singleAZDad

Memorial day fun at the aquatic park

2009-05-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

You can't beat $2.50 for a day of fun in the pool, couple of water slides and a lazy river.

Boy Scout Hike down to Fossil Springs

2009-05-16T10:17:00.002-07:00

Last Saturday Ethan and I went with his Boy Scout troop on a really fun, but long...long hike. Normally this hike is taken as an overnight trip. But the troop was checking out the condition of the camping areas because the damn and power station were recently decommissioned. The trail was about 2 miles down, it was rocky and steep at some points. Then about another mile in to the swimming holes. The boys swam and creek walked until about 3pm. By then it was hot and the sun was really baking us on the exposed trail. I have not been on long hike in a while and I knew this trip was going to be tough on me. Ethan and I were the last ones up the trail. By the end, my knees hurt so bad I could barely bend them. I was still sore from the trip until Wednesday. Overall it was a fun trip. I took a whole bunch of pictures of the swimming holes and a few videos below.

Ethan got baptized!!!

2009-05-12T22:04:00.004-07:00

I might as well start with one of the best moments this year. Ethan decided that he wanted to be baptized. It was pretty cool too that his cousin Jenny up in Oregon also got baptized on the same day!

Here is a slide show of the pictures.

Where has Dan been?

2009-05-12T21:57:00.002-07:00

Well, to a everyone who has asked "what happened to your blog", as you can imagine I have been busy. With church, kids, work, the house, scouts...it's been crazy. I want to start posting again and have tons of pictures from the last eight months to load up.

Ethan's treat after last 5th grade band performance

2009-05-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

Wow! what a difference 5 months makes. Ethan had his final 5th grade band concert tonight. There were 98 kids from the five Maricopa elementary schools. In December was their first concert...and lets just say there was lots of room for improvement! Well, tonight was much better, I could actually recognize the songs. Ethan did a great job!

Cheap seats @ Dbacks game

2008-09-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-17T22:52:00.002-07:00

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

2008-07-06T20:30:00.003-07:00

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

2008-07-06T19:11:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-28T22:29:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-28T07:51:00.002-07:00

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...

2008-03-29T21:36:00.002-07:00

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

2008-03-23T15:53:00.002-07:00

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

2008-03-23T15:51:00.003-07:00

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?

2008-03-22T09:29:00.004-07:00

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

2008-03-02T20:55:00.004-07:00

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

2008-02-24T19:52:00.007-07:00

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

2008-02-16T11:36:00.010-07:00

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.

Know anyone who needs a 2005 Honda Civic?

2008-02-11T22:04:00.002-07:00

See a video of my car on Hotswap.com.
http://hotswap.com/products/view/16a3b2a44072

Ethan took 2nd place in School Spelling Bee!

2007-12-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Last week Ethan took second in his school spelling bee. He first won in his 4th grade class last month. Then the school competition combined all 4th and 5th grade class winners. So Ethan actually beat all the other 4th graders and all but the one 5th grader who won.

Sell your car with an online video

2007-12-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I heard about this web site were you can sell your vehicle by posting a video. It lets you create a listing for free, post a video and post pictures. It also has an option to post the ad to Craigslist. Check it out: hotswap.com

Samantha has Guts!

2007-12-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

Samantha is not usually the brave one when it comes to theme park rides. But today, she was unstoppable. She was not going to let Ethan show her up...again. Ethan will go on any ride and Sam wasn't afraid to try this one, at least once. She already went on a spinning ride (twice) that she skipped last year...and when I went on it, I almost puked. So we came to the ride that is a four-story straight drop. Without flinching Sam looked up and quickly followed Ethan up the stairs. She buckled in and was showing no fear. The ride slowly ascended and then suddenly it dropped! I wish my camera was faster because her face was priceless. She walked down the stairs and says "that was not what I expected!" All-in-all she only skipped one ride that Ethan went on...and you don't see me on it either.

Samantha's part in 3rd grade play

2007-11-25T20:53:00.001-07:00

Sam had a one-liner in her play. I posted the whole scene she was in. Her part starts about 2:40 into the video.

Cub Scout Hike on Hieroglyphic Trail

2007-10-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the kids and I went on a great hike with our Cub Scout Pack. Samantha even decided to go and toughed it out the whole way.

The trail was rocky and led up to a small canyon. Once we were in the canyon, there was a big rock wall were a bunch of hieroglyphs.

This shot was on a rock on the near side of the canyon. The kids were freaked out by a large swarm of bees down by a stagnant stream. So we couldn't get too close to the large wall of hieroglyphs. A huge wasp landed on Ethan's sandwich and he jumped while throwing the sandwich off into a bush.

All in all, it was a great hike.

More pictures here: Cub Scout Hike 10-27