Category Archives: Hughes Family

Hey! You haven’t really posted anything in years- what’s going on? Sorry guys & gals, Hughes Family posts are private now. If you want access (and we know each other) just drop me a line and I’ll get you in :D

Hughes Family: November 12th, 2012 – November 25th, 2012

Posted on by

Whew! A blog post that encapsulates two weeks of the Hughes Family madness. Impossible you say? Consider this: We didn’t too much! Every year, around this same time, something called the “holidays” start. Many people spend time with their families and others relax and participate in the ritualistic festivities of the season. But here, in the retail world, we feel the need to capitalize on the frenzied deal seeker’s shopping rampage. We work day and night to bring sales to the hungry masses. We take the cash from their outstretched arms and give them “deals” and the “hot” items. There is no rest for us during the holidays. No, there is only tireless effort and piles of cash… (tiny piles, but we make them look bigger by putting larger denominations on the top). In all seriousness though, it’s quite exhausting.

This was the guys last get together of the year (ha ha… Tom will pull another one out of this magical last minute hat). We ate at Leatherby’s up in West Valley. The most memorable part of the evening was when we decided it just might be possible to win the iPad dangling in the Fancy Cutter II machine. Sadly we weren’t fancy enough.

A few days later it was off to Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 with the Sabins. I’m pretty sure Jason and I were the only guys present. The theater was packed from to to bottom with swooning women of all ages. The Estrogen was so thick that I could barely see the screen.  I just want to publicly thank Fran for going to see it with me (yeah, part of the estrogen was mine, what of it?). I thought the movie was a good conclusion to a fun series.

Anyone ever heard of Jillian Jiggs? Jillian, Jillian, Jillian jigs, it looks like your room has been lived in by pigs!” Jillian is an adorable little girl with a hyperactive imagination that leads to chaotic adventures. She loves boxes.  “I’m mad about boxes, boxes are fun! No one will guess who we are when we’re done.” And our kids love boxes too. Normally around this time of year our church has a drive in movie (the kids decorate boxes like cars and sit in them while they watch something). This year there was no drive in so the boxes we had set aside became tiny houses,  bobsleds (down the stairs), battle armor and eventually ended up as part of a giant fort. And, incidentally, our house sometimes looks like it’s been lived in by pigs.

My sister suggested seeing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in SLC on Wednesday. We decided that would be a fun date and opted to bring Mike along.  More on that in a second. On the way to the Energy Solutions Arena (the event location) we stopped to eat at one of Fran’s favorite places, Hong Kong Tea House. I think this restaurant has actually made the blog before.While I have enjoyed other meals there immensely I felt like the food was only okay this time. Perhaps I was simply preoccupied by the fact that I had parked the minivan with three feet of the vehicle’s front extending past the actual parking zone. A few cars behind us another ride was enjoying it’s new boot for the same crime. However, we were able to escape unscathed.

Then it was on to the show! Quick Tip – if you’re going to anything at the Energy Solution Arena grab the six or seven dollar parking (just suck it up). It’s right across from the building and you will avoid almost all the traffic when you leave.
So anyway, in we went. The first few songs were fantastic and the accompanying light show was awesome. And then the show turned into a rock opera. Singing? I had no idea. I’m one of those guys who’s heard “Christmas / Sarajevo 12/24 (Instrumental)” and thought the whole show was going to be just like that. Ha. No. Personally I felt like most of the singing was mediocre, but the story was entertaining. And at the end they busted out a whole series of truly epic songs and all was well. My ears rang for a whole day.

Here’s a scene from the show. No one has ever filmed it before, so don’t bother looking on YouTube for something better (if you think I’m serious then my heart bleeds for you).

On Thursday we went to my family’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Erin and her part of her family had come down for the Orchestra but they stayed for the food (and possibly for some of the company… though that seems unlikely).

There was a ton of delicious food. Turkey, ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, corn, stuffing and abut four pies. Dinner at the Hughes house doesn’t end when you’re full, it ends when your esophagus fills up.
After dinner everyone who could still move played a round of “Beyond Balderdash”. A great game and a good time for all. Maybe we’ll do it again next year. Maybe.

