The Great Two Weeks

From Summer Visit with Thomas

I have the best son a father could ever ask for which makes living 5,000 miles from him painful at times. The moments that I am able to close this distance gap, the rest of the world fades away and life becomes magical. This occurred only a few weeks ago when Thomas and I embarked on the greatest two weeks of my life.
During this time we had tons of adventures that time will never be able to erase. Just a pass through the airport is a great time with Thomas. I am more worried about the tight schedule of arriving from and international flight, picking Thomas up, returning to an airport that is forever away from the rest of the city, and running through security that has a good 200 people already waiting in line; all which has to be done in the span of 3 hours.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

Thomas on the other hand is saying, "Hi Mac" to every truck we pass on the interstate and pointing out every plane as if it is special and unique . . . in an airport. I couldn't help but relax and just enjoy his enthusiasm for the wonderful world around him.
The time spent at my parents house was just amazing. Thomas quickly took over the living room and we set up his Thomas train which he carefully negotiated through the difficult slalom determined to keep every train and cart connected. Thomas loved to fly through the air holding on to whatever wrinkle was available on a giant bean bag. His laughter would put a smile on any face.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

From my early years I grew an appreciation for Nerf; Thomas definitely shares my enthusiasm for this great technology. He was very quick to persuade others to assist him in a game of "Get Daddy!" He loved to be chased only to turn and chase you. He always wanted to do one thing, have fun!
Later we had an opportunity to visit a farm. He loved it, from being able to see tractors up close to scaring off two cows. Well ok, he wasn't too happy that he scared off the cows he really wanted to play with them too.
If there is one town Thomas is already grateful for, it has to be Hollywood. When there is nothing new for him to play with, he loves to watch movies. Ice Age 3 was definitely his favorite as he would average watching the crazy sloth 4-6 times daily.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

Thomas has the greatest grandparents a kid could ask for. They foresaw the great fun water slide would bring to their grandkids. Thomas patiently watched as granddad and dad attempted to put together something that looked like it was a step down from a Saturn V rocket (obviously we were smart enough to not need the instructions).

From Summer Visit with Thomas

Playing in the water was something he loved and the opportunity to take aim at others with a water canon only could add to the excitement of playing in his own little water park. Eventually he was able to share in the fun with his cousins; though the word share is not one of Thomas's favorite words.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

After playing in the water, this would induce a needed nap . . . for all of us!

From Summer Visit with Thomas

One of Thomas's favorite people is his Uncle Brian. What makes this odd is he has never met Uncle Brian until these few weeks. You see, Uncle Brian never met Thomas when he was first born and then he went and served a two year mission in Argentina preventing Thomas to meet one of his new best friends. Thomas and I had the opportunity to accompany Brian on a Home Teaching visit. Lucky for Thomas, this place raises horses which Thomas adores.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

He loved the horse farm though he got upset when the local cat didn't want to play with him. I will later introduce him to the movie "Cats & Dogs" which will shed some light on really who is man's best friend.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

We were able to have tons of adventures during this fantastic time. A trip to the Kansas City Zoo was in next on the checklist. Boy, do I have a smart son! At the age of 2 1/2, he knew all the major animals being able to point out the difference between a lion and a tiger. Couldn't even fool him on a zebra; tried to convince him it was a horse he actually wouldn't let me leave till I called them zebras.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

Now even though he loved his private water park that his granddad got for him, he wanted to visit the BIG one! From dunking dad in the giant wave pool to playing on the pirate ship, you couldn't get Thomas upset. He especially loved these water hoses that would come up out of the water available to squirt at any unarmed person swimming by. We had the pleasure of having grandma come with us and enjoy in the fun.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

From the days that trains were our fast track to major cities, Union Station still stands reminding us of the days that the path to the frontier was on tracks. Now it has a few museums and exhibits that Thomas, Uncle Brian and I experienced. First was a life like exhibit of dinosaurs that moved, roared and Thomas swears that were attempting to take a nip at him for lunch, though he didn't mind if Uncle Brian would get caught in their teeth (so much for Uncle Brian being a favorite, he was expendable). Afterwards we had a great time in a kid's science museum where we got to fly helicopters, make music with trash cans and try to land a shuttle.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

Thomas loves fireworks, well he loves going to the tents and purchasing fireworks. However he does not like being around when a fuse is lit. Especially when I buy him a tractor that has a few fireworks built into and daddy decides to blow up his tractor! After multiple attempts to get him comfortable with these magnificent displays of art he got comfortable enough to watch them . . . from the safety of watching through a window in the house. He did enjoy the local firework display primarily because there was no house nearby and well, daddy wasn't the one lighting them.

