The Ground Shook

Our past week was eventful to say the least. First of all, for those concerned, Elko was spared the brunt of the 6.0 earthquake. The damage was contained mostly to the community of Wells, which is 50 miles west of us. There was quite a bit of damage in Wells, but thankfully no one was seriously hurt or killed. The geography of the area slowed down the force of the quake, so by the time it reached us we had a little shaking. I was the only one awake when the earthquake hit. It rattled our apartment, but nothing fell from the walls or the cabinets. We appreciated all the calls of concern received from friends and family.



In addition to the earthquake we enjoyed a nice visit with Gail's parent's over the weekend. Matthew built a toolbox with Grandpa and we got to do some shopping. It is always nice to get together with the family. We ended our trip with a visit to Grandma Bates which is always wonderful. We got in late Sunday evening and I think all of us we tired from the weekend's activities because everyone was in bed early and slept in this morning.



The boys are anxious for the arrival of Grandma Mierins and Jim. Every day they keep asking about how many more days until they get here. Hopefully we will have some spring like weather for them.



That about sums up our past week. We hope you all have a great week.

Happy Valentine's Day

Another wonderful week has come and gone. All continues to go well in the high desert. We see signs of spring, which is always great. This morning we saw and heard some song birds so spring cannot be that far away.

Gail and the boys continue to be well. Gail was busy this week getting ready for an upcoming Relief Society Conference as well as her job, which continues to go well. The boys are eagerly awaiting visits with their grandparents. They are excited to see all them which will occur begining next Friday.

Andy had one of the busiest weeks since we have been here. On Wednesday he had a preliminary hearing for a man accused of a heinous sex crime. It was difficult to do and it was the first time he has struggled with his job. He just keeps in the back of his mind he is making sure the system we have established continues. It wasn't easy. Friday was the big trial day in Wendover and he did OK. Nearly everything ended up settling. Once he was done he drove on to Salt Lake City to see a friend and then drove home early Saturday morning.

We hope all is well with our friends and family.

Spring Will Soon Be Here, We Hope.

Another wonderful week has passed for us here in the high desert of Northeastern Nevada. The biggest news of the week was Matthew's Blue and Gold banquet and Nikolas' new hobby as an amateur dentist. As you can see below, Nikolas has taken to pulling his teeth out. We were at the Blue and Gold and Nikolas returned from using the bathroom to announce he decided to pull his other front tooth out.

Matthew had earned two belt loops and we are very proud of him. The theme was the Chinese New Year and we enjoyed a nice dinner and presentation on China.

The weather has warmed up quite a bit and we are told that Elko actually has a spring. Unfortunately, it will also have a wonderful mud/slush season thanks to the wonderful caretaking of our apartment building. Lest any of you thought we were kidding when we complained of no plowing you can see from the photos below that despite the sidewalk being clear there is about 6 inches of ice on the roadway. The past few days have been sunny and in the 40's, next week it is supposed to reach the 50's. So by the end of the day we have a nice slushy mess and by morning we have ice. When we asked about perhaps plowing as the snow melts, we were told by the maintenance guy as he drove by on his trctor with a plow, "Why, just get good snow tires." Yeaaaah.



Andy and Gail continue to do well. This upcoming week Andy has quite a few trials, which he is looking forward to doing. We hope all is well with our friends and family.

February is Here.

We are in the midst of what is considered the first significant snow storm of the winter. It started snowing Thursday, stopped a bit and then picked up again yesterday and has not stopped. Looking outside it appears that we may have about a half a foot. This does not sound like much, but considering the City of Elko budgets $50,000 a year for plowing iand plowing entails pushing the snow into the middle of the road, so everyone can drive through it creating a brown slush, it is significant. Thursday the snow got so bad the road connecting Elko with Spring Creek, the adjoining community, was closed.

We are all doing well. Gail was supposed to go to Salt Lake City Thursday night to do a Pampered Chef show and then visit with a friend Friday. Due to the snow storm blowing through she was unable to go. Hopefully, she will be able to reschedule soon. She is enjoying her new work schedule as it allows her to be home with the boys in the afternoon and all day Fridays.

The boys are enjoying living in Nevada. The have done more sledding than ever and this past week was the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The boys got to go to school in their best cowboy gear and Matthew went on a field trip to hear some of the performers. The boys continue to do well in school. Matthew is enjoying cub scouts.

We enjoyed a nice visit with our good friend Bill this week. He was in town on business and it was great to see him. Andy knows him from his mission and he was one of our witnesses at our wedding. Living here has allowed us to reconnect with many of our friends, which we like. Last Saturday we also hosted our first dinner party and it was nice to be able to do so. We invited one of Andy's co-workers as well as a family from our ward.

