Preston's Birthday

Well Preston turned 9. Wow I can't belive that I have a 9yr old. We got him some small things to open up, and we went on our first adventure to New York City.

We had a fun little party. We had cake and ice cream, and he got to blow out some candles and open a few presents. He was pretty excited.

We walked from our apartment to the Stamford train station. We got our tickets and headed to NEW YORK on the METRO. We are only 1 hour away, and Dallin can ride free. This was an adventure for us. The pictures are of us at Grand Central Station.

The first thing that we did was we surprised Preston for his Birthday and went to the HARRY POTTER Exhibit. This was a neat museum that is closing in September. When we got there, Preston was really excited. We got in the exhibit and the first thing that did was we had to find out what type of wizards. Preston volunteered to have the "Talking Hat" tell him what wizard he was. He was SLITHERING, a kid in the audience said, he looks like Malfoy. The museum had the clothes that they wore, the wands they used, and some of the things from the movie. The museum was a lot of fun.

We got to meet a weird guy, and Bumblebee off Transformers. The fun didn't stop there. We got to meet many famous people.

Emili got to meet the famous guy from the Vampire Movie

We got to meet Nicholas Cage.

Preston and Dallin got to sit on a beam over New York.

I got to sit in the "President's Chair" It was kind of comfy! Maybe I should run for President.

Preston and Dallin got to try their driving experience in New York.

Emili got to be on the morning show with Regis.
What a day! We are not done yet. Our adventure in New York has just begun. We are trying to see as much as we could see.

We took a cruise around Manhattan and got to rest from the walking and see the city from the water. It was a different That was fun, that was our first boat ride, and we drove past the Statue of Liberty. Our boys were definatly tired. They were good troopers as Emili and I dragged them across the city.

After walking we stopped at Planet Holleywood and had a Birthday dinner for Preston. They were so Hungry, and tired that they ate really good. That is the key, walk them all over the city and then they will eat. After dinner we went to the "TOP of the ROCK" this is at the Rockefeller Center and looked over the city at night. This was really cool, We got to take a really cool elevator to the top that had a movie screen in it. It played it as we were going up 72 floors. Dallin and Preston thought that was the coolest thing ever. They loved riding the Elevator, or as Dallin says, "ESKAVATOR" They fight to try to be the first person to push the button. When we got to the top of the building,we went out on the observatory deck and it started to rain, (just a sprinkle) but it was pretty cold. We still had to walk a few blocks to make it back to Grand Central Station to catch the train back to our house.

We got home late it was after Midnight, We had a FUN Adventure, and we slept really good. Preston even fell asleep on the way home. NEW YORK is a lot of fun, so much to do, so much to see, so little time.

New York

It was a long, long, long drive. With going cross country, stopping for potty breaks, stopping for food, and gas. We were driving for 3 days pulling about 10 hours a day. We finally made it to Connecticut at Midnight, and I had to be to work the next day. Our apartment is really nice, it is a small one bedroom apartment, with a pool. Dallin and Preston think this is the greatest because they can go swimming all the time. Preston is doing a really good job swimming and teaching Dallin how to Swim. Dallin thinks he is as good as Preston is. They have had fun playing together, and I think Dallin and Preston have been really creative with games, since we are also on vacation from the Wii. That has been nice.

Mount Rushmore

I got a new job with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). I was working at L-3 Communications and a new opportunity came up. I decided to take it. The job process went very quick, and soon I had an offer letter. They told me that they were going to send me to Connecticut for 2 months, for training. So Emili, didn't want me to have all the fun out here by my self and we decided that we would have a family adventure. Since they were going to put me up in a hotel, and pay for food and cover our gas for the price of a plane ticket. We thought it would be a good time for us to spend together as a family. So we started our trip, and DROVE from Salt Lake to Mount Rushmore. We thought we would stop along the way to see some stuff

This is the first place that we stopped. CRAZY HORSE, this was a Indian Museum and they had Indian artifacts. They are actually cutting this monument in the side of the mountain. They have been working on it since 1948 and have the face done, they are working on the rest of the horse. While we were there we got to see them do a blast with dynamite and take 9Tons off. This was pretty cool.

This is us at Mount Rushmore, this was really facinating. The valley is beautiful and I wish we could have gotten closer.

Johnson Family Renunion 2011

This year at the Johnson renunion, we had fun. Although it got rained out, and most of our plans were cancled. We tried to still have fun. The most important part was we as a family got to spend time together. We had fun playing with the cousins, and swimming at the pool. We got INDIAN names, and even went swimming. Some of the things that we did was we played a fun game in teams.

This is The Place

Here we are at "THIS IS THE STATE PARK" I am a sucker for FREE tickets. A company was having a party and we are their customers and they sent us Free Tickets to attend a "Day of Fun". It was really Fun, we got to have lunch, and do many crafts, Dallin and Preston had a really fun time.

Preston standing in front of the monument.

There were many fun things that we got to do. We got to ride the train around, and that was a lot of fun. Dallin kept thinking that he is bigger than he is, and wanted to do it by his self.
We got to go and see Brigham Young's house. We got to "PAN FOR GOLD"

Preston wanted to keep finding the nuggets, I think he found like 12-13 gold nuggets. Dallin found some and then he lost interest. He had more fun going on the Pirate Ship, and he was Captian Jack Sparrow- from Pirates of the Carribbean.

After we finished "Diggin for Gold" we got to see some Indian houses. the Tee-Pee. We had fun looking at these houses, and were amazed how they lived in there.

After that, we stopped in at the Barber, and I got a shave, for 2 bits. I actually know what 2 bits are, they would cut a quarter in have and then half again and that is what they called 2 bits. It wasn't worth the 2 bits , I doubt I will ever go back and have him shave me.

We found out that the Barber, is also the Medicine Man, and the Doctor, and the Dentist. Emili went to him for her Dental Work, and Preston went to him so he could fix a broken bone. Preston was scared, as he didn't really break a bone, and definatly did not want him to work on him.

The we went to see the Sherrif, and we got to use a wooden hammer and make some cool designs on leather.
Then Dallin and Preston got to Ride a Pony, they had fun 1 time, because the horse just went in circles.

We sure did a lot of activities, it was really fun.

Father and Sons 2011

This  is our Father and Son's outing in Grantsville.  This is has become a wonderful tradition for me to spend time with Preston and Dallin. We got some really warm sleeping bags, and I was excited that we had warmer weather this year, rather than freezing and camping in the snow. We had many activities to do, archery, hiking, and BB-Gun shooting, Horse Shoes, and of course, throwing rocks in the water. Dallin wanted to do target shooting. Dallin sure thinks he is much older and bigger than what he is.

Preston, had a lot of fun shooting the gun. Preston was pretty brave, they had a zip line and he decided to go down the zip line and then jump in the freezing cold water. I tried to explain to him that the water would be cold, it came right off the mountain from the snow, but he thought it looked fun. I have to agree, it looked way to fun, and I wanted to do it, but I chickened out, only because the water was way to cold. I made him wear a life jacket. I was on the other side waiting for him. He went down the zip line about the length of a football field and I told him to drop and he dropped and quickly swam to the side. That I think was his funnest time. I had a good time and I was proud that he did so well, and wanted to do that.