Summer Fun with the Jensen Fam

Here are the pictures from our vacation with the Jensen family to Bear Lake.
We needed to kill some time on the last day so we rented this 6 man bike. It was more difficult to pedal than you would imagine, but we needed the exercise.

It's kind of blurry, but Mark did get some air on the tube.

I don't know what this face is all about.

I think my dad had a pretty good time just driving the boat around the lake.

This is Nicola hanging on as best she can.

Everyone was making faces I guess.

This is probably right before she fell off.

We did let Lisa and Spencer ride with us sometimes.

Alexa did NOT enjoy this. She started crying after about 30 seconds.

Brady did enjoy the tube though.

Don't worry, Alexa stayed safe from the sun.

This is Mark's attempt at wakeboarding.

And Lisa's attempt at wakeboarding.

And my attempt at wakeboarding.

Finally, someone who can do it.

It wasn't really fair, because Spencer did just get back from a week on Lake Powell.

Summer Fun with the Robison Fam

I have been kind of blogging slacker lately, hence these pictures from June at my family's reunion. It was lots of fun, and I really enjoyed Bryce Canyon. Sorry to bore you with tons of pictures, but you can just scroll through.
Here's Josh at the top of the trailhead we took at Bryce. He really did have a good time, I promise.

I love this little girl-my niece, Katrina

Little Brother Jess-yes, he is too cool for school.
We're off to see the Wizard...I am Dorothy, Audra is the Lion, and Tara is Toto.

Jen, Katrina, Mike, Gaven, and Char on the trail

The girls, the Mom, and the Dad

My nieces MiKayla, Haylee, Alena and my nephew Gaven

The Mom and The Dad

Dave and RaieGene's kids: Alena, Dallin, and MiKayla

The whole group

The Dad

The Sisters
Playing around with Picasa Photo Editor
This huge rock was falling, so naturally Audra and I held it up
Pretty nice view, eh?

Hot Water

Well the power went out again like it does every summer. When the power goes out in Ajo, everything closes down except for the Shell station and the grocery store which suddenly become very popular places. Without power, we had nothing at our house. Nothing that is except hot water. Which is ironic, because our hot water heater is electric. Of course it is also outside the house in the back yard rather than being tucked away in a closet.

Anyway, we're proud to say that we toughed it out for a couple days. A lot of guys I work with either went north to Phoenix, or slept at the station. The red cross also set up a cooling station at the high school with a large portable generator. I thought it was kind of funny that they treat a power outage as some sort of catastrophe. It wasn't that long ago that people lived on ranches down here with no power. I don't have photos of anything else, so here is a picture of an old ranch house on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument down here. I'm pretty sure that whoever lived here didn't have A/C.

There is a building about 50 feet north of this which is still standing, but I like the way this one is falling over better.

4th of July Parade

I was finally in the Fourth of July Parade. I don't even remember the last time I was in a parade. This year I rode my horse in Ajo's parade. I don't know how many people came out to see it. I would say maybe 300ish, so it wasn't a big crowd by any means. We didn't cheat them out of a good show though. I spent all day at work Thursday and Friday getting my horse prepared. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of that. My horse was absolutely terrified of flags, and sirens and lights, and horns, and circling ATV's and everything else that we introduced him to over the two days of training. We also spent time polishing our brass and leather and fitting those stupid little saddles so that they all looked the same with the same rings and strings. It was all worth it though. No one got bucked off like in years past. Also, none of the horses reacted when they kicked off the parade by firing the canon twice unlike last year's fiasco. Here's some photos:

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This is before the parade started. Notice how my stirrups are almost as big as the rest of the saddle? Yeah, I had to "borrow" them from my regular saddle which is a much larger western saddle which weighs at least double what this little guy does.

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This is the beginning of the parade route. My face is right behind the Border Patrol flag.

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This is a close up that I cropped of my horses face as we walked past where Nicola was taking pictures. I think some of the kids thought my horse was "nodding" at them. Luckily, none of the kids suddenly ran off. Had any hispanic people run away from us, I don't know if I'd have been able to hold him back. He does like to catch people.

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And here is a parting photo just to show that not only did we polish and shine our boots - we even slicked up the hooves with hooflex right before the parade, and they're still glossy here at the end of the parade.

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And the funny story of the day is that afterwards, we went to have breakfast at the church. One agent claimed that not only was it a violation of separation of church and state, but that he wasn't entering the "trap" and he wasn't "drinking the kool-aid." He stayed in the truck while everyone else went in to eat, but he did eat the pancakes that I brought back out for him.

Brutus is a Crazy

Look how cute Brutus was as a puppy. I am pretty sure if he hadn't been this cute, I would have said no to the whole "pet ownership" deal. But he was cute, so here I am. *Side note-Look how big his ears are! I wonder if they are the same size now, and he just had to grow into them.
Anyway, I recently learned that your pet can turn into a PSYCHO during/around a full moon. Here, read this article if you don't believe me. So, this cute little guy can shred his dog buddy's ear in a matter of seconds. And that's just what happened. I don't have any pictures of the wound, so you'll have to use your imagination. But Lunar got a trip to his favorite vet and a bunch of stitches in his left ear. He has also been wearing the "Cone of Shame" for a week and a half now. He gets his stitches out on Friday, and then hopefully no more cone. Poor guy, it took him three days to get used to the thing. He wouldn't sit, lay down, or eat because he was so uncomfortable. I am pretty sure he thought he was being punished. He is okay with it now, except for when Brutus wags his tail and it whacks the cone really hard. It's gotten to the point that if Lunar sees Brutus' tail moving, he "hits the deck", so to speak, and flattens himself against the ground to avoid another beating. Poor puppy.