Friends & Fun!

Princess Mckenna & her friends

Donut eating contest

cooling off on a hot day

opening presents

trying to break the pinata

On Saturday Mckenna had her birthday party with her friends. We played all kinds of water games. The kids had a great time and we sent them home full of sugar. So it was a great party.

The flood....

So yes it has finally happened to us. Last night Parker and Mckenna were pushing each other around on Parkers airplane when we noticed Parker stopped in front of the furnace closet and stomping around as he does in the pool in the backyard. We asked him what he was doing and he says,"I splash in the water". We both looked at each other and thought that somehow he had gotten a hold of his drink and dumped it all over the ground....well such was not the case. No sippy cup to be found.
Turns out the area under our water heater and Furnace was full with about 1/2" of water. Great! So started mopping up the water and pulled the air intake grate to the furnace/AC unit and water was everywhere and the Sheetrock was soaked about 4 inches up the wall. We soaked up all the water and checked every possible thing that could have caused the leak. Everything checked out ok. About 5 minutes after soaking up all the water I could it was seeping back. ARGH!! I determined it must be coming from our neighbors who are out of town for 2-3 weeks. I called our property managers and they sent out a plumber. In the mean time my neighbor Ashton and his wife Lacey came out to see if we could find a way into the neighbors place who are out of town.
So its pitch black outside and there are 3 people trying to break into our neighbors place.. Pretty funny when I start seeing other neighbors poking there heads out their doors to see whats going on. Long story made short....Water is flooding our neighbors townhome and the path of least resistance had been found and it spilled over into our place. I feel bad... they have nice wood floors that had already swollen and started to split and their carpet is soaked and they are in California. The plumber came and we shut their water off and that slowed up the leaking into our place. Guess we know why its felt cool yet humid in our place the last few days!

Fact or Fiction?

Can fish really fly? It is an interesting question to ponder. I didn't think fish could fly until today. Kev was flipping through the chanels like he always does and we came across flying fish. These fish live in the Illinois river.(Mike have you ever seen them?) They jump about three to four feet through the air. They showed them literally flying back and forth across this river. The fisherman use these spear guns to try and kill them. Kev and I thought it was really cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcXn1_Y9Kpw

Mckenna is five!

Mckenna turned five years old on June 19th of this week. We can't believe that are little girl is already five. We were reflecting on the day she was born. It was such a special day. We were so excited for her to arrive. Our families were at the hospital waiting for hours. They wanted to be there to see her the minute she was born. As soon as they heard her little cry they were glued to the door. There was a little crack in the blinds and they wanted to be first to get a glimpse of her. It was such a proud moment when Kevin and I became parents

ATK.......my new job

Lately a bunch of family and friends have asked about my new job I recently accepted. First of all Lisa and I feel so blessed to have had so many opportunities come our way over the last few months. As many of you might already know, during the summer of 2005 after I graduated with my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from BYU we moved to Connecticut where I worked for Pratt & Whitney (http://www.pw.utc.com/). There I worked as a design/staff engineer co-op in the Hollow Fan Blade Engineering group. I worked on developing some design and tooling design methods that eventually lead to me receiving full funding all the way through graduate school back at BYU. Pratt also sent enough money my way that I was able to continue the work I did in CT but back at BYU for employment.

Turn the clocks forward to March of this year when we received an offer for full-time employment back in CT. We deliberated and prayed about this decision for a month once we had the offer in hand. Now don't get me wrong, we had a awesome time during our 8 month stay in CT (felt like a long vacation) and have some really great friend we really miss that ended going back there but we felt that CT was not where were to go. It was a really hard decision since I had nothing else to fall back onto once I declined the Pratt & Whitney offer.

Lisa was a very sure foundation for me during that time. Lots of "what if's" were floating through my head such as if I'd be able to even find a job in Utah since that's is where we want to end up and if it would even pay very well and be interesting work. Lisa stood by me and always had an optimistic attitude that something better would come up. Well we took the blind leap of faith, trusting solely that if we were doing everything we could to please our Heavenly Father that he would guide and direct us to where he wanted us to be. I love my wife so much for the strength and support she is to me. Gosh I'm lucky to have her!

