We are alive unlike our computer....

The adventures have slowed to a crawl due to school, post labor day flight schedule cuts, and other various adventure stalling excuses. I guess it doesn't matter much though since blogging about them is extremely difficult now that our computer has switched to paper weight mode. HP if your reading this... Please send a replacement product of equal or greater value. Free of charge of course. I really love my new iPhone and would hate to see a mac take over your spot on my desk. Did I mention my new iPhone is great and provides endless entertainment with over 65,000 apps from the app store? I can even blog from this thing even though my one finger typing is slow. I can even order chipotle from this thing and it will be ready by the time I get there.

Anyway...the adventures will continue so stay tuned.

That picture hogging squirrel gets around!

Who knew squirrels liked to ride roller coasters?

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/08/squirrel-crashes-pictures.html

Birthdays, beaches, and balboa bars, oh my!

So for Alea's birthday we decided to hop a plane to Orange County for the weekend. There's the beach, ferris wheel rides and balboa (ice cream) bars, and Disneyland too. So much to do, so little time! We started off by parking at our favorite off airport site, the Parking Spot! We were a little late getting to the airport so Jason the shuttle driver let me drive since I know the best shortcuts.

I can't understand why everyone was so scared after all Weston flew the plane last time we went to San Diego, and I wasn't scared....

I got us to the airport safely and on time.

After getting off the plane we were famished and found this great little place that promised to get you in and out since the kids were in a hurry to get to the beach. The food was really good too! After eating we drove to Huntington Beach where the local surfers hang out. We followed a couple of them to see where the great surfing spots are located and the best place to catch a wave or two. Once we got to the beach the waves were calling...
and so were the authorities...
apparently California law prohibits camouflage sun bathing...

Ask any kid where the happiest place on earth is and the answer... well that's debatable. Some kids I know may just have a different answer then most!

Jedi in training...

Alea was picked from the audience to fight the dark side, partially because it was her birthday, but mostly because of her light saber skills and previous experience fighting the dark side. If you remember in the prequel to the prequel, episode 1/2, she previously defeated Darth Vador and saved the Empire, but i digress...

Darth Maul ran away like a screaming little girl....

I'll get you next time Jedi Alea!

That was awesome!

In this episode of The Adventures of WHAW, we took a weekend trip to celebrate Alea's birthday at the happiest place on earth. Disneyland!

Car rental and hotel... an arm

Disneyland park tickets...a leg

The look on their faces.... priceless!

After stopping, Weston screamed "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

Want to go again?

"NO WAY!"

I passed, I passed, I passed!

Congratulations to Heidi! After nearly 2 years of school in the Physical Therapy Assistant program at Gateway College and tons and tons of this:

... and a few weeks of practicals at the Maricopa County Medical Center Burn Unit:

...Heidi finally graduated and got to wear this (in May):

...But wait! It's not over yet. After another month of studying for the State Board Exam.....

She passed! Or as it should be properly stated....She passed with flying colors! Even though she couldn't remember 5%?

Tire Tracks in the Sand

On the way to work the other day I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me that said, "The Lord is my Co-Pilot." So with tongue in cheek satire humor at its best, I thought of this poem to go along with a picture I took at the beach in Emerald Isle, North Carolina.

Tire tracks in the sand

One night I dreamed I was riding along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed tire tracks in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of tire tracks, other times there was only one.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of tire tracks, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would drive with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of tire tracks in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of tire tracks, my child, is when I drove you.”

Who said cleaning the house isn't any fun?

Unaccompanied Minors

In this episode of the Adventures of WHAW the kids headed north to Grandma’s house alone.

Well, you know the song….

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s house they go.
The kids know the dad who will carry their bags…
Thru the security checkpoint we go, oh!

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s house they go.
Weston knows the deal, no need to swallow a pill
To sleep on the plane, as his energy begins to drain, oh!

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s house they go.
Alea knows the way to put down her tray
And order a cold drink from the FA, oh!

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s airport they land.
They have to wait for the flight attendant Kate,
To escort them to the gate, where Grandma waits, oh!

