August 1, 2010
June and July have both passed with a lot of activities. Both the temperature and the humidity have gone up here driving everyone indoors more. When Karl goes out running at 7 a.m. in the morning he can lose up to 8 pounds of water in one hour. We all experienced the joy of doing yard work in the heat the other day too. By the way, if you ever need a good yard worker, Shelby can outwork those day laborers you pick up at the Circle K. And Shelby does it in flip flops. Brittney joined us this week along with the return of Christian. The family has done a few "staycations" and Lori, Brittney, Shelby and their girlsfriends just got back from one yesterday.
Lori has dedicated herself to a program called Team Fitness which is run through our gym. She has scheduled workouts with other class members and has to keep a fitness journal with what she does and what she eats when she is not in class.
Very Vayden
Vayden is usually the center of attention in our family. She demands a lot of attention and a lot of work these days. In fact she will literally demand attention. When Karl came back from Utah, Vayden was very happy to see her Daddy. She would not let anyone else talk to him or let him talk to anyone else. Every time he tried she would grab his face with her hands and point his face back at hers and say “Daddy” and go on explaining things in her language. She also ran around the room like a crazy baby when Christian walked out of his room the first morning he was back. She hadn’t seen him in a long time and obviously missed him. Vayden is so entertaining and does so many things on a daily basis that it is hard to remember what to write about her little world. She can name and make all kinds of animal sounds now. When she gets nervous in the car, she wants to hold Shelby’s hand and sometimes licks it like a little cat. Vayden likes to mimic just about anything anyone is doing.
Working Out
Completely Christian
Christian has returned from Indiana. Yeah! We are glad to have him back. Christian starts football this week. His new team is the Bearcats.
While Brittney and Shelby were both in town we celebrated Christian’s birthday early at a place called Amazing Jakes. It was huge place, all indoors. We had access to an All-U-Can-Eat Buffet all day with unlimited use of the Video Games, Go-Karts, Lazer Tag, a Mini Roller Coaster, Miniature Golf, Bumper Cars, a Rock Wall, and other Rides. Everyone dressed in yellow which is Christian’s favorite color. The boys had their faces painted like KISS. We thought they would like that, but they really liked it. The boys demanded that Karl touch up their makeup several times. Vayden wanted her face painted too. One of the four boys did not want his face painted so we were missing a Paul Stanley the Star Child. Ohh Well.
Vayden was on fire at this place. She would run around the entire place unable to decide what she wanted to do or focus on one thing for very long. We tied a big yellow balloon to her wrist which made her easier to track. After about a half an hour of playing she would say “Eat” and we would go to the buffet. The after eating she would say “Play” and run around for another half hour. Eat and Play, Eat and Play. We were at Amazing Jakes for 9 straight hours and neither the boys nor Vayden wanted to leave. Christian said his party was great and was happy that his friends thought so too. He siad that one of his friends told him it was the longest, best birthday party he had ever been to. In the car on the way home they called the party "epic". After 9 straight hours the boys still wanted to spend the night to see how long they could stay up. That didn't happen. See Volume 40 Photo Addendum 1 for pictures of Christian's Birthday Party.
Family Stories
Tucson
Back in June we watched a program on some of the Mexican food restaurants in Tucson. It made Lori really crave Mexican food, so Karl planned a "staycation" in Tucson. We stayed a a beautiful resort called The El Conquistador
in Tucson, hung out by the pool, and ate some really good Mexican food. Below is a picture of Lori after she has finished the Presidential Plate at Mi Nidito’s. This plate was created for President Clinton when he visited this restaurant and told the owners he was really hungry. They created this plate for him with about 5 or 6 different things on it and kept it on the menu after that. Lori finished it all.
The El Conquistador
Mi Nidito 
The Presidential Plate 
Lori and the Presidential Plate
4th of July
We like our first “staycation so much, that we decided to do another one. We aren’t going on a summer vacation this year, so we are entitled right? We spend 4th of July weekend at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Scottsdale. Vayden really enjoyed the many pools including the lazy river. See Volume 40 Photo Addendum 2 for photos. 
Utah
Karl went to flew to Utah for his brother Kurt’s wedding. While there he got to spend some time with his siblings. It was the first time all six of them have been together in either 13 or 16 years. Despite talking about it and trying hard to remember, a decision could not be made as to which was accurate. See Volume 40 Photo Addendum 3 for pictures at the wedding. See Volume 40 Photo Addendum 4 for addittional pictures from Utah. 
Triathlon Blog
If anyone is interested in the races that Christian and Karl continue to participate in you can go to this blog: AzTriLawyer.blogspot.com.
The website design people who help Karl with his Law Office website are doing some updating and re-designing and recommended that Karl put a link to something personal on his website, so Karl created the triathlon blog. There is not very much on it yet, but it does track Karl and Christian’s races
Note from the Editors
Be sure to check out the Photo Addendums. There are so many photos in this addition that you will have to click on older posts when you get to the bottom in order to see the last photo addendums.
