The Boys

I Need A Vacation

It has been a busy week for me. I have been in the office all week doing & learning month-end. It is a cumulation of cost reports, number crunching, quantifying, bill-paying, etc. I am learning it as best I can because the person training me has learned that he is going down to Colorado Springs for at least a month to train 3 new engineers. Colorado Springs has more work than they can handle right now so they need him.

Van hit 6 weeks old on Wednesday. Janna took some pictures of the boys this week but they are on the other camera. I will try to have her download them and put them on the blog. She also had her 6 week checkup at the doctor and they said everything looks good. Now if we could get Van to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time we will be doing well. We have all been a little slower this week with head-colds, including Van. He has had to sleep sitting up in his car seat so he doesn't choke on his mucus.

Janna's sister Carin had a baby this week. Her name is Shae Lynn Garner. That makes 4 girls. The pictures she sent show a beautiful little baby. She had an epidural for the first time and I heard she really liked it. Congratulations Carin, Trent, Abby, Bryn, & Leah.



We are missing the beach house this year in Newport Beach, CA. It causes mild depression when we think about it. I need that break. The memories of it get me through the rest of the year. It starts tomorrow. Have fun everybody.

Tim is Moded

I found this picture of Tim on our computer. Tim thinks he is never moded. What do you think?

My New Toy

So last week not only did I get to go to the baseball game with the boys, but at the meeting in the morning I presented for about 5 minutes. In exchange for my presentation, the company gave all the presenters these Portable Media Players. It has a 4.3" DVD or better quality screen. Call it a video Ipod on steroids. The only downside to it is that it's French. They don't include all of the plugins--they make you buy them. It holds all kinds of media-photos, pdf files, movies, and even is a dvr when you hook it up to your TV with the adapter.

This way I can watch the early news or ESPN Sportscenter on my way to work. (Oh yes, please tell me it's dangerous Ms. Cell-phone-to-my-ear-while-putting-on-my-makeup-while-eating-breakfast-and-texting-everyone-about-nothing). My friend Patrick hooked me up with a few of his movies and my brother Josh has been helping me get software to convert the unwatchable movies into watchable formats. It is basically a hi-def screen in the palm of my hand. The sound is best with headphones in, but last night I plugged it in to our surround sound and watched part of a movie with the boys.

Update: I purchased the DVR docking station so now I have some TV shows to watch while commuting or whenever. Technology can be pretty cool.

Rockies sweep the Yankees

Yesterday we were lucky to be treated to the Rockies v. Yankees game with Roger Clemens pitching for the Yankees. The best part was that work paid for it and I was able to bring Stone and Rusty. Downtown was pretty lively and parking was $40-50 if you could even find a place to park. We had Janna drop us off up in Englewood and we took the train into downtown. This was Derek Jeter at bat. He and A-Rod had decent games with 2 hits each, but their hits were untimely. I think they were 1-21 with Runners in Scoring Position the entire 3 game series. Rockies won all 3 games for the sweep, giving up only 5 runs the entire series.
The hard part was that it was during nap time. Rusty got pretty tired after about the 4th inning. Stone was pretty interested for most of the game. I brought my binoculars and they kept him busy. He asked a lot of questions about the game and would point out when they didn't hit the ball for a long time.
Stone also stayed busy with the camera. He took a lot of crazy pictures but then deleted most of them. He took this one of me below. We had a good time and got plenty to eat, also provided by my work. One day the boys will be able to tell their boys that they saw Roger Clemens pitch, even if he only lasted 4.1 innings.

What a Great Weekend

I had a great weekend, celebrating both my 29th birthday, father's day, and Van's 1 month old day. I woke up Saturday and took Stone and Rusty to the park to play with London, Breanna, and Porter (thanks Shannon) and I played in our football scrimmage. Rusty had a fun little episode of his foot finding dog poop, and I gave my camera to Shannon to take pictures of us playing.



We played well considering it had been about a month since our team played together. After that we raced home and got our swimsuits on and headed to the pool to cool down. Stone is fearless with his floatees on and Rusty is just crazy. They both like the water but still need to keep taking swimming lessons.