And some kids can’t even go to the bathroom by themselves…

A great 4th of July celebration to remember (Part II)

After leaving the festivities behind, we all headed back to Aunt Dalene’s house for the night. As we realized that the house was pretty full of weary travelers, we decided to check a few hotels for availability and found a nice quaint place with a decent price tag. We figured it would be nice to have a quiet place to lay our heads and a bathroom we wouldn’t have to wait in line for. Plus if you notice in the picture below, it had all you can eat cereal from the General Mills silos. After checking in, we continued our way to Dalene’s house to participate in the fireworks show. Since Arizona is too hot and dry in the summer time, fireworks are illegal but in Idaho, anything goes. The kids lined up along the porch and were soon in harmony, “oooh, aaaaah, oooh, aaaah, as they watched the fireworks display. After all the good ones were lit and sent skywards, the kids enjoyed shooting roman candles and twirling sparklers. After the backyard fireworks display, we headed back to our room ready to hit the hay. After a good nights sleep, we journeyed our way down to 14th street to watch the Idaho Falls parade. The kids properly stretched and warmed up in order to gather as much candy as they possible could. In previous years, the candy would rain down from nearly every float. Not this year. You know the economy is bad when the candy count is down. However the parade still provided great entertainment. After the parade, we had lunch back at Dalene’s and enjoyed a great feast. At 2:00 the annual softball game started. As I stood there lined up waiting to bat, I had flashbacks of my youth baseball games, where I hit home run after home run, often winning the game! I remembered all of the diving catches in the out field, and the 90 mph fastballs I hurled over the plate. Strike one, strike two, steeeeriiiiiike three, as the umpire yelled, you’re out! The smell of hot dogs permeating the air and the sound of the crowd cheering, Wynn, Wynn, Wynn…..watch out…crack! Apparently while waiting to bat I had dozed off in my fantasy baseball dream and was hit in the head with a foul ball. Ok not really but it sure makes a better story than just getting up to bat and hitting a fly ball, making it to first, and then getting thrown out at second on the next play.

After the softball game ended, we jumped in the car and drove over to Aunt Linda and Uncle John. They happen to live about 2 miles away from Aunt Dalene’s house. Upon arriving, we found ourselves mingling with 2 giant pans of chocolate brownies and rice crispy treats. The kids ran outside and played on the airplane teeter totter with cousins they’re not quite familiar with. This didn’t stop them from playing together and they had a great time.
Around 8:30 we all decided it was time to go down to the river and wait around for the fireworks to begin. The fireworks display was terrific. We sat on the grass next to the hotel with surround sound blasting patriotic music and fireworks exploding over our heads showering down bright colors of spark. Fireworks are one of the few things in life that can be enjoyed no matter the time of year. After the fireworks ended we walked back to the cars and proceeded to wait in traffic before making our way back to Dalenes’ house. After the fireworks, Jena and Lance decided to put their kids in the car and make the 3 hour trip back home. Weston and I decided to drive back with them in an effort to catch a plane back to Arizona early in the morning. Lance’s lead foot got us to the airport a little earlier than even I like to be there. It was 3:00 am. Now if you have ever wondered what the airport looks like at 3:00 am let me tell you. It’s nearly empty with only the zamboni like machine driving around washing the floors with its built in squeegee. At 3:00 am, not even the security entrance was open. Weston was dead asleep and so I proceeded to find a comfortable place to lie down. Whoever designed the airport chairs apparently never intended to sleep in them, as the permanent arm rest prevents any such horizontal activity from occurring.

I layed Weston in my lap and propped my feet up on another chair and closed my eyes. I opened them again after what seemed like a couple of hours of sleep, only to find that the clock now read 3:07 am. I knew it was going to be a long wait. Around 4:15, people started to arrive at the airport and slowly a line began to form near one of the ticket counters. At 4:30, a mob of TSA agents began to come down the hall and quickly took their positions and opened the security entrance. I emptied my pockets of all items known to set off the metal detectors and proceeded to walk through security. I found gate A2 and picked a spot on the floor to lay Weston down on. Upon doing so, he opened his eyes, looked up at me and said, “this floor is hard as a rock….and it smells funny too!” So I picked him up and found some chairs without the arm rests and layed him down again. Finally after what seemed like forever, the sun came up, the gate agents came out, and the stand by list was called. Weston and I were getting on the plane and headed home.

A road trip, a baby, and fire works... A great 4th of July celebration to remember...(Part I)

On this 4th of July, we decided to head to Idaho and celebrate the birth of our new neice as well as the Fourth of July!

So this episode of the Adventures of WHAW began with a stand by ticket, where we literally stood there and waved bye! The glamorous side of traveling the skies unfortunately comes with a lot of waiting, and waiting, and in some cases even more waiting. Heidi and the kids grabbed the last 3 seats on the plane, so I waved goodbye and hung around for the next flight.

The next flight came and left without any empty seats, so I waited around some more with the same results. So after nearly 9 hours in the airport (thanks to a delayed flight) I was able to grab the last seat on the last plane headed for SLC. You should have seen the look on the poor guy's face that was just after me on the stand by list. After all, he had waited nearly most of the day as well with no such luck. I thought he was going to empty my suitcase, jump in, and force me to lift him into the over head bin.

