Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Long and Exciting Weekend

This past weekend (May 18-21) was probably the busiest we have had in a while.

Friday, May 18th
After working the late shift at work, I headed up the Big Bear for a Father and Son camp-out at the LDS Youth Camp. Having never been there before, I was able to get there without too much difficulty. Logan went up earlier in the day with his Grandpa Jim to make sure they could get a few beds in one of the cabins.
LDS Youth Camp, Big Bear, CA
They were waiting for me at the entrance of the camp when I arrived. After dropping off my bag in the cabin, we spent most of the evening hanging out with Adam Slade and his kids, Jake and Sam. Logan was quite happy to have them around. They took turns walking across one of the log fences and playing in the sand pit of the volleyball net. Logan also decided to play bury the flashlight and did such a good job that he couldn't find it. Luckily, we were able to locate it shortly after it "disappeared". Around 9pm, Jake and Sam headed for bed and Logan decided that it was time to turn in as well. Despite a number of the other boys being awake and making noise, Logan did a decent job of falling asleep. He only woke up once, from a bad dream probably, and went back to bed after a few minutes of incoherent speech.

Saturday, May 19th
We woke up around 6:30am and started getting ready for the day. After breakfast and getting all of our stuff loaded into the car, Logan and I decided to hike around on the rocks behind the campsite. Apparently, Logan heard some of the other boys talk about a cave somewhere and that a bear lived in it. So we went on a bear hunt.
Bear Hunt with Logan at Big Bear
He seemed to have fun wondering around and pointing in different directions saying, "I think the bear went that way." Then Logan caught up with Jake and Sam and spent some more time exploring. Logan and Jake are pretty quick on climb the rocks and Sam kept trying to keep up.We found a few piles of small rocks that had been painted gold. The boys really enjoyed looking for more, but we decided it was best to leave them for someone else.

Around 10am, we left the campsite and headed to the Moonridge Animal Park in Big Bear. Logan enjoyed looking at the animals, but decided after a little while that he would like to go home. So home we headed! The drive down was pleasant enough. We stopped halfway down to look out over the valley.

When we arrived home, everyone was quite happy to see each other. The afternoon was spent trying to relax before a dual birthday party. The party's theme was Candy Land. There were many families and kids there. Mackenzie decided to show her shy side for the first 45 minutes or so, but slowly warmed up to everything. After spending a while at the party, Mom and Dad decided it was time to head home and put the kids to bed. I'd like to say that I remember what Kara and I did that night, but it escapes me. That's right, we made Cake Pops for Logan's birthday party. What a long process, but I guess it was worth it since they did taste pretty good.

Sunday, May 20th
Around 4am, Mackenzie came into our room saying that she needed to go potty. Once in our bathroom, she began to...toss her cookies, to put it nicely. In the words of Han Solo, "What an incredible smell you've discovered!" It was the perfect way to start out a Sunday. Kara and I decided to stay up with her for a little bit in the living room, but I think we all fell asleep for a little while. Of course, I was on the Love Seat and woke with a stiff foot. Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day recuperating and making sure that Kenzie was doing better.

Monday, May 21st
I took Monday off so we could celebrate Logan's birthday. We held it at John's Incredible Pizza in Moreno Valley, CA. A few of Logan's friends were able to make it. He wanted to do a Pirate theme, so Kara made sure to have plenty of booty on hand (for pictures, see Kara's Facebook page). All of the kids seemed to enjoy it and it sounded like Logan had a great time. They even have a Pirate video game that was pretty easy for the kids to play. I'm thinking that Kara and I might have to do a Date Night there sometime, just so we can see what else is there. By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted. We opened some of Logan's gifts and the kids played until bed time.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Parade of Packages



With Mother's Day just past and Logan's birthday around the corner, packages have begun to arrive. Nothing like finding gifts online and having them delivered to your doorstep.

Kara's new camera arrived and I have been charging the battery since I got home so she will be able to get familiar with it this evening while I'm out grocery shopping.


One of Logan's gifts is an Imaginext Space Shuttle. My goodness, you barely move it and it lights up and makes all sorts of noises. I'm certain he will love it along with the pirate ship my parents are getting him.

 
We have also received a few other packages for Logan's little party. Mostly pirate related accessories.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Could life be any busier?

While I would like to think that I am trying to be more active at this, it seems like life has other things in mind. Since my last post, we have purchased a home in Banning, CA. We are certainly enjoying the home and the area.

My drive to work isn't that bad (about 20 minutes or so) depending on the time I leave. Work has been keeping me busy and challenged. I have plenty to do, but not enough time in the day to complete as much as I would prefer.

The family is doing well. Nehemiah started crawling a month or so ago and he has been non-stop. Karalynn is doing a great job with the kids, but I know that she is tired and quite often exhausted by the end of the day.

We did some work on the yard this past weekend. Kara planted her herb garden and I mowed the "lawn," which is mostly weeds. Kara also spend some time weeding the backyard to prep it for use.

I will try to add a few pictures of the house in the near future since the interior has been decorated and the exterior is what it is for the time being.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Getting back in the habit

Since I finished school, I have enjoyed the feeling of not really having anything to do in the evenings. That coupled with living out of boxes while house hunting has made it rather easy to let things slide. Since the purchase of our first house should be complete this week, I figure that I should start getting back into the habit of studying for my A+ certification and increase my code skills. Just need to find the best code language to learn that will be beneficial for the future while effective in my current job. Any suggestions? I have made a number to fairly complex batch files to streamline some of the tasks at work, but want to get into some a little more complex than that. I suppose I could always go back over my C++ book since I did extremely well in that class.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Second day of house hunting.

Second day of house hunting. Didn't really find anything worthwhile. Not like the house on Half Moon Court in Beaumont, CA. One had some promise.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

DropPages

I was looking over some of the news sites that I look at and came across an article about DropPages. Basic idea: use your Dropbox account to maintain a website.

Small plug for Dropbox, if you don't have an account with them, get one! They offer a free account that gives you 2 GB of online storage with the ability to setup an auto-syncing folder on a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.

Anyway, DropPages is a simple way to create and maintain a website. I am currently trying to get mine put together here: Jschneck1 DropPages.

Tired

It seems like sickness is going around again. Looks like my daughter caught it first, but she could also be dealing with cutting some more teeth. (finally!) I guess I picked up a little something, even though I was sure that it was just allergies. Dealing with this, school, and work, I've been pretty tired lately. Kara and I are trying to go to bed at a decent time, but it is hard to do since we don't get a lot of time together this quarter.

I was able to apply for my final class in the first session of Summer. Every week that goes by is just one week closer to being done with school. At least for now.

To add on top of this, all of my classes this quarter involve group projects. Talk about making time out of thin air!