Family – Page 2 – Seth Packham

My new ukulele

For our last Blues Brethren performance, my friend Nate picked up a ukulele so we could do a couple of new tunes, including Mele Kalikimaka and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. He kept raving about how fun the ukulele was, and I thought it sounded fun. So, I got one for Christmas.

It turned out to be a cheapo, but I was able to play around on it for a few days before the tuners totally lost all capability to do their job. So I ordered an actual ukulele instrument, a Kala KA-C concert size ukulele:

It still wasn’t very expensive, but it is so fun to mess around on.

I don’t think I’ll ever get as good as this Jake Shimabukuro guy, but oh well:

Ready for fall, start of school, great artist, and boating

I think we’re all ready for the fall around here. The weather has been very comfortable (perfect) the last few days, Collin has been playing soccer, the boys have started school, and we’re in September. Can’t believe it’s already September and we’re heading out of another summer.

Owen had a great 7th birthday party. We had just a family party at a local bounce house where Aubrey had some free passes, so it was just the boys and us and a pizza. We had a party room all to ourselves and it was so easy and inexpensive. Owen was desperate for a few certain Lego sets, so he was thrilled to get the one he wanted, plus one more! I guess we couldn’t resist.

From Owen's birthday and first day of school

And, of course Collin and Owen started school at the end of August. Our school had previously been on a year-round calendar for the last two years, but they switched it back to traditional, which we think is good since they get a nice summer break.

From Owen's birthday and first day of school

And here’s a funny story that Aubrey passed along to me: Wesley is a very focused kid when he is drawing pictures. He draws with precision and can literally draw for hours. Today he was using Owen’s Captain Underpants book to draw pictures of Captain Underpants and the Giant Turd monster. Owen said, “Why is Wesley always just looking at the drawing section of the book?”, and Aubrey said, “It’s OK, Wesley really likes to draw.” And Wesley said, “I’m a great artist!”

Another thing that’s been fun lately has been going to the lake for boating. Our whole family was invited out with another family, then I’ve gone out with just the guys a couple times at 6 in the morning. The lake is perfectly quiet and still, making for some really beautiful scenery and great wakeboarding on glass. I’m not that great, but I’m good at going for enough air each time that I usually crash, which for me is the only way to prove you’re trying to get better!

Here’s a few shots of me messing around on a wakeboard:

From Jordan Lake in the morning, August 2009

And here’s my favorite shot that I took of my friend John slaloming:

From Jordan Lake in the morning, August 2009

And here’s the best part of going to the lake with family lately: Aubrey has really liked going, which means she thinks it would be cool if we got a boat. So, we’re kind of planning ahead for it, thinking maybe a few years out when we’ve saved up and our youngest kids could handle the trip without much hassle. We figure it would be a great activity for the whole family and the lake is so close and the water is so perfect for much of the year. Woo hoo. Come visit us in 3-4 years and we’ll take you to the lake!

Oh, and Aubrey is almost 17 weeks!

Bear Lake 2009 and baby news!!

I’ll get to the news first: We’re having another baby! Aubrey is 13 weeks along, and baby #5 is due around February 13, 2010! We’re obviously very excited. It was fun for Aubrey to surprise all of our family in person during our trip. Aubrey made a cute t-shirt that said “bun in the oven” and she walked into the room wearing it. For some others, we had Wesley spread the word and he did it very cute, saying, “I have a surprise for you! We’re having another baby!” then running away while they processed what he had just said. Fun stuff. I’m very happy! And yes, I would be happy with either a girl or a boy 🙂

From 2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

We got back late last night after a very bumpy ride from SLC to RDU and a long and tiring but very fun vacation to Idaho and Utah. We spent the first week on the eastern shore of Bear Lake on the Idaho side, where we rented a huge 7,000 sq. ft. house that easily accomodated all 26 of us (11 adults and 15 kids).

Here’s a shot of all of us in the t-shirts that I designed:

From 2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

It was pretty posh with a climbing wall, ping-pong table, movie theatre and all the luxury accoutrements and styling of an upscale lodge cabin. My mom and all my siblings were there along with all the grandkids.

Matt brought his boat and we borrowed my uncle Brad’s two jet skis, so we spent every day down on the lake in the water. The water, by the way was crystal clear and bright blue, and was shallow for about 100 yards, making it easy for the kids to play in the water. I made a few runs on the wake board — I was feeling pretty comfortable and even got air a few times (right before face-planting usually). Boats are fun. Maybe in a few years it would be a fun pasttime for my family with all the lakes around Apex.

From 2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

Grady wants to go out to the boat:

From 2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

We also had a fun bingo game with prizes, outdoor olympics, morning calisthenics, karaoke and talent show, pinata, ping-pong tournament (Drew was “run-around” champion. I was traditional champ.), a surprise impromptu birthday cake for me (OK, it was a stack of creme puffs) and lots and lots and lots of food. And we had a lot of food. Did I mention food?

From 2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

We went to Garden City during the Raspberry Days festival and got the famous Bear Lake raspberry shakes.

