Joe's Birthday

Well as some of you may or may not know it was Joe's birthday on Saturday, unless your my family then it was his birthday on Friday (at least you were close ;)) Joe's Dad and his wife Julie came down for a day full of adventure. We headed out to Zion (there is no s on the end of Zion I don't know if everyone is aware of this but if you know a park ranger you probably are very aware of this) around 8 a.m. the weather had been nice all week so we figured light jackets would suffice. We got there around 9:30 and it was freezing. We found some sun and hung out in it for about an hour to allow it reach to the other corners of the park. Around 11 it turned absolutely beautiful we hiked around we took pictures, had a little lunch and had a wonderful time. Ellie absolutely loved it! That girl was meant to be outdoors. She was hiking around like a champ and just was having a great time taking it all in. We stayed in the park til about 3 and then decided to head home. Joe's dad left and his mom and grandma came around six and took us out to dinner. It was such a great meal and such a great time. I don't know about Joe but I certainly had a blast on his birthday.

Ellie Jo's First Family Reunion

This was Ellie Jo's first camp out and family reunion. Sarah and I both thought that it was going to be a bit rough as far as sleeping went. We figure that Ellie Jo was going to be up all night. She actually slept better than she does at home which was kind of a relief Minus the fact that she doesn't sleep that good at home. But it was nice that she slept.
The unfortunate part about the weekend was that it rained for most of the time. It was ridiculous! But we had fun none the less. We got to get in some golfing and a scavenger hunt. It was awesome! We got to sit around and eat and talk and such. It was a lot of fun.

First Tooth!!!

Ellie Jo's first tooth is making itself known! It explains a lot of our recent sleep issues. It is her bottom front left tooth. Thought we should share that with you.

Grandpas birthday

It's Grandpa Oakeson's birthday today and for his present he wanted some pictures of his grandbaby. So here they are. Happy birthday Grandpa! We all hope that it's an awesome one!

My Thoughts on Web 2.0

This is an assignment for my CSIS Class. The assignment is to talk about my opinion about Web 2.0 and how it has effected society. I think it has affected us all in good ways and bad ways. The good ways are that we are progressing technologically. Facebook is an example of being able to talk to people thta you haven't seen for a long time and wish to catch up with and many various tasks. Unfortunately it has separated us from much personal interaction. That's how I feel about it.

Grandpa Oakeson's visit

We had an awesome day yesterday with grandpa Oakeson. We got to get out to the desert and walk and look around for a bit. It was out by three peaks out west of Cedar City. We weren't out there very long before we spotted a bald eagle just chillin in an old tree where it obviously treats itself to a snack based on the bird carcusses on the ground around the tree. We snuck up close to get this picture and then the eagle flew away about a mile out from where we were. We drove up the road to see if we could see it again and we watched it fly back to the tree that it was in before and we got a couple more shots. It was incredible. This is the first time that I have ever seen a bald eagle in person before. It was amazing to me to be able to get so close to one and be able to docement it this way.

We drove around some more right about the time that the sun was going down and the horizon was absolutley amazing. We had two cameras and and three different lenses between us. A regular lense, a 250, and an ultrawide angle. Needless to say if there was a picture to get we got it. I think that the biggest thing was being able to get out and just walk around outside away from town where the fresh air really is. I personally love how proactive Ivan is about getting out and just being out there sometimes. Thats something that I really need sometimes.

The best part was hving Ellie Jo out there. Unfortunately it was pretty cold so we weren't able to take her out of the car but we had some fun with her in the car. She loves looking out the window and seeing all the current happ'nin's. We thought it would be funny and 'educational' to get her started behind the wheel early. We were out in the desert right? Who would it hurt?! We really didn't have her drive. The car was off. But we got some cute pictures of her at the wheel. "Honest officer! I had no idea that you had to be 16 to drive!" Over all it was alot of fun and completely refreshing for all of us to get out and get some fresh air.