Our Olympic-Size Pool (Special Olympic that is)

For wild summer fun we got a pool in our backyard. The next step is to get a backyard.

I guess this is pool enough though, as it gets used daily, twice daily even.

Rafe is especially excited to swim. He loves to put his face under and crawl the length of the pool, back and forth. Which actually means that he swims better than Conner and Claire since he's so fond of underwater sports and doesn't need to plug his nose or wear goggles.

He doesn't look like he survived this lap, don't worry: he's not drowned, just swimming in our backyard pool.

A Day at the Races...Literally

Yesterday, myself and Conner with some of our friends spent the day at the races, drag races that is, and there was absolutely no cross-dressing men involved. But it was quite the interesting crowd that attended - this event had redneck colored all over it. But luckily our section was family friendly with reserved seating, thus no beer, no smoking, and surprisinlgy, no cursing (but we did have ear protection on - not for the cursing, but for the cars).

We braved the 110 degree weather by lathering on the sunscreen, misting ourselves with a squirt bottle, and drinking plenty of fluids. The main attractions were the jet cars vs. funny cars, a monster truck, Robosaurus - the fire breathing-car crushing robot, and an impressive fireworks show. The jet cars were awesome - literally a jet engine on four wheels with a guy strapped to the front of it being propelled down the drag strip with 11,000 pounds of thrust reaching speeds approaching 300 mph. The funny cars were cool too and very LOUD. But the kids loved Robosaurus which picked up cars with its claws, chewed the cars tops off, then burnt them to crisps. All in all it was a fun evening and I'm not afraid to admit that I'm white trash...at least for one day.

Tara Gets Hit On by Her Nephew

A few weeks ago, Tara and I invited our sister-in-law, Anna, over for dinner. Anna is good company, but she also brought Grant.

Normally, Grant is happy and well-behaved. But, today things were different. Anna said he was acting up all day and that she was really getting tired of it. So, right before she left for our place, she gave him a little calming elixir.

This didn't sit well with Grant. Apparently, Grant can't really hold his Robitussin. It makes him angry. First, he demanded we practice tumbling and forced me to spot him.

It didn't take him long to become bored with tumbling. Instead, he decided he wanted to look cool. So he stole my sunglasses.

He was loud and rude and all the neighbors were starting to peek in our windows to figure out what was happening. And that's when he saw her...

"She is so pretty!" Grant thought. "Maybe I should go put my moves on her." So he did.

Not very subtle Grant.

Tara was flattered by the gesture. Brett became very jealous and demanded that he be put back in his car-seat.

There is no bad blood between Brett and Grant, but the invitation for dinner won't be extended until Grant dries out a little.

The End.

House M.D.

Here's some pictures from our future home in Indianapolis, Indiana. The story goes like this: we found an apartment that was adequate but not satisfactory. We put down a deposit but still went to look at a house that we had heard of. We both imagined that it was a less than desirable house-we were wrong. When we drove by just to take a look at the place, we first saw this large playground overflowing with happy children and chatting moms. To the left, a pool with just as many happy people. Immediately seized with buyer's remorse, Anna started to cry. The house was everything we were looking for: size, yard, playground, location, and price. The inside looked great and spacious and we knew that getting the house would be balm to Anna's wounds. It worked well. We accepted the place and backed out of our other one (much to the chagrin of the other complex-I think we're blacklisted). We fell much better now. Here's the backyard. In Indiana they don't put fences around their yards and everyone respects the other's property. Plus, as you can see, there aren't many trees in the backyards so kids wouldn't have anything to toilet paper anyway.

Trek 3

Posted here is a medley of photos from mine and Jason's trek across the country. There's nothing worth noting about the semis here except for the fact that they are highway bullies. They are abundant in quantity and they make moves without checking to see if anybody might get hurt along the way. In other words, they are a metaphor for Jeff's posts. That tree is the tallest point and the most interesting feature on the Wyoming flatscape. Those heavy clouds did eventually burst and Jason refused to turn on his wiper blades to the speed which I prefer during such rainstorms. I like to think that he saw the road clearly. We missed a picture of the Wyoming border and we somehow missed the Nebraska/Iowa border even though we had our eyes fixed on the landscape. At least you all know what the Nebraska/Wyoming border looks like.

We concluded our day with a romantic walk and sunset on the great Mississippi in Davenport, Iowa-Jason's new "home". For an acclimated Utahn used to seeing "rivers" no bigger than canals, this moving body of water was amazing.

Check this out!

Watch this video, and pay attention to the 5:24 mark in the video. By the way, nice color scheme on the header. You can see it from space.

Holland's First Birthday

We celebrated Holland's birthday yesterday by going swimming (forgot the camera) and eating cake. Holland got really mad she couldn't hold her cupcake while the candle was burning, as you can see, but she finally did get a hold of it and went to town. Good thing she is only one year old as the party was pretty lame, but she'll never remember. She did get an elmo remote control which she thinks is a phone, so she's good to go.