A Decade Together!

(one of the earliest I could find of us; Spring 2003)

 

No, your calculator works fine- We just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in December- But it was on this very day, exactly 10 years ago that I met the love of my life.

I'm not the kind of person that remembers relationship "firsts" of any sort, but fortunately, I have the advantage in this case of being able to associate that night with another event, which was, at the time, a very big thing for me- a huge CD release show that my band organized and executed on March 28, 2003. It was our second album and we had put so much time, effort, and money into its production that we wanted to put on a spare-no-expense-or-effort concert at the rather posh Ellen Eccles Theater in Logan, Utah to promote it.

The show sold out and was a huge success, not to mention tons of fun for us on stage. After the show the band was selling and signing CDs, chatting with people and just enjoying the energy and celebrity that is in the air after a great show like that. It was there on the red carpet of the lobby, late into the evening that a good friend and neighbor of mine Miriam Williams introduced me to a cute little bandana-wearing, curly-haired friend of hers that she had dragged along with her that night, named Angie Olsen.

It was probably only a matter of days before I took her on our first date. We went fishing- she got the catch of the day and has been outperforming me ever since!

I'm a lucky guy to have such a wonderful companion as Angie, and the last 10 years have been the best of my life! Love ya, babe!

Scratch That One Off My List

 

 

Ice fishing never really intrigued me until moving to New England. Folks here take the sport much more seriously than I had been exposed to growing up out west. I love fishing, but I hate sitting and waiting. I like the kind of fishing where I am working my way up a stream, constantly reeling, jigging, snagging, etc. Thus, icefishing didn't seem my cup of tea. I wanted to give it a shot though, before I passed any final judgement and I had my opportunity this last weekend. A co-worker had invited me to come with him and a couple of guys that work at a neighboring planning commission to Crystal Lake, near the NH-VT border. The experience was not altogether unpleasant and we actually were pulling up some fish every now and again. The top 6 inches or so of the ice was just slush, which made for some soggy boots and rather chilly down-time, but I have to admit it is quite a thrill rushing to your tip up, pulling in that line hand-over-hand, and yanking out a big fat large-mouth bass. I might be tempted to try it again if the conditions were right.

Dangie on Ice

So Meredith is home to the annual New England Pond Hockey Classic, which is this huge weekend-long tournament on the frozen bay. This year over 200 teams registered. We took Mona down on the bay and she seemed to be wondering "how long has this awesome park been here?" It was really crowded, but we went back again Sunday afternoon and I got to try out my new hockey skates. For a couple months in the winter, the bay is dotted with ice-fishing "bob" shacks. In a couple of weeks there will be the annual ice-fishing tournament on the same bay and we're told that the hundreds of bobs out there make quite an impressive sight. I'll be sure to take a picture!

The Bears and I

I know we just posted recently, but something totally awesome happened today. We had bear visitors! A momma and her two cubs were up a tree in our next-door neighbor's yard! It was so cool!

Canoe Trip

I'm not going to try to catch any one up on our life since the last post. Suffice it to say, life is good. Instead, please enjoy the following pictures:

 We spent the night at the Ackers' home. They live in our branch (1hr and 20min away!). The next morning we went canoeing on Long Pond, where Brother Acker said we were sure to see beavers.

 And we saw four! That speck between the islands is a beaver.

 It was an incredibly hazy and wet morning, but it was so beautiful. For whatever reason there is this really odd cairn thing on the water. We don't know why... or how??

 No matter how hard we tried to point them out to Mona, she insisted on looking the opposite direction any time there were beavers to be seen. The next two pictures are from previous excursions.

 These are mushrooms, not flowers.

View of Squam Lake. Nevermind the girls in the center frame, they were laying there the whole time talking on their cell phones. I had to just take the picture with them in it.

Fore-Father's Day

I thought Father's Day would be an appropriate time to honor my Father as well as his (and my) fore-fathers. I had recently learned about my New Hampshire heritage. Here's how it goes:

My dad is Von Callister (b.1947 - Delta, UT)
his dad is Joseph Lathel Callister (b.1909 - Oak City, UT)
his dad is Joseph Platte Callister (b.1879 - Oak City, UT)
his mom is Caroline Eliza Lyman (b.1851 - Salt Lake City, UT)
her dad was Amasa Mason Lyman (b.1813 - Lyman, NH)

Amasa was an early convert to the church and actually an apostle while Joseph Smith was alive. He was born in the tiny northern New Hampshire town of Lyman, named so for the Lyman settlers of the town some 30 years earlier. Amasa's father (Roswell Lyman) died when Amasa was only 5 and Amasa's grandpa on his mother's side (Perez Mason b.1747) played a big role in raising him until he too passed away when Amasa was 11 or 12. At the age of 17 Amasa heard the missionaries that were passing through Lyman and was baptized and moved to upstate New York to join the saints.

I was anxious to research and try to locate some graves of these people. I discovered that Perez Mason was actually very easy to find since he had been a veteran of the Revolutionary War and most war veteran's graves are kept on record. So we knew the cemetery he was buried in and thought we might get lucky and find that Roswell and Perez's wife are also buried there. Well, we took the drive (I think it was about 1hr 15min) to the North Monroe cemetery right on the NH/VT border where we quickly found Perez's headstone and his wife's right alongside. It was pretty cool!! Unfortunately we didn't find Roswell there, nor at the two other cemeteries we searched in the area. It's entirely possible that he is buried in Lebanon, NH where his parents and at least some of his siblings are buried. Lebanon is only about an hour away from us, and might be a fun trip some other time.

It was pretty thrilling to be standing next to my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather's grave!
Happy Father's Day Dad, and happy Father's Day Perez :)

Our Home... and a Canoe!!

Come one, come all and take the tour of our home. This post is in response to popular demand. Enjoy the video tour. 

Another great reason for posting is to tell you all about my birthday present to myself. I have been keeping an eye on Craigslist and every yard sale I've passed since we got here, looking for a boat. You practically cannot live here and not have some sort of watercraft. I found a canoe that was nearby, in great shape, and best of all: super cheap. I picked it up yesterday and just took it out today for the first time. It was awesome :)