Summer Goings On

We bought some new chairs for our refinished table. With that came big boxes. With one of those boxes we had the great idea to make a space ship out of it. Daddy engineer did a marvelous job of making a Buzz Lightyear space ship. Jordan couldn't have been a happier boy. Jordan's friend Ethan came over and they both had a blast playing in the space ship.

Natalie became curious about her brother's space ship as well. The two of them had a fun time playing in it together. I love this sweet picture of Jordan giving Natalie a hug. You can tell she loves hugs from her brother. So sweet. 

You can't live in Arizona and not go to the pool. We went often and always had a lot of fun. Here is a picture of our cute water loving kids. 

The zoo is another fun place to go. We went with a group of friends and had a fun time. Jordan thought this elephant statue was made for no other reason but to be sat upon. In the other pictures he is looking at animals and chasing peacocks around.  

Jordan took this picture of Natalie and I at the zoo. Pretty good job I'd say. 

Jordan and Daddy went to see the movie Planes in the theater. It was Jordan's first time in a movie theater. He enjoyed the movie at the beginning, but this kid can't sit still through an entire movie. Preston said they walked around the theater a bit. We'll try again when he a little older. Father son outings are always an adventure.

Preston's Birthday!

I turned 30 years old this month. Not sure how I feel about it yet, but we had a fun time celebrating! I think I need to grow a mustache to prove to myself that I am still young... Here is Natalie and me enjoying a meal at the Olive Garden.

Here is Hill and Jordan having a good time as well. I think Jordan only ate bread sticks and drank juice. He definitely has his favorite foods.

Here is a collage of the fun things we did for my birthday. Funny thing about Jordan, he has figured out what birthdays are and that people get presents and get to do fun things. The only issue is he thinks everyone's birthday is his! He was adamant that we would have a pinata for my birthday. He decided that I would have a Buzz Lightyear cake, then he helped me blow the candles out. Of the many candles on the cake I think I blew out two of them. Grandma Suzie sent me a nice book in a package and Jordan was sure that it was Buzz Lightyear's arch nemesis Emperor Zurg! 

Here we are going at the pinata! It turns out that this one was made of cardboard so it took quite the beating before it broke open. Jordan had so much fun hitting it and also lifting it up and down while I missed it. Hill was the one who eventually spilled the candy. What a tough mommy!

Fishing Trip

In August my dad, Jared, and Bryce went for a backpacking trip into the High Uintah mountains in Utah. It was a fantastic trip and was about a 32 mile round trip with the extra jaunts I took. 14 miles in and out, plus some additional trips to lakes and sightseeing. It was a much needed taste of Utah and the mountains for me and I had a blast! We will see if we do this again in the next few years.

Here is the first camp. We hiked in 9 miles the first day and called it good at this spot. It was right next to a river that lulled me to sleep that night. It was a good thing too because my dad was snoring and the horses were moving and waking me up at night. It turns out horses don't sleep like humans. They move constantly and since they were tied on a area of rocks I thought they were making a run for it all night long! I woke up on the hour, every hour all night long. It took me a while to get some solid rest on this trip with the hard ground, 1/4 inch of padding underneath me, and the horses making noise.

On this hike I came straight from Oro Valley with an elevation of 2,600 ft and went hiking with the trail head that started at 8,176 ft. It turns out elevation is a big deal! I felt like I was starving for oxygen. It was rough the whole way in. I was definitely happy that we stopped where we did.

Here is an image of the river we camped next to. The fishing was fantastic on this river. My dad, Jared and I went for a small walk up the river and we caught somewhere around 75 fish total. Since we figured out what fly they were hitting it was basically throw your line in the hole and be ready for when the fish hit your fly! Unfortunately, they were only about 8-10 inches long. 

This beautiful picture is Ouray Lake. This lake is at an elevation of 10,380 ft. We camped about 1/4 mile from this lake next to the drainage river. This was a fantastic spot. There was soft ground (kind of, more on this later), a nice river to get water from, and wonderful scenery. 

