DOUG'S 50TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Dear Family,

We had a great celebration of Doug's 50th birthday.

I do not remember celebrating my 50th but I did have a surprise birthday visit on my 70th birthday when the "Four Boys", Roy, Rick, Doug and Bryan, came over to Munich and totally surprised me on that birthday.

Roy started the 50th celebration and almost all came to Denver to celebrate his.  We all went to Rick's gourmet log cabin in the California woods to celebrate his 50th.  Doug has such a good time on that one, he decided to have his celebration with the Dad and the Bros. at Rick's Ranchito. Here we all are in the woods for the great get to gather.

The picture shows what happens to otherwise professional people when they hang out in the woods without the feminine influence of their wives.  Cheryl said, "If she saw this group out on one of her runs, she would be scared!" They are arranged by age: Roy, Rick, Doug, Bryan, (the original four boys), the Dad, Mike, Jeff, Rob and John.  There are four doctors, two lawyers, a BYU professor and two successful business meant in that group (all in disguise).

We drove down to this ranch in Doug's car with Mike and Roy. The total round trip was 1600 miles, ave moving speed 72 mph with a maximum of 104 mph, (Roy am Steuer with a heavy foot between Nephi and St. George with his gourmet radar detector)

The first night was spaghetti and meatballs and here we are lined up like a bunch of lumberjacks.  The food was great.

I slept well even though Rob and Jeff were up till 4AM playing advanced squad leader.  Breakfast was also great!

Here are little steaks from a Venison backstrap that I brought.  Texas venison is the best!

Rick's favorite was Bagels, lox, onions and scrambled eggs.  Oh that was good.

There was several projects undertaken.  Bryan got out the chain saw and cut down a huge dead tree.  Rob, John and Mike constructed a Navaho version of a Russian Banya or what we would call a Schwitze.  The built a Tee Pee, covered it with a tarp and brought pine boughs in to sit on.  Then they heated granite rocks with a huge fire, brought the individual rocks into the Tee Pee and poured water over the rocks.

Here they are with the structure built tending the fire heating the rocks.  They went in there several times in their nothings and had a good sweat.  Rob read that the Navahos would fast for 24 hours before doing this for a complete spiritual mind and body cleansing but there was little fasting on this trip.

Another project was building a walking bridge over this raging stream to get to the other side.  They brought long dead tree poles, stretched them across the stream and lashed them together and it worked.

Then there were two days of a Schutzenfest!  Rick set up a range from 40 to 100 yards for offhand shooting.  He and Roy had previously fashioned a 400 yard range for long distance sniping.

Here is Roy with his gourmet sniping rifle on the 400 yard range.  Rick, Doug and John went  to the 400 yard range and did well.  They have very accurate long distance shooting rifles.

We shot large bore rifles, pistols and a black powder double barrel 20 gauge shot gun pistol. That was so much fun and all were great shots including Rick who pulverized a cinder block with the 450 Alaskan lever gun.

Here is Doug after hitting the gopher at 100 yards with the 375 H&H magnum off a shooting stick.

The double barrel shotgun pistol was a hoot to shoot.  Here is Dad shooting that black powder gun,

Well after all that work and play it was time for the birthday feast.  Doug brought up a bunch of T bone Steaks and Roy broiled them Argentine style over hot coals and they were great!  Lot of protein on this trip!  Cheryl sent a birthday cake and that was yummy also,

Well after the carnivorous dinner, we watched movies, did the sweat lodge (not me) constantly cleaned up, advanced squad was ongoing and we chatted non stop,  We all had such a good time, it was hard to say goodbye.  We thank Rick for all the good eats and for his hospitality in his gourmet log cabin in the woods and wish Doug the best on his 50th birthday.

Love, Dad