I had a free flight on Southwest that expired next month, so I decided to use it for a trip to Oregon to watch my nephew’s lacrosse team play the Beavers and Ducks. I also had a credit to use, so I brought Gavin along. We got in Thursday afternoon, then drove straight to Corvallis for the Beavers game. Cougars won 18-4. Jake and our friend BT both scored. Friday Gavin got permission to spend the afternoon at his old elementary in a surprise visit. He loved it.

On Saturday I got up early to go ride the famous McKenzie river trail east of Eugene. Unfortunately, the trail was still covered with SNOW. One of the ski resorts on Mt Hood still has 16 FEET of snow. Cougars beat the Ducks 17-7.

Mitt was a speaker at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner Wednesday night and gave this list of the “Top 10 Reasons He Got Out of the Race”

10. There weren’t as many Osmonds as I thought.

9. I got tired of corkscrew landings under sniper fire.

8. As a lifelong hunter, I didn’t want to miss the start of the varmint season.

7. There wasn’t room for two Christian leaders.

6. I was upset that no one had bothered to search my passport files.

5. I needed an excuse to get fat, grow a beard and win the Nobel prize.

4. I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair.

3. I wanted to finally take off that dark suit and tie, and kick back in a light-colored suit and tie.

2. Once my wife Ann realized I couldn’t win, my fundraising dried up.

1. There was a miscalculation in our theory: “As Utah goes, so goes the nation.”

Gavin and I went to Wicked last night with Margo, Jim, Karli and Max. Dylan stayed home (3 hours of singing? No Thanks!!) with Will and Grace and Shannon. Grace really wants to see it and will before it shuts down, but we didn’t want to keep her up that late on a school night. The Pantages theater is amazing. It was completely redone just before Wicked opened there. The Glinda (good witch) was amazing. It was the same girl (from Bellevue, WA) who played her in Portland when we saw it there. The Elphaba (Wicked Witch) wasn’t the girl from Beaverton, OR who played her on Broadway and the for the touring group that came to Portland a couple years ago, but had an amazing voice and did a stunning job. Gavin loved it and called Dylan at intermission to tell him it was “wicked awesome”.

This is one of the pair of coyotes that patrols the neighborhood looking for kitty cats. It was kind enough to stop and pose for us a few houses down from ours as we drove by on a Saturday morning.

So a hand surgeon moved in next door with his expecting wife and 2 year old son. He seems to have jinxed us: days after they moved in Gavin slashed open his finger and a few days ago I managed to stab my thumb with the spring of a rat trap while I was loading it. The spring wire went in one side and out the other. Shannon ran next door and had him come over to take a look. He told me to just wash it really well, keep it clean, and watch for infection. It’s healed up nicely. The doc stopped by later in the week to check up on me. What a great neighbor, even if he is bad luck.

Dylan is almost 5 feet tall!!! He grew 1.5 inches in 6 weeks!!! He and Gavin play for the roller hockey championship tomorrow night. They’ve both made great strides this season. Dylan is skating more fluidly: flips around full speed to skate backwards and his shot is getting more lethal. Gavin is a natural at defense, but prefers to play offense. It’s been fun watching them play together.

After morning session of General Conference we hit the road for No. Cal. We spent Sunday night with former college roomate of Shannon’s and her family in San Jose. The kids played together and the adults played Shannon’s new favorite card game: Wizard. Monday we headed to SF listening live as protesters climbed the Golden Gate bridge to hang banners: “Free Tibet”. It was a gorgeous day: warm, light breeze and excellent visibility. We went to the Giant’s home opener at AT&T park. They are celebrating 50 years out west, so they had a vintage T-Bird parade around the warning track of former Giant greats like Willie Mays. After the game we checked into the hotel then went to dinner at Tommy’s Joynt. The beef brisquet is still amazing. Tuesday morning we went to Alcatraz. This time the kids are old enough that they won’t have nightmares!! It was windy and a bit chilly, but sunny. In the afternoon we went to tour the Mission Dolores, the subject of Gavin’s 4th grade mission project. Then it was over the hill to Laguna Honda Hospital, where Shannon toiled as a Rec Therapist. We had desert before dinner at Tart To Tart, then dinner at Amici’s New York Pizzaria’s new place in the Marina, just a few blocks from where we lived for 3 years.

Wednesday we rented bikes and rode across the Golden Gate bridge. We were stopped at the north tower by a group marching to protest against China. This group wanted to “Free Burma”. From there we rode to Sausalito where we caught a ferry back to downtown SF. That was ground zero for the Olympic Torch run, so there were ~10,000 protestors and supporters. Gracie learned new chants like “1-2-3-4-5 China supports GENOCIDE”. We wanted to see the torch, but the cops said that it was unlikely that it would make it up the waterfront because the bus with the torch was surrounded by protestors. We went back to the hotel to watch the coverage on TV. For a while it looked like they would run the waterfront in reverse, starting on Van Ness, but they ended up turning left and running along the Marina Green. While Shannon napped I took the kids to Nim’s Island by taxi. They liked it and I found it MUCH better than expected. Afterwards it was Tommy’s Joynt by popular demand then an adventurous bus ride back to the hotel. Like rookies ,we all nearly landed on the floor as the driver hit the gas. I think she does that for sport. Again we turned in early to play 5 crowns, Wizard and to watch Idol.

After SF we went to Shannon’s sister’s place near Sacramento. As usual we had a fabulous time racing go carts, swimming, having a Brawl tournament, etc. I even got to do some tractor work with Don’s Kubota.

It’s great having mommy back. Shannon went to see her parents in BC for 5 days. She had a great time visiting, relaxing and playing games.

Yesterday afternoon we drove in to Hollywood to get tickets for Wicked. Gavin and I are going with Margo and her family later this month. We walked Hollywood Blvd for a bit, had some food, then went to the Griffith Observatory. We saw a star show and looked around for a bit. The whole observatory just reopened a few months ago after a complete remodel. It’s cool, especially for our budding astronomer Gavin. A marine layer of fog rolled in and blocked the stars, so we will have to go back to check out the giant telescope they open to the public. We also have tickets for Kathleen Edwards at a little club in Hollywood and tickets go on sale this weekend for The National/ Modest Mouse/ REM at the Hollywood Bowl.

Grace has been studying the pioneers and jumps at the chance to play dress up. She wore clothes Shannon’s mom saved that Shannon used to wear to church back in the day. As a 6th (?) generation descendant of Mormon pioneers, Grace is a Daughter of Utah Pioneers (DUP). We have a running joke in the family that Grace can take Shannon as a guest to DUP meetings, but Shannon can’t go because her ancestors missed the cut off for DUP classification by ~ 10 years: they waited for the train.