Cheap seats @ Dbacks game

You get what you pay for when get free tickets to a ball game from your kids fieldtrip to the ball field. Third level, row 26 is very high up! They don't call them nose bleads for nothing.

Got Samantha's camera back

Grandma found Samantha's camera and sent it down. So now I can go back and post the pictures from the trip. I posted some pictures from the San Francisco stop tonight. I will get to Redwood forest another day.

Long drive from Portland...but finally made it home

What a great trip! Normally being gone for nine days and driving for most of it is not fun, but I had a great time. Oregon for the 4th of July was awesome. Spent a lot of time with family, did lots of sight seeing and drove around a bunch. Some pictures will come later, maybe more if we find the camera!

Made it back to Phoenix

It sure is strange to get gas and be happy about paying $4.09 a gallon.

We drove through San Francisco to kill some time

We drove around looking for the famous Golden Gate Park playground. When we finally found it, we were surprised to see that the park was completely redone. The kids had a well needed break from driving.

Cement slide


New rope tower


Ethan climbed to the top


We stopped after we crossed over the Golden Gate bridge, Samantha was freezing.


On to the next stop!

On our way to Oregon...once again

We left AZ friday night. We drove around South mtn to avoid Phoenix rush hour traffic. We saw the flames of the Gila River indian fire and billowing smoke.

Another fun Cub Scout trip

Ethan and some of his fellow Cub Scouts had great trip up to the mountains last weekend. One of the dads secured a family cabin up in Pinetop-Lakeside (yes that is the name of the town). We arrived late on Friday night, just in time to watch the Suns lose #3. On Saturday we headed farther west to Greer; a sleepy little cabin town in the AZ mountains. We found the trail head at the back of the town and headed out. It was perfect weather for a hike in the Arizona mountains, around 50 degrees and a bit breezy. The sun was out so we stayed very comfortable. The trail winded right next to a large creek. The boys were able to cross back and forth across the creek on fallen logs. At one point there were pockets of snow and they had target practice at the dads.

The boys at the cabin


Dads take a well earned break after the hike


On the hike


Weekend wrap up at the go-kart track

I guess when your 10...

kids cups are not "cool" any more. Gimme a break, you can refill it! Ethan asked for a regular cup at dinner the other night. He even said it was because he was a 10 year old now.

So what's next? I'm sure there will be a lot of growing up in the next year....for both of us.

Easter at ballpark #2

Ethan on the other hand watched a lot of the game. He also hung out by the dugout before the game and got nine signatures on a D-backs baseball. He was pretty stoked about that. It was great to get out to one of the last spring training games of the season. Ethan was really looking forward to it.

Easter at the ballpark

After church we rushed out to the Brewers spring training stadium in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks were "visiting" from Tucson. As usual Samantha didn't watch a single pitch. But she had a good time hanging out with Ethan and I.

Is your computer backed up?

This is the computer geek in me coming out, have you backed up your computer lately? I ask because of an incident that happened this week. I helped out a friend (I will leave them un-named) recover family photos from their computer. Without warning their computer crashed. They were lucky because I was able to repair some of the corruption and retrieve the files.

Save your self from the horror of losing all of the stuff on your computer, back it up! If you don't know how, ask me and I can give you some simple suggestions.

Cub Scout Overnighter in Bumblebee AZ

Ethan and I had a fun weekend in Bumblebee, Arizona. Ten minutes north of Black Canyon City is a freeway exit to no-where, oh whoops, I meant Bumblebee. Just off the freeway and down a very curvy road we started to see many weekend warriors with off-road Jeeps and ATVs. Within a mile we were on dirt, not gravel, it was just dirt!. After a mile I had to pull off so the truck barreling down on me, with tires larger than my car, didn't run me over. After four miles on a bumpy, dirty, windy road we arrived at the ranch. The ranch is a working ranch right out of the old west. There were six cubs scouts and their families that made the trip. The boys hiked, target shot with BB guns, fished, roasted marshmallows, rough-housed, and generally had a good time together. I will try to post pictures later.

Restaurant Review: Teakwoods

I know a lot of people were disappointed when Ramsey's American Grill closed, I was not one of them. I'm of the mind set that the strong will survive. And Ramsey's, in my opinion was not that great. Most of the restaurants in Maricopa are fast food or "chains". So it's interesting to try new local places. Like the time we went into the local "Chinese" place, and the people that worked there had ordered in a pizza for themselves. As expected the food was BAD.

So, today I was pleasantly surprised with a new local restaurant in Maricopa, Teakwoods Tavern & Grill. Not only was the food great and I really liked the restaurant, I found my new favorite Ruben. I love Ruben's, but the "Teak's Ruben" is now on the top of my list. It actually was topped with jalapeno cole slaw instead of sour kraut. The prices were a little higher than most places in town, but the food was well worth it.

Last weekend went by too fast

My nephew had a gymnastics meet in Las Vegas so we drove up to support him. And of course to see my sister, her family and my Mom. Saturday we took a trip up to see Hoover dam. Then we had some time on Saturday night, so we took the kids to see the dancing fountain at the Bellagio. The kids thought it was pretty cool.



Sunday morning we headed home, but we took a detour on the way. Flagstaff still had some snow left. So the kids and I decided to see if we could find a hill to sled on. We found one and had a great time, but we only had less than an hour to play before heading home.



Here is the kids sledding:


Overall it was an awesome trip. The kids and I both had a lot of fun and it was great to spend time with our family.

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