From Summer Visit with Thomas

One of my favorite quotes says, "I don't want to look back - I want to keep looking ahead. I'd hate for my defining moment to be my past." Now with that in mind I am anxiously looking forward to the future. I can't imagine how things can get better than this fantastic time with my son but I know things will be greater and greater each time.

Why do I do this to myself?

Well, all week I knew that today was going to be painful. Each time I logged onto www.trainingpeaks.com (the place where I log my workouts) I would see the intimidating 12 mile lsd (long slow distance in non-runners terms). Even when I woke up this morning, I dreaded it; not that I don't enjoy running because I do but I know how painful it is going to feel afterwards.
So this morning I got up and went to the temple as part of our Stake Temple trip. Don't worry I wasn't focused on the run during my time in the temple. The temple was great by the way! We got back around 6PM and I was about to use the temple trip as an excuse of why I wasn't going to be able to fit the run in but knew that it wasn't the case, we still had another 4 hours of daylight. After an epic battle of whether to run or not, I finally put on some running shorts and stepped out the door. I programmed my watch for a 12 mile run so I wouldn't wimp out in the middle of the run and then began to put one foot in front of the other (multiple times after all 12 miles is very long). After the great run with beautiful weather, I returned to 20 Cranesbill Dr (where I live). Went up stairs. Laid on the ground asking myself, "Why did I do that?"

A place to escape from the world

From London Temple

Sometimes life gets to be a bit difficult but I am very grateful for the "tender mercies" that have been very apparent lately. This past week has been absolutely amazing and filled with tons of these wonderful gifts. One of these such blessings was being able to visit the London Temple and feel the joy and peace that are found on this sacred place. The temple has always been a sanctuary for me where I can go and leave the worldly burdens at the door and just feel of my Father in Heaven's love. I am so grateful to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me. I know that Christ lives and he loves everyone of his brothers and sisters. He along with the Father ushered in the restoration of His Church with Joseph Smith as a skilled instrument in His hands. Through this great restoral of His Church temples have been placed throughout the land so that we can enjoy the happiness of serving Him. I know this to be true and am very thankful for the opportunities to be reminded of this. Tender mercies are GREAT!

From London Temple

The Adventures in London

I went on a trip to London not too recently and ran into an elephant. I know, kind of interesting, you would expect to run into one in India, Africa, Asia, or maybe even in a zoo in DC but not just wondering around in the capital of the British Empire. He introduced himself to me as Bingko (kind of a weird name but also a weird seeing an elephant in London). Bingko started to tell me about a secret to living forever.

From London

Now how naive do you think I am, really I am not buying this but he insisted that elephants are known for their intelligence. I looked it up on my iPhone and he was right, Wikipedia says, "Elephants are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence." He told me that my quest would start to the gates just south of him where a queen lives.

From London

There would be the Angel Victory who would be able to point me into the direction of the secret to living forever. So off I went on my quest towards the gates. Now I am not sure if I stayed in this reality or not but things did seem a bit odd. I mean, for starters, I saw carriages mixed in with the cars as I came to the gate talked about by Bingko. This is turning out to be a magical land; as I forgot that I was just talking to an elephant.

From London

Well I came to a busy intersection and saw a man on a beautiful horse. I tried to ask the gentleman for directions to the Angel victory but he was too busy worrying about something else that was going on. All the sudden the horse answered the question, this is getting a little out of hand but such is things in London. He told me this angel could be found in front of the palace but to be careful because around here the guard constantly changes and he would hate to see a human get caught in the mix up.

From London

Well I noticed a group of dark suited individuals protecting the palace and all seemed to be normal.

From London

Well all seemed to be normal, that is until I heard a band coming from the distance. Taking the grey horse's advice into consideration, I hid behind the gate to see what is going on. To my surprise, a bunch of red suited guards started to storm the palace accompanied by a band.

