The Sprinkle that Made Her Day!

Over the weekend Aliece purchased a brand-new umbrella from Wal-Mart with her own money. She was so excited about the umbrella. On Saturday night the sky clouded over and the wind picked up. It looked like it might storm. Aliece sat in front of the family room windows all evening watching the sky and hoping that it would rain so that she could use her umbrella. However, the storm clouds were just teasers. There was no rain that night.

On Sunday, the day was bright and hot. However, again during the afternoon, the sky clouded over with storm clouds. Aliece again grabbed her umbrella. She waited by the windows and would venture out a couple of times every 15 minutes with her umbrella to check and make sure it wasn't raining. However, by the time it was time for bed, it had not rained.

After all the kids had been down in bed for about an hour, Amber noticed that it had started to rain outside. It went against all our better judgment, however since Aliece had been so cute in waiting for the rain the last two days that we could not help ourselves. We quietly went upstairs and got Aliece out of bed. Aliece took her umbrella and spent just a minute outside walking in the rain and enjoying a bona fide umbrella experience in the rain she had patiently, but eagerly, awaited.

Purdy Reunion

It was wonderful being at church today for more than 1 reason.
There was a PURDY bunch of people at church today. This included: Denice, Mark and his little boy and & Janette. I guess Dale and probably his family were at Steve's. Janette said she really tried to get him to come to but it didn't work.
They all met together today because Janette is moving back to Washington DC again, to go back to school.
I told them that you would all be jealous. They said to tell you all Hello.
Mark is going through a rough time right now he said. There will probably be a split soon.
I'm sure he could sure use a call from a friend right about now.

Jen, Bill myers was our speaker today. Once again they (him and his wife) said how much they love you and how their son sure liked you but he was just so shy.
They were excited to hear that you are in I.F. now. They had just been discussing where you were at.

Love you all, MOM

Reed-e-poo

This is the picture of Reed Aliece made out of glow sticks.
Well see ya! A's

The Hunt for a Mountain Bike

Aylee has been saving up her money for the past three months. During this time she has been waiting eagerly to earn enough money to purchase a mountain bike. She had originally determined how much she needed to earn by going to Wal-Mart and the Internet to find the cheapest mountain bike she could find. However, after talking to her uncle Adam, she decided that the cheaper, $70, mountain bikes were made very cheaply and would not hold out very well. So she decided that maybe she could find a used one that we could paint and fix up for a decent price.

On Saturday, Aylee and I spent the entire morning going around to just about every garage sale in Provo. We recently purchased an automobile GPS system. So, in the morning I went on the Internet and found addresses for all the garage sales that were advertised on the classified ads in our area. I found a website on the Internet that would convert those addresses to GPS coordinates. I loaded them all into the GPS. Once we would get to a garage sale, we would quickly look it over for any mountain bikes that might fit Aylee. Then we would hop back in the van and punch up the next closest garage sale. Then we would just follow the directions of the voice assisted GPS to our next garage sale. We hit about 20 or 25 garage sales in three hours.

By the time that we were done shopping the garage sales we had still not found a mountain bike for Aylee. We finally stopped at the D.I. to check for bikes there. We found one bike that could have worked, however, the frame was bent such that the wheel would only turn about 20° in each direction. It is very difficult to find a used mountain bike that is small enough for Aylee to use.

After our futile search for a mountain bike, Amber and I started calling a few friends here in the Valley to see if what they have done for mountain bikes for their children. Almost every family that we talked to recommended a particular bike shop in town. We decided to look at that shop and then shop around at the other bike shops nearby.

At one particular shop Amber and I walked in to find a U-shaped entrance to the store. Our left was a platform with several mountain bikes on it. However, these mountain bikes were clearly too big for Aylee. In the middle of the U was the entrance to the main part of the store. However, if you walked past the entrance and over to the right side of the U there was another pedestal of smaller bikes. As we were walking in, I motioned to Amber that we should check the smaller bikes. I walked ahead of Amber by just a few inches and as I approached the bikes I heard a huge banging noise and then found myself falling backwards and nearly landing on the floor. I looked at my glasses that were dangling off of my nose. They were all contorted and bent out of shape. My head was hurting and I could not figure out why. Then, I realized to the surprise of both Amber and myself that the smaller bike display that we were heading to was blocked by a large clear window that went the entire length of the wall and spanned the entire distance from the floor to ceiling. It was so clean that I had no clue that it was a glass wall. Needless to say, I was very embarrassed. I was ready to head out of the store rather than go in and explore some more. However, Amber convinced me to go on into the store and see what we could find.

