Dance Recital

Its that time of year again. The annual dance recital. This was Kierstyn's 3rd year participating in it. I have to say her custome wasn't one of my favorites but it was still alot of fun to watch her develop her talents. Kiertyn was most excited because she had all her grandparents there watching. She especially looked forward to going swimming when the recital was finished. I tried uploading the entire video but it wasn't working so for now here are just the pictures.

Kierstyn woke bright and early Memorial Day and wanted Blake to take her bike riding. She has been asking for a while for dad to take off her training wheels. We weren't so anxious to do this as we have tried it 3 times before with no success.



This time something just clicked! Success!!!

Memorial Day weekend

We didn't have big plans for Memorial Day so I spent the weekend making jam! Not all that exciting I know, but the exciting part for me was that all the peaches came right from my tree!

Backyard Camping!

My kids have been asking to camp out with their dad for quite a while. So they ended up having a back yard campout!! A little different than the great outdoors but they thought it was great- roasting marshmallows on the grill and sleeping in the tent. I'm not sure Blake was as excited as they were.








This last weekend was the fathers and sons campout. Ben was so excited about it, he wouldn't stop talking about it all day Friday. I think they had fun although with the windy weather I think they were a little cold!

Boys will be Boys!

It always seems like Ben is the one who gets hurt. So I was trying to clean up my house this week and Ben comes in the house screaming. It sounded like a hurt cry so I hurried over to him and gave him a quick look over. He seemed okay so I just gave him a big hug to try and get him to calm down. But as I released him I felt blood on my cheek and quickly found the back of his head bleeding. It wasn't bad but because it was the head it was bleeding a lot. Once I got him to calm down he told me he was playing in the front yard and fell off the cinder block wall that separates our house from the neighbors. He landed on his shoulder and his head. Oh Boy!!

Melvin Award!!!

At Blake's annual meeting his last project won the company Melvin award!! (If you want to know exactly what that means you'll have to ask Blake the details.)And a few months back the same project (McCarron Airport Terminal 3 foundation) won the Best of 2009 in the Southwest Contractor magazine. Here's the picture (Although don't ask him about the picture because this was actually taken after the next contractor started work on the next phase of the project and much of what McCarthy had done was already buried.)



So if you interested in what the article says, here it is:

This 125,000 sq ft project is the foundation for the new terminal at McCaran, encompassing ATS tunnel, service corridor, underground plumbing, under drain system, building and site retaining walls and 506 anchor bolt assemblies to receive structural steel for the future building package. The civil package also included approximately 1,200 drilled piers, an underground utility tunnel, a two-story underground automatic tram station shell, grade beams and pier caps, retaining walls and site utilities. Coordination with the myriad of projects currently underway at McCarran was a major task.
The team excavated 600,000 cu yds of material, but first they had to lower the site's water table by 50 ft. To do this, McCarthy created an extensive dewatering plan for the first 14 months of the project.
To help speed up the assembly of the ATS tunnel, the mechanical subcontractor pre-assembled hydronic piping to be hoisted into the tunnel rather than putting it in piece by piece. A section of the concrete roof was left off at certain intervals so pre-assembled piping could be flown in. After the piping was installed, the concrete team would pour back the lid. This method of pipe installation proved to be extremely efficient. In addition to the tunnel, there were 7,154 cubic-yards of piers caps and grade beams installed.
The judges were impressed by how well the construction team executed, staged and sequenced the project.

Our Annual Phoenix Trip!

Every year Blake has an annual shareholders meeting in Phoenix. And so I take the kids and spend one day at the Phoenix Zoo and 1 day at the water park. They love it! And so do I!