Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tornadoes and Trains

I've been trying to get this blog done for days--I finally got my computer back from PC Laptops last week, only to find out I couldn't view my pictures from the SD card slot in my computer, so back it went. Now everything works and on with life. Ok, I have to begin this blog with two testimonials--the first one being Carbonite. I had heard for a while about this online backup service that automatically backs up all your files safely and securely. Earlier this year I finally signed up for it hoping it would do just that. As you may recall, during our recent trip my computer died in Texas, the day after I had just downloaded all my pictures to the computer from the first couple weeks of our journey, so now it was time to put Carbonite to the test. Seriously, with only a couple of clicks my files started to download, each of them just how they were. It took a few days to download because all my pictures are on there, but it worked and I'm up and running again. It is so AWESOME!!!!! And I never have to worry about backing up my system again because it does it automatically, all for the low price of $49.95 a year! It is seriously a sweet deal and I love it. Carbonite.com rocks!!

My other testimonial is of the Schick Quattro Titanium razor blade for men. In May I ran my first marathon (in Ogden, Utah), and my running friends and I stayed overnight at a hotel in Ogden--and that's a whole other crazy night story for another time. Needless to say, they didn't have our right room when we checked in, and while trying to make ammends, they gave us their last two "goody bags." In it was this razor blade, and how convenient since I had forgotten mine. I tried it and I have never gone back to my old Venus razor--I think it's a big coverup somehow that the guys get this awesome razor blade; the shave is smoother and I haven't gotten cut yet. So there you go...

For a couple of days Will has been obsessed with these old western guns of Ben's, and one morning when he got up, after sleeping all night with them, he came around the corner, ready for action, crazy hairs and all! He is so funny sometimes!! The other day we were driving somewhere and out of the blue he said (while looking over his shoulder behind the truck), "Hey, I think we have some company!" I'm still not sure which one it is from, but this has to be an Indiana Jones quote, since he is our resident junkie!! He was ready to take on whoever it was!

Ben had his summer meteorology class this week, and he loves his teacher, Mrs. Perkins. They went on a field trip on Wednesday to the main Utah weather station out at the airport, which Daren got to join in on. I'm just the messenger for these next few pictures, so hopefully I won't mess it up too bad. This is the main weather room which includes dopplar radar and all that good stuff. All the TV and radio stations get their weather info from this station.
Twice a day a weather balloon, which takes several measurements in the atmosphere, is sent out of this little round weather building. It is one of 102 weather balloon sites in the US.

Ben (second from the right) loved the field trip and loved the class...maybe someday he really will be a weather man.

All week Ben had been looking forward to doing the experiment "mini-tornado-in-a-bottle," in class. Then he couldn't wait to get home and make his own tornado...in a bottle that is. (Too bad it's not exclusive to the bottle only because the house can go from clean to disaster with these boys in no time!) So here Ben is working on the tornado in our room, which has become the arts and craft room lately. Ben can't wait to move into his room downstairs, hopefully soon, so he can have his own desk with his own paper, scissors, tape, stapler, yarn, crayons, pens, etc. We can't wait either!

Experiment #1 was with painter's tape because that's all we could find in our house at the time. If you look close in the second picture, water is leaking out and didn't work so well. Back to the drawing board...

Experiment #2: Daren brought home some duct tape so Ben taped it up super tight and...
SUCCESS...with a smile!!


Saturday morning was our ward's annual primary pioneer bike parade. We missed the parade part because of swimming lessons, but made it in time for the games at our primary president's house. The kid's favorite was the balloon toss.
Jake and Jaycie had a blast just throwing the balloons down to watch them break, and then running back to the cooler to get more. Jaycie lives just down the street from us and she and Jake are inseparable most days.

In the meantime, Will was snarfing down as many Otter Pops as he could, which was probably around 23 or so.
Jake must have sat in this chair for 10 or 15 minutes working hard to cut out this paper ship.
After the party was over, I was talking to Maryanne, our primary president, and she and I and Jake were trying to talk her son, Adam, into coming over to our house to play. Adam is Will and Jake's age, but doesn't like to stray too far from home. It took us over an hour to finally talk him into it, and the deal breaker was that we had apple juice in the cute little cans at our house. He finally said, "Fine, I'll come to your fun house!" He loves trains like Ben used to love trains, and so we pulled out the tracks and put them together (this wasn't even all the tracks either). What I love about this picture is that it reminds me of the MANY tracks Ben and I have built over the years in the front room. It's a perfect room for doing this in, and the boys have a blast in there. Life is good!!

6 comments:

Brandon and Lori said...

Looks like fun times, I like the hair on Will he looks like a mad scientist. I guess will see you on Monday? Hopefully you'll be there, we haven't seen ya in a while and the boys will be excited to see your boys.

Julie V. said...

The picture of Will with his guns cracked me up! I am envious of your train track building skills b.t.w. I love Ben's enthusiasm for the weather. I think you should keep encouraging the weather man job. Then one day I can say that I know the famous weather guy named Ben.

Grandpa and Grandma Peel said...

It's taken no time for you guys to get back into the swing of things. All the boys look so adorable in every picture (what a great summer they're having!)we just want to grab them through the screen and hug them! We'll be seeing you soon.

Alisha Joy said...

love it. . . we'll have to do that camp next year. riv would LOVE it

Brett & Honnelore said...

It's good to hear that life is still good! Good times!

Jennie said...

Heather! I'm so glad you're blogging! Brenda gave me your address so I could catch up :) You're boys are so cute! Will reminds me of my Baylee ... they would get along great! Summer is the best! It looks like you're having a blast! Love ya tons!! Me, Jess and Mom all have blogs too ... ours is www.theburbshow.blogspot.com and the fam is all linked on the side if you want to check in!