Video of Ella

here is a video clip of Ella talking about Christmas on our way home from our friends house Christmas Eve. Enjoy!

Merry Chirstmas!!!

Today was Christmas. We all had a lot of fun today. I really love my kids. I was really excited to see how excited they got over all their presents. This was Ella's first reaction. "Look," she exclaims:




This is Alex when he saw what Ella had. He didn't care too much for his huge Tonka Truck. He finally warmed up to it a little when I put him in it and pushed him around the room. He kept wanting to sit back in it. He's cute.
The kids also really liked this little band set we got for them. It got a bit noisy in the house, but they enjoyed it. Alex really liked the harmonica.
Ella's favorite was her LeapPad learning book.


I was not left out either. I have no photos of me though. The best things I got were running things. Amanda got me a subscription to Runners World Magazine. She also got me an MP3 player that is small and clips nicely to my shorts. I also got earphones that attach to my ears. They are very comfortable. I was also given some time when the kids were napping to go for a run and test everything out. I also got a Metallica CD. That was some good music to listen to. It motivated me or something because I ran really fast for seven miles. You should click on the workout on the side of the page here to see more about my run. My last mile was about six minutes. That felt really good. I need to go out and run an all out mile just to see how fast I could do it. That was the fastest mile I have ran in probably several years. Even in the couple of speed workouts working up for the marathon I tried for a six minute mile, but I only got about 6:20 or so. I was really feeling great today. I've been feeling great for a while now. Last Saturday I went for a 14 mile run and even pushed Alex in the stroller. Well, I need to get off to bed. I'm getting up early tomorrow to go pick up my parents from the airport. They will be here for 10 days and we will really enjoy getting to spend time with them.

It's Christmas Time

Merry Christmas to all. I really don't have much to write about except that I took my wife out to a movie and dinner tonight, but you would probably be pretty bored with (as my dad would say) "mushy" stuff like that.
Lets see what kind of photos I can find from my computer.
This first one is from the photo shoot three years ago when Ella was a baby. I guess she wasn't too happy.

It is fun to browse old photos.
This next one will probably get me in trouble. We were just having some fun with the camera and goofing around. I got a great shot of Amanda puckering up for a big smooch (I know I promised no mushy stuff, but this is cute). I love my wife.
Well, I hope you enjoy your holidays. We are going to decorate ginger bread houses tomorrow with some friends. If I'm feeling up to it I also plan on going for a long run tomorrow. I think 12 or 15 miles.

Running News and More

I just went for a five mile run. I ran two miles to a great hill. Then I did ten 10 second sprints up the hill. I feel great. I plan on taking a day off from running tomorrow and going on a bike ride. I think I'll do 25 miles, but we'll see how much time I have. So, there is a half marathon not too far from here that I think I might do. It is on January 5th. I might not be able to though, we'll have to wait and see.

I thought you might like to see a photo. I was finished telling you about my running for today, so I went looking for a photo. This is what i came up with. I took this photo in Monterey California back in 2003. I really liked running out there. There is a nice path that goes all the way around the peninsula there. There were a lot of great hill runs too. We would often go running on the beaches. It was always great running on the beaches out there. Maybe I could go running on the beaches here. Only, I don't feel like driving that far just to go running. I like to step outside and start running straight from my doorstep. This next picture was taken in May of 2003. I love my beautiful Amanda.
We were at my friend's wedding in Utah.

Well, enough reminiscing. Maybe I'll make it a habit to find old photos to show you. I only have photos back to April of 2003 though. Well, I have some older ones, but they are not digital. I would have to scan them in and that would be too much work. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Fun at the Beach

So, Yesterday we decided to play at the beach. Most of my life I've lived in places that has seasons. I love the snow. But is sure is fun to brag about how I can go play at the beach while at the same time the rest of my family is living in freezing rain and snow. We decided to take pictures for our Christmas cards while we were out there to show everyone what they are missing.



