Salt Lake Drive

Yesterday was a lot of driving and a little bit of fun.  One of the fun things about driving to Salt Lake is driving past the Bonneville Salt Flats.  There is a lot of automotive history and legend there.  One of these days, when I get a day off, I would like to go and see some racing on the flats!  Or anything really.  The kids like stopping there.  The rest stop has an elevated platform that lets you see kinda far into the distance.

This was taken on the platform.

Awesome!

Sadly, just a mile past the rest stop, we saw an accident where it looked like the car drove off the road and rolled.  I have never seen a car as mangled as I saw that one.  It looked like a piece of rolled up tin foil.  It had just barely happened a few minutes before passed it.  In fact, there was a lady who had made a point of walking the distance back to where the car had ejected all there stuff to get a blanket, and was headed back to the car, where as we passed, I noticed someone straightening the legs of a body laying face first in the dirt.  I only bring this up, because, and not to sound cliche, it made me think about our mortality and how life can be interrupted in the blink of an eye.  I was upset and saddened by what I saw.   It helped me to realize that we need to spend more time loving and less time stressing.

Anyway, we went to the zoo again.  They have some big LEGO thing going on there, where they have animals made of LEGO's.  Like 200,000+ of them.  It was neat.  Both pictures of apes were done with LEGO's.  That's why they look pix-elated.

Altogether, we had a fun time.  The zoo is under some construction to bring in some new animals.  It opens April of next year I think.  We are very excited for that.  And these are for my mom.

~Jake

Trains!!

Trying to find things to do in Elko, is really hard sometimes!!  In the two years that we've been here, we've done just about all one can do.  With kids anyway.  Every once in a while, we get to do something different. Today we went to a park that had a train.  Just a train.  We had a good time.  We never were able to go before with the kids because it's a popular spot for transients and other scary people.  But today we lucked out.

The cabin had all the windows removed and expanded metal put over it, but one of the pieces had been bent out.  So, a few hundred generations of pigeons have been living there.  For a really, really long time.  Judging by the poop.

We enjoyed some Fun at the parks and watched movies and ate popcorn.  Not a bad day for our last one.  Tomorrow we head out to take the kids back.~Jake

Summertime Fun!!

Having the kids here is so much fun.  Basically, we do a lot more stuff than we would had they not been here.  Today we went to Lamoille Canyon.  It's about 20 miles from Elko in the Ruby Mountains.  There is quite a bit of water that runs down, mostly because of the snow caps that never seem to melt.  The water is ICE cold!!  Just like it would be on Mount Graham.  And it's close to town, just like Mount Graham.  Unlike Mount Graham, however, there aren't a lot of evergreen trees.  But there are trees.  So that's nice.  I've been told that Lamoille Canyon is Northern Nevada's best kept secret, although we met people there from California just today.  We hiked for a bit, but with the toddler falling every two feet, sometimes over nothing whatsoever, we decided it was time to go.  Afterwards we went to Lamoille Grove, which is a small park with a creek flowing through it, apparently from the Rubies, and tall trees and lots of grass.

The canyon never ceases to be amazing, what with the hiking, the bugs, the river, etc.  Hopefully we can spend more time up there as the summer goes by.  This area doesn't get very much summer.  So when good warm weather shows up, you take advantage of it.  I took some videos with the hope of putting them here, but they were done in landscape vs. portrait, so you'd have to watch them sideways.  But i guess that wouldn't be too bad.  We did some water balloons today, too!!  It was fun.  I can't remember the last time i did that.

Anyway, that's it for today.  I have too many pictures to upload for all that we've done today.~Jake

It's been a while.

So there he is, off to the right.  Our brand new edition to the family.  He is fitting right in.  We're all adjusting very well, and any concerns about Her Majesty, Princess Sadie, has been washed away.  She is adapting quite well in her role as being a big sister.  Since it has been a while since we wrote anything, I guess we have some updating to do.

It seems as if the last 9 months have been work, Dr.s appointments, sleep and work.  I really feel as though that's all it's been, but we do get the kids.  The kids have been with us from time to time, for a short weekend here and there.  We try to make the most of our trips and/or time together, mostly by going to the Hogle Zoo or some other way of having fun.

Or time spent at the "Wood Park"

 Or even one of he many "Cowboy" stores...

Or Scheels. Which is our new favorite Salt Lake hangout...

Work has been going OK.  The schedule still wears me out.  I look goofy in all the safety stuff they make me wear, but I'll be safe and live.

Work is still super cool though.  Where else can you drive a three story building?!  Anyway, that's all for now.  We'll try to do better at keeping up.~ Jake