Cool runnings.....

Our children are buff!! Three of them, Bret, Lisa & Tami,

decided to run in the annual Pat Tillman, 4.2 (his number when he played for the Cardinals) mile run this last weekend, in honor of Pat and other men who have died in the war. 

You can see some of the 28,000 people who participated! Tami said that they were kind of herded like cattle into different corrals. Each group started every 30 seconds or something. 

The race started at 7am, so it wasn't too hot yet! The girls
looking fresh and 'ready to run'!

The 'before' picture! Looking good! Bret got the girls excited about the race! They've all been running and getting in shape for the big event!

All the runners, walkers, etc wore these bands that keep
track of their time from when they crossed the starting line,
to the finish line! Pretty cool, huh?

Yay!! They made it! Bret ran it pretty fast, faster than any
of his previous times, like 30.01 minutes He was in
the top 10% for his age group!

The girls did great too! Way to go!!

They all got these really cool shirts!

Then after getting up early and running in
the race, these sweet girls cooked us all breakfast!
We had healthy protein pancakes, and smoothies!

Tami's friend Liz & hubby came over too. I haven't seen her
since she sold 'Living Scriptures' with Tami about 3 years ago!

Nanna & Pompa are always so wonderful to let us all descend 

upon them and have our get-togethers in their home, we all love

them so much! A funny thing I want to remember, that I didn't get

a picture of, is Barry walking in with the groceries the girls

needed to cook us this healthy breakfast, but also carrying a

jug of chocolate milk and 2 boxes of Krispy Creme Donuts!

He got a "Are you kidding me?" look from Lisa, but everyone

else looked pretty excited about the special treat! I couldn't

help remember all the times that Pomp would walk in carrying 

the same things for you kids!

Bolden is ONE!

We had a little B-day party for our little boy today. We had pizza, veggies, soda, cupcakes, and ice cream with our neighbors who hung out with us on our carport...it was a perfect-weather day for an outside party. Here's Bo's cake. Holly baked it...I decorated it. He got to attack the cake and shared some with me...yummy.

He's learned so much in his first year...he can stand on his head and...

On his feet!

Here's a picture of the crew. Hello to all from New Orleans. We're excited to see almost everyone this summer.

Chad's "Special" Day!

We woke up to snow this morning, but that didn't stop us

from heading to the dome to watch Chad compete in

Special Olympics. He's been going to practices on Monday

and Wednesday nights now for 2 months getting ready

for this big event. 

Opening ceremony- there were kids from Show Low, Blue Ridge,
Holbrook, & Round Valley walking around the track to
"Eye of the Tiger".  After the pledge of Allegiance, Phillip Taylor came forward in his wheelchair and gave the 'cheer' that
everyone repeated- "Let me win! If I do not win, let me be brave
in the attempt!"

They all got some nifty shirts and sweats to wear!

Chad's buddies, Andrew Hamblin, & Allen Ashcroft

Chad took first in the 25 meter run! I missed
getting a picture of him crossing the finish line!

Then he put his walking skills to work ....

. . . and got another Gold Medal!

This year they also got flowers, I thought that was a nice touch!

Chad's last event, after we all went upstairs
and they served us hamburgers, hot dogs,
chips, cookies and drinks, --  was the soft ball
throw!   "READY"....

"SET"...

"THROW'!

This time he got beat by a girl!  Terra Merrill can really
throw a ball!

Tonight at 5:oo, Chad got invited to go over to a celebration
party at Jodie Emeralds, the one on the left. I think she
is going to start coming to 'game night'.

It's been a really fun day for Chad. Its pretty wonderful that

events like this can take place, mainly because of all

the wonderful volunteers that help make it happen.

Being able to have it in the dome is always great!

While it was snowing and blowing outside, we were

all inside having a great time! Now he's off to State

Special Olympics held in Mesa the weekend of April

28th! If any one can go, call for details!

How can our baby girl be ......

23??  On April 4th it happened! 

I don't think that's old, it just makes

Dad & I seem really old!

One advantage of actually living in Eagar is that
you may actually 'get a gift' instead of just a
card with a little money! Sorry, all you kids
that live elsewhere!

Maybe not very exciting, but very useful!

So on her birthday, instead of doing the normal things like lunch, a movie, shopping, etc, we did some canning!

My friend Lenna gave me the recipe for this
soup. We put salt, some beef bouillon, barley, then
added layers of celery, carrots and potatoes. When
hungry just add some cooked hamburger or some
bottled meat (another project) and a can of condensed
tomato soup! Its pretty good!!