Here is a video clip of the photo shoot.
Well, enjoy the snow and ice for me. I wish I could be there where it is nice and refreshing. I think it is annoying to have to turn on the air conditioner in December.

Recovery

Well folks, it has been four days since the marathon and I feel great. So great in fact that I went for a short easy run today. I was going to do two or three depending on how I felt, I felt great, so I did three. I feel a little tired now. I think it is a good thing I didn't do more than three miles. I tried my new socks. At the marathon, I got Baton Rouge Beach Marathon socks. They are really bright. I tried them today and I really like them. They are comfortable. I'll run two or three again tomorrow, or maybe I'll go for a bike ride. I haven't ridden my bike for a while. I need to get my legs moving, and a bike ride would give me a chance to do that while giving my legs a bit more of a rest from the pounding that running gives them. Well I'm still motivated to do some ultra marathons. It is 19 weeks away from the SLC Marathon. Maybe after that I can do a fifty miler. Or maybe I'll be working too hard or studying too hard at that point. I don't know where my future will take me. I keep thinking that I should go to school, but I can't decided on what I would want to study. Well, I guess that is enough rambling.

Baton Rouge Beach Marathon Recap

OK here it is. We all got up at about 5:30, although after I looked at my watch at 5:00 I couldn't really sleep. I kept thinking that I hadn't set the alarm right and that we were sleeping in too much. I finally just got out of bed and got ready. We got down the the starting area at about 6:00. We actually were able to park right at the start/finish area. It was nice. I walked around a bit and stretched and jogged. I was feeling great. Here I am less than five minutes before the start of the race.


And here I am about 200 feet after the starting line. I look great.

This is about the five mile mark with a time of about 40 minutes. For the first half of the marathon I had a pretty good pace. I felt great.


So great in fact that at the half way point (13.1 miles/1 hour 47 minutes) I was still enjoying so much that I was smiling big. Someone a few feet further up from this photo called me "smiley." I thought that was pretty funny, but I felt great. I thought I was going to be able to break 3:30 for sure.

After the half way point I slowed down to probably a 9 minute per mile pace or even 9:30 for the next 6 or 7 miles. That must have been my wall. I hit it pretty hard too. I never noticed a sudden lack of energy like I have heard people tell of, but I just gradually slowed down and felt like I couldn't keep going, but I did keep going, one foot in front of the other. I decided not to get a split time at every mile, although I wish now that I had done that so that I could analyze exactly where it was that I slowed down the most and such. I did however get a few splits. The first split was at mile marker 22 my time was 3:17:51. I wanted to see how much I had slowed down. At mile marker 23 it was 3:28:21. It had taken 10:30 to do one mile. I really had slowed down. By that point I had started adding 30-40 second walks every five to ten minutes. I was feeling pretty tired. My legs cramped up too. It was also about that point that I started noticing my lower back tighten up. I hurt it pretty bad just two week earlier, and I decided that I would rather get a really slow time, than really hurt my back again. So I didn't push it too hard. I could feel that my legs were really tight and after mile 23, I walked pretty much the whole way. I tried jogging every 5 to 10 minutes for 20-30 seconds, but I just couldn't do it. My legs were so tight that by the end of the 20 second jog, I would have to walk and try to loosen it out so that it wouldn't cramp so bad that I wouldn't even be able to walk. I actually got splits on all those last miles. At marker 24 my time was 3:47:40 (a 19:19 mile), at marker 25 my time was 4:11:23 (a 23:43 mile), and at marker 26 my time was 4:29:50 (an 18:27 mile). With all the energy I could muster I told myself that I could jog the last .2 miles to the finish. I did all but about 5 seconds where my legs started cramping. I came in to the view of the finishing crowd and forced myself into a jog again. Here is the grand finish:

At least I had enough energy to raise my arms as I crossed the finish line. It took me 2 minutes and 30 seconds to go that last .2 miles. My final time (unofficial, from my watch) was 4:32:19. Am I disappointed with that time? Yeah, but it is something I can live with. I have lots of excuses: I hurt my back two weeks earlier, because of that I missed five good runs, I didn't eat enough, etc. etc. I can look at how I did and plan how I need to change. I think I need to load up on more carbs the day before. Maybe a bit more of a substantial breakfast too. All I had was a Powerbar. I was had four Gu energy gels that I took along the race too. There was only one point where I was getting a little bit worried. For probably about a mile before the last aide station, I started getting a little shaky. First my pinkies started tingling, then my ring finger too, and pretty soon my whole hands and arms were tingling and feeling numbish. I definitely needed more sugar in my body. It was right about mile 24 that I came upon the last aide station. I think it was actually a little after mile 24. I drank two cups of Poweraide. That was it. I really should have stopped and got more, like an orange or two. But I didn't want to stop. I was feeling much better within 10 minutes. My arms and hands stopped tingling.

As you can see by the video below, I look really worn out. I come across the finish line pretty darn slow. I must say though that I had a really great crew cheering me on. My daughter had a really big voice. I was actually quite surprised that I heard her from so far away as I approached the finish line: "Go Daddy!" She was great. My wife must have worked hard to teach her to be vocal like that. Thank you Amanda for getting such great photos of the race.

It is now 11:00 Sunday night. I woke up this morning feeling really sore. I took an ice bath about an hour after the race, then again last night when we got home. I also took some Motrin last night. Once I got up and started moving around I felt better, but I was still sore all day. It is hardest going up and down stairs. It is easier to walk down backwards. I don't think I will try running tomorrow. It all depends on how I am feeling. I hope I can go for an easy three mile jog by Thursday or Friday and run five or six on Saturday. I definitely need to do some more speed work to get ready for the next marathon. There is a pretty good hill about a mile and half from my house that would be perfect for hill work. I can jog over there for warm up, do the hill 4 or 6 times, it is about .25 miles up, then jog back to cool down. I'll also do more track work. I would like to be able to get my mile time down to 5:30 or even 5:00. I don't know about sub five though. Probably not while training for my next marathon. We'll see. I think it would definitely help develope my fast twitch muscles.

Well, I'm sure I have rambled on too much about this. That is it. I ran. I jogged. I walked. I raced. I finished. Make sure you watch the video.

Marathon Finish Video

The Marathon

Well, I did it. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but at least I finished. I came around the half way point at 1:47, which was a little slower than I wanted but acceptable. I then slowly slowed down. My mile 23 my leg muscles were so cramped and tight that I could barely even jog. I had to walk most of the last four miles. I kept trying to run, but after 20 or 30 seconds I would have to stop and walk. I managed to jog the last .2 miles in two and a half minutes, with only stopping to walk for about 10-15 seconds. time at mile 23 was 3:28:21. each of the next three miles was about 20 minutes. My final time was 4:32 and some change. I don't have any photos right now to show you. They are on the camera and I am to lazy to go get it. I will post them tomorrow. I'll tell you a little more about the race too, with some more specific times. I even have a video of me coming up to and crossing the finish line. It was a great day for the race. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The family was a great support, by the end of the race Ella was yelling "Go Daddy!" loud enough for me to here her down the street.

Race Ready

I did a little speed workout yesterday. It was good, nice and short. I totaled four miles. Today I went for a five mile easy run. I pushed Alex along in the stroller. I feel really good. I went down to the store today to get some energy gel. I bought some Gu. I also bought some Nuun. It is an energy drink that I learned about recently. It is really cool. It is just a tablet that you put in water and it dissolves to an energy drink. It's great because it doesn't have all the bad for you sugars. I also bought a running shirt. I've been just using a t-shirt. It works, but all the sweat just stays there on the shirt and by the end of a run my shirt weighs about ten pounds. This new shirt should work great. Well that's it for now. I only have three short days till the marathon.

