Do I snore?

After I read Dallin his bedtime story, I gave him a good night kiss and told him to go to sleep. I normally lay down with him for a few minutes, unless I fall asleep (most nights)... Once I finished the book and turned off the light Dallin said,

"Daddy... Don't snore"

Beautiful

Dallin and Jen were in Utah when I bought my new truck. I told Dallin about it and showed him the pictures below when we were in Arizona for my reunion. Well... when we drove up to the house to see it for the first time I prepped him a little saying, "Are you ready to see Daddy's new truck?". I got him out of the car and turned him around so he could see it sparkling in the drive way.

He said, "It's... It's," ...pauses to think of the most appropriate word to describe this new vehicle... "Beautiful!"

I raised him right :)

10 Year High School Reunion

It's official... I'm getting old :) Today was my 10 year high school reunion. It was a lot of fun to see so many old friends and acquaintances. We got to catch up on what everyone else has been up to and what not.

Todd Watson and the rest of the committee really did a nice job planning the event. Friday night was a pizza party followed by a family picnic Saturday afternoon. Both of these events were much less attended then the main event but it was fun to get to see everyone's kids.

Saturday night was the main event at Rustler's Roost. It was a lot of fun. It's a pretty casual venue with excellent food. Everyone mixed and mingled most of the night, except for a brief moment when Todd presented awards for the most change, least changed, most kids, furthest traveled, etc. It was a fun night.

Jen took this picture of ourselves overlooking the Phoenix valley. You can't see many of the lights since the flash was turned on... plus both of our smiles look a little tired after a couple hours of mingling with old friends :)

Hiking at Camelback Mountain

We are in Arizona this week to visit family and to attend my 10 year highschool reunion this weekend. It's fun spending all day with Jen and the kids. We made a picnic lunch and went up to Camelback mountain to do a little hike this afternoon. The weather in Arizona has been wonderful. It's a little warm in the sun but beautiful to sit in the shade and enjoy the cool breeze.

Naturally with Dallin and Thatcher we didn't hike to the summit, but instead we did a little .5 mile hike to Bobby's Rock. Dallin did really good hiking all the way up. He had fun exploring and looking for bugs. Just before we got back to the parking lot he started getting tired and wanted to be held, so the hike was just the right length :)

New Truck!

This is my new truck! After months of looking and weeks without a vehicle I have finally found the perfect truck to replace my S-10.

I found this truck a few weeks ago on craigslist, but the owner had it listed a little higher then I was looking to pay. I explained that the truck was just what I was looking for, but I wasn't really interested in paying the price for the nice rims and other chrome accessories. I offered him what I thought was a reasonable price to by it without the rims. He could put the stock rims and tires back on and then sell the fancy rims separately to recoup more of his asking price.

We went back and forth over email for a while. He explained that he was more interested in selling it with the rims just to clean out the garage and not have the extra set of tires taking up space and was willing to come down to a pretty fair price with the rims. It still wasn't quite at my price range. I gave him my top offer that I would pay (with the rims included), and then didn't hear back from him for a few days. I figured he thought my offer was too low and gave up on negotiating with me. Well, while we were at Lake Powell on vacation I got an email from him explaining that he was out of town for the weekend (hence no email), but that he and he's wife agreed to sell it to me at my price! woohoo!

I still hadn't seen it in person yet only pictures. I replied explaining that we were now out of town and I would come by Monday night to see it and test drive it, and if it looked as good in person as it did in the pictures then I would hold to that price.

Over the last month there have been 3 trucks that I have contemplated purchasing, each time that I finally decided I wanted to buy the truck I called up the owner/dealer and it was sold! So... I was certain by the time I returned to Seattle the next week that he would have sold it to somebody else.

Well, I emailed him on Monday and he said that it was still available but that he just returned from the Infinity dealer and they were working a deal for a new 2008 which included the truck as a trade in. However, he told them that I may still be interested in purchasing it and if so he would sell it to me since he had already committed to the price. It turns out that they were going pay him only $500 less then what we had agreed to, plus he would have saved at least $1000 in sales tax on the new car by trading it in the truck. It was very nice of him to still sell it to me, and to hold to the price that we had agreed upon.

Anyways, I went to test drive the truck last night. Many times the vehicles look 10 times better in their pictures on craigslist then what they look like in real life... NOT THIS TRUCK... This truck looks BETTER in real life! Seriously, the pictures I have posted here are the pictures from the craigslist add. At first, looking at the pictures, I thought the rims and chrome accessories were a bit much, but once I saw it in real life I simply fell in LOVE with this truck. It is absolutely immaculate. It seriously is in just as good condition as the brand new trucks that I test drove at the dealerships. It only has 17,000 miles which is remarkable for a 2004. There's not a scratch in the paint, or a blemish in the interior. Plus, it's got a spray in bed liner, cruise control, and dual zone climate control for the AC and heater.

I talked it over with Jen on the phone since she is still in Utah. I told here how nice the truck looked and she agreed that it was a good price and that we should go for it. So I drove out to his house this morning after a stop by the bank, and traded him a couple envelopes full of cash for a smokin' hot silverado...

I am now quite happy that the other 3 trucks I almost bought didn't work out. Honestly, I would have been happy with any of them but, I am most pleased with the one I've ended up with :)

I absolutely love it!