Mooched a Vacation to Diego

A few weeks ago I had to go to San Diego for a seminar to get certified in water damage restoration...I know, what could be more exciting right. Well anyway, i was being flown down and had a nice room in La Jolla for three nights so I figured we could mooch of that and squeeze in a mini vacation for the wife and I and besides little sister Heather was nearly in tears for us to visit her in her awful little beach town. It was hard but we sucked it up and toughed it out by taking an extra Friday off and going down three days early to stay on Pacific Beach and hang with the little sis. It was a good time and nice to see that Heather is doing well. We spent a couple days just beach bumming and I took Em to the Zoo. I had no idea she had never been to a good zoo. She was like a cute little kid at the zoo! After that I went to my seminars and Em roughed it at the Hyatt health spa. We also got some great tickets for a Padres game from a work colleague in our San Diego office.

Stayed on da Beach of course

Heather and Emilee hangin out in the ghetto.

Thats Right! I can ride a bike and still take pics.

Who has the longest neck?...sorry, but all other giraffe pictures have to be censored. Those two in the back were acting a little to frisky for a family blog....if ya know what i mean:)

Make monkey sounds now!

Us again

She gets mad if I don't use pics of me so enjoy.

Em's first stadium brat at a ballgame! Go figure?

Box seats...over rated. Liked 1st base better.

The End of this blog but don't cry, I may blog again.

The Heart of the Desert

We came to the sad realization that the 113+ degree days are coming to an end for the season and thought it would be a perfect time to do a little camping with freinds. There is a beautiful less know lake below the Hoover dam that extends 70miles south to Laughlin. The water at the upper end comes out of the bottom of Lake Mead and is Cold (about 55degrees) all year. This stretch of the Colorado River is called Black Canyon and is pretty sweet and the water is so clear you can see right to the bottom on days where the current is slow. About 20 miles downstream the surface water warms back up from the sun and there are tons of sandy coves hidden within the rocky cliffs and rugged environment. This is a great place to camp. We had a great weekend at Mojave. Taking in the sights, cookin up some brats and doing some wake boarding. At night the water was flatter than I have ever seen with a full moon it was like having night vision and I have never heard an echo like the one we got from our campsite...you could hear your yell about 5 or 6 times before it was lost in the quiet night. It is amazing that such natural beauty is so close to Las Vegas and we saw maybe a dozen boats the whole weekend.

Our Stake for the Weekend!

View From Above Camp. The walls make crazy echo's at night.

Em checkin the view...and lookin out for Rocks!

A nice little cove for a swim and some fishing

Hellow from Lake Mojave

I just like this perspective. This is where you hide from the heat when it really hot! In the Water!!

Watch out...shes gettin crazy....right before head butting the water!

Our backyard playground

Only been about about 75 days since I blogged....

Well what can I say... I'm Busy! Going back to work defiantly has its downsides but I am enjoying my new career in Disaster Services, Re-construction and Consulting. It has been a great last few months with lots of activities going on. I will try to get more pics and details about some of them later. We made it to Boise for Emilee's sister Ashley's wedding, have done tons of boating and spent the fourth of July weekend on a house boat, finally upgraded my truck, been to tons of outdoor concerts (mostly free...gotta love Vegas), both got strep throat, vent to San Diego again for work and for fun, Emilee lost her only chipped car key,....... and on and on. And oh i almost forgot one more tiny thing...Emilee graduated from nursing school. "EMILEE GRADUATED FROM NURSING SCHOOL" Ohhhhh-Yeahhhh! I am so proud of her and she has really worked hard (for a long time) at it! She is going to make a wonderful nurse! So, for the most part life has been kind to us in Las Vegas and we can't complain about too much. Except for maybe that it is cooling down (only 100-105 now), and the days are getting shorter. Contrary to popular belief, we have found that we love the hot dry summers and summer is our favorite season in Las Vegas.