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.

Baby Smiles

Baby Drake is beginning to have his own fun personality. If you get him in just the right mood, he will smile and even giggle at you. The other night, I stuck my tongue out at him and made silly noises and he started sticking his tongue out right back at me. It was hilarious. Here is a shot Heather got after getting him in a giggle mood this morning.

Empty nesters

Boy, this last week was a blast. We had a bunch of company come to town to share in the blessing of baby Drake. My parents came from my side. Heather's parents, along with her sister's family were able to come as well. We also had our good friends, the Murdock's, come from Tucson. It was a full house, that's for sure. We all had a blast, though. Along with blessing Drake, we fired up the hot tub and soaked until we were all lobstered rasins, put together a 550 piece puzzel, BBQ'd, WII'd it up, played piano and guitar, took a hike up red rock, went out for pizza, played toys with the kids, rode scooters, flew kites, pigged out on great food, watched Arizona get crushed, laughed, and just had a great time. Heather's sister and family were able to stay a few extra days because they put their car for sale on Craigslist here in Vegas and actually sold it while they were visiting. That left them scrambling to find a new vehicle that was more suitable for their needs (they traded a hummer for a minivan). Heather's Dad was also able to stay the week since he was here for business anyway. Now that everyone is gone, we don't know what to do with ourselves. Vegas has enabled us to see more people in a few months than we had our entire time in the Air Force. Here are some misc pics of our recent fun...