Vegas Baby

We spent a couple of days in Vegas this last week. First time with kids. You know your old when you are walking through the casino pushing a stroller and carrying stuffed animals. We made a midnight run down there leaving around 9pm, its been a while since I have done one of those. It was the longest drive ever and I seemed to get less tired the closer we got to Vegas. It was good and bad, it was good because the kids slept almost the whole time, b tried to stay awake and made it to Nephi. Cody woke up just after Mesquite. It was bad because they both were wide awake and ready to go at 3am when we got to the hotel. We didn't think they were ever going to sleep.


Walking into the Paris, thats were we stayed, first thing I see is a transvestite. Welcome to Vegas! At 3am you'd expect everyone to be asleep but then again we were in Vegas and it was jump'n. We ended up going to bed every night around 11 Vegas time, which is actually midnight Salty time yet still early for being in Vegas. Our kids are still trying to readjust.

I have decided that Vegas is close to Death Valley for a reason, crap flows down hill and Vegas is about as close to the bottom as you can get.



The kids had a blast. I think they would have a blast in any hotel where they could go swimming. Our room overlooked the pool, only to make it worse. The first thing the kids would do in the morning would be to go and look out the window and say they wanted to go swimming and then thats about all they could think about. I was there for a work conference so T would take them swimming in the afternoon. She kept them all pretty busy, plenty of places to go shopping. B was funny, anytime they would go somewhere she just wanted to go back to "our" hotel, she wanted to eat and shop and everything else in "our" hotel. T took them to the Vegas Temple and found an Olive Garden on one of the days.



Never go to Circus Circus! The food was way too expensive and it was horrible, so bad that it made me sick. The place is dirty and gross. We watched a couple of the circus performances, the trapeze was pretty cool and the kids were memorized. The next act was a very flexible lady who I think was confused which job she was at. She was a little provocative for being a kids circus act.

Weeds

If I have to weed my "flower bed" every other week all summer I'm going to put a torch to it. I've tried to xeriscape one of my parking strips, I have three because I live on the corner, to cut down on grass. It's not very good looking, plants are way too expensive and half of the ones we bought last year died. The city did plant a tree for me and as long as I can keep it alive I don't have to pay for it.

My yard needs so much help. Did finally get a garden ready for this year. We have planted peas every year, last year I planted some strawberries and raspberries but way too late in the season and they didn't last very long. This year I planted them much much earlier and they are doing awesome. No raspberries this year but next we should get the hook up. Now I need to plant an apple and a peach tree, trees are expensive. I should try and grow them by seed.

On another note, felt pretty good about myself the other day. I made some OJ for Cody, he clapped and cheered "yeah daddy!"

Belgian Graduation

Now why didn't we do this at our graduation? What a sticky mess. I'm sure my mom is in tears watching this, all that wasted diet coke!

Where Amazing Happens?

Who honestly has the time to make these videos?




I'm not much for pro-ball, they are a bunch of babies who make way too much money. I do get caught up into the whole play-off buzz. It's about the only pro-ball that I watch all year and I probably won't watch a whole lot the games 'till the Championship.

The Jazz are doing what they do best, keep you on the edge of your seat, while switching alliances, love the Jazz, hate the Jazz. I personally love Kevin Garnet, he is the man!! So I'm cheering for Boston this year.

At work we have all filled out our brackets, I do have the Jazz going to the Western Conference championship game but losing to New Orleans. I should have picked the Lakers but thats hard because I really hate the Lakers almost as much as I hate the Suns.