So the interviewing began and results started flowing. I received 4(5 if you count what happened last night...I'll get to that) job offers since then. During the Spring career fair here at BYU I met some guys from a small firm in Davis county that was doing some design improvements to the A-10 Warthog wings since Congress said the National Guard couldn't have new planes (they've been around along time). This company Total Quality Systems (http://www.tqsinc.com/) was impressed from the interview and made me an offer fairly quickly after my 1st interview. I was flattered. It was better than Pratt & Whitney's to boot! I was strongly considering it when I received an email about a week after I recieved the offer that they had to retract it due to my availability (I'm still finishing my thesis at BYU and can't leave till I'm done). I was bummed but felt that something else would materialize. And it definitely did. I applied at a medical device firm in SLC called Varian Medical Systems (http://www.varian.com/ they make X-ray tubes) and was offered the job within hours of my second interview. At about the same time I received an offer from a small company that designs and manufactures Gyroplanes in SLC called Groen Brothers Aviation (http://www.groenbros.com/). I kinda stuck my foot in the door there and well it worked. About 2 days after receiving those offers I got a call from ATK (http://www.atk.com/). They wanted me to come in as soon as possible. I had applied to about 6 positions through their website. I was stoked! 3 offers all at once... wow that almost never happens. We were so blessed to have so many on the table.

So for those of you keeping track.... that's 4 offers.

We looked at the X-Ray tube company but I wasn't really that interested in designing X-Ray tubes. Now I'm not bashing the company because after learning about the engineering that goes into those X-rays tubes I have a new found respect for those that design and manufacture them. So we turned that one down and was left with the two (ATK and Groen Brothers Aviation). Tough decision since both would be awesome. So I started the "who can out bid who" game with the companies and my salary. I asked a ton of questions about every aspect of the jobs and learned more and more about what the companies had to offer. Lisa I think from the get go felt that ATK was the best choice ( should have listened to her earlier) but I kept pouring over the information I was given and we were praying constantly to make the right decision and then it seems that one day I finally new which one to take. Its like the decision was almost just handed to me. ATK was it! So I turned down GBA and told ATK I accept.

We feel really good about it and now a bit about the job. I'll be working at the ATK Bacchus facility located in Magna. It was previously Hercules Aerospace which was bought by ATK about the same time they bought Thiokol in Brigham City. I'll be working in ATK launch systems Mission Assurance. So basically its a position where I will be working with many different groups doing things like risk mitigation and failure mode and effect analyses. I am really excited to work in the newly formed group and see it as an awesome opportunity to make a difference in some really awesome stuff i.e. the space shuttle and the future crew exploration vehicle that will take astronauts to the moon and beyond. Its going to be really cool and watching the space shuttle and the crew of STS-117 take off last week for the International Space Station ...it was a cool feeling and a new found pride knowing that because of our products, that event can even take place. So life is good, real good!!

So that brings me to what happened last night... remember TQS well they called last night and extended me another offer to come work for them as a project manager for the A-10 projects they have. Pretty cool but I'm going to go to ATK. Its kinda nice knowing that there's an open door there (among others) if I am ever interested.

What a Birthday Suprise!!!!!!

So let me just start off by saying that never in my whole life has anyone ever pulled such a big one on me as my beautiful wife did this past Saturday. Saturday started off great by Lisa and the kids celebrating my 28th birthday day early since Sunday was to be Father's Day and we had some other family engagements to attend. So here's how the big surprise went down.... late Saturday afternoon I was working on the rebuild of my '72 CL350 when at about 5:30pm Lisa comes outside to tell me that Teenie (Lisa's sister Christina) had just come over to visit and that we could sneak away for a few minutes to pick up some last minute things for Mckenna's 5th birthday on the 19th. I thought to myself, "ok, well why not.. we don't get to go to very many places with just the two of us"... so I started cleaning up my stuff and got changed. I asked Lisa what it was that we needed to pick out ( I thought we were done with the shopping) and she reminded me about the helmet we were going to buy for Kenna. So we got in the car and Lisa mentioned that we needed to go to Shopko in Spanish Fork.

