Eric's Adventures

I've been busy this summer, but I thought I'd post an update from summer camp and our Boston trip.

Scout camp went pretty well. I went out on Monday morning through Tuesday morning, and then again from Wednesday night to Saturday morning. When I was almost there on Monday morning I had to move to the side of a dirt road to make room for an oncoming car. Well, around Chillicothe Ohio I guess it's always wet. The side of my car fell into some quicksand. I kid you not, the side of the road was at the same level as the main road, but as soon as my van tires went over that area they sunk almost all the way to the axle! I was pretty scared (of doing serious damage, that is). We tried to dig out the mud and leaves and we tried putting some rocks behind the tires, nothing worked. Then we finally agreed to let the scouts push from behind. I didn't want to do this initially because 1) I thought it wouldn't make a difference having a few 12-14 year olds push a huge minivan, and 2) I worried that the van might slide back and hurt some of them. I was shocked when they were able to get the van out.

The rest of Scout camp was okay. We went to a camp that had an "open and flexible program." That means that the boys work on whatever badge they want whenever they want. If the group of scouts is highly motivated then it's a great program, but I would not do it again with our scouts. Some of them were on track to get no merit badges. Luckily the Young Men's President came down with me on Wednesday and whipped them into shape (he's ex army, if you know what I mean). But it was difficult for us, we had to babysit the whole time and follow them to where they were supposed to be. I think that next year I would like to go someplace with a fixed program and a bit closer (this place was 1.5 to 1.75 hours away, the local camp is about 15 minutes away). I didn't get to do much fun stuff.

Now, on to Boston. Alicia said most of it. There were some cool parts about it, but mostly I was unimpressed with Boston. I liked the history, but that's good for a few days while on vacation. I would not want to live there. I didn't like how old everything was. It was terribly inefficient. Terrible roads, buildings that were too small that weren't very functional, cramped subway, too many people, etc., not to mention the unchecked liberalism. I think we tried to do a bit too much, I didn't really enjoy much of it.

I was also worried about presenting my paper at the conference. It went well though, I made my poster pretty simple and easy to understand. I think it attracted more viewers. I will say that it reminded me about how shy I am. I'm just a reserved person, it takes a while for me to feel comfortable around people. I didn't network very much, although there were one or two notable exceptions once I met some people by presenting my paper. It's amazing how small the community is. One guy came up to see my poster and asked for a brief discussion. I noticed that his name tag said Ronald Crochiere. I immediately recognized him as someone who literally wrote the book on Multirate Digital Signal Processing. I use his book all of the time. I'm glad I got published, but I'm not sure I'll do it again. It would be fine if the company would let me do it on business time, but they don't. It's not worth all of the effort and time away from the family. I would rather ride my bike, go camping, play with my kids, watch TV, have a tooth pulled, or stare at the wall. It was a painful process. Maybe if I feel like I can do it more quickly and painlessly I would do it again, but only then.

Next week I'm doing a 50 mile charity bike ride, which should be fun. If anyone wants to donate let me know (although we plan on covering the cost ourselves, along with the fact that our company matches the donations), at least 10% of your money will make it to charities by the time I'm done with that. By the way, did you hear the news about Floyd Landis winning the Tour de France? It was an unbelievable comeback. At any rate, next week I'll post pictures of my bike and an update on the ride.

Boston Trip

If our summer wasn't already packed full of fun, we thought we'd add a little more with a trip out to Boston. It was really a work trip for Eric and a pleasure trip for me, but I hope Eric had fun too. We drove over 1,800 miles in the course of six days but split up the trip with some sight seeing.

Our first stop was Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist tour and got up close and personal with the falls. We have cool blue ponchos to remember it by.

In Boston we had the excitement of seeing the emergency room as Elizabeth decided to try out "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed" and fell off, bumping her arm instead of her head. Her humerus is broken right at the elbow and it's in a cast but should only take about four weeks to heal.


Other than the ER, we went along the freedom trail and saw things like Boston Commons, Old North Church, Paul Revere's house (pictured left), and the USS Constitution. We also went to the Children's Museum where Elizabeth played with dolls while Rachel crawled in the infants area. The cast is only a slight nuisance as you can tell below.





