June 10th – June 18th 2012

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As I have mentioned we try to go on a date every couple of weeks. Nothing too active this time. We went to Thai House (in Lehi) and then saw Snow White and the Huntsman. The movie was actually pretty good!

This past week Fran took the kids up to Cherry Hill water park & family fun center in Kaysville. Full RV hooksups!

Noting better than eating hotdogs and cucumbers! There were tons of fun activities for the kids. The first day they went swimming, tubing and rock climbing.

Fran and Gabe made a quick detour to Paris (Cherry Hill has a very nice miniature golf course). Camping in an RV with a baby is quite challenging, but Fran is a brave (brave) woman! Good thing Chloe is so adorable. The next day the Browns & Bensons arrived at Cherry Hill.

I came up the evening of the second day and we took the kids to the arcade. It’s a little lackluster, but they had fun (Arcade review: I wish the air hockey tables actually had air). When the kids went to bed the adults all played a few rounds of Five Crowns. A fun trip for all!

On the 18th we celerbated Fran’s 34th birthday! We ate lunch together at Jimmy John’s and then had Cafe Rio for dinner (with coconut flawn!)

Fran wanted to go on a family bike ride for her birthday so we took out the bikes, got them in working order and rode around the neighborhood for a bit. Another successful birthday under the ye old Hughes belt.

New Corvette Floor Mats by Lloyd Mats

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I recently got a set of Lloyd Mats for my Camaro– really happy with them! So, I decided to get a set for my Vette too. Tthe driver-side mat was in pretty bad shape and years ago I had quickly cut the old trunk mat to fit around my sub & amps and the sloppy job had bothered me ever since.

I picked black for the new mats. After reading that the Lloyd ebony mats weren’t a good color match I decided black would be a nice accent.  When I pulled the old mats out I was actually surprised to discover that the old driver and passenger mats were black and that they didn’t match the old trunk mat. Huh. Never noticed that. The new front mats look just like the old one and went in without a hitch. But the new trunk mat was going to need some work. And this time I was determined to do it right.

I tried to be extra careful, measuring things so many times that it made me crazy. You need to cut carpet like this just a touch too big do you can tuck it against the other carpet so it appears to be seamless.

This is so much better. Now it looks like someone cared.

Before & After. The colors on the pictures are somewhat messed up. In real life the mat on the left is ebony with a hint of olive green and the mat on the right is a nice solid black. The iPhone camera seems to have some consistency problems when photographing different shades of black.

Anyway- one more cosmetic issue resolved. In fact, cosmetically I’m really happy with the car. I do think I might put on a ZR1 spoiler though.

Posted by Cam, July 15, 2012

Do You See What I See?

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You probably don’t see anything in the first picture (which is the point)… But in the second picture (a close-up) you can see the line of my Corvette’s new ClearBra.

In order to preserve my car’s paint (Utah roads are not particularly kind to cars) I had Tint & ClearBra Specialists in Midvale put on their most extensive package (front bumper,headlights, half hood, front fenders, rocker panels, side mirrors and rear fenders). They also did a color wash (the ClearBra was put over it) to make sure everything looked immaculate.

I’ve had it for a few months now. It looks really nice and was very well installed. Except for one small corner that had an issue when I washed the car, it’s stayed in place just fine (I guess you’re not supposed to powerwash them). And the other day I was really happy to have it when I drove over a pile of tar covered gravel that someone was nice enough to leave in the road. Not a cheap accessory, but it’s good peace of mind.

Yep, I feel like I have to document everything. It’s like some kind of disease.

Posted by Cam, Jun 14, 2012

Saturday

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Today kind of started out slow. Maybe it was the unexpected clouds and rain. Maybe it was just the fatigue we were all feeling from this past week. Hard to say. We finally got in gear around 2:00 in the afternoon when we went to Michael and Claire’s piano recital. Fran recorded their performances:

After we got back we decided to work on the house a bit. Gabe and one of his friends had been hanging on the garage door and it broke. Since we had no idea how to address that problem we fixed a few drawers, mounted the garage door buttons (oh how I wish I had thought to take a before picture!), and did some work in the yard. I think that made us all feel better. Well, until we remembered the garage door was broken.

