Christmas 2011

Another Christmas in the books.  Christmas Eve at the Compton in MT Green.  Trip to St. Annes shelter to donate.  Too many gifts as usual.  Reminds me of a Bob and Tom sketch about the contrast between kids in Africa asking for a fork or a book and then spoiled US kids asking for a hundred different expensive electronic gadgets.  JJ got an iPod Touch.  Along with a double shot game and too many other gifts to remember.  I made a photo book his year for everyone that I hope they liked.

Now we are at the Skyline High School Alumni basketball tournament watching Devin play for the championship.  I've seen more basketball today than all the rest if the year combined.  But I am enjoying the Wood family yell and scream at the refs...very entertaining.

Wind-ageddon 2011

So...just when Nicole thought she could get on with her normal life after the never-ending vacation...mother nature decided to throw a curve ball.

Thursday morning around 3am the worst wind storm in two decades swept through Davis and Weber counties.  Gusts of 102 mph were recorded.  More than $30 million in damage was done.  I was committed to travel to Boise for the annual Christmas party and to meet with an important customer. 

I left around 630 am and the freeway was a mess.  There were more than ten semi trucks tipped over.  Debris was flying everywhere, and every once in a while, I could see the flash of a power transformer toppling over and flaming out.  It was nuts.  By noon, the power was out at our house and stayed out for 36 hours.  School was cancelled on Friday (a power line fell on the fence near the playground) so the kids were home bouncing around the house driving Nicole nuts.  And...there wasn't any power to cook anything so she used my backpack stove to cook soup.  At night, they all huddled around the fireplace and spent the night in the living room, where it was warm from the fire. 

Oh, the irony!  She would have been better off stuck in Hawaii!!  By the time I got back, everything was back to normal.  Not sure what all the fuss was about.  :-)

Update

Update on Hawaii...

Tried the Friday flights.  All oversold.  Told us not to come back until Monday.  So we got an extra weekend in Hawaii, which was nice (although out bags went to Los Angeles).  On Monday, we tried again.  Thought we'd be safe because the flight through San Francisco had 85 empty seats.  Unfortunately there were 115 standby travellers trying to get on the same flight.  So...Trevor was given a seat while the rest of the crew wasn't.

A decision was made based on work schedules that Trevor would fly home and then the rest of the family would fly back on Wednesday on Hawaiian Airlines on a full fare ticket.  The good news is that they made the flight (despite heavy Honolulu traffic).  The bad news is that she was left to go solo in terms of herding three kids under the age of 6 through two different airports.  Not pretty.  She pulled off a miracle, though, and made it home finally on Wednesday night.

Trevor had the house cleaned and laundry folded for her when she got home so she could relax a bit after the travel beatdown she took. 

Phew.  That was the never-ending vacation.