WOW...A new post (don't get too excited if you haven't read it yet)

Well ok yeah I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging. I guess I have to post now, and the only thing going on in my life is school, so sorry you'll just have to deal with the not so exciting subject matter.

This quarters classes aren't the most exciting for me, but they consist of Physics, Statics, Metallic Processes, and another which I'm not sure what it is called but it's basically Computer tools for project management (using Excel, Microsoft Project etc. to plan out projects) this class has fairly interesting content but not an interesting teacher. My metallic processes class is most enjoyable since it consists of building things (we get to work with welding, forging, sheetmetal work, and machining metals). I've done most of these things already since I've taken some classes out of order, so this is a pretty easy class, but I have to teach all the others how to do everything... Which is fun for a while anyways. Yeah, so that is my life until December (then in Jan I will start my last quarter). I ride the bus out to school (35 miles) and back which is always a good time especially for a people watcher like myself, but it also gives me a little extra study time so that's nice (when I actually take advantage of it). I'm sure once I'm done with school I'll be at work missing it, but for now my feelings are the opposite and I'm ready to be done.

Pike's is THE PLACE! (cont.)

Some of the weird people we enjoyed watching, this lady was doing an interpretive dance and thought she was pretty sexy, but she wasn't!
I'm guessing this guy was looking for the Sci-Fi convention, cuz I know with all surety he couldn't be looking for his date.
This is the world famous Pike's Place Fish Co. It is famous for the tossing of the fish and the fun work atmosphere. Emily mentioned when she worked at the bank they had a training video involving this place on how to enjoy your job, etc.
Here is the most awesome, colorful, fresh, cheap flowers I've ever seen. I'm not a flower kind of guy (you can ask my wife) but I have to admit these were impressive.

Pike's is THE PLACE!

One of our stops on our Seattle trip was the world famous Pike's Place Market...What a cool place! It was very crowded but that was a plus since Emily and I love watching people (it's one of our more enjoyable hobbies). Between the street performers, crowd, and workers there were plenty of interesting people to watch. We saw the famous fish tossing, which was more entertaining than I expected. A huge crowd was gathered round as they tossed the fish back and forth. Then the worker said, "one more" while he grabbed another fish. He threw it once again except this time purposfully in to the crowd, every one screamed and scattered thinking they would get slimed by the fish, but as it hit the cement floor everyone realized it was a foam replica instead of the real thing...great fun! The thing that I was most surprised with is the cost of things. I was expecting everything to have a huge mark-up on it since this was such a popular tourist attraction, but I was wrong, you could actually buy things there that were way cheaper than they would be anywhere else. For example, the flower arrangements were not only the most perfect, colorful, flowers I'd ever seen but were the cheapest I'd ever seen also. Comparable arrangements would easily sell for 60-80 dollars and they were selling them here for 14-25 dollars it was crazy, and even though they were awesome I still couldn't bring myself to "waste" my money on a flower arrangement that would die in a couple weeks. The food was also great. We had fresh clam chowder, not just any clam chowder, but the "nations best" (it has won the national chowder competition almost every year including this year). Overall Pike's market was our favorite stop on the trip, and a place we would go back to any chance we had... we would recommend it to all who are in the Seattle area but don't forget to pick us up on the way.

Welcome to the "Clarification Meeting"

This "meeting" has been called for some individuals (whose names will remain anonymous) who made comments about my last post(check comments of "Weekend Delight" if you feel out of the loop). A little clarification is needed. Although this may feel like a harsh rebuking it is merely a jestful clarification.
There are two things on the agenda today.

First the Elephant Ear vs. The Funnel Cake:This here, that the girl is eating, is an Elephant Ear.

This here, is not an Elephant Ear ,but rather a Funnel Cake. Although, both fried dough, they are different. A funnel cake is like fried batter, an Elephant Ear is risen dough rolled out flat then fried, I prefer the Elephant Ear over the Funnel cake (we have both up here in the North West).

Now next on the agenda: "fake snake vs. real snake"

This is a fake snake.




This is a real snake. No matter how yellow it is...it is still real.

