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!

Our Easter this year!

Easter this year fell on the Sunday after Spring Break. So it was a busy week for us. My parents came down the weekend before and brought 2 of Kierstyn's cousins. We celebrated Kierstyn's birthday (a little late but she'd already had her birthday party).

Here they are The 3 Squirrels!


Kierstyn took this one with her camera.



We spent a few days enjoying the sunshine going to the park and the children's museum before the kids and I headed to Idaho with my parents. Poor Blake had to stay here and work. And lucky us the weather in Idaho was well terrible. It was the first and probably the only time this year the kids saw snow.



And so the easter egg hunt that all the grandkids had was inside. I had to laugh though because as I watched the other kids pick out treats to snack on, my daughter was picking broccoli off the relish tray.




The highlight of the trip at least for the kids was the airplane ride home. This was the first flight for Ben and the first Kierstyn can remember. They loved it! It wasn't a very long flight but of course they had to check out the bathroom and try it out.




Thanks Blake for letting us go and leaving you all alone. Your the Best!

Kierstyn's 6th Birthday!

Okay- so I know this post is slow in the coming put what can I say, life gets in the way! Kierstyn has been talking about having a birthday party for a long time and I finally gave in. She wanted to do a fairy party, so thats what we did.

Kiesrtyn helped with the invitations and delivered most of them herself. And in the end everything came together. We did a simple lunch and cupcakes.



We decorated fairy wings and played a few games.


She was so excited to open presents and loved all of them!


Poor little Ben was so excited about the party and we made him an elf hat because he didn't want to be a fairy. But when the day came he didn't feel very good and slept through most of it.


Here's all the girls with their fairy skirts!

Kids will be kids!

Yesterday, I was doing my best to get the laundry done as I knew Ben was out of clean pants. So late last night I finally got his clothes in the washer and then in the dryer right before I went to bed. This morning I got a wonderful surprise as I was putting away clothes and found that half of them were covered with chocolate!!!! AFter searching around I found that Ben had left a piece of his chocolate valentine candy in (of all places) a sock! When I asked him about it all he said was, can a eat a chocolate?