Water

We had the privilege of spending the evening at friends house last night. When we get together now, there are 8 kids. Wow. The adults visited inside and drank Skinny Dip, while the kiddos spent the evening playing in the water. As you can see by the photos, everyone had a great time. I think we did break the brand new slip-and-slide that was just purchased on Friday.

Lego

Meanwhile, in the air-conditioned basement, the boys were taking part in one of their favorite activities. These kids can build almost anything out of Legos. Right now they are working on models of people and vehicles from the Halo games.
Nathanael was on the computer trying to hack into the Google algorithms. Not too bad for a kids going into kindergarten. And the answer is yes; the computer you see in the picture is where the magic of campingdad comes alive.

Camping Season

I know, it's already the end of July, but for us it is finally camping season! After almost a year in storage, I pulled out the old Viking to inspect it and prepare for our first trip of the 2008 camping season. I guess when I packed it up last June, I didn't think it would be the last trip of the summer. That was evident by several of the items that had been "growing" in the fridge. I also cracked another water filter, and have some sort of a leak near the water heater. Other than that, she is ready to go.
Sarabeth spent all day helping me set it up, clean it out, and play make-believe in it. All she could talk about was when would we get to go camping. Nathanael joined us later in the day, and helped drink some of the bottled water I had left in it. We are planning a quick one nighter to Wyoming next week. The goal is to swing through Laramie and pick up grandma and grandpa, then head to the Snowy Range. Kinda sad that our first night out will take place July 30th.

Tulo

Bad dogs! While I was away at the music festival, drinking beer and having a blast, Jennifer was at home bailing the dogs out of doggie prison. Evidentily, they both got out while Jen and the kids were at her parents house, and they were picked up by one of Evans finest. Tulo has a micro chip implanted, so they called us and said we could come pick him up. We asked about Jessie and they said they had her too. Jen paid $70 and was issued a ticket to appear in court next month. Wow, police in Evans don't screw around. Seems to me the fine would be sufficient, but NO. A reasonable person would think that there are quite a few more important criminals out there to be taking care of, like the three men who were robbing gas stations with a sawed-off shotgun 2 blocks from my house. Or the people in town who are beating their wives and hurting their children. Or watering their lawn between noon and five. So, just a warning to those of you who might have a dog that gets lose in the city of Evans : the punishment will NOT fit the crime.

Music

What is there to do in Denver when it is well over 100 degrees? Head to the first ever Mile High Music Festival of course! I was able to join over 100,000 people for two days of heat, music and beer in beautiful Commerce City Colorado. The highlight of the weekend for me was the chance to see Dave Matthews in concert for the very first time. I wasn't disappointed. Dave jammed out for over two and a half hours, interspersing well know ditty's with several long jam songs. Here is the set list from the show:

07/20/2008
Dave Matthews Band
Mile High Music Festival
Commerce City, CO

Don’t Drink the Water *
You Might Die Trying *
Eh Hee *
Two Step *
Proudest Monkey *
Satellite *
Corn Bread *
Sledgehammer *
Stay (Wasting Time) *
Old Dirt Hill *
Jimi Thing *
#41 *
Tripping Billies *
So Damn Lucky *
So Much To Say *
Anyone Seen The Bridge *
Too Much *
Ants Marching *
Encore
Gravedigger *
Louisiana Bayou *
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) *

Special Guests:
Send good thoughts for LeRoi
* Jeff Coffin

indicates a fade into the next song

What a great show. More pictures to follow.

Outdoors

Jennifer got off work early yesterday, for for the first day all summer we were able to do something on my day off. Head to the hills! We escaped the 100 degree temps in Greeley for the coolness of Rocky Mountain National Park. God bless the National Park system!
We headed to our favorite hike: Bear Lake. This is the fifth summer in a row we have made the relative easy hike around the lake. It was wonderful to be out of Greeley, at least for a few hours. We saw cutthroat trout, tadpoles, a snake, and a few really FAT chipmunks. Little Andrew complained most of the way to Estes, but then he was the one who wanted to keep hiking, maybe camp out, and was disappointed when we had to leave. what a crazy kid.
Finished up the evening with a walk through Estes, and some really great Mexican food. The kids found a shallow spot on the river, and splashed around for a bit. Yep, we were the bad parents who let the kids wade in, much to the envy of all the kids walking by, who then immediately asked their parents if they could too. Then we got the dirty look for the parents as they had to say no. What a great way to end a Wednesday.

Princess

The future American Idol? Found a $2 microphone at Target that the little princess just loves. She has been singing into it since I got it for her. I have no idea how she comes up with the songs she sings. They are good songs though!

Tulo

Is there anything better in the world than a dog? This is Tulo. He is a 75 lb. Chocolate Lab that came to our family in October 2007, just as the Rockies were making their run to the World Series. He is a GREAT dog. He is always happy to see me. He always wants to play fetch. Tulo is almost trained to bring in the morning paper. He also keeps the family safe after I leave for work in the early morning. Tulo ever snores like his owner.

Oil and Gas Prices

Wow, it is really hot today. No wonder the boys have been inside the air-conditioned house playing x-box for like 3 hours. Would have been home from work almost 2 hours earlier, but the boss called a few of us in for a "quick" meeting. It was a 5 minute discussion on the new store we are getting on Sunday. Oh well. We ended up changing the information she had, so I guess the meeting was pointless to begin with.
While driving home, I was able to hear an interview with a loony democrat on Fox News. She was arguing that we shouldn't drill for oil off the coasts. That drilling won't change anything. My question is, 'How do we know it won't change anything?' What if gas drops by 20 cents? 30 cents? How do we know until we try? The old saying holds true : Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Let's drill through the heads of moose if it will help us find oil.

First Post

After looking at the page for several minutes, it looked kinda empty. I thought I would post another post to my blog. So for in its 10 minute existence I have had no visitors and no comments. Maybe when I have something interesting to say, people will come flocking to campingdad.

Beginnings

I thought I would join the rest of the modern world and start a little blog out there in cyberspace. It will be mostly about life in the Roth family, random thoughts on the world around us, and my brilliant insights about the "world of work." I hope you enjoy and come back often.