Construction Continues

We are continuuing to build the big swingset. It's more work than I anticipated and it's starting to get hot here in the desert. I didn't do anything during the week last week because I had a strange throat and ear problem.

The swingset is much taller than I expected. I hope the HOA nazi's don't hassle me. I hope we are done with the hardest parts. The roof and rock wall were time consuming.

We decided it would be really cool for the kids to have lights out there so maybe when Alex has friends over to spend the night they can sleep in the new fort part of the swingset. I am thinking about installing low Voltage landscape lighting. Even if kids don't play out there at night I think it will look cool.

Here are some pics and movies of the swingset plus a few shots of Garrett in an old halloween costume.

Swing Set Part Two and Caterpillar

Justified

When we bought our current house with a pool we were worried about Garrett around the pool. It has a fence and we keep it locked, but you hear about kids drowning even in that situation. Sure enough, not long after moving in, I was skimming the surface of the pool and Garrett fell in while right next to me. I will never forget the look on his face while looking up at me from under the surface of the water. He was okay. The worst thing was he split his lip on the edge and needed stitches.

That event convinced me beyond doubt that Garrett needed swim lessons and not the useless ones supplied by the city. We used Infant Swim Resource (ISR). It's expensive, but worth every penny. The kids get one on one training for just a few minutes each day. They quickly learn to flip on their back and breath and eventually flip over and swim in spurts until they reach the side.

Yesterday, Garrett fell in again. He immediately flipped to his back and did just fine. It scared me and Tandi, but it was obvious he knew exactly what to do and could do it even with his heavy clothes on.

Construction

We have begun construction on a new swing set. It has turned into a very big project. We started Saturday the 21st, but it was slow going. I intended to get an early start, but it rained early Saturday. We needed to mow before starting and it was too wet. I decided to install a new sprinkler controller to pass the time until the grass was dry enough. I also got a new cordless electric drill to aid in assembly. Late Saturday we finally got started on the swingset. I don't know why the knuckleheads that make swingsets tell you to assemble them on a flat level surface. Even if such a thing existed there is no way a giant swingset could be assembled on one and then moved to the proper location in the yard. I have been taking my time to make sure I'm doing things correctly. You actually have to measure to assemble this thing. It's a pretty fun project. Justin has been a huge help. There are a million parts to this thing and he gets all the wood pieces and fasteners together for each step for me. Pictures of the first two days of construction are below.

Construction

I didn't feel like working on it today. I'm always tired on Mondays and I got myself an early birthday present.

The present is a Russion M44 WWII vintage rifle. It fires a 7.62x54R round. It's in really good shape. It came with a field kit including the dual chamber oil/solvent container. I can't wait to shoot it, but it may only happen once. I suspect this thing will have one hell of a kick.

The Farm

I am playing with Google Maps. I tried to generate a map of the farm. I hope it works.

FARM MAP

Trip to the Farm

Alex and I went to the farm in Texas. We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing everyone. We shot over a thousand rounds of ammo, Alex learned how to mow with the riding mower, Alex popped fire crackers, we rode around the pasture at night spotlighting for animals, and much more. We were hoping to find hogs to blast while spotlighting but we didn't have any luck. We might have seen some, but they were too far away to make a clear identification. For all animal lovers out there, these creatures, as far as I know, are not native to the area and they are doing serious damage to the pastures. If they were left to grow unhindered they would destroy the place. We saw a lot of dear, raccoons, possums, owls, and miscellaneous other stuff. We didn't ride quads on this trip. It's hard to believe, but we were way too busy doing other stuff. The food was fantastic thanks to Anthony and Julia. We finally got to shoot Dad's new Henry rifle. It looks nice, but unfortunately that's the only nice thing I have to say about it. The videos below are from one of the shooting trips that Alex and I went on. They progess from left to right so try to watch them in order. At least the first time.

Shootin' Texas Style

The next set of videos are of Alex mowing and popping firecrackers. He really enjoyed mowing. He wants to be Bobby Boucher (water boy) when he grows up. ;-)

Alex in Wharton

I don't know why, but I have never taken any pictures of the gas well. At least none that I can locate. Here are a few of them.

Gas Well

Finally I was snapping pictures throughout the trip and they are below.

Misc Wharton Pics

Alex's Easter Birthday

Well the weekend is finally coming to a close. This should be my last post. We topped things off by taking Alex to eat at Chili's tonight. Alex has been wanting something called a Fly Pen forever. Tandi noticed it was on sale for half off just when I was about to get the last of Alex's presents so I finally got it. It was normally $100 and that just seamed like too much no matter how fancy a pen it was. We also got him some snorkeling gear, a speedometer for his bike, and a freaky Ripley's Believe it or not book. See images below:

Easter Bday Fly Video

Easter Bday Pictures

Alex seems thoroughly happy with his birthday. That's hard to achieve, he is very picky and spoiled. He does get one last thing for his birthday. We are flying to Texas next Friday to visit his grandparents and other relatives. He is so excited he can hardly stand it. I am really looking forward to it also.

I really need some rest now. Alex already went to bed. He has AIMs tests tomorrow. That's AZ's standardized testing BS. Don't even get me started on that.

Easter

The kids had a great Easter. The Easter bunny came and gave them lots of cool stuff and hid a whole bunch of eggs this year. I think it was a record.

Easter 2007 Pictures

Easter 2007 Videos

We dedicated this morning to Easter and the afternoon to Alex's birthday. The next blog entry will have more pictures of Alex opening his presents.

Easter Birthday

Alex's birthday just happened to fall on Easter this year. This led to a very busy weekend and it's only half over. We decided to have a couple of Alex's friends over Friday night for a sleepover. We knew no one would come to a party on Easter Sunday and no one could come for a sleepover Saturday night. The friends arrived at about 5pm Friday and I took them to the movies. We saw Bridge to Terabithia. It was pretty good, but very sad. Alex's friend blurted out to the whole freaking theater what was going to happen. I won't say which one. After the movie we came back to the house for cake, ice cream, and a few presents. The boys stayed up until about 3:30am playing Wii. Both visitors left about 11am Saturday. That was a relief.

Here are some pics

Alex's 10th bday photos

and here are a few movies

Alex's bday vids

This is just the beginning. It is Easter morning as I am writing this. I got interrupted to go on an egg hunt. I've got a lot of pics and a couple movies from that. Hopefully I will get them posted later today. Since it is Alex's bday we are going to let him choose the agenda for the day. Right now he is playing Call of Duty on the Wii. Later he wants to eat at Chili's. I think the new Chili's by our house is open now. I wonder if it's safe to eat there.