beggars can’t be choosers. I made all my new marks and bent the saddled correctly this time, but it still wasn’t looking great. I spent a few minutes just tweaking it by eye, and with 10 seconds left, I made one final cut and placed it on the board. It fit, but didn’t look good. To pass this test, the main things you need to do is have 1/4”-3/4” clearance from the obstruction, the ends of the saddle have to be touching the board, and it has to fit. I stepped back and looked at my 3 point and realized it actually met all those standards. Despite all the kinks and it not being level, I thought there was a very small chance this could actually pass.  I sat down with one of the other guys that was taking the tests and we were chatting while the last guy was finishing his two conduits. The proctor started grading my pipes. Apparently, there’s an algorithm on his computer that he inputs the numbers he got from my pipes. The clearances, how many kinks it has, how off center it is, etc… He clicked enter, then looked at me with the faintest smile and nod. I pretended I didn’t see that. There was just no way that I actually passed. I was fully prepared to go home and schedule this test again asap. The other guy finished his pipes, so we all started talking while the proctor was grading theirs. Normally when you’re done, you just leave and you get an email within an hour that has your scores, but the proctor said it was a Saturday so no one was in the office. They probably won’t send us our scores for a couple days. But, he said he could just tell us our scores there and now if we wanted. So I said let’s hear it. He said I passed motor control, I passed transformer, and my 4 point passed. I knew all that. Moment of truth… he said my 3 point barely passed.

I actually jumped, I didn’t believe it. He was laughing too because he said it’s the worst pipe he’s ever seen that passed. He said if I literally had one more kink on the pipe, or it was slightly more off level, or if I was another 1/16” off, it would’ve failed. So that was that. I stayed to hear the other guys scores, they both passed all the tests too. They also had a couple mistakes, but we all made it work. It was a pretty fun time. The proctor said this was one of the most fun groups he’s watched. 2 out of 3 done. Onto the next.

I think I was the most stressed for the code test, but I did study a lot for it. Even a couple days before the test I felt ready. I had a game plan. I didn’t want to just have 30 minutes at the end to work through all the hard questions. I wanted a lot more time, so instead of limiting myself to 2 minutes per question, I did 1 minute. The hard thing with doing that is that it can be very, very difficult to flip through the pages and find the answer within a minute. But I thought it would be worth it to have a ton of time at the end for the more difficult questions and checking my work. Taking the test, I actually was able to keep up with that pace. Better than I thought. I knew a ton of the answers off the top of my head, and I was able to find a lot more within that 1 minute. I was cruising. I eventually slowed down at question 60 because I had more time than I thought I was going to have. I made it to question 80, I had about 25 flags, 80 minutes left. I just relaxed. It wasn’t over, but I felt like I set myself up perfectly that there was no way I wouldn’t pass. I burned through 10-15 flags in 20 minutes, spent another 20 minutes double checking all my other answers, then another 20 minutes on 5 of the harder questions, and I felt like I was golden. I figured I would pass, but in my head I was hoping to get a 90%. That would be cool. I didn’t think it was very realistic because most of the time I hear people taking this test? they get anywhere in the 80s. I submitted, got my score a few minutes later, 95%, 76/80, PASS.

I saved the hardest for last and it ended up being the easiest. I’m pretty stoked that I passed them all first try again. And I’m happy it’s all done. Time to relax.

 

L&V ~ Portland Getaway

Landon planned a trip to Portland, just a quick weekend getaway. He sent me some updates along the way, so here's the trip details in his own words...

Valentina came over last night since we had our flight first thing in the morning. All went well with our flight and we landed in PDX. We picked up our rental car and left to Kolby and Jami’s house. We said “hi” to Kolby, who was the only one home at the time, and met the animals for the first time. We dropped off our stuff and left for Cannon Beach.

The drive to Cannon Beach was wonderful. It was about an hour and half drive through tons and tons of green trees and vegetation. We were excited since we saw the temp for Portland in the low 70’s for the day and thought that would be perfect while we are at Cannon Beach. Turns out, it is a good 10-15 degree difference there, colder than Portland. It was a breezy day too.