Since the flight was delayed and didn't leave until almost 9:15, we arrived in SLC fairly late. Our standard transportation when flying into SLC, is to have our limo driver, Wyatt, come pick us up. As always, he was right there when I stepped out of the terminal. Since it was late, I decided to forgo the extra hour drive it takes to get to Mom and Dad's house, so I crashed at Wyatt's house. Before heading there, we made a quick stop at the local Taco Bell. Anyone else remember when seven layer burritos were only 99 cents?

The next day, the traveling clan of clowns, otherwise known as my 2 kids accompanied by Jena's 3 kids, came to pick us up and start the caravan trip to Idaho. Jena had negotiated a pretty good deal with Grandma and Grandad, and placed the 5 kids and a first round draft pick to be named later in their van. This left our van kid free and an enjoyable ride as we drove to Idaho.

We arrived and headed over to the church to see Wade and Katie's creation. She is adorable! Who would have known Wade had enough genes in him to pass down and contribute to such a beautiful baby. Afterall, he is the youngest of 6 kids and I hear his oldest brother got nearly all of the good looking genes!

We enjoyed a great dinner with nearly 50 of our Idaho relatives and their families and commented on all of the memories of running around as a kid, while the adults sat by and chatted. Now we found ourselves on the chatty side while our kids ran around endlessly. The evening was really special as we got to participate in blessing Aubrey Marie and welcoming her into our lives. Alea was especially proud that she shares the same middle name and initials as her new cousin.

We have officially run away to join the circus!

If anyone is looking for us, we have officially run away to join the circus. When we got to the circus, a few clowns asked us what we were doing there. We have come to join the circus, I said. They just laughed at us. I asked them to stop clowning around and show us to the ring masters office. They then escorted us to the center ring and asked us to wait there. Pretty soon, along came the ring master with 4 clip boards each with an application packet an inch thick. He asked us to read through the legal liability release forms and then fill out the other information. After we read and signed away our rights to any form of safety nets, the ring master told us we would have to be photographed. Afterwards, we were escorted beneath the arena seats to the make up and wardrobe room. The spandex uniforms were really comfortable.

Weston was dressed as a tight rope walker. Looks like all that practice standing on his head has paid off.

They assigned me to play with a few of the cats. When I realized it was the tiger cage, I asked for a couple of whips. I caught a few clowns trying to stuff a few steaks in my pocket which made me mad. This time I really yelled at them, "STOP CLOWNING AROUND!" After all, that seems a little dangerous for someone who just signed away there rights to all safety nets.

Since Heidi and Alea specialize in arial acrobatics, they were asked to do a few flips in the air. Now don't think for a second, that these were just any ordinary flips. They were going to be shot out of a cannon and do a few flips in the air, clear across the arena.
The cheers from the crowd were amazing!

9 hours and 45 minutes in San Diego...

In this episode of The Adventures of WHAW, we found ourselves headed to the airport at 6:30 AM hoping to catch our 7:45 flight to San Diego. The weather according to Yahoo said 65 degrees and partly cloudy in the morning with sunshine in the afternoon. Pretty typical for San Diego in June. They don't call it June gloom for nothing. After arriving at the Parking Spot, we parked the car, hopped into the shuttle and headed to terminal 4. We arrived at the airport and proceeded through security with no wait at all. After all, it was 7:15 am on a Saturday morning.

We got to gate A7 and waited to board the plane. Once we got on the plane, the co pilot asked Weston and Alea to help fly the plane since he hadn't seen the pilot yet this morning. Now, since Weston or Alea don't even have a driver’s license let alone a pilot’s license, they had to have Heidi help them fly the plane. Meanwhile, I had to sit in the back of the plane next to the bathroom door, which if you have ever sat in the aisle seat of row 25, you know what I'm talking about. Every time someone opens the door to come out of the bathroom, there's a race to see what hits you in the face first. Will it be the smell or the door? Okay, so I didn't really have to sit in row 25, nor did Heidi and the kids really have to fly the plane. The pilot eventually showed up and asked Weston to give up the yoke. Weston complied, and we took our seats in row 6.

A quick 55 minutes later, we landed in beautiful sunny, I mean cloudy, San Diego! Now having checked the weather the night before, I knew that 65 degrees would seem a tad bit cold to us Phoenicians. Afterall, that is a 40 degree differential in June! So as you can see, the kids were well prepared and wearing their hoodies! We picked up our Alamo rental car which was a black HHR, which feels like driving a lunch box, you know the metal kind we all had as kids...without the Thermos though. At least the kids thought it was cool! We headed out to find the best breakfast in cloudy San Diego. Turns out it was here:

Now that our biological need for hot cocoa and pan cakes was fullfilled, I just new what was coming next. The beach! But wait, its still pretty gloomy and still only 65 degrees out side. So being the part time San Diego tour guide that I am, I opted to take everyone to see the Sea Lions in La Jolla. As we walked out on the sea wall closer to the Sea Lions, the smell became almost unbearable. At first everyone thought that Weston had farted or something. But we soon realized that the sea lions weren’t obeying the beach rules and using the public bathrooms next to the life guard station. What can you expect from sea lions? After all they don’t exactly have arms to wipe themselves, let alone the ability to use public bathrooms. But I digress… In all we counted 93 sea lions.