Andy has been busy as always and enjoying the world of criminal law practice. His case load has picked up and over the next several weeks he has quite a few trials. He is planning to attend a forensics conference in Las Vegas in April. The science behind his cases is always very interesting.

We were all saddened by the passing of President Hinckley. Thankfuly, we were able to view the proceedings over the internet. Gail and Andy got to watch and the boys wandered in and out.

That about sums up our past week. We hope you are all well.

Well, this week has been a quick one for all of us. The boys continued at school and from all reports had a good week. Nikolas took a spill on some ice at school and ended up scraping his face and getting a black eye. As Andy has said on a few occasions, thank goodness we have the AFLAC insurance now.

Gail began her new job cleaning this week. She is cleaning in the evening the day care center she has been working at. She now works in the mornings which gives her the afternoon at home which she likes. Additionally, she only works Monday to Thursday.

Andy had a quiet week as well. A few hearings and some meetings with clients. In a few weeks he will have a day with about 6 trials out in Wendover. He is looking forward to that. He is still working on the murder trial and in about a week things will pick up with that matter.

The Nevada Caucuses brought attention to Elko. On Friday we had visits from Senators Clinton, Obama and Edwards and Governor Romney even came for a visit. It was quite exciting.

This weekend we enjoyed some time visiting with Gail's family in Idaho. We drove up Friday afternoon and returned today. We had dinner with her family and also went sledding. Unfortunately we forgot the camera, but I can tell you the west's idea of sledding is much different than in New Hampshire. The hill was huge and you can get some great runs. Matthew and Nikolas had a ball. Nikolas got a white wash. Andy and Nikolas went down the hill and in an attempt to stop using his feet kicked up a bunch of snow.

That about sums up our week. We hope you are all well.

Well this has been an exciting week in Elko, Nevada. The boys returned to school this week after a two week break for Christmas. We received 4 inches of snow on Sunday and then another 5 inches of snow on Wednesday. This of course over inundated the road crews and thus the schools were closed Wednesday. The nice thing was that we received a phone message at 6:15 in the morning letting us know. Since the school was closed, the daycare center Gail works at was closed as well. As a result the boys spent the day outside playing. Below are a few pictures of their adventures. Nikolas is getting quite good on the snowboard and now wants us to buy one for him. He does stand up on it and yes, that is him in the air going off a jump the boys built. Thank goodness our AFLAC insurance went into effect before the first snow.

We watched with anticipation as the results from the NH Primary were announced. The 19th are the Nevada Caucuses and it will be interesting to see what occurs. A few candidates have made their way to Elko.

Gail will begin a new job Monday. She is going to be cleaning the daycare center she has been working at in the evenings. She will continue to work in the center during the day, but only in the morning. She is both excited and happy about this.

Andy continues to be busy with his work. He is doing more serious cases. This week he was assigned a major drug case. With I-80 passing through Elko there are a lot of these cases when people get pulled over and drugs are found. This case involves about $300,000 in cocaine. As we have said before Andy thinks he has found his area of the law. Criminal Defense work is exciting and each day is a new adventure.

that about sums up our week. We hope you all have a wonderful week.

Happy New Year

We hope you have all had a happy and safe New Year's celebration. Our family continues to do quite well. On New Year's Eve we travelled to Salt Lake City and went to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. The boys really enjoyed seeing everything, but the particularly enjoyed the snow and throwing snowballs, thus our stay was not long. We also drove by the places Gail and I lived when we lied in SLC. We were glad we went. Despite it being very cold and windy, we enjoyed being at Temple Square. As you can see from below the boys had big smiles on their faces.

We spent the evening with some friends in South Jordan and then did some shopping on New Year's Day. Andy needed to get prepared for some hearings on Wednesday, so we did not stay long, but on our way home we stopped to see Gail's sister and some friends who both live in Tooele.

The rest of the week went quickly. Andy worked long hours and Gail as well at the daycare center. The boys begin school again Monday. Over the past two weeks Andy enjoyed being able to go home and see the boys at lunch. We got to spend some great time together in the afternoons.

Andy finally has his own office and spent Saturday unpacking his things and getting the office set up.

We experienced some snow over the past week, but just a couple of inches. The major storm which hit California Friday, brought us some very high winds and about 3-4 inches of snow. Nikolas has taken up snowboarding and spent a good part of Saturday playing on the hill in front of our apartments practicing his snowboarding skills.

We hope all is well with our friends and family. Until next week.