Day 23 - Document a mentor | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 22 - Document the thing you spend most of the day looking at | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 21 - Document a neighbor | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 20 - Document the inside of your fridge | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 19 - Document a room in your house | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 18 - Document boredom | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 17 - Document something you made | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 16 - Document a life | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer – Amanda | Here’s the newest life in our lives.

Day 15 - Document your commute | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | During certain parts of the year it is completely black out, other parts of the year the sun is out already, but for a portion of the year this is what I drive to work looking at.

Day 14 - Document a friend | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | Here are two friends at the park in Blanding, UT on the way home from seeing family.

Day 13 - Document hopfulness | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | This is the scale at work where I weigh in.  It is going to the left which instills hopefulness.

Day 12 - Document the highlight of your day | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | This was the highlight of my weekend because a friends came up and we got to stay up way too late and play it together.

Day 11 - Document your favorite shoes | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer -  | Hoping Amanda will fill the gap on this one..

Day 10 - Document your coffee break | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | Hmmm, don’t drink coffee..  Here’s my morning shake and a little TRS.

Day 9 - Document inspiration | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | While I do like this picture it is not the picture or event that is inspiration.  The inspiration is the woman in it.  It has been a pretty interesting year, and she has dealt with a lot.  She is truly inspiring.  So many other things should be on here, namely my wife and kids.  They keep me going everyday, and there are many pictures of them underneath so here are a few other random things.  A scale, it has been motivating as I am trying to lose weight.  It sure is motivating to see that slide to the left.  A sunset, there’s just something about them that is indescribable.  Thirdly is a picture from the Wallow Fire where I was live streaming a press conference.  It was such an intense expereience and few weeks, but I was inspried to keep information posted to http://wallow.us during those few weeks.

      

Day 8 - Document something funny | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | Not much to say about this one.  We were helping Mylea with her goat for 4-H, and had some time to kil before we hauled it back to the ranch.  This is what Rustyn found.  Today’s honorable mention is my Great Aunt Gwen.  My uncle Jeff has given her a hard time  that he was going to dye her hair purple for years.  This is what the family brought her right before Halloween.  The other is a picture of Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear which is both a funny show, and it is also a funny screen grab.

   

Day 7 - Document autumn | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | Yesterday found me home not feeling well, and getting Rustyn feeling better as well, but the weather did not disappoint.  While I would have hoped for a drive into the mountains, not scarred by the Wallow Fire, for some leaf coloring changing goodness this is what we ended up getting.  It snowed again, and this is what my Autumn is looking like.

Day 6 - Document art | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | It seemed odd taking pictures of pictures, kind of like some Inception action going on.  I ended up choosing the work done by a high school auto class with a plasma cutter.  It was a Christmas present a few years ago.  The honorable mention is another plasma cut cow head, and a pencil drawing done by Kim Trickey of my father and grandfather at his last roping before he died of cancer in Reserve, New Mexico.

   

Day 5 - Document something new | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | I totally called that yesterday with my daughter in the dress!  Last night the wind blew in the first snow of the season, which I was always told growing up that you didn’t eat the first snow of the season because it was cleaning everything out of the air or something like that.  Looks like old man winter decided to join us.  It is pretty chilly outside this morning with the wind blowing.

Day 4 - Document something old | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | Alex is obviously not old, but her blessing dress was the same one worn by her mom.  Not that her mom is old, but to an infant that is a pretty old dress.  Something old, and something new.  Honorable mention goes to the Salt Lake Temple when we went up to see Chubbz get sealed.  The other two are the carnival (which I’d rather no know how old the rides are, and the other is our football field.  Again, it’s not the field that’s old, but the past time of Friday Night Football!

      

Day 3 - Document happiness | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | I went through a few pictures recently taken and this hit me and what happiness really is.  I have a few pictures of my kids with huge smiles on their faces, my mother riding on of her new colts, and my mom and Rustyn wrestling yet this is by far the winner.  After all, it envelopes all the other pictures mentioned above.

         

Day 2 - Document a pet | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | My wife informed me that she in fact had taken the picture below so I submit one of my own.  This is a baby goat born on the ranch in 2011 that was named Tangled.  It was the runt of the littler, or whatever you call goats born at the same time, and still to this day is smaller than the rest.  Below it are two honorable mentions that I had to post up as well.  The first is Rustyn holding Tangled as well, and then the other is Luna and Ko resting.

  

Day 2 - Document a pet | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Amanda | This is my son’s pet, Little Bit. She is a miniature horse that my parents won in a silent auction. If you can’t tell, they are friends.

Day 1 – Document Street Style | Camera - iPhone 4 | Photographer - Wes | Here is a photo I took on my way to DJ a Homecoming dance. It was very cold and gray when I left town, and the further I drove towards Sanders, the prettier the sunset got. Here is the road on my way.