We did not have any breakfast, apart from sharing a little sandwich from a coffee shop by K & J’s. So as soon as we got in to Cannon Beach, we went to the fish and chips spot that Jami recommended. They were scrumptious! We devoured them as we sat on the rooftop deck of the restaurant.

From there we walked the beach awhile. Walking down about a mile to get close to Haystack Rock. The amount of people we saw with dogs was incredible. Of course we loved it and said hi to as many as we could. We walked back to where we parked, but went through the town instead of back through the beach. We took our shoes off to walk barefoot in the sand, but that ends up roughing them up a bit. Valentina wanted to get a little gift for K & J for letting us stay, so we visited a little wine shop there and picked up a bottle.

Being an hour and a half out of Portland, we wanted to make sure to take advantage of Cannon Beach while we were there. But other than eating fish and chips and walking the beach, there wasn’t much more for us to do. We made our way back to the city, where we had plans for dinner at Bamboo. I was super excited to have Valentina experience the Green Machine. Our first date was for sushi and it continues to be one, if not her favorite food.

It was still a bit early for us to go to the restaurant, so we stopped at a mall and browsed some shops there until it was time for our reservation at Bamboo. Once at Bamboo, we ordered up a couple of Green Machines, and a couple other rolls. I wasn’t aware of the variations for the Green Machine when they add fish to it. Valentina really loves her salmon, so we ordered one with salmon, and the other one was a classic Green Machine. I was shocked how quick they were to serve us. It wasn’t even a half hour that we were in the restaurant!

After dinner, we obviously needed dessert. From the little time I’ve spent in Portland, I did notice that wherever there is a Bamboo, there tends to be a Salt & Straw close by. We went over, but with the nice weather, everybody around had the same idea. Instead, we went back to the house to say hi to everyone else we hadn’t seen yet. Maddie had the idea that we go bar hopping that night. Valentina and I just needed a bit of a nap before going out since we already had a loooong day.

We left in an Uber along with Mia to go closer to where Maddie lives, as it is a great spot for a pub crawl. First up was Quarterworld, which is a bar/arcade. We played around for a while and had a few drinks. I kicked Valentina’s butt at the arcade basketball as usual. Right across the street was our next stop at Spaceroom. We didn’t play anything there, but we had some good conversations. And from the Spaceroom we went to Zak’s Shack. Some of the people were hungry and ordered some hot dogs. We made it to about 1 am until we called it a night. Valentina and I were sooooo wiped. It was a looooong day for us and it was loads of fun in Portland.

It was a slower start to Saturday after having a late night and long day yesterday. We made a plan to leave to see a waterfall in the late morning. While we were driving in that direction on the freeway, we saw a sign that said the exit for the waterfall was closed and that the parking was full. Instead we decided to turn back around to head to the city for some lunch, as we were getting hungry.

There was a Mexican place called “La Cocina” we found and wanted to try. On the menu they had mole Poblano, which I was pretty skeptical of, as I’m very critical of it being authentic. Luckily, it was quite authentic! We ordered chilaquiles as an appetizer, then ordered enchiladas de mole and enchiladas poblanas and shared between the two of us. Very delicious.

The rest of the day was practically wide open for us. While we were already in the downtown area, we went to the Saturday market as Kolby recommended it. We toured through all the little shops and found a couple of cute items to bring home with us.

From the market, we left for the Portland Japanese Gardens. Valentina found it recommended on TikTok, so we went to check it out. It was a really nice place to go to just be surrounded by all green. We simply wished people would be more quiet and it is supposed to be a more reflective experience as you wander through it.

Before heading back to K & J’s, we needed to make our second attempt at Salt & Straw. We found one nearby and went. We were not in a rush to go anywhere luckily, so we got in line to order. The line appeared long, but it was maybe only 15 minutes to get our ice cream. I ordered a mint chocolate chip, which Valentina did not appreciate, as she doesn’t care for it. Whoops hahaha. While she ordered the coveted Salted Caramel Ribbons. Still easily the best flavor in my opinion.

Back at the house, we took a quick cat nap before Colton came over with his girlfriend, Haley. Kolby prepped some mussels with the same recipe he made from years ago and I loved it. It was a little appetizer for the dinner we had. They as grilled some chicken and it was a great night.