From London

From London

From London

Well the guys in the funny hats I guess were so intimidating that the black guards quickly relinquished their posts and appeared to beg for their lives. How impressive!!

From London

And with that the palace was theirs!

From London

It would appear that this victory was nothing to be proud of, there was no bashing and clashing of swords and shields, there was no close calls or heroic acts of bravery. Just a simple intimidation that you would see from the neighborhood bully against the nerdy kid. Nonetheless, they decided to celebrate with triumphant songs being played by their band as if to show their supremeness.

From London

Well, once the guards relaxed a little, I snuck passed the gate and found a beautiful gold angel. I assumed she was the Angel Victory (though I know how dangerous it is to assume something) and asked her to enlighten me on her wisdom. Come on, an angel named Victory would have to be a pretty smart bad apple angel to get that name.

From London

She told me to head off into the forest of Hyde, pass the fountain (she warned that the fountain of life was way of course and not to fall for it even if others would) and find the little boy who talks with fairies. He would be the key. Well I have gone this far staring death in the face (come on, guys with bear hats can be frightening) I might as well go all the way. So I went into the forest . . .

From London

After dodging a few ducks and pigeons, making my way past an empty speakers corner where I was told could have been a place of dangerous debate but they must have been on a tea break (you know they really shouldn't be drinking tea anyways). Then I saw it, a place where there were people of all ages, and most of the young ones were partaking of the water.

From London

This had to be it, the secret to never dying. Look, it was so easy, the fountain of life. All I had to do was walk around in circles in this fountain and all would be good. WAIT, no this was too easy and the Angel Victory warned against it. So I decided to not partake. :(

From London

After a bit more walking and trying to find the boy with some fairies, I started to wonder if Bingko just pulled my chain. Just then I came up on it. Fairies talking to animals. I have got to be close.

From London

There he is, playing the flute with fairies all around him. This is the secret, but how? I saw an inscription that said Peter Pan. Second star to the east and straight on till morning!

From London

I found it, this is great, I will never let death touch me. I could stay young and never grow up. I can keep from growing old. This Is Epic.

From London

All I have to do is never grow up, I mean really how difficult could this be. Well after following the adventure of an elephant, I think I need a refresher. Hmm. . . A berryilicious drink :) I think we can call today a successful day!!

From London

**Note, all places are real though some of the events might have been brought on by intense heat that is not usual for English weather. I cannot be held responsible for anyone that attempts to follow this trail**

Omnivorous?!?

Today I had a weird encounter and I am still trying to figure out how to handle it! It all started during that time of day that you are trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. Well I looked outside and saw a beautiful day with just the right number of clouds in the sky and thought, "Today seems like a fantastic day for grillin!" So I went to my local commissary (well OK, there is only one within an hour of here but it is still local) and picked up a couple of wonderful, marbled rib-eye steaks.

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

Came home and fired up the grill, trying not to burn the house down but still insuring that it only took one match (got to love lighter fluid, is there really ever something as too much lighter fluid? . . . )

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

After applying a Top Secret rub of spices and salts to my steaks, I threw them on the grill.

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

There is just something soothing about knowing that your dinner is cooking over the flames right before your eyes . . .

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

Alright, so now the steak is just the way I like it, medium well (just enough pink to make it tasty but keep you from suffering for it) I go ahead and throw it onto a plate for eating. Now I know what you are thinking. I am a guy and this seems like nothing really special to blog about. After all, men cook on the grill ALL the time. Well, I am not sure if the planets have aligned, if I was visited last night by Martians, or if the world is coming to an end but this next part is anything but normal. **CAUTION: These following pictures are not for the faint of heart or for those brave ones with the name T1 or T2**

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

Yep, that is right, those are the dangerous, scary, from-the-ground green specimens also known by common folk as Veggies!! I am not sure the reasoning but I decided to put those things some out-of-this-world people call vegetables on my plate and eat them.

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

But after a few 'rabbit' bites, I couldn't help but notice a beautiful steak staring back at me so I had to entertain him too.

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

Well I guess my science teacher didn't lie to me when she told me that humans aren't in fact carnivorous. I got to say though, it was an outstanding dinner and I think the chef is definitely pushing for a new standard of 6 not 5 stars!!