Anyway, Divergent is what appears to be the first book in a series following the theme of something horrible happened to the world, and this is how people cope now.  In this scenario Triss, or Beatrice, has come of age where she must choose what faction or group of people that she will ultimately live with and become.  There are five factions and each represent a different mentality and purpose for the population as a whole.  Trouble occurs when she is tested to find her faction tendencies, and she comes back divergent.  This means she displays multiple faction traits, and is a big no-no.  The text on the covers states “One choice can tranform you,” and that is what we see as Triss discovers who she is an changes to fit the situation she is presented.

The book sticks to her experience to strive to become one of her faction while trying to figure out what it means to be divergent.  The book keeps a good pace, and wraps up well for the sequel titled Insurgent is slated for a May 2012 release.  It will be interesting as I’m not accustomed to waiting for a sequel to come out.  All of the series I’ve done so far had been published (okay, I had to wait a week for Death Cure to come out to finish the Maze Runner).  It will be like waiting for the next Lord of the Rings or Back to The Future to get released in theaters.  It will be good to pick this back up next year in April to refresh what happened in the book to get ready to find out how “One choice can destroy you.”

We then headed to our hotel, the Wingate off the 101 in Scottsdale near Westworld.  I would recommend this property for the stay and amenities, should you ever have a reason to be in North Scottsdale.  The kids enjoyed the pool, the gym had great Procor equipment, and the breakfast was filled with many choices.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the Arena.  The roping was way behind schedule, and Clancey and I ended up helping with the barrier.  It was very sad as the livestock were sick, small, and some were even blind.  It made it hard for the kids to compete appropriately and some parents were upset (with good reason).  I ended up flagging the breakaway, and during the tie down I had to flag the start and then run down and play safety for the kids.  The lady running the Gymkhana (pronounced GYM-KAAAAAHHHH-NA in Maricopa County) came up and talked with me and I ended up volunteering to help.  I flagged the rodeo, and Clancey and I even got to rake the barrels and poles.  (Hand raking made it hard to provide an equal opportunity for each contestant.. at least that is what one mom came and told us and she said we were not doing a good job). It was hot, long, and slow but Mylea competed amanzingly getting a 2nd in the Poles, a 4th in the Barrels, and a 5th in the Goat Tying.

*A great side-note that needs to be addressed is that the horse Mylea is riding the Barrel Racing photos is Chemo.  He was born on the day that my late Grandfather, Marlen Rogers, had his first Chemotherapy treatment.  He is the only animal on the Ranch still alive when my grandpa was.  That horse has taken me to 4-H State so my dad could rope on him.  (His first trip was a bit exciting, being at the State Fair grounds with all the carnival rides)  He then took Clancey, and now Mylea is riding him at Westworld this year.  He is an amazing horse and definitely is an inductee in the Roger’s Ranch Hall of Fame!  That old man is a great animal and still takes care of us to this day.  Thanks bud.

We finished off the day, dusty and dirty at Outback Steakhouse for a meal with the family and Jenn Booth.  The hotel pool was nice and Mom and Clancey even pulled their pants up and chilled at the Jacuzzi.  Sunday morning, we all got up, and packed and headed home.  We are headed to Saint Johns to see Gwen which will be a nice end to the weekend.

The story didn’t exactly hook me, but it was enough for me to want to see it through to the end.  They kids used their own version of vulgarities that ended up getting rather annoying about midway through the first book.  Had they been the real words I think it would have been a major turn off to the series, but the removal from our vernacular made it bearable enough to finish.   The third book, “Death Cure” just came out so go ahead and have at the series.  I have such a hard time waiting after I’ve started reading, so having it out in it’s entirety surely helped.

One year ago today..

Rarely have I thought where I was a year ago or five years ago, but today is a little bit different, if for only this September 29th. A year ago today while driving from work to a clients office I saw my Aunt Britt driving with her hazards on down main street . I didn’t think too much of it, and continued my drive to Eagar. When I got into Eagar I got a call from my mom telling me that my Grandmother, Bonnie Rogers, had been in an accident. I quickly turned around and met her at the corner where my Grandfather’s car lot once was. (I was later told by a friend that my Grandfather was outside the parking lot often, and she believed that he was there that day to greet her) There I saw an overturned blue Datsun pickup, and a single cab Dodge truck that I was told had just been pulled from on top of the Datsun.  The dodge truck had struck my Grandmother’s vehicle, flipped it, and then plowed on top of it.

That accident has set the tone for the last year, and will ripple into the future for my family. So much has happened since, and after a few things have come to a close I’ll give my opinion about what has been going on, but I thought it appropriate to attach the document below.  Bonnie’s death has left a gapping whole in our family, and we are still coping and adjusting to life with out her.  So much more I’d like to say, but don’t have the words right now..

Never Say Farwell..

Ready Player One, is a technology infused 80s pop culture movie about a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMO or MMORPG).  You follow a number of characters in their journey for an Easter Egg placed inside of a game that would lead to riches beyond riches.  The 80s references come again and again, and for someone that know’s about 80s movies, music, and video games it is fun to catch them as they are snuck in.  Ernest Cline did an excellent job of roping me in, and from the beginning I was wishing that it was a trilogy of books instead of a single novel.  If you are a geek at all you will enjoy Ready Player One.