So just a side note to those of you who might not know this... I love aviation and anything to do with it. So when I hear S.F and we get to go to Shopko I think," Yesssss, we get to drive past the airport and maybe we'll see something take off or land." Anyway.......

We head over to Shopko and as we are going there Lisa mentioned she wanted to stop by a little dance studio to get some more information about dance for Kenna. I said sure and we swung by. Nobody there ...normal for late Saturday I thought. Lisa mentioned that since we were already here why don't I show her the rest of the airport. So we drove down to the small parking lot by the gate to the taramack and that was that.... we went to Shopko. While we were there we received a call from Ed Hunt (one of our family friends) and Lisa mentioned that he was going to swing by for my birthday. I thought,"great.. sounds fun and he's done that in the past". We we left Shopko and headed home. As we were passing the airport we happened to see Ed's van at the stop sign leaving the airport. I laughed and thought,"oh Ed must have just got done flying with some of his friends who own a flight school (Diamond Flight Center of Spanish Fork www.dfcpilot.com ). So we pulled over and laughed because we run into him at random around the valley. He came up to the window and we said hi and I asked him if he was just up in the DA40 or Diamond Star aircraft. He said he had been and that they hadn't put the play away yet if I wanted to see it. We always talk planes when we get together so I though that it would be a cool opportunity to go check it out up close. The problem was that we left the kids with Teenie and as anyone who has 3 kids or has watched 3 kids knows.... that is a lot of work. So I turned to Lisa and she was like, " well we did tell Teenie that we wouldn't be gone very long...". I thought she was right about that and thought well, " I could jump in Ed's van and buzz over to the airport to check out the planes and then head back home with him once we got done and Lisa could take the car back to the house to relieve Teenie. Ed's said that we could do that but I decided to ask Lisa if that would be ok or if she'd like to come. She said she would. I was excited since I thought I would be able to see the planes up close. Awesome. We drove to the hanger and saw an instructor pushing a little 2 passenger plane out of a hanger and the DA40 was still sitting there. We parked and went over to the plane. I started talking pilot talk with the instructor and he said," hey why don't you hop up in and sit in the pilots seat. I was stoked! I climbed up and sat down in the cockpit and was in heaven! SO COOOOOL!!!! Then all of a sudden the pilot goes,"Here's your headset and there's your seat belt lets go for a ride." I was in shock. I couldn't believe it! I looked at Lisa and she had a huge grin on her face! This whole outing was completely choreographed out and planed out weeks in advance. I had absolutely no idea. This was the coolest birthday present. We were all going to go flying!!! Since it was a 4 passenger plane, Lisa and Ed climbed in the back.

This picture was literally just moments after I found out we were really going to go flying! ( Lisa had packed her purse full of the camera and video camera and I had no idea!

So we all climbed in and taxied out to the run way. The pilot Ben told me he would normally let me fly takeoff but due to a strong crosswind he's do that part and then the stick was mine! HOLY COW... I was so excited and literally laughing with excitement. SO COOL!!! So we did our run up and we were off barrelling down the runway into the deep blue yonder!

So for those of you who know Lisa... she's not a big fan of heights but she did awesome. Although some of the turbulence was enough to convince her to never do that when she's pregnant..lol! So once we are up in the air Ben (the pilot) asks me where I wanted to go. wow...too cool! We flew around S.F. and Springville then once over our townhome as you can see in the picture below...

then he asks again where I'd like to go... I said, "Can we fly over BYU?". His reply was affirmative and up we went and flew over campus. So neat to be that high up and cruising along at over 200 MPH (176 knts for you airplane buffs). We then flew up to Heber by way of Provo Canyon. That was way cool to fly between the towering canyon wall and Timp like that at about the same altitude as the top of Sundance. We flew on to Jordanelle and then to Kamas Valley. So COOOL!!! We could see the Cabin area too! We continued on to Rockport where I banked the plane to the right and we flew right over the cabin. That was so cool! The mountains that I recognize as being so huge at the cabin were little mole hills in this $300,000 plane. WOW! We circled above the cabin and you could see everyone of the horses gazing out in front of the barn. Too cool! We proceeded to fly back into Kamas valley and up over timber lakes to Strawberry res. Its was amazing how much ground you could cover when you were flying. After Strawberry we dropped into Hobble Creek canyon and flew back into the valley.