We didn't find anything in that store, nor did we stay very long. I was surprised that nobody gave us funny looks or pointed at us as we walked around. However, I have no clue how they could not have heard the heavy sound of my body banging smack into that glass wall.

Our search for a mountain bike has made us rethink the challenge to Aylee to earn her own money for the bike. Any good mountain bike her size will cost roughly $200 or more. We are going to have to figure out how to work this out so that she can have a mountain bike. We have talked to her a bit and decided that maybe she will be getting a mountain bike as her only gift for either her upcoming birthday or possibly Christmas. Meanwhile, will keep looking at pawnshops and classified ads for a miracle bike that doesn't cost an arm and a leg (or a head through a glass wall).

A Date with Johnathan

In recognition of Johnathan's eighth birthday, Amber and I took him to macaroni Grill for a date. We like to do this on the kids is 8th, 12th, 16th birthdays. Granted, we've only done it for the eighth birthday up until this point.

Johnathan was the perfect gentleman as he helped open the door for Amber in the van at each and every stop that we made. He was dressed in a white shirt and some pants and shorts. His smile charmed our waitress for the evening.

This is come up upon us so quickly, as his baptism approaches this weekend. He is very excited to be baptized.

New Baby

Mark & Kristin Starr had their new baby today.
It's a GIRL--8 lb's----21 " long.
Name TBA
Mark's family lives around Phoenix Arizona.
Mark is going to school to become an Optometrist & is now working at an optometrist place.
I'm not sure if that is just for the summer or while he is doing his schooling as well. But it sounds like a great opportunity to get some hands on work.
Kristin has been working for a Big construction Co. Julia Dee told me the name of the Co. but I'm not sure of the spelling, but I think it was Pollty Homes.
Kristin had previously done a couple of internships for them while in school.
We were so happy to hear about the new baby and thought you would like to hear the news also.

WOW MOM

Our mom, grandma, & great grandma is incrediable.

Yesterday, July 23, 2008 mom reached her goal of indexing 100,000 names.
Not only just putting in the names but different information about these names depending if they were Records of Births, Deaths, Census etc.

If they were records of births, with each name she would enter information like,
1. Where they were born
2. Where they lived
3. Parents names
4. Parents occupations
5. Color & sex
ETC.

If they were records of Deaths,
1.Where they were born--State & City etc.
2. Their age @ the time of death in year, month, day
3.Parents names
4.Spouses names
5.Their color & sex
ETC.
It is interesting on the deaths however even though mom doesn't have to put down how they died, it does say the information how each had died. She reads about it and sometimes they die in quite interesting ways.

It has taken mom 9 months to reach the 100,000 names with a lot of STEADY HARD WORK.

There have been many many times when she has wanted to stop after sitting for so many hours to go and watch a DVD or something like that. But as she would leave, she would only be gone a few minutes to stretch, and then find herself right back at the computer, not taking the time to watch her dvd. There has just been such a pull on her to get these names done.
But it has been enjoyable and rewarding to her. It has blessed her life with something to do that is such and important work.
The Lord has blessed her so much and it's exciting to see.

SHE FEELS IT IS REALLY A GREAT BLESSING FOR HER TO BE ABLE TO SERVE AGAIN.

WE love you mom, and CONGTATULATIONS!

Novell's Lagoon Day

Novell held their annual "Lagoon Day" for all engineering employees on Jul 23. The kids have been really excited about the prospect of going to Lagoon for a full day on our typical one-a-year pilgrimage to the amusement park.


