Gabs and Drake

What can I say... Gabrielle and Drake are the best of friends.

Fun at the beach

Heather's Grandma passed away so she left to go to Idaho to go to the funeral. I was Mr. Mom while she was gone. Drake had been sick so we didn't plan on going to the funeral. Well, after Heather left, he seemed to be doing better a day or two later. On a whim, Heather's brother-in-law told us to come to California and go to the beach and have fun for the day since he was Mr. Mom for their three girls while Heather's Sister was at the funeral with her. Well, we could either hang out in Vegas while Heather was gone or we could hang out at the beach. You guessed it, we went to the beach. It was a whirlwind trip. We hopped on the earliest flight we could and got there in the afternoon. Drake slept the whole way on the plane (going and coming). Everyone had a great time at the beach. We had a picnic, dipped feet in the ocean, built sand castles, and just had fun. After the beach, we went back to their apartment and swam and went in the hot tub. We finished the party by going to In-N-Out burger and watching "Bedtime Story". We had a great time. Drake dipped his feet in the ocean for the first time and also surprised us by climbing up their stairs for the first time as well. He started crawling a few weeks ago as well.

Halloween Party

The girls had a Halloween party the other day at their school. They all wore their Halloween costumes and had a great time going to all the different booths and the haunted house. Here is a preview of their costumes for this year. Madison is a psycho witch. Gabs is an angel, and little Drake is a skeleton. I got a before and after shot of him in the stroller. I wish I could sleep like him!!!

First day of school

Here is a picture of the first day of school for the girls. Madison started Middle School and is in sixth grade this year. Gabrielle is in second grade. I can't believe how fast they are growing up. The girls love their new teachers and seem to be loving school so far. Madison has one science teacher that is old and grouchy, but all of her other teachers are fun. She started band this year and will be playing the flute. She is excited to play with her four aunts.

Fun overnight

Some of the overnights I go on are a lot funner than others. One of my favorites is Philly. I love that city for some reason. The hotel we stay at is right next to so many things to see and do. When you get lucky, you actually have some extra time to take advantage of it. Such was the case on my last trip. I had about four hours of extra time to check things out. I went to the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, went on the tour of the Mint and visited a museum about the history and struggles of America growing into the nation it is today. It is great to appreciate all that was done by the founding fathers. I got the girls a fun map of the US for them to put the quarters in when they collect them all. They have all fifty states finally in circulation. When I gave it to them, they raided our money jar and filled in most of it. There are still about ten or so that we need. It will be fun to find them all.

Slacker!!!

Sorry Folks, I have been a major duty slacker lately. Things are good. Drake keeps on growing like a weed. He is in the top of the charts as far as height is concerned, but the bottom of the charts for weight. He is going to be a string bean like his dad, I think. He is sitting up by himself all the time now and is as mild and happy as ever. He has his own certain set of toys that he likes to play with, but if you introduce anything new to him, he is bound to check it out thoroughly, and then slobber all over it as well.

We had some excitement on the home front. My youngest and last sister got married a week ago. My parents are "empty nesters" now. We had a great time going back to Utah to spend time with family and have a reunion of sorts and then enjoy the wedding as well. Fun stuff. We are actually headed back tomorrow to enjoy another fun day at Lagoon before school starts back up for Madison. It is going to be crazy having the kids in different school schedules (Madison is on the traditional track since she is starting middle school and Gabrielle starts the year-round track since the school is so crowded now). I can't believe my little girl is starting Jr. High. I am getting old!!! Here's a recent picture of Drake to make me feel young, though...

Dad's Birthday

The girls gave me a great birthday. We swam and had fun. For a present, they gave me a little swimmer for baby Drake so he can join in the fun. We have the water nice and warm right now so he likes getting wet for the most part. They went over-the-top with their cake. It was an ice cream sandwich cake. Check out the before and after pictures. We made a delicious mess of the whole thing. YUMMY!!!

Bear Lake

We had a blast going to Bear Lake up in Utah where my parents have a cabin. We were able to hang out there for a few days and have fun. We swam in the lake (brrr), made sand castles (the white you see is snail shells that wash up on the beach), went hot-tubbing, played games and just had a fun time. We can't wait to go up there again.

flying the fam

I had the coolest thing happen the other day. I was able to fly Heather and the family to Utah. I took the girls up in the cockpit with me before the flight and then after we landed in Salt Lake, Heather came up with little Drake. I have a little video here of the event. What a blast. We were able to hang out with family and have a great time at my parents cabin at Bear Lake.

