Catching Up

Well, I have not updated this blog in so long, that I feel like I need to do some catching up. Where to start. I guess I left off with work changing last time so I will start with updating that. As previously stated, Land Title closed down and I am now a Busincess Center Manager for Commonwealth Title. It is a new business structure for Title companies and we are one of the first companies under the LandAmerica companies to go to this. So far it is working out great. My responsibilities are totally different from what I used to do. I am no longer on the title side of things, but on the Escrow and Sales side instead. In additiion, I am responsible for running my business center like it's own little companie. I am responsible for the Profit and Loss statement and am directly compensated based on the profitability on my business center. With the housing market the way it is....that is tough right now. I did recently get some additional help in the form of a high revenue generating unit that we hired away from another local title company. they may be just what I need to get profitable, even in this market and their future potential is even better! Church life is going great and home life is the best.

Toni is loving the stay at home mom life. She was recently released from her chuch calling with the Young Women and now is part of the Primary. I guess it is her time to spend with Dakota now more than with Devynne. She said that she loves the primary and the women she works with in the presidency, but she still misses the girls in Young Womens.

Devynne is growing up before our eyes. She has a boy friend now (even though we try to tell her a steady boyfriend is not a good thing!) He has yet to take her on a real date, but he does come over to our house sometimes and "hangs out" with her. She is currently cheering at the High School basketball games but really can't wait for those to be over. then she gets to go find a job so that she can have money of her own (Dad likes this idea a lot!)

Dylan has become quite the guitar player. He now has an aquistic guitar and an electric/aquistic guitar. He can be found at any given moment to be playing something on it. He will often run up to his room to do something or get something and then pick up his guitar and start playing and then forget what he went up there to do in the first place! He is a fairly mellow teenager but still tries us by testing what he can get away with. Over all though, he is great fun to have around.

Dakota is loving school this year. I think a lot of it has to do with the girls are crazy about him. He even got a better Christmas present from a girl thatn Devynne got from her boyfriend! He is very popular and love the attention. He is still VERY active. So much so that we have to constantly bring him back to earth and settle him down! He also got a guitar for christmas and is learing how to play. I think he likes doing what his big brother does.

Cadie is crazy over books right now. First it was the Harry Potter books and now it is the Twilight Series. She also wants to read Eragon. She is doing really well in school with all A's and B's and loves playing games of all kinds. She baby sits a lot so she is raking in the $$$. I am impressed by how well she saves for big ticket items that she really wants.

Cody is playing in the Jr. Jazz basketball league. It is fun to talk to him about it because he acts all shy and humble about it. I went to see a game and he knew I was coming. He told me to not expect to much because he is not that good. Well, he scored 18 points that game, twice what anyone else on the team did and he had lots of assist too. He has a real head for the game and used his smarts many times to creat opportunities for he or his teamates to score. He has some real talent and was just being modest with me. Since that game, he moced up to a more competative league and is doing really well.

Carson is also really good at basketball. He is not on a team yet, but playing with him and watching him shoot, you can see he has a talent for it. He is just active in everyway. Loves playing anything that means he gets to run around. He is also a huge fan of the NBA and loves to watch the games and talk about the players. Derek Fisher is his favorite player. One of the main reasons is because family is so important to Fisher. He loves the way Fisher takes care of his sick daughter, even if it meant he left the Jazz. You don't see that in kids today. They only want the high jumping, slam dunking all star. Not Carson, character means somthing to him.

The sad news since the last time I wrote is my big brother, Rich passed away. He had an opporation on his back and we thought everything was going fine in the recovery. Then one morning, he just did not wake up. He passed away during the night in a very peaceful sleep. Apparently, Rich had an enlarged heart that no one new about and the pain medication he took caused the enlarged heart to stop. We always new he had a big heart, we just didn't know that it was literal. I miss him so much.

Well, I guess that catches you up on us a little bit. I will have to do better about being current on this blog again. I got an email from my mission friend Critchfield this week and it made me realize, this blog is important to keep current.

Take care,

Steve

Work is a changing

Well it looks like things will be changing some for us. On Monday, it was announced that Land Title of Nevada, after 33 years in business, will be merging into a local sister company of ours, Commonwealth Land Title. Land Title will be going away as they feel it is better to stick with their nationally known name.

