Zoo fun!

Ryder's daycare went on a field trip last Friday in completion to the animal lessons they had been having. It was a blast to see Ryder with all his little friends from "school". He is such a social butterfly. We walked around, checked out all the cool animals, made animal noises (what does the money say? hoo-hoo-ha-ha-ha) and did a whole lot of laughing!

After the zoo we had lunch and play time at the playground. Ryders favorite is the swings.

I didn't know Folsom had a choo-choo train ride, but much to Ryders excitement they do! So of course, our trip to the zoo would not have been complete with out a ride on the choo-choo train. Ryder LOVES trains.

My cousin Sharons little girl, Cara, my good friend Kim and a little boy she nannies came along with Ryder and I. We had a great time! And Cara is welcome anytime! She is such a help with Ryder.

This is Ryder with his favorite daycare lady, Miss. Resa

Ryder with cousin (what, are they, like 3rd cousins? I dont know) Cara! We LOVE Cara!! She is the cutest sweetest girl! I am so glad that she and Ryder get along so well!

Lunch time!!! We dined on a delicious lunch of chicken salad sandwiches , string cheese (Ryders fav!), apples and juice.

Ryder with all his friends from Resa's daycare. So cute!

Yes, dear?

Front row seats on the chooooo-chooooo!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, as many of you may know, my favorite holidays are the "BBQ" holidays. You know, Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. I love the warm sunny weather, good food and great friends. This year I had the good food and great friends but the warm weather was no where to be found. It rained almost all weekend. It put a real , ahem, damper (excuse the pun) on the weekend. Friday, I met up with Matt and Melissa at their ward BBQ. Melissa and I had tons of fun in the bouncy house. (Yes, we think we are 12 still)

Saturday our wake boarding plans got, ahem, washed out, (another pun, yes I know, I need to stop) by the rain. So we headed down to Stockton for an expo at the wake boarding school Kevin Bird works at. After that we went down to the Bird Family home for a bit before shopping. Good times.







Then, Saturday night I got some friends together at Mikuni's for Korey Amrine's birthday (he turned 29! He's getting old!) Despite the rain (and all my obnoxious puns) Memorial Day weekend was very busy and very fun.

Training update and trip to Indiana

So I've successfully complete two parts of my four part training. The first part was called INDOC, which is essentially company required procedures and rules, plus learning a new set of FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations) which was a beast to say the least. In any case, after over a week of 10 hour class days (and waking up, study, before bed study, etc) I'm proud to say I got a 90 on the INDOC test. Wow... I breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, I'm not able to celebrate too soon, because later that day, we dove into aircraft systems. Next morning, another test on aircraft systems. Check.

Onto stage three of training where we play in the sims for a while. This is a chance to improve instrument skills, better learn the company procedures, and have a through understanding of emergency procedures.



This sim isn't actually turned on, this pic was taken at like 4 in the morning after my classmate and I threw just about everything you possible could at each other. Single engines approaches, in low visibility, no attitude indicators or vertical speed indicators, with a touch of turbulence to top it off. Experiencing such a flight in real life would be highly unlikely, but never hurts to be prepared. And on a side note, I don't react so awkwardly to these situations. haha










From the sims (when/if I pass that stage check) its onto the actual plane. So... the class mates and myself usualy hit the sims from early evening to late morning (8pmish to 4 am).









Well, I took a day off to go visit a friend down in Indiana. Never been to the "Hoosier" state before, so a few hour journey and I was there. It was amy's b-day so it was cool to see the pad on Judd St. and the area. ummm here are some pics:


(From L to R) on our drive, we found this park that you had to cross this covered wooden bridge. I thought it was pretty nifty. at the park they had typical play equiptment, but who could resist hitting the seesaw on a beautiful Sunday Indiana afternoon. Touring through the country side, saw this cool pic of power lines that ran from the coal plant. hmmm thats it for nowwwww

quick update

Sorry, no pics, and little info. This is my third day in class and so far its all been a bit of a whirl. First day was spent filling out paper work, understand duty times as a pilot (you know, like that they can't fly me for 24 hours strait.) Certificates and training were covered as well. Day two was a doosie. We spent the first part of the morning covering dangerous weather, more regulations about O2, then legal stuff called weather minimums. Often carriers will come up with there own way to do a certain operation. Well, either way all this new information can be an overload (the fire hose reference) so it can become quite intimidating. Oh and I have a quiz everyday on the information from the previous days. Today I got a 100% on a test I didn't feel I was going to do half as well as that. :-) The only reason I can think I did so well is because I read my scriptures this morning... mabe I should make that a habit.


Quick bit about where I'm at, the hotel is about 20 minutes from where the training facility is. Its a long term stay hotel (sink, fridge, stove etc.) I have a "room mate" but we have separate rooms so thats all groovy. We get a long well and everyone in the class gets together EVERY day for study groups. It makes for more successful training. We are on the approach path to Port Columbus so every two minutes there is a jet of sorts flying outside out windows. Nothing like a jet a 11:00 at night to get you in the mood for flying! :-) I'll try to get some pics up soon, but I'm incredibly busy with study sooooooo standby. Until next time......



(p.s.) feel free to leave comments......

LAX-ORD-CMH

Well... I'm happy to say after a night at LAX, I got outta that port and made it to chicago. While I was waiting for my flight though, I met a few other people that were trying to make it out as well. We had a pleasant evening in the airport waiting... and waiting. HA. So, public transportation in Chicago is amazing! My friend was able to give me very good directions to his apt. The subway and buses worked out well. The apartment is a 5 minute walk from Lake Michigan (you can catch a glimpse of it just through some trees) I do have to say I REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoyed visiting the city. Something really appealing, exciting, fun, and busy about a big city.










