Truck Air Conditioning

So... here is a non-family related blog, it is about my truck. A 1998 Toyota Tacoma. I have had it a few years, and I am hoping it lasts until Stephen turns 16. Four years to go. Well, the air conditioning was blowing very weak so I took it in to Fletcher's Auto Repair. He said the evaporative core was all plugged up, and it would cost $620.00 to replace. I said I was thinking more like $350.00. He said that they could do it for $550.00, but that was as low as he could go. I said 'No thanks', paid my $24.95 diagnostic fee and left.

I went and ordered the core from Checker Auto Parts for $169, went home, and began to tear my dash apart. The evaporative core is behind the dash. Three hours later I have the core in my hand. The first two pictures are of my dash torn apart and the evaporative core. Notice how dirty it was, no wonder no air was passing through. The part came from Checker, it didn't fit. So I ordered the $199 core from Checker, it didn't fit either.

While I was waiting for the parts to come in from Checker, I was soaking the original core in a bucket of water and dish detergent. I cleaned it as best as I could, and when the parts from Checker didn't fit, I just put the original back in. Now my A/C blows like a champ.

Lynx Lake

So... I've decided to go old school with this post, and put each photo on individually, instead of a collage. Hopefully then, you can see the boating pictures a bit easier.

Just For You Leslie!

2009 Nelson Family Reunion

Once again we gathered together at Aunt Kathy's condo club house/pool for fun, food and swimming!! It is so fun to watch our family grow and grow and grow!! We all had a great time catching up on our lives, eating yummy food, enjoying the warm St. George sunshine, celebrating the upcoming births of three new babies and of course BINGO!! This year wasn't quite the same though because we were missing our dear patriarch of the family! The family reunion was grandpa's favorite and he was truely missed!!

Thank you everyone for another wonderful summer reunion! We look forward to next year!

Boys Day at Luke Airforce Base

My dad was in town the weekend that the airshow was at Luke Air Force Base, so the boys, Papa, Mike, Stephen and Sawyer and Brent, Michael and Tyler all went and spent the day together enjoying the view! I think they all enjoyed the experience, although I think Sawyer needs to have custom earplugs made!

Well, the pictures are going to have to wait!! I remember now why it takes me so long to update our blog!! I have tried to upload the pictures TWICE and both times it has failed. So, my time is precious and I am not going to try again..................maybe I can get Mike to do one of his fancy collages for this post!!! UGH!!

14th Wedding Anniversary

On March 24, 2009 Mike and I celebrated 14 years of marriage!! It is amazing to me how time flies!! It has been a great 14 years full of wonderful memories and three beautiful children! We are usually good about getting away for our anniversary. This year it seemed that our Disney trip took place of that, but we did get to Hawaii the month before, so that will have to do this year!! (at least there are some benefits for being married to a pilot!!) Thank you Mike for a wonderful 14 years and I look forward to the next 14!!!

Spring Break at Disney World!

For Spring Break this year we decided to take the kids to Disney World!! We have been talking about it for a long time and the timing was finally right!! We checked the flights and it looked like we could get there. Flying standby has its benefits, being FREE and all, but it can also get crazy!! Mike's best friend, John Graham, works for Disney World and so he can get the family in for FREE! The Graham's also have a nice home right behind Disney and they had plenty of room for us to stay for FREE! So, all we had to do was rent a car and pay for food!! That is MIKE'S kind of vacation! He didn't complain about $$ the whole time!! We had a great time and even got Sawyer to go on Space Mountain and a few other big roller coasters! Sadie was our brave one though.....she was the only one who went with mommy and daddy on the Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller coaster, which went 0-60 in 30 seconds, did upside down loops and barrel rolls!! TOTALLY AWESOME! Thanks John and Sam for a wonderful couple of days!!

Girls Weekend in Colorado!!

The first weekend in March Lori Leetham and I went up to Denver, CO to visit our friend Lauri Gardner!! Lauri moved away last summer and so we felt it was time to get the "L"s back together!! Try and say our names together 10 times fast......Laura, Lauri, Lori!!! We had a fun weekend of talking, eating, laughing and crying! We stayed up late and slept in! We went to a comedy show and laughed HARD! We watched a few chick-flicks and CRIED! We ate, ate and ate some more! The last day was very nice, so we decided we need a little exercise and went for a beautiful hike at Red Rocks. All in all it was a wonderful weekend!! Good friends are awesome!!

Rangar Relay!!