This lake provided some excellent fishing. I think as a group the first night we fished it we caught a total of 200 fish between the four of us. It was basically throw your line out 5 times and catch 3 fish. We really had them figured out on the lure and it was a blast! This is some of the best fishing I have ever experienced! Again, the fish were only about 12 inches long at the largest that I caught. But it was fun.

Here are a couple of shots of our campsite. We camped here for two nights. The second night on the trip I woke up 4 times, again from the hard ground and the noisy horses. It turns out that I was really worried about bears! The last night I was able to sleep all the way through the night. The irony is that I finally had this outdoor sleeping figured out and then we were ready to leave! 

Here is Bryce and my Dad at the stove cooking some delicious breakfast.

So I always burn my pancakes on these trips. However, my Dad figured out how to cook them a nice golden brown. I am not sure how he did it, but I am sure thankful that he was pumping out pancake after pancake that was delicious.

Here is a nice picture of Jared feeding the horses. The horses were real troopers and Jared took great care of them. 

 Here is a picture of Lightning Lake, elevation 10,819 ft. This was supposed to be a great fishing spot and I am sure it is normally, but it turns out it was the mating season for an ant in this area and there were spent ants all over the surface of the lake. The fish were so gorged on these ants that they were not very hungry. Even when we matched the food on the lake our flies were one out of thousands on the lake. We were still able to catch some good fish which were about 2 inches bigger than the ones at Ouray Lake, but we did not have near the success.

After a while I got a little bored and went for a hike. Here I am at about 11,500 ft at the treeline. Things are pretty much stunted or don't grow at this elevation. In the picture above is Lightning lake on the right and Helen lake on the left. We never fished Helen lake.

Even though there were no big trees at the treeline there were a ton of pretty flowers. Here is an artistic photo (yes I took this one. Even a blind squirrel picks up and acorn every once in a while) that I took.

After my foray up to the treeline Bryce met me and he wanted to go for a hike and explore the area. Here is another picture of a lake we hiked to. The area was just plain gorgeous!

Here is the brave crew as we are getting back to the Upper Stillwater Reservoir. We are all about beat at this point, including the horses. The smiles on our faces are from relief that the hike will be over soon!

All in all it was a great trip where we got to catch up on how each other was doing, spend some quality time fishing, and drink in the beauty of the great outdoors. I am glad that I went and I can't say enough about how much fun we all had on the trip.

Natalie 10 months

Natalie is 10 months old now. Her greatest desire is to move! She is learning to pull up on furniture, cruise along it, and can walk around when we hold her hands. Walking is her absolute favorite thing to do. She would do it all day if her parents backs would let her... and even then... we do walk her around most of the day. It is so fun and exciting to see her learn and progress in her motor skills. We love to cheer her on!

Here is a picture of our happy girl. She looks so big wearing shoes. I look back at her newborn pictures and am baffled at how fast the time has gone by. She is more toddler than baby now. It's amazing. 

Here are some fun pictures to show Natalie's moving skills. She can cruise along the couch. She can walk if we hold her hands. She has skipped traditional crawling, but she is learning this sort of scooting crawling maneuver. She will not put two knees down on the floor. So she has one knee down and one foot down. It's kind of a, I don't want to crawl but I don't know how to walk by myself yet compromise. 

Natalie moves her foot forward and then her knee, while alternating her hands. She scoots along the floor in this motion and can get to the toy she wants; just not very fast. It's a cute sight to see. She is so excited to be able to move. I'm so glad she isn't frustrated anymore. Yay for a happy baby!

Here are some fun pictures of Natalie and Jordan spending time together. In the top left the are giving kisses. The top right is supposed to be a hug, but it turned into Jordan doing some kind of wrestling move. The bottom left is them holding toys that they like. The bottom middle Natalie is giving Jordan a hug. So sweet. And the bottom right is Natalie patting Jordan on the back because she is so excited to be around him. 

It is so fun to see these brother sisters moments together. They really love to be around each other. Jordan is a kind and helpful big brother and Natalie adores him and wants to do everything he does... aka the walking. Fun times all around. By next month Natalie could be walking on her own. We will see.

