3rd Anniversary - Sept 24-25, 2007

Kara told me that I was in charge of the anniversary plans last year since she had pretty much taken care of it the last 2 years. I told her that that was no problem and went on my way. Since I had a couple of months I did not give it another thought. Of course, as the day was quickly approaching, Kara kept asking me what we were doing. I just kept telling her that I had it all worked out, which she did not believe. As the day got even closer, Kara told me that we could just go to dinner or something since nothing noteable had been arranged by me. I assured her that we were going to do something fun and not to worry. I told her it would be a surprize. Kara really likes surprizes so she backed off a little. A couple of days before our anniversary, I started to hear things like "you really have not planned anything have you", and "I will figure out something since you have been so busy at work". I continued to assure her that it would be a great surprize which was not working as well as it had before. Honestly, my confession to everyone today, including Kara, is that she was excactly right! I did not have the slightest idea what the big surprize was going to be! There, I said it. Whew! That felt good. Now, as the adrenaline started kicking in and the sweat started to pour out of me, I knew that I had to pull off a miracle. It was Friday afternoon and our anniversary was Saturday. With nothing coming to mind, I had pretty much realized that my life was over. I had to come clean and tell Kara that she was right. Driving slowly toward the freeway to go home from work and receive my beating, I saw such a beautiful sight that I almost cried. The sign read: Harley-Davidson. I was saved! I rushed over and reserved a Street Glide for us to take out and cruise on for 2 days. The end of September is not the high season for motorcycle rentals so it was not problem lining it up. My mind was ablaze with the many possibilities that now lay before me. I decided that we would ride it to Snow Basin where we got married, then cruise through the mountains and end up at Snowbird to spend the night. We would then cruise all day Sunday. I made the arrangements for Janet to watch Anna and the room at Snowbird, then called Kara. I was askec again what we were doing and with almost uncontainable excitement I explained that it would be a surprize but that she should wear warm clothes. I was asked if there would be electricity where we were going, to which I answered, "I assume so". When asked about stuff to take, I just said that we would be carrying it so pack light. I had not actually seen the motorcycle and was too excited to ask if it had saddle bags. I told her that she asked me to plan the activities so that is exactly what I did. After all, it is my anniversary too you know. I kept her in suspense that night and the next morning. She did not have any idea what was going on until we pulled into the parking lot of the Harley-Davidson store. That was all it took for her to put all the pieces together. She was now just as excited as I was. Little did she know that I had hatched this plan only the night before. Sorry about the long story, but I really felt like I had to tell it, for my own sake. Here are some pictures from our awesome anniversary planned by yours truly, just in the nick of time. I am going to add "works well with deadlines and under extreme pressure" on my resume!

• Snow Basin, Needles Lodge patio exactly where we were I became the happiest man alive! The weather was better 3 years ago. Good thing we did not wait!

• Cruising in the rain! The weather was not ideal for motorcycle rinding but we did not care. We knew there would be hot tubs at Snowbird.

• Sunday morning riding down the canyon from Snowbird.

• Our little "Harley-Anna". We missed her a lot! This was the first time we both left her overnight. (please note for planning purposes: no matter how far it is to go back and get the "pump", DO IT! If you need further info, ask Kara)

Family Pictures

Sitting in my tent office at work the other day a little bored watching a bunch of Bolivians push dirt around, I started organizing my pictures I have on my computer. It was fun to go through all of them and remember how much fun my little family has had over the last few years. One of the folders I thought was particularly interesting was one labeled "family pictures" where I put all of the pictures that we have taken of all three of us together. As it turns out, we have had quite a bit of fun together. These are not the typical family pictures that everyone has grown to hate. Instead, these are pictures of us doing what we love with those we love. Unfortunately, the following pictures are only the ones I had saved on my work computer. I will try to fill in the gaps when I get home from Bolivia. Enjoy!

• I guess this constitutes the "3 of us". This is right before we moved from the duplex.

• Here we are only a few short weeks since that last picture. Dec 5, 2006
  

• New House, new baby, cute wife, new job, done with school. What more could a guy want?

