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Be Scared, Very Scared
Posted by Dad on Mar 9, 2008 in Junior
This is a word of warning. There’s a new student driver in our midst.
Junior’s 15th Birthday Party
Posted by Mom on Feb 20, 2008 in Junior
Junior celebrated his 15th Birthday at our house with friends. Everyone ate pizza (no vegetables were consumed), watched Junior open presents, and played Rock Band, as well as a contraband Halo brought by one of the guests (hmmm…rules were broken that night!). More snacks, treats and soda were consumed throughout the night.
Mom took video throughout the night, but Junior took all the footage and edited it into a movie that you can view here. Mom’s goal is to get all of her children to eventually make their own movies. Her goal is to have a household of computer geeks!
Wow! It’s been 15 Years!
Posted by Mom on Jan 26, 2008 in Junior
It’s amazing to watch early video of your child after fifteen years of life. Although Junior has grown considerably, he has not changed in disposition or personality. My psychiatrist brother once told me that we would never have major disciplinary problems with Junior due to his natural disposition as a baby and young child. So far, it has held true.
Junior’s first babysitter used to constantly tell us that we didn’t know how lucky we were to have Junior as our first child. He was such a joy, all the time. He was very pleasant, very adaptable, very social. And he was doted upon, by everyone–especially Mom and Dad.
When Junior was born Dad and I did not have a video camera (I know, “Gasp!”). So my brother, and his wife, gave us a VHS tape and let us borrow their video camera every few months to record Junior’s growth, until we finally got one of our own in late 1994. Hence, they are in a lot of the video because we were using their camera.
Roadkill Pirates Cover Weezer
Posted by Dad on Dec 26, 2007 in Junior
Junior and his friends had a great time playing with the new Rock Band game today. It’s a hoot to watch the guys sing, play guitar, play bass, and pound on the drums. The guitars seem to be a bit easier — or there’s enough hours from playing Guitar Hero II to make them experts. Drums are tough from what everyone says. Singing…well, anyone can sing, but hitting the notes is really optional in this setting.
Year End Review for JUNIOR!!!
Posted by Dallen on Dec 23, 2007 in Junior
Well, the time has come once again to write up my lengthy report of what I have done this year! Whoopee for you guys! To make this easier for myself I am going to just go month by month and if I forget something, then just let me know in a comment — then everyone can remember it as well.
January, I can’t remember much about January other than just going snowboarding all the time and Mom’s birthday… I would still be a little eighth grader… and I would be halfway through the year so.
February! Yay for February! This is the month of my birth which makes it special. I turned the tender age of 14 which alowed me to go to stake dances! The problem was that our stake likes to do dances every — maybe if we are lucky — three months…so I was in for a while so I went to other stake dances instead, which are much better than ours. On my real birthday I went up to a local ski resort with my father to go and shred some sickly, powder.
March…I have no idea what happened in March…
April! Yes, April was the fun month for me! Spring break was coming up and I was going to go to San Fransisco with the family. And, the night before I was going to a Wolfmother concert. So my Spring Break was going to be pretty tight if you ask me. Wolfmother was almost a let-down, but the opening bands were cool…San Fransisco was amayzing!!! I would go back in a heart-beat!
Junior, Our Guitar Hero
Posted by Mom on Dec 22, 2007 in Junior
Junior is becoming quite an accomplished electric guitar player. He has been playing for 1 1/2 years now. He can play along to many songs and is able to pick up the notes, by ear, of many others. To progress he really needs to find kids with other instruments to play along with. That is the biggest challenge.
Tom Dick and Harry
Posted by Dallen on Dec 6, 2007 in Junior
I just made the play Tom Dick and Harry! Actually I made it on Monday, but that’s aside from the point. I made the part of Constable Downs…so I get to be a copper. I wanted to be the main character Tom, but now that I have seen that he only spends a total of one minute off stage, I decided that I love my character. The play is in Feb., sometime in the middle…but it is funny; really, really funny, and I think anyone who comes will get a kick out of it! 
P.S. Saturday night is the night we add in all the random things to make it even more funny…
High School Golf Team Pictures
Posted by Dad on Oct 1, 2007 in Junior
Introducing our 2007 High School Golf Team.