I tried to clarify these things in the comments section, but it wouldn't let me add the photos, and I thought they were needed to make sure everything was clear. Thanks for the comments though I think 9 is a new personal best! I encourage those involved to continue leaving comments even if they feel patronized by this "meeting". Thanks for your time and support...Meeting adjourned.

Weekend Delight!

Well this weekend has been a good time, actually something exciting enough to blog about. Friday night all of us went to our annual ward BBQ (even though last year everyone that went got a lovely surprise the next day with a little lower intestinal tango) this year was good fun. We enjoyed the grilled chicken prepared Polynesian style (a member in our ward is from Tonga, he marinated and grilled the chicken... at least I hope it was chicken, I only say that because I had an experience on my mission at a Tongan family's house where there was an array of meat at the BBQ including horse, but it was still good they didn't tell us till afterwards). Anyways there were also a few games like triva, guess how much candy is in the jar, and a water balloon toss. Out of those three games I did win one...I wasn't going to guess how much candy was in the jar because I didn't want the candy to eat for the next two weeks (trying to eat healthy these days, although I allow one day a week to splurge, this candy would have lasted a long time) but anyways because of my own stubborn pride, knowing I could make as good as guess as any I ended up guessing and winning the candy. I did have the will power to not eat any of it though, and gave it to one of the young men. So overall we had a great time, and didn't have any surprises the next day...Phew!

Saturday turned out great also. Many of you have read about the Spokane Shock on one of Emily's posts, if you haven't they are a new arena football team in Spokane that our Elder's Quruom President owns. It was their first season this year and amazinginly they made it all the way to the Super Bowl of Arena football (AF2). The game was in Puerto Rico but was televised so I watched and again amazingly they won, that is the first time a 1st year expansion team has won it all in this league it was AWESOME!!! After the game we as a family went to the North Idaho State Fair, a good friend of mine hooked us up with admission tickets (his inlaws have an Elephant Ear booth at the fair every year) and he also hooked us up with Elephant Ears and drinks. It was a cheap date since we only had to pay for parking. We ate our treat then just walked around the rest of the night looking at the animals, exihibits, and people it was good fun and the kids enjoyed it alot. Evan was so tired but wouldn't go to sleep because of all the lights, and noises and things to look at, and Jordyn just loved all the commotion. I've included pictures of our adventure.


Jordyn enjoyed looking at all the animals, this goat was very curious on what was going on outside the pen. At the sheep exhibit Jordyn had her feet on the pen. The sheep mistaked the little flowers on Jordyn's shoes as a tasty treat and started nibbling at them, we got a good laugh at that.

Evan was totally mesmerized by all that was going on and all the new creatures.















I couldn't resist taking a picture with the python (I needed something exicting to post about), I was going to have Jordyn and Evan help me hold the snake, but my mom would have called Child Protective Services on me in an instant! (She hates snakes, and would have killed me if I subjected her precious grandbabies to the "evil creature") Oh and I didn't want to wear the hat but the guy with the snake talked me into it saying "You've gotta look the part mate" (he was from Austrailia). This was the coolest exhibit they had all kinds of spiders, lizards, snakes, (not any of my favorite things but interesting to look at in their cages) even an alligator and baby zebra so it was a popular attraction. 

I'm back w/ a vengeance

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have not posted a new blog in a while, but with a little tactful jabbing from a fellow blogger (you know who you are) I'm back and will do better this time around. So keep checking my blog for new posts cause now that I'm back I'm going to post something new every three minutes hope hope you can keep up.

Priest Lake

Well since I don't have any thing else to blog about right now I'll tell you about my weekend. We went up to Upper Priest Lake (about 20 miles South of the Canadian Border in Northren Idaho) with the Kovichs (inlaws) hiked about 2.5 miles ate lunch and played on the beach. It was good fun, all the kids did really good and enjoyed themselves too. I think we are making this an annual event since we did it last year too, and plan on doing it in the future years. Well I'll end there since a picture is worth a thousand words so here's about 4000 words for ya...enjoy!




Deep Thoughts
by
Tom & Evan:
















Just testing out the water for Daddy:






My cute baby
and even cuter wife!:














Jordyn being a
beach bum: