Ode to the Truck Owners

We had a killer storm this last week. Like, Wyoming-snow-blowing-sideways storm. It SUCKED. Royally. In any case, Nikki and I had a bunch of stuff to do, so we were out braving the elements until later into the evening. We made it in one piece, and were just heading up to our house, which happens to be up the mountain a little ways. We were cruising along, going kind of slow to not slide, and we noticed a couple cars on our hill stuck. The road's were just too slick and they couldn't make it to the top. "Too bad," I thought as I drove past them. Well... needless to say, we didn't make it much farther than them before our tires started spinning. Our little two-wheel drive machine just wasn't feeling it anymore. No matter how hard we tried, we weren't going to make it up that hill. Cars behind us got into the same situation, and pretty soon we had a pretty good assortment of cars, vans, even small trucks and SUVs all in various positions along the road. Me and some other guys got out and started trying to push cars, but it was pretty much impossible on the slick roads.

That's about when the calvary showed up. One guy who was going to the store with his family in a big old Expedition stopped and was helping where he could. Then two big old Dodge Rams came around the corner. It was two of our neighbors, who both said they knew the roads were bad so they decided to come out and help where they could. Both had chains, which they used to hook to the stuck cars. They then proceed to pull the cars up the hill. When they finished with one, they'd go back and hook up to another. They ended up pulling us right up to our front driveway. It was an incredible act of service. It was freezing outside, I'm sure these guys wanted to be home with their families, but they put all that on hold to go and help out their neighbors. They must have been there all night, towing people up that mountain. It's just comforting to know there's some goodness in the world, that with all the crap going on there's still honestly decent people who care about others. Those men from our ward were truly an inspiration to me. They taught me a lot about the example of Christ, they taught me that I'm never too busy, too tired, or too "whatever" to stop and help someone. Thanks to all of them.

And Merry Christmas to you!

The Morning Light

OK, I cannot hold it within me any longer. My heart bubbleth over. My ears scream in sweet sweet accolade. My mind has officially been blown. Yes, of course I'm talking about everytime I hear Nikki laugh, but I also speak of perhaps the best thing to come out of the emo scene in forever: The Morning Light (Cue Holy Grail music).

The youngsters from Pittsburgh were found by Nikki and I as we attended the Rocket Summer concert in Salt Lake last summer with my bro. Josh and his (ahem) lady friend Brianna. At first I was like, "oh great, another emo act. You can't hide behind those tight jeans and flannel shirts forever!" But it only took maybe another song for the aforementioned blowing of the mind to take place. Harisson Wargo, who wins Name of the Year, and Bobby Garver trade off vocals and complement each other perfectly. The music changes from outright rock to soulful ballads oftentimes in the middle of the song, without ever losing it's focus on an infectuos, intelligent pop rock that comes off as very refreshing with all the wierd disco rock Fall Out Boys currently in the top 40. Plus, they have maybe one of the best young bass players on the market. At the concert, this guy sat in for the next two bands to play after his own. It's like listening to Copeland, but... better. Like listening to Fall Out Boy, but... better. Like eating pizza, drinking a Dewskie, and watching the Avs with Nikki, but... ok, let's not go that far.

But seriously folks, these guys rock. If you haven't checked them out yet, you are severely depriving yourselves of life as you never knew it. The have 2 cds out, "The Love EP" which, although it has only six tracks, has completely stolen my musical heart. The second is their self-titled full-album debut just released this year. Both are must haves. One day, Dwight Shrute may just approach you and ask, "Do you listen to the Morning Light?" When you answer "no", the reply will be short and stinging: "Then you are an idiot."

Awwww... what precious little angels

Check them out at www.myspace.com/themorninglight.

I'm usually not a big myspace fan, but they've actually got a pretty cool page.

Playing Catch-Up

When you're Thacktastic, life can get a little crazy. So it is with Nikki and I. So, true to form, here is a quick catch-up of what we've been up to the last couple months.

One weekend we got to hang out with Layton and Haylie, our niece and nephew. And the fun times did roll. This was us at the BYU hockey game. It was one of my proudest moments, as Layton TOTALLY got into the game. He couldn't peel his eyes away from the ice the whole time... My real tear-jerker moment was when he turned and looked at me and said, "Uncle Matt, I LOVE this game." My eyes are getting misty just thinking about it. Not a visit to his house goes by that he doesn't want to play hockey on the hardwood floors... him being BYU and me being the "black" team (BYU's opponent that night).

Later it was off to Thacker manor... which I guess can get kind of cold at night since the kids insisted on toasting their butts by our space heater. I think Layton wanted privacy or something because he's looking at us like we're part of the paparazzi.








Their favorite place in our entire house is the TV Room where they get to sleep on the blowup bed and have a "theatre" (a term they made up meaning they turn all the lights off and watch a movie with drinks and popcorn). We take all requests for movies, but it usually boils down to Alvin and the Chipmunks, Over the Hedge, and Garfield's Holiday. And yes, this is my National Geographic shot of Layton eating popcorn. He is not spewing it out, come on people!




And, what would Uncle Matt and Aunt Nikki's house be without some jumping around and other activities they can't do at home? That's us, undermining parental authority, one kid at a time.









The next night we hit up the Utah Grizzlies game with everybody. And I mean EVERYBODY. Family members, best friends, first dates (for Katie), everything. Here's me, Nikki, Penguins jersey, and Derek. Yeah, he's the one with the huge head.