50 miler

This one is for you Jason
Here are some pictures of the 50 miler we did in end of July.  It was a great trip and awesomely beautiful country!

Frog Lake with Castle Peak in the background.  Three of us made the attempt to summit this, but I ended up backing out while my neighbor and his son made it.  I admit the static electricity made me very hesitant to keep after it.

Looking down on a couple of lakes.  There were lots of lakes like this and all were beautiful.

Thank you Horses! The horses met us Wednesday night and everyone was very glad to have some better food than Cheesy Baco Spuds ("fancy" instant potatoes) and Beefy Noodle Stew (ramen noodles with Jerky)

When we were way up high, you had this view for 360 degrees. I think it was the prettiest country I have ever seen.  In some ways it was like standing at the top of Log Creek but with a full circle view.

Packing up on the last day.

The boys prior to leaving - I was not back from California yet.

Nice view showing some of the rawness of the country.  It was fun to see how high something was and then in a couple of hours be looking down on it.

Making our way across the slide of "Slide Lake"

This was a common sight - Josh and the map.

Island Lake. 

Cute Trolls Under the Bridge

We live near a canal. During the winter months the canal is shut off and ice forms wherever there are pools. Due to the protetion from the road above, the spot under the bridge stays relatively free from snow. The children finished cleaning it off and made their ice skating rink. Below is Landon, Kalli, and a couple of friends playing last January. It is a fun place to play!

Friends from ??? .......... JAPAN!!!!

It is past time for an update! We all survived winter, tax season, and Spring Volleyball. Well, I should not say we survived winter yet because it snowed yesterday (May 1) but today felt like spring again.
We had a fun change of pace a few weeks ago. Tara was talking with a teacher at school who had served her mission in Japan. Since then she has kept in contact with a Japanese english teacher who arranges for families to come visit the States and the teacher from our school arranges a place to stay. So, Tara was visiting with the teacher and she mentioned she needed to find a place for a Japanese family who would be coming in about two weeks. Tara said we would be here and we would love to have them. The family was a mom, a seven year old daughter and a four year old boy - the dad stayed home to work.

Here is a picture of the girl, Kokoro.
Here is a picture of the boy, Ryota, playing with Ryan and Landon jumping off the window sill onto the beanbag.

Landon doing a flip.

Ryan doing a ....???

Ryota. This boy was such a tease and live wire! He was so wound up when he first arrived that it seemed like he was a top unwinding for about two hours.

Ami made a yummy Japanese meal before she left. It was good (no sushi)

Tara made an "Idaho Potato" apron for Ami. She loved it!

They were such a fun family - amazing how laid back and relaxed they were at our house considering the numerous potential hazards we have (rope bridge, tree house, hot fire place).

(Ryan and I took one for the team on the picture above!)

Kokoro loved this horse!! She would have loved to take it back in her suit case.

Kokoro was very flexible - the girls were amazed at this one!

This was taken within about 10 minutes of arrival at our house. Like I said, they fit right in and little Ryota loved doing this.

Two interesting observations: 1. They were amazed at the Dollar Store, Walmart and the oversized houses in America. 2. They were a little unnerved with all the open space.

Florida Sunshine

Sometimes life throws you a curveball high and inside, but sometimes you get a soft easy one right down the middle. This post is about a recent soft easy one down the middle.
Through a unique set of circumstances, our office picked up a client who has a resort hotel in the Florida Keys and needed an audit done. I was asked to go down to the resort and do some onsite work for the audit. So, off I trudge through the snow and cold to the airport - duty calls and I will do what I am asked:)
The Florida Keys are a group of islands stretching out south and west from the bottom of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico. It is about a four hour drive from Miami to Key West, which is the last island and the end of the road. The place where I had to go for work was halfway between Miami and Key West. The bridge above and the bridge below are past the place where I was. Most of the bridges are not too long, but as you can see, there are some long ones! You can see a secondary bridge that is pretty narrow. This is the remnants of an old railroad that was built to transport pineapples up to the mainland. I think a hurricane in the 60's caused some terrific damage and the railroad was not repaired. However, by that time the tourism demands were enough and a new highway was put in.

This picture below is on the mainland. You go through miles of this stuff - I suppose it is a part of the everglades?

This picture is looking back at the island where I was working on. I was told that all the water is piped down from the mainline. You can see the pipe under the bridge.

Same bridge but other side

Looking out into the Atlantic. You can see little islands out there.

This is a picture of the resort hotel. It is called Cheeca Lodge and Resort.

more pictures of the resort

Here is a really cool tree. These do not grow in the forests I am used to!

More pictures of the resort.

"Key Lime pie" is on about every restaurant's desert menu. I thought this was a cool design and took a picture to show the children.

This picture below was taken from the same chair as the one of the pie above. The weather was very nice, high of 78 and low of about 68. However, the locals said it was much cooler than normal. All things are relative as Tara told me it was at zero the same morning I took this picture!

The picture above and below are from the same chair.

I believe a person could almost get used to this!

The next several pictures are of the room I stayed in. These were very nice rooms and I was definitely out of my comfort zone (like how much and how often do you tip?)

The tub filled from the ceiling!

I am standing in the bathtub below taking the picture above.

The two pictures above and below are of a couple of homes in Miami in a normal neighborhood. Notice the bars on the windowns and doors. It reminded me of some of the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

In was a nice change of weather, but it sure would have been a lot better if my family could have been there. Maybe next time.