Christmas is Coming

Well I guess I need to do a better job of hiding Jake's Christmas presents. The other day Jake had snuck out into the garage and found one of his gifts. Unfortunately, I had placed the gift on top of some other things in the garage. This is what we found...

Yes, thats a new car on top of the stroller and a couple bags of charcoal

Jake had climbed up the stroller, opened the door to the car, and proceeded to work the steering wheel and honk the horn all while sporting a super grin from ear to ear. I can't believe it was stable enough not to fall to the floor.



He sure had a good time until we took him out of the car. I guess he won't be as surprised as he should be on Christmas day, but at least we know he'll like it.

Elk Hunt

On Friday after Thanksgiving my buddy Scott and I left Yuma and traveled to Pinetop, AZ, in the White Mountains for my very first elk hunt. We were able to stay at my mom's place in Pinetop and looked forward to a week of some of the world's best elk hunting in units 3A and 3C. The higher elevations had received a couple inches of freshly fallen snow, while most everything else was a muddy mess from all the rain. Scott and I had not been able to go scouting for this hunt and therefore would be shooting from the hip on where to begin looking for my first elk. Our family friend, T.T. Havins, gave us some helpful advice on a promissing area near Show Low. We headed out before sunrise the next morning and I had killed my elk by 9:00 a.m. A group of ATV riders were out for a ride and stopped to ooh and awe over the beautiful animal we had harvested. We enlisted their help hook up to the elk with there Rhino and to make the short hall down the hill and into the back of my truck. They were very helpful and significantly cut down on our time in the field. Here are a coupl of pictures.









The antler on the left was signficantly shorter than the one on the right. We were certainly confused as to why, but speculate that it must have gotten into a pretty good skirmish early on in the antler growth.

The three guys in the hats were the ones who helped us get teh elk down to the truck and load it.

Jimmy Buffett 2008

I know it has been a very long time since this blog was updated, but I just sort of ran out of steam there for awhile.

Anyway, back in October, Johnna and I spent our first weekend away from Jake and traveled to Las Vegas with six of our very best friends to see Jimmy Buffett. It was a surprise Birthday present for Johnna and we had an absolute blast. The "Block Party" started at 11:00 a.m. with live music and cold libations. When we finally made it to the concert at the MGM Grand we discovered that Johnna's seat in the arena was missing. Apparently the stadium seat was broke and had not been repaired/replaced prior to the concert. After speaking with arena staff they told us that the best they could do was give us two tickets on the floor level just to the right of the stage. We voiced our concerns about leaving our friends, but the staff said they could not move all eight of us. So, Johnna and I enjoyed our second Jimmy Buffett concert on the floor of the MGM Grand Garden Arena (first was in 2004) while the others watched from high above us. I must say that the Block Party was nearly as much fun as the concert itself. Here are a few pics from early in the day.

Mike and Joci, Johnna, and Scott

Scott, Mike, Mark, and Stacey

The Block Party Crowd (can you see us???)

There we are

Uh-oh!!!

I knew someday I would need to explain the "Byrds and the Bees" to our little Jake, but I didn't realize how soon that moment would come. We leave a camera with the teacher at Jake's school so she can capture some of his life we don't get to see. He loves going to school and now we see why. He sure looks relaxed, with his girl in his arms, his binkie in his mouth and something good on TV (aparently).

Packer Time

Jake helped me decorate one of my co-worker's cubicle the other day for the Packers-Cowboys game. Jaime is a huge Dallas fan and started talkin' smack early. So Jake and I had the idea of "cheesing up" her desk. Even though the Packers didn't win we still have the pictures of our Packer Pride. Redemption will come in the NFC Championship when the Packers run over the Cowboys on their way to the superbowl.

So you think you can dance?

