2008 Johnson Family Reunion

Here's the gang...

...and here's the rest of the gang!!

Click the thumbnail images to the left to see the full-sized image, then and save to your computer so you can print at home or send to your favorite online print service.  The high resolution image is cropped and sized to be printed at 5x7.

Enjoy!  :-)

Gr'pa John and Gr'ma Jackie

The day after the main event (Fiesta Bowl), Laurie, Jack and I drove about 90 minutes North of Phoenix to Prescott (pres'kət) Valley to visit Dad and Jackie. The highlights of the trip was taking an auto tour of the area guided by dad, visiting Heritage Park Wildlife Zoo (Jack really had a great time!), and of course enjoying the occasion of being with family. Hope to be back soon!!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve Block Party, Tempe Arizona
Left to right...
Back row: Ryan Panitz, Todd Anderson, Joe Kelsch, Chase Hutchinson, Jeff "JR" Carter, Scott
Front row: Jody Kelsch, Julie Braegger, Stacy Stuart, Laurie Carter

Oregon Coast

Laurie and Jack took a trip to the Oregon Coast where they met up with Mom and Dad Johnson to visit Scot and Danielle in Wheeler, Oregon (halfway between Cannon Beach to the North and Oceanside to the South).

Visit the gallery to see pictures at Hugs Point.

Johnson Family Reunion

Thanks to Mike and the support of family, we had a wonderful time enjoying each other's company over the weekend at scenic "Camp J" near Leavenworth, Washington.

See the gallery photos.



(This photo was taken Sunday afternoon after some family had already departed on their return journeys back to their homes. Sorry we didn't coordinate this sooner. Wish you were here!)

SCUBA

Like I said, this was a business trip for Laurie, and a vacation for me. So I persued a life-long dream to go SCUBA diving.

Here I am in the SCUBA pool learning rule #1: BREATH!! There's like 5 rules... really, I can't remember 'em, but bottom line is when you're out there you need to pay attention to the instructor's visual signals and don't touch anything not handed to you.
My instructor handed me this sea creature. It's called a Pencil Urchin. It's very stiff. When turned upside down (and the right side up), it's spiney arms move so fluidly, like a flower trying to face the sun light, only faster).




Notice the rusty color. You can see in the next photos that my fingers are stained with a chalk-like substance that rubbed off while handling this creature.


This is so awesome... to feel practically weightless and soar through the ocean like I'm flying.

Guess what? I ran out of air!! I looked at my air guage and noticed it was in the yellow zone. Not to worry. That means "10 mins of air left... turn around and head back." So, we started heading back. Breathing felt harder, and I looked at my meater again and noticed it was in the red zone. That means "5 mins of air left... get your head above water." No worries. I reached for my instructor's extra resuscitator and shared his air (like I was trained to do (twhoo!)). After a while he gave me my reciscitator back when we were just a minute or so from the spot where we disappeared into the deep blue. Yeah... breathing felt real tough! Then, my instructor pulled these valves to add air to my vest so that I would float to the surface. There wan't much air left. When I surfaced, I had to manually blow air into my vest to keep me boyant. :-)

It was the end of the dive anyway. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I can't wait to do it again one day!!

Aloha!

We're in Hawai'i!! Laurie had a business trip to Wailea, Maui for a convention with the Idaho and Oregon automobile dealers. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to tag along, so I booked a flight to be with my wife in paradise (she worked, I was on vacation). Enjoy the photos in the gallery (I apologize in advance for the quality of some, as this is the first few days I got to use and learn my new Canon 30D).

Airplane ride

Jack had an impromptu check-up today. He's 45 days old today. He's grown 3 inches and gained 4 pounds.

We travelled to Cd'A and back over the weekend via airplane and he travelled well. He slept the entire way up, and I popped in a schnuller that he sucked on while he was sleeping, then on the way back he was mostly awake, so we fed him a bottle of formula, this to help keep his ears cleared as the cabin pressure changed. Jack was just an oblivious, happy baby. :-)

When we travelled around by car, Jack just kicked back and enjoyed the ride. I think a lot of babys ride well when they feel the vibrations and listen to the engine and road noise. It's obvious that Jack doesn't mind; he never fusses, unless he's hungry or needs a diaper change sooner than we might think to do it. I guess sometimes he hollars, in a calm, mewing way, for a little attention. Don't we all (some people more obnoxiously than others)?

Have you ever heard of "gripe water?" It's basically a homeopathic remedy for gas, hiccups, tummy aches, and teething that is widely known about and used in England. We found it at Smith's for Kids in Boise. Jack takes all medicines (mouth drops, eye drops) like a champ, and since this stuff doesn't taste too bad he even licks the medicine dropper. ;-) Seems to have worked well for Jack so far.