Home Means Nevada.............

So we decided to take a trip out to Steph and I's old stomping grounds and visit my parents in Reno over the weekend of the 24th of July. There were several of the kids spouses and soon to be spouses that hadn't had an opportunity to meet Grandma & Grandpa Loud yet so with Kirstens upcoming nuptials we thought this would be a great time to go visit.

Desiree (now 5 months pregnant) and Justin decided to fly out while the rest of us drove. Josh and Shelby came up from the Bay Area and the rest of us trekked in from Utah. Although the drive is long, hot and boring it was well worth the effort.

Kirsten was particularly excited to see "dog rock" again. Its looks just like a dogs head and has always been a favorite of her's particularly with her love of dogs. We spent a lot of time playing around in the backyard pool as well as going to an all you can eat seafood buffet and even spending a day up at Tahoe. Almost everyone agreed that Tahoe was the highlight of the trip and the girls spent time hanging out in the sun while the boys went out and jumped off the rocks.There were a few sunburns reported, but nothing too severe. Thankfully. Saturday night Grandpa Loud treated us all to his legendary, secret recipe . . . . Pork ribs in BBQ sauce.(Sorry unless your a "Loud" you just get to enjoy the taste -- we don't give that out to just anybody!).

Randal did himself proud and almost single handedly ate everything we cooked -- and then took all the extra sauce home to Utah! Finger lickin' good?!

We even had a chance to head over to a family favorite the "Chocolate Nugget" candy factory. We all spent too much money on candy and ate too much chocolate. But, thats ok, we don't go all that often and everyone enjoyed that visit quite a bit.It was about the only place we could find someone bigger than Randal!

Sadly the trip was over almost before it began and we said goodbye to Grandma & Grandpa Sunday morning and all set out back home. We loved spending time with them and look forward to seeing them again soon!

How about going for a run? Just for the fun of it? Yea, right!

Is it true running makes you sick? Well, I often feel sick when I think about running..... Anyhow, apparently that particular apple didn't fall to close to the tree. On Apr 17 Desiree and her husband, Justin accomplished a goal of theirs by running in their first triathlon.

5k run, 10 mile bike ride and 400 meter swim -- they did GREAT!

We are very proud of them and their efforts. They said they really had a great time, so much in fact that just a month later they ran in the Ogden Marathon.

No, not the entire Marathon (all 26 miles) by themselves but rather a relay. Des and Justin got their siblings to run with them, with some of the Ferrin's running along with the Loud's (OK, just Kirsten and Des). Well, they had such a great time that they are trying to get their other siblings and parents to participate next year -- we will have to see about that. I know what your thinking, "so, its not that big of a deal if it was a relay" but you would be wrong. They were long legs that ended up being very, very fast. So again, we are VERY proud of all their efforts. Congrats to all you physical fitness geeks!

Save the Date, Cuz They Can't Wait!

Kirsten Loud and Randal Clayton are getting married August 6th in the Idaho Falls Temple, Idaho Falls, Idaho. There will be an open house the night before in Idaho, and a reception on the 6th of August in Liberty, Utah. The Loud family is very happy for Kirsten and Randal.

Drake's High School "Graduation" is here!

Drake has successfully completed thirteen years of public education. He graduates from Weber High on Tuesday May 25th. He is off to BYU in the fall where he will join his brothers and sisters for fun and mayhem.

3, 2, 1, . . . . GO!

OK, I get it, this may not be for everyone but this may spark the interest of a few?!

In just 4 days, Drake and Mike made a whirlwind tour.... literally.

They took off from Salt Lake City, turned East and didn't stop traveling until they landed back in Salt Lake. That's 43:39 hours airborne, covering 22,192 miles with a combined ticket price for both of them at $24,641.42 (and no, that didn't include any extra peanuts!). Oh how it pays to be in an "airline family".

So the "Journey" began on Sunday with a short flight to Atlanta on a B-757, middle seats in coach for both - of course.
Then on to one of the "big jets", the B777LR for the short 14 hours from Atlanta to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Once again both the boys were in the back, middle seats for the scenic trip over to the desert. Lots of sleep and plenty of movies to watch however!
Lots of interesting people wandering around the Dubai airport at 3am. They had a great time people watching while waiting for their next flight to Singapore. This time another B777 but slightly better seating. This was the only flight not on Delta, but on Emirates. A very nice airline that treated them very well (even if they did sit in coach again). At least this time they were at the window with an empty seat between them. Emirates has a terrific on board entertainment system with 500 channels of entertainment, a wonderful moving map display of the route, and live video of directly below and straight out in front of the airplane during the flight. They also have games you can play against other passengers and the guys had a great time playing a little "battleship" in which Drake showed his dad just who is king of the ocean.

Singapore was great. After arriving in the afternoon they took a tour of Chinatown for a little shopping and a nice Chinese meal with some other travelers from England, Australia and China.

Then it was on to the "Trishaw" (just like a rickshaw but with a bike attached) races. This was a blast, but these poor little drivers didn't really care for the large American passengers they had to peddle around town. Actually Mikes driver refused to take him because he was "too big" and eventually compromised by switching with Drakes driver (they didn't tell him that Drake actually outweighs his Dad by 20lbs now!)
Then it was a "Bumboat" (dont ask) ride down the Singapore river before calling it an evening to get ready for the next day.
Then it was off to Narita - that's Tokyo, Japan for all you non airline folks out there.
This time back on Delta (A330) with a definite improvement in seating as you can tell. Business Class for the travelers with great food, lots of movies and seats that folded almost completely flat. Ever so slightly more comfy than the flight from Atlanta to Dubai. After arriving in Tokyo, it was just a short stop to board a 747-400 for LAX (Los Angeles).
We got a nice tour of the pilot rest area for the 747 -- check out the two bunk beds next to the chair -- before we took our places on the upper deck again in business class.
Just a little tired at this point this was a great place to catch up on some sleep before reaching the West Coast.

Again, a pretty long flight but plenty to do besides sleeping. with more movies, great food and
plenty of room to stretch out. Just 26 seats up top in the 747 with 3 flight attendants to serve you until you cant eat any more! Nothing quite like Ice Cream Sundaes over the ocean at 37,000 ft.
After arriving back in the States it was just a short ride on a Skywest RJ over to Salt Lake to complete the trip. The funny thing was the boys got in to Salt Lake just about the same time they took off over in Tokyo thanks to the International Date Line!

In Summary, what a great experience! Lots of great memories and exotic places visited not too mention a little father/son bonding also.