LAGOON!!!

Well, the crazyness continues. My sister grew out of her old car (a 94 Toyota Corolla) with the birth of their latest baby. They decided to take the leap to get a mini-van. I had a hair-brained idea that chain-reacted to the current situation. What if I bought the car and left it in Utah for the times we come down to visit and have fun??? We would easily make up the purchase price of the car in saved rental fees in no time at all. What if we bought season tickets to Lagoon for us to use during the summer??? Hmmm. Well, that's exactly what happened. We gave it a test run for the first time last week. I gave Heather the day off, sorta, and took the girls to Utah. The flight is only an hour, and the shuttle to the hotel where I left the car was there waiting for us. Ten minutes later we were piled in the car and fifteen minutes later (plus a quick stop to grab some rain ponchos for the forecast and sandwiches for lunch) we were at Lagoon. Needless to say, the girls and I all had a blast. It did rain for a bunch of the day (best three bucks I have spent in a while on those ponchos). We stayed reasonably dry and made the most of the rainy day. It really cut down on the lines, though. We just went from ride to ride. What a blast. Our plan worked great in reverse. We dumped the car at the hotel, took the shuttle to the airport and were home that night to excitedly tell Heather and "woogies" all about it. We can't wait to go again.

Rock Patio

Well, this project was actually completed a while ago. I got a bunch of red rock from up the canyon and slowly plugged away at making a stone walkway from the front of the house all the way along the side to the back connecting to the pool patio. There used to be a flagstone walkway there that drove me crazy because all the little rock would get kicked up on the flagstone all the time. I just wanted a continuous pathway. Plus, I think the red rock walkway lookes a lot better. I moved all the flagstone to the other side of the house where I plan on putting in a little patio next to our BBQ grill. Heather thinks I'm half-crazy. It took a lot longer and was a lot more work than I ever imagined it would be, but I am very happy with the results. I had some help from Heather's Mom when she came out to visit a while back as well. When we finished the job, I used some leftover cement for all of our handprints, including baby drakes (he was about a month old at the time I think). Once that job was done, I couldn't stop getting rocks to make a "dry creek bed" going down the right side of the house to add some color to the front landscape. I have meant to put some pictures of the final project up on the blog for a while now but I just have let that one slip through the cracks. Here you finally go. Enjoy, but don't ask for any help putting one in of your own. My back and knees laugh at the very idea...

Gabs looses another tooth!!!

On our way back from Lagoon the other night, Gabrielle wiggled her loose tooth and it started to bleed. She was freaking out and wouldn't touch the thing for an hour, even though it was just holding on by a thread. Finally, she started to get hungry and wanted part of a sandwich I had. That was enough to let her trust her dad to pull it out. With a quick flip of the finger, it was out. Here's the before and after shot of the drama. The kid has no teeth!!!

Drake is my new walpaper

Madison took this picture of Drake when he was in the car seat the other day. I couldn't resist saving it as the walpaper on my phone. I bust out laughing almost every time I look at it. What a funny little guy.

collage time...

Madison and Gabrielle wanted to make a collage out of some recent pictures. Enjoy the latest...

Princess Madison

I bought a pool cover the other day to help heat up the pool using solar energy as well as cut down on water loss and chemicals needed for the pool. There were a bunch of leftovers when it was all done, so Madison asked if she could use them. I said "sure" and a little while later, this was the result.

Drake found his tongue!!!

We had a blast with Drake this morning. He found his tongue and kept sticking it out at us. It was hilarious. We also started him on rice cereal last night. He gobbled it up. He's going to be a PIG, I can tell. The last picture was one Heather took when we were all piled up on the couch playing with Drake last night. He is growing up too dang fast.

Madison 5th grade dance

Madison had a fifth grade dance last week as part of the graduation fun for finishing fifth grade. She went shopping with Mom for her dress and has been looking forward to this for a long time. They had a blast. The theme was "red carpet" and they had lots of pizza and other yummy food to eat. They had a live DJ with lots of fun music. Some of the parents went over the top and had their kids arrive in limos. Seriously!!! We can't believe how grown up Madison is already. I wish I could turn back time and have her be my little girl forever. When I look at this picture, it makes my heart hurt for when she is really grown up and "on her own." It makes me really want to have fun with the kids while I still can!