This was Jace's first time to an amusement park (Third, if you count the time he spent in the womb). He got a kick out of watching everything. He wasn't too sure about the rides though. He never cried, but just had a quiet, panicked look about him when he rode the carousel and other similar rides. He really enjoyed his All-Day-Passport hand stamp that they put on his hand when we arrived. He sucked most of it off his hand, but it remained on his face. Thus, when we would take him on a ride we just had to show them the blue ink all around his mouth :-)



We provided our own lunch which I made myself: Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Novell provided the dinner later on in the day. The kids hurried to eat as soon as we got there so that they could start getting on the rides.




After eating, we went over some safety drills in case any of them got lost. We tried to get them to remember my cell phone number (only Aylee already knew it) in case they got lost and needed to tell an employee how to get in touch with us at the park. However, after drilling it in their heads, we decided it would be safer to write the phone number on their arms (as is displayed in the picture above). Everyone got to have the phone number on their arms and they thought that was cool!


Aylee and Johnathan found that they were tall enough to ride on any ride by themselves. Amber and I took turns going with them, or sitting by the ride while they went if it was a wet ride or one we didn't feel like going on. Aliece tagged along with John and Aylee a lot, but there were some rides she couldn't qualify for so she spent half the day with Alayna. From the picture above, you can tell that they had fun together (eg. playing in the bathroom) even when they weren't riding on rides.

All the kids did great keeping close and following our safety rules. We all had a great time together. They did so well, in fact, that we let them stay until about 10PM when most of the rides were supposed to be shutting down.

On the way home we saw various firework programs in bountiful and Salt Lake along the freeway - I imagine it was for the 24th of July celebrations. Man, it was a great day!

on your marks, get set, race!!!

We went to a 4 mile cherry trot in washington on thursday. Me John and Christy Johnson
were the only ones that ran. We got about 200th place out of about 500. Our time was 47 minits. On the stake 5k we ran that time so we ran faster than in the 5k. It was one of the funnest races ever! After that we went and bought ice cream.
I cant wait to race again!

I'm not your hon!

This morning, I was asking Alayna to do something for me. I said, "Will you please go and do this, Hon?"

Alayna replied, "I'm not your hon!"

I said, "Well, what are you then?"

She replied, "I'm your sweetheart."

"Oh," I said, "Well, then who is my Hon?"

She replied, "Amber is!"

Man, I hate it when I mix up my terminology!

I'm In Charge!

While I was at work today, Amber was using the bathroom. Aylee came downstairs and asked Aylayna where Amber was. Alayna responded, "mom is in the bathroom. I am in charge!" Alayna then proceeded to dance around the kitchen singing an unknown tune, "I am in charge, I am in charge, I am in charge." Amber was in the bathroom laughing her head off as she could hear what was going on in the kitchen.

Alaska Cruise: Day 7

We spent Saturday morning playing some games to pass the time until we were to arrive in Victoria, BC, Canada. Verne and I cleaned house with a couple of Canasta games on the ship. This last game was a lot closer, but Verne and I pushed through to the very end and beat out the women by a small margin.

Once we got to Victoria, we decided to do our own thing rather than take a tour from the cruise line. Alaskan cruises are very different than Carribbean cruises in that the posted tour prices are pretty close to the actual tour price that you pay once you get on shore. However, with this particular place, we figured that with four people we could rent a taxi for cheaper than doing a boxed tour.



We took a walk along the beautiful bay going into Victoria. It was probably a mile long walk, but the views were awesome. We saw the legislative building as well as some other awesome sites. I grabbed a virtual geocache on a bridge – it was our first cache for Canada.



Once we had a look around town, we took a taxi to the Buchardt Gardens. The cab driver happened to live close by there so he dropped us off and then picked us back up again when we were done touring the gardens. The gardens were pretty nice, but there was a lot of people there – it being a Saturday and a day for three cruise ships. But other than the congestion it was a great place.

That night we packed up and got ready for the early disembarkation for Sunday morning.

Alaska Cruise: Day 6

Formal night boasted some delicious lobster for dinner as well as some fancy desserts. As you can see from the picture, my dessert medley that I ordered came fully decked out as a medley.





We made sure to take some pictures in our formal outfits. Ann and Amber looked great, of course in their fancy evening attire.

Our photos were not without some “bloopers”, however. Ann had a great time while Amber was taking some shots at her and Verne.



