Happy 4th of July everyone! Because the 4th fell on a Sunday, we celebrated with a BBQ and fireworks yesterday. The day started with a parade and ended with fireworks in Riverton. All in all a great day that we got to spend together as a family and with our great friends the Benjamins.

To commemorate, I made a quick video on Juli’s phone. Sorry to inundate you with home video. It will end once the novelty of the iPhone 4 wears off.

Juli says that the music in this video is bad and cheesy but I say it’s great. It’s a song from the movie The Patriot. Quite timely, if you ask me. What do you think?

2 of my favorite pics:

Joslin is a little stinker. That kid will stay up all night if we let her. She is our proverbial night-owl. She also likes to sleep in like her mother. Around 4pm, she gets really sleepy and will more often than not try and take a nap. This only re-enforces the cycle of staying up late and waking up late. If she takes a nap at 4 then she is not going to go to bed until at least 10 or 11 pm.

To combat this afternoon siesta, I have instituted what I call, the eyeball check. It’s pretty hilarious. If I walk up and she is asleep, I scream ‘EYE BALL CHECK’! For some reason, she responds to it and opens her eyes so I can see them. Anything else and she mumbles something like “5 more minutes please” and rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Juli got her new phone that has video capability yesterday so I decided to make this little video so you can see what I mean. Enjoy!

Eyeball Check from Brandon Beecroft on Vimeo.

Well well well. Look who decided to post on the family blog. Yah I know, it’s been a while. I’ve been busy. What can I say. A few things have happened since posting last so I thought I might do a quick update. Truth be told, this will probably just be some pictures and I will work my way backwards to past happenings.

We got back from a Beecroft family reunion in Duck Creek 2 weeks ago. My parents got a cabin that well, was better than any of the houses anyone in my family has ever owned. It was also set in a beautiful area. Duck Creek, if you didn’t know was near Brian Head ski resort.

We were pretty apprehensive about driving the 4 hours to the cabin because Hailey has been having some issues that make her feel like going to bathroom every 10 minutes. Both Juli and I were not looking forward to the trip. Fortunately, she did really well.

We were the first to arrive and so we got to pick the best room! Hey, you snooze you lose. We were actually really late from when we planned on being there so it’s not like we rushed to get there before everyone.

This cabin was incredible. The only reason I call it a cabin is because it was made of logs, but I mean really. When you have real hardwood floors, granite countertops, state of the art appliances, big screen TV’s in all the major rooms with satellite and high speed WiFi, and jacuzzi bathtubs, it really was a mansion. Oh did I forget to mention the pool table upstairs in the loft on which I schooled Gage like 6 times in a row on how to play. He must have kept forgetting to bring is notebook and pencil though cause he wasn’t learning anything. In fact I don’t believe he ever beat me. EVER. We were fortunate that it was such a great setup with lots to do inside because it was cold and even snowed on us for a little bit.

While there we also celebrated my Dad’s and Mindy and Eric’s birthdays. Tia cooked what started to be an amazing cake but sadly turned into well, I’m not sure what to call it. The thought and effort were valiant though.

On Sunday ‘we’ went to church. And by ‘we’ I mean ‘not all of us but some of us’. And by ‘not all of us but not some of us’, I mean ‘very few of us’. That’s all I am going to say about that.

Monday came and we decided to go to Bryce Canyon. We had never been there before so this was going to be fun. Again, a little unsure of how we would deal with Hailey but she ended up doing really well! In fact when we pawned her off to Bommy, the whole trip became a lot more pleasant, for us.

Whenever you travel in large groups be sure to pack extra sunscreen and patience. We stopped an untold number of times to ‘go to the bathroom’ and for ‘soda breaks’. I think we wasted half our day stopping at convenience stores. One unexpected result however of all the stops and such was that we got a lifetime entry pass to any national park in the US because of Hailey. Mindy and Eric have one as well now because of Dean. We were encouraged not to drive into the park and take the shuttle. My mom told the lady that we needed to drive in because of Dean and Hailey. We couldn’t really know when we would need to leave and didn’t want to be constrained to a bus schedule. The lady inquired why and when she found out, she mentioned that we should ask about a pass into the park because of disability. The lady at the gate had us sign some forms and the next think I know, I am being handed a lifetime pass into any national park. Wow. What a blessing. We were thinking we would only be getting a day pass. That was a very pleasant suprise.

Hiking the park was, let’s just say interesting. We hiked a trail that I would be nervous hiking by myself much less with a 3 year old girl, a son who thinks he is invincible and an autistic daughter that has balance issues. This trail was crazy steep with near sheer drops to one side. The trail was switch back all the way down. Fortunately, no one was hurt and everyone made it down ok.

