Homecoming Dance

It's the 2007 Homecoming for Desert Ridge High School. Justin has a date this year. Her name is Hannah. She is a freshman, while he is a junior. They are both in marching band. It has been a very busy day for them. Earlier today the band was at the Gilbert invitational competition. The pre homecoming pictures are below.

Justin's 2007 Homecoming Date

Schnepf Farms

Last weekend we went to Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek Arizona. It's a family farm that has been in the valley for a long time and they have added carnival kindof thing to raise money. They have a fall/Halloween festival that's a lot of fun for kids. Every year they add a little more stuff. This year they have fireworks every night.

This year we made a scare crow. We are looking forward to putting it in the yard for decoration. We are getting a late start on our Halloween decorations this year. See pictures from Schnepf below:


Fireworks pictures are always lame and boring so I tried a video this time. Let me know what you think and if this video displays okay.


This kids got their costumes for Halloween. Below are some pics of Garrett with his Ninja costume. I couldn't get Alex to move fast enough to take his picture. I will get a picture on Halloween though. You can be surprised.

I iz Smart

I took an eighth grade science test and got an 84. How bout you?

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MIA

Well, I haven't posted in a really long time. I seem to have lost focus and I have been busy at work and it's been way too hot to do stuff outside here. It's starting to cool off now. It's great.

Alex is in band this year and Garrett has given his trumpet a try. See below:

Tandi and the kids are going to NM to see the grand balloon fiesta. Hopefully she will bring back lots of pretty pictures. We are planning several fall/Halloween activities as well so don't give up hope. This blog isn't completely dormant.

Wharton

Alex and I have completed another trip to Wharton. The main purpose was to help Mom get Dad's affairs in order. It's terrible that someone that has lost someone they care for has to go through so much legal mumbo jumbo. It's like torture for Mom.

The trip wasn't all work though. Alex and I squeezed in a little fun. We visited with family and shot various guns. It rained a lot while we were there. Seems to be all it does there these days.

There seems to be a lot of deer on the farm this year. We have been seeing them everywhere. Our farm is one of the few areas around that hasn't had all the trees stripped off.

Wharton Wildlife

Here's some pictures of Anthony, Peggy, and Alex. Alex and Peggy are modeling with Peggy's new New England Firearms 20 guage pump shotgun.

Misc Wharton

We took a couple videos of us shooting guns.

Shooting Vids

The pics below are pretty cool. When flying back into Phoenix we got delayed by a storm that hit Phoenix. I was hoping to get some pictures of a Haboob, but we just caught the tail end of the storm.

View from Plane

New Map

I have decided to create a new map of the farm using my improved skills with Google maps. I placed a permanent link to the farm map to the right with my other links.

Long Time

It has been a long time since a post. Tandi and the kids were on a very extended camping trip. They were gone for three weeks camping near Las Vegas, NV, Bullhead City, AZ, and Camp Verde, AZ. She and the kids had a lot of fun camping with her parents Jim and Tracy. They weren't really ruffing it. They stayed in cabins and rental campers in fancy campgrounds with activities and pools.

The week of the fourth Medtronic had a planned shutdown for the entire week. We were planning to spend the entire week in Texas visiting my family. We were scheduled to fly out Monday July 2, but Saturday June 30 Dad passed away from an extended illness. It was very upsetting of course. He was very ill but it wasn't expected at that time. Dad was in the recovery area in the hospital from a fall and pneumonia and we were hoping to have him back home in less than a week. His heart finally gave out though.

We spent the week of the fourth planning and attending the funeral. It was a simple service. It rained in Texas almost every single day we were there. The funeral was July 5th.

I am flying to Texas again the week of July 23rd to help Mom get affairs in order.

Dad will really be missed. I keep thinking of calling him to tell him things or ask his advice. During the week of the 4th I kept expecting him to walk into the living room from the bedroom. I could always count on him to tell me if I was doing the right thing.