Our vacation

We spent the 2nd to the 10th out on Matt's parents boat. It was a lot of fun. We spent the Fourth of July at Friday Harbor, and then after that went over to Canada. The above are some pics from Roche Harbor, it is my favorite harbor to visit. They have beautiful gardens. It was so fun to have Matt with us again. He had two weeks off which of course went by way to fast. He flew back to Houston today, but if all goes well we will see him this weekend.

First Day On The Job

For the past seven weeks I've been flying with this company called Aerial Survey that does oil platform surveys and pipeline surveys. I was not a paid employee, but part of a program that they have that allows me to build my flight time and experience. Last Monday I was asked by the company if I would be interested in flying for them as a paid employee. I jumped on the opportunity, which will allow me to continue to build my flight time and experience while I try to get a job with a regional airline. I don't have any flight benefits, but its a job and it will be one more thing I can add to my resume. Christina and the kids will stay in Seattle, while I work which is two weeks on and two weeks off. I'll just fly to Seattle every two weeks until we figure out what happens in the next couple of months.

Today was my first flight as a paid pilot. Instead of flying strictly over the Gulf of Mexico doing platform patrol I'm mainly flying over land doing pipeline patrol.
The way my job works is on Monday I fly out of Galveston, Tx. Fly certain oil lines and overnight in Houma, La.(which is about 60 miles SW of New Orleans) Monday-Friday while flying various piplines during the week. I get the weekend off and do the same thing the next week usually ending on thursday the second week and then don't work for two more weeks. The nice thing is that I'm salaried so for 9 days of work I get paid pretty good plus I get some money each night I'm away from Galveston and I get free place to stay during the week.

Me and Robert Oler

My Room In Houma

Quinns First Fish : The one after the big one that got away

Quinn caught his first fish and scored a Popsicle for his catch. As you can tell Matt looks very impressed. Quinn kept asking to go fishing so we took him across the street from our hotel room where they have a fishing Pier. He loved it for about five minutes then he was done. Dad kept trying to keep a hand on the rod, because Quinn is notorious for throwing items, but Quinn would get upset because he wanted to do it himself.

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM : We now have a three year old astronaut

-----------------------------Quinn posing with the space shuttle---------------


When the family was in town we went to the Johnson Space Center AKA NASA to go check out the rockets and spaceships. The kids enjoyed it a lot more than we thought. The Space Center has a ton of different activities to do and was very cool to go see. They have a tram tour that takes you over on to the NASA campus and stops at three different locations where you get out and get a chance to check out the facilities. The tour takes about an hour and a half. The first stop takes you to the old mission control where all the Apollo missions were controlled and was used up until 1996. The second stop takes you to one of their training facilities where they have the only life size mock up of the space shuttle. We saw astronauts training when we went through. One guy was practicing docking to the shuttle. The third stop takes you to this enormous building that contains the rocket they used to send the astronauts to the moon. Talk about an impressive rocket, that thing is huge. Across from the Rocket is a field of Texas longhorns, which are pretty neat to look at if you've never seen them in person before.




We found a wannabe astronaut walking around to get our picture taken with. Quinn wants to know where he can get his hands on a helmet like that.




On the grounds of the space center waiting for the next tram.

Nudie Gardens

Actually its Moody Gardens, but when I was telling Christina about this place over the phone she thought I was saying Nudie instead of Moody. Even when she was talking to one of her good friends about the place who had been there before, Christina thought her friend was saying Nudie Gardens. Don't worry there wont be any indecent pictures. This place was real cool. It consists of three large pyramids. The main Pyramid is an Aquarium that has the largest penguin exhibit I've ever seen. They also have seals and a large tank that you walk through that has large sharks, sea turtles and a number of other fish. Then they have a Rain forest Pyramid that's pretty awesome. Most of the animals wander free and it is landscaped with ponds and waterfalls, its really pretty. The third is the discovery Pyramid which changes exhibits. When we went they had a music exhibit set up, which was a hands on experience to see and understand sound waves. The kids loved playing with all the instruments and making a ton of noise. Aside from the Pyramids they also have an I-max screen that plays a number of 3D movies which was a blast with Quinn. He kept trying to grab the fish in the underwater movie we saw. They also have 4D movies which is more like a ride because the theater moves, but the kids were too small for those. They also have a paddle boat ride that we wanted to go on, but the weather was looking a little iffy. And the last thing that I can think of that they have is there own private white sand beach with water toys. We spent two days doing the different things they offered.

Christina and Matt hiding behind one of the waterfalls in the Rain forest Pyramid.

One of the animals wandering freely in the rain forest.

Ava and her daddy.

Ava with her 3D glasses.




Be careful your kids don't fall in.




One of the sharks is on the hunt!

Quinn ready to go in the shark tank and take a closer look.

Some of the penguins in the exhibit.



Quinn is the exact same height as the King Penguins




Quinn and Ava Jammin out on the drums.

Quinn body boarding

Quinn loves going to the beach and asks to go everyday. here he is tearing it up on the waves.

In Galveston with Matt

Our Bathing Beauty Baba, she prefers to work on her tan or play in the sand rather then play in the ocean.
And we can't keep Quinn out of the water, he loves it, he wants to move to the beach. He runs into the ocean as fast as he can and then a big wave comes and knocks him over, and he jumps up and does it all over again. He loves it.

Quinn's nod to "Baywatch".