Here are some pics from Bryce Canyon.

Getting out of the canyon actually turned out to be easier than hiking down. Along the way, Juli made friends with someone that had a daughter that had similiar issues as Hailey. I can’t remember what it was but she made fast friends and they talked the whole way up the trail. Leave it to Juli to find someone else with similar problems as us, make friends and exchange contact information. That girl is like a magnet when it comes to finding people that may need help or support and just need someone to talk to regarding special kids.

After hiking out of the park, Hailey decided what this ranger was saying about the park was interesting. All on her own, she walked to the front in the middle of the presentation and told the lady she is sitting by to scoot over. She needed more room to sit down. The lady obliged and Hailey sat and listened to the presentation.

The following day, we decided to do some more hiking. We went to a place called Cascade Falls. Unfortunately the trail was closed so we spent some time at Navajo Lake. Just good quality family time.

All and all we had a great time. Games were played, sporting events watched on TV, a lot of soda and snacks were consumed and eventually it was time to go home. Wednesday we all packed up and said our goodbyes. I was looking forward to leisurely drive home in time to get unpacked and relax a little before going back to work. On our way of of Filmore, going about 80mph we had a blowout on the back driver side tire. Sacred me to death. Changing a tire on an interstate was not fun.We got it done though and made it home safe and sound.

If you want more regular posts, you really should get on Juli. I did in fact buy her a computer and so she has no excuses for not posting. Let her know you would like to hear from her.

I have placed all of the pictures from the trip in a flickr set that can be located here.

Pictures from our recent garden planting effort. yes! Joslin IS wearing a coat.

What gives old man winter!? We woke up this morning expecting a nice warm spring day and instead we got snow. Notice the poor tulips under the light. How sad…

I have two of them! We baked cookies last night for FHE. Everyone had a good time and yes cookie dough WAS harmed in the making of these pictures.

Enjoy!

Contrary to popular belief, I was a good kid growing up. I generally did what I was told and behaved myself. Of course, I did have my quirks and nuances but for the most part, I was good. A Saint by today’s standards. One thing I didn’t quite do so well was listen to my dad.

When I was young, my dad wanted me to play basketball. By about 5th grade however, I was deeply immersed in soccer. I loved the game. I thought it was the bees knees. There wasn’t a season that I didn’t sign up for. Me and the fellas made it early to the grade school playground in order to get more soccer time in.

As I moved from grade school (really, the peak of my soccer glory years) to Junior High, I tried out and made the school team. What a thrill. We had a great year in which I believe we played for the championship.

During this time period, I vividly recall my dad wanting me to play basketball. Being the know-it-all son of a gun (I was going to cuss but Juli is not happy with me right now) that I was, I resisted all attempts to get me to play basketball. I kept insisting that soccer was going to hit it big in America and that there would be plenty of opportunities to become a soccer star. (Wish I could take those thoughts back)

Anyways, I quickly came to the realization that I was not that good. I don’t know if it was that I couldn’t get out of the way of my own feet or if the little Mexican boys that tried out for the team were just that much better than me. As I looked forward, I saw the writing on the wall. A white boy on a team with a bunch of Mexican boy’s that could run circles around me. Not going to happen. My only shot was to be the token white boy but that didn’t happen either. So, I began looking at basketball.

My dad went and played down at the Del Rio building in Chandler every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30am. I began going with him. I must have only been 14 or so at the time and I was awkward as all get out. I was used to kicking the ball not bouncing it. Touching the ball with your hands was, well, forbidden! As I went though, and they started to let me play because they were sometimes short a person, I began to really love it. The guys that played were super nice and generally patient with me. My confidence began to grow.

Fast forward a few years. Ok, maybe not a few but that issue has been well document already. Fast forward to now and I love to play the game of basketball. In moving to Utah, I thought, “oh boy! I am moving to basketball heaven!” Little did I know that was not the case. I was told that we needed to move farther south. Well, we moved farther south. The other Saturday, I drove around to no less than 7 stake centers looking for a pickup game. I finally found one but it was already late and they were pretty much done. As I complained to a friend in the ward that no one played basketball in our area, he mentioned some guys play just down the street from me each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. WHAT!? They even play at 5:30am. I became excited and each day they were playing I would say the night before, I am going to go tomorrow. Umm, did you know that 5:30am is really early? It is. Trust me.

So long story short, I am back to playing basketball Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I am not that good and if I had listened to my dad and started when I was younger, I probably would be in the NBA by now. I’m pretty sure of it.