• Millcreek canyon snowshoeing. Feb 2007.



• Little Wild Horse Canyon Utah. March 2007.

• Denver Colorado. April 2007

• James and Rose's Wedding. May 2007

• Little Wild Horse Canyon Utah. Second trip right after the wedding. May 2007 Anna's hiking buddies were Sam, Heather and Christina.
  

• Gobblin Valley Utah. May 2007
• Yellowstone, May 2007. 4 Generations of Carlson women. What an exciting trip! I was a little out numered as you can see.

• Camping in Monte Cristo Utah with our friends Curtis, Joslyn and Braxton. June 2007.

• Oxford Peak (approx. 10,000ft) with my dad. June 2007.

• Denver Colorado. July 2007.
  

• Lagoon, Farmington Utah. July 2007.
• Wind Rivers Green River Lakes canoe trip. August 2007.

• Salmon River Steelhead fishing. November 2007.

• Chad and Christina's house. Livingston Montana December 2007.

• Jordan River Parkway. December 2007.

Snow shoeing with the Saunders. Grizzly Gulch, Alta Utah. January 2008.

• Silver Lake. Brighton Utah. June 2008.

Dave in Bolivia May 08 and July 08

I had the oportunity to work in Bolivia this summer. Yes I said work. It was for about 4 weeks at a time and I went twice. An AMEC office in Canada had done some engineering for a South American mining company called Sinchi Wayra. The company is operating a mineral concentrator in a little town called Don Diego, near Potosi Bolivia. The bi-product of the mineral concentration process is tailings, basically, left over minerals they cannot use. These tailings are piped in a slurry solution to a holding reservoir where the solid part settles out and the water is pumped back to the plant. I know, bla-bla-bla-bla. The point is, I am here overseeing the construction of a earth dike, or actually, the raising of the previous dike since it is just about full. It has proven to be quite an expirience living and working at about 14,000 ft. Between the animal sacrifices, blocked roads and almost getting deported, I have quite a few interesting stories. Come visit us and I will tell you all about it. Here are just a few pictures so you can see what I am doing here working at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Not a vacation I assure you.

• This is what it looked like when I got here. (this is the existing dike) They are just starting to excavate the foundation of the new dike.

• This is what it looks like right now standing on the top of the smaller dike.(July 19).

• Different view. Original dike on the left, new big dike on the right. We have placed about 4.2 million cubic feet of fill in front of the old dike and as you can see, still have more to go.

• How about this for a ladder? Nothing wrong here OSHA/MSHA, honest.

• Here is looking down the old dike. My spacious "tent" office is the orange, half dome one on the left. Nice huh? The workers actually live in the tents and buildings in the middle of the picture.

• Me at work.

• View from behind the smaller dike of the reservoir.

• Here is a picture of our "mascot" the llama who is helping us make sure we have no accidents. Our "mascot" is actually no longer with us but is still with us at the same time on the project. You will have to ask me about this to protect our younger viewers. Nice party hats.

• This is a picture of the city of Potosi, Bolivia. Pretty beautiful city don't you think?

UPDATED! House Projects Summer 2008

This summer we had some big plans for some

house projects. One of them was puting making access to the back yard and having a place to sit and relax with family and friends in the cool evenings of the summer. There has always been only one way to get out to the back of the house. That was through the garage, having to open the garage door. I have never liked this about my little house so we changed it. Now, at the bottom of the stairs on the main floor there is a sliding door where the window used to be. Since there was not much extra space to hang out we put a huge deck out the door. I goes 2 feet past the side of the house and runs the lenght of the garage. I have not put the top part on it yet but we have

been using it quite successfully without that being done. The door and the deck have really added to our little house and we are very happy with it. Anna has a place to play that she can be watched easily and still be outside. I will post a picture of the finished product soon.

Ok, I finally made some time to update the Fisher family house renovation project post.

Here is a picture of the deck, finished now.