Drama performance

Madison and Gabrielle did drama this year as part of an after-school activity. Their hard work came to a close after their final performance. This was something especially good for Gabrielle, since she is famous for clamming up in front of an audience. Gabrielle was part of a beach play and Madison was a sailor with a pirate play. Both of them did a great job and we are proud of their efforts!!!

Baby Drake likes DP!!!

Gabrielle got some chapstick for her birthday in various containers. One of them is a miniature Dr. Pepper can. Today, when we had a family BBQ to celebrate Gabrielle's birthday, the girls had to take a shot of us holding our DP's. They thought it was so funny having him hold the mini-can. They were dying when he tried to eat it. He is going to be a huge DP fan like his daddy...

Happy Birthday Gabrielle!!!

We had a blast celebrating Gabrielle's 7th birthday this week. Gabrielle wanted it to be a "Doggie" theme at the park. We had a dog bone for a pinata along with other themed things. The park is right around the corner from our house, so that made it easy. It's a fun park, perfect for a party. There is an area with sprinkers for all the kids to run through and get soaked. Needless to say, that is mostly what the kids did at the party. Heather went over the top with food and fun as always. We also had another family celebration the day after. We got her a trampoline (gave our old one away when we moved here because we didn't think the yard would be big enough to have one). Needless to say, she was super excited to bounce on it again. We have also had fun breaking in our swimming pool again this year. It is still a little chilly to jump in at first, but it quickly feels good, especially with the 100 degree heat we have been having lately. It will only feel better as the summer intensifies here. We cranked up the hot tub as well to take the edge off today. Our backyard is becoming like the party playhouse we left behind in Tucson. What a blast!!!

Terry Fator

On Tuesday dad took me to see a show called Terry Fator, he won Americas got talent. anyways we left at around 4 and the show started at 7. It was a blast, it was so funny I almost peed my pants! There was a ton of hilarious puppets and if you can see in the picture on the stage to the left there was a D.J. booth. one of the funny things he did was impersonate Michal Jackson, The Beetles, and Maroon 5. It was so fun but when we got home we went right to sleep. By, Madison

Adopt a Pilot

This week has been a blast. The highlight of the week for me was being able to finish up being an "adopted pilot" for Madison's 5th grade class. Each year, Southwest puts a program together for pilots to volunteer to go to 5th grade classrooms to talk to the kids about being a pilot, working to achieve your dreams and basically going through a four-week program that runs together with the 5th grade corriculum. The kids keep track of my trips, adding up the mileage and learning about the different places I go. They e-mail me and ask me questions while I am away as well. Some of the highlights of the program (according to Madison) was when I brought in my flight suits and helmet (one desert and one regular) and had a race with two students to put everything on. The winner got the prize of holding their arms out while I held a lighter under their arms and hands (the suits are made out of nomex and are fire resistant). Another week I brought in a ping pong ball with a hair drier to demonstrate how the air flow will keep the ping pong ball hovering in the air, even at a 45 degree angle from the nozzle opening. Then we took it up a notch and did it with a leaf blower and a beach ball. It's crazy to imagine a ball just hovering in the air, but that's what happens. We played games and had contests about geography, the phonetic alphabet, flying, etc. The final day I came we all had a graduation ceremony and a pizza party. It was a fun experience. I can't wait to be able to do it with Gabrielle's class.

When Gabrielle gets a hold of the camera...

Happy Easter

This has been a fun and busy week. The girls had Spring Break from school for the week and have been driving Heather crazy while I have been flying on a trip for most of it, unfortunately. On the bright side, besides paying the bills, this trip had an overnight at Dulles where I was able to catch up with my good friend Ryan Marcusen and his family. Then two days later I was able to see my brother Jon and his family and their new home in Sacramento. They literally killed the fatted calf when we had a BBQ for lunch. Yummy!!!

The girls also had a fun Easter. They had an Easter egg hunt with eggs filled with candy and quarters. They also had a fun basket filled with assorted little gifties. Heather knows how to spoil them rotten, that's for sure. Here are some pictures of the girls in their Easter outfits for church.