Things in this industry have already been pretty bad. We had to make employee cuts several times over the past 12 months. I have gone from managing 40 people down to managing 12 people. Out of those 12, only 4 are going to move on with the new company. So things are pretty gloomy around here right now.

As for Steve, well....we are really not sure about me right now. The new company says that the really like me and want to keep me around. They have even put name name in as a candidate for a position that would be a promotion for me. But it looks like we won't find out about that for at least 2-3 months. So in the mean time, I just have to hold on and show them I can excell at whatever they throw my way! I guess we will just go day by day and take things as they come. I feel surprisingly good and have faith that one way or another, things will work out for us.

Girls Camp

Devynne went off to girls camp a couple of weeks ago. They went to a little place near Zion National Park, in Utah. There are a lot of activities that the girls got to do while they were there. It looks like they had a ton of fun.

I am not sure, but I think the only reason Devynne agreed to do the Zip Line was to go meet this guy. Apparently, ALL of the girls wanted to have their picture taken with him.

Devynne, Breanna and Kimmie all shared a tent together. I am sure that was one "wild" and hyper tent!

I think they have lost their minds!!!

This was a skit that the girls were doing. Looks like Devynne is a Cowgirl in pajamas!

Havasupai

Last weekend, Dylan and I went on a high adventure campout with the Varsity Scouts into the Havasupai Indian Village in one of the off shoot canyons of the Crand Canyon. It was a 10 mile hike into the campgrounds from the start of the hike. We started the hike at 6:00 p.m. on Wendnesday and got into our campground at 11:00 that night. Carrying a fully loaded pack with everything to eat and sleep with for 4 days is not an easy thing to do!






While we were down there, we were able to see some of the prettiest waterfalls and rivers. The water was this beautiful green color from all of the minerals in the water. But it was clear and you could normally see to the bottom of the river.







The hike in almost killed us so we decided to get a mule to carry our packs back out for us. In fact, out of the 17 people that went, 7 people took a helicopter out and the rest of us got the mules to take our packs out. On the good side, we got out in 4 hours, even though it was up hill. Having no pack made all the difference!















This is about 1/2 of the group at the start of the hike. Notice the happy faces and high energy. That is because we had not yet taken a single step.









This is part of the group at the end of the hike when we came back on Saturday morning. We woke up at 3:00 am and started our hike out of the camp at 4:00 am. This is 4 hours later at the top. notice how tired we look!











Right by our camp was this large stream. We could jump in anytime to cool off. Dylan and the other boys often took these tubes that were given to us by the people who camped here right before us (no doubt because if you pack your stuff out...you leave behind everything you can!) and floated down the stream a hundred yards just for fun.

These last pictures are of the 3 different waterfalls that are all within a mile of our campground. We did lots of swimming in the pools they created. The water was a chilly 60 degrees, but during the day after hiking to get there, it felt really good!

This is me in my hammock. It only weighed 2 pounds so it was really light to bring down. That and a fleece blanket that weighed less than 2 pounds made for perfect sleeping! It was the best thing I brought on the hike with me!

Over all, Dylan and I had a good time. I won't lie, it was the hardest hike I have ever been on. We came away with no real pain or brusies. Just one dollar sized blister on my right foot that has caused me to limp for the last 4 days, but other than that, we held up fine. Would I do it again????

Better ask me a few years from now. I need to let some of the memories of the hike fade a little.

Day at the Lake

What a day. We went out to the lake last Saturday with my brother Rich and Sister Jenn and her friend and Toni, myself and the 3 D's. What a blast. We had so much fun skiing and knee boarding. The water tempurture was fantastic and the part of the lake we were on was pretty smooth. You couldn't ask for a better day. See for yourself!









Dylan and Dakota riding in the front of the boat.












Toni was able to get up on the skiis. She had great form!













Deveynne surprised us all today. She was the first of the kids to volunteer to get in the water and try knee boarding. She got up on her 3rd try and did a great job!











Dylan also impressed us. He was the first one in our imeadiate family to try a 360. He wasn't afraid to try, even after wiping out a couple of times in the attemp. He kept after it and eventually he was successful in performing the "trick".









After watching my sister do a 360, I was not to be out done, so I got back in the water and went after it. It turns out to be much easier than it looks an a ton of fun!