         Its was really fun celebrating Tami's birthday doing

this little project with her. I only wish more of my kids

lived closer to home!

My First Jet Ride!

Most fly days I'm co-piloting or riding as passenger in this (HH-65c, Coast Guard rescue helicopter) or...kickin' it in style as passenger in the back of this Marine business jet out for a little lunch stop and back.
But today I got a chance to ride in this... It's called a Prowler, a US Navy EA-6B, a twin turbojet engine powered, electronic warfare jet capable of high subsonic speed. The EA-6B's primary mission is to protect fleet surface units and other aircraft by jamming hostile radars and communications. A squadron, VAQ-209, came into town from Washington DC to train with our on-base F-18 squadron and they were kind enough to let me have a ride. (Note the tint of the gold embedded in the canopies, which provides protection to the aircrew from electromagnetic interference and prevents some EM emissions) Today's training was to simulate a combat situation dogfighting over the Gulf of Mexico with this...An F/A-18. This is a picture I took of the F/A-18 from our base that we were "dogfighting". They are all single-seaters, so I've never had the chance to fly in one.
This is not a ride for the faint of heart. It's like all the rides at 6-flags into one on steroids. I wore an anti-G-lock suit that sensed whenever I was pulling high G-forces and air bladders surrounding my calves and thighs automatically aired up to help keep blood out of my legs and in my head so I didn't pass out. Most of the anti-G work however was just plain "flex your calves, butt and abs as hard as you can with short, quick breaths" during the entire time we were doing a G-inducing maneuver. We pulled 5 G's various times today, which means a force of 5x's my body weight was exerted against me while traveling at speeds up to .86 mach, about 500 mph. I withstood the G's and didn't pass out, but I did get airsick, as you can see by my appetizing barf bag prize. This was a very unique experience; pulling high G's is a crazy sensation, reverse G's (sudden slowing and your harness actually keeps you from coming out of your seat) are nauseating and flying upside down while plummeting toward the ocean and seeing a fighter jet zoom past your view is just cool.
I seriously felt exhausted after this 1.3 hour flight. My feet felt heavy when I walked and my flight suit was wet with sweat. These pilots truly are amazing. I'm in the back just trying not to pass out or puke and they are making split second decisions dogfighting the enemy.Here are the guys I flew with. The guy to my left, call sign "Squirt", was the one in the back beside me who helped me get strapped in and made sure I didn't pull the ejection seat handle. Today I'm glad I'm a Flight Surgeon. Most days I'm just glad to go home.

Relaxing, fishing, enjoying ourselves....

....at Roosevelt Lake!  We got to do a lot of fun things. Two

days of fishing with our friend, Rick Blair. He brought a bunch 

of water dogs, his boat and his Dad. Tuesday was a good day!

The scenery from the boat! 

They caught 8 bass! Dad caught the two small ones
right at the dock, at the same time with two hooks
on his line, while waiting for Rick to park! They
had to throw 2 back that were in the 'slot'!

Wednesday we got up early and headed out about
7:00am. It was a bit chilly. This time I went too.
LaVerl was the first one to catch anything, it
was a small catfish, but he was still excited!

Then Rick caught a small bass. We went all over
the Lake looking for fish, no one was having much luck.

Then wham! Dad's pole bent over hard! He knew he
had something BIG! It took him awhile to pull
it in, it was a pretty big catfish!

How big?? Just so you have proof!! 7lbs 7 oz!! Before the
Blairs left, we had a big fish fry, yummy!

Thursday we drove to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, just on  the other side of Superior and spent about 3 hours there. 

I've never seen so many kinds of plants and cactus!

I thought this was interesting to see what Rhyolite rock
looks like, since we went there a while ago.

We wanted to be able to identify some of the desert plants
growing around our place, so we took lots of pictures.

This was the 'guest house' at the time the Thompson's lived
there, their house had burned down in the 50's. Its been a
bed & breakfast, but its no longer in use now.


We invited Bryan & J'net & Rick & Paula to come, which made
it more fun for us. The guys took off 4-wheeling after
they arrived on Friday. Then we all enjoyed watching
all the sessions of conference, eating, playing lots
of games, and relaxing together!

Bryan & LaVerl heading in to the Priesthood
session in Globe,

This is the only picture I got of everyone- watching conference!

Spring Break is always windy and cold in Eagar, so it was

really fun to get away and enjoy some nice warm weather

and do some fun things.