Car Update and Camping this Weekend

This is the site where we will build the hotel. Once our construction starts it will be tight quarters as far as laydown room goes. The fence on the far side is the eastern edge of the property. Where that light pole is in the middle of the lot is about the middle of the building. Where the light pole and those trailers are will be a 22-foot deep hole stretching across the lot by next weekend.

I got the Honda back last night. They were able to fix it for a reasonable price. They had to reset the SRS system and they replaced the wiring harness that feeds into the washer pump. I don't know if there was more I could have done, but I am just glad to get that over with. I enjoy working on cars when it is not stressful; I hate working on them when I cannot find the problem. My old Dodge Van is ready to be put to rest. The brakes are starting to go. They cannot stop on a dime like our other cars. It slows to a stop. It is our mobile storage unit more or less.

Van has started to smile and giggle a lot. He watches Stone and Rusty and tracks them around the room as they walk. He will giggle and make big, bright-eyed smiles when he gets excited. I took some great pictures with my phone but haven't had a chance to upload them to the computer yet.

This is a shot of the 2 conventional cranes they are using on the other project.

Last night we got out the tent and set it up on the grass to make sure it is dry and ready. The boys helped me put the poles together and clip on the hooks to the poles. I made a couple phone calls to friends last night about Devil's Head, the area we are planning on going. Everyone I talked to said it is a great area and not a long drive from town. There is a 1.25 mile hike up to the lookout tower that takes you up just under 10,000 ft in elevation. Maybe Tim will be up for it bright and early Saturday morning before all of the kids wake up. We both need the workout as our fall flag football season is quickly approaching.

They are so tall we can see them from our place in Littleton about 11-12 miles away. On our job next door we will have a large tower crane and a smaller crane to pump concrete through.

Speaking of football, we had a scrimmage last Saturday against a fellow team in our league. They have an excellent quarterback who doesn't make a lot of mistakes. I was really happy with our defense though. While we never intercepted him, we did a good job defending them. We ended up winning by 2 TD's despite about 5 turnovers on our part. I did have an interception though it wasn't thrown by their QB. In the league we play in, they allow the receiving team on a punt to throw a forward pass if the guy catching it has not taken more than 2 steps. I punted the ball and then intercepted the pass.

This is a picture inside the lobby of the Palazzo Verdi job adjacent to the hotel we will be starting next week. It currently is at the 11th story of the first half of the building. They are building it in 2 phases. In this picture they are working on utilities and putting down void form. The stack on the right is void form. They pour the concrete on it when it is laid out and the ground is able to expand under the concrete without causing the concrete to lift and crack.

Janna and the kids came and watched and the boys did a good job of finding every possible ball that had ever been left around the field ( 2 tennis, 1 lacrosse, and 1baseball core with the yarn now off). Janna said Rusty found a plastic tampon applicator (? is that what they're called?) and he put it on the end of a stick. He was so proud.

Today my cousin Cassie and her boys are coming to see us on their way to St. Louis. We are excited to see them.

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.