March Madness

Ok- So I am attempting to update our blog!!!! Look outside in the sky....are there any pigs flying around?

So this is my first try at this so please be kind. I had to make my mother in law show me how to do this. She has to help me a lot- pretty much with anything domestic.
Life in the fisher home is going great! Dave got a new job in January and he loves it. It has been great to see him return to his old self again. It is nice what a new challange nd a little appreciation can do.

I have been working on trying to zone again.

Luckily my clients are patient with me as I

try to take care of my kids while I am zoning

them. Actually I usually end up saving James

from his sister, she knows that when I am

zoning she is able to get away with more

stunts- so that is usually when she tries to

see just how tightly those little baby eyes are

set into his head.

Poor Boy. He is really patient with us.

JAMES:

This little boy is my saving grace. He is so gentle and happy. He already seems to be the peace maker. Wheneer I get mad at Anna, he sticks out his bottom lip, clouds up and looks me right in the eye like, "please don't get mad mom". After that I usually end up calming right down and realizing that all is well. He is a happy boy who was smiling right out of the chute!

He loves his sister and spends most of his time watching her with amazement and fear.

Dave can make him laugh. They get along very well - Of course! But for all intents and purposes this boy is a mamma's boy and I LOVE it! He always gives me such special lil smiles that melt my heart. He loves to snuggle and eat! We weighed him at three months and he weighed 17 pounds! My brother swears that he will go pro! Heaven knows that he is built for it and with the help of his sister he will be tough enough.

As of today he has blue eyes. Dave is hoping that they stay blue (to match his own)- I can't say that I blame him- they are quite a pair of beautiful eyes!. I love my handsome boys!!!!

ANNA:
Anna runs the show at our house. Between her

and I there is no lack of cheifs around here!

Dave keeps busy with the two of us bossing

him around. Anna is a determined, brilliant and curious girl . She is beautiful and sassy. We love her and the older she gets the more interesting our conversations are. She does not miss a thing. If I say or do something that I shouldn't you can bet that she repeats it....usually at church!

She loves the garbage truck, snowmobiles, her train set and dinosaurs. She loves to go to the "dinosaurs' house" (the museum)with maura suzy, play with the dinosaurs that aunt Beaner bought her, and to listen to the dinosaur Wee Sing book/cd set that maura janet bought her.

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This month we have enjoyed the fact that the weather is geting nicer it is still chilly but it is getting much warmer. We planted our peas and extended our little garden. we are going to try to grow even more this year! I love it.

I try to go for walks as often as I can and the kids are nice to go with me. Like they have a choice. We love our chariot stroller. Don't they look so cozy in there!

I am trying to walk a lot to loose some of the weight I gained from James. it is not coming off quite as easy as it did with Anna.

Last week for Family Home evening we took the kids swimming. Anna loves to go and is getting so brave. She will float around the lazy river by herself (wearing her life jacket). This was James' first time going and you tell that he took this in stride just like everything else. He is just sitting there chilling with his dad.

We had fun. We have been so happy with the fact that we can take our kids on so many adventures with us. Getting out is definately different and little bit harder but it is still do-able and fun!

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BIRTHDAY FUN

The Yurt-

For my birthday this year dave rented a yurt (a round structure in the mountains that has bunk beds, fireplace and basic amenities). We strapped our kids onto the snowmobiles with us and then attached our stroller to the back of one of the snow machines and filled it with our food and bedding. We got lost getting to the yurt (it was dark when we got there), so when we got there it was really cold- 17 degrees. Anna thought that it was pretty neat that she could see her breath (she kept calling it smoke). We started a fire and all snuggled close together in our sleeping bags and fell asleep. The fire had gone out and by morning it was 20 degrees again. The kids and I all got into the King Soloman (that is Dave's new sleeping bag by Big Agnes- it fits at least two adults and a baby- we love it) while dave rekindled the fire. James and I slept in even longer while Dave and Anna played outside making "frosties". The Yurt got upto 70 degrees and it was a blast.

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Next we celebrated my mom's birthday! We just hung out together and watched the Wizard of Oz. The kids sure love their "maura" Janet. She lives a few blocks from us and it is fun to have her so close. She is always so willing to spend time with the kids. They really enjoy her attention and love.

James Elden Fisher Dec. 3rd, 2008

Here are a few pictures of the newest addition to the Fisher family. James Elden Fisher was born at 7:08am on December 3rd. He weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces and was 20" tall. He is a great little guy and we are very happy to have him in our family.

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?