I haven't had a chance to write over the last few days as my wife injured her back on Wednesday night, and I've spent the last few days taking care of her and the kids. With 4 young children at home, downtime is hard to come by.

I don't normally write much about my church in this space. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. I don't believe my blog should be a forum to try and convert anyone to my religion.
2. Religion is a very personal part of my life and I like to keep my thoughts to myself.

DISCLAIMER

With that being said I would like to write about the death of a great man, and where my church goes from here. This post is not designed to convert you to my faith or make you uncomfortable. It is designed to get my feelings out in the open about a man who devoted his whole life to service. If reading about religion or someone's personal beliefs offends you I would suggest skipping this post. I have tagged it as a religious post for that very reason.

END DISCLAIMER

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormons). I have been a member all of my life, but didn't really gain my testimony of the church until a short while before I decided to serve as a missionary, which all young men are asked to serve at the age of 19.

During my entire lifetime President Gordon B. Hinckley served as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. For much of my life President Hinckley was a counselor to the President of my church whom we esteem as a prophet, seer, and revelator. For the past 12 years of my life President Hinckley himself was the prophet and leader of  my church. President Hinckley passed away Sunday night. He was 97 years old, but still could easily connect with all ages, especially with the children in the church.

There are very few people in the world we can consider true heros. The athletes, celebrities, and political leaders many of us look up to are prone to the failings of humanity. They are among the elite in the professions they follow, but all too human when it comes to the rest of their lives. It seems in our society today we look for heros, and build up individuals based on their acting, speaking, singing, or athletic skills without considering what type of human the person really is. I can say that in my life President Gordon B. Hinckley was one of my true heros. His whole life was lived as an example of the type of person we should aspire to be, and I never had to worry that I would read anything that reflected negatively on his character.

Even if you aren't a Mormon there are many teachings and examples of this man to admire. He taught us to be tolerant of others, treat others with kindness, and to be able to have a positive view on our life. Of course for a member of the LDS faith he was also the leader of our church, and a prophet. Just like the prophets of the Old Testament he served as a voice of warning to us, and often reminded us of stuff we already knew, but let slip in the business of our lives. He taught us, not just with his words or speeches, but through his example as he interacted with members of the church, and especially his own family.

While I am far from perfect President Hinckley is the type of husband, father, leader, and person I aspire to be. I am grateful for his sacrifice of church service, his powerful testimony, and his example. My condolences go how to his family as well as my thoughts and prayers, as well as my heartfelt gratitude for the service he gave. I know that President Hinckley was a prophet, that he spoke on behalf of the Savior, and that as we followed his counsel we would become a better and happier people.

As we move forward it is likely that a new prophet will be selected a short time after President Hinckley's funeral. Based on the tradition in the church, but personal revelation as well it is almost assuredly going to be Thomas S. Monson who will be selected and ordained to be the next President of the church. President Monson has also been an apostle for my entire life, and has also dedicated his life to service. One of the best things about my faith is that I will have an opportunity with the rest of the members of my church to gain a personal revelation through prayer of his divine calling, and also a chance to sustain him as the prophet at our General Conference in April.

      Gordon B. Hinckley

          1910 - 2008

As I said on Friday, I had tickets to take my son Matthew and two of his friends to Monster Jam at the Tacoma Dome on Saturday. My wife had purchased tickets to the Pit Party so we were able to go early, see the trucks up close, and meet the drivers. When my kids are older that will probably be a fun thing to do, but the lines for each driver were so long there was no way I was going to try and stand in them with 3 five year olds. For example the line to get a picture, autograph, etc. with the Grave Digger driver stretched all of the way across the floor of the arena. So we walked around, looked at the trucks, and purchased souvenirs.

Now you may ask yourself where bathrooms come into this story. I can best sum this up with Murphy's Law of Children at Sporting Events.