Once we had enough of the smell, we ventured out to the beach. As I alluded to earlier, I am somewhat of a San Diego tour guide, at least part time. So I found us this beautiful secluded sandy beach that I thought every one would love. Turns out it was too narrow…

We really wanted to rent sea kayaks and take a few hours to paddle around the beach but we were told they were all tied up and that we couldn’t rent any…

Since we couldn’t rent the sea kayaks, we opted to hit the beach with a blanket and relax while the kids played in the ocean. Since the temperature was still 65 degrees, Weston opted to build sand castles while Alea body surfed on her kick board the whole time. Weston, in deep thought asked, “Is there more sand particles on the beach or more water in the ocean?” I told him we would google that when we got back home. After watching Alea drift farther out and to the right, I was forced to head into the ocean to go get her and remind her of her position. She really had no fear and for the most part, the waves were fairly small and the depth pretty shallow. The water was considerably warm for a cloudy 65 degree June gloom afternoon.

After we convinced Alea to get out of the water we headed to Sea Port Village to get fudge. Traditions often start without any prior thought, and fortunately for Heidi’s sweet tooth, we stumbled upon a tradition of consuming Sea Port Village Fudge. I couldn’t even tell you the name of the shop, but I can get anyone there that asks for directions. After all, I am the part time San Diego tour guide. By this time, it was almost 5:00 pm which signaled it was time to head back to the airport to catch our 6:40 flight. We put 1.5 gallons of $3.09 a gallon of gas into the lunchbox thermos and returned the lunchbox back to Alamo, hopped into the shuttle and were dropped of at the terminal. After heading through security and before getting to the gate, we had to stop to use the bathrooms. Some of us really had to go!

On the way home, they didn’t ask any of us to fly the plane and sat us in row 7. Upon landing, we got off the plane and noticed right away that someone left the heat on in Phoenix while we were enjoying our cloudy 65 degree day in San Diego.

All 9 hours and 45 minutes of it…

Take me out to the ball game!

The D-backs played the SF Giants Tuesday night. Section 211 was prime real estate for foul balls.
The hot dogs didn't last very long.and another motivational moment to encourage practicing the piano!

Mr. Cantski

Death of a Cactus

If a cactus falls in the desert, does anybody hear it?

How often does a cactus die? Do the other cacti mourn the loss of their friends? Do they gather together to wish farewell? Probably so, but not much hugging going on. After all, they are prickly and pokey and nobody likes prickley and pokey hugs.

Maybe cacti do...

My favorite place

Ever have an epiphany? Well I did this past Saturday when Heidi and I were making a mad dash across the Charlotte, NC airport from terminal E to terminal B to catch our flight home to Phoenix. Don't let the airport maps in the back of the inflight magazine fool you, that is pretty far. That wasn't exactly my epiphany, as I rather had a small idea exactly just how far it was.

My epiphany came to me as we rounded the corner to terminal B and I glanced up at the gates and saw the destinations listed. Gate B-2 was headed to St. Thomas. Gate B-4 was headed to Jamaica. Gate B-8 was headed to Miami. Well you get the idea...

At that very moment, I realized that my favorite place is the airport! Now I know what your thinking, that wet damp feeling that soaks your socks when you take off your shoes just prior to getting that cavity search at the security check point isn't the greatest feeling on earth. Nor is the smell of the rotten feet from the guy in front of you that is invasively permeating your nostrils, the most enticing of odors. Or that knot that forms in your stomach when you walk through the metal detector wondering if your new belt will set it off. But if you get past that part of the journey, and realize that the airport provides an opportunity to go just about anywhere, well that is pretty liberating.

The airport is a portal to an adventure not to mention a pretty great place to people watch too!

To blog or not to blog - Is that the question?

So it seems the best way to keep up with everyone is through reading their blogs. I just don't seem motivated enough for Facebook, sleazy enough for MySpace, and not technical enough for my own web site. So for now, it seems its the right time for a blog. Although I just might regret this later as last week I found myself perusing the various blogs of people we know and ended up doubled over on the floor laughing hysterically! Who could have guessed orthopedic boots could provide such gut wrenching entertainment, but I digress....

So your probably wondering... What is WHAW? Who is WHAW? Where is WHAW?

Well, keep reading and you'll get the idea...