Ludwig Reunion

Over the July 4th weekend we had the Ludwig family reunion at the Trogers' home in Promontory near Park City.  Promontory is a upscale vacation development.  The Trogers are Mike's in laws who live in California.  They were kind enough to allow us to use their home for four days over the fourth of July.  We had a great time doing different things.

We visited the Olympic Park and went on some rides and watched kids and adults practicing on the aerial jumps into the pool.  We watched fire works at the Promontory show (even though it was threatening lighting and rain).  I also went running each day and found that I can still run at altitude.

It was good to see everyone and have one last hurrah before Samuel was born.  We may not be going many places for the rest of the summer, but we knew that going into this four-kids thing.

View from the Trogers' west.

Ruby celebrating the Fourth of July.

Grand kids.

Nick and Ruby ready for fireworks.

Laney the tiger.  (Notice the dark clouds).

Cousins.

Joaquin got his hair cut by aunt Tiffany.

Smores.

Smores in the daytime.

Numero Quatro

Had baby number 4.  He is a good baby and we love him.  Our kids are over-the-top excited about him and want to hold him and be around him all the time.  "Just wash your hands."  Happy Birthday little guy.

Fun at the Lake

A late post about our trip to Lake Tahoe with the Arvidsons.  This was sort of the last hurrah for us for the summer because we are expecting a baby in mid July.  That means not much chance to travel after that.

We had a great time hiking, swimming, fishing, catching lizards and eating.  The weather we great and we went to Truckee and walked around down town and saw Truckee Thursdays, which is a street fair with vendors or all sorts including food.  It was pretty cool, but after a short while our kids were done and wanted to move on.

To entertain the kids we hiked and visted the horses and fished a couple of days with the boys.  They had a great time and caught a bunch of fish at Donner Lake.  We cooked the few we kept and they were tasty.  The most exciting part was the cleaning of the fish since neither of the boys had really done it before.  They thought is was cool, until they realized they had to give them through cleaning getting everything out including most of the blood.

Laney was fascinated by the lizards that changed colors that we caught.  We found several that started out a black, then became brown after we held them.

We also hiked to visit the hyroglyphics up old Donner Pass road and visited the beach at Lake Tahoe twice.  At the hyrogliphics, I Joaquin climbed with me up a chimminey to the top of the ridge were the railroad track goes up over the pass.  It was a good strech of 5.5 climbing and he did wonderful.  He was infront of me and was not scared or nervous and made it to the top in no time.  I was rpoud of him and he was proud of himself.  Some accomplishments maybe small, but reap great rewards in confidence and courage.

All in all we had a great time at the beach, which is an amazing place because kids can stay occupied there for an entire day, and had a good time with friends.

The Goldern Gate Bridge - Amazinig and Interesting

An article on CNN caught my interest with photos of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge so I took a few minutes and read about it on Wikipedia and found out some really interest stuff.  Also, there is a load of information over at http://goldengatebridge.org/photos/history.php.

Having been to the Golden Gate Bridge a few times I can say that it is amazing and remarkable.  No wonder it has become such a landmark--not to just those of us in America--but all over the world. Here are some pictures that I pulled off the internet.

Half Marathon

Not much going on lately.  My brother and I ran the Ogden Half Marathon on Saturday in the rain. Anyone living in northern Utah will understand that it has been wet and more wet here the past few weeks.  This is by the far the rainiest spring I can remember.  We need it and it is great that I do not have to turn on my sprinklers and I have not turned them on at all the entire year.

Anyway, last Saturday we ran the half marathon and it was fun...until we stopped running.  Then we just about froze to death.  We had been running for an hour and a half and then suddenly stop.  Then throw on top of that the fact we were completely soaked because it have been raining hard for the past hour.  Then add on top of that that we were dehydrated.  Then add on top of that the temperature was in the low 40's.  This makes for some serious problems.  I took a short video after John and I decided the only way we would survive is if we got to the car and turned on the heat.

World War II Photos

As those closest to me will acknowledge, I am somewhat of a history buff especially when it comes to World War II.  I found some old photos taken during battles in the pacific that I thought were interesting to me and capture something of what it must have been like to be in those battles.  Take a look.

Battle of Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima.

Japanese surrender.

POW camp.

Marshall Islands campaign.

Battle of Okinawa.