Epale vale!

Ok, it has been awhile since I last posted, I apologize. Things have been busy. As you saw in my wife's last post being busy isn't just about work, sometimes you gotta get away too. That was my first trip ever to Lake Powell and I loved it. Looking forward to going again next year too. If anyone that didn't go this year is interested shoot me an email. I will then decide if I feel like you are worthy enough and if I want to see you, then will invite you accordingly. Just kidding.

When I started blogging it was pretty much just to keep the boredom to a minimum while at work on training days. I had told myself that I wouldn't get all preachy or anything about my work and what it is we do, but it is a part of my life, a huge part. I will still try to avoid being preachy but I will start to share a little more about how it is a part of my life. Below I am posting a small part of a statsheet, remember this is only for our Tucson sector, only a part of the big picture of what is going down on the border. The stats are for both last year and what we have done this year so far.

TCA/QuickStat

FY08----FY09

Apprehensions-----252,405-----177,382

OTMs-----6,897-----7,449

Marijuana Qty-----646,467.73lbs-----928,133.35lbs

Marijuana Val-----$517,180,131.35-----$5,641,080,455.79

Assualts-----197-----160

Bandits-----190-----257

Rescues-----310-----261

Deaths-----98-----112

Lake Powell 2009

The Family

We beat the Tube!

Look at my man!

What a great way to kick off summer! We just got home from Lake Powell and we had a BLAST! We were able to meet my (Annalise) family in Wahweap (which conveniently borders Utah and Arizona) and spent the next 4 1/2 days skiing, tubing and swimming.

This was the first trip to Lake Powell since 2000 (we'd gone every year since 1985 as a family) and the first time I've seen my dad and step-mom since they returned home from their mission in Germany. So it was really great to be reunited at a place that has so many special memories for me. And it was even better that I got to create so many new fantastic memories with my own little family. We missed my big brother, Erik and my younger sister Krista and her husband, Steve, had to leave early but we still had lots of fun. Karyn and her kids, Madeleine, Kelson and Lara were there, so was David (my other brother) and his girlfriend Kristina. Dad and Joy were there too of course and we (Andrew, Annalise and Baxter) rounded out the group. We camped on the sandy beaches at Lone Rock, where the water was rising so quickly we had to move tents 4 times! We even lost a firepit to the water.

Anyways, the little kids (which included ALL of us) loved riding on the three person tube. I think everyone got on at least once, including Dad! Maddie and Kelson loved to ride with Andrew, because "he likes the big bumps" and would bounce them all over the place. I rode a couple of times with Kristina, Dave's girlfriend, and somehow between the crazy way that Dad was driving and the crazy size of the waves, we managed to break the rope off of the tube! It popped right off! We decided ourselves to be the unbeaten champions of the tube after that. That tube really was a lot of fun...even though I was the only one to get dunked by it. Good times! :)

Andrew also tried waterskiing for the first time, got up on his first try (no big surprise there) and was cutting both wakes with ease. He even caught some air a few times and landed a couple too. That husband of mine is pretty amazing. He's always good at whatever he tries. Seriously, this guy can do anything!

Baxter had a great time on the boat and the beach, but didn't really care for the water too much. Unless he was chasing the ducks off our beach. He'd chase them into the water and bark at them till they swam away. The ducks would just come back a few minutes later, so we would get to watch the whole thing again. Baxter had so much fun at Lake Powell that he's been sleeping since we left on Wednesday. What a great little dog!

I am so happy that we were able to go and spend some time with family at Powell. It really was such a great trip and we are already looking forward to next year.

P.S. Check out the slide show at the bottom. There are a lot more pics there!