"No matter how many times you take them, children will always need to use the bathroom at the most exciting part of a sporting event." - Dale

I took all three boys to the bathroom just prior to the start of the show, hoping we would make it all the way through (naive I admit). Of course they were fine during the preliminary racking right up until the semi finals of the Monster Truck races. Right then 2 of the boys had to use the restroom. I took them of course as I didn't want any accidents. While we were out using the restroom we missed seeing Maximum Destruction beat Grave Digger in the final race. Of course that was OK because that meant we wouldn't have to fight the crowds during intermission...wrong! Right after intermission started the boys needed to use the restroom again so we spent the entire intermission time standing in line for the restroom. Oh well, at least this meant they would make it through the rest of the show...wrong!!! After 9 of the 10 trucks performed their freestyle routines, and we were waiting for Grave Digger to start, my son Matthew had to go to the bathroom. All in all, the boys went to the restroom 5 times in just over 2 hours.

For those of you that want to know if I had each boy try to go when I took them to the restroom the answer is yes, but it didn't make any difference. Also, they basically each had a medium drink during the show, but I didn't get them large drinks or multiple drinks or anything like that. As I write this today I still find it amusing at this point. In fact the people sitting next to us even said something about how they felt sorry for me having to get up so many times to take 3 children to the restroom. I don't feel sorry for myself by the way. There are some things in life you just have to laugh at. I still enjoyed the show, but more importantly my son had a great time as well, and asked if we can go next year. I told him yes, but this time it will just be a father son activity.

Since I was out of town for the holidays I neglected to write about the great season my Brigham Young University Cougars had. This is the second year in a row that they finished 11-2 which is a tribute to their hard work and the great coaching of Bronco Mendenhall. Unlike some of my fellow fans of the mid-majors I am glad BYU hasn't gone to a BCS Bowl recently because I'm afraid they might look more like the Hawaii Rainbows than the Boise State Broncos. Hopefully these two great finishes will help BYU take the steps to get to the next level though as I would like to see them play on the national stage.

I am really excited about this upcoming year as BYU will play a game up here in Seattle against the Washington Huskies. I am a bit torn because I believe the Huskies coach, Tyrone Willingham, is doing a great job with the team and an opening game loss to BYU will lead to his ouster as the head coach. At the same time, I would like to see BYU get some revenge for the only loss BYU suffered during the 1996 season when we went to the Cotton Bowl.

I hope Coach Mendenhall stays with the Cougars for a long time and continues to have a great success with my favorite college football team.

It took a few days for the pain of the recent Seahawks loss in Green Bay to subside so I could reflect on the season. Prior to this season I predicted that the Hawks would go 10-6 with a possibility of going 11-5. As it stands they did finish the season 10-6 by going 7-1 at home (yeah!) and 3-5 on the road (ugh!) As far as which games the Hawks would lose, I predicted them to lose to the Bears and Ravens at home so of course they won both of those games, but lost to the New Orleans Saints. On the road I thought they would lose to the Steelers, Rams, Eagles, and Panthers. I got 2 of those losses correct (Steelers and Panthers), but misfired on the Cardinals, Browns, and Falcons. At least we beat the Eagles which I had picked as a loss. In my defense though the Seahawks didn't try to win the Falcons game, and should of won both the Cardinals and Browns games.

Considering all factors though, I am pretty happy with the season. The Seahawks made the playoffs for the fifth straight year. They also won their first playoff game this year, and played hard, even though they got beat up by Green Bay. The Hawks had several injuries this year, and only had their 2 starting receivers on the field for 1 game, and had Shaun Alexander playing all year with a broken wrist. They also lost two of their starting defensive tackles during the preseason.

It's hard to predict how the Hawks will do next year of course, but I hope they shore up their offense, and make some significant progress with their running game. Also, we really need coach Mike Holmgren to come back as I believe he is key to our chances. I'm sure Coach Holmgren isn't reading this, but if he does for some reason this Hawks fan wants to see you come back, and try and get us back to the Super Bowl, this time for a win.

Go Hawks!

I have recently started playing Mass Effect on my XBOX 360. I actually purchased the game before Christmas, but with a trip to California, returning to work, and a bunch of scout activities I didn't get to really try out the game until about a week ago. I have always liked BioWare products (Knights of the Old Republic is still one of my favorite games), but wow was I every blown away by Mass Effect. What I really like about the game is that as you make choices you get Paragon (good) or Renegade (bad) points. You don't lose Paragon points if you add Renegade points which I think reflects more how people are in real life.