Great News

I went for a seven mile run today on a track and I felt great the whole time. I used to think that 28 laps on a track would be really boring, but it didn't seem that long at all. I even tested my speed a little to see how my back would handle it. I did a 400 meter lap on the second mile at 1:21 and another one for the first lap of my seventh mile at 1:20. That is not a great 400 meter time, but it was pretty good for having just run six miles. It was pretty cold and windy too. I think the temp was about 50 but it was really windy and it felt like it was about 40. Well, if I have a couple more runs like this I might think about pushing myself a little on the marathon for my 3:25 time. We'll see.

Recovering

Good news: I went for an easy three mile jog today and it felt great. I was very cautious because I didn't want to aggravate my back. I went a mile up the road here, then came in and ran another two on the treadmill. The whole run felt great. When I stopped though, I felt my back tighten up a little. Nothing to worry about. I'm still taking some Motrin to help loosen up my muscles. I have Icy Hot that I am using too. Here is a tip for you. Never put Icy Hot on imediately after a hot shower or bath. It normally feels great. A nice soothing cool followed my a warm tingling sensation. It feels good. If you put it on when your skin is already hot or warm: it burns. I looked at my back and everywhere the Icy Hot was was bright red. I had to go lay down on the bed with the fan on high. The burning sensation went away after just a few minutes, but they should put a warning on the label or something. Well, that is all I have for now. Tomorrow I hope to be able to run five or six miles. Just another easy run. Keep your fingers crossed.

Bad News

Yesterday as I was getting Alex in the car, I pulled my back. It was really annoying because I've done the same thing hundreds of other times before and never had a problem. This time I guess Alex has grown too big. When Amanda came outside, I was on my hands and knees. That was pretty humiliating, I couldn't even stand up. She helped me up. I took some medicine and it helped, but I still hurt. I took a hot bath this morning and then sat down and didn't move for a few hours, when I finally started to move around I was surprised that I didn't hurt nearly as much. I am aching now, but I hope it will go away so that I can run this marathon. I am definitely not going to push myself now. Maybe I'll make a four hour goal for myself. I'll see how I am feeling the day of the race. I'll keep you updated and let you know how I am feeling.

Long run

I ran 17 miles today on my longest training run before the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon. I would have liked a few more weeks to build up some more endurance, but I am glad i have something specific to work for. I felt pretty good today, except for the slight dehydration towards the end. I really should start carrying water on my longer runs.

Baton Rouge Beach Marathon

Well, I did it. I just signed up for the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon on December 1st at 7:00 AM. I also reserved a hotel for the night before. There is no going back now. I have paid my money: no refunds. It will be fun. This will be my second marathon. My first marathon, the Top of Utah Marathon, was over five years ago. My time was 3:26:46. My goal for this race is to finish faster than that. I would like to beat three hours, but I don't think I am ready for that yet. I had to cut off a month from my training and modify it a bit so that I would be ready for this marathon. Maybe three hours can be my goal for the Salt Lake City Marathon in April. I've got a ways to go to prepare for that race. Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted on my training and I will definitely tell you about the results. It is just three weeks away. I hope the Thanksgiving feast will not get in the way too much, especially since we are having two of them this year.
This race is pretty small. In the past, there has only been about 100 people doing the marathon and 400 or so doing the 1/2 marathon. If I plug my last time into last years results or the year before, I would be in the top 5 or 10. Anyway, I'll go rest now for my upcoming training week.

Marathon Training

This was a good week for marathon training. I found a marathon I want to run on December first. It is a couple hours away from here. I mapped out a training schedule for the next four weeks. I will be ready for this marathon. I ran ten miles on Tuesday. I ran twelve miles today. This week totaled 32 miles. I feel good. I've been a little sore this week, but I feel really good today. I have a 35 mile week lined up next week. I will run 15-17 miles on Friday or Saturday. I have a couple of speed workouts lined up for this week too. I want to beat my time from the last marathon which was 3:26. I haven't done a lot of speed work, so I don't know if I will be able to beat that time. I will though, be able to run the whole thing and not be as sore as I was after the last marathon. I have only 3 weeks until this marathon, so wish me luck.

