Vacation Pictures

We went to Red River, NM on vacation this week. Here are some photos from the trip.

Monday:

This 1st one is a picture of Toby and kids at a log that fell into the river, and the river has cut thru it over the years. Toby and his family always stopped at this site on their trips to Red River. You can see in the 2nd picture what I'm talking about...

Here's Sadie playing on a rock in the middle of the river...

And Aaron, who hiked up the river a bit...

Tuesday:

This is a picture of Aaron playing in the river right outside the condo we stayed in. It is right off the deck in the back.

And here is Sadie, crossing the river, also right outside the condo. She had to have some help. You can see how quickly the river is flowing. The water was also very very cold, but that didn't' stop the kids from playing in it...

We went on a hike in the mountains. Here's Sadie taking a break while Aaron and Courtney (Aunt Sandie's niece) climbed higher up the mountain. You can see the trail we were hiking behind her.

And here is Aaron on his way back down to the trail after climbing up the mountain...

Of course, there was a LOT of this going on...

Wednesday:

Sadie and Toby at the top of the mountain, after riding the ski lift up. She sure loves her daddy :)

Sadie and Toby on their way back down the ski lift...

Next was horseback riding. Here's Aaron on his horse. I was so proud of him. He rode all by himself, up and down hills in the mountains, quite often with a sheer drop-off on one side, and he didn't get scared...

Sadie rode with me. Our horse was named Brutus, and I don't think they feed him enough in the stables. The entire trip, he kept stopping to munch on anything green he could find, including pine trees.

Here we are coming back into town on the horses...

You can tell Sadie had a good time...she laughed, giggled, and gabbed the entire hour-long trip. She gives the experience a thumbs up!

As for me...I'm still sore today from riding ol' Brutus!

Here are 4 fish that Toby and Aaron caught on Wednesday. They left them strung up in the river in the back over night (we were going to cook them Thursday), and when we woke up Thursday morning, the fish were gone. Toby told Aaron a bear must have come down the river and eaten them...

Thursday:

We also found a rock-climbing place, and Aaron can't pass up that opportunity. He did a great job and scampered up to the top with no problems on the easy and medium sides. He tried the expert side (the one that will pay you $100 if you can make it to the top in 3 minutes), and he made it close to half-way up. It took him over 2 1/2 minutes to figure out how to get started, so if he had more time, I think he maybe would have made it.

We had lots of fun, and the weather was nice and cool! The condo we stayed in was nice, and it was great getting to spend time with Sandie, Corkey, Hope and Courtney! However, we were also very glad to get back to our house, and our own beds!

Professional Procrastinator

I have always been and will most likely always be a procrastinator. To date, I have never been late completing something, but there have been MANY MANY all-nighters. But hey, I am a night person, and I really think I do my best work after midnight, when the rest of the house is quite and I can be alone. I also work best under pressure. If I still have months to finish something, I always seem to be able to find something much more pressing to do (play on the computer, watch TV, spend time w/ family). Whoever said "Don't put off til tomorrow what you can do today" was obviously not very good at goofing off, or never had the internet, a blog, facebook, IM, e-mail, etc.

So now, I am beginning to feel the pressure from my latest project. I still have a month to complete it, but there is a lot to do. I am feeling that pressure so much so that I couldn't sleep last night as all the things I am working on (and trying to work out) were swimming through my brain, which for some reason, does not have a hibernate or snooze button. I was up until close to 4am lying in bed, thinking about how to make this pilot project I am in charge of for the fall work, and remembering all the things that I have to get done in the next few weeks.

So today, I have been productive. I have sent out the e-mails I needed to for dates from other instructors, filled out my tentative class calendar, and selected possible dates for the simulations I will need to do in the fall.

Here's the rest of the to do list:

1. write objectives and scenarios for 4 new simulations
2. work out the kinks for those sims
3. record some lectures for online (probably 8 hours worth...who knows how many actual hours that will take...)
4. sign-up for and preview the new case studies that are now required for my course
5. review and update the required video list

I am sure that there are more things, but right now, I can't think of them. But now, I have a to do list started, and can look back at this to see what I have accomplished and what still needs to be done.

I'm sure you guys really don't care about my to do list, but maybe by putting it out here for everyone to see, it will keep me more on task. Feel free to nag me about my progress ;)

Holy Hail!

Me and Aaron pulled up to our house this evening around 6 from an afternoon riding his dirt bike in Groom. As we drove home, we drove through a storm that dumped lots of rain on us. We made it home, and as we pulled into our neighborhood, I noticed lots of tree leaves in the yards. Then, I saw this in our yard, and it explained it all...

Aaron decided to walk barefoot in the hail, and was shocked to find it "freezing."

I'm glad we missed this storm. It looks like the hail was pea to marble size...maybe a little bigger. I wonder if we should get our roof looked at...