After dinner and some shows, we went to get a small dessert snack before bed. While we were eating, we noticed the comedian that we really liked from a few nights before. He was sitting at the table next to us. We struck up some conversation and found out that he is the real thing when it comes to Yankee fans. He and Verne hit it off really well as they discussed players, Yankee Stadium, stats, and everything else about the Yankees. He was a pretty good guy. He is trying to get a TV series going. I think he has some backing from Bill Cosby which is always a good thing in my book.

Alaska Cruise: Day 5

Skagway was our final Alaskan stop on the cruise. It was a small town of 800 people. During the summer they get about 4 cruise ships a day there in town which brings in a daily population of 10,000 people. Needless to say, the town industry is tourism during the summer.

There was not a lot here other than tourists. We walked around town to experience the history of it all. We then took a bus tour up the White Pass where miners in 1898 hiked to find gold in the Canadian Yukon.

On our way to Canada, we passed the “Welcome to Alaska” sign and decided to grab a group shot. There was really nothing to look at when we reached the top of the pass. There was a lot of tundra as we were above the tree line for that area. We saw a river that had two different colors of water colliding as one current was glacial water and the other was fresh water.

Alaska Cruise: Day 4

Early the next morning we woke up to find ourselves in the beautiful waters of Tracy Arm. Within the last 400 years ago a sure cover a large area that we were passing through this day on the ship. The ebb flood of water into Tracy arm carved a narrow opening through which our ship was able to navigate. The narrow waters were nearly 1000 feet deep even though the land surrounding the water was only probably 3000 feet from each other. The glacier that had carved this area did a good job of making a deep cuts in the land. We saw steep fjord walls, hanging valleys, waterfalls, and glacially polished rocks. It was a tremendous view.



We were able to get a lot of pictures of a icebergs floating in the water with a perfect reflection in the bluish green, emerald like water. We notice that in many parts of the icebergs were blue rather than whites. Amber had been reading up on this earlier and explain to us that the blue parts of icebergs or glaciers are the parts that have recently broken off. Before they air hits the ice and rearranges the crystals in the ice, the structure of the ice crystals absorb all colors in the spectrum except for blue. This makes those parts of the iceberg appear to be blue instead of white.


We went as far as we could through Tracy Arm. We got to a point where the icebergs were so dense and the land was so narrow that our ship had to make a tight 180° turn so that we could follow the way we came to go back out of the arm.

Later that afternoon, we stopped in the capital of Alaska, Juneau. 30,000 people live and you know what half of them being employed by the government since this is the capital city of the state. The total area of the town makes it one of the biggest towns in the world -- size wise. Juno is one of the few capital cities in the world that is only accessible via airlplane or boat.

One of the most famous icons of Juneau is the large Mendenhall glacier. We took a tour to the glacier while we were in Juneau. We did not have time to hike to it, nor do I believe we could given the landscape. There was a visitor center built there and we spent some time reading about the glacier and how it had formed the Valley where the visitor Center stood. We were able to see a lot of the blue parts of the glacier that had recently broken off.


Traditionally, the Mendenhall glacier has receded 50 to 60 feet per year. However, last year it receded 500 feet. In the history of the earth glaciers have grown and receded as the Earth has cooled and warmed through various cycles in temperature and weather.

The glacier will probably recede much further this year due to the heat that was produced by Ann and Verne on the banks of the river created by the glacier.







On the way back to the ship, Amber and Ann stopped off at a shop to look at some green and orange leather jackets. They looked pretty good in their jackets. However, Amber decided against it, but Ann bought the orange one – it is pretty hip.



Once we got back on the ship we had dinner. We all were daring and ordered the escargot soup. Amber really struggled with the soup and so she and Ann spoon fed each other their first (and Amber's only) bite.

After dinner we went to a comedy show starring a guy by the name of Carlos Oscar. He was really good and very clean. He made it a point to let us know that his comedy acts are family-friendly and clean. He was the only clean comedian there. Not that the other comedians were bad, however you get the typical adult humor mixed in with some of the jokes.

Hello from Ketchikan!

