Pumpkinman

I decided to run another olympic distance triathlon. The swim portion was in Lake Mead (1 mile), the bike was along the rolling hills of the lake (25 miles), then ended up in Boulder City where the run was (6.2 miles). My calves cramped after getting off the bike, and my whole leg cramped as I was running through to the finish line. It was a very hard race, but still fun.

The poor Expedition

Nancy was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As she was waiting in the left-hand turn lane on Losee and Tropical, some idiot in a olive green Nissan pickup came barreling around the corner and slammed right into the front end. He bounced off, lost his bumper, and stopped about 100 yards down the way. He got out, appraised his situation, and took off. Luckily, Nancy and Brock were not injured at all.

New Mexico and back (48 hours)

I (Dave) went on a quick work trip. It turned into a long-distance driving marathon with Dave Naylor, but we had a good time. Not a ton of scenery (most of the driving was through the night), but we did see a few things. This post is more of a test than anything. I wanted to see if the Google Maps thing works inside of the blog.


View New Mexico 2010 in a larger map

Brock strikes again

You can't leave this kid alone for any time at all. He did this while the entire family was 3 feet away. And, when we were cleaning it up, he went upstairs and had the lids off 2 bottles of Downy and was about to dump them when he was apprehended. Ugh!

Announcing.....

WE ARE HAVING A BABY GIRL!! Blogging has been on the back burner lately. May have something to do with my current state. A lot has been going on and hopefully we will catch up at some point. Anyways, we are excited....well, the girls are. I don't know about daddy. He may have shed some tears when he drove away. I am 18 weeks and due November 25.

Crazy Ali

A few months ago, the girls learned to make videos with the computer webcam. Although most of the videos aren't that exciting, this one cracks us up every time.

New Orleans 2010

On February 8 and 9, I (Dave) met a couple friends in New Orleans for a very quick trip. We scheduled the trip before the Saints were in the Superbowl and ended up being in New Orleans for the Superbowl parade on the only night we were there. The trip was less than 48 hours, but we had a good time none the less. The pictures are out of order, but you should get the gist.

This is a swamp we found as we were driving around. I nearly swamped myself trying to get on and off of this derelict boat.

We stopped by a plantation house that was built in the late 1700's. The tour was very interesting, and we learned quite a bit about the slavery system in N.O. during that time period.

Here is one of the "new and improved" homes that was built post Hurricane Katrina. In fact, this is one of the many crazy styles that Brad Pitt decided to build to help the people out. This house can actually float 12' before causing damage.

Here is the Six Flags park that is out of business. All the rides are still intact, just vacant. This area got up to 21' of flood water.

This is what many of the houses looked like. The foundations are completely undermined. Many of the houses had signs indicating when they would be demolished.

This and the next picture go together. The picture below is the location of one of the levee breaks. There are many foundation slabs in this area without houses on them. The rest of the houses are new. Of the 1.6 million people the lived in N.O. before the floods, 600,000 never returned.

This is a typical house that has not yet been demolished (5 years after the floods). The signage spray painted on the side indicates the date and the agency that checked the house for survivors. The zero on the bottom line indicates that no one was found dead here. You can see from the line where the water stayed for about 6 weeks.

These two pictures are near the Mississippi river around the French Quarter. There was very little damage in this area. The picture above is one of the levee gates.

The parade took over 2 hours to reach our location, but there were thousands of people crowding the streets to see.

Kade would enjoy these pictures. We had shrimp gumbo, fried gator, and po boy sandwiches for lunch. We also had some great Jambalaya for dinner.

The video below is a short glimpse into the riot of the parade. When it was over, the streets were absolutely covered in garbage. However, by early the next morning, it was all spick and span again.

No More Fireplace

This is what happens when you turn on a fireplace and your busy boy gets away from you for a second. I don't know if these pictures do it justice. His hand was burned so badly. We won't be turning that on ever again!! Nothing else has happened! Pretty quiet around here!

Christmas and Catch Up

Here is Christmas in Idaho. Brock really wasn't into it this year.






Swine Flu!! Yep, we brought swine flu with us. It was great!! Brock and Ali were so sick. He was absolutely miserable. It was so sad. Luckily the doctor gave us enough medicine for everyone in the house, so others didn't get it.

Ali had a little Christmas dance program. Here she is with some of her friends. This is their third year together!!Tylee is one of her best friends!! She will be moving soon and Ali will be heartbroken!

Scoliosis Update

This was the mood for the first week after getting the brace. The doctor wanted her wearing it for 20 hours a day by the end of the week. I didn't think we would ever get there. She cried all the time and was in so much pain. Against all odds she did it!! Now, I forget she has it on. Last week she was casted for a shoulder cuff. This will be added to the brace with the hopes of correcting the upper curve. I hope it doesn't go as badly as the first time. She really has been a trooper!!