Memorial Day

This year for Memorial Day, Mike and his kids and Tracy and her family and me with my kids all went into Salt Lake to the Wasatch Memorial Gardens and visted the grave site of our Grandma and Grandpa Robinson and Aunt Patti. We also found that right next to them is the grave of our Great Grandma and Grandpa Robinson. Anyway, it was nice to take our children and share stories with them about our grandparents, whom we love so much and have such fond memories of. My son Cody is actually Cody Robinson Dover. He was named that to help carry on the Robinson name.

He enjoyed hearing me tell about the time I used to spend with my Grandpa Grant at McDonalds and Grandpa Grant would have a cookie and say "this cookie says it is for Grant" and then both he and I would try to eat it since we both have the name Grant. It is a simple memorie, but one of my favorites of him.

The Actor

I am a little late in getting this up, but Dylan was in a school play a couple of weeks ago. He is in theater and is really quite a good actor. Especially in the comedy department. He had two main roles in the performance this year and everyone we talked to had nothing but praise for the way the performance went and especially about Dylan's parts.

Over the past couple of years, his class has also put on some improvisational performance. Let me tell you, Whose Line Is It Anway has nothing on Dylan and his class. They did some skits that would have been worthy of putting on that show. Dylan is really quick on his feet and will come back at you with a zinger in a heartbeat. It makes him extreamly fun to be around and very popular at his school. In fact, he was also voted the 8th grade King, by his classmates. No doubt because everyone loves to be around Dylan.

Fathers and Sons

This weekend was our ward Fathers and Sons outing. Dylan, Dakota, my dad and I all went. It was at Willow Creek in the Mount Charleston area. As we were doing 20 mph on the freeway at 4:00 trying to get out of town, the thermonitor read 113 degrees. So the first nice thing about this outing being in the mountains is it was 80 degrees when we got to the camp site. By the time we went to bed it was down around 60. MUCH nicer than the temp in Vegas. We had a really good time. Dad and I played horseshoes and the boys were climbing the nearest hill. We made some dutch oven chicken and potatos that were awesome. Later that night, we got together with all the other fathers and had rootbeer floats and a small presentation of the Restoration of the Arronic Priesthood. It was a nice night. Dakota was beat so right after, he and grandpa went to bed and I followed a few minutes later. I am not really sure what time Dylan made it to bed, but everyone was up by 6:00 the next morning. The Elders Quarum made breakfast burrito's for everyone and then we came home. I am really glad my Dad could go with us this year.

Making Ravioli

Last Sunday, It was Dylan's turn to help me cook. We decided to make Giant 3 Cheese baked Ravioli Alfredo. What a task! I thought that it might be difficult, but it turned out to be really easy. The pasta turned out great and baking the Ravioli was a lot easier than boiling them. It was the most fun I have had cooking in a long time!

Next time, I want to do this with regular Marinara sauce. If only the kids would eat the good food I make!!!

Snakes...

We just had one of the best weekends up in Utah. My cousin Livy got married last weekend so we went up to Utah for the wedding. All of her family came in from Wyoming and Texas. Don and Tammy, June Ann and Keith, J.O. and Becky and all of their kids. Plus a lot of my cousins, George and Susie, Greg, Meghan and Jeff, Mindy my Uncle Mark and Aunt Marilyn. The list goes on and on. We had a bar-b-q at Meghan's on Friday and then the wedding was on Saturday. I can not tell you how fun it was to see all of my cousins. I have not seen a lot of them in quite a while and I loved it. Plus seeing Don and Tammy is always high on my list. I think it helped us push to make a decision to go up to Cody in 2008. I already can't wait.

Since Toni and the 3 D' came up for the wedding and we picked up the 3 C's, we had a lot of fun together. We spent the first night with my Aunt Shannon and her husband Merlin. I can't thank them enough for taking on all 8 of us! They also told us that we should go down to the Store that cousin Brittney works at. It is a fish and reptile store. So we did. Brittney handles the snakes and reptiles for the store. They had a couple of Boa Constrictors, one of them an albino. She took them out and some of us were even brave enough to hold them. Take a look.

Here the kids are just acting normal...I mean silly. Looks there are two party poopers that just didn't want to get into the spirit!
Anyway, all the kids had a great time together and they can't wait until August when the three C's get to come down to Vegas for a week.