On another note, yesterday we went to an air show. It was pretty cool. We stayed there all day. Alex napped a little bit in the stroller. The Super Hornet is a very loud airplane. It is very cool. At first Alex was scared and cried about the loud airplanes, but once he realized that the planes wouldn't hurt him, he was very excited. He was so excited that he was jumping and screaming (for joy, not fright), and pointing up to the sky. The show ended at 6:30 or so and we were home in time for bed time.

HIghest peak in Florida

So, today we decided to brave the elements and climb the highest peak in the state of Florida. It was easy to breath up there and no one got nose bleeds. We all made it too; Ella, Alex, Amanda and me. The altitude was a grand total of 345 Feet. It was actually a roadside park. Not too far from where we live. Now I have been to one of the "highest" point in the US. I have 49 more states to go.


Alex kept running around not wanting to pose for a photo.

This little monument marks the actual high spot. Nothing in Florida is higher than this spot, except any building or tower.


Alex could care less about this thing. He notices airplanes even when daddy doesn't. I'm training him well.

Ella is a blooming photographer. She loves taking pictures with our old camera. She manages to get a few good ones. She is a real cutie.

Ella loves to drag Alex around. She'll pull him over, then tell him to be careful. I have the cutest kids in the world!

Alex love to put everything in his mouth. Here he is eating an acorn.

Ella and Alex loved playing with all the moss too. They've never seen it before. It was soft and nice to stroke.


Alex was particularly fond of this piece. He probably even tasted it.

You can check out Amanda's blog if you want to see a little more about this trip. She also has a more fun way of wording things.

Mountain Biking

A week ago I went mountain biking. It had been raining and so the trail was a bit wet and so were all the roots and fallen trees we were riding over. I guess I just wasn't comfortable on my bike that day. Within the first few miles I crashed twice. After 14 miles, I had crashed four times. All four times I fell on my left side. I bruised my ribs up pretty bad. A couple days later, I was still hurting pretty bad, and it seemed to be getting worse. Finally after a week I went it to see a doctor about it. My appointment was at 0800 this morning. They took several x-rays to see if anything was broken. They couldn't see any fractures, but the doc said that badly bruised ribs can hurt just as bad as broken ribs. He just gave me some strong medicine to dull the pain. I guess I have to take it easy now. I'll probably go on a few bike rides (off the trails) for the next week or two until I heal.

I've been tagged!

Well, my wife tagged be so I figured I'd better actually post something.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Running Cross Country for Pleasant Grove High School and placing 3rd as a team at the State Meet.
2. Working at Pony Express Pizza as a delivery boy.
3. getting into rock climbing
4. Climbing Mount Timpanogos
5.


5 things on my To-Do List today:
1. Call work (they've told me to wait for their call, but I can't just do nothing, I need to bug them)
2. Do Laundry
3. Recover from bike ride
4. Watch The Office
5.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Travel
2. Invest
3. Buy a house
4. Climb Everest
5. Get my immediate family out of debt.

5 things I'll never wear again:
1. Turtle neck
2.
3.
4.
5.

5 favorite toys:
1. Computer
2. Bike
3. Digital Camera (that's my wifes toy but I play with it too)
4. My running Shoes
5.

5 people to tag:
1. David
2.
3.
4.
5.

Yeah, I guess that is pretty pathetic. I left a lot of blanks, I know. Just live with it.

Mountain Biking

So, yesterday evening I got together with some local guys and went mountain biking. They took me on some really cool trails. It had been a while since I had been on any trails, but it was fun. I stayed on my bike almost the whole time. I brushed up against a tree pretty hard at one point, but stayed on my bike. I'll take a picture of my war wound and get it on here sooner or later. We rode a total of about 14 miles. I'm really quite sore today. I feel like I've been beat up really bad. Oh well, the riding was worth it. I need to do that more often.

Same old, Same old...

