Summer Road Trip 2013

We hit the road for two weeks with Desiree's dad, Tommy. Our first stop was the Grand Canyon, where we met some old family friends, Karen and Jerry Suchan, as well as their daughter, her husband, and their kids.

We hiked down about mile into the canyon on Bright Angel Trail.

Torsten with his buddies on the west side of the national park. You can only take shuttles onto that end.

Elk were fearless, and in the campsite everyday.

We saw all kinds of weather on the road. Here is a shot Jameson took on a formidable stretch of the drive.

On the way to Capitol Reef, we went through Monument Valley.

And across the Colorado at Glen Canyon. Water was coming down in sheets.

The boys earned Junior Ranger badges and patches at every park we visited. At Capitol Reef, they were also able to earn Junior Geologist badges.

A big cottonwood in the picnic area. Capitol Reef has apple and peach orchards all through it planted by Mormon settlers. The contrast of trees and rock formations is great.

We took a nice hike along the Grand Wash Trail at Capitol Reef.

Petroglyphs.

Bryce Canyon. Thor's Hammer, which is named after Torsten.

Bottom of the Navajo Trail.

Wall Street along the Navajo Trail.

White Sands.

Most of the pictures inside didn't come out too well. We do not fully understand our camera.

We enjoyed the trip, and everyone pitched in driving. Good to be home now.

"The Seussical" at Hyde Elementary 2013

Jameson's speaking part comes just after the 4:00 mark. Again, you can get a full screen option if you click through to the youtube page Oh, and the reason he grabs his bottom at the very beginning of the clip is because he wiped out running into the building on the wet sidewalk. I wish the camera had been rolling for that one.

South Lake Tahoe Spring Break 2013

If you click on the title of the video in the screen, it'll take you to YouTube and you can expand the video to full screen. The vid has footage of the gondola ride, hanging out with ducks down by the lake, sledding, and Jameson on a bungee trampoline doing backflips. Pardon my hoarse voice during narration. Had a cold on the tail end of the trip. I wish I had a picture here of me winning money at the blackjack tables.

Pinewood Derby 2013

Jameson's first pinewood derby. He raced in a whole bunch of heats. At each level, each car races at least once on each of the four lanes, then the computer averages the times. The first rounds you see in the video are Jameson's den. He was assigned a #802 after we had already put #22 (his hockey #) on his car, so we put the new one on using painter's tape. Each kid in the den gets a certificate for winning something. Check out Robbie, the first kid, reacting to winning Funniest car. Jameson had Best Paint. He came in 2nd.

The next round of races were for the best four cars out the two Tiger dens. Jameson came in 2nd here too. Take note of the one kid on the right that didn't place and get a medal. The boy next to him is sweet.

The last rounds are Pack finals, and the top two cars at each level make it, for a total of ten cars. I think he was around 5th. To scale, the computer said he was running about "230 mph". One car was able to hit "235" once or twice. Less than a 10th of a second separated all ten cars. There are a bunch of tweaks we didn't know about, so maybe he'll do even better next year.

Seattle