One of Jake's favorite movies recently has been "Grease 2" with Michelle Pfeiffer. He especially likes it when she sings the song "Cool Rider" and we have caught him dancing to it on a couple of occasions. Well tonight, we had the video camera ready. After taking his dirty clothes off of him after dinner we cued the song and let Jake take it away. As you will see he gets going pretty fast and nearly falls over when he loses his balance. Tonight he also threw in a couple of arm moves that we hadn't seen before. I can't tell you how lucky we are to have him in our lives. He sure makes every day so much better. Enjoy.

Pinetop Getaway

Johnna, Jake and I took a week off from work and traveled to Pinetop in the much cooler White Mountains. We had rain nearly every day and beautiful temperatures in the 60's and 70's. We took Jake for walks around Woodland Lake Park and traveled to Alpine to visit with Jack and Midge Fritz. Here are a few pics that we took. Unfortunately, most were on my mom's camera which I failed to copy before we came back to Yuma.

Swinging in Alpine.

Walking around Woodland Lake

Watering Nana's flowers

Putting on mom's shoes to do more watering

Growing Up Fast

Johnna's mom had gotten Jake this backpack harness prior to our vacation so he couldn't get away from her in the airport or other places. He was such a good boy while we were gone we never needed to use it. That didn't stop him from modeling it for mom anyway. He particularly liked the pouch in the front to store his treats in.







We gave him corn on the cob the other night and he had a unique way of eating it. Actually, this was him playing with the corn cob after he had eatin it.

Jake has been trying on daddy's shoes lately and is surprisingly good at walking in them. He seems to be pretty partial to flipflops, but somehow I haven't managed to get a picture of him wearing them.

Lincoln City, Oregon 2008

My First Plane Ride

On Sunday, July 13, 2008, Jake stepped into an airplane for the very first time. He flew for over two hours from Phoenix to Portland, Oregon, for our annual family trip and he did pretty well. He cried for about 10 minutes during our descent into Portland and was wanting leave his seat most of the time, but he also watched movies and even slept for a little bit.

4th of July

Waiting for sunset.


Dancin' with grandma


Enjoying his first snowcone. (Strawberry I'm sure)


Watchin' "the rockets red glare..."


"and bombs bursting in air!!!"


Jake spent his second 4th of July watching the fireworks at the Yuma Golf and Country Club only this year he was able to stay awake the whole time. He had a blast running around on the practice green and listening to the band. He never seemed to get tired and enjoyed the neon glow rope and his first snow cone. We weren't too sure how he was going to react to the fireworks, but as you can see he just sat in mom's lap and stared in amazement. We sure loved watching him play with all of the other kids.

Recent Pictures

The following are just some recent pictures of Jake. He is growing like a weed and seems to really enjoy his days at school. He is babbling more than ever and is learning new things everyday. Although we can't quite figure out what he is saying most of the time he is eager to show us exactly what he wants. We now need to be careful when the phone rings because Jake always thinks its for him. And, if we don't let him have the phone, we're in for a fight. The scooter he's riding was borrowed from a friend and Jake loved it. Seems you can't push him fast enough (I think we have a daredevil on our hands). He liked it so much that after his bath he didn't even bother to get dressed before hopping right back on.

1st Day of School

Monday was bittersweet for Johnna and I as Jake began his first day of daycare. Johnna dropped him off and was very worried that he would have a hard time when she left him. Suprisingly, he didn't even notice she had left. He did very well throughout the day and was sent home with a little progess note that told us what he did during the day. The highlights were "He was a great eater" and "He is a little young yet for arts and crafts. He seemes more interested in tasting the crayon than coloring with it." We can't wait to see what fun activities and crafts he'll bring home in the future.

Toast and Bananas to start the day.



Getting ready to leave.



Anxious to get in.


Signing in for the first time.


Jake running away as the other kids arrive.

Holy Flathead!!

A friend of mine is a Wildlife Manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department and he was recently performing electro-surveys along the Colorado River down here near Yuma when they "shocked up" this monster flathead. I was told that it weighed in at 89.4 pounds (once they got it on shore to weigh it). This is 15 pounds heavier than the current state record for a flathead caught on "hook and line."

"Where'd you say you let that thing go?"