Amber and I are on our cruise to Alaska. This is our first stop today to Ketchikan! Woo Hoo! Have one minute on the internet cafe timer, so I have to run. We're having a great time!

We've seen lots of cool mountains, trees, and totem poles! Ketchikan rains an average of 175 inches per year! No rain today though!

Alaska Cruise: Day 3

We got up early this morning and ate quickly so that we could go to our first port of call, Ketchikan Alaska. The banks of the land along the ocean in this region does not slope down gradually. As a result, many of the original homes and shops were built on stilts in some areas of the town. The most famous of these areas was Creek Street. It was a entire road of shops built on planks and stilts. We spent the first portion of the day walking around the town getting to know it better. We even saw a playful sea otter swimming on its back in the waters below Creek Street.

After touring the town, we went to a museum that featured the various totem poles that settlers found among the native people here many years ago. It was at the totem heritage Center that we searched for and found our very first geo-cache in Alaska.


We spent the rest of the time at Ketchikan looking at the various totem poles and reading about their stories and how they were made. We even took a bus to an area that featured several totem poles. It would have cost us about 50 bucks to go visit this place through the ship. However, for one dollar apiece each way we rode the city bus down to the center and toured it on our own. We missed out on a guided tour of the place, but we got to talk to some native locals who told us their own story of their lives there in Ketchikan. It was pretty fun to visit with them.



It was dinner time by the time we reached the ship again. We ate dinner and went to a lounge to listen to some music. The movie, Dan in real life, was playing in our individual state rooms. It was 10 o'clock and we were all pretty tired still from the long walks and hikes of the day. So we'd split up and went to our rooms and try to watch the movie. Amber and I were asleep after the first 20 minutes. :-)

Alaska Cruise: Day 2

We spent most of Monday going to various performances and shows. This day of the cruise was a ship-day. It was also formal night (the first of two formal nights).

Alaska Cruise: Day 1

We got up early on Sunday Morning and loaded our things in the Avalon. We woke the kids up and get Aliece and Alayna over to Ashlee and Brett's place. We left Aylee, Johnathan, and Jace at Ann and Verne's place with Adee and Adam (Michelle was still sick, so Aylee and Johnathan stayed with Adee and Adam until Michelle was feeling up to taking them up to the Johnson home). We said goodbye to all our kids and then headed off with Verne and Ann to Seattle to catch our ship, the "Star Princess" headed for Alaska.

We got on around 2pm and spent most of the day getting to know the ship and starting our binge eating for the week.

We were all pretty tired from the reunion over the weekend and our early morning, so we called it a night around 10pm so that we would be ready for the adventure awaiting us.

What a surprise you didn't expect to happen.

Jen & Lynn were Hauling Hay & getting so much accomplished. Joe was cutting hay and also getting a lot accomplished. It was a great day. Later in the day, I think around 7:00PM Jen was driving down the road and looked over @ Lynn who was going at a rather good speed in the field. All of a sudden,
She see"s something strange going on but not sure what was happening. But finally understood as the tractor quit moving. She took off on a run to help him, but not knowing what to expect.
Poor Lynn, it happened so fast, & he had NO CLUE WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO HIM !
I don't think he even had time to think. BUT IT DID SCARE HIM TO DEATH!
I guess these 2 pictures are pretty much the same. I must have chosen the wrong one for the 2nd one.

This picture certainly doesn't do it justice. And being in the tractor it felt more like your tipped wayyyyyyyyy down.
Lynn said it was a good thing that he had the fork down and not up like it is sometimes or it could have gone clear over but, the fork hit the ground and stopped it. I'm also glad that he didn't have a couple bales of hay on the fork.
The angles were certainly watching over him yesterday, thank goodness.
I doubt you can see but their are no doors on the tractor. Lynn had taken them off so if the tractor had gone over he would have been thrown out.

The Tire Axle had broken.
Lynn is either going to have to fix it or, find or get another axle. He thought Vance may have one. I guess Vance did & Lynn has it in the back of our pickup now!

