Randomness over the last 2 months

I've realized that I have neglected to off load my camera in the last couple of months. Oops. So here are some pictures from Easter, our trip to Big Bear Lake and other randomness that happens at our house.

My Bre turned 5 on May 1st!

Poor dog in a choke hold. This happens often.

Tea Time

We had an Easter Egg hunt with some kids from our church

Breanne looking a lot like "Gus Gus" right here.

Big Bear Lake

 We took a trip to good ol' Riverside, CA a couple weeks ago to visit some friends out there. I brought my camera but for some odd reason I didn't take any pictures with it. Here's a couple I took with my phone. I got to see the baby that was born the day after we left town (that I didn't take a picture of!), walk Mt. Rubidoux once more for old time sake, run a 5K with a jogging stroller and play with my former softball team, "I'd Hit It" (which means I got to see Rae and Dane. I wish we could have spent more time together).

I'm hoping that this summer will bring some more exciting posts. Here are some of the things we have planned: A kayaking trip on the 15th of June that starts at the base of Hoover Dam (thanks to a lovely lady who is kindly watching our kiddos that day!!! Thank you Sandy!), 18th is Cameron's birthday, 19th is Father's day, the girls and I are taking a trip to Utah on the 27th of June to visit long lost friends (YAY!), 4th of July (don't know what yet but it's always fun, right?) and to end our summer of vacations we (the girls and I) will fly home to Washington for 2 weeks the end of July (courtesy of my Mama. Thanks, Mom!). Breanne starts Kindergarten on the 8th of Aug. So now you all know our schedule for the next 2 months. Hopefully, I'll remember to take pictures.

Oh, and on another note. I know I already put up here that Cam was going to start getting trained in the seaplanes but he's about one flight away from having his first student. His boss also told him that as soon as he's good to solo in the buccaneer he can take me on a flight. It sounds pretty cool because you can put the landing gear up and down in the water. There's a restaurant in Lake Havasu City that's on the river. I guess you can fly the "buck" down there, land in the water, put the gear down, go up the boat launch and park it in the parking lot. SWEET!

 He also took his ATP written (a test he has to have completed to get a job with an airlines) with an 86%. Now, that may not seem too impressive but listen to this. This test has only 80 questions but it pulls the 80 questions from a test bank of 1500! It's basically memorizing everything that you possibly can and then going and taking the test...immediately before all the information falls out of your brain. He had to go up to Vegas to take it which is 1.5 hours away. He took a practice test the night before and got a low 80. The say to expect about 10% lower on your actual test. You need a 70% to pass so we were expecting him to barely pass this thing and he ended up with a pretty decent score. Just made me proud that he was able to pull it out and get it done.

Lake Mohave

Panning for gold, or maybe just mud.

This is Kaity getting up right after she fell in trying to get back to the shore. She even abandoned her frisbee in the desperate flight.

This was before she fell in. Hence the smile.

Kaity and I were recovering from our colds (3rd time this year!) on Sunday so we stayed home from church. It was such a beautiful day out, though, that we couldn't stand to be inside any longer. We were going to just go down to the river again but decided that we would explore a little instead. Cameron went fishing with the young men in the ward a few days earlier at Lake Mohave so we thought that would be a good place to start. It was the perfect time to go to because last week was National Park Appreciation week (it's in the Lake Mead Recreation Area), or something like that, so everyone got in free. Saved us $10. We went over to a place called Princess Point, I think. Awesome beach and there was hardly anyone there. We hadn't really planned on swimming that day so we didn't come prepared. It was about 95 out so we couldn't help but pull up our shorts and wade in, or in Kaity's case fall in. The dog even got in on the fun. Not willingly. I had to pull her by her hind legs into the water and make her swim back to the beach. She looked like a wet cat. I should have got a picture of that! We are definitely buying a annual pass for the summer. I'm sure the place gets packed but there's lots of other places that we have yet to explore in the park. We're thinking about making it a weekly trip. Anyone want to join? :)

A quick update

I know what some of you might be thinking. "They've been there for coming up on 5 months. Shouldn't they be moving?" Well, here's the scoop.....We've been thinking a lot about this. Cameron has gotten up to 1100 hours and most of the airlines that are hiring have minimums of 1000. He has heard of a couple really interesting sounding jobs from the students he trains, one includes a corporate/charter job, flying jets, that's out of LA. It pays really well for a 1st year First Officer. The other is with Sky West and everyone has good things to say about them.

As we were thinking about all of this and if we should be tossing out resumes Cameron was given the opportunity to start being trained to instruct in the seaplanes.

Piper Cub

Lake Buccaneer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The condition was that he'd have to stay put with the company for 6 more months. We thought that flying seaplanes is what we wanted but Cam was getting excited about the next job and flying a fast jet. He went back and told his boss to hold off on training him because he was thinking about applying elsewhere. That brought out the big guns. They started throwing money at him to keep him there. Effective immediately, he got a pay raise to what a 2 year CFI makes (he won't be one until July) and to sweeten the deal he would get another pay raise once he's all set to instruct in the seaplanes. Needless to say, this is the most money we've ever made. That's not really saying a lot but it's quite exciting for us. It's also nice that a company is willing to offer us more money to keep Cameron.

Of course, we had to rethink our original decision. After comparing Pros and Cons we came to the conclusion that we're going to stick it out here in the desert. To those of you who may be confused or in shock at our willingness to stay, let me explain.
First of all, let me tell you that the first year pay for a FO (first officer) is horrible. We're talking $1300-$1600 a month. We've always been prepared for the downgrade in pay and knew that it was going to be tight. But now, we'll be able to start saving, REALLY SAVING, so when we do make the jump we'll have a cushion to live off for the first year. This is one of the biggest reasons we're staying. Because moving (which would include buying out our contract) is expensive and pay is bad and we would deplete everything we have to get to the next job. I won't go more into it because you probably really don't care all that much but that's what's going on with us.

They'll start him in the Lake Buccaneer to train him in the aircraft and when he's good to go in that they'll move him to the cub and he'll start instructing. To get him more excited yesterday afternoon I made him take us down to the river where they keep the seaplanes. That did it. Cameron will spend the summer on the Colorado River. That means that pictures like this will be common place in a few short months!