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Author: Noel

Nutella consumption linked with autism

Nutella consumption linked with autism

After an exhaustive meta analysis of many factors that could potentially be causing the spike in Autism rates in recent years, I have found the one factor that is alarmingly correlated: Nutella consumption. Well, specifically interest in Nutella as evidenced by Google searches, but I think it’s safe to say that increased Google searches of Nutella means increased consumption. My scientifically proven* hypothesis is that increased Nutella consumption during pregnancy causes an excess of sugar and hazelnut compounds in the…

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Ski Day

Ski Day

Eight years ago Audrey and I started this adventure of our life together. A lot of things have changed since then. We’ve gained some dependents, moved to another state, and are homeowners. This year we celebrated by taking a Tuesday off from work, dropping the kids with a friend, and declaring a snow day. I snagged us some tickets from Craigslist and we cruised up to Copper Mountain for our first day on the mountain since before Cooper was born…

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Sand Dunes and Alligators

Sand Dunes and Alligators

It’s been a long dreary winter and now that everyone is feeling better we took an opportunity to get outside. We’ve been itching to get to the beach for a while now. Since there is no ocean of reasonable proximity camping at Great Sand Dunes seemed to be a worthy substitute. After playing an intense game of 3 dimensional Tetris, we got all our camping gear in the car and headed south and away from civilization. Great Sand Dunes Great Sand…

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Snowshoeing

Snowshoeing

Prepare yourselves for cuteness. Apparently they make snowshoes for little people. We made a day of it on Presidents Day heading up into the mountains by Winter Park. It was a beautiful sunny day with almost no wind, which is a rare thing these days. Ellen wasn’t so sure about being in the cold snow, but we made her come along in the backpack anyway. Cooper did great out there and got the hang of the snowshoes in no time….

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In sickness and in health

In sickness and in health

Just days after buying our new car, we got to take it on an unplanned road trip back to the heartland (aka Utah). My sister Vanessa’s husband, Chris, came down with a terrible bout of the flu that has been going around. Normally that would be a good reason not to go visit, but this was different. When I say the flu, I don’t mean he ran a fever, had a cough and a sniffly nose, and felt crummy for a…

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Swagger Wagen

Swagger Wagen

No we didn’t get a minivan even though we’ve heard they’re so wonderful. We’ve been coming to terms with the fact that our beloved 19 year old Honda with 300k+ miles* on it wasn’t going to keep going forever. The weird little old car quirks were just adding up. Changing the interior temperature from heating to cooling requires stopping the engine, popping the hood, and reaching down to manually twist the valve next to the heater core. Rolling certain windows down is risky since…

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Republic Wireless

Republic Wireless

It could be argued that we are somewhat of curmudgeons when it comes to new fangled technology at our house. I mean we’re still not on Facebook. (Seriously, friend is a noun, not a verb.) However, a couple of months ago we were coming up on that crossroads in our lives where our Verizon contract had ended and our phones were starting to show their age. So before jumping on the Verizon bandwagon again for another 2 years, we took…

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Getting Close to Nature

Getting Close to Nature

Screeeeech! Crash! I was torn from a restful sleep instantly. Whatever that was, it sounded heavy. It wasn’t someone tripping over a lantern on the way to the bathroom. Beep! Honk! Beep! Honk! Beep! Honk! Audrey stirred next to me looking a bit annoyed at the ruckus. We lay frozen in our sleeping bags listening to car horns blaring throughout the campground. After a few moments the car horns stopped and it was eerily silent. Outside the tent I could…

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The Sounds of Summer

The Sounds of Summer

In January of 2006 I had just finished a church mission and was returning to Logan, Utah to go back to college. I loved many things about serving a mission, but one thing I sorely missed was good music. I like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as much as the next guy, probably more, but there’s a limit on how much of that someone can take. Even worse were the absolutely awful Especially For Youth soundtracks from church youth summer camps…

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