Here is another view. Of Course the deck would

not be complete without its own set of Snowbird wings. Anna now has a great place to play, drive her car and swing and Kara and I have a nice place to relax with our friends and family outside.

Since the Deck was not enough work and money, we decided to put Hardwood flooring in the living room. The carpet had to go anyway so why not replace it with somthing that costs a lot and takes a lot of time. It makes perfect sense. Kara and I talked about it and I made a call to my "buddy who knows how to get things" and next thing I know, he is at my house with a truck full of 3/4" thick natural hickory hardwood, a nice table saw, a fancy Bostich nailer and all the fasteners. Jason, you are my hero! Anyway, Kara had gone to a see Christina in Montana so I had some time to make some noise and work late into the night. I am glad it is done and it was quite a surprize for Kara when she got home. Anna seems to really like it too. I have to give credit to my two helpers, Jason and Sam who burned the midnight oil with me to the point of wall smashing delirium to get this done. I installed new base boards which finished it off quite nicely. When Kara came home, we realized that we could not put the couch back in here that we took out since it fits so well in the basement so a couple new couches, an area rug and a big rocking chair were purchased. For anyone considering doing this, it is the indirect costs that "get you" so budget for those too. I am very happy with how it turned out and so is my family. Special thanks to my helpers and my family for appreciating the work I do. Here are a few pictures.

Spruces - June 26-27

Since I was home from Bolivia for a few weeks, Kara and Anna and I went and had a little camp out at the Spruces up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was fun to get out into the mountains and spend some quality time together. Kara really wanted to go camping while I was home. I was assuming I would have plenty of time to take my girls up the canyon but that all changed when I got the call to change my ticket and get to Bolivia as soon as possible. When this happened, I took Thursday and Friday of of work so I could hang out with my girls before my next trip. Of course, I could not have us go camping without the latest in camping gear, so this was the debut of the Big Agnes "King Solomon" and a new 3 man tent, also from Big Agnes. The bag was awesome, but the tent is going back becuse it is too small for 2 people and a little girl who likes to sleep sideways. For any of you who may be in the market for the greatest sleeping bag ever made, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. We hung out and ate hotdogs and smores and had a great time by the fire. Anna really liked to push her little chair around instead of sit in it. She really is little miss independent. Hmmm. Who can guess where that comes from? The roasting sticks I brought were too short and the fire was too hot so I had to improvise a little but is worked out well and we all got full on marshmellows and hotdogs. Hey, is that that guy from Flock of Seagulls? Wait, maybe it is Bon Jovi. Actually it is me. I had not cut my hair for about 4 months so

it was getting pretty long and out of control. I was ready to just shave it all off when Kara said that she wanted to try and cut it for me. That was fine with me so I borrowed the buzzers and scissors from mom (most likely the same ones she used to cut my hair 25 years ago) and Kara got to work.

An hour or so later, this is what resulted. We worked on it a little more and it actually turned out pretty well so I cannot tease her too bad. We set up the tent and got everything ready for bed. Kara had made Anna her own little bed beside us but of course, that was not in Anna's plans for the night. She seems to think that sleeping in a tent means "party all night". She just cruises around the tent laying on Kara and I in different positions, testing out every possible spot (like a little puppy) until she settles for her favorite, legs on dad and head on mom. It only takes about an hour or so for her to nessle in so of course we Kara and I slept very well. Thankfully the new sleeping bag is actually big enough for the 3 of us so at least we were able to sleep a little. When the larger tent comes, Anna will have her own sleeping bag to roam around in and plenty of space to do it. We got up the next morning and made a breakfast of eggs, oatmeal and hashbrowns which turned out pretty well. We walked around a bit in the morning and then decided to break camp. We did not have a ton of time so we drove up to Silver lake by Brighton Ski Resort and made the loop around the lake. It was a beautiful day and fun to just hang out in the mountains with my family. Here is a video I took at our little camp site. It is pretty long but is is fun to watch Anna run around and make a bunch of her animal sounds. Overall the trip was sucessful and all of us had a good time.