Well, once we landed I still couldn't believe what we had just done. It was so exciting especially since besides takeoff and landing I got to fly the plane! SO COOL!!! I can't wait to get my pilots license and build my plane (I'll have to talk about that in a later entry). So as you can see in the next picture that I was literally glowing!

So to say the least.. I had no clue even after having climbed into the pilot's seat what was about to happen. Lisa, thank you so much. I loved every second of it and have never had such an awesome birthday present. That ones going to be hard to beat! lol! To Ed, thank you so much so working the flight out and helping Lisa set it up. It was so awesome that I think about how much fun it was all the time. Lisa... you are so good at holding a straight face! wow.. I laugh at how sly you were in keeping it a secret. Way to go. Thank you so much. I love you beautiful! I'm so glad you were able to come and experience it with me and enjoy it none-the-less. Sorry for the bumps... my bad! ;-) I look forward to the day when we have our plane and we can travel where ever we want! So much to look forward to!

So to sum it all up....it was the best birthday present I ever could have hoped for. Thank you Lisa. I'm so glad I have such a beautiful, talented and considerate wife to spend the rest of eternity with. What a awesome surprise!!

Happy Fathers Day!!

Happy Fathers day Kev!! We hope you have a fun day because you deserve it! You are a great father to our three kids. I appreciate all you do to help out at home. I love the fact that you are willing to take part in the dirty work.(changing diapers) The kids love you and want to be just like you.

Halle is three months!

We can't believe that she is already three months old! She is smiling all the time now and is so much fun. She is becoming a little chub now just like are other kids were. I am guessing she weighs around fourteen pounds. She has been growing out of all her clothes and just went up a size in diapers.

Crazy happy kids...

Lisa went out shopping tonight so I decided the kids could go out and play with their squirt guns and play in the sprinklers while Halle slept. I had to grab the camera once I saw what they were doing out side. I went out to check on them and they are playing in a little muddy puddle they made together and are both laughing their heads off...

Well for those of you who know Kenna, she's a little crazy at times.... tonight was definitely one of those times. She's hilarious. Gotta love these kids!

modern conveniences

I was talking with my Grandpa Rosen today about our blog. We got to talking about grocery shopping. He told me about something he learned on the news last night. They are starting to make drive through grocery shopping. You pull up under shaded parking, hand them a list and they will get it for you. They just have the basics like bread, milk, eggs etc. It is supposed to be competetive with other grocery stores like Wal Mart and Maceys. The first store is in Lindon. They will be developing more in other parts of Utah. I thought that was kind of cool. It definitley would help me out. If I ran out of milk I could just pull up and get some. I wouldn't have to unload all the kids to just get one item.

Life with three!

I am always being asked the question, "so what is life like with three?" It is a challenge but very worthwhile! There are days that are just crazy, but the days that are awesome out weigh the bad. I am just glad that are kids only came one at a time. The first is an adjustment. You have to get used to putting someone else first all the time. You are getting used to being a parent. The second child it is an adjustment emotionally. You are trying to share your love with two instead of just one. The third is a challenge physically. You only have two hands and one lap. I just take it a day at a time. The thing that I have found to be a challenge is shopping. It is a challenge just going to the grocery store. I usually put Halle in the cart in her car seat. Parker usually sits in the back of the cart and Kenna walks beside me. One thing that has helped a lot is the baby Bjorn. I strap Halle in and then I have my hands free to help with Parker. The thing that is most rewarding is seeing my kids interacting with eachother. Mckenna and Parker are so excited to have a little sister. They love her so much and always want to help. It is great to see them laugh and play together.

The Beginning.....

So I've finally cracked down and created one of these for our family. Hopefully we'll get into it and update frequently so that those of you near and far can keep up on the happenings of the Foster family. Stay tuned for more!