One of my favorite features is that you can save basically anytime you are not in combat. I have written about this before, but when you have small children it is critical to be able to save so that emergencies can be immediately responded to. The dialogue system is also very good, and there is a wide array of equipment that can be utilized. I am looking forward to getting farther in the game, and also what any future sequels look like.

You know it is really interesting having 3 of my kids with birthdays within 8 days of each other and less than a month after Christmas. I am taking Matthew and a couple of his friends down to see Monster Jam at the Tacoma Dome tomorrow. I am sure it will be a lot of fun, but it isn't really my thing. Like many little boys though, Matt really likes big trucks and seeing things getting broken so I'm sure he and his friends will have a great time.

I know one thing Matt is really excited about is seeing the Grave Digger monster truck. He has a model of the truck since he was very young so I bet that will be his favorite tomorrow. In honor of his birthday here is a picture of his favorite truck.

Also, I couldn't end this post without a picture of the birthday boy himself.

Happy birthday Matthew! I hope you enjoy your special day, and get the thins you want.

I had the opportunity to go to a Sonics game on Friday night and sit in the Microsoft Suite. Normally I am not a huge basketball fan, but I have been to a number of games over the years. Unfortunately the Sonics were beaten 90-70 by the Dallas Mavericks, but I had some time to think about the arena situation and why the locals aren't getting behind Clay Bennett in his request for a new facility.

1. From a fans perspective, Key Arena seems perfectly functional, and doesn't look in need of replacement. I realize that I was in a suite, but I have been out in the normal seats as well for other games and concerts. I think if the arena looked more run down then it would be easier to get a new building for the team, but Key Arena looks to be in great shape so it's hard to drum up support for a new arena just to line Bennett's pockets.
2. There was no energy in the crowd Friday night. Last year I had a chance to take my daughter to a Storm game and even with half the fans there was much more energy in the building. I think most fans realized that we were in for a rebuilding project when Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen departed and we drafted Kevin Durant, but the team just isn't that interesting to watch. There has been a lot of speculation up here that the reason Safeco Field got built was due to the playoff run of the 1995 Mariners. A team that is 9-29 as of this post just doesn't generate a lot of interest or excitement.
3. It doesn't help that the owner, Mr. Bennett, seems to come across so badly in his dealings with the media. They have done a good job painting him as a villain, but he also brought a lot of this on himself. It seems like there is no room for Bennett to negotiate with the city of Seattle to find an option that works for both parties.
4. Even though the argument is completely baseless the politicians have done a great job in pointing to other infrastructure improvements such as the 520 bridge and Highway 99 viaduct to claim the city/county/state can't afford to build a new arena. This is false of course as the tax that was put in place for Safeco and Qwest Field could easily pay for a new basketball/hockey arena with no additional taxpayer cost.

I am not a Seattle native. I grew up down in southern California, and moved up here about 11 years ago. In my time up here though I have gotten quite attached to the local sports teams and would really hate to see this area lose it's NBA franchise. I hope that Mr. Bennett and the politicians can "pull their heads out" and find a way to get a new arena built that can be a world class facility for the Sonics to play in. If not I am afraid it will be a long time before this area has a chance to get another NBA team. In fact I can't see it happening at all since the state has shown tremendous resistance to the opportunity to bring other sporting events here (NASCAR anyone?).

I used to oftentimes hear people talk about how fast time goes by and not really understand them, but it became clear to me today what that meant. My youngest two children turned three today. It's funny because it seems like just yesterday that we were at the hospital with them. They spent the first two weeks of their lives in intensive care, but they are the picture of health and energy now.

In any case I hope Jake and Josh both have a wonderful birthday today. While I never wanted or expected to have twins I can't imagine our family without them. Well, OK, I can imagine our family without them and it would be a lot quieter, but much less interesting.

Here is a picture of them from Christmas talking on their toy cell phones.

Happy birthday boys!!!

Well I am certainly letting enough time go between posts. I hope everyone is having a good new year so far. For the holidays this year, we took the kids down to California to spend Christmas with my family. It was a lot of fun, although my kids were certainly little demons while we were there. We also went to Lego Land while we were there. That is a great little amusement park and the kids had a great time. I am going to try and write more often this year and get back to a better mix of personal and technical posts. I hope everyone has a happy successful new year.