After the pool we went home for lunch and I had to find all of my presents. The boys like to play hide-and-seek with everything. I got a couple of Jimmy fallon DVD's, Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness," the bowling shoes, ball, and bag I posted about before, and my traditional Reese's Pieces. I got cards and money from my parents, Janna's parents, and a card from Grandpa & Helen. Thanks for those cards and money. Everyone else I am assuming your gifts/cards are still on their way???



After lunch I had a 1:48pm tee time at Littleton Golf & Tennis with some friends. We played 18 holes in a 2 x 2 scramble format. John Betts just kills the ball. Marshall and I battled all the way despite some stiff winds and allergies on the back 9. It all came down to the 18th tied up and we came through for the win. We had a great time.

We ran home and cleaned up and met up at Costa Vida in Lone Tree. It is basically Cafe Rio for those of you who have been there. I liked their food better than Cafe Rio though. Tim and his kids met us there with Marshall's family and after dinner we went back to our place and had cake and ice cream. We actually waited for Shannon for about an hour-ish and then started without her b/c it was nearly quittin' time. The chocolate cake was great and everyone loved it. I went to bed a happy camper Saturday night. I didn't get any pictures that night on my camera.

Father's Day I woke up to breakfast in bed. Waffles, strawberries, blueberries, and juice. I already got my present a few weeks ago (BBQ) and we used it to cook our steaks for dinner. They were Mexican flavored skirt steaks from Costco and they were delicious. Even Rusty ate a bunch and he isn't a big meat eater. Stone is our resident carnivore. Anything we call steak he devours.

Church was good, the Relief Society had pie for all of the dads before we went to our class. I had a piece of Coconut Cream and a piece of Strawberry pie. I ended up teaching the lesson I prepared for last week over the final 10 minutes of class. I hit the main points and by that time the lesson was over.

Sister Cowan was one of the speakers during Sacrament Meeting. She told me before the meeting that she was speaking and going to be talking about my future. She and her husband have 5 boys. Her talk basically went through the 10 phases of a father from new dad to old dad. It kind of reminded me of the book "Love You Forever, Like You For Always" which is usually read on Mother's Day. It was really hard for me to hold back the tears as she spoke.

I was holding Van at the time and she spoke of the different moments in a father's life with his kids. I want to get a copy of it. I have been lucky to have been born of such goodly parents who have not only taught me how to live a happy life, but have been there for me every step of the way. I have so many great memories of growing up and always having them there for me.

Work, Work, Work

OK, so my posting has slowed down as work has me out of the office and too busy when I'm in the office. For those of you who are still wondering what I do for work, this post will hopefully give you a better idea. We started paving asphalt at Buckley AFB. We are making a taxiway out of an old runway. It basically consists of narrowing it by 1/2, milling, and paving.

Paving is a new process for me as I was never around to see the finished product go down. I was onlythere for the preparatory work in the past. We have been able to make money each day paving and despite some pretty difficult compaction specs, things are going well. We laid over 1150 tons of asphalt yesterday and will do about the same today and tomorrow.

My job is to make sure everything gets documented from quantities of asphalt purchased, hauled, & laid, to driver's hours, timecards, invoices for equipment, change orders, helping with safety & quality, setting stringline for the paver, and whatever else needs to be done.

Last week there were a couple of F-22's at the base for the day. It is funny to think people pay money to see it and we are getting paid to be out there. While we are paving we are able to be very close to the runway when they take off. It shakes your insides.

Above is a fully loaded F-16, and below that is a F-22.

Unfortunately I am not allowed to take pictures of the planes at the base, so I did a google search and found some of the planes we have seen at the base .

