Sea World Part Deaux

We made our second trip to sea world to get the most out of out annual pass. For any of you thinking of going to Orlando in July, I have one word of advice: DON'T. It has been sort of hot here this week but we have had a lot of fun even with the heat. We have made the most of shows with splash zones and air conditioning!

In the evening they have a 'Shamu Rocks' show. While waiting they play loud music show people from the crowd on the big screen. They made our kids dreams come true by putting us up on the screen. I'm the dork taking a picture of himself (really my kids)! Chas isn't in the picture because he was on the front row waiting for the full spash effect.

Shamu in action. It is amazing to see these huge animals get out of the water like this. They are so powerful and beautiful.

After the show. We were all soaked and happy for it! The BIG Shamu came out and splashed us this show. The other show we watched he didn't come out. The trainers say they never tell shamu what to do, they ASK. He just flipped water with his tail but when he does so he sends gallons and gallons of water out into the crowd. Chas got his money's worth on the front row.

I will post more pictures later as I took a ton. Sea world is a great place to go. They really do a great job showing off the animals talents while obviously showing care for the animals.

Dog Days of Summer

Kristi made fun of me about (as she put it) my "Doggie Hammock" in the back of my car. I took out the back seats and put a platform for the dogs to ride on so they could see out the windows as we drive.

They love to go on rides and yesterday we did just that. Thought you'd like to see just how happy the hammock makes them.

That's Victoria above and to the right below. Chloe-LaRee is the one on the left below.

Ok... so Louis doesn't "LOVE LOVE" the hammock. It's a little too wobbly for him. But he's a little grump anyway, the croggity old thing. He's always been more of a destination-not-the-journey kind of guy anyway.

The Great Spud

Charlie, David and I have just completed the 2008 Spudman. We had a great time with each of us posting our personal bests....excluding David Daniel Harris Ward's time from last year. This is a post victory shot.


This is the three of us before the race, Charlie is in the back ground he was tired of waiting on David and I. We missed placing our bikes the night before as David and I were a little slow.








If you look out over the top of the dock you can see two swimmers out there waving, that is David and I "bobbing" down the river. We took the swim very easy, not pushing too hard there at all. We just tried to stay in the current the best we could and enjoy the morning. We enjoyed floating past our camp site and waving to our group as they got ready for a day of swimming.








This is a picture of Dave and I coming out of T1 you can see clearly that I am in the lead.....








Here is David sneaking by my as I stopped to have my picture taken.....


Just as this picture was being taken, David said that last time he would see me until after the race because I would be ahead of him for the remainder of the race. Neither one of us knew that David had past me at this point, so I was riding hard to stay in front of him and I would look at every rider as they past me to see if it was David and I needed to kick it up a little to keep up with him. In the meantime, David was riding hard to try to catch up with me thinking that I was in front of him. So he was pushing hard while I was holding back a little saving what little I had left.....When David got to T2 and my bike was not there, he figure out he must have passed me somewhere. When I got to the bikes and saw his there, I was demoralized not knowing how far he was in front of me after spending all the time on the bikes thinking that I was beating him. I knew that Charlie would kill us with his times, up until then I thought I had a chance to get David. So I dropped my bike off, stored the camel-back took off the gloves, put on my hat and reached into Charlie's bag to get my Gatorade that I had left there, to only find it had leaked out of the container somehow.... So the 10K was mostly a walking race for me, as I was more out of shape for this race then any of the others and I was knew I just needed to beat my last time as I was not going to beat either of my brothers.




The kids enjoyed the river while we were gone. We were mean parents and made them swim with life preservers.....

James, little Dave, Matthew, and Joe came along to have some fun together...and they did.

Team Ward from Spanish Fork that where there for the race.





Here we are on the drive home, there were a lot of tired members of the race team....the support team anyways....



Laura was a good sport and road home in the back seat so Charlie could stretch his legs after beating us all so soundly.
We had a great time this year and hope to see all 6 pigs screaming down the river with us next year!!



Times:

Michael WARD 03:36:06.9

David WARD 03:23:10.3

Charles WARD 02:47:43.8

More Spud Fun

The ride up to Idaho. Thanks for driving Mike!

The boys in the back seat.

Playing on the snake.

After the tri with Dog and Matthew.


Tired travelers.

The Spud is almost here!!!!!!!!

After months of using Davids training program I actually went out last night and went 24 miles on a exercise bike followed by 30 minutes of swimming. I did not die, so I guess I am ready for the spud....one workout and ready, I guess that's what youth will do for you. I think there is little doubt that we will finish in order of age this year, youngest to oldest. David and I should be going out in the same wave, so its up to you Dave to wait for me before you cross the finish line.

Spud ON!!!