We walked a lot of history but got a taste for the modern too. It was interesting going through "Little Italy" days after they won the world cup. We braved the subways and didn't fare too bad although it was a little tricky with our double wide stroller.

As for the work part that brought us on the trip, Eric had submitted a paper to the IEEE SAM conference. I don't know what all those letters stand for but IEEE is the electrical engineering association. His paper was published and he got to do a poster presentation to anyone who wanted to listen. From what he told me, it went well and he got his company's name and his own out there which is always good.

On our way back from Boston, we stopped off in Palmyra. We saw the Smith farm, Sacred Grove (pictured left), Grandin printing office, and the Hill Cumorah Pageant. The pageant was really cool as it depicted different stories from the Book of Mormon. There is still plenty for us to see in Palmyra if we ever decide to go back.

By the end of our whirlwind trip, we were ready to come home. We saw lots, got through a broken arm, teething child, and a sick child but I would say it was more good than bad. I've only highlighted our trip as all that we did would fill pages; if you're interested in more, just ask.

The crazy month of June

Sorry to all who have been diligently checking our blog and seeing a dearth of entries for June. I felt like I was gone the whole month or otherwise engaged but here's what I've been up to. From June 7 to the 17 I took Rachel and Elizabeth out to California to see my family and attend Melissa's high school graduation. Poor Eric, he was left to the bachelor life for 10 days. Pizza everyday for him :) He was actually really busy with work and didn't have much time for play whereas I on the other hand did.

My play included going kayaking at the beach with my dad, going on a run with him in the hills behind Simi Valley, going to Magic Mountain with my sister Theresa and her friend, and going to the Newport Beach temple with Theresa. It was nice having grandma around who was more than willing to watch my girls for me. I think Elizabeth liked all the attention between grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles. She got to meet two of her cousins as Eric's brother, Greg, brought his family out on a Sunday afternoon. It was a full house on that Sunday because my cousin Sandra brought her family out to see us too so all the boys ran around having fun.


We also hung around the pool and the playground at the neighborhood club which was nice on those especially hot California days. The pinnacle event of course was seeing Melissa at graduation. The bagpipers piped, Melissa walked across the stage and got her diploma or at least the cover that would eventually hold her diploma, and the principal said that she had graduated. I have forgotten a lot about how teenagers are but this trip definitely brought me back into their world, or at least gave me a taste of it again since I'm "so old."


It was good to be with my whole family again but of course it was nice to come home to Ohio. I only got one day of rest before I packed the girls up and headed out to Cub Scout Day Camp. Elizabeth went to a babysitter's house while I took Rachel and 8 very energetic boys out to Camp Birch for some wild, wild, west fun (with other leaders of course). I went to camp Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and got to shoot an arrow (I'm a horrible shot). The boys went swimming, boating, fishing, did BB guns, mining for gold, branding, and much more. I think they had fun and wore themselves along with me out. By the end of the week I was pooped but it was nice to get out in the fresh air and beautiful greenery of Ohio. We even got to enjoy rain most of Friday morning which was interesting.

Now I'm back into my normal routine, at least until next Monday when we leave for our last planned excursion of the summer to Boston with some stops along the way. Even though it's been fun traveling and doing everything I've been able to do, I am looking forward to a little R&R of hanging around the house after our next trip.

I have to write a little about what my girls have been up to. Yesterday, Elizabeth figured out how to climb into Rachel's exersaucer and had fun bouncing around in it, eating Cheerios like a baby. She also put her baby doll under her shirt and was feeding her like I feed Rachel; her motherly instincts are already kicking in. Rachel is rolling all over the place and I keep thinking she's going to crawl anyday now. She gets up on her hands and knees, contemplates moving forward, and then goes back down and rolls to get whatever toy she sees.

Our little sailor girls

For a festive before Fourth of July Sunday I (Alicia) decided to put the girls in red, white, and blue sailor dresses. Don't they look so cute? I've also just started putting Elizabeth in pigtails. With a lot of water and gel they miraculously stay in and make her look more like a little girl than just a toddler. I can't believe how grown up she's getting.