Later that night I ventured out with Mike to watch some of the Pre-Black Friday chaos. I had been down to the Provo Best Buy earlier in the week and snapped a picture of people who had already been camped there for days (silly nuts).  Our AF Best Buy had  a line that nearly wrapped around the whole building. Mike asked me what kind of deal could be so good that people would stand out in the cold for hours and hours. I didn’t know. I was one of these people last year. I didn’t buy anything. Awkward.
Black Friday creep pushed Walmart’s sale to eight and Target’s to nine.  Mike and I didn’t make it out until around ten. There was still a good deal of chaos but we had missed most of the great deals and maiden adrenaline fueled frenzy. We returned home empty handed. The highlight of my night: The line in front of Shoe Carnival.

Come to think of it I didn’t end up buying anything over the weekend. I was probably too tired from selling things. Ah well, I’ll get to my shopping sooner or later. There’s still plenty of time to Procrastinate.

Hughes Family: November 5th, 2012 – November 11th, 2012

Posted on by

Some text here… a bit here, and voila!  A blog post.

Mike’s bike is in a perpetual state of disrepair from constant abuse & neglect. It seems like every month we have to repair a flat or make some of kind adjustment. We used to drop his bike off at a repair shop, but that got expensive so we started doing repairs ourselves. This last time I had Michael help me (I think Fran told me this fulfilled a scouting requirement). He was a pretty good helper.

And then we voted. The line was excessively long- I waited almost two hours- but I didn’t mind (thank you iPhone!). I would have gone later in the evening, when it turned out there was no line, but had other plans.

I have a few thoughts on the election. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I’m not particularly pleased with the outcome (though not surprised). I don’t feel like we accomplished much as a country in the last four years. Obviously I don’t put the blame completely on our president, but I think he shares some of the responsibility.

What really worries me for the time being are taxes. I don’t mind if the Bush-era tax cuts expire, or if some deductions are eliminated here and there, but I do mind a tax increase. President Obama has made it clear that he intends to raise taxes on the rich. Maybe that, in and of itself, isn’t a bad idea. But to Mr. Obama I look like a very wealthy citizen instead of a business. My company is a pass though S-corp which mean that on paper my income is the same as my company’s income. So, to clarify further, on paper I appear very wealthy.

I’m already in the highest tax bracket. Paying more taxes would simply hurt my company’s ability to grow. If we don’t grow then we don’t employ. It is the small businesses that drive the US economy. I feel like treating small business income like personal income is a mistake. In the next year I expect to pay nearly $100,000 of additional taxes. That’s money I could have used to increase inventory, expand, add employees or stimulate the economy.

I also worry about health care issues. This coming year companies with over fifty employees will be required to provide health care coverage to their full time employees. We already do this and it’s very expensive. Premiums keep rising. I worry that a mandatory health care program will drive prices up even more and eventually become a financial liability for us.

In the meantime many companies are hard at work cutting hours of full time employees so that they don’t have to provide insurance coverage to them. The net effect is that many of these workers end up with less money and they will now be required to purchase their own heath care (that’s a double whammy). Sometimes I feel like the laws that have been created to help have unintended harmful consequences.

Sure, I’m oversimplifying some things and the thoughts I’m sharing are comprised of a limited issue scope, but my point is that I’m worried. When a county reaches the point where the takers outnumber the givers there is an unsettling imbalance and the future seems bleak.

Since my Vette has been gone I have parked the Camaro in the garage. I ended up reorganizing things again so it could fit. The kids are getting older so I pulled out one of the shelves in front of the car and pushed the remaining shelf back a few feet. I know this will seem like a funny thing to say about a garage, but it really opened up the place. I had to do a lot of shifting though.

All the garden stuff and the tools had to go in the shed ( I put a shelf in there- it makes me so happy). So then I had to take some of the shed stuff that we don’t use often to a storage unit (we actually don’t have any storage room in our house so I caved and got this unit… I am sort of ashamed, but mostly happy).
And here’s a glimpse of my super secret project. But it’s not really super secret. We’re giving the home office a makeover. We’re in a month in at this point. Slow and steady.

A quick update on Fran’s foot (toe, technically): The healing is going slower that we had hoped. Apparently all the walking around she was doing made exacerbated the wound’s bad mood. No more walking! On Wednesday we finally picked up some crutches. Thanks to those of you who have wished her well and sent money (which is, of course, appropriate in this situation).

On Saturday night I took the kids to see Wreck-It Ralph while Fran took it easy at home. What a cool movie! Visually appealing, good plot and right up my alley (8/10). All the kiddos made it way though without falling asleep or using the bathroom (that I know of).