After a full week at Bear Lake, everyone took off and we drove straight down to Park City (on my 36th birthday) and went to the Olympic Park and Museum and training center. We watched the US National aerial acrobatics ski tream training on the aerial ramps in the pool. That was very cool. Then Collin, Owen, and I rode the alpine slide before heading out.

We spent the rest of the 2nd week staying with Beth and Bryce in Pleasant Grove, in Bryce’s parents’ basement. It was relaxed and we made some fun day trips from there.

We took the kids up to “hike the Y” and they were troopers, as the temperature started soaring and it was very steep and dry and long, especially for our poor little 4-year-old Wesley who hiked in his Crocs with no socks. Owen seemed to be feeling the effects of the altitude (6200 feet at the top of the Y) and the heat the most, and I carried Grady up and down the whole way. Hopefully they will have good memories of the event. Afterwards we took them to the BYU Bookstore for some school gear and the Cougar Eat as an early BYU recruiting trip. We’re pretty sure Collin would hardly consider any other school. Nice.

From 2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

I also got to go golfing with Bryce, which was fun, and we had FHE with Aubrey’s grandma Smith, where Grady knocked his front tooth back. Aubrey pushed it back in place and it seems to be doing fine.

We also spent time visiting one of Aubrey’s friends from college, more time with Grandma Packham, and a picnic in American Fork canyon where we were lucky to get free rides on a zip line that is set up for church camps.

From 2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

Other highlights for our family:
2 bloody noses, 2 hornet stings, 2 bad blisters, 1 pinata crushed, 1 tooth knocked back (on 2-year-old), 1 legitimate lost tooth (6-year-old), one Y mountain climbed, 9 zip line rides, 2 alpine slide runs

Here’s a link to all of my photos from the vacation:

2009 Bear Lake Packham Family reunion trip

Outer Banks in July

Some friends invited us to crash on the floor of their beach rental for a couple of nights, so we took them up on the offer and headed to the OBX. The house was in Southern Shores, just south of Duck, and not far from Corolla, where we visited the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. We went to the beach three times in two days and had a blast. It was in the upper 80s with warm water the whole time.

From 2009 July – Outer Banks

Owen loved just being in the waves, like a fish letting each wave go over his head. Collin had a couple of great boogie board rides all the way in to shore. After each ride he looked back at me and held his fist in the air – the fist of victory! He obviously loved it. And Wesley was Mr. independent, just strolling up and down the beach exploring every which way and playing in the sand. Grady also loved the sand and just being out of doors and exploring in the open breeze.

The Currituck Beach lighthouse was really fun to visit too. The boys love visiting and climbing new lighthouses. The old-school rails weren’t quite up to today’s width standards, so it was a bit nerve-wracking to take Grady up there.

We got back to Apex just in time to buy a box of fireworks and light them off in our driveway with some neighbors. It was a really great and relaxing week.

From 2009 July – Outer Banks

See the rest of the photos.

T-shirt contest results

After what turned out to be a very tight race between three or four designs, the results are in for the 2009 family reunion t-shirt contest.

8 official entries
25 ballots
Each ballot listed their top three t-shirts:
- A 1st place vote = 3 pts
- A 2nd place vote = 2 pts
- A 3rd place vote = 1 pt
- For a total allocation of 150 points

1st place, with 31 points (21.67% of total points), the Jet Skier design by Seth:

2nd place, with 29 points (19.33% of total points), the Rays of the Sun design by Aubrey:

3rd place, with 25 points (16.67% of total points), the Stylized Family Tree design by Amanda:

And in case you were wondering, here are the designers of the other entries:

Design 1: “Campfire kids”, by Matt
Design 2: “Grizzly bear and a colorful mountain sunset”, by Drew
Design 3: “Minimalist bear paw”, by Tara
Design 4: “Bear Lake Bash”, by Diane
Design 5: “Papa Packhams: Better Reunions”, by Sara/David

All t-shirts were listed on multiple ballots, so you are all to be congratulated. And my sincere apologies to Jake who submitted a very cool entry a long time ago, but I forgot about it and didn’t find it until after the voting process was complete (I owe Jake big time):
z

Other interesting stats:

Most 1st place votes: Tree (7 first place votes)
On the most ballots: Jet skier (15 ballots)
Most popular among boys: Jet skier (9 ballots)
Most popular among girls: 4-way tie between campfire (Matt), sun rays (Aubrey), jet skier (Seth), and tree (Amanda), each on 6 ballots
Most popular among adults: Jet skier (10 ballots)
Most popular among non-adults: Sun rays, by Aubrey (10 ballots)
Henry abstained from voting

Bear Lake '09 reunion t-shirt design contest

Submissions have ended for the Bear Lake 2009 Packham Family Reunion t-shirt contest, and we received eight worthy entries. Voting will proceed as follows:

Each attendee (no age limit) ranks their top 3 favorite t-shirt designs.
Email your ranks to me by end of day Friday, 6/19.
I will compile the results and announce the winner here.