We polished off the night by watching TinTin with and pizza and with air conditioning. Years ago we had a separate furnace installed for part of our basement (the study and theater) and we had the cables and pipes run for the AC. But for some reason we never finished the project. For Father’s Day this year Fran had an AC unit installed (it was an early present). This was the first time we used it while watching a movie. So nice! I don’t know how we made it for four years with no AC down there. Thanks Babe!

TinTin was a fun movie (kind of like young Indiana Jones) and I thought that visually it was incredible.

Another fun filled day at the Hughes home.

Posted by Cam

Date Night

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Sometimes our kids get mad when we go out. We try and explain that when mommy and daddy are friends the odds are much better that the family will be happier. Since summer is nearly here and school is out, our babysitter can stay extra late. So, we decided to cram in as much date as possible tonight.

First we hit up Gold’S Gym to play some racquetball. Fran’s getting better- right now we’re working on not being afraid of the ball.

Next we swung over to the Lehi legacy center to use their indoor track. If you’re looking for a nice indoor place to run I think their track is great. We were short on time (and slightly starving) so we only did about a mile and half.

We ate at Burger King. Our eyes might have been bigger than our stomachs. To our credit we did eat most of the food.

Then it was off to Men in Black III. I read some reviews that made me apprehensive about the movie butt I thought it was really good! I liked it better than the first two- I’d probably even go see it again (sometimes you have to watch time travel movies twice).

We made it home around midnight (having left at around 6:45). All in all an excellent action packed date!

Posted by Cam

Family Run

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Sometimes we get together with the Sabins for an evening jog. Tonight we we decided to mobilize the entire family for the run. I’m not sure if it was our best idea, but it was worth a shot.

We typically run between three and five miles- too far for the kids to comfortably run. So we brought two bikes (that way the kids could run a bit and switch off when they got tired). We put the baby in a jogging stroller. It all worked okay. The kids took turns “dying” and anyone on a bike rode off into the event horizon. Maybe we’ll try it again sometime when the kids are all grown up!

After our run. Some of us are happy. Some of us are sad. But all of us know that mom is the toughest (she pushed the stroller most of the way)

So I’m going to give this blogging thing a shot- but I’m not totally committed to it yet. We’ll see how it goes (I’m going light on the text). 3:30am over here. Who needs sleep when you can share your memories with Internet strangers?

Posted by Cam

Memorial Day

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First a “thank you” to all our soldiers who have served and helped to shape this great country.

I decided it was important to spend the day with the family- moving tires and boxes to a storage unit could wait until another time. We started the day off with a trip to Fran’s favorite restaurant, The Sweet Tomato. It’s a buffet with salad, soups, pasta pizza and some desserts. The pasta is lackluster, but everything else is really good.

Lunch at The Sweet Tomato in Sandy

After lunch we visited the Living Planet Aquarium. What a cool place!

My wife and kids have been there before, but this was my first time. When I was on business in Georgia I visited the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The Living Planet Aquarium is much smaller, but I thought it was just as fun.

The Jelly Fish are so weird, but they are mesmerizing:

The Lion-fish are beautiful but extremely poisonous:

All kinds of cool underwater life:

You can pet a Manta ray too:

And they even have penguins! These guys are adorable. You almost want to take one home with you:

And the otters. These guys were as cute as the penguins. I’d probably take one of each home. Wonder if they would fight?

There was a lot to see- I think we spent almost two hours at the aquarium!

The aquarium is absolutely worth visiting. In additions to fish, sharks, turtles, otters and penguins they have a spiders, snakes, frogs and other really cool underwater life. Now I’m excited to visit the zoo later this year.

One the way home we swung by REI to get the kids hiking shoes (kids grow- really aggravating). I’ve never seen the store that crowded. I should have taken a picture of the line we stood in.

I took the kids with me to run some errands (well, Gabe was asleep at this point) and they “helped” me wash the truck. I love my kids, but I got so sick of hearing “I want a turn” and “Let me try” every single time I switched the wash settings.

We used almost 15 mins of time washing the truck. Thanks kids!

After we got back Fran too the kids hiking with her sister. And I got those tires and boxed moved. A fun day, if ever there was one.

Dominos

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The other day Fran and the kids were playing with dominoes. I like the actual game okay but I think setting the dominoes up and knocking them down is way more fun. I used to spend hours doing it when I was a kid.

The kids and I did this for a bit until I got a bit too serious for them.