On Sunday we went to the Lott’s new home for dinner. Despite not having a kitchen it went smoothly. Fran made pecan pie and pumpkin crème brûlée. Hopefully there will be more of those in the future. When we got back I was secretly planning to have a giant pile of pecan pumpkin crème brûlée covered pie, but alas it was gone.

“But he has two sports cars! Surly he can pay more taxes!” You know what? If I really thought the government would take additional tax revenue and use it to to pay down the deficit then I might not feel so unhappy.

Hughes Family: October 29th 2012 – November 4th, 2012

Posted on by

Yeesh… I have fallen behind this past week. Too much going on. Maybe I should write a post about that. Yes, take some time to write up a nice post about how little time I have because so much is going on.

I am a big fan of Chinese food. I don’t think fried  shrimp qualifies as Chinese food but I love them nonetheless. If you’re ever looking for some good buffet shrimp check out Asian Buffet in American Fork. You have to hit up the dinner (more expensive than lunch) but it’s well worth the cost. And their main courses are good  too. Anyway, that was my point- we went to dinner and I ate a lot of shrimp. That was a good day.

Halloween rolled around and Fran took the kids out while I manned the door. Well, to be more specific the kids took off and Fran spent an hour looking for them. The crowds didn’t seem as thick this year. I would guesstimate we had between 150-200 trick or treaters (last year I think we had about 300). I always find it awkward when parents yell stuff at me from the side walk. I usually have no idea who it is or what they are saying. So if it’s you then stop it.  
I had some fluid build up in my ears this week and I was experiencing pronounced ringing which was aggravated by loud sounds (especially voices). At one point during the night I heard a lot of murmuring outside before the bell rang. When I opened the door about twenty kids screamed “TRICK OR TREAT!” and I felt like someone kicked me in my ear drums. I tried to smile and as I handed out candy to my tiny costumed attackers.

The kids all had a fabulous time (how can you not have fun on Halloween?). They came back with their pumpkins filled to the brim. Michael typically sorts out his candy in preparation to trade, sell or eat.

Gabe tends to dig in right away and eat until he gets sick. Claire is usually pretty good about rationing, although this year Fran made a discovery in her bed. This will probably seem totally anti-Halloween, but we always offer to buy the candy from our kids. The amount of treats they end up with on Halloween is staggering (school parties have them on a sugar high long before they even go Trick or Treating). Only Gabe took us up on our offer this year. We pay well, so don’t feel too bad for the kids.

We like to play games, but it can be hard with Gabe and Chloe. The other night the two youngest went to bed early and so we played a few rounds of Jenga. For some reason that night I felt particularly impressed that we had made little people who could now play games with us. I don’t want our kids to grow up too fast, but it will be nice when all six of us can settle into a game together.

I hope one day my kids read these posts and go “They had fried shrimp?”

Hughes Family: October 26th 2012 – October 28th 2012

Posted on by

This past week we had an outdoor pack meeting for Scouts. Mike had fulfilled all the requirements to get his Wolf and we were all going to attend.  Fran offered to provide the hot chocolate, but after mixing the one can we had bought she realized that it wasn’t going to be enough. We were already a bit late and there was no time to get more. Fran suggested we mix Ovaltine with hot water and condensed milk. It was actually really good.
Once we got on our way it was apparent we were in for a “treat”. Snow was falling.

And as it fell, the snow began to blow. And it blew harder and harder until they called off the award presentation portion of the meeting. Everyone stuck around and drank hot chocolate (we had made just enough). It was cold!

A few days later we all got ready to hit the Sabin’s Halloween party. Mike and Gabe were Ninjas, Claire was Cleopatra, Fran dressed as a leaf, Chloe was a lady bug (Fran and Chloe were a pair) and I dressed as a rapper…. or something. I don’t even know if people realized I dressed up.

The Sabin’s party was delightful, as always. Spooky decorations, crazy costumes, festive food, a Halloween pinata, and tons of crafts and games for the kids! Fran and Chloe won the “Most Creative” award this year and scored a sweet Halloween movie.  Many thank to the Sabins for their exceptional parties.

Here are a few quick pictures of some of the outrageous Halloween decor. You’ll get to see a lot more on Rachel’s blog once she puts up her party post.

And then it was time to carve pumpkins! The cool thing about these pumpkins is that they were all grown in Fran’s garden! And some of the kids even did their own carving this year, which was nice.