Scoring: A top rank gets 3 points, a 2nd rank gets 2 points, and a 3rd rank gets 1 point. All points are tallied up and the t-shirt with the most total points will be selected as the official reunion t-shirt. The designer will then have a final chance to clean up the design and work with me to get the shirt produced.

And here are the submissions (click for larger sizes):

Design 1:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Design 2:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Design 3:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Design 4:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Design 5:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Design 6:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Design 7:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Design 8:

From Bear Lake 2009 – T-shirt design contest

Non-attendees are free to comment below, and maybe we will sell you a shirt for a small fortune.

San Francisco here we came

The kids have been fascinated by the Golden Gate Bridge ever since we took our trip to San Francisco in May for Laura’s wedding (Aubrey’s younger sister). Aubrey and I were fascinated for quite some time by the wedding officiator’s gray dreads that fell to the ground before he wrapped them around his waist twice. All in all, it was a beautiful wedding at an old German retreat on a hillside among old redwoods in Muir Woods, north of San Francisco.

We stayed at a mission style home down at Stinson Beach with all of Aubrey’s family and had a great time. We spent a morning at a wide open beautiful beach playing games in the sand and running around.

Much of the day was spent at Laura’s wedding, where it was fun to see Owen embrace his role as ring bearer and even spend the afternoon dancing with the flower girl. They were quite the cute pair.

Another highlight of the trip was our big excursion out to Alcatraz Island via the ferry. We explored the prison, and the boys even got into one of the cells, which was quite exciting for them. I was lucky enough to get locked into one of the solitary confinement cells, which was entirely pitch black inside. Very eerie, and I couldn’t imagine staying sane in that thing for the week or more that prisoners would spend in there. It was also cool to be out on the prison yard and recognize some of the places from lots of classic movies.

We strolled along the Embarcadero where we watched some street performers and bought a $6 sci-fi looking painting of the SF skyline with several moons and planets floating in the sky. They do the paintings in like 5 minutes using spray paint. I never thought I’d buy one of those, but there I was. The kids love it.

And, of course, we found a sour dough bread shop and had clam chowder in a bread bowl. Delicious, as always.

We had plans to do more stuff in the city, but the kids were pooped so we just headed down to Gilroy and dropped in on our old friends, Dave and Marcie Richards. The next day we went to church at our old ward in Gilroy and saw lots of friends from when we lived there over six years ago. We barbecued in the afternoon with the Hales, the Zollingers, and the Richards. It was great to see everyone and we felt a bit nostalgiac for Gilroy, but all in all it solidified for us that we made the right move in coming to NC.

Here are a few pics:

From San Francisco Trip, 2009

San Francisco Trip, 2009

Easter boys

The boys were looking good in their white shirts and ties for Easter. It was a beautiful day and we were lucky to get them to stand still for a few minutes for a photo that will probably be classic to them years from now:

From Easter 2009

1st quarter 2009 adventures

Wesley and his joy school class toured Apex Fire Station #3

From 2009 1Q

We got some snow!

From 2009 1Q

We had “playset pizza” for FHE one night:

From 2009 1Q

Collin had his first Pinewood Derby and took 5th place overall!

From 2009 1Q

Collin ran in his school’s “marathon”, running a full 26 miles over a couple months:

From 2009 1Q

We had lots of fun outside:

From 2009 1Q

Aubrey went wild at a Rock Band party:

From 2009 1Q

Grady kept us entertained:

From 2009 1Q

And Indiana Wesley kept us in line:

From 2009 1Q

And then the pollen came and brought allergies!!

From 2009 1Q

See all these pictures and more in my 2009 1st Quarter photo album.

Wrapping up 2008 — At the beach

After spending Christmas week at home vegging out and just relaxing around the house, we were ready to get out, but weren’t quite sure where to go. Then we remembered that we had always wanted to go to the USS North Carolina battleship memorial down in Wilmington. So we booked a hotel in Carolina Beach for a couple of nights and headed down.

The battleship was very, very cool. The scale of the parts was amazing, from the links on the anchor chains to the 16-inch gun barrels. And the interior of the ship was cool too. The kids loved exploring. Collin started getting anxious when it seemed like we were going in circles down in the underbelly. Perhaps its a sign that he won’t be joining the Navy.

From Bald Head Island and Carolina Beach Trip

The next morning we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise from our hotel room:

From Bald Head Island and Carolina Beach Trip

Then we headed over to Bald Head Island via ferry. On the island there are no cars, so we walked up to Old Baldy Lighthouse and climbed to the top.

From Bald Head Island and Carolina Beach Trip

Then we rented a golf cart and toured around the island, stopping at a few remote and beautiful beaches. It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day.

From Bald Head Island and Carolina Beach Trip

One scary thing was when Owen fell out of the back of the golf cart while we were doing about 12 mph (top speed) and rolled a couple times. He seemed dazed but only came out of it with a few decent abrasions. He’s a tough kid.