Logistics Specialist Course

Don’t think that I made specific mention on the blog, but a few months back I joined the Colorado Urban Search And Rescue FEMA Task Force (CO-TF1). I was able to get on the team as a Logistics Specialist, and that required a lot of training – culminating in a week long course in Las Vegas…thus the mouse-tracking postings. We did take one opportunity to go to Fremont Street, and one opportunity to go to the Strip, but for the most part, it was not the ‘normal’ trip to Las Vegas. At the end of the week, we were tasked with setting up an entire Base Of Operations for a deployed Task Force of 80 people (an integral part of our job)…photos below.

Mouse Tracking Final

Of the one week training course (photos to come later), we spent 3 solid days in the classroom. This is the resulting image of the three days…..it’s amazing how much work the mouse does, and therefore how much work your hands do. I suppose that this is some sort of proof that I was actually paying attention to the class.

Tracking A Mouse

I found this program the other day….it follows every movement of your mouse for as long as you have the program running. A black spot is a place where the mouse stopped, and the larger the black spot, the longer the mouse stood still. This is what 9 hours of a computer based class looks like on my computer….and you can tell that I run an Apple computer since the majority of the lines run from the top left to the bottom right.

Birthday Party

Then the afternoon came. The party started out a little slow….does everyone now think that 20-30 late is the normal arrival time? Hmm, something to consider for the next party. Anyhow, the brothers from CRFD Station 4 stopped by to let Ezra spend  a little time on the engine. It was truly great for those guys to come by on their own (we didn’t ask them) and to give up part of their evening to spend a little time with Ezra and gang. While the trucks were here, the party goers started showing up, and the neighborhood kids hit the jealously button – many times.

It was a fun celebration of Ezra’s second birthday with a few friends and family. We decided not to make a big deal out of it and keep it manageable for all of us. Ezra had a great time hanging out with friends and discovering the new gifts that he received. Interestingly enough, he didn’t even try the cake – despite the fact that a piece of it sat in front of him for a while. Just not that interested.

The weather held out pretty nicely, and the house performed wonderfully in it’s first party-hosting duties. We are so blessed to have such great people surround us, and to have such an amazing child to keep us smiling!

Birthday Morning

Since the party with some friends and family was scheduled for the late afternoon, we figured that it would be nice to have some quieter time in the morning to open some the gifts from the family.

Happy Birthday, Ezra!

This is technically his third birthday right? 1 – The day he was born. 2 – When he turned one. 3 – When he turns two. Sometimes I don’t understand numbers…or more specifically, how to count.

Officially, Ezra turned two almost three hours ago (as of this writing), but the big party won’t be until this afternoon. It’s so hard to believe that it’s been 730 days and nights since he came into our world. We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to wake up a couple thousand times at night, to change a billion diapers, and to hand-catch several dozen throw-ups. It’s been pure joy to clean up after he runs from the bathtub and pees on the bookshelf in his room. We wouldn’t want to do anything else except scoop up half-chewed food from the floor, or have him sick in the middle of the night.

As cynical as that may sound, it’s all true. And every little smile or every time that he says words a certain way (ask him to say ‘salty), it makes every “argh!” moment disappear into thin air.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EZRA!

The Horse Whisperer

While riding the grocery store horse may not seem like a significant step in most children’s lives, it happens to be for Ezra. For the longest time, he would want to go and see the horse but refused to sit on it and flat-out freaked out when it would start moving. Apparently our last visit marked a major turning point in Ezra’s life as he overcame his fear of plastic horses. Now, we are no longer dealing with him not wanting to ride the horse, rather, we deal with him not wanting to get off of it. The times they are a changin’.

The Second Hair Cut

We do understand that once things have been done two, three, four, ten times, they will loose the fact that they are interesting or unique…so we will take advantage of the newness of this haircut while we can. I can’t promise that I won’t post pictures from every haircut (since this is a blog about Ezra being Ezra), but rest assured that as long as they are good photos, and he makes for a cute handsome subject, the pictures will appear.

For this haircut – he needed one, and we wanted one prior to his second birthday – we went up to Cyrilla’s salon in Lone Tree. We hooked him up with another trim w/out loosing the curls and cut off quite a bit of hair. Since Ahna wasn’t there at the beginning of the cut (still finishing her day at school), I tried convincing Cyrilla that we were going to shave Ezra’s head. Thankfully, she didn’t bite.

A Glimpse Of The Future?

Ezra stopped by and visited with me at the firehouse the other day….

Spring Storm

The storms in the area have been fast and furious this spring. Yesterday, we had a tornado warning for 12 hours but nothing developed over Castle Rock directly…there were at least three reported tornadoes in the area, however. Here are some pictures from the cell after it passed over…