L-R: F-22, C-130, C-5 (largest plane the AF flies)

Happy Birthday to ME

For lack of creativity or just for a guy who doesn't need a whole lot of "things," I amgetting a bowling ball, bag, and shoes for my birthday. I ordered this ball on Saturday and I go in sometime this week to get it drilled for my hand. The shoes I have shown on a previous post but here they are again. The flames glow in the black light so I will be stylin. I am getting a 14 lb. ball with a fingertip grip. Watch out bowling world.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Boys Will Be Boys

Last week, Luke and the boys were wrestling on the lawn in front of our apartment. Rusty said he had to go potty. Luke decided to take him in the bushes to pee. Even though we were right outside our apartment. Stone and Rusty thought that was pretty cool. A couple days later, the Relief Society presidency was visiting me. So the boys start showing off. The would climb over the patio wall and knock on the front door. One time they came in Stone said, "Rusty went pee outside and I helped him. I'm going to go pee outside too." So he goes outside and pulls down his pants and pees right in front of the living room window, all while the Relief Society presidency was there. So in conclusion, I think Rusty and Stone moded Tim.

Bowling, BBQ, and Walmart

Monday for Family night we went bowling. I got some $.99 coupons at Brunswick Lanes up in Lakewood, so I met Janna and the boys there on my way home from work. After a warmup game with Janna I bowled a 179. In the 9th frame I left myself a 5-10 split and thought I rolled the perfect ball to pick up the spare and I hit it too perfect. I hit the 5 too far to the left and it went in front of the 10. After rolling 2 strikes to close out the game I would have hit 200. My current high score is 196 and I have rolled several games from 175-194. This picture of Rusty is funny because it makes him look like he is posing for his individual photo on team picture day. I actually caught him as he was standing up.

I found a nice BBQ on Craigslist which I picked up last night for $30 (WITH the propane tank half full), so I am looking at getting bowling shoes and a new ball for my birthday ON JUNE 16. That's a hint to all of you birthday shoppers. I was really happy about the BBQ because the Propane tank alone would cost me $46 at Walmart. It started right up at home last night, so now we are back in Barbequeing business. It has been killing me lately coming home and smelling all of the neighbors grilling on their porches. Now I shall join in the fun.



Since the boys and I like bowling and we go enough for fun I think it would be worth it to get the ball. The laws have forced smokers to go outside to pass gas, so they are much cleaner these days. I would like to mention that Stone did roll a 95 with the bumpers and Janna rolled a 93, so she is moded. He even picked up 2 or 3 spares. I think they had more fun chasing each other afterwards and getting in trouble.


I only have 2 gripes with the Bowling Alleys around here. They all charge around $4.00 for Shoe Rental. In Boise is was anywhere from $1-$2.50. We spent twice as much on the shoe rental as the games. The kids don't really even need the shoes anyway. That's my 1st gripe. The 2nd is not having electric bumpers that you can raise and lower yourself. When you have to share a lane with the kids, the bumpers mess up the curve. If you get lucky and somehow roll a strike after hitting the bumpers, no one gives you credit. If you hit the bumpers and get hosed, everyone (Janna) just pulls out their world's tiniest violins and play the world's saddest song. So either way I can't win.

After bowling we stopped at Arby's for dinner. I love that they have made 5 for $5.95 a regular part of their menu. This picture is proof that Stone and Rusty can no longer sit and smile for a picture. Stone gets crazy and Rusty follows his lead.


This is kind of a long story, but I had an interesting experience over the past 18 hours and I wanted to share it. I stopped by Walmart to pick up some chapstick (cause my lips hurt real bad!) and some cash. I only needed 30 dollars but the machine only would give out 20, 40, 60, 80, or 0 dollars. So I got $40. I asked for 4 $10 bills. She said she didn't have any. I said a twenty and 4 $5's would be fine. She went into her $20's and organized them but never actually took one out. Then she pulled out the 5's. My phone started to ring as she was finishing up and I answered it. She handed me the receipt and the bills and I walked away.

The cashier was friendly and I just assumed she gave me all of the money. She did not count the money when she gave it to me and I did not count it either. I stuck the money and receipt directly into my little black calendar book and put that in my pocket. I drove to the guys house up in Northglenn to get the BBQ, and upon arriving pulled out my book to retrieve the money and there were only 4 $5 bills. I was perplexed. I thought I had lost the $20 bill. I emptied all of my pockets, turned my truck inside out even. It was embarrassing. I couldn't find it anywhere.