We are so thankful that Joe and Jen have been out to help. It has helped a lot.
Joe went home last night, he has to finish packing to leave tomorrow night (Friday night)
I hope he ends up having enough time left to do it.
Jen & Chloe are still here, Jen is cutting hay while Lynn tries to do something about the tractor.
Just thought I would report on what is happening.
Love ya, MOM

Andersen Family Get-together: July 4 - 5

It sure was fun to get together over the fourth of July with the family. We took a lot of pictures, and I was going to create a video of our experience. However, something went wrong with the video and I could never get it to work quite right. In the end I gave up and never posted anything about the get-together. Now I am trying to catch up and record the fun event that we had together over the Fourth of July.



Our family got up to Arbon Friday morning. Jen, Dave, and Chloe followed shortly thereafter. Everyone else was already there. However, due to some last-minute swather part runs not everyone was together until later in the day.

Mom and dad had set out one of the new cattle troughs and filled it full of water. Janae and Mom had also prepared nearly 100 water balloons for later in the day. We put them in the new swimming pool to keep them safe. Uncle Dave and the rest of the kids did not waste any time in donning their swimsuits and jumping into the cold Arbon water. They had a great time playing around splashing each other in the trough.

Later in the afternoon, we all got out some towels and used up the water balloons that Mom and Janae set out. Nearly everyone got involved in the water balloon volleyball game. It was a lot of fun for the biggest adult to the smallest child. Chloe didn't quite get the game, however. Her favorite thing was to go over to the silver bowls containing the water balloons and pick up a water balloon and drop it on the ground to watch it splash.

Of course, including dad in the games meant that the volleyball exercise would end up in a terrific water fight. Everyone got fairly soaked. Poor Alayna was traumatized for a while. Any time grandpa would walk toward the swimming pool Alayna would start screaming and running for the House. She would sure that grandpa was going to dump her in the water, or at least threw a bucket of water on her.

We were also celebrating Joseph's graduation from college this weekend. So we watched a movie that Aylee compiled of Joe. It was really good.

Both Joseph and Dave brought out their Xbox games. Joe also brought out his flat-panel TV. They hooked up the games together on a network and used both of the TVs so that they could get a large group of people playing the Xbox together. This was a big hit, especially with my two older kids. Aylee and Johnathan thought it was the neatest thing.

We didn't have enough room in the house for all of us. So, Jen and Dave and Amber and I set up our tents on the lawn. The kids were pretty excited at the prospect of sleeping out under the stars.

We ended the evening by having a weenie roast by the campfire in the fire pit. Jake got out his guitar and played some songs for us. Amber and Jake led us in "Country Roads".



Camping out was pretty good. There was a time that Jace started screaming. About the time that he stopped, however, it had woken Chloe up and so she started to scream. She would just get settled down, when Jace would start up again. They took turns screaming through the night for about five minutes. Amber and I were laughing our heads off in the tent. Finally, we decided that it might be better if Jace were separated from everyone else. I took Jace into the van, and there we slept for the remainder of the night.

On Saturday I took Aylee and Johnathan to go and shoot some BB guns. I had printed out some paper targets and brought along some BBs. We use dad's air pump BB gun rifle. They both did really well. Johnathan hit the bull's-eye right on. However, Aylee was more precise and her shooting as most of her shots were within a silver dollars distance from each other.

Playing with the BB guns got us excited to get busy with the paintball guns that Jake had purchased a few years ago. Jake and Joe spent all morning cleaning up the guns. Shantell, Jake, Joe, and I got everything set up and went to play a game together. However after the first five minutes, we notice that nearly every one of our guns could only shoot the paintballs just a few feet. We finally had to give up and call it a day on the paint ball match.



Joe had brought out a cool ice cream making device. He and the kids got together and makes the ice cream ingredients. The contraption was a blue hard plastic ball. The ice cream ingredients went in a small container and the ball. Outside of the container contained the salt and the ice mixture. Once they got it mixed up, the kids took turns playing some games with the ball outside to mix it up. Amber set up an obstacle course for them to push it for about 30 feet run around the tent and push it back. Once they got tired of that game, we decided that it still needed to be mixed. So, we put the ball in the swimming pool. The kids got on their swimsuits and pushed the ball around and swimming pool.

