Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Coming Home to Flowers

I had the opportunity to be part of the SkyWest Leadership Conference in Salt Lake and had a blast. It took a lot of planning and a lot of work but in the end I think the managers enjoyed the event and had a good time. The theme of the event was back to basics and so to cut on cost we had the event at the accessory shop.
We also did a football themed event for team spirit and working together. I was in charge of the Tug-o-War game with Spencer and it was probably not the favorite out of all the stations. This wasn’t your typical tug-o-war with two teams going against each other by pulling on a big rope. We took it a step further and had them pulling an actual airplane tug. Most of the teams were not too happy to have to be pulling on this heavy tug with two of their team mates sitting on it LOL. Any time it got a bit heated I realized I was paired up with Spencer for a reason “my bouncer” for the night.
Overall I think it was a lot of fun and after we got some drinks in the employees they soon forgot about the tug experience and loved everything lol.

I came home exhausted and ready to sleep for 3 days and opened the door to these amazing flowers Jake bought for me. The house was super clean and the flowers were perfect.
Then Jake told me we had to go feed the cows this weekend. In my mind they were cute little cows that love you and jump over the moon. When I got there I realized they were bucking bulls. Jake then proceeded to tell me that they are just like pets and to go into that pen and yell at them to move aside while we feed them uhhhhhh noooooo those don’t look like pets and I’m sure the devil horned bull eyeing me down is not going to listen to me yelling at him.
I got some guts and walked in and started to walk/run to the safety of the other pen. Only to start to panic when Jake started yelling “oh my gosh run” (totally just as a mean joke) Come to find out the nice little cows in the other pen were probably worse, because they had their calves to take care of. Then the water line wouldn't work and Jake had me crawl into a pen with a wild Mustang to say hello to. Godo thing he was more afraid of me then I was of him (if thats possible) and kept his distance. It was an adventure and no I didn’t get killed by a bull but I certainly won’t be turning my back to them any time soon.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Aviation Day / Horses

I woke up early this weekend for no particular reason other than it’s my one day to really sleep in and that almost always means I wake up ridiculously early. Jake and I went over to the St. George airport for Aviation Day. I actually wasn’t really sure what to expect and kind of thought it would be lame, but it surprised me how fun it was. We ate pancakes and sausage and sat around and talked for a little bit with people. We then ventured out to see the airplanes on display. Jake zeroed in on a World War II aircraft that is in the picture below. Next to Jake in the following picture is Flight Surgeon Evan Creed who was awesome to talk to.








Have you ever seen the movie Second Hand Lions? If you haven’t go out and rent it tonight and if you have you totally know what I mean when I say this guy reminds me of the two old timers in that movie. He had all sorts of stories he shared with us. His badge was in English and Arabic and I walked up to him and saw it and read it to him in Arabic and he was so thrilled. He said he never had anyone from the States read that to him before. Then the stories started of eating fine dinners with royalty in Iraq and learning the language. He talked of the places he traveled to and their cultures he learned from. He and Jake had a blast discussing the history of the airplane. We finished up by watching some of the cool air stunts and talking to some people who actually made their own airplanes. After that all Jake could think of was building his own airplane. We hat a bit of rain so we cooled off on the way home on the motorcycle – an adventure in itself.







The rest of the day was spent with the horses. It was the perfect day to go out and have fun training them and riding a little bit. I haven’t ridden since I was bucked off of Lady so I was a bit nervous. Of course the first horse I decide to get back on is Benji the “war horse”.
He was acting up so I tried to keep our ride short and sweet lol. You can see in this video how he didn’t really want to be ridden and was trying to act up a little with Jake (sorry my camera didn’t want to focus too well).Jake says he wasn't bucking and I say he was...you decide :).
Here Jake is roping Zelph and working with him a little bit. I finally got a chance to pet him and work with him. In the past every time I would get close to him he would turn around to kick me. Zelph and Mama did not like me after I pulled Knubs away while Tom and Jake took him to get iodine on his feet and umbilical cord. She hated me for that and I was sure she was going to strike me that day. Anyways, looks like we made up and that trust is building once again.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Survivor

The relaxing weekend get away with friends and family turned into a survivor episode minus Spencer and Heidi celebrity survivor edition. Jake went up for the whole week and spent some great quality time with his Dad. My parents came in on Thursday and probably didn’t leave the motor home the entire day… the May Flies hatched and they were swarming! When I arrived early Friday morning I ran from the SUV to the cabin trying to hold back my screams because that would only mean a swarm of bugs would be entering my mouth. I felt like you couldn’t even breath they were so bad.
So when you can’t play outside you play board games inside, and boy did we ever play some serious board games. Not sure if anyone has played Rummikub but it’s a blast!!! I came home from our vacation and went right to the store to purchase it. Friday night the bugs let up a little bit so I went out fishing with Dad and Jake on the little boat. They both had this complex technique to catching fish while I sat in the middle of the boat with my jacket pulled up around my face and my hat pulled down over my eyes and the fishing pole sticking out of my bundle of clothing. This is my moment to brag – my way WON!!!! I caught two fishes!!! I caught a 3lb and a 2.5lb and Jake and Dad…well…they caught NONE! Haha!
We then came back to a very happy family with a plentiful supply of fish for dinner. Grandma fried some up and we had a wonderful family dinner. Grandpa became very excited about the fishing and was of course proud of his granddaughter.
The next morning Dad, Grandpa and Jake went out early on the fishing boat and Dad caught a 3lb and Grandpa caught an “almost” 3lb ;)
Okay I wont leave out Jakes big catches… he caught a big 5lb earlier that week and a 3lb and a 2.5lb. So he brought in the bacon…or the fish.
My mom and I were done with the fishing and took off to pick up Austin and Skyler at the airport. We then went to Yellowstone national park and faced the worst animals of all time in fierce blizzards – we saw a wolf – which turned out to really be a deer – we saw a wild goose – we saw a huge bear, which turned out to be yet another buffalo. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them and even my mom had a blast with the crazy group. So after not seeing anything worth taking a National Geographic shot of we headed back to the cabin.
We had a wonderful dinner and Jake took Austin and Skyler out fishing. Skyler had never fished before and once I explained to him that he would have to put the worm on the hook, he didn’t really like the idea of going anymore lol. We came back empty handed and cold, so we jumped into the car and drove to town to buy drinks and snacks. We came back played a few games and watch the movie Taken.
The next morning we woke up to a HUGE snow storm. Austin and Skyler were debating the night before on staying outside in the tent or staying in the nice warm cabin. I think they made the right decision of staying in doors that night. You can check out the pictures…and no they are not computer altered : ) we really did have that much snow.
So we survived, random animals, may fly disaster and the white out blizzard but it was a blast hanging with family and friends.