Tag Archives: family

Hughes Family: July 30th – August 5th

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This was an odd week. Sort of slow, but really really stressful. All of life seemed to catch up with us at once (sort of like a mass expiration of warranties). A lot of us were sick too.  There’s not a lot of report, but we’ll post what we have.

The only activity the family really did this week was take a trip to Seven Peaks waterpark. It’s hot out here in Utah and this is a great way to cool off.

Cam decided to consolidate all his blogs into one over at CamHughes.com. He’s run a lot of blogs for a long time- I guess he deserves a break. Will he roll this blog into his blog? He doesn’t know quite yet. Any suggestions?
October 14, 2012 Udpate: He did!

Fran discovered a mobile application to help her post from her phone. FrancoiseHughes.com has a couple of new posts. Will her blogging efforts last? Here’s hoping!

Cam started dieting again. He gained back fifty pounds (“of muscle” he said) and now he’s losing it again. Look for weekly updates on his progress. Dieting and working out makes Cam grumpy- be warned!

The Great Divide & Closing the Gap

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Update 9: Okay, I think I’m done. DoomCloud.com, Utah Corvette.com, UtahCamaro.com, CamOnCommerce.com and ZoobaBean.com have all been migrated, shuttered and redirected. I have decided not to close Hughes Family. I think it will be good to have another blog specifically about family things (and we may opt to make it private at some point  so it will be nice to have it separated). I guess that’s that. Let the blogging resume!

Update 8: Well… the last thing to do it shutter the other blogs. I’m having a really hard time with the idea of closing down HughesFamily.com. Maybe I will leave them separate. Two blogs would still be okay. Maybe. No… that’s how this whole mess started to begin with. I’ll just have to write Hughes Family posts in the first person instead of the second (or is it third?). It doesn’t help that I’m sick today and my mental capacity is impaired… even more than usual. Probably only one more update after this one. Wonder what I’ll do?

Update 7: Dark or Light colors for the website… Hmm…. decisions, decisions (this is the fun part kids- you grow up and do whatever you want… if you know you know what you want to do). I think I’ll stick w/ dark for now. I might actually like the lighter color scheme better, but since when have I done what I liked? Eh? Yeah? Can I get an Amen!?

Update 6: I have started the process of shuttering some of my older blogs. I disabled comments, hid some of the pages and redirected the root domain to the corresponding section of this blog. So far so good. I’m now in the process of rebuilding my links. It’s sort of sad to see how many people have stopped blogging. Links to blogs that haven’t been updated in the last few months will be omitted from the new blogroll. There’s only so much room, after all 🙂

Update 5: Overall, pretty happy with the results so far. I think I have the blog set up the way I want it (with a few minor exceptions). Now I need to decide if I pull the trigger and shut the other blogs down. I did a few redirect experiments but I’m not having much luck deciding how to set things up (and for some reason my wildcard redirects aren’t working properly- probably a server configuration issue). Decisions, decisions…

Update 4: I played around with some plugins that got me closer to where I wanted to be. Categories have different headers now (making the graphics took a bit of time). I’m also working on some custom menus so I can manage content better. My next step here is post category blurbs and info. I also wish there was a simple way to change the format of “pages.” As I get further into this I’m not even sure that I’m actually going to do it (shutter the other blogs). We’ll see, I guess.

Update 3: All the content is moved over. I’m having trouble figuring out how to consolidate all the info though. I wanted to separate it out by the original blogs, but it would need to be further subdivided by category. I can’t think of a way to do this (well, within the confines of the blog template I’d like to use). Also, as unreal as this sounds – I think there might simply be too many posts for one blog. A lot of the info is going to get lost if I can’t find a good way to sort this out.

Update 2: I have the website looking like I want (mostly) and configured the way it should be. I have successfully imported a second blog (no issues). At this point it’s just a matter of relocating content. Here I go!

Update 1: Making some good progress now. I have www.DoomCloud.com mostly moved over (posts, comments, pages, and images). I need to set up a redirect and shut the old website down now (that will feel really really sad…). Before I do that though I need to format this blog a bit and then make sure that merging in a second blog goes smoothly. Tally Ho!