Just before we left, we had a little birthday party for Johnathan who would be turning eight two days later. He got some great scout paraphernalia from the family. He was very excited about that. He also got some Legos and a very neat erector set. We topped off his rice crispy treats cake with the ice cream that Joe had helped the kids make. Janae that Jace his very first spoonful of ice cream. He wasn't too sure about it at the beginning, however he seemed to get a taste for it later on.

An Awkward Position

Today Jake needed some help that required an extra set of hands and a pickup. Instead of going home for lunch, I went over and helped him pick up a swamp cooler and then take some junk to the dump.

Since the van is in the shop still getting body work done, all of our car seats are in the truck. This includes Jace's car seat which only fits in the front passenger seat. The only spot with a free seatbelt is in the middle of the front bench, right next to the driver.

So, Jake hopped in to the middle and I cozied right up to him in the driver's side and we went and did the errands. When we pulled into the dump, there was a lady there at the checkpoint to pick up our money and let us into the dump area. After she paid, she said, "No baby?" I was bewildered at first, but then realized that she was looking at Jake and I just sitting right next to each other on the bench seat, next to an empty baby carseat. We quickly explained we were brothers and that we were running errands, etc.

Next, we drove to the dump area where you have to wait for someone to come up to you and tell you what stall you can pull into. Well, this BACA, Harley-Davidson biker looking dude with the long hair and the biker mustache came over to let us know which bay we were to use. As soon as he gave us the instructions, he asked, "Where's the baby?" LOL. Jake and I laughed nervously and made some quick explanatory statements involving brothers, borrowed truck, little kids, etc.

By the time we left, we were feeling pretty self conscious!

Graduation

I know John just posted about my graduation. Thanks. I thought I had better post something also.
Yesterday I finished up my last class for my degree. I still don't have enough credits to graduate, but I took the spanish CLEP test and got 16 credits that havent shown up on my transcript yet.
I am very excited to be done. It's about time.

Congrats to Joe!

Joe, Congratulations on finishing up your undergrad. Oh yeah! We're all excited for you. Welcome to the club of college Alumni. It will be fun to all get together this weekend. We're looking forward to it!

Triplex

Here is a photo taken today.

Triplex then and now

Did you ever play those games in the magazines when you were a kid? One game, in particular, that I remember was the game where they'd show you two pictures and you had to figure out what was different between the two images. I'd like to play that game now.

Here are two pictures of the triplex. One is a picture of what it was like when I purchased it. The other is what it looks like now (or in a couple of weeks). Can you tell the differences? Feel free to comment on this blog when you think you see some differences.

There are two differences that I would rather Joseph not mention (he is the one that pointed them out to me).

Fun at Seven Peaks

Last night our family went to Seven Peaks after work. We were to meet there at 4pm and then pay the half day rate and stay until 8pm. Three of the kids had coupons from their "High Fliers" reading programs at school. Alayna and Jace were young enough to get in for free. Amber and I were the only ones that had to pay.

At lunch time I had set my swim clothes on the counter for the family to bring with them when they met up with me. However, once we paid and got into the park, I asked Amber for my clothes so that i could go and change. She looked and realized they weren't with us. We parked about a quarter of a mile or so away from the park, so I walked back to the truck to see if they were in there. They were not. In the rush of preparing kids, food, and swimming gear, my trunks got left behind.

I came back to the park and went into their store. They had some long swim trunks there for a good price so I ended up just buying a pair.

The kids had a great time at the park. Amber brought some sandwiches and snacks that we used for dinner. Half way through our visit there we saw the Eberhard family. After that, the kids were gone. We only saw them every once in a while as they ran from attraction to attraction. It was pretty funny. Aliece, Alayna and Jace stayed with us of course, but it was fun to see the older kids growing up and going on their own. Dad has typically been the cool one to go on slides and stuff, however, as they grow older, I can see that some of my roles are being replaced by friends and siblings. I am OK with that, but sometimes it is wierd to realize that the kids are getting so old so quickly.

Alayna and I paired up quite a few times to ride on the tube slides. Aliece didn't want to do the tube slides and she played in the various pools. Alayna loved the tube slides and I enjoyed my one on one time with her.