Happy Birthday Samantha and Laura

We had a great time watching Samantha and Laura blow out their birthday candles yesterday. Their actual birthdays were the 18th and 19th of July albeit a few years apart. Besides the birthday girls, Zach, James, David, Mike, Mom, Kristi, Joe Anderson and myself were there singing happy birthday. Following dinner and the birthday cake we had a fun time playing Bocce. Happy birthday again Samantha & Laura!
Already to blow out the candles
Just for me ... 2# of bacon and a pretty shirt along with birthday money just for me!
Wow! A new hat and shirt to take to camp and some birthday money to spend.
David ask; when do we eat the cake?

Our Almost House

Over the weekend Crystal and I made an offer on a home in Puyallup Washington. We are supposed to close August 15th if all goes according to schedule. The house looks great and we are really excited about it.

Here is a picture of it. We are excited for you all to see it in October.

Check out this post on Stacey's blog!!

I had fun viewing this video and seeing Dan & Crystal in Seattle! I know that it is hard to leave GA but I am so excited to have them closer!!!

Here is the link: http://ihavenogreaterjoy.blogspot.com/2008/07/discovery-park.html

We just had the first showing of our house and the adrenalin rush and subsequent crash is amazing! I'm exhausted! We officially got on the market Thursday so I guess we are on the right track. Whew! Just had to share!! Check out this Virtual Tour of our house with it's new apartment vogue colors! I miss my red cabinets!

http://www.visualtour.com/shownp.asp?sk=13&t=1596534

Funtana

As all of you pigs know the GA Wards love Fontana. I counted up and we have been there 9 times as a family over the years that we lived in NC and GA. The first time we went both girls were in Diapers still and Chas was not even a glimmer in his mothers eye. We have driven 5 different cars up there, stayed in 4 different campsites and have loved it. For whatever reason Fontana clicked with us from the very first time we visited, even if the mens bathroom was a bit disgusting. We were all a little bit sad about this visit because we didn't know when we would be back.

I hope you enjoy the video and it brings back some memories of your visit to Fontana.


Here is the link to ALL the pictures I took.

http://crystal-images.smugmug.com/gallery/5355548_XdXJ6#327642077_gnCXG

Summer Staycation ...

Think high gas (and everything else) prices can spoil Ward-Anderson fun? Ha! Think again. This year we had a great "Staycation" and in spite what the kids tell you, I did not say 1,000 times: "Millions of kids and their parents pay thousands of dollars (EACH!) to come to the Washington DC area for summer vacation ... this IS a cool place."


Swimming in the MV pool with the girlfriends Anastasia and Miara.



Just after the dolphin show at the Baltimore aquarium (we got really really really wet and it was really really really funtastic). Here we are hanging out with one of Clay's best friends - Vincent, his sister Gabrielle and a foreign exchange student - Marta.

One thing you can say for Staycations ... you get to bring your friends along!



Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil.
uh hu.
Joe knows a set of monkey bars when he sees one.

Charlie and his friends spent part of their Vacation in DC so we joined in! Brandi's (Charlie's friend from Utah) body language says it all. Who pretends to be a frog at the Silver Spring Wayne Ave Garage and thinks it's fun? Charlie! That's who ... E and Joe follow suit.

Oh the things you see and the memories you make on Staycation ... just as soon as you realize it's not WHERE, but WHO. Lucky me to have such fine people to spend time with.

Mississippi Company Party

Hi Y'all ... we had a little get together for our Mississippi CVP team. I thought you would enjoy "meeting" the people I work with down here in the South. I know they enjoy our blog .. the more enlightened members of the team have started their own blogs.

The full crew - (back) Chuck, Chad and Carson, Jen, Scott, Addy, Linda and Sid (seated)
(front) Harmony, Miranda, me, Hayley, Herman and Mackenzie.

Chad taking Carson out for a swim.

Carson was soooo cute and friendly. He let

all of us take turns hanging out with him.

Chuck and Sid manning the grill.

Chuck. Don't hate me. I can't help myself. The food and the fine way in which you grilled the ground chuck were Fabulous ... really. And I'm being totally earnest when i say I meant nothing with the purchase of ground chuck as opposed to ground round or ground sirloin. nothing at all.

More Gardening!!!

This is an extension of the rose bushes that I put in. After I finished that project I knew that there was more yet to do with that spot ... so I have now really started a big project in the back yard!!!

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Joe helped me to pick out the plants at Lowe's and he bought me a water on a super hot day. Thanks Joe!!

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Joe was also a wild man in the cart at Lowe's!!!

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Late night planning of how to plant the Dogwood Garden.

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I decided that while I was digging up the grass to plant the trees/flowers, that I may as well transplant the grass to areas of the lawn that are struggling. That made for VERY heavy work!!!

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I am of course goofing off in this picture but I was extremely tired by the end of this planting. I had to go to work after I finished planting and before I drove to Idaho and I told one of my patients that it was really good that I did because I had to move a lot at work and it was working out the soreness that was trying to settle into my muscles.