Too many blogs. So, I think I’ll merge them all into one blog and put it under my name. I don’t care about traffic or rankings, really (my only fear is that I will somehow affect websites that I link to w/ all my blogs). To be honest, I’m just tired of managing five blogs, and I’d rather have them under one roof, so to speak. Let’s see if we can get this done…

Hughes Family July 23rd – July 29th

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Last meal in France at an amazing buffet. Look how excited the kids are about their food… well, most of them.

Here are a couple of pictures of the aforementioned “amazing buffet.”

Time to head back to the USA. That’s a lot of time in an airport and in planes.

Fran and the kids made it back in time for Pioneer Day. The kids were asleep until around 9:00pm, but woke up in time to light some fireworks.

Chloe was especially captivated by some glowsticks and the fireworks (they are the first ones she’s ever seen!). The neighborhood had aerial fireworks going off all over which were fun to watch.

Fran and Cam celebrated their 11th anniversary! Fran lost her camera while vacationing so Cam got her a new one (lucky girl!). Fran gave Cam a spa treatment (that’s mud, in case you were wondering).

That night Cam and Fran went to eat at Ruth’s Chris for dinner. Cam has been buying fillet minion and cooking it on the stove (he calles it “Skillet Steak”) and said it gave his Ruth’s Chris steak a run for its money. But regardless, both the dinner and company were excellent.

And what weekend would be complete without a fort? The kids liked the fort so much that they played in it all evening and then slept in it! Thank Dad!

July 16th – July 22nd

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After having a great time on Mauritius Fran and the kids flew back to Reunion Island.

For the next few days Fran, the kids stayed at her parent’s beach house (along with most of the family).

They played on the beach, enjoyed each other’s company, visited the city and…

…frequented this amazing bakery (within walking distance of the beach house).

Cam went to see a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. He thought it was exceptional. 9/10.

After a few days in Reunion is was time to start the trip home. The first leg of the journey was from Reunion to Paris, France.

Cam went for a drive through the Alpine Loop. He didn’t realize how steep some parts of the road were (although he might have been going way too fast) and his car bottomed out ripping his boost hoses. Good thing he likes to fix stuff.

On Saturday night Cam went to Jason’s birthday party at Noah’s. Jason & Rachel provided sushi and other treats for the party goers. Does anyone throw better parties? No.

The kids and Fran arrived safely in Paris and are enjoying a brief layover.

Tomorrow they head back to Utah. Do you think they’ll miss Reunion Mauritius and France? It looks pretty nice over there!

July 9th – July 15th

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Here’s the condo that Fran and the kids stayed at in Mauritius. Fran’s sisters and bothers (and their families were there too). Pretty nice!

Eating meals (some take-out & some home cooked)

Check out that gorgeous pool (at the condo).

A few aerobics to burn off those vacation calories.

A boating adventure.

Capturing wildlife, playing games and chillaxing at the condo.

Plenty of time for fun at the beach too.

A trip to the zoo. Checkout the zoo map here!

Going to Church on Sunday.

Nothing much going on at home. On Sunday Cam ate dinner with his Mom, Dad, sister and brother. It’s been a long time since just the five of them have gotten together!

Tomorrow Fran and the kids head back to Reunion for another week of family fun and adventure. Cam will head back to work… for work adventures (?).

July 2nd – July 8th

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Monday – time for Fran and the kids to head to France. On the way up to the SLC airport the family ate at Sweet Tomatoes, Fran’s favorite restaurant. This will be the last family outing for a few weeks.

Cam had taken a bunch of pictures of the departure, but lost them when his phone reset itself after drinking part of a Sobe (bad phone). Luckily Fran took a picture of a few of the Hughes Family adventurers.

With the family Gone Cam hosted a LAN party in the basement. Quake, Unreal and Age of Empires ruled the night’s agenda. 20 and 30 year old boys playing 10 year old games.

Fran and the kids made it safely to France. Their final destination is Reunion Island, but they stayed in France for a few days to acclimate to the time change. Check out their adorable cabin!

Cam, Greg and Hal went to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. They agreed the movie was fun, but had some historical inaccuracies. 6/10

After a few days in France the Hughes family flew to Reunion Island (it’s off the coast of Madagascar). After a very long plane flight they arrived safe and sound. In a few days they will all travel to Mauritius for a giant Family Reunion (no reunion on Reunion this time).

