An Early Christmas

You are probably currently wiping your glasses clean or possibly taking a double or even a triple take at your screen. As you are reading this, you probably don't even believe your eyes and don't know what to do with this new Babcock blogging material on your computer screen. My suggestion: read on!

The last five months since I last updated my blog have been very busy with many great things. I went on a 4,521 mile road trip with Justin & Andrew up to Canada and visited most of the National Parks along the way (needs a separate blog to do the trip justice), I got a new church calling as Stake Executive Secretary, I finally got out of the tax world and have begin stumbling around in the corporate valuation world, and I have continued to date Ali Swenson.

It is true that by July 16, the last time I updated my blog, I had been dating Ali for a couple of months, but I didn't know at that time whether or not our relationship was at the "have I made your blog" level yet. So, in an effort to error on the side of not freaking her out and keeping her around longer, I decided to just throw in a group picture, but not say anything about it. Well, here we are five months since my last blog entry and things are going strong. So now it is official. Ali and I have progressed our relationship to the blog level!

Now instead of posting a picture I decided to take it even a step further and post a video! This video was actually suppose to be part of her Christmas present, but after making it, I couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to her. So Christmas has come early this year. Now that she has seen it, I would like to share it with all of you. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. To that I ask, how many words is a picture video worth? Watch and find out for yourselves.

Albright Sportsmen 2007

Here are a few photos of my softball team. As you can tell, they are a bunch of characters and we have ourselves some good times!

Top Row: Kevin Ditty, Grant Porter, Dave Thompson, Brian Decato, Me, Chaz Hales
Bottom Row: Casey Willard, Brett Spackman, Eric Smith, Brian Peterson, Todd Peterson

Here are a few more single shots for your viewing pleasure.

Photos

I know I haven't posted anything in a while, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on in my life. Life has been treating me very well and I have been working hard to prepare for my September 29, 100 mile bike ride across Death Valley. When I am not cycling, I am staying busy with other activities. I joined a city softball league with my friends, and after our first season of going 0-10, we have improved this year to 4-4 with 2 games to go. On the weekends, I do everything possible to get away from work and enjoy the great outdoors. About a month ago my friends and I were able to go camping up near Malibu. (From left to right Tim Butler, Todd Peterson, Jarom Sidwell, Me, Tom Hung).

One weekend in June, a bunch of friends made the drive down to Mexico and rented a beach front house for a weekend. It was a relaxing weekend that involved eating, sitting pool/ocean side, socializing and little sleeping.

From left to right: Ali Swenson, Me, Krista Davis, Tom Hung, Laura Fisher, Jeff Stephens.

I hope these photos suffice for the time being. Photos from other adventures will follow.

Rosarito to Ensenada

Saturday, April 21, 2007 was my first substantial time on my new toy: my road bike. What a wonderful, long day it was. The day started before the sun decided to peak in the east. I woke up at 4:45 to pack my bags and get my bike prepared for my first road bike "race" in Mexico. My traveling companion was the very funny, super energetic, all-star athlete Krista Davis. What a wonderful traveling companion she was (although she did want to take a nap as soon as we entered Mexico, just when I needed her navigation skills the most). We arrived in Rosarito around 9:00 am, which gave us plenty of time to meet up with the rest of the gang from Santa Monica (from left to right, Miriam Oh, Eva, Kevin Ditty, Sarah Zobell, Me).

The Rosarito to Ensenda "race" is actually called a 50 mile "fun ride," which it ended being, but I put some effort behind the ride and made it my own personal race. My goal was to work hard the entire race and to finish at around 3 hours. We all started together, but I soon fell behind the pack when my chain fell off. After a quick fix I jumped back on the saddle (one that after the race, I didn't ever feel like sitting on again) and was off. With approximately 8,000 riders, it was somewhat difficult to weave in and out. So the first few miles I was riding at a steady slow pace with the rest of the pack.

During the ride, I enjoyed people watching. There were so many unique an fun people involved in the ride. I saw one person that dressed their bike up to look like a cow, another person was wearing a full suit and tie combo and was getting married at the end of the ride, but the one costume that got me laughing the most was Sponge Bob Square Pants. Thank goodness for fun people in this world that are out there to make other peoples day brighter. Sponge Bob did it for me!

I finished the 50 ride in 3 hours flat. My legs could have gone longer, but my butt was so happy to see the finish line. Next time I will have to get the super duper diaper spandex shorts!

After everyone in the group crossed the finish line (On the right, Krista and Me, AKA "Team Fuji"), we all sat down and feasted on fresh Mexican tacos! The end.

Spring Training 2007

When my friend Tom first brought up the idea of taking a vacation to Phoenix to catch a couple Spring Training baseball games, my mind immediately reflected on the great memories Spring Training brought me 15 years ago. My dreams came true in Scottsdale, Arizona when Will Clark of the San Francisco Giants approached me and my family in the stands. My hands trembled with excitement as I handed him my newly purchased San Francisco Giants baseball for him to sign. I couldn't believe that the man I had watched on television and collected baseball cards of for years was standing right in front of me. He was my modern day Babe Ruth, and I got his autograph!

With those memories flowing into my mind, I was more than excited to join Tom and some of my other friends to visit my personal Mecca. The road trip began at 9 pm on Friday night from Tom's place and ended 400 miles and 6 hours later in Phoenix, Arizona.

We caught 2 games, the first game was the Colorado Rockies vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I am proud to say that my Colorado Rockies actually showed up not only to hit, but also to pitch, resulting in an 11 to 1 victory.

I couldn't have gone to Spring Training without seeing the team that was so beloved to me as a child. So the second game we saw was the San Francisco Giants vs. the San Diego Padres. Below is a picture of my friends from Spring Training 2007.

(From left to right) Erin Rains, Myself, Laura Fisher, Jeff Stephens, Krista Davis, Vic Davis, Tom Hung, and Kirsten Kakadelas.

Spring Training 2007 was a success and inspired us all to begin plans for Spring Training 2008!