I love my girls. From the littlest to the biggest. Each day I get a reminder of how wonderful they are. Let me tell you a few stories about them.

Joslin my youngest is a little princess. Today she brought Juliette her makeup and said, “Mom! Make me a princess! I need makeup on!” I immediately said, “NO! No makeup on until you’re sixteen!” I have never seen a body crumple to the floor so fast. She was literally a limp rag doll on the floor completely heartbroken by her mean ol’ dad. Sobbing and with pleading eyes, she turned to her momma to plead her case. I turned my head to continue with my delicious dinner that my wonderful wife made when all of the sudden the crying stopped. “Hmm, that’s unlike her” I thought. I didn’t quite see it but I suspect that “momma” put some lipstick on her princess. UPDATE** Just confirmed, Juli did in fact place some lipstick on that girl to make her into a princess. Good to know that I am not the only softie when it comes to Jos the Boss the mighty mighty princess.

Both Joslin and Hailey are special special girls. Each has a distinct personality and way of doing things. One thing they do that is very similiar however is they like to mother things. Hailey mother’s her animals and plays with them all the time. Joslin likes to mother her dolls and make sure that they are covered in blankets and not cold. A few weeks ago, I came home and as I was getting out of my car, I twisted my back just right. By the time I got into the house I was in pain. I slowly climbed the stairs like a decrepit old man and barely made it to bed. As I laid there, Joslin came in to ‘check’ on me. She was asking all sorts of questions and genuinely concerned for my well being. Every so often she would kiss my arm or cheek and ask if that made me feel better. Of course it warmed my heart but my back, well I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it still hurt. After a few minutes of this, I figured she got tired of me because she abruptly left the room. I closed my eyes trying not to concentrate on the pain and I slowly drifted off. (It had been a long day after all!) All of the sudden I felt wetness on my forehead. As I groggily and grouchily came to, I realized that it was Joslin kissing me on the forehead. Having drifted off for my 5 o’clock nap, I didn’t realize that Jos came back into the room. She had come back with a doll and one of her favorite pink blankets. I was snug as a bug wrapped in her blanket with a doll sitting on my chest. She was sitting next to me and had been kissing me better. And people wonder why I am wrapped around her little pinky finger!

That was my kissin’ story. Now for the cussin’ story.

Juli and I gave away our TV’s before we moved to Utah. The events surrounding said TV giveaway are pretty well documented here.. To compensate for the loss of that entertainment we turned to the internet. Yes, I know, the internet, that magical and mysterious place where all your dreams can come true. At least that is what the brochure from that multi-level marketing company promoting a miracle drink that cures everything from Asthma to Zinc Deficiency Dermatitis said. Anyways, Juli and I found a wonderful website called Hulu.com. They show our favorite TV programmes on the interwebs! w00t!

So Juli and I have been closet TV watchers since giving our real TV’s away. It has been great because we don’t have to be slaves to a time frame. We can watch our favorite shows anytime we want. Sorry back to the story. Juli and I are watching a TV programme the other night and boom! A cuss word. Not a bad one, in fact it’s pretty common for this particular piece of profanity to be played on the airwaves. This word however was said in a funny context. Let me clarify, it was the way in which the word was said and the saying with out the word would have been meaningless. Lo and behold, Juli starts busting up laughing! Now, I am shocked. I have been married to this lady for nigh 11 years this March and I am speechless. Anyone who knows Juli, knows that she is the most kind and caring and righteous do-gooder you will ever meet. Well now you know her dirty dark secret. Her flaw, if you will, is that cussin’ doesn’t bother her and sometimes it even makes her laugh. Next time you see her, walk up to her and cuss at her. See what she does. There is a good chance she will giggle.

As I thought about this incident and reflected on past incidents, I realized that this was not the first time such an event had occurred. I remember one time back in 2002 when we were in the theater watching The Adventures of Pluto Nash starring Eddie Murphy, that a cuss word was said and Juli busted up laughing. It wasn’t even that funny.

Now, I am not talking major profanity you would hear at a Sam Kinnison show nor am I talking about ‘farm language’. I am talking your every day bible swearing that cracks her up. Sometimes I intentionally select scriptures like Genesis 22:3 just so I can hear Juli swear in front of the children. So please don’t walk up to her and drop an F-bomb. That would not be funny. As I wrote this, I actually imagined someone doing that and thought, “Hey that probably would be funny.” But please, still don’t do it. Unless I am around with my camera in hand and can get a picture of the moment.

