Here are a couple of pictures…the last one is our rig for the week, along with a map of where we’re at (hopefully temporarily).

We did get one dive in at Monterey…but it was nothing to write home about.  I got to use my drysuit in the ocean for the first time, but that was the highlight of the dive…and no video or photos from that one.  More on that later.

Like I said, I’ll get some more details here at some point when things get a little less crazy and travelling has slowed down, but here are some of the pictures from the trip.  I have more, of course, and Rachel took tons as well, so at some point maybe we have to do some pic swapping.  Enjoy.

California RV Trip 2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

He had an interesting day yesterday.  It seemed like most every other day at first, but some time after school and before I got home from work, Trey saw this in our bathroom.

Ignoring all logic and despite the use of this object by his mother for any haircuts or hair trimming that is done at home, Trey decided he wasn’t exactly sure what would happen if he turned this on and ran it through his hair.  Being an inquisitive young man, he determined that this specific time in his life was the best time to figure out what would happen under those circumstances, so this was Trey shortly thereafter.

Not as much smiling. He does, however, now know what will happen when he turns that thing on and runs it across his scalp.  As for the timing; two days before school pictures, and at a school that doesn’t allow caps to be worn.  So, here is our smiling Trey now that mom had to try to even things out a little.  This is how he will be immortalized in his 2nd Grade class pictures.

The smile is back.  As for Mom and Dad?  Well, we had a difficult time controlling our laughter so we wouldn’t make him feel too bad.  Seriously, what would we do for laughs without kids?

I did the tri with my friend, Matt, and my brother, Cory.  Matt lives here in Mesa and Cory lives in Park City, UT.  Matt and I had planned on having me fly us up to St. George, UT, where the event was.  That would turn an 8 or so hour drive into a 2 hour flight.  Then my brother asked if I could come pick him up near Park City…so of course, I agreed.  After dropping Matt and our gear off at St. George Airport (KSGU), I got back in the plane and flew up to Provo, UT (KPVU) and picked up my brother.  Then we both flew back to Hurricane, UT (1L8) where our rental home was as well as the actual triathlon (Hurricane is about a 20 minute drive from St. George).  Matt and I got to fly over the western edge of the Grand Canyon both ways.  Here are a couple of pics from that.

We stayed in a great house that was only a couple of miles from the start of the race, so we were able to ride our bikes in on the morning of the tri…no parking or waiting in long car lines necessary.  It was great!  My friend, Jen, from high school and her husband, Marcello, drove up from their home in Las Vegas to cheer us on and take some great photos.

We had a great time.  I wasn’t happy with my performance, but that just gives me some additional motivations in my training…I’ll improve for next time.  Even so, I got to hang out with a lot of great people, got to race in a triathlon, and got to do a lot of flying!  A great weekend, indeed, despite Sandy Hill.

I dedicated a daily flip video to the experience.  It’s a little long for a daily flip, but I hope you enjoy it.

Stay tuned…I’ll keep posting updates as I progress.  It should be a good one this year.  Thanks for your patience.  In the meantime, here is a little pic from Hawaii this past January…a couple of whale tails to tide you over for the FNF08 video.

Participating in this year's event was, in the order they were sitting, Uncontrolled Airspace, The Student Pilot Cast, The Finer Points, Airspeed, and the Pilotcast (along with CFI cast).  Remoted in via skype was Will and Dave of the Pilot's Flight Pod Log.  Notably missing this year were new pilot, Greg, from the Student Pilot Journal and student pilot Jerry from VA Student Pilot.  I'm probably forgetting others as well, so forgive me.

I also want to note that Airventure Today (the daily Airventure newspaper) did an article on the Podapalooza, so check that out if want to.

I really enjoyed participating this year, and felt honored to be on the stage with so many talented people.  It's a great community of people in aviation.  I had a great time in Oshkosh in general, and was able, with the help of my friend Kent from the Pilotcast, to experience two approaches into OSH.  That was incredible.  The show itself is overwhelmingly large and covers everything in aviation, from the smallest of the ultralights to the largest plane I’ve ever seen (the Boeing Dreamlifter), and everything in between.  I’m including a few pics from the event.

An AeroShell T6 lines up for takeoff at the daily airshow

The old tower is set to be torn down soon.

Duggy the DC-3.

And for the largest, here is the Boeing DreamLifter, which is used to carry parts of the new 787 DreamLiner halfway across the world.

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Trent is getting ready to take the controls (after the CFI, Brian, gets us into the air).

Here’s a shot while Trent is flying from the south of Chandler looking north. You can see I-17 running diagonally through the picture. The Cherokees are low wing aircraft, so the pesky wings seem to always get in the way.

About a month ago a friend of ours stopped by our house because I had told her that my wife, Crystal, had been thinking about getting a dog for our family (the kids have been asking for some time).  This friend had recently rescued a stray that was running with two other strays.  She could only get one of the three dogs into her car.

When our friend came by, she brought a young, yellow dog that looked mostly like a golden retriever.  He’s still here a month later.  Sure enough…we’ve adopted a dog who’s now part of our family. His name is Otis, and he has really taken a liking to my wife.  Since that day over a month ago, he’s had two vet visits for shots and checkups, undergone treatment for ticks and the like, been neutered, and had a visit to the groomer.  He seems to really like it here, loves the kids, and is a pretty quick learner.  The vet estimated his age (a month ago) to be around 8 months.  He’s mostly golden, but has a black tongue and seems slightly smaller than a purebred golden retriever, so we’re thinking maybe some chow chow in his bloodline…but what do we know?  Whatever breed(s) he is…he’s turning out to be a great dog.  And, as my dad pointed out repeatedly on a recent visit while he was watching Otis lounge around our house a lot, a very lucky dog.

Here are some pictures of Otis during his first week with us.  Pictures are below, or hit this link for the whole gallery.



We went with our friends Melissa and Reed, and we had a great time diving and sleeping (a lot).  I’ve included a link to some pictures, mostly wet, from the trip.

Highlights included seeing and swimming with lots of seals, a medium sized green sea turtle, many tropical fish on the rocky reefs, including Angels, Damsels, Butterfly Fish, Puffers, etc.  We also encountered many moray eels, and some very interesting invertebrates.  Clicking on the pictures below will take you to the full gallery.





Slideshow of the 2007 Channel Islands Dive trip Gallery.

Browse the images of this gallery.

A few of the selections from this gallery (click one of the links above for more images):



Gallery

Slideshow



Adding here mostly for a test of flickr.

Click on the pic below to go to the album.

Let me know if I got anything wrong…:)