So, here is a cute picture of my little boy. This was last week when we were camping. I feel bad, because shortly after this picture was taken, he fell face first into the dirt. He's tough though.


















Here we have one of Amanda's cakes. We had friends over to play Settlers of Catan and Amanda came up with this great idea to make a Settlers cake. It turned out great. It was very delicious too.


We were at Wal-Mart the other day and we saw this little bike that Ella loved. It was only 35 dollars and since we had kind of been eying a bike to get her, we got it. Isn't she so cute? As soon as we got home we let her hop on for a ride. She went right down the driveway and off the curb onto her face. She cried a little bit, but got right back up. She is just as tough as Alex. She is now more cautious as she constantly reminds us that she is only going to ride very slow. She will pedal for a second then hit the brakes and repeat over and over.


I feel pretty good about today. We cleaned for most of the morning. I feel like we got a lot done although you'd never be able to tell. Amanda did a great job scrubbing the kitchen floor while I picked stuff up upstairs.
This afternoon while the kids were napping I went for an hour long bike ride. It felt really good. I talked with a guy from the local bike store and he is giong to show me some local trails tomorrow.
That's it for now.

Camping and more

So, yesterday I decided that it was a good day to go camping. Amanda went to the store in the morning while I stayed home with the kids getting everything together that we would need. We went to a local state park. Before we left I went for a quick bike ride. Well, it was actually 45 minutes, but it was fun. We got to the campground around two or so. We set up camp and got our swimsuits on to go play in the river. That was pretty fun. Alex and I went up river just a bit and we saw a turtle. Even though it has cooled down significantly it was still hot and very humid which made it even worse. The river felt nice though. When we got back to the campsite we tried to lay the kids down for a nap, but the attempt was futile, so we just let them play. I got a fire going so we could cook our foil dinners. I ended up burning them a little bit. One of these days I'm going to get it right. After dinner, we took a walk over and found a geocache. I wanted to do more, but it was getting dark and the mosquito's were terrible. They were attacking us even with all our bug repellent on.
It was dark by the time we got back to camp and it was bout the kids bed time, so we got ready for bed. It was too warm inside the tent, but the mosquito's were too bad outside the tent, so Amanda and I laid there with the kids. It was so hot that I slept with nothing over me until about two in the morning when I finally grabbed my sleeping bag and laid it half over me.
It was six something when we all got up this morning. After a quick breakfast of cold cereal, we went for a little walk along a trail that led through a swamp and into lots of spider webs. We went back to the campsite and cleaned up, then went over to another trail and walked around the loop. We were looking for two more geocaches. We found both of them. I carried Alex the whole way, while Ella walked the whole way, what a trooper. I thought the first trail was bad with spiders, but we saw about a hundred spiders on the second trail and they were all huge. the smallest one was about an inch and a half, the largest was probably four or even five inches. There were a couple that had built their webs right over the trail.
We got home today about ten o'clock. I would have wanted to stay longer but the mosquito's were so bad that it wasn't much fun. It was also so humid that even though it was probably only 75 degrees, it felt like 85 or 90.
After I unpacked the car, I went for a three mile run. It felt pretty good. I'm glad that I am staying motivated to continue working out. I am still hoping to run a marathon. I am probably going to run the Salt Lake City Marathon in April. I might do one in January or February. I'd like to do a triathlon or two as well. I think it would be cool to do an Ironman triathlon. It would consist of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a full 26.2 mile marathon. I'm still at least a year away from attempting one of those. It'll probably be two years or so before I'll do one. I'm still motivated to keep working up to it. It is a slow process of building up to it, but when you are starting out at practically nothing, you've got to go slow. I don't want to injure myself.
Amanda is motivated to do a triathlon as well. We've been riding our bicycles together a couple times a week. I've been thinking I'd like to get her a bike of her own. The bike she is using now is mine and it is too big for her. I'd like a new bike too, but one thing at a time. I think the first thing we will get is new tires for the bikes so they will be smoother on the road. At the local bike shop the sell them for 25 or so but they didn't have any in stock.
Well, now that you have way more than you can handle, I'll go for now. Expect some pictures soon. I'm just too lazy to go get the camera.

