A Hole in Her Grill

With wonder and delight our sweet Lucy slipped in the snow while ice fishing yesterday (story for another day, good times) and significantly loosened her already loose tooth, which she wiggled with her tongue until dinner, when with a yelp or two we determined to try a tug. Scarcely had I acquired purchase with a tissue and out it came.   

Observe the guilty ivory!

And out it came.

As you can see she is quite pleased with the result

Happy gappy!!!

 And now for some real fun the tooth fairy delivered a tiny letter with encouraging words and a gold coin to reward our little sweetheart!  What a clever little fairy!

The goods

The happy gappy who came running up this morning exclaiming, Mom Mom the fairy came!

My journey trying to get a good pic of the destruction... and fail

fail again...

and again...

and again...I deleted around 60 photos

Ahhhh there it is!

You can see that the photo shoot was much more painful than the tooth pull:)

Dragon Feet

These beauts are taking me places!

Or rather draggin feet.  For anyone that is curious, I have with a fair bit of accuracy stuck to my training schedule, and I am currently running toward the best shape of my adult life at the agonizingly slow pace of 6 MPH.  Now 4 weeks in, I just did a 4 mile run matching my longest run ever, with a 4 and a 5 mile run next week.  I am sure I will start feeling stretched soon. 

It costs HOW MUCH???

That's right not only was I dumb enough to sign up for a marathon I paid an undisclosed amount of money to participate.  This must prove the point my dad was always trying to get across that kids do make you crazy because B.C. (before children) I would have never paid to participate in any form of torture.

Okay enough melodrama, I am actually excited to participate in a notable form of physical exertion.  Why am I finally posting on my blog and why is it about running you may ask?  Well I just put together my training schedule for the next 20 weeks or so and it looks like I just knocked out 2 of 536.2 miles so I am well on my way:)

2 years ago you may remember that this was my first competitive race

 I hope to look this good in the spring:)

Will it Float???

I have been negligent in my reporting of the sniffing family activities.  In fact it may be a complete surprise to a few of you out there that not only do we have a boat but we have done so for 2 years now.  To be fair when we took custody of the vessel it was with the intention fix and then sell it and the Honda Quad it came with and make a bit of CASH$$ (both were in poor condition).  If your are familiar with this story feel free to skip a line or two otherwise here is a brief summary of what went down.

August 2010 I finagled a deal to purchase both a non running 88 FourWinns as well as a non running 96 Honda 300EX quad for the breathtaking fee of $1500 to fix them both up and sell them for a profit.

By September I had the Quad running for a total out of pocket expense of $100 and after a handful of fun rides around the neighborhood it sold for $750

 

I now had in my possession an 88 ski-boat that was currently a total cost of $850 and my lovely wife casually mentioned that maybe we should keep it!!  This was a new idea for me, good times vs. money, hmmmmmmm what to do? Well we decided to see if it would start after siting for 13 years but as the cold weather was approaching I opted to not De-winterize it until winter was in the rear-view mirror. FF>> to May 2011 and guess what the beauty started.  I was happier than a kid on Christmas!!

Yup it was that bad!!

Thus began the arduous task of restoring the entire interior as it was completely shot.  Fortunately Bro-in-law G. was interested in participating in $ as well as time and by the 4th of July we had the beast on the water. and the rest has been the fairy tale of my love of boating blossoming to a near obsession all in the space of a year.

Starting to move in the right direction.

Greggie Helpie

Now for the FUN!!

Awwww!

Someday I'll get a pic of the finished boat but for now JUST LOOK AT THOSE KIDDOS:)

US!!