Coaches:
Team Shot:
Varsity Team:
Varsity Captains:
Junior Varsity:
Junior Baldwin:
The Arcade Fire Concert
Posted by Dallen on Sep 28, 2007 in Junior
I went to an Arcade Fire concert on Wednesday night and it was awesome! I went with Nate, Christian, Sean, Andrew and Paul and Christian’s parents were just there. I loved the show, they sound much better live than they do on album. The balance on the system was great and you could hear all the instuments, even though they had like ten insruments going at once. The funniest part of the night is when he forgot the lyrics for Neighborhood 3 (power out) and then went back to sing the chourus, it was great. I got a shirt so if you see me with an Arcade Fire shirt you’ll know where I got it. They had an opening band that sounded like great Stake Dance music called LCD Sound System…they were pretty cool in my opinion. I want to thank Nate for getting my ticket when he did because if he didn’t I wouldn’t have gone to this concert. I also have some pictures on my phone if you want to see them…
Approach Shot for Birdie
Posted by Dad on Sep 14, 2007 in Junior
Junior hit this as his 3rd shot from about 140 yards. Caught it on my camera phone. Good news: he sunk the putt for birdie.
11th hole at a local golf course.
I have finally broke 100!
Posted by Dallen on Sep 12, 2007 in Junior
Well-unless I told you already-I have finally broke the 100 barrier that was so hard to brake in the past, I did it in a tournament which is totally awesome! I shot a 99 at a local golf course, when I origionally thought that i shot a 100 but as i scrutinized my score card i noticed that my partner-who was a sophomore-added the scores up wrong and I actually shot a 99! I had the second best score in my group and was beat by a kid on another team who got third place in a long drive contest in another tournament, he pretty much drove a green… I was disappointed though because my score didn’t count for the team and we took last again. The good news is that we are in fourth in Varsity which means that we can go to state! And if they do go to state, we all get to go follow them up to the course and that is going to awesome! I can’t wait for next week’s tourny so I can skip school again!
Jr’s Latest Golf Accomplishment…
Posted by Mom on Aug 13, 2007 in Junior
Jr made the local high school golf team. He had to attend two try-outs, one week apart at the local golf course. The coaches took the average of the two days’ scores and made their decisions. Jr found out last Wednesday. Today they played at another local golf course to determine who will be on the JV and the Varsity teams. We’re assuming that Jr will be on the JV team since he is only a freshman, still attending the local junior high. He is one of three freshman who made the team. Now we just have to change around his schedule so that he can practice with the team on B4 days. We are very proud of Jr and this accomplishment.
Junior Completes an Elite Golf Camp
Posted by Mom on Jul 20, 2007 in Junior
Junior and Bud both participated in some golf camps this summer at the local golf course. Bud completed the Intermediate Camp, and then Junior participated in the Elite Camp the next week. There were only four people who signed up for the Elite Camp. Junior was the youngest at 14 (an incoming freshman), there was a high school junior, a high school senior, and a new high school graduate. As a result, the kids got some intense one-on-one training.
On the last day they played 18 holes. Junior scored 97, taking second place. First place went to the senior (a gal) who scored 88. But the women’s golf coach, from the local university, said that Junior could have easily shaved 14 points off his score if he had shown a bit more patience with his putting. She said that he has a natural golf swing.
We’re hoping to get Junior on the high school golf team. A neighbor, Nathan, is on the team and has expressed interest in Junior joining the team. Junior scores in the range of the present team members. It could even happen this year. Dad would definitely be a happy papa, puffed up like a proud peacock.
WOLFMOTHER CONCERT
Posted by Dallen on Apr 14, 2007 in Junior
Well, my friend’s parents found out about a Wolfmother concert on tuesday the 17 at a local venue. So, I (with Christian’s help) found the website and my dad bought two tickets, so, I get to skip scouts to go to a Wolfmother Concert!!!!!I’m so scyked (or however you spell that), I get to see two of my favorite bands…now it would be twice as cool as if I could see Muse and The Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
Posted by Dallen on Mar 31, 2007 in Junior
Well everyone. I decided that The Arcade Fire were too good to steal songs from so I (with my mom’s help) went and bought their new album….NEON BIBLE. It’s a great album and is just as good, if not better than the first one, I would highly recomend it, but if you haven’t heard them, get the first one Funeral, if not, you won’t like the album. I think you have to respect the band to really like it. It’s a really good album and I think that it’s about WWIII and Religion, I can’t really tell…
The track list go’s something like this
1. Black Mirror
2. Keep the Car Running
3. Neon Bible
4. Intervention
5. Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
6. Ocean of Noise
7. The Well and the Lighthouse
8. Antichrist Television Blues
9. Windowsill
10. No Cars Go
11. My Body is a Cage
I going more insane than ever!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Dallen on Mar 31, 2007 in Junior
WE JUST GOT TICKETS TO THE RUSH CONCERT ON AUGUST 6th AND I AM GOING TO GO INSANE BEFORE THEN, SOMEONE PLEASE JUST SPEED UP TIME TO MAY FIRST, LET ME LISTEN THE THE ALBUM, THEN SPEED UP TIME AGAIN TO AUGUST 6th SO I CAN GO TO THE CONCERT!!!!! IM GOING TO GO INSANE I KNOW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-JuSt A fEw WoRdS fRoM Junior BaLdWiN…
RUSH’S NEW ALBUM!!!
