Wells Earthquake

So I have been meaning to post about my trip to Wells for a week now but I have been busy and then I sprained my ankle and just haven't felt like it. I sprained my ankle Tuesday night and here it is Friday and I still can't put any weight on it. I've sprained my ankle before, it's been at least eight years but I don't remember it being such a pain. I must just be getting old, used to be that I would be walking on a sprained ankle in a day if that. Now here I am three days later still lay'n around. The good thing about this is now I don't have to go out of town next week for work.

Anyway, last week I was sent out to Wells, Nevada to see the damage. If the same earthquake happened in rural Utah, the damage would be very much the same. The town of Wells is a hole and it was very difficult to see what damage happened because of the earthquake and what was damaged before. From the outside it looked as though the single family homes faired well with the most damage done to the chimneys and very little to no noticeable outside damage.





The main drag through Wells


The old main drag, "old town" where the most damage occurred


You can see the two to three feet of snow in front of the building. Many of the damaged buildings were abandoned. The roofs that were collapsed did so before the earthquake.




Wells in a picture


The media was there in full force. As we were walking around looking at damage we ran into two media guys from a local station, one carrying a camera the other a microphone. They asked us where all the damage was? the guy with the microphone said "where are the damaged houses? It's driving us nuts!" We just laughed.

Cody & Gavin

Cody loves Gavin! Cody will follow Gavin all over and copy every thing he does. He tries to play with his other cousins, the older ones just end up teasing him, they either chase after him or run from him (he's the monster). The cousins his age just don't like to play with him. He's always talkin about Gavin and telling us stories, "bla bla bla bla Gavin bla bla".

Fisher Mansion

The city bought the Fisher Mansion last year in hopes to use some of the property to expand the Jordan River Parkway. Mayor Becker held an open house last week to give residents an opportunity to voice what they would like done with the property. We took advantage of this opportunity and visited the house and left our two cents.


View Larger Map



After walking through the house, running into neighbors and shaking hands with the Mayor we left our comments. Renovate the house back to it's original state and use it as, a reception center, museum, and/or a public art gallery.



They should turn the old carriage/garage house into a bike rental shop/refreshment store for those on the Jordan Parkway.


Cody enjoyed walking around the house. He's too slow going up the stairs.


For more pictures click on any of the above pictures.

More info on the Fisher Mansion.

Salt Lake City website

Trib Article

The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Google Fun

Google fun: Go to Google, type “find chuck norris”, click “I’m feeling lucky”.

This from a cool website North Temple

Win at waving!!

This is by far my favorite commercial and actually makes me want to buy the stuff if I could ever find. Anyone know were it's sold?

Exploding Spud!!

So we were cooking dinner the other night and heard this sound, kinda like someone knocking on our door. Looked out the window, nobody. Then T thought that it came from the oven. Sure enough we look in the oven and the skin blew right off the potato!! I have never seen that happen before. If I didn't have to clean up the mess it left behind it would have been cool. Instead it was just another mess! As if the kids don't make enough of those.

Discovery Gateway

I don't know what the place is called but thats what T calls it. Anywho we spent Martin Luther King day or at least a couple hours of it there. We braved the snow and crappy roads to get there. That was probably a good thing, keept the number of people down. It was pretty fun, it would be even better if I could just sit there with my laptop or a book while the kids played. I haven't been there before, T has taken the kids a few times and they love it. If you go to a SLC library you can get a card that gets a family in for free twice a year. So definitively a place to go for free.

Being a cop!


Grocery shopping


Checking out


Filling up


The tubes suck the balls up and when you open hatch the air comes out and cody made the same face everytime. Like he wasn't expecting the air. The loved it!




The house




A fun family day!!

Juno

We went and watched Juno this weekend. We don't get out to many movies, to much work trying to get someone to watch the kids, find the time and the money. But we loved this flick. The row in front of us was a bunch of old ladies, it was kinda funny. There were some sexual jokes and we weren't sure if they understood them or if they thought it was funny or not. I tried to talk T into asking them if they liked it but she wouldn't. Anyway thumbs up from us for Juno.

Day at the Capital

We didn't spend a full day but an hour or two wondering the halls. It was really kinda net to see all the rooms you normally don't get to see. Behind both the house and senate rooms they have a small lounge room with chairs, sofas and a tv. They did have some rooms that were still off limits like the Governors office office, he has two, one for show and one where the real work is done. We visited the "Gold Room" didn't even know this existed, its a room worth over $2 million. I don't think they even use it, it's old furniture and just really too fancy to do much of anything. Cody liked that he could hear his echo and walked the halls yelling. Bryten and Cody liked stepping on the bubbles in the plastic on the floor, it kept Cody on the plastic. I tried to get a picture of Bryten at a legislative desk but the volunteer got upset and told us we couldn't sit there. What's a three year old girl going to do?

We didn't even have to set this picture up. He just went and sat down.






Still working


This was after the lady got mad at us for sitting in a chair. T was a little nervous to sit in this one and was only barely there long enough for the picture.


Future Governor


Knocking on the front doors. It was cold out.


The Gold Room and no I do not know that guy staring at my camera


That concludes our afternoon at the Capital

T's B-day/New Years Eve

So it's now 2008. It all goes by way too fast for the most part. News Years eve is Taryns b-day so we have people over and just hang out at home. I did get her some presents but totally forgot the cake and ice cream. Nice huh. We have enough candy in the house I think that should make up for it.

All the girls slept over. I think they fell asleep sometime around 2am and woke up some time around 6am and they were still hyper and running around all over.

Playing some dance dance.


2008!!!




Mom and dad try and brush his teeth, it's a fight, but his older cousin its fun!!


Trying to get the kids to sleep




Moms having no trouble falling asleep


While the dads played all night

Recovering

Well, things have settled down a bit from Christmas but the kids are still on hyper-drive. Our house has enough candy to supply a candy store and we have been spending a ton of time with family.

Here are some Christmas pics

Grandpa reading The Night Before Christmas


Trying to get a Christmas Eve picture, it is 11pm.


Grandpa reading to Cody




Nana B and grandpa got an air hockey table, putting it together took until 10:30pm Christmas Eve. B watched intently as it was put together and was the first to play, which is kinda funny because I don't think she has played it before.


Here's what Santa brought










Play'n with all the toys and grandpa trying to take a nap


In front of all their toys