It makes me smile

and smile

 Now why do I bore you with this tale? Why to brag of course, but also to let any one who might wonder how you get the oil filter off a engine that has been there for 14 years I have this little nugget of wisdom.  Do not neglect the simple oil filter wrench that costs but a few dollars or you may be forced to create a tool similar to the one below that was created after hours of struggle and the complete destruction of the old filter.  Process... dream it up, chew up a giant wad of bubble gum and press ti onto the hole pattern of the filter without being able to see a thing due to the angle and cramped space, drill three holes in a piece of cut angle iron, insert 3 sections of 1/4 in drill bits, cut them to length and then pray as I inserted it into the filter and fractions of a turn at a time I finally got the mangled filter free of its 14 year bond.  YES I am patting myself on the back because I made it happen.

The problem

 

The tool

Together at last!!

Please, please that is quite enough applause:)

Ode to Todd

Dearest Todd dwelling in our light, we found much fun in bidding you good night.  Yet it seems that in the light you found insufficient  food around.  So as the weeks passed quickly by it turns out you were destined to die and join your fellow arachnids who have ventured here to be flushed down accompanied by children's cheers.  Yet your passing evoked more tears than cheers so now we pledge to remember you the one spider we trusted through and through!!                                                                                             

Todd's place! May he rest in peace.

Broken, Bruised, Bionic

Herein lies the chronicle of my road biking demise.  With high hopes I struck out to ride an unprecedented 50 miles on a steel road bike of antiquity.  With few glitches in my progress I navigated the proximity of the Jordan River Bike Trail avoiding road construction etc.  Then the fateful moment arrived as I reached the 25 mile mark the transition from the Jordan River trail to the Legacy Parkway trail resulted in my unchecked speed carrying me into an unseen, unmarked and unforgiving hard left turn and like Zoolander I found that I cannot turn left!!  The above mentioned factors combined with a gaping trench equated to a significant impact to my left side predominantly absorbed by my shoulder wherein my left clavicle gave way to the pressure and retired from its supportive functions.  With that lovely tale in mind follow on the photographic journey that defines the past several weeks of my previously unbroken life.

Note the strangely protruding and misplaced object concealed within my dermis!

Ah!!!! That would about sum it up.

And in case you wanted to see more this was my first look at my new souvenir.

A technicolor ensemble to rival that of the famed Joseph of Egypt!! 

My new internal parts:)

Perhaps my primate-like habit of beating my chest has gone to far;)

The Unbelievable Fact

Look at that FACE!! She had waited and planed this snow angel for months:)

It seems that our presence as humanoids has been noted in the mountains known as the Wasatch Front and apparently in an attempt to save us from the horrors of massively aggressive and yet unskilled drivers a higher power (the government or someone greater) determined to remove the once common winter variable of snow to save us from ourselves.  Do I complain?  Not necessarily (snow at Christmas would have been nice) however mild and comfortable as these conditions have been, they are not conducive to the joy of sledding and having children I declare that winter must be broken up with a sledding trip or two.  As luck would have it the stars aligned and snow fell in such a way and on such a day that freedom was ours and the winter games began. 

What you lookin at?

I may be wrong but slave labor comes to mind when I recall how much fun it was to drag them up hill so they wouldn't be to tired to keep going

Little man rocking the shades

Greg was afraid of falling so I gave him a ride down the hill;)

Forgotten Favorites of the Fall

If any of you even check this thing any more you are quite thoroughly aware of my lack of insight as it pertains to my public postings.  However I did want to acknowledge that one we are still alive and two we have done things of not I have simple failed to be forthcoming. So herein will follow a few meager highlights.

You guessed it Halloween!!! Proof that it has been a long time

Just LOOK at her.

And then look at what Will had to do to take it all in. 

A large pile of leaves... oh yeah, and some kids.

Thanksgiving in at the folks.  A small side note behind the lovely family you are looking at unfolded take two in the saga of the unsuccessful sniper of 2011 bringing the years tally up to 0 for 2.

The first family Christmas tree expedition, also over Thanksgiving weekend.

And to finish up the year the lights at temple square.  You think we we don't look happy here you should have seen us two hours later when the cookie was little more than a distant memory and we had vowed to never try this again on a Saturday night... and I do mean NEVER. 

 And on that note I hereby close out the few and flawed posts of 2011. No promises in 2012;)