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

The Blackham Builder Boys (IBS2025)

 

Being in the home building business for 30+ years, Grayson has been to the International Builder's Show many times. As the older boys have been getting into construction careers as well (Landon with LKL in their roofing dept, Cal and Keaton at Camson Electric) Gray had thought it would be a lot of fun to attend together with them ... so he made it happen. So February 2025, the four of them were off. 

I was updated with some pictures along the way, 

and Landon wrote up his memories for me ...

Monday, February 24 ~ Everything went smooth as it could for our arrival. We landed, got off the plane, and collected the rental car. We didn’t even need to wait in line at the rental kiosk! Simply found the car reserved for us, loaded in, and took off for the hotel. It was late by the time we checked in and didn’t have any plans for dinner. But everyone wanted to eat. We walked to and on the Strip for a while. It ended up being quite longer than I expected, which was unfortunate for me as I didn’t have my good walking shoes on. So my feet were beat up a bit, but it was fine. We first stopped for some tacos from a restaurant I had visited during a previous trip. They were pretty good. We continued walking until we found Haute Doggery. We ordered some corn dogs, fries, and cheese curds. The curds were my favorite. Callahan then realized we were close to the big candy store, so we made a stop there. I bought some gummy peach rings and sharks. Yummy! We walked far out enough that we decided to get an Uber back to the hotel. I was very grateful, as my feet were done for the night.

Blackham Boys at Blue Man

Tuesday, February 25~ We started the day fairly early. Had breakfast at the hotel, where it appeared that Home Depot must’ve rented out the rest of the hotel complex. Just loads of them. After breakfast, we walked to the convention center for the opening ceremonies. There were some cheesy speakers talking about the building industry, interesting music performances, and a finale of an appearance by David Spade. No joke, it appeared that the guy got out of bed with a minute to spare to get on stage. He had bed head and dark circles under his eyes. But it was still a good time with some jokes. From there, we split up to explore our the different exhibits we wanted to see. I saw a few of my vendors and after that I was ready for lunch. I ended up taking the car for a bit to a burger place off the Strip. It was a simple spot with smash burgers and tots. I was enjoying myself and ordered some for Dad, until I realized I had less than a half hour to get back to the convention center for our tour of the New American Home. I rushed back to leave the car at the hotel and started running to the convention center. Made it with two minutes to spare. The New American Home tour was really cool. Just a home that is totally decked out with the latest technology and design trends. My favorite part was probably the kitchen and back patio area. The tour took a little longer than expected, especially with traffic coming back from the house. We had reservations at Del Frisco’s for dinner and were a bit nervous we could miss it. But we made it just in time luckily. This wasn’t my first time at Del Frisco’s, but it was only my second time. We ordered too much food as usual. The food was good, but honestly the highlight is just the butter cake. To finish out the day, we went to the Luxor Casino, which is the one built like a pyramid. There we had the show for the Blue Man Group. I was stoked as I hadn’t been to one of their shows before. It did not disappoint! Low key, I was most impressed when one of them ended up catching over 15 marshmallows in his mouth.

Memorable moment from Primal "Careful, it's going to be light on fire!"

No "no hat" rule like DelFrisco had - much to Cal and Keaton's chagrin!

Wednesday, February 26~ A much more relaxed start to today compared to yesterday. I had time in the morning to take care of some work things before we headed over to the convention center. While yesterday we split up to check out our different interests, today we went to check out the kitchen and bath section together. First we stopped by the Truewerk booth so Cal and Keaton could sell Dad and I on it. The kitchen and bath area was really neat. Loads of high tech appliances, clever cabinetry designs, and sinks with gadgets. Then we split up for lunch as I had an appointment with a vendor. We met at the Peppermill and had some decent food. One of the guys I was with ended up ordering a fruit plate that was meant for five people, and there were only three of us. I had a shrimp scampi that was tasty. After lunch, I was close to the casino I stayed at last time I was in Vegas. I played for a bit at a blackjack table that was pretty brutal. At least I saved some chips for Dad’s collection. From there, we relaxed a bit back at our rooms until it was time for dinner. We went to Primal Steakhouse, which I’d say I preferred overall compared to Del Frisco’s. We had some tasty appetizers like ibérico ham, which Keaton really liked. Instead of everyone ordering their own steak, we ordered one of the bigger ones to share. But Cal still ordered his own lol. Again, we went back to the hotel for a bit until it was time go visit the Sphere. It was incredibly cool! Inside the architecture was very interesting. But once we actually sat down for the show, is when it was truly impressive. Basically a panoramic screen with insane pic.

Thursday the guys packed up, headed to the airport and flew home. Cal had missed his Monday Men's League basketball championship (and without him, they lost) and he hadn't even made it home before he got a call that he was urgently needed for his Thursday night Men's League - he went straight there, didn't even get to go home first (they ended up winning the championship). 

IBS 2025 in the books ... and on the blog!