On saturday we had a busy day of touring around in the downtown district. There was a TON to see, but not enough time unfortunately :-( BUT the main points were hit, so as the next few pics will show, we made use of time. Millennium Park holds view to many art exhibits for people to see. One of the most interesting ones, was a large metal bean that was really reflective and didn't have any seams. If you stood directly under it, there was a lack of perspective to where you are under it. The next few pics will give you an idea... (the one of me and my friend is a reflection off of the bean)

Well, after having way too much fun with photos and messing around at the park, we decided to head up to the sears tower. Because it stands out as such a strong landmark in chicago, it would be a shame to visit and not head to the top. Sears tower is one of the tallest in the world, so it was really cool to go up over a 1,000 feet. (being a pilot a thousand feet doesn't seem like much, but at least we get a good view) Security and a quick film about the tower breezed by, then we shot up the elevator to the 103 floor...




Lake Michigan provides a great sailing for those who have a boat... or people who know someone who has a boat :-)



















Okay..... wellll the fun had to end, but im still looking forward to the new gig! so the drive from chi town to ohio begins! It was about 7 hours, but went by pretty quickly. I forgot what the color green looked like because of all the brown in apple valley. needless to say I enjoyed myself. till next time... enjoy

A perfect day in the sun!

Well, it's official, the summer fun has officially begun. I could not be happier. There is something about this time of year that really makes me come alive. It's as if I am getting some sort of sunshine-high. No, really, it's hard to get me down on a day like Ryder and I had yesterday. It was blue sky as far as you could see and a perfect 85 out. Becky had a few people over for a day of swimming, laying out by the pool and lunch. It was a great start to Mothers Day weekend.



This Mothers Day I am reflecting over the past 20 months full of all it's ups and downs and some how all the hard times seem such a distant memory to all the moments of joy Ryder and I have had together. He brings more joy to my life than I could have ever imagined. Everyday I am blessed with the opportunity to see the world all over again through his eyes. Even on the worst of days I can look, see his crooked little grin, and smile. There is nothing that makes me happier than being Ryders mommy.






This weekend was no exception to the great times Ryder and I have together. Ryder, who normally is my water baby (he screams when you tell him bath time is over), was a little timid in the water at first. I think he had a fear of not being able to touch the bottom of the pool. After about 10 minutes of clinging to me for dear life he loosened up a bit and was ready to check out his super cool new "wave runner". It wasn't long before he was "driving" all around the pool saying "kick, kick, kick" and "vrooom-vrooom". The kid had a blast! And so did I.






Happy Mothers Day to all my amazing friends and family who show me such great examples of motherhood.
Ready to jump in!

Ryder with Auntie Becky. (And that's Sara in the back ground, sorry fella's, she's engaged!)

I LOVE his little munchkin face!

Bringing sexy back in those shades!

Splish-Splashin around!

Vrooom-Vrooom Driving his "waverunner".

He had a serious kung-fu grip!

Playing fetch with Lucy!

After an amazing day playing in the sun Becky and I went out (sans Ry-baby) with a few friends to a party in Folsom. It was a great day!

Pretraining update

Sooo for reasons I won't go into, I'm in LAX for the night and I figured this would be a great time to update my blog with whats been going on. A recap over the past week would be more then enough, so I'll keep it simple and sweet. On may 4th there was a redbull air race in San Diego that was attended by myself and a few friends. We stayed in a hotel the night before just to save the early drive the next morning... We wanted to get there early to make sure we had a good spot for the festivities. Our spot was PRIME for the best seats in the house. We were on Coronado Island, without anyone in front of us. Complete with BBQ, chairs, and the like mindedness of pilots, we were there to cheer on the competition. Sadly, Mike Mangold, who I've referenced before, got second, but the seasons young and we are hopeful.

The same weekend, there was an air show in Riverside that had the Thunderbird's, static displays, and many other aerial performers. Kinda random that aviation had a weekend together in Southern California, but for someone like me who loves it, twas a great chance to get my fill!

Before training started, I had a lot to do at the house. Like pack, which the smart guy that I am, I put off till the eve of the day I needed to be heading out. Part of that involved doing a ferry flight from the Palm Springs area. Not a bad way to end a little over a year flying with the UAVs in so cal. I'm certainly looking forward to the next gig that I'll be starting shortly. I've been really fortunate in the connections that I've made while in Apple Valley, in addition to the cool opportunities I've had. Thank you once again to those who made that possible. I'm sure I have lots more to add to the blog, but its seriously 2:43 in the morning right now, and I'm sitting in LAX. Again, if you REALLY want to know, just ask. I hit the rocks a few more times within the past week, which has been great because I've missed the physical effort and skill it takes to move ones body up a slab of granite. The decent down can be just as fun though! Sadly I won't have time in training for that sorta stuff, but that's okay. I'll be busy with learning how to fly the aircraft the airnet way! :-) Hmm thats all I got for now. I'll throw an update about my weekend in Chicago if I ever make it out there. Then its onto the grind! Holler....

A day in old Sac

Ryder and I have been so blessed to have our good friends Matt, Melissa and Hailey move back to Sacramento after living so far away in Fresno the past 3 years. The past year of our life has been trying to say the least but Melissa has been a strong close friend and for that I am so grateful. Last weekend we spent the day in Old Sac looking through all the crazy shops, eating ice cream and taking a train ride from Old Sac down the river and back. It was a great day with perfect weather. Ryder especially loved the train ride. As traffic stopped to let us go past on the train he waived to all the cars and people walking down the street. He thought they were all there to see him on HIS train. Since then Ryder has become mildly obsessed with trains. I catch him playing "train" on his own saying "woo-woo". I love him!