Cankle

So for those of you who don't know I sprained my ankle pretty bad about two months ago. I did it while playing basketball. The other team had a fast break and I ran down to try and block the guy, instead I took him out along with my ankle. When I planted my foot to jump something made a loud crack and then I fell to the floor. I thought for sure that it was broke, felt like it was broke, sounded like it broke. Spent the next couple of days laying in bed before I made it to the docs. The doc took some X rays, said it wasn't broke just a bad sprain and sent me to the physical therapist. The physical therapist took a look at it, said it wasn't broke iced it and told me to come back twice a week. I think I managed once a week for a while, mainly cause it felt really good when they massaged it. The PT did tell me that it was a really bad high ankle sprain and compared it to Dirk Nowitzki spraining his ankle. That made me feel pretty cool about myself, until he told me that Nowitzki was back playing on it ten days later. Yeah, I'm a wuss!

It is feeling better now. I can walk without a limp and can even run a bit. It's still a little swollen and gives me problems. Maybe if I would do the ice/hot treatment more often I could get the swelling to go but really who has time for that? I don't even have time to post this but I needed a break from my last paper which should be done tonight or soon after.

Here are some pics of my foot. One is a couple days after the other one was last week. Not very good pics but they work.



Update:
Just wanted to add a note here about my physical therapist. Hand & Orthopedic Rehabilitation Specialist at 702 East South Temple. Whats sad is I don't even know my therapist last name. His name his Tyler and his assistants that helped me, Molly and Abby. They all did an excellent job and were very nice, friendly and helpful. I would recommend them to anyone needing a foot, ankle or leg physical therapist. If for some crazy reason any of them read this blog, thanks.

My excuse

I know I have a lot of excuses for things, just ask my wife. Not surprisingly I get a lot of grief from everyone, friends and family alike, that I spend way too much time on the computer/internet. I have to agree that I do spend a lot of time on the internets but I do have to defend myself.

I have a lot of internet to cover. I don't remember what the commercial was for but it's my favorite. Some guy sitting behind a computer triumphantly throws his hands in the air and declares that he completed the internet. That one day my friends will be me.

Honestly, there is so much information on the internet. Lately I've been into blogs. There are so many blogs out there its not even fathomable. I've been into these econ blogs that are keeping me pretty occupied when I'm not working on my homework. I can't even remember doing homework without the internet. How would that be? Going to the library, checking out books and journals, printing things off cause you can't take them. Wow! I shake just thinking about it.

So here is part of the reason I spend a lot of time on the internet. It's easy. It's right there as you can see in this picture.


It's right in our family room. I can watch t.v., cook, and still be part of the family and conversation. Often we all end up around the computer watching youtube, a movie trailer or playing games with the kids.

Most of the time it just seems like I'm on the internet a lot when really I'm not. Most of the time I log into my facebook/myspace/google and just leave it on. I go do other things while sporadically checking in.

Another marvelous wounder is our laptop that connects to the internet anywhere in our house, outside our house, my sisters house, my parents house, my in-laws house and anywhere else there is wifi. My work laptop is supplied with the goods to keep me connected when the other laptop is occupied or I'm out and about. Then at work, I just cannot work all day, that would drive me nuts! Even though on occasion I am forced to work, I check the internets throughout the day. And again, when I get to work I log into my google and stay logged on all day.(we are unable to access facebook or myspace at work)

I recently activated my que phone to work as a modem so now wherever I can get cell coverage I can get online. How sweet is that?

So there are my excuses for being online so much.

Taxes & Finals

I haven't posted anything lately because we have been rather busy. T has been working a lot with tax season and I'm in the process of finals. Tax season is over which is both good and bad, the money is good but she works a lot. Finals are over next week with two papers and a test. Maybe we will have time to do some much needed grocery shopping and house cleaning. The lawn needs to be mowed but who knows when that will happen. You would think that with all of the papers that I have written that I should be half way decent at it but I think that I'm getting worse. It has been taking me longer to write and the quality has been going down hill. Now I'm debating on summer school or not. I should go to keep up with my classes and to make sure that I'm not going forever but it would be really nice to have a couple months off and catch up on some things around the house. That and we are going to have another kid. What to do what to do.

So B asked what a "kitty street" was. It took a bit for Taryn to figure out that she meant kiddy corner, b was getting pretty mad that her mom didn't understand her. Cody's new thing is saying "watch me" and then him doing something.

