Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!! We’re spending the day today over at Kurt & Elena’s with a bunch of different friends. Really looking forward to hanging out and relaxing!! Then tonight it’s off to the stores to start the Holiday shopping. I hope everybody has a great day today!!
Author: James Dodge
Aviation Nation
Well, it’s taken me over a week to get this posted – I wish I had the time to post to the blog everyday, but my life just seems to get too hectic!! We went last Sunday with Kurt and Elena and their family to Nellis Air Force Base to see the annual Veteran’s Day Air Show they have. We were lucky enough to be able to park right on Base (thanks to some awesome friends!) – directly across from where the Air Show took place. Since I heard that the buses back and forth to the public parking lots were crazy, I was very thankful for this!! The kids all enjoyed the show, and so did I. The planes flying were amazing!! Especially the F-22 – Raptor – man, that plane is amazing!! I have a hard time believing that thing can maneuver like it can. Then we got to see the Thunderbirds fly also. Those guys are awesome. It’s really cool to see how synchronized they are. I took a lot of pictures and some video also – click to see the photo album (it’s on Facebook, so if you’re not a friend, you won’t be able to see it), and check back soon for a link to the video I took.
End of the Soccer Season
Well, today marks the last day of the Orange Crushers Soccer Season. This is always a day full of mixed feelings. It feels great that it’s over because it opens a lot of time on my schedule, but it’s sad because I love being out there with the kids!! We had a couple of great parties at Elena’s house and had a great turnout of kids with their families. The games today went really well – one of the 5-6 year old teams tied their game, and the other 3 teams all won their games. Great end to a great season!! Thanks to all the kids for making soccer so much fun, and thanks to Elena for letting me be a part of the teams!!! Go Crushers!!!
The Culley’s stop by!!
Well today, and this week has been nuts!! We’ve had the final games of the Orange Crushers soccer season, we’ve gone to the air show at Nellis Air Force Base, we had Tyler’s birthday and work has been crazy!! But it’s been a lot of fun, and the week just got better tonight as Jason and Marsha stopped by with their family on their way to California. It’s been really good seeing them and nice to be able to hang out and visit with each other. Tomorrow they are leaving in the morning to head down to Jason’s parents house – and then on to Disneyland!! While Jason was here, he got me hooked on a new iPhone app called Gowalla. Actually, since he’s using it on his Android phone, I guess it’s not just an iPhone app. You can learn more about it by going to the Gowalla site. Basically, it’s a Digital Passport system that lets you check in to various spots you’re visiting. You can create trips, follow where your friends are, and keep a record of all the places you’ve been. It’s cool!! If you get a chance, go check it out!! Good to see you Jason and Marsha – have fun!! Wish we were able to go with you!!
Starting the Blogs for the Kids
OK – we had a lot of fun tonight – we started up 2 new blogs; one for Briana and one for Audrey. We were going to get one together for Tyler too, but he was busy playing the PS3 – so we’ll get his going tomorrow (hopefully). I’ll be posting the links to each of them in the sidebar shortly, so make sure to check them out and let us know what you think about our family project!
Starting the Blog again
OK – I’ve decided to start this Blog from scratch. I’ve deleted all the old stuff and I am starting all over. I’m also going to be helping the kids get a blog going to help teach them about how websites work and seeing how creative they can be. I’ve just barely started with this overhaul, so check back soon to see the changes as they happen. To help add motivation, I had Jason tell me tonight that he is starting his blog again too. So now I’ve got to get things moving to try and keep up with him. I’ll post a lot more links soon, but for now – check out Jason’s new blog here: Jason’s Blog
Let the Blog Wars begin!!!
***Update – November 30, 2012***
I’m adjusting this post real quick to explain some changes from this point back. All the earlier entries from before this current post are from my previous blog that I used to keep up to date using the iWeb program on my MacBook. When they stopped offering updates to that software program is when I started this new blog using WordPress. I just recently found out how to import, so I decided to import everything I had. If you go through and read through the posts, you’ll see references to my photo albums page – this was a page that’s no longer active so obviously you won’t see it on this site. The posts all imported without the pictures associated with them, so all you see at the moment is gray boxes. I’m going to try and get these fixed in the near future. Anyways, thanks for visiting…….Enjoy!!
Disneyland – Day 6
Well, we’re home now. It’s been a great week, but as I sit here on my own bed, it feels really good to be home. We slept in a little this morning and got everything packed up before heading over to the parks one more time before leaving. We started out in Disneyland where we hit Indiana Jones, the Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean one last time. Kaylee then said she wanted to go on Thunder Mountain, so we had to head over there and get on before she changed her mind – she loved it! Then we headed over to CA Adventure to ride the Tower of Terror and California Screamin’. We had a lot of fun, but I think we were all ready to go home. The drive home was crazy – Friday night driving to Vegas from California is not a good idea. There are tons of crazy people on the road!! But anyways, we made it home safe and now we’re looking forward to the rest of this next week. Rob, Brooke, and Caleb flew in tonight and we’re excited to be spending time with them!!
Disneyland – Day 5
Well, another day over – I’m getting a little tired!! We started the day out by jumping on the monorail and heading over for the early morning admission. As we got to Tomorrow Land – we rode on the “Finding Nemo” submarine ride first. Then we wandered around, hitting the Matterhorn and some of the rides in Fantasy Land. We had a lot of fun, but decided to leave the park around 11:00 for a little bit. We had promised the girls they could go to Build-A-Bear during the trip, so we headed over there. And just recently they opened a new store next door call RideMakerz. The concept is similar to Build-A-Bear, but it’s more geared towards boys where they get to pick out parts to a car and build it themselves right there in the store. Plus you get to make the cars Remote Controlled if you want – so obviously this store is a thousand times better than Build-A-Bear – LOL. Jason and I took the boys in here and of course we couldn’t leave without building our own cars as well. Calvin and I both made a Mustang, Tyler and Jordan made Vipers, Cody made a Scion, and Jason stuck with the Chevy Corvette. (Don’t worry Jason – when the Chevy breaks down, one of our Ford’s or Dodge’s will be there to help you out!!) These cars were a blast and of course the first thing we did when we got back to the hotel was take them all out to the pool area and race them around. We had a lot of fun!! We chilled at the pool for a while (we got to go to the Grand Californian pool cause someone got glass in our pool and they had to drain it), then we ate some dinner and went to Downtown Disney for a while. Everybody was getting tired, so we all headed back to the hotel to get some sleep for tomorrow. It’s our last day tomorrow and we’ll be heading home tomorrow night. It’s been a fun trip, but I’m looking forward to being home!!