Posted by Dallen on Mar 23, 2007 in Junior
I am going to go insane!
Rush is coming out with their new album on May 1st and I can not wait!
The album is going to be called Snakes and Arrows!
And for all you other people who can’t wait either go to their website and listen to the Far Cry on it.
You don’t download it, you can only stream the song, but they are selling the single on iTunes…
so here is the link to their website… www.rush.com
Junior’s 14th Birthday Boarding Trip to a Ski Resort
Posted by Dad on Feb 14, 2007 in Junior
Junior wanted just one thing on his 14th birthday: to snowboard. It just so happened that Junior’s birthday fell on a Saturday, and we were able to accommodate his demands. Unfortunately, the only down side of the day was not many of Junior’s friends could come up and hang with him because of basketball games, family things, and other lame excuses.
Junior did get to hang with Stephen and Marissa for a while until Marissa’s cousin took a bad fall and was entitled to a ride down the mountain in the meat wagon. Speaking of meat wagon, Marissa was lucky that her box biff didn’t hurt her back enough to take a ride herself (watch the video for this action).
Junior and Dad golfing — Feb 9th, 2007
The weather has been really warm this past week (high 40′s – mid 50′s). Enough snow was melted that Junior and I were able to sneak out at the end of the day and hit the links. Dad stunk it up at 6 over for nine holes. Junior had flashes of good with about 10 over for nine holes.
Junior’s Spanking New Guitar
Posted by Dallen on Feb 8, 2007 in Junior
This is a picture of the new posession. Isn’t it beautiful? This particular picture is the guitar laying down in it’s case, the case had to be made specially for the guitar it is so thin…
Now, here be the body of the guitar. You see the color is more green than gray, but it’s some kind of a mix, I don’t really know what the color is, to me it is a grayish green color, you can think what you want. You can see the three pick-ups there, with one single coil in the middle and two humbucker pick-ups on the sides. You have the pick-up changer over by the guitar sound area and next to that is the cord plug in, or whatever you call it…
Now here is a closer look at the body of the guitar. I forgot to mention the Tremelo Bar. The tremelo bar on this little piece of work is one of the best in the Ibanez company. It can also bend both back and forward, as my old Squier could only go forward. You also get a better look at the plug-in. Soon, I will have to post my new 30 Wat amp that I spent half a fortune on…
Now this is the Locking system of the new guitar. You may not be able to see it well but those round things are the locks themselves. This system is a deffinate plus than the system that I had before on the Squier would allow me to tune the guitar every day, if not every hour, with the new locks, I only have to tune maybe once a month…
You are curently staring at the awesome inlay of the fretboard. The frets are nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. The inlay is a white little squigley and the twelve fret gets to have a little rainbowish inlay. This easily beats the pearl inlays from the Squier, and then you get the white dots on the side for when you can’t see the beautiful squiglies…
This is the back of the guitar, this is one of the coolest parts of the guitar itself. You get the slightly opened back that lets you change the tension of the strings, that what the writing is on the middle right. Yes, the back protector is scratched a little bit, but hey, when you get hundreds of people trying the guitar on a daily basis, the protector is going to be scratched…
This little thing is the one thing that I would change about the whole guitar. The neck is bolted to the body. Now from what I hear form guitar junkies and my teacher for one, necks that are bolted on meen that the guitar has room for improvement, not that anything doesn’t need room for improvment. Necks that aren’t bolted on the neck are usually better, I don’t know why, but I guess that they are…
(If you look hard enough you can find my arm in this picture…)