Good times

Map Geek

I'm a bit of a map geek. I could honestly stare at a map for hours. I love google world, one of the coolest things ever. I even took a bunch of GIS classes at school and I have the capability to make maps, i'm not very good at it.

Here is a fun map blog

The Girls

Their first Easter 2004. Not much has changed.


My girls


In '05 we didn't get a group picture for reason. Here's one of just b


2006


2007




2008

Spring Time Pasta

Spring time pasta recipe

1/2 lb penne pasta
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 T olive oil
1/2 cup cooked frozen peas
1/2 cup red bell pepper (I use green, cheaper)
1/2 cup red onion
1/2 cup mozzarella
4-5 fresh basil leaves, chopped (I only sometime use these)
1 chopped garlic clove (I like to use two or three)

Saute pepper & onion until soft -about 3 min- Add garlic, salt & pepper
Mix with bowl of coked pasta (cook pasta according to box)

Dressing
1 1/2 T red wine vinegar
1/2 T balsamic vinegar
1 t dijion mustard
1 chopped garlic clove
5 T olive oil

Combine vinegars, mustard, garlic - whisk
While whisking, slowly add olive oil & continue to whisk until blened

Add drained peas, mozzeralla, basil, s & p to pasta
Pour dressing over salad & mix


So at dark thirty eleven last night Marcee calls me asking for a pasta recipe. I was up trying to work on a school paper but was busy google chatting with breeze. Love the google chat, chatted with soley for a bit also. Its kinda dangerous though because people can see how much I'm online. In my defense when I'm home or at work I log onto google and just leave it open while I do everything else. I think I bother people on google chat, I see them on their and think they want to chat when I'm sure they have much better things to do. So I try my hardest not to bother people. If anyone who google chats, just put it on busy and unless your Jeremy I won't bother you. I never know how to end those conversations. I'm done talking but still online working or surfing. Im sure others aren't sure how to end either. Most of the time they just say bye because they are actually getting off the net or at least google. (probably to avoid continuing a conversation with me)

Back to the story, now Marcee has to come and borrow use half the ingredients of the recipe. Haeli woke me up this morning looking for eggs. I guess thats what happens when your siblings live with'n rock chucking distance.

Bs' Birthday

So im about a week behind all of the events. It takes some time to process what happened so I can write about it.

B is now Four! She is so excited and thinks that she is soo big. We went a little overboard with her birthday but she deserves it. She had a three day birthday party. On her birthday all of her cousins slept over(not all of them slept over because they were sick). The next night we went bowling as a family, she went bowling once with zack and she talks about it all the time. Then we had the family party.







She had on a bunch of her makeup, so thats whats wrong with her lips. Codys sick so he just doesn't look good.

Easter

We had a great Easter. The kids got the candy hook up! Cody was so happy he was clapping and cheering for the easter bunny! He can smell candy, he's always finding candy and can hear you unwrap candy from a mile away. You can't hide it from him. So he was in heaven.

Bunny loot


Easter egg hunting


Showing off new digs!




We went to church and made the mistake of sitting on the front row with my sister sitting across the isle. Cody and Gaven thought that they could just walk back and forth between us. The primary all got on stage to sing and Cody walked right up to the stairs and just stared at them until they were done, then he clapped and cheered. So then Kayli went back to her parents and was excited because "Cody was clapping for me".

Then we had cheerios and Gaven kept coming back and forth getting them and dropping them. So then Cody went around stomping on them. Of course as with every Sunday Cody and I ended up in the hall.

We then went to my parents and had a nice dinner and hung out before heading out to T's parents for an Easter egg hunt and another nice dinner. It was great I had left overs for a week.

Probably the best picture of all of them out of about seven shots.


I had them sit down for this and after about three shots Cody got up and said "Done dad" and walked away. They were after all sliding.




Looking for easter eggs