Sorry, Long Time No Post

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, been quite busy at work and play.

Early November, Chris and I went on vacation to Arizona and Utah. We had been looking forward to the trip for several months. The following is a short synopsis of the trip.

Started out rather unusual. We got to the airport 3 hrs. prior to departure. We were traveling first class and were entitled to lounge in the Alaska Airlines Anchorage board room. It's a relaxing area with drinks and snacks complimentary. When we were going in, my left shoe felt odd. I looked down and discovered the comfortable shoes I had not worn in several years had torn on the inside bottom of the left shoe. I thought "oh well, I'll just change into my sneakers when we land and toss the torn shoes. By the time we climbed the two flights of stairs to the board room the shoe had deteriorated quite a bit. We sat down and after five minutes I looked at the floor in front of me and to my surprise the floor was riddled with what appeared to be disintegrating rubber. My shoe was now in total meltdown and the entire bottom was falling off. I looked at the bottom of the right shoe and it also was starting to disintegrate. I'm about to get on an airplane flying first class and I'm wearing a pair of shoes that need to be tied around the bottom to stay together. The board room closed and I'm embarrassed to get up. I could then see portions of my shoe in the path I took to my seat. By the time we got back downstairs the other shoe had totally disintegrated also. Fortunately there was a store in the airport that carried slippers. Of course my size was unavailable. So I wore extra large slippers for the next 10 hours and two flights. It was quite funny.

Okay, we got to Las Vegas and drove south to Eloy, AZ. There I went indoor skydiving prior to re certifying in the air. I was able to get in only 5 actual skydives but it was great.

After two days in Eloy we traveled to Pheonix and spent a couple of nights there. We went to a NASCAR race at PIR. It was a blast and Chris was certainly in her element. She was able to explain to me many things of the pre-race activities. We are looking forward to going to another race at another venue. Then we headed north to the Grand Canyon and drove around the east rim. It is beautiful. We didn't spend much time sightseeing because the best part of the trip was still ahead of us.

We were anxiously heading to Cedar City, Utah, to be introduced to our first grandson, Porter, and seeing the extremely missed Brighton. Oh yeah, Danielle and Kyle were going to be there also. We spent near a week there which wasn't long enough. Got to enjoy the company of Kyle's sister and brother-in-law, Casey and Tyler. I went golfing with Kyle and Tyler in St. George. It was great. Time flew by and we can't wait to get on the move again.

As soon as we got back, I had to head back to the slope for another two weeks. I've been back a week and have been somewhat lazy, but not too much. We went to the Acuren Christmas party and had a good time. I spent two days in Anchorage at a company business meeting. I hope to go ice fishing with Andy Penyak this Saturday. I've got to go to San Fran Monday for a 1 day meeting that will take three days round trip. I'll get back from there on Wednesday and fly to the slope on Thursday. Another 2 weeks in the grinder.

May not get another post in until I get back home on the 30th of Dec. Sarah flies in the same day I do and we are looking forward to seeing her. She will be back for a couple of weeks vacation from her senior year at the University of Montana.

I'll try not to take so long until the next post. Drop me a line to say Hi. I think of you all, that's why I'm always busy...............Love, Dad, Bob, Jeff, G'pops, and other names I may not be fond of!!