Fun in the rain-video

Here is a video I put together of all the video clips I took of us playing in the Rain the other day. It's not much, but I hope you enjoy it.

Fun in the Rain

Video of my dad

Family Fun Video

Here is another video. I actually spent some time this morning putting it together. It is six minutes long. It is just a few short clips of Ella and Alex and some of a recent trip up the local river.
I really enjoy doing this, but I don't have the best program. I hope you enjoy it. It took me less than an hour today to put this all together.
Enjoy.

Надеюсь что всем нравится!

Watch this video

here is a video from August of Ella and Alex just playing around. Alex loves going up and down the stairs. I didn't re-size the video or anything so, let me know if it takes too long to load, or doesn't play well. I can take it off and try resizing it so it will work better if I need to.
anyway, hope it works.
ПОКА


...
well i guess that didn't work
...
heres another try at the video thing. the other one was too big. It was only about a minute long, but it was like 85MB of info. here is a different movie that I have shrunk down. This one is now only 250 kilobytes.



and if I can get that one working, here is the one I was trying to upload at first. it is now only 900 kilobytes instead of 85 megs.




and please let me know if these videos don't play, or whatever.
enjoy

Большие Торты

Моя жена начала зделать торты. Она хочеть начать свой бизнес. Она любит украшать большие торты. Здесь фотограф очень красивого торта. Был очень вкусно. Мы пригласили наши друзя, чтобы помогать нам кушать торта. Если ем целой торт сами, тогда похудеем. Мы не хотим похудеть.
но это все у меня для вас сегодня.
ПОКА.

BBQ ПО РУССКИ

Сегодня был авантюрный. Я захотел пикниковать, так что, я пригласил все из класса моего а также все Летающие Мичманы." Около 15-ий человек появилось. Тоже был отличный день. Пагода не был слишком жарко, был приятная и солнечная. Элла играла в рядочкоме реке. Алекс старался, но он пастояно пал и вдохнул вода. Его поставил в переносной колыбели. Был там много людей который я давно не видел. Хорошо было поговорить с ними. Тоже когда мы были там, мы резервировали лодку за понедельник. Наши друзья поплывет с нами на лодке, значат будут четыре взрослых и три детей. У нас будет веселое время.

Когда мы вернулись домой, мы поставили вещей обратно в их мест. Тогда дети поспали. Я чувствовал полный энтузиазма, так как я работал в дворе. Я косил траву, и тоже поливал траву. Трава в дворе очень коричневая в нескольких частников двора. И перед тем как мы ужинали, я быстро помыл машину. После ужина поехали в Блэкватер Ривер Штатный Парк" чтобы кататься на волесопедях. Это штатный парк один большая дорожка, около десяти мил в длиности. Дорожка строен на бывшем железное дорожке. Погода была соверщеная. Затемнился до того как мы вернулись к машину.

Дети были очень устали, так что их быстро помойли и они лежали спать. Я сейчас играю на компюторе уже несколько часов. Аманда практиковал декорация с глазуруем. Но теперь она играет на компюторе. Я еще плохо знаю клавиатуру. Требовал всего лишь 10-15 минут на Английском языке, но два часа на Русском.

yeah, my spelling and grammar are probably pretty bad in this. This takes a long time. I hope it will come quicker with more practice.

BBQ

Today was adventurous. I wanted to throw a barbeque, so I invited everyone from my class and all the other Flying CWO’s. We had about fifteen people show up. It was a great day for it too. The weather was not too hot, and it was nice and sunny. Ella played in the water in the river. Alex tried too, but he kept dipping his head under the water, so we put him up in his pack-n-play. There were lots of people there that I hadn’t seen in a while. It was nice to catch up a little bit. While we were there we also decided to reserve a boat for Monday. Our friends are going to come with us, so there will be four adults and three children. It will be fun.