From left to right: Gabe, Cam, Claire, Chloe, Fran and Mike. These are the pumpkins in the light…

…and in the dark. How positively terrifying!

Next week is Halloween and the kids are already hard at work building a candy immunity. Will they survive? Stay tuned!

Hughes Family: October 15th 2012 – October 25th 2012

Posted on by

I don’t have time for this, but here’s another Hughes Family Update (HFU, for those of you who are obsessed with turning everything into an acronym). I think I might stop referring to myself in the third person since I moved all the HFUs over to this blog.

Fran and (some of) the kids pruned, pulled and plucked this past week. Winter is coming and now is the best time to batten down the hatches. Mike is a destruction expert so Fran had him rip everything out of the garden boxes. Too bad the kids doesn’t find the same pleasure in pulling weeds as he does ripping out vegetable plants. We will miss the green as winter takes a hold.

Fran started a new laundry initiative. The kids now have to do their own! Maybe this seems cruel, but they have to learn at some point. So far it’s been a struggle. The typical laundry pattern is demonstrated here by Mike. 1) Wait until there are absolutely no clothes left. 2) Beg mom to do your laundry, try to cut a “deal” and  complain about the injustice of life. 3) Finally wash your own clothes. 4) Remove them from the dryer while they are still wet. 5) Take them halfway to their final destination. 6) When there is no other option cram all the clothes into one drawer, wrinkles be damned. Yeah for chores!

Each year we hit up Cornbelly’s at Thanksgiving Point. This year they had a crazy amount of stuff to do and the corn maze was election-themed.

Mom and the kids (along w/ a few other groups) went to Cornbelly’s in the afternoon. The weather was extremely cooperative given the time of year. They rode 55 gallon drum trains, played in corn…

…rekindled old friendships, rode the zip lines, flew down giant slides and had a blast. Fran said there was literally too much to do this year.

That same night the adults met up for a corn filled romp. The temperature was so nice you almost didn’t need a jacket. That made for some big crowds though. Here I am with my yearly corn cob cigar (I pop it in my mouth and turn into an Arnold-Sylvester-esque tough guy who always seems to say the wrong thing at the wrong time).

Despite the crowds there was still a lot to do. We trekked our way though the four foot high corn maze (probably a result of the lack of rain this year). We threw corn at each other and spouted off a bevy of bad corn related jokes (corny jokes, if you will). We shot the corn and pumpkin cannons, worked our way through several mazes, played some volley ball, took a frightening (and bumpy) hay ride, admired the carved pumpkins and conquered the three story slide (I got injured, per my Cornbelly’s tradition). Fran rode the zip line and the mechanical bull too (videos below for your enjoyment).

A grand time was had by all. Each year I think we’re getting too old for Cornbelly’s and each year I remember that I’m wrong.

A few weeks ago I told the kids about how I used to make “guys” out of cardboard when I was their age. Sometimes they’d be ninjas, sometimes robots, but their fate was always the same – I beat them up (in retrospect I probably had some aggression issues). I don’t know if that’s why the kids made these paper people, but they were cute. I think some of them did get beaten up.
And then there was crazy hair day. Claire and Gabe got into it, but Mike was apparently too cool for crazy hair. I wish I had crazy hair.

Fall is a fun time. The leaves drop off the trees and you run outside in your underwear to rake them up the instant you notice. No time to spare when a leaf pile is at stake. I have incredibly fond memories of playing in leaves; I wish my kids had more than one tree for their adventures.
Chloe’s teeth are in full swing now. Two bottom are in and four are working their way out on the top. Babies without teeth are cut. But babies with teeth are cute too.

Hughes Family: October 8th 2012 – October 14th 2012

Posted on by

We had a pretty laid back week.  Work is taking up more of my time these days, but hopefully things level out.  Well, come to think of it with the Holidays almost here they will only get more hectic. Ah well…

Chloe took her first steps this past week! Fran had a gut feeling it might happen and so she actually captured it!

Claire lost her second tooth this past week (and the tooth fairy remembered to come this time). More and more often basement access is blocked by giant piled of couch cushions, pillows and blankets. Cam used to do this kind of stuff when he was a kid and this appears to be the much referred to “karma” that his Mom warned him about. Speaking of messes- something things get so bad that we use a snow shovel to scoop up all the crap on the floor (the carpeted portion of the floor) and have “throw away” parties. Yes, this is for real.

