MoaBlog

The day after Thanksgiving, Jeff's family visited the Cabela's store in Lehi, Utah. The 150,000-square foot (1.4 hectare) store, built in 2004, features a variety of hunting, fishing, camping, and outdoor merchandise. But the busy store's biggest attraction may be the in-store wildlife displays, including taxidermy mounts of various big game animals, some of which are positioned around a large replica of a mountain in the center of the store (top photo). There is also a real airplane hanging from the ceiling (bottom photo), plus large fish tanks containing live trout and other fish. Although Cabela's still primarily sells its products by catalog (it is the nation's largest direct marketer), it also has more than a dozen retail outlets around the country.

Jeff's family got together in Salt Lake over Thanksgiving weekend. Jeff, his four brothers, one of his sisters, and one sister-in-law played a friendly two-hour basketball tournament late Saturday night inside a local church's gym while a couple of new inches of fresh snow fell outside. Jeff's team lost the best-of-seven series four games to two.

Jeff's 4-year-old niece Rachel, who lives in the Tokyo area, broke her hand recently while bowling with her parents. She accidentally dropped her bowling ball on her hand and fractured it. She'll have to wear a cast for the next few weeks.