From Gillin w/ Vegetables

A wonderful day

Well I am really enjoying playing with my new camera and now that I have a tripod, I can stop taking "postcard" photos and make them a bit more meaningful by adding a handsome looking guy ;)

In the Beginning

From BMT

In the beginning there was just God. Well while at boot camp, our Technical instructor or TI (similar to a drill sergeant) thought that referred to them being there in the beginning. In the Air Force, Basic Military Training or BMT takes place at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. We are there for 6 weeks as our introduction into military life and initiation. For this time we spend a lot of time marching, marching, cleaning our living areas, oh and did I mention marching.

From BMT

We also do a lot of "pushing Texas" (pushups), sitting in invisible chairs, and being spat on by an angry TI who swears that we are the scum of the Earth. While going through it, one is just dying to get it over but looking back, it was a lot of fun; some great stories came from that experience.

From BMT

Really you can ask anyone who has gone through boot camp about something funny that happened there, they wouldn't know where to begin.

From BMT

As you can see I gained skills of loosing hair, making a bed that you can bounce a quarter off of,

From BMT

shining boots that where just caked with mud 30 min earlier and well looking like 29 other guys with no hair and wearing the same clothes.

Weekend Adventure

Well this weekend was quite an adventure. First I went to a friend's house who is deployed to Afghanistan to mow his yard. Lucky for me his yard had the grass pretty long and a very poor lawn mower. What should have taken maybe 30 min at the most became a 2 hour fight with a lawn mower that did not want to cut. After that was over I came home to tackle my own backyard. To my surprise I found an intruder inside my house. A large yellow jacket who was trying to set up shop around my computer books. To his dismay, I was armed with a can of air which I used to give him frostbite. Bye Bye yellow bugger! Afterwards I cut my lawn to find it taken over by multiple red ant farms. It was like a red ant resort. Too bad the weed eater had to pummel that 5-star hotel. Well after a Indiana Jones styled day, I decided to take some pictures of this really cool plant with heart shaped flowers. As well a plant that only two weeks ago wasn't there and now it became one giant cabbage patch. What a beautiful day and a stunning backyard :)

My "Postcard"

Well it is no secret that I love to run and I definitely enjoy the beautiful outdoor, so it is perfect when I live only a block away from an outstanding place that allows me to do both. Bure Park. This I will admit was one of the reasons I choose the house that I did to move into. I wanted to have a place that had running trails, and not just one loop to run but a place where I could customize my run to the mood and time of that day. This park has plenty of paths that interweave throughout the gorgeous landscape and makes it easy to fit in a 4 mile run without running the same path twice. Granted it is a place where many come to walk their dogs so you have to be on the lookout for "land mines." Since running with a camera can be a bit difficult and counter productive; I took advantage of a wonderful day to walk and capture the beauty of this park that I spend so much time in running.

Trip to Germany

Well I had a very interesting one week trip to Ramstein Air Base, Germany for a CISCO SONET class. We started out with not the greatest weather; three days straight of rain. Then Wednesday things lightened up for us as we went to the Castle Burgruine Nanstein in Landstuhl, Germany. It was a small castle partially in ruins but fun to explore. As our class was coming to an end on Friday we learned that a volcano erupted in Iceland shooting up an ash cloud that was coming over Europe. Though the ash cloud was not visible it would choke up any airplane's turbine, thus grounding all European flights. Well we wouldn't let that stop us from coming home so we decided to drive through the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to catch a ferry acrosss the English Channel and drive on home. Fun times.

Schnitzel

Here at Ramstein Air Base, Germany; they have many detachments from different coutries stationed on the base. The Germans had a restaurant that serves authentic German food, so I had to take advantage of it and try the famous "schnitzel." Schnitzel is a thin slice of pork that is beaten to be smashed. It is then breaded and fried; nothing to complicated but tastes absolutely great. Great food!!

Another Volleyball Game

Well now that our team was at full strength we were able to put away a more solid victory! This was our last regular season game. Now it is a week break and we get ready for our playoffs for base champions . . . I am already calling a Comm Sq Champ!!!

B-E-A-UTIFUL DAY

Today has been one of those rare days that blue dominates the sky. I was beginning to think that the sky was only made up of dark clouds but lo and behold the sun still exists!! This is a view that I am able to see as I come out of my building surrounded by blast walls then as I come out of the blast walls I have this great view! Nothing like seeing a great back drop through the barbed wire fence.