On the road again.

Finished all our work (the day we left), squeezed in an adventure.  Time to head back to Seattle.  Made it to Boise the first day.  When we pulled into the hotel I got Zav and Katina situated and decided to inspect the trailer and fill up the car for the next day.  Wow Wow Wow.  I am amazed we made it into Boise with our trailer.  The axle had completely burned up on one side.  Bearing, spacers and axle nut had literally melted to the axle leaving absolutely nothing holding the wheel onto the trailer.  It's amazing we didn't have an accident.

 When I jacked up the trailer the wheel fell off.  Can't believe it stayed on going 80 down the freeway. 

This axle is supposed to be super smooth and even, no divits or inperfections.  What you see is the bearing, spacers, and end nut literally fused to the axle shaft.  Melted from going 80 down the freeway with no bearing left.

I researched all morning to find an axle specialist.  Not only did he make an awesome new axle from scratch, he did it same day and for about $200 bucks.......Awesome

Conveniently there was a Low's across the street from the hotel.  $10 dollars in cinder blocks and I got to work removing the axle to take to the fabricator so he had the correct measurements.   

Big Z loves to help.  Pretty proud of us to rebuild the axle of our trailer in a hotel parking lot.  Saved lots of money and have pride in knowing how to do it.  I have to say thanks to Barns and Les on the Arnott side of the family they've been good examples of how to get thing done in these types of situations. 

Right, back on the road.  One last very necessary stop.  Bail breaker brewery in Yakama Washington, they brew our favorite beer.  Weather was nice and sunny, they had a nice spot on a lawn to drink a pint.  Katina and I had a beer while we watched Zav play in the dirt of the hop fields. 

That's a quick wrap of our adventures in Utah, spring of '17 

Mountain Biking S'Utah

As our trip was nearing the end our work was almost done.  I wanted to squeeze in a quick trip to southern Utah for some mountain biking.  Katina and I deliberated on how we could do a quick trip, still finish up our work and not feel too stressed.  Katina wasn't really into it.  Too much to do with too little time.  We himed and hawed about how to make it happen.  Katina and I normally do pretty much everything together.  In order to make this trip happen Katina stayed home while Karlene and I made a whirlwind trip.  I kept thinking of great examples in our community of couples that have kids and like to adventure.   I kept asking myself "what would Roger and Merridy do?"  Roger and Merridy are two great examples.  They are world class adventurers and often have to take turns at home while the counterpart get it done.  Thanks for being great examples you two.

So I've ridden a mountain bike a bit when I was a kid but never used these new full suspension bikes.  This past summer Barn's Katinas brother took us to whistler for some down hill riding.  Wow it was amazing, intense, and over my skill level but still a blast.  The adventure at whistler was great but it wasn't exactly what I was imagining when I decided to get into biking.  What I was wanting at Whistler I found in Southern Utah.  It was amazing and everything I wanted mountain biking to be.  Here's some photos of us riding.

 pan of what we've just ridden up to get to this view point

 All the cacti were in bloom, never did I imagine the desert landscape could be so colorful.  Even the sage brush had a flush of new growth making them much more brilliant than normal.     

 Like riding on Mars.  Crater, bowels, ravines, and cliff edges.  This place had it all and it was all amazing.  

 martian landscape

 riding the cliff edge is so scary and so, so FUN!

   On the edge! We've just traversed this entire cliff edge.

 Photo's just can't capture the landscape we were riding in.

Ya I been there done that.  And absolutely loved it! 

driving to Ut

We decided to drive to Utah for our Grandma's birthday/reunion.  We normally get the kite school going in April but because of the awful record setting weather we extended our stay and I built a deck for my sister Arden and Katina had some extra photography work.

 First long distance road trip with "Z" so we turned 1 really long day into two shorter days which worked out great.  We found a restaurant in Baker City that had a model train chugging around.  Z loved it.  He could follow it all through the building, in and out of walls, zooming past our booth while we ate, it even had mountains with tunnels it passed through.  Lot of work this train must have been.

The deck Katina and I built for my sister.  Complete with remote control led lights that can change in a load of different colors.

Big Z helping "Arny" in the garden beds.

Learning the fine art of video games with Ethan.

 Can't stay away from water that boy.  Hanging in the tub and the Beermans'

Boys Morning

While the girls get their hair did...

 Breakfast at Coco Beach.

Day 1-7

The word on the beach is there hasn't been good wind yet this year.  Well our first day was 9m (20knts +)  and the second day was solid 11m (20knts -).  For the non kiters reading this 9m and 11m is the size of kite we ride stronger the wind equals smaller kite.  The m stands for meters squared simply a universal way of measuring kite size.  This is our beach.

We enjoyed those two days very much considering we went into a wind drought the next 5 or 6.  So we got up to other stuff like SUPing out to the reef.

Big Z working on his SUP skills in the pool.

Katina and Zav out for a morning paddle in the "big pool."

Zav was the only one scoring some kiting during the wind drought.  Already so skilled he can kite in the small pool.

yearly pilgrimage, Belize 2017

The Journey,

     Traveling with Zavory our Son is always a new experience.  At such a young age every trip we take is a new stage, new size, and new attitude.  This trip wasn't too bad.  Katina of course was very prepared with his own bag full of stacks, toys and entertainment.  Normal travel is hard enough but traveling to Belize is extra tough.  Two logistical choices, leave close to his normal bed time is a 18-25 hour total journey.  Leave at midnight for a 10 hour journey.  To me this is an easy choice take the shorter flight for sure.  For Katina who is very in tune with schedules and repercussions of not being diligent to those schedules it was a bit harder.  We ended up leaving at midnight for the 10 hour flight. 

After the normal check in debacle, yes were golfers with a golf bag, yes Katina is not a citizen, and no she does not need a visa for Belize.  It's like a training exercise for these people every year.

Flights were pretty smooth Zav had fun playing peek a boo with a ladies in the seat behind us.  Even scored a nap on layover while watching the airplanes take off.  He has a small fascination with airplanes  

Soothed to sleep by curious gorge.  Praying the captain doesn't come over the speaker with a completely unnecessary announcement that no one cares about and wakes up all the kids.

AAAAh we made it with out killing our selves .

Utah in the Fall of 2015

We normally visit our family in Utah over Christmas break.  This year we decided to try a different time of year.  Winter in Utah is awesome but we struggle with the severe dry air, we always get sick, and everyone seems to be so busy.  We decided on a September trip this year and it couldn't have been better.  Weather was perfect, dry and around 80 degrees.  Don't have a lot to say just gonna show some photo's of our trip.

Zavory did great on his first plane ride.  Loves to look out the window just like is daddy!

Loving Kenny Rogers by the lake.

Sleeping on the job. We did several hikes and Zavory did great.  We hiked goblin valley and arches national park in one day.  One day mile count of 13, not bad for a 4 month old.

The Devils Garden.

Double O yo!

Goblin Valley.

Landscape Arch.

We've been to Southern Utah many times but have to say it's amazing every time.  

Belize 2015_11

 Matt took some really beautiful underwater shots with the GoPro this trip

 We really took advantage of the paddle boards. Matt said follow me so I can take some pictures of you in the blue water so of course I fall in trying to turn around and in front of a boat of course! The captain raised his hands as to say "I didn't do it!". He could see me laughing as he passed by.

 After lunch dad dropped us off in the cut so we could play in the swell and drift straight home with the wind. It was really fun and scary so I stayed on my knees in the swell that the GoPro didn't capture at all.

 Drifting home

 My sexy man with some awesome clouds

That was fun!