no bohn's about it: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Butterflies, Tarantulas, Gnomes & BYU

We headed off to Denver for a quick weekend visit to see the Jr's - this time we brought along a little surprise!

Annie got some brand new shoes and as a result was unable to walk very much - she ended up hitching a ride with Papa and all her luggage! It produced quite a few comments from the passerby's - lucky girl

Ah, together at last -

Berlynn is helping little Nixon learn to crawl, he's growing SOOOO fast

All packed up (and in) Papa's rental car - off to visit the Butterfly Pavilion

Rosie, the tarantula, lives at the Butterfly Pavilion and Berlynn (so brave) was there to let him crawl on her arm

Look at the big grin (so proud) - how many 6 year olds can say they've held a tarantula? She even got a sticker -

Mom had to follow the example of Berlynn, she was also brave and let Rosie crawl on her too!

Here, we are looking at "glow in the dark" scorpions - they were wild!

They even had starfish (more in our comfort zone) to touch

On to see the butterflies -

We have been to several butterfly exhibits before but NONE as neat as this one - there were so many butterflies, and they were all beautiful

I gave the girls my camera and I can tell you - I have a million pictures of butterflies -

And cute kids!

While we were having all this fun, BYU was also having fun with San Diego State - can you say 80-67? National TV?

We visted the arcade for a little while, while waiting for the movie - Brandon, Ezra and Berlynn are enjoying a virtual roller coaster ride

Yeah - skeetball!

Happy Nixon

Gnomeo & Juliette - a true love story!

Did you hear me? 80-67

We made a cake and cookies (yes, those are cookies) with the Easy Bake Oven

Kisses for Grandma!

The last night of a very fun filled Denver weekend!

Thank you B&J for a great time!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

30+ Years of Service

This year marks 30 years (actually 31) that Curt has been working for Varian. Hired just after Brandon was born it was his first "real" job (after leaving the military). Little did we know that employment in the "Chem Department" so many years ago would lead to 30+ years of working for Varian. Of course, back then it was Eimac, a division of Varian Associates. Through the years as he aquired his education he worked up and up through the company holding various management and technical positions until he has become the "GURU" of the Furnace Department. He doesn't like me to tell people he is a "Furnace Engineer" because most people think of furnaces like, the furnace in your home. The furnaces that Curt oversees are HUGE, with names like "Titan, Goliath, Zeus" you get the picture. They are industrial furnaces that are used in the fine art of "brazing" (the joining of two dissimilar metals) - which is Curt's specialty. Varian has turned out to be a pretty great place for Curt to have called home, and I'm proud of him. They have a "Service Award Banquet" for every 5 years of service and this year Curt was 1 of 8 being honored for 30 years.

Here is a poster of the 8 being recognized - Curt is the bottom left.

I tried to get a closeup picture - this is how Curt looked on his first day of employment 30+ years ago - and his current picture.

The congratulatory handshakes from Management

Whooo, he's on the BIG screen!

Well, guess who else was at this special dinner - Ben, Amy & Jonah.

Ben was being honored for 5 years of service at Varian! Congratulations Ben - hang in there, another 25 years and it will be you up there being honored on the BIG screen!

Thank you for working so hard - and long - Curt, I love you!