Luckily I had a check tucked away in my book which I discovered while searching for the money which he accepted. My only conclusion was that I must have never received the money. I spent 10 minutes on hold for my first call to the store, had the next 2 calls dropped, and another 5 minutes on hold. My last call I finally got through to a manager and explained the situation. I gave him all of the details from the receipt and my info and he went to look at the video. He called back that night and told me to come in this morning.

I went in this morning and the manager told me the video shows her getting a $20 out of the drawer. I told him what I remembered seeing as I stated above. I asked to see the video and he let me watch it. As we were watching it it was exactly as I said. She never actually picked up a $20 bill, just organized the bills. He saw that too and said, "Wow, she never actually picked one up, did she? At least you can't tell on the video. I'll get you your $20." I was so happy/relieved/vindicated.

That tells me my subconscious memory is working fine and I don't lose everything. I thought I was losing my mind. It also tells me that the cameras in stores can benefit the customer as well as the store. It also lets me know that Walmart is not evil like many people think, and finally it reminds me that people make mistakes. Unfortunately Walmart now has to wonder why her drawer did not have an extra $20 over at the end of the shift? I hope she didn't cost herself her job. I am all about good customer service and this definitely will be considered a positive one.

PKS Golf Tournament

(left)Luke & Van chilling after golf

(right)Wes, Randy, Luke, Adam

Saturday was a lot of fun golfing. The round took way too long but still any day of golf is good. We shot a -9. I had only met one of the guys I golfed with, he being Randy Sanman. The other two guys were fun to golf with. Wes absolutely destroyed the ball off the tee and Adam drained I think, 3 puts over 15 feet. We finished 4th, just out of the trophies. We didn't fudge our score like many of the other groups probably did. -14 won the tournament and I say, ya right. Maybe with 35 mulligans.

My first post

This is my first post. Luke wanted me to post something to let people know how I'm doing. I'm doing pretty good. My nipples hurt from breast feeding and that's about it. Rusty is ready to go home and get some ice cream gu-gu (root beer float).

VanS

You may or may not have noticed that Van's first two names if spelled out General Conference Style, are Van S. Yes, like the shoes. Coincidentally I have a Volcom Stone shirt and a Rusty Surfboards shirt. My boys just happen to be brandable. Maybe we can get those 3 companies to sponsor the raising of my boys. A fat check each month from each company would be nice. I wanted to get Van a pair of his shoes but Kari beat me to it.


I can't seem to stop biting my fingernails. Or as I like to call it, "manicure with my teeth." Just when I have stopped for a few days and they start to grow in nicely, there I go again. I know I shouldn't and I know fingernails are dirty, but I do it without thinking. Maybe if I start chewing gum more often. I don't know.

I have a company golf tournament tomorrow and I have been placed in the foursome with the District Manager, i.e., the head guy of Kiewit Western. He is a good man and is recently a grandpa. Hopefully I will be able to hit the ball well. I haven't played since last summer so it could be a long day. Time to lather, yes I said lather, on the SPF 45.

Denver has very thin air so people, e.g. ME, burn easier here. I bought half a dozen long sleeve shirts I often wear if I know I am going to be out in the sun. They are very light weight so I don't get hot in them and I don't have to wear sunblock on my arms. Yesterday I used some SPF 60 that my friend and coworker Kevin had in his truck. That is definitely the highest rated Sun Protection Factor I have ever rubbed into my skin.

Janna and I noticed the boys are starting to act out a little now that they are getting less attention. Stone had a rough day yesterday. We get our wrestle on when I get home and I took him with me to get a package at the office and then to the computer lab. He likes playing and just being around me or Janna and sometimes I wish I could bring him to work with me.

Speaking of the package at the office, we want to thank Kari Call and family for the outfit, blanket, and Vans we received yesterday. Also thank you to those in our ward who have brought us meals or arranged to have them brought, the Nobles for dinner and the blanket, Grandma Hart for the quilt, and anyone else that has given us gifts for Van or helped out in any way.