Monday, March 30, 2009

New calling for Rick

Well, I thought I would post the latest (so Tatum has something to read on Google Reader today- lol).

Rick just got a new calling yesterday. Looks like he's back in the bishopric, now as a 1st counselor. In the last two years he has been financial clerk, 2nd counselor in the bishopric then ward clerk and now 1st counselor. Looks like he's been playing musical chairs. :)

Our new Bishop is Bishop Gordon Thelin who we know will do a great job, he's just an all around great man. The 2nd counselor is Matt Harding who also is a great guy. I think this will be an awesome Bishopric. I know Rick will serve his new calling well. Of course we will miss Bishop McLaws and Brother Williams greatly. They were wonderful.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Row Row Row Your Boat



Yesterday afternoon turned out to be a disaster. I spent 2 ½ hours cleaning up a flood in my studio and the bathroom. The toilet overflowed. Nobody of course knows what happened. Rick was gone at a baseball game. I was taking a nap, woke up and went to the studio to turn out the light and saw all the water on the floor. Couldn't figure out where it was coming from at first, went to the bathroom and found a good 4-5 inches of water and the toilet was still running. Who knows how long. Ugh. The wood floor in my piano studio was crackling all over and then when you think it’s dry you step on a section and water comes up. Of course wood floor and water is not good. Luckily we have a carpet cleaner so after using 20-30 towels and blankets to soak it up as fast as I can I spent the rest of the time soaking it up with the carpet cleaner.

The carpet by the bathroom and studio is still wet this morning. I thought for sure I had gotten most of it up where it would be dry by now. So who knows how dry it is under that wood floor. This morning the wood floor in my studio looks okay. The section that got hit the hardest makes crackling noise when you step on it but there's nothing buckling or warping as far as I can tell. Crossing my fingers it's okay...

What a day.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Magic Mountain


Our plans for Spring break this week was to go to Magic Mountain. Luckily we went online to look at what the hours were and found out they don't open during the week until the 23rd! (We almost pulled a "Vacation") Well, that wasn't going to work since both the kids have spring break the week before. So we debated on where else we wanted to go. After much deliberation we decided we still wanted to go to Magic Mountain but would have to do it on the weekend while it was open. Shortly after the kids got out of school on Friday we were off. We arrived at our hotel earlier than anticipated, around 10:15pm. Then Saturday morning we left for Magic Mountain. Our top two favorite roller coasters of all time (that we have ridden) is found at Magic Mountain. The first one is Tatsu. If you ever wondered what it would feel like to experience flying (ever dreamed of flying) this is the ride!!! You get to experience what it feels like to fly. After sitting and getting all buckled in the seats go up in flying position and you are off feeling the wind in your face, just trees and people below and sky and clouds above. It even includes a cool barrell roll along with twists and turns, loops and more. There is nothing like it!

Here is a video of what the seats do.

And a video of our favorite ride, Tatsu!

Our second favorite roller coaster is Goliath. You go up 285 feet and there is a steep drop right at the beginning going 85 mph with lots of loops throughout. It is a natural high! So fun!





Elizabeth was able to get pictures with a few characters. Daffy, Batman and a couple other super hereo's we are not quite sure who they are. LOL.
I recorded our Collossus ride. It was the only coaster that I wasn't worried I would drop my Flip (no loops).

By the end of the first day we were exhausted. Riding extreme roller coasters for 12hours straight can take a toll on you! (Doing the "Earl" pose)
The next day we decided to take it easy, slept in and started with breakfast at Denny's (yesterday breakfast was at IHOP). Then we went to Magic Mountain and did some other rides along with some of our favorite roller coasters. We left around 4:00pm and then ended the day by having dinner and dessert at Farrell's (yes- they are still around!) and went and saw Race to Witch Mountain. (Good by the way)

Oh and did I mention that Magic Mountain is running a special where if you buy 1 day you get a Season Pass?! Cool huh? We'll be back!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Grand Canyon Video's

I thought I would add a couple video clips of our Grand Canyon experience.