Well a lot has happened since the last post. The beginning of July my boss walked in and talked to me about the opportunity to go to Guam. A little hesitant at first, I went home and talked to Jennifer about it. Before making a decision, we wanted to see what it was all about. So we packed our bags and got some last minute plane tickets to Guam (Quentin’s passport expired so he couldn’t go, who knew kids passports were only good for 5 years?). We were pleasantly pleased with what we saw. A cross between Honolulu and Kauai, just a little more humid. We spent 4 days there and were on board with the possibility of moving there in the future. It has all the amenities of Honolulu with the big name stores (Prada, Rolex, Dior, Gucci, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, etc) and some big name restaurants like Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Café and Lonestar steak house. Once you got outside the major city of Tumon, it looked a lot like Kauai with the people being more friendly and welcoming than in Hawaii. One selling point for me was the spearfishing that is done there, incredible fishing! On the way back we stopped by the Marshall Islands and those too are extremely impressive. Guam is close to South East Asia and we are excited with the opportunity to travel if we end up in Guam. Once the trip was over, we let my boss know we were on board with the possibility of going there someday. The next step was moving back to California and working out of the Kiewit Santa Fe Springs office. I would be leading the Northwest portion of the estimates for Guam work. Over the next 3 years the government will be spending 12-15 Billion Dollars to build up the military facilities on Guam. There is a lot of work to do prior to us ever moving there, but you never know.
Once the commitment was made, it was moving time (again, actually our 9th move with Kiewit in 10 years). The movers showed up the 23rd of August and had all of our worldly possessions in the container by the 24th. We unloaded quite a bit in a garage sale knowing IKEA was waiting on the other side. We flew out, found a place in Yorba Linda and waited for our stuff. Prior to leaving I had to get one more Hawaii golf game in. Indi got one last play with her boyfriend Racus (next door neighbor pure pitbull) and was sad to see him go.
I had to go back and forth for a couple weeks and even threw a week in Texas to attend a crane school. I finally made it back to Southern California September 27th to start work. Jennifer has found a job at a local bead store where she will continue to make jewelry, teach classes, and even find time to take some new classes. Quentin is enrolled in a great school (actually has a waiting list for out of district kids) and is doing extremely well in school. We are close enough he is able to ride his bike and likes the freedom and new responsibility.
The first week I was here I got to tour the Long Beach Harbor. One of our Vendors invited a few of us out to tour a container ship and their facility. Talk about impressive. A lot of goods come and go out of this harbor every day; in fact our container from Hawaii was one of them.
We are getting settled in the new place with all the boxes unpacked. We are now slowly hanging pictures and getting the furniture in the right spot.
Being back on the mainland has its advantages too, though Jennifer and Quentin miss Hawaii like mad; she has been able to spend time with her brothers on a regular basis. Quentin will be joining a local swim team shortly and is looking forward to it. I am starting Hockey again and am enjoying the shorter days at work which allows me to concentrate on my master’s degree program which is wrapping up quickly. I am also going to Vegas and then Hollywood next week to shoot some pictures for a band, should be a good time.
We have even been able to squeeze in the home opener for the Mighty Ducks vs. Vancouver Canucks (great game), and are planning on the Broncos vs. San Diego in November and the Celtics vs. Lakers in February. Kiewit, So Cal District, has season tickets to the Ducks and they are great seats, 12 from the glass. I might be seeing a WHOLE lot of live games this season which is fine by me.
Indi is doing well and had a chance to make it to the beach where she found the water too be much cooler than Hawaii, it was worth a good laugh. She likes her new living arrangements, however, we know she misses her boyfriend and the ½ acre we had in Hawaii.
Pictures – top to bottom:
Guam overview map, out in the middle of the ocean
Downtown Tumon, Guam
Downtown Tumon, Guam
View from Two Lovers Point looking at Tumon Bay
Hotel room at the Hilton in Tumon Bay
View from Hotel room
View from Hotel room - night
Marshall Island pit stop on the way back to Hawaii
An aerial view of the Marshall Islands
Last sunrise in Hawaii
Indi and Rucus saying their goodbyes
Kauai house empty
Our bedroom in Kauai with the new floor
Last golf Game – yes that is me in the sweet Hawaiian shirt
Yorba Linda overview map
Yorba Linda close up
Outside view of the condo – not too bad, 4 bedroom and about 1600 SF
Corner unit which makes it nice
Tight squeeze in the Garage – left company car, right, the fun car
The new living room – new couch and new entertainment center
Lots of room for the dining area
New Office View
Corpus Christi from Hotel Room
Largest land based lifting device in the United States – Kiewit Offshore Services, Texas
Long Beach Harbor
Big overhead crane at Long Beach Harbor
Container Ship – Long Beach Harbor
Family at the Game
Ducks had just scored, great to watch the home team win (unless your team is playing against them of
course)
Game over – skating out for the after victory celebration

Here are some helmet camera views from our zion trip. This was my first experience with the camera and learned some valuable tips. Hopfully the next trip will produce better video.

This is the first repel in Birch Hallow Canyon. This is about a 60 ft repel.

The last technical canyon we did was Spry. This was a great canyon and had 13 raps in it. Below are a couple of the repels we encountered.

Great repel into a narrow, dark canyon. This repel was about 45 ft.

Repel number 5, 80 ft.

Want to know what it looks like on a 120 ft repel? This is a helmet camera on a repel in Mystery Canyon, Mystery Spring Repel. It was taken on our trip there (Zion Natioanl Park) in June 2010.

Okay, so our two readers have bugged us to update the site (ray and James, you know who you are). So what has happened since my last update? Here we go;

We moved to Kauai from Oahu at the beginning of the year. The new house is very nice and quiet with a lot of property for the dog to run.

I started the new project widening the main road in Kauai by the mall, It will be a 15 month project so Quentin will be able to make it a whole year in one school.

Jennifer started her sea glass jewelry business and is plugging along nicely. She has a couple buyers and has been selling her pieces like hot cakes.

Claudia (Jennifer’s mother) has been visiting for some time now and is enjoying just taking in the sights and spending time with us. Here is Q and Claudia at Kauai Coffee enjoying some fresh brew.

Quentin finished his 6th grade up and graduated. He had a good time going back to the school he left 2 years ago. He played soccer again and even was placed in the higher aged team. They did really well and made it to the playoffs where they were defeated.

Looking like a kid from a Dad who played hockey...play the body and not the ball. What a kid!

Quentin looked pretty sweet during his graduation dance. I am really glad he has got to experience the Hawaii culture.

I had a company trip to Omaha so since I was already heading to the mainland, I made it back to Utah for a canyoneering excursion the week before. It was a blast and Jennifer and I are heading to Zion the end of June for another canyoneering trip.

This was at a technical canyoneering class I took before heading into the canyons.

Me on the first repel in Blarney Left Fork

Quentin and I are back at it again spearfishing. We picked up right where we left off, free dinner!

Rebekah from Colorado made it out just after we moved to Kauai. This was a good time and got to re-explore the sites.

I also had a friend from High School, Mark Miller visit us. He stayed a couple days and we too had a good time.

I made it up to the secret tunnels again with some coworkers and just like last time, they were pretty amazing.

Me taking a dip in the waterfall at the very end. Well worth the hike.

We bought a new car, well, new to us. A 2007 Nissan Maxima. I wanted something that was a little fun to drive and we got a killer deal on it.

So in a nutshell, you are up to speed on the last 8 months
Oh, and Indie is doing well and getting big…