As you have read this, you might have thought to yourself, ‘Wow, that was bold of Brandon to out Juli like that!” Well it was, and I am pretty darn sure that it is going to be a cold night tonight. I had to tell this story though. Why you ask? Well, a few weekends ago, we went out with some really good friends of ours and the subject came around to family blogs. The consensus was that reading about peoples perfect lives was well, boring and nonsensical. You can’t connect with perfection and it disingenuous to say the least.

I wrote this post to show that the Beecroft’s are not perfect. They are funny and quirky and shy and outgoing and just plain crazy everyday folk. To make things fair, I plan on posting a pretty embarrassing story about my addiction to Little House on the Prairie. That Michael Landon has to be like the 14th or 15th best actor of all time. Not to mention his directorial skills! Plan on reading that in the not too distant future.

I love photography. For me, when I see the images I have taken come up on screen, it’s like Christmas. Did I get the image that I wanted? Is it something I will cherish, or is it another pair of socks from Grandma? Not that there is anything wrong with socks from Grandma. In most cases, it’s those mundane yet ever so practical images that we remember most. They help us remember things as they really were.

That being said, I am always looking for the gems, those fleeting moments that occur once. Capture that and I feel like I am on top of the world. It’s amazing that photographers can spend their whole life capturing these moments and in the end, it only amounts to a few hours. Yet the images taken represent so much more than that.

One of the reasons I bought my camera was because I had a class at school. I was tired of waiting for my turn on the ‘school’ camera so I convinced Juli that I needed one to be successful in that class. That was a long hard fought battle but I finally passed that measure through the appropriations committee. I quickly learned that I could justify my camera purchase by saving some money on family pictures. I mean really, you get all dressed up, go to a mall somewhere and have some teenager who doesn’t care about you, snap a few photos in front of a cheesy starry night backdrop and then pay lots of money for the privilege? Really? No thanks.

Fast-forward a few years and it has become so much more. John Loengard once said,

“Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture. If a photograph looks perishable we say, Gee, I’m glad I have that moment.”

That’s how I feel about the following moment. Hailey received a cute hat and scarf for Christmas. Unfortunately she will never wear it. It’s too much sensory input for her to handle. Joslin on the other hand put it right on and proceeded to act like a little princess. Ever since seeing that, I knew that there was a picture that needed to be captured. Once we got back from Christmas vacation, I decided to get this picture I had in my head out and shared. The other night we sat down for a session with Joslin and the following ‘perishable’ moment occurred.

I hope it brings a smile to your face as it did mine.

–

You can see a larger version of this photo and more from this session by visiting my newly redesigned photoblog at: 47Syndrome

A funny thing happened to me this morning, I woke up fat and old. Now you might be of the opinion that age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese or bottle of whiskey and to a certain extent that might be true. But right now, in this instant, it hurts. It really hurts. Mainly because my sisters have been sending really mean text messages about how old I am today.

I guess turn about is fair play. I tease them incessantly on their birthdays. My favorite is when I keep saying the same thing over and over but each time I raise my voice a little louder until I am screaming. That’s a classic and even though they curse at me by the time the joke is over, I know they are laughing. Of course that laughing could be dementia and senility on their part or mine.

Speaking of jokes, have you heard the one about the little old man that sat on this porch when an elderly lady walked up and asked, “I couldn’t help notice how happy you looked. What is your secret for such a long happy life?”

The little old man replied, “Well I drink 1500 ounces of Dr. Pepper a day, I never exercise and I eat most of my meals at Burger King or McDonalds.”
Shocked, the little old woman replied, “That’s amazing! How old are you?”

“26”

Umm, I forgot where I was going with this……
…..
…..

Oh yeah. That could be described as me. I’m probably half a happy meal away from an early exit. Gotta change that and change that soon.

Another thing I gotta changes is being more diligent in writing on this blog. Hopefully you haven’t noticed that the last meaningful post was back in October of last year! Holy Cow! And by the way, I work for the church and in no certain terms it was made very clear to me that there is no such thing as a holy cow. Anyways, the last meaningful post was quite some time ago. What happened during Thanksgiving, our Christmas trip to Arizona, or all the renovations we have done on the house? Well, all I can say is that I have nothing. Hopefully good records were kept in Heaven so that we an all look back and reminisce. A lot has happened and lots of time has passed and I don’t really remember all that occurred. And the things I do remember I don’t feel like writing down. Remember I am a crotchety old man now. Suffice it to say, life is good. We are healthy and looking forward to this year. Here’s to a happy and fun 2009!

Or 2010, depending on if you remember what year it is!

(Now where did I place that 44oz Dr. Pepper?)