On February 27th and 28th me and 11 other friends set out on a crazy adventure! Emily Johnston was our team leader and put together a team, J.A.M. (Just Another Mile) to run a 204 mile relay from Prescott AZ to Mesa AZ in two days or approximately 36 hours! What an adventure this was! We had two vans full of six team members. Each member of the team would be running a total of three legs of this relay. We would start with runner #1 and move through to runner #12 three times! I was in Van #1 and was runner #6. I ran at approximately 11 a.m. and then again at approximately 11 p.m. and again the next morning around 11 a.m. again! My first leg was 6 miles, which I was pretty happy with, second leg was 3.4 miles at night and this was may favorite leg and then my last leg was 6.4 miles and ALL UP HILL, after only about 2 hours of sleep and well, all I can say is that I finished! I thought I did well for the first 5 miles, but the last 1.4 miles was killer......not my best performance. Anyway, we did it and had a GREAT TIME!! At the moment I wasn't sure I would ever do it again, but I am pretty sure if someone puts together another team for next year I will be signing up!!

Time to update the Hite Family Blog!!

Hey friends and family.........
Even though I should be doing my work right now I decided that I would take a few minutes and update this blog!! Lots has gone on with the family since Mike and I jetted away to Hawaii on an impromptu trip!! So, here is the breakdown on what is to follow.......Ragnar Relay, Girls weekend in CO, Spring Break at Disney World, Anniversary, Luke Air Show, Easter.

Kona, Hawaii

Mike and I made a quick trip to Hawaii in February! I love these last minute get-a-ways! Mike ended up with a week off of work and my mom was planning on coming down to AZ for a visit, so we asked if she would be willing to stay with the kids for a few days while we tried to get away. So, then we had to decide where to go.....This is when I really enjoy the benefits of having a pilot for a husband! Since it was February our choices were a little more limited if we wanted nice weather. We thought about going over seas, but decided we would want more time. We looked into the flights to all the different islands of Hawaii and the weather on all the islands and the best was THE BIG ISLAND! So, Monday morning, Feb. 9th after we got the kids off to school we headed to the airport. We had a wonderful 6 hour flight to Hawaii...I almost finished a whole book!! We got to Hawaii around 3 pm (got to love the time change when traveling to Hawaii! We gained three hours!) We checked into our hotel, got something to eat and walked around the area. Tuesday we stayed within walking distance of our hotel, got our shopping done, mailed off a coconut to Mike's mom in Utah and then went to a Luau that evening. We had a great time at the Luau and ate until we were sick, but boy was the food good! Wednesday we rented a car so that we could drive around the island and find a sandy beach, which are hard to find on this island because of the active volcano. We also wanted to go and see the lava flow from this active volcano! The different types of landscape and vegetation on the island was amazing. There was no vegetation because of the lava, then tropical vegetation and then rolling green hills. Very beautiful! The lava flow was amazing, although I was disappointed that we didn't actually get to see the lava flow falling into the ocean like we thought we would. We were close and you could see the reflection of the lava off of the steam it caused as it fell into the ocean and that was pretty cool! At this point it was time to start heading to the airport, although I really could have used a few more days! We were able to catch the red-eye flight home to PHX and landed around 8 am Thursday morning. We had a great time and are excited to check out more of the Hawaiian Islands!

Superheroes

So... all the superheroes (or so it seemed) in our house were broken. So I went to Walgreens, bought some superglue, and repaired them all. They were so happy they broke out in a spontaneous dance. I was lucky to have the camera ready.

London's Run

Last year Lori Leetham and I started running and ran our first race, London's Run, 10K. We decided to do the run again this year and see if we could beat our time. All of our hard work paid off. We have been faithfully getting up before the sun for the past year! Last year we ran the 6.2 miles in 1:15 and this year we pulled it off in 1:07! About mile 4 we both wanted to walk, but we worked through that tough mile and pressed forward! Mike decided he wanted to run the 2 mile this year with Stephen and Sadie. They did a great job. Stephen broke away from Mike and Sadie and finished in 25 minutes and Mike and Sadie finished in approximately 31 minutes! Good job guys!! Maybe next year I will take on the 1/2 marathon, but first I have to take on my next challenge.....Ragnar Relay on Feb. 27-28, 201.9 miles from Prescott, AZ to Mesa, AZ. Don't worry, I am not totally insane, just a bit crazy. I will not be running the whole 201.9 miles alone. A team of 12 people will be running together, each taking three legs of the race. I will be running approximately 16 miles. I will let you all know how it goes!

Kind of spur of the moment, we decided to go up to Utah to visit Mike's family last weekend. My youngest brother had twins 9 months, and like the slacker I am, we haven't been up to see the girls. So we flew up Friday night, and managed to get back home Monday on the 2nd flight we tried. It was a very nice trip, it has been a long time since we have all been together.

Mike and Laura through the years

Recently I compiled 42 images of Laura and myself through the years. The earliest was taken before we were married, the newest just this month. They represent a lot of years, a lot of places, and a lot of love.

Sleds and Snowmen

After a night in the hotel in Flagstaff, we made the quick drive to Wing Mountain to go sledding. We had a good time and none of the kids ended up in the hospital!

Snowballs and Snowmen

Up to Flagstaff we went, on New Years day, in search of snow and sleds. We ended up at a park, and the snowball fight was on,