Here are a few more pictures of Natalie being adorable. She is our happy, smiley, squeaky, moving, precious girl. We can't imagine not having her as a part of our family.  We love you little lady!

Jordan's 3rd Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jordan! 

Jordan is now a big 3 year old! We had a Birthday party at our home for Jordan with some of his best buddies. Jordan wanted a Buzz Lightyear cake (first he wanted a Mickey Mouse cake, then Peter Pan, and finally decided on Buzz) and so Mom gave it her best shot. He was happy with it and he even helped put the blue frosting on. Right after he blew out the candles he took the Buzz off the top and held him. 

Here is Jordan with two of his friends Ethan and Nathan. It's funny that Jordan wanted a Buzz Lightyear cake because all he will eat is the frosting off the top and then devour his ice cream. Silly guy. 

Here is a picture of friends and opening presents. Natalie loved the balloons that were all around. It was so great having everyone over for this special day!

Cake cutting and ice cream munching. 

Natalie was so thrilled about the balloons. I didn't realize they'd be so entertaining for her. What a sweetie. 

Preston came up with the coolest activity that goes back to his childhood days. His Dad used to make these bottle rockets out of pvc pipe, a bike pump, and some 2 liter pop bottles. The kids (and might I add the Dads too) LOVED it! It was a blast! "To infinity and beyond!!!"

Jordan's favorite present from Mom and Dad. 

He hardly ever puts Buzz down. 

On Jordan's actual B-Day on the 29th we had a family party and this time Jordan wanted a Woody cake. So we made a cake, put sprinkles and candles on top, and Jordan placed Woody on top. He was so excited about his Woody cake! How adorable. 

Refinishing Our Kitchen Table

 Here is the beginning of the kitchen table refinishing project! We were all excited and ready to rock and roll! Here is Jordan being the big helper!

Here is Jordan and me beginning the sanding work. You can see from the left image that I am picking at something on the sand paper. It turns out there was a polyurethane coating on the table which made it extremely difficult to sand because the coating kept gumming up the sandpaper. It was definitely a learning curve.

Here is the first pass sanding on the table top. There is a distinct color difference between the top and the legs. It turns out there was some beautiful wood beneath the rough old table finish. A lesson learned from sanding the top is that it is easier to use a polyurethane and stain stripper than to just muscle through it and pick the crud out of the sand paper. This revelation made things go much more smoothly. However, as you can see in the picture, the table legs have lots of fine features. It turns out that this makes stripping and sanding extremely difficult! The table legs were by far the most difficult part of the project.

Here we go with the pre-stain treatment. We did this in the garage because it was the largest covered area we could find. The table and legs are starting to look really good!

On an unrelated note, most of this pre-stain, stain, and sealant work was done in the late hours of the night after the kids went to bed. Due to the fumes from the chemicals we had to keep the garage door open. If you have ever been to the desert at night you know the bugs just come alive! I guess they hate the heat too. Anyway, there were a ton of bugs that came in and drove us nuts. It turns out that having all the bugs in the garage attracted other critters as well. Hill and I were working on the stain for the table legs and Hill saw something out of the corner of her eye. It turns out a huge tarantula was strolling into the garage to check out the large number of bugs! It was super hairy and with its legs spread out was larger than a saucer plate. Super creepy. Hill immediately began to gasp and move expeditiously to the opposite side of the garage. I, being the tough man that I am, protected my sweet wife by using a piece of cardboard and shooing the spider out of the garage and on its merry way. I did not squish it for two reasons, first, I did not want to have to clean it off the bottom of my shoe, and second, it eats scorpions and other insects we like even less! Ah, the adventures we are having here in Oro Valley.

Here I am putting the stain on the table top. Notice that there is daylight coming in from the garage. We shifted our schedule to work in the mornings after the spider incident. It also kept those pesky bugs from landing in the sealant and making them a permanent part of the table. Hill liked the arrangement better.

Here is a before and after picture of the table top. Quite a difference!

The finished product with some new chairs around it. We are happy to have this project completed and to have a nice place to have our family meals!