Sunday, it was Easter ... Landon didn't do a write-up but said they had a relaxing morning, and then headed to the airport for the flight home. He was grateful for Kolby and Jami's generosity in letting them stay there, and Landon was so excited to get in some time with their animals! 

Blackham Bunch Quarterly Recap ~ Q1

 The first quarter of 2025 ~ January, February and March

The Blackham Bunch had gone to Oregon (Visiting Clackamas) at the end of 2024, and flew back on New Year's Eve, ready to jump into 2025. Lots of basketball, three new trucks, the Blackham Builder's Convention, some snow, some sweet treats, lots of great eats, ping pong and back to pickleball! We watched the Superbowl, Cal had a birthday (26 - kicked off the folks insurance) and Keaton was called for Jury Duty (it was a murder trial! He didn't get picked, and he was relieved). Here's a little more info on some of these items ...

• Colton Basketball: Region games with Colton at Clackamas, playing eight teams twice (once home, once away). Colton had a great year, often being the leading scorer in games, and holding the top spot in the NWAC for assists. He started every game and got tons of playing time. Unfortunately Clackamas didn't make the playoffs, but they were able to end the year with a win.
• Callahan Basketball: Cal still LOVES basketball, and he's been playing with a few different men's leagues. In January, he had several games at Gene Fullmer (so I went to watch and get video). He also played in Herriman and South Jordan (they won the championship there). 
• Cooper Basketball: Coop got together a couple of times with his buddies (friends made back in 5th grade) to hoop it up at the local church gym. 
• Colton College: In January, some of his Utah buddies came up for the weekend to hang out and watch him play.  Colton has a job at Walgreens for a little extra cash. He and his two roommates (also on the basketball ream) get along well and are planning on keeping up the same accommodations for next year. He even met a girl! As far as school, he got a 4.0 for term 2! We got to have him home for a week at the end of March between terms, his Spring Break. 
• SNOW: There really wasn't much snow this year ... only pulled out the snow shovel a couple of times. Okay by us, as long as we do get it up in the mountains, but snow pack there seems good. Colton/Clackamas got snow in February (rare for them) and it closed campus for a couple days. 
• New Trucks: Grayson bade his big black truck truck farewell and opted for an EV (Ford Lightning). Both Keaton and Cal were truck shopping as well, and they are pretty pleased with their new (to them) trucks. 
• Blackham Boys at the Builder's Convention: Gray had always thought it would be fun to take his builder boys to IBS in Vegas ... so he made that happen this year. Full write up HERE. 
• Coop Concert: Coop is BIG into music (obsessed with the Spotify wrap at the end of the year) and instigated going to a couple concerts last year. He got his first concert of the year for 2025 ... The Hails/NeverEnding Fall. It was downtown, Kilby Court. He went with a buddy for work. 
• Piano: Jen got back into playing the piano at the end of 2024 ... here in 2025, we got the piano tuned, as that hadn't happened in years! Jen is still playing quite a bit most days. 
• Pickleball: The weather turned nice enough in March that Blackham Pickleball resumed. We even got Grayson to join us a couple of times. 
• Marathon Man: Gray did a ton of races last year (running/biking) and has quite a few planned for this year as well. He did his first half-marathon in March - in Moab, and got in some RZR riding that weekend as well. He's been doing a ton of running, biking, and even swimming (training for a triathlon). 
• Eats: Lots of steak and smoked stuff. Butter cake. Gray and Keaton made eggs benedict, which was pretty complex!  Keaton had ordered the fun and unique flavors from Licorice.com for Christmas. Grayson decided it was time for another order ... lots of licorice! 

Beyond all that, the guys stay busy with their work & play (Keaton has been going to Classic for skating many weekends), and Jen continues baking sourdough, Zumba-ing and listening to audiobooks. There's been a struggle with foot pain, pretty much textbook plantar fasciitis that has impacted exercise, although ... pushing through!

Here's a LIVE look ... One Second Every Day style! 

January 2025

 

  https://youtu.be/O-2oS-zzKAM

February 2025

 

https://youtu.be/t2GCEfBHEdk

  

March 2025

https://youtu.be/G-kgHoREYII?si=-7XzPBKar6bthxLB