One other funny comment from Aaron today, as we were driving to Groom. He tells me that the next Webkinz he gets, he wants it to be the same as one he already has so that he can make the new one a girl, and then his girl and boy Webkinz that are the same can have babies, and then he'll have lots of Webkinz for free. I wanted to tell him that babies are in no way free, but instead just spent my time trying to convince him that this scheme would never work. I still don't think he believes me...

A Wonderland Night

Saturday night, we went to Wonderland Park with Toby's family. We had a great time (despite the heat...103 degrees...sheesh). Needless to say, our first ride was a water ride...

Here's Sadie on one of her favorite rides. It's the Thunderjet Racers.

This pictures proves to any doubters that my little Miss Priss has some attitude...Just look at her hand on her hips :)

Here's Aaron on the same ride, no hands

The Frog Hopper is another one of Sadie's favorites...no hands




Here's Aaron and one of his cousins on the ski lift...

And some daddy-daughter bonding time on the ski lift...

Here's a picture of the group of cousins (minus one) who were there Saturday night.

This is Sadie in line for her 1st ever roller coaster...this is a new ride at Wonderland.

Here's Aaron in line for the same coaster...

Here's Sadie in the coaster car, right before the ride began...

And here she is at the end of the ride...she loved it and hopped right back in line for more! Aaron, however, was not so impressed...he said it was a boring ride.

The Texas Intimidator was more thrilling for him. I was surprised he rode this. My little cautious boy is turning into a thrill seeker...

And here's Sadie on the last ride of the night...she made it onto the elusive dragon on the carousel. This is the only non-horse on the carousel, and is darn near impossible to get on, unless you're first in line, and very fast.

The kids had a great time, and Aaron LOVED spending time with his cousins. Hopefully, though, this is our last trip to Wonderland this year. It wears me out :)

No Longer a Shadow

So I got tired of people complaining about me being a shadow and finally looked through all my photos waiting to be printed and found one acceptable for my profile picture. This was taken of me at a winery in Victoria, BC on our Alaskan cruise last summer. Looking back through all those photos reminded me of how beautiful things were there, and what a great time we had!

So, now when I comment on your blog, you'll know who I am :)

Our 4th

Here are some pictures of our day on the 4th. It started out with Aaron going fishing with Uncle Russell, Aunt Dana, and their friend Chad. I took Sadie out there so that she could see the water dogs that they had brought for bait. Sadie, even though she can be quite a girly-girl, went country on me and didn't hesitate to pick up those water dogs. She also grabbed minnows that were also brought for bait. Here she is with one of the water dogs she played with...



Here's a picture of Aaron casting. He loves going fishing. Thanks for taking him, Uncle Russell :)

Next was Caden's birthday party. Here are some pictures of the water balloon fight...

Aaron and Caden ganging up on Cody (there's power in numbers)

Sadie getting ready to attach Aaron...

It was amazing how quickly those kids went through a ton of water balloons. When they ran out, they decided to take matters into their own hands and fill their own balloons. Unfortunately, they couldn't tie their own. Here are the boys waiting patiently for their turn to fill a balloon.

They also had tons of fun on Aunt Sandie's water slide. Thanks for always having such fun stuff for the kids to do :)

They also did a pinata and cupcakes at the party. They had a blast! What a great party! Then it was on to the next festivities...the fireworks at the farm! Here's a picture Toby took of me and Sadie lighting a hen. Like on of my cousins said after doing one with her kids, "Are those things really worth 75 cents?"

We didn't really get any good pictures of Aaron doing fireworks this year. Part of that was because he was much more independent this time and would run off and do his fireworks on his own.

Then, this arrived:

We got a ton of ran, and everyone ran inside and ate. Well, everyone except dad, who stayed out to man the grill. Thanks dad! You're the man!

While waiting on the rain to stop, I played my first ever game of 42. For anyone reading this who is not a part of the family, you need to know that 42 is a HUGE family tradition. Every time we get together, the parents would always play 42. Over the years, a few of my cousins have started playing too. So last night, me and one of my other cousins who has never played get a tutorial. For the most part, it was like learning a new language, and often, we had no clue what our mentors were talking about. But in the end (even though I lost), it was a great experience. However, I would not be able to play by myself yet...I think I would need about 20 more tutored games to start figuring things out...Thanks to Aunt Cindy for sharing her 42 knowledge with me, and for putting up with my lousing hands :)

Then, the rain left just in time to do the real fireworks...the ones for the dark. It was great. I missed a lot of them because of the 42 game, but still got to see plenty. I hope everyone else had as great of a 4th as we did :)

Washing the Bikes

Since getting the dirt bike, Aaron has ridden (and crashed) in some mud. The bike also had blue goo splattered under the rear fender from the blow out I had on it. So yesterday, we decided it was time to wash the bike. Sadie decided that since Aaron was washing his dirt bike, she needed to wash her bike as well. So, here are a few pictures of the process:


The before shots:

And here they are doing the washing...












Armor All-ing the seat. When Sadie saw this, she had to do the same to her bike :)

Sadie trying out Aaron's nice clean bike...

Now it's all ready for riding on the 4th!!!