One of Crew's favorite things to do when he comes to Daddy's office is push buttons on his calculator! This other picture is to show the family that Crew is crawling and crawling very fast. As for Rachel and I life is very relaxed and slow. The weather in St. George has been rainy and lightning has dominated the skyline this past week. We are looking forward to August and our move back to Idaho Falls. School starts in September and my schedule is packed in hopes of graduating this year.
Grandma and Grandpa Nelson. Rachel, Crew and I wanted to thank you for letting us stay in your nice home. I don't want to spoil the surprise but so you know you are going to love your new patio furniture!! These pictures show how Crew helped out during the process on Saturday. Rachel picked out the furniture so you can be assured the furniture looks great. Thanks again for letting us stay in your home.
Since swimming has become such a staple activity this summer we thought we would share the fun with you all.
We took this picture riding home one evening sometime this week. As you can see from the photo Crew was playing with a toothbrush when he fell asleep.
As you can see from the pictures the littlest things make Crew laugh. Rachel and I can't believe how fast he has mastered crawling. You all need to check out how fast this kid can move. Especially if you consider a few days ago Crew was just getting the hang of the crawling on all fours technique. If crawling wasn't enough Crew is climbing! Walls, couches, kitchen cabinets, and anything that he can put his paws on he some how finds away to stand up. I predict that he will be walking soon. Yesterday he had his first hard fall. He was trying to stand up using the island in the kitchen then he fell and his head crashed into the floor. I thought he was going to have a huge black eye, but he doesn't. Sorry about the windows Grandma we will clean them before we leave.
Crew is going to be 8 months old by this coming Sunday. Rachel and I can't believe how fast the time has gone and where has our little baby gone? The picture at the top I wanted to include today even though it was a from Sunday. I just wanted to show how good Rachel looks and let you guys know what you all miss on Sunday afternoons in St. George. In the other photos Crew is playing with his big boy toys. I think the Cooper, Mason and Crew are going to have fun playing with all of there construction toys.
Thats right... Everyone still wants to check out Rachel's hair. Now for those of you that don't know you can look at old pictures and old posts using the blog Archive... Its not very hard. The blog Archive is a menu option on the right side of the page half way down the blog. From their you can look at the blog by month or by post or just how it is. So if your favorite Pictures of Crew or in this case Rachel's new hair cut are no longer on the main home page of the blog go to the archive and Rachel's amazing hair will be there.
These photos are dated but they still represent our built physical environment in the United States. Replace Kmart with Walmart to make the photos more modern. These photos display the side effects that our current zoning and planning has on our public realm. For example the street corner with the red car. We have all seen these city street corners. This person is leaving their subdivision and entering a road way similar to Sunnyside in Idaho Falls. Notice the large radius of the corner. Or in simple words look how rounded the corner is. The corner is so soft and so round you hardly have to slow down to make the turn. That isn't the only problem created by a soft corner. The distance a pedestrian has to travel to cross the intersection has now doubled, which increases the chances of being hit by a car.
However I loved these types of corners when I first got my drivers license. I didn't have to break at all! It was awesome!!! I would maintain 40 to 45 MPH around the corner and into the subdivision then right to my house as fast as the road would let me go. If you don't believe me ask my Dad he will show you the wear patterns I created on the front tires of the pickup truck I drove.
Then residents of the Subdivision wounder why people are driving fast in the neighborhood so the complain to the city. The city sends out a police officer who then writes a few speeding tickets to get people to slow down. It worked. Then a week later people are speeding around the corner and down the huge wide streets of the subdivision all over again... I have a solution lets just get more police to slow people down and issue more tickets.... Good Idea! Not!!!! Rather
Lets go back to the way we designed these street corners before World War II. What we did then was made the street corner sharp, requiring drivers to come to a complete stop. Also the roads in the neighborhood were under half the size they are now and people naturally slowed down and cities never had to post a speed limit. Problem solved.
The next problem with our current zoning and planning codes.
The Street scape and the public realm.
Look at the picture of the two houses. The garage makes up over 60 percent of the front facade. I wonder what people are going to say 100 years from now concerning our architecture? The intrusive garage doors make walking down the street less inviting and visually boring. In fact the only reason why someone would walk on the street its so bad is to exercise. What we are finding now is that the street scene is so ugly and depleted that people want walking paths or they would rather go to the gym and stare at a mirror.
The best picture is towards the top (the massive down town intersection). That is an example of a good portion of our new city centers... Would you walk on that sidewalk? I wouldn't? Why? Because that place is obviously a place for cars not pedestrians. This intersection was built exactly to our current planning and zoning codes.
Last problem Surface parking... Look at the picture of Kmart. This store front is pushed to the back of the property so we are first greeted by vast amounts of parking. Which only really get used the week of Christmas but I am so glad we have them all year to look at so we aren't inconvenienced by holiday crowds. Do you know what how much these parking lots cost? Do you know how much water they displace from natural storm water drainage systems (ground water/ aquifer)? Do you know how hot they get during the summer months? Do you