Lake Powell

I can't let too much time go by without mentioning our annual Pidcock Family trip to Lake Powell. Unfortunately I don't really have any pictures to help illustrate the event. My sister in law Becky has a nice camera and was kind of dubbed the week's photographer. Since she was snapping plenty of pictures of everyone we didn't feel to compelled to pull out our camera to duplicate the pictures. We were supposed to get a DVD from her with all of the pictures she took before we left Utah but forgot to do so and as such will probably never see the pictures, since we'll probably forget about them the next time we are in town... oh well :).

This year we decided to take our trip to Lake Powell a little bit later in the year. Instead of the usual trip in July we took a week off in September. We only spent 3 days at Lake Powell in Page and spent the rest of the time just visiting Jen's family in Utah.

Mark and I rented a nice demo wakeboard and had fun wakeboarding behind Mike's rented Reinell. The water was great and of course the scenary was beautiful as usual. We all had a great time.

Jen did get this cute picture of Dallin and Sage hanging out at Bashful Bob's Motel in Page:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Wow... Check this out...

I am now qualified to apply to be an Astronaut for NASA!

Where do I sign!

The following was posted on slashdot.org by the user cited below:

codewarrior78411 writes:
"NASA posted a hiring notice for new astronauts Tuesday, on usajobs.com, seeking for the first time in almost 30 years men and women to fly aboard spacecraft other than the shuttle. The agency is seeking 10 to 15 new faces for three to six-month missions aboard the international space station." Requirements include 'Must be a U.S. citizen between 5-foot-2 and 6-foot-3 in height (to squeeze into Russia's three-passenger Soyuz capsule)' 'At least a bachelor's degree in engineering, a biological or physical science, or mathematics' 'three years of relevant professional experience' and most interestingly 'Vision correctable to 20/20. For the first time, the space agency will consider applicants who have undergone successful refractive eye surgery.'

Superman... se fue

Yes, it's true... Superman has gone.

I've sold my truck. I was actually really sad to see it go. I've really enjoyed my little superman truck. I bought this truck just a few weeks after I got home from my mission. I believe it was on Shawn and Crystals wedding day to be exact. Justin and I were in his line. I had been eyeing this truck for a couple weeks and finally decided I was going to buy it. Grandpa had agreed to co-sign a loan with me since I didn't have any credit after returning home from the mission. In between Shawn and Crystals luncheon and the time we had to be back for the reception I called up Grandpa and asked him if he was up for heading down there and workin' his magic... and that is just what he did. The truck was 3 years old when I bought it. The dealer had it marked at $12,500 I believe. When I had talked with one of the salesmen he said he could probably get it for $10,000. Grandpa and I both researched what the truck was worth and with Grandpa's incredible haggling skills we walked out of there with a hot little pickup for only $7,700. I was thrilled.

This truck took me back and forth between BYU and home many times. I remember leaving my apartment after class one Friday afternoon, hopping in the truck and driving to Mesa to surprise my family in order to attend Hunter's baptism the following day.

Jen and I took our first date, and many other dates in this pickup. We drove probably more than 2,000 miles in this pickup with the phrase, "Honk we're finally hitched" written on the back window on our honeymoon.

I remember after we had been married for a little over a year we drove the truck through the night from Pleasant grove to Mesa, stopping to sleep for a few hours in the truck bed at the rest stop outside of Kanab, UT. We did as much of this trip as we could at night or in the early morning because my AC was broken! ...and it was the middle of the SUMMER... Jen had a spray bottle filled with water and a battery powered handheld fan to use as a swamp cooler :) ...it got quite HOT driving through the desert.

When we finally made it back to Pleasant Grove after that trip Jen told me she wouldn't drive with me in the truck to AZ anymore until we fixed the AC.

Dutifully, I bought a new AC compressor for $300 bucks, and being the poor college students that we were I replaced it myself instead of paying a professional. I did a pretty good job, if I say so myself :)

I've put over 100,000 miles on this truck (for a total of 140,000) and drove it for 7 years. It's been a vehicle with character that I've enjoyed driving, but it was finally time to let it go. I'm now looking for a new truck, preferably something bigger with a tow package. I'm hoping the next 100,000 and 7 years brings us a nice wakeboard boat to tow.

I sold it to a teenager who just graduated from high school. I could tell he really liked the truck. I listed it at a pretty fair price, since it's got a few quirks that need fixing (i.e. the hazard switch requires a bungee cord to keep it from flashing :). I came down only $200 from my asking price and we settled on $2700. I was excited to see my truck find a good owner that will get good mileage out of this stylish little pickup.

It's been a good run.

Counting

As the proud father that I am, I believe Dallin is quite intelligent. He'll be turning three years old next month. Most kids his age can count at least to ten, as he can. But what surprises me is his understanding of humor.

I read to him at night from a book that has numbers in it where we will count together. I'll randomly point to a number and say, "What's that?" Most of the time he will get it right. However, after a little while he'll get bored with this and then he'll point to a number... two for instance, and say, "That's a four."

He'll look at me with a mischievous grin until I say, "No silly that's a two." This is followed by Dallin laughing and insisting,

"No, it's a four."

He thinks he's pretty funny. We'll go back and forth debating the numeric value of the digit 2 for a while until I reverse it on him on the say it's a four. That always throws him for a loop for at least a couple seconds.

He'll also play this game on a page full of objects... He'll insist that the submarine is an airplane and that the airplane is the submarine.

The cutest thing is that he thinks he's so clever and funny.