June 25th – July 1st

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Fran has been busy packing to get ready for her trip to Reunion. She’ll be gone about three weeks and Cam will have to hold the fort down on his own (he seems pretty excited). Still a fairly busy week though!

Fran and the kids went to a Symphony at the Scera Sheel Outdoor theater. Too soon for culture? The kids seemed to have a hard time paying attention… until they played some of the music from Star Wars!

After running a few miles at the Lehi Legacy Center (no picture) Cam & Fran went to Sushi House to replenish their depleted energy reserves. Cam was sick most of the week but said he could “almost taste the sushi.”

Chloe’s teeth started coming in this week! They are hard to see, but just below her tongue there are two bottom teeth just starting to poke through. Teething babies probably don’t make good travel buddies. Wish Fran luck!

Claire and her friend decided that they should get jobs. No doubt inspired by their fathers they decided to take the entrepreneurial route and open a lemonade stand. They did all the work themselves! Milestone # 17 complete.

Saturday was a busy day! Cam & Fran ran the Lehi Round Up 5K. This time Fran edged Cam out for the win (crushed him really- but to be fair Cam was still fairly sick).

A couple of hours later the family (minus Cam- he fell asleep after the run) went to the Lehi Round Up parade. The kids got to walk next to the Ward float in the parade and throw candy to the onlookers.

In the afternoon Cam went to the baptisms of Rachel and Wesley (two students in the church class he teaches). Fran and the kids went to Legacy Center for kid’s swimming lessons. When everyone got back Cam played with the kids and Fran worked on trip preparations.

Later that night Cam represented the Hughes Family solo at Rachel‘s birthday party (Fran and the kids went to bed early). Rachel & Jason invited thirty people to play “Laser Tag” with Frontline Tactical in Provo. They always throw awesome birthday bashes!

Tomorrow Fran and the kids will be off! Stay tuned next week for updates from the Island

June 19th – June 24th 2012

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I haven’t quite figured out how comprehensive to be on this blog. This post has some silly things like an outing to Dollar Tree and Walmart (but to be fair the kids are so cute when they push a shopping cart). After some experimenting I’ve decided to do most of the text as captions. I’ve also opted to write everything from a third person point of view (to keep things consistent when other start adding posts).

Gabe celebrated his 5th birthday! In the morning he opened his presents. He got a bunch of cool stuff from his parents, siblings, grandparents and greatgrandma! In the afternoon he had a party with his friends. Gabe really likes being five.

On Friday Cam went to Premier Performance to dyno test his car in preparation for his upcoming Corvette adventures. 635rwhp- less than expected. But there’s nowhere to go but up!

Cam went to Bubs’ LAN party on Friday evening (Bubs works with Cam at Blade HQ). Now that a lot of the guys have wives there was a wonderful assortment of food! Cam was sad he had to leave early, but he had a Father and son activity that night.

Instead of going on a Father & Son camping trip Michael & Cam decided to go see Avengers at 9:45!  (Gabe got to go too, but didn’t make it through the movie).

Meanwhile the girls were at home having a teas party with real tea & desserts.

A couple times a month the Hughes Family goes to the Asian Buffet in American Fork. Who gets fries at a Chinese restaurant? Our kids!

Cam got out his special markers and spent some time drawing with Claire. What a nice flamingo! Maybe Claire will grow up and become an artist.

Later Cam set up a Mini LAN game of Quake 3 and taught Michael how to play. A creative  way to combat the withdrawal from earlier in the week, but Mike will need some extra practice to beat Dad.

Shopping with kids is always some weird kind of adorable nightmare. How can so much junk be so important? To be fair, some of the junk in the second picture is Mom’s.

The end of the week also brought some sickness- everyone came down with a cold. But there were still things to do! Ian Watson got back from his mission and had his homecoming today. We went to his church to hear him speak & then went to his family’s house afterwards to catch up. Welcome back Ian!

Ever the fighters Dad and the kids used what remained of their energy to play a few rounds of Bomberman (on a TurboGrafx 16 Emulator- Nerdy!)

Hopefully next week will be a little slower- we could all use some rest!