When we got home, we put stuff away, then we put the kids down for a nap. I was feeling enthusiastic and so I did some yard work. I mowed the lawn. I also watered it. Our grass is pretty brown in some places. I also washed the car really quickly. Dinner time came when the kids got up from their naps. Then we all piled into the car and we drove over to the Blackwater River State Park to go for a short bike ride. It state park is just a trail that goes for about ten miles. It is a path that is built on what used to be rail road tracks. It was perfect weather for it. It was pretty dark though by the time we got back to the car.

The kids were pretty tired when we got back, so I gave them a bath and put them to bed. I’ve now been playing on the computer for a bit while Amanda is practicing her decorating with frosting. It will probably take another hour or so to translate this into Russian and type it. I’m still not familiar with the Russian keyboard.

A Translation

I am going to start studying Russian more and so I will try to write a little here in Russian. I don't have much time right now, I don't know the Russian keyboard. I will start studying the Russian language at a university in a few months.

Я собираюсь начинать изучать русский язык больше, и таким образом я буду пробовать писать немного здесь на русском языке. У меня не достаточное время сейчас, Я плохо знаю клавиатуру. Я начинаю изучать Русский Язык в университете через несколько месяцев.

More Spinning

So, I spent six days over at the spin chair and the LT over there was very confident that I would do just fine back in the airplane. But when I flew yesterday, I threw up pretty early in the flight. The LT said he has never seen that before. if people get sick again it is after they fly a few more flights. Well, next week I will try flying in the morning with motion sickness medicine and the do the spin chair in the afternoons. I am still going strong, but if I get "actively airsick" once more
(especially with the meds) then I will not be disappointed if they consider me a lost cause and separate me. I'm sick of getting sick.
anyway, maybe I'll try to get a picture of this infamous spin chair so you can all see what it is I'm talking about.

I think we are going to head to the library right now (what better way to spend a Friday afternoon) then maybe go to town to eat at Panera Bread or something. I don't really know though, so we'll see.

Spin Chair

Well, I've made it to that point. I've had 10 flights. On seven of those flights I have been "actively airsick." That means I have thrown up. I tried Medicine on several of those flights. I have been going to this spin chair now for two days. I'll do it at least three more days. The first time wasn't too bad. Towards the end I started to hyperventilate (they were telling me to breath deeply in my stomach to relax myself. I guess I was breathing to rapidly. Some of my muscles tightened up. My hands tensed up and I couldn't open them. It was really weird. Today that didn't happen. But just before I finished the second spin I threw up. I felt terrible. The way it works is I spin for ten minutes, have a ten minute break, then spin for another ten minutes.
I've been looking at what else I could do if I can't get over this airsickness. I don't know if I'll study Russian, or international studies, or what not. Lets just hope it doesn't come to that.

Funny Picture

I was surfing the net when I stumbled upon this photo. I think it is hilarious

Fun at the Beach

Last night I found out that I was not scheduled to fly today, so Amanda suggested a trip to the beach. This morning we went down to the Beach. It was pretty calm, barely any waves. There was barely a breeze too. It was hot hot hot out of the water. The water was very nice though. The gulf temperature is probably 85 or so. We were able to take the kids out into the water. We all had fun. I forgot to sunscreen my back, so did Amanda. The sunscreen I put on Alex must have rubbed off, because he got burned a bit too. We were out there for a couple of hours.
After we got back from the beach, I edged the yard with my new $20 weed eater from Walmart. I then washed the car. I still can't get those bugs off the front. I think they are a permanent decoration there now.
Well, I don't have much more to say. Thanks for coming to my blog.

This is me

Welcome to my blog. Stay tuned for more. I'm just experimenting right now.
I've been playing around with it for a bit. I have a small start on it. I hope you enjoy my links and videos. I'll probably add a post once or twice a week, so you can come back for more fun if you would like to see what's going on in my life.
Here is a photo of my two lovely children, Ella and Alex.