Emily Watches the Fish @ Cabela's

Here we are at our recent visit to Cabela's. Emily was able to see the deer, mountain goats, elk, zebras, lions, mountain lions, wolves, polar bears and the talking moose. Here we are checking out an underwater habitat.

Pumpkin's Tricks: The Steady Nose Trick

While many people spend hundreds of dollars having their dogs professionally trained, Pumpkin learned all of her tricks off of a $2.50 package of sandwich ham and a few Arby's Roast Beef sandwiches. When we took her to the vet for her puppy shots at 3 months old, he and his staff were shocked when we told her to sit and she obeyed. He was then surprised to see her other tricks. Most of the dog training books we read said not to even start training puppies until they are 4 months old. I guess it just goes to show that brown Labs are the smartest dogs out there. I know that without Pumpkin's help with homework, I would have never passed my statics class at BYU.

While her repertoire has not changed much since then, I think you'll still be impressed to watch her perform her tricks, in Spanish, English and American Sign Language, in the following three videos. Sit..................... Stay.................... Enjoy!

Pumpkin's Tricks: Speak, Whisper and Go Lay Down

Pumpkin's Tricks: Sit, Lay Down and Shake

Pumpkin performs her most basic tricks in English, ASL and Spanish. She learned these from watching Baby Einstein everyday for a few months. Can your kids do this?

Jude Giggles With Mom

We have been having a tough time getting Jude to giggle for the camera. He does it all the time, but seems to lose concentration every time we whip out the camera. Trying to catch him giggle on video has helped me to understand why there still is so little video evidence of Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster and UFOs. While this doesn't represent his best giggles, it is the best we have been able to capture so far and gives you the general idea. Hope you enjoy it!

Current Projects: Bridges and Drop Structures

In this project, we are building bridges and drop structures along an existing dry river bed. Ususally, there is only water in it during spring runoff. These pictures were taken on a day when there was a downpour. Fortunately, our guys picked up and went home early because of the rain. About 30 minutes after they left, someone upstream released the water out of a detention pond to keep it from flooding. The wall of water smashed through the dirt retaining wall which had been built to channel water around the bridge and flooded our project. The forms you can see sticking out of the water are 9' tall, so the water there is probably about 8' deep. Exciting, huh?

Current Projects: Commercial Subdivision

Another roundabout! (They are much more exciting to look at the straight roads) This one is at a new commercial development for office buildings up on a hillside. The view here is incredible (as Im sure you can see).

Current Projects: Roundabout

Here is another project we are finishing up. We turned the old intersection into a roundabout and added a park and ride on the side. The black concrete is actually red concrete with black release powder that will be pressure washed off later to give the stamped concrete a more realistic look. We are covering all of the concrete with blankets because of the cold. Across the street, they are making snow at the ski areas and the tubing hills.

Current Project: School Bus Drop Off

Here is a new school bus drop off we just completed on the east side of Salt Lake City. The road was too steep to be used as a legal bus drop off, so we cut down into the soccer field to provide and area where the slope was less than 5%.

Our Favorite Cowgirl

At The Rodeo

Hannah and Katie

3rd Anniversary - Stadium of Fire

Jude Paul - 20" 7 lbs. 2 oz.

Emily's First Day on the Boat

Jude's Blessing

Emily's 1st Birthday

Pumpkin and Emily

After getting a little worn out from running through the woods for a couple of days, Pumpkin was finally calm enough at the cabin to play with Emily.

Dinosaur Park

Here are some pictures from our trip to the dinosaur park. Emily got close enough to pet most of the animals!

Running from Moose

Here you can see how close we get to the Moose when we go up to the cabin. This bull was watching a younger bull behind us and we were parked and standing right next to the female who was laying down. We took several pictures and he didn't move an inch, however, as soon as he moved, we jumped right back into the car. Here is a video of when he finally snapped and decided to charge the young bull.

Trick or Treat

Here are our kids on Halloween. Emily was a witch (notice the cat in her hand.) Jude went as a candy corn. Both of them chose not to wear their hats for this picture.

One of Emily's favorite activities is exploring drawers and cabinets. It isn't uncommon to open a cupboard in the kitchen and find a pacifier stashed on a shelf inside. Here, she shows off some of the items she pulled out of a drawer in her bedroom.

Emily Meets the Vice President

Emily recently had the opportunity to meet Vice President Cheney when he came to visit for a fundraiser and Kevin's mission farewell dinner.