Picture of the Month

Riley’s 10th Birthday

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:28 -0600

Riley celebrated his 10th birthday today. The big hit of the party was these “Mars Mission Legos” that Grandma and Grandpa Blacker sent him. Watch the show below to see his excitement and click on Riley's 10th B-Day to see some more photos of his birthday party.

Constellation Orion

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 11:41:14 -0600

Looking down at the table while eating a sandwich for lunch, I noticed the crumbs next to my napkin appeared to resemble the brighter stars of the constellation Orion. Can you see the constellation too?

Trip to Florida

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:27:47 -0700

The first week of February, Laura and I took off to St. Petersburg Florida without the children. I was there for a programing seminar and Laura tagged along. While I was in class, Laura explored around the St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay area. In the evenings, after classes, I would join her for dinner and some kind of activity in the area. We went to some botanical gardens one evening, strolled along the beaches, ate some great food, and generally had a pleasant time.
We stayed an extra day on the weekend so we could go to Disney World’s Epcot Center. We very much enjoyed our time there as would anyone. The next day we managed to go to Kennedy Space Center for the morning and then rush back to Tampa Airport to catch our flight home that afternoon.

See pictures of some of the highlights here ... Florida Trip.

Field trip to Upper Valley, Idaho

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:31:43 -0600

We took a fun trip up to the area from Rexburg to St. Anthony, called Upper Valley (Snake River). We went and kicked around on the the sand dunes for a while which was pretty neat. The wind was kicked up by an approaching storm and drove the sand into our faces. It felt like we were being sand blasted, which needless to say is quite uncomfortable, so we took off.

We then went over to see the remains of the Teton Dam, which broke back in the early 70’s. It was very interesting to see. In the video below, the original dam break is on the left and the cut on the right was made by the Corp of Engineers some time later in an effort to determine the cause of the failure.

We went into Rexburg to have diner at the Frontier Pies there in town. The family that was sitting next to us was jovial and playful with the children. They left the restaurant a few minutes prior to us. When we asked for our check to leave our selves, the waitress came back and informed us that an anonymous benefactor had paid for our entire meal! Well, of course Laura teared up, and that made the waitress tear up also. That was a neat experience. I hope some day to be able to “pay it forward”.

Ariana

Sat, 7 Jul 2007 22:07:33 -0600

Announcing the arrival of our new little girl, Ariana. She was born early Monday morning, June 25, 2007. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 5 oz. We are especially excited about her arrival as we have always wanted a little girl. After having our four boys, we wanted to finish our family out with a little class.
Labor and delivery was unusually quick and easy for Laura and she is doing fine
Tom