Fran picked Saigon Cafe for this week’s meal. Saigon is a little Chinese / Vietnamese restaurant down in Provo. We used to go there each week when we lived by it, but only make it down there every few months or so now. Good food.

Fran and the kids made some pies. It’s hard to figure out how helpful the kids are this point. When Gabe turned on the mixer is was definitely not helpful. The Apple pie is made with apples from our very own tree. Fun!

On Sunday we went to Cam’s parent’s house for dinner. Mom made delicious pulled pork, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and we at the pumpkin pie Fran made. Grandpa & Grandma gave Chloe a cute bear while Claire quickly adopted (as mentioned in another post Chloe doesn’t quite get stuffed animals yet).

Hughes Family: September 24th – October 7th 2012

Posted on by

Where does the time go? A question that millions of people ask each day. And yet there continues to be no answer. What can be done? Capture as many fleeting moments as possible, I guess.

Claire lost her first tooth (left central incisor)! Michael spent a long time tying floss to her tooth, but it kept slipping off. Ultimately it just wiggled free. Claire put the tooth under her pillow and – don’t judge us – the tooth fairy forgot to come. Claire wrote her a hilarious (albeit nasty) note. Luckily the tooth fairy came the next night.
Gabe is a funny kid- his attention span is incredible. The other day he came home from school and, without taking his backpack off, spent about an hour coloring a picture which he then folded up into a “robot.” He has also been building “forts” next to his bed (out of cardboard boxes) and sleeping in them.

Recently we implemented a new policy at our house: Whoever does dishes each week gets to pick where we eat on Saturday. Unsurprisingly, Fran has picked for the last few weeks. So far she has taken us to Sweet Tomatoes, Juice Press and Chuck O’Rama. The pictures above are from our trip to Juice Press. They offer smoothies and sandwiches- it’s worth checking out if you’re into “health food.”

Fran was called as the Den Mother of the Wolf Den (Michael is in that group). This past week they made tool boxes (and a mess). 
On September 20, 2012 the  Brigham City LDS temple was dedicated. Since Michael was old enough he got to attend the dedication ceremony (he would have rather gone over Niagara falls in a barrel).

Chloe turned one this past week! Given that nearly 80% of kids don’t make it to their first birthday we’re pretty proud of ourselves.

Few things are as enjoyable as watching a one year old open presents. Chloe had no idea what was going on but she was delighted. She scored some sweet lute like a drawing board, and some stuffed animals from her siblings.

Cam is working on a super secret project. We were able to capture this image of him…doing something. To be honest, it looks like he’s stealing furniture from work. But Cam wouldn’t do that… would he? I’m certain more information will be forthcoming.
Speaking of Cam-  with four days of his Onstar six month trial left Cam decided to activate the Onstar iPhone app (having never used any of the Onstar services) . You can monitor all your car’s vitals, and lock and unlock your car from your iPhone. Of course this only works if you don’t mind waiting. And waiting (slow app). Unimpressed Cam called to end his Onstar service and they gave him the “If you deactivate this service we can’t help you even if you’re in a crash and are burning to death” scare tactic. Cam has no fear. Goodbye Onstar.

The new store at work is coming along. This past week the drywall was put up. The build-out is over a month behind schedule at this point so setting up the storefront will have to wait until next year.

So ends another couple weeks in the life of the Hughes Family. I don’t know how many more blog posts there will this month. I have a lot of irons in the fire right now (work expansion, car project, secret project, working my way through Breaking Bad, etc).

Hughes Family: September 16th – September 23rd

Posted on by

The kids enjoyed their school fair. You get your hair painted, play games, win prizes, eat junk food and party till you drop. Mike had so much fun Fran couldn’t even get a picture of him. 

Claire turned seven! We had a family party during the week (on her birthday). Fran made clam vermicelli (Claire’s requested birthday dinner) and a coconut cake. Claire got a bunch f Playmobile set that mom and dad had a “great” time putting together. 

On Saturday Claire had a party with her friends. The theme was “slumber party.” The table and cake were even decorated like beds. 

After working to clean and speed up the family’s old computer for a few hours Cam gave up and went and got a new one. It’s sort of amazing what you can get now for a few hundred dollars compared to what you got a few years ago. Sadly, the new computer wasn’t as upgradeable as Cam had hoped and he couldn’t put in a better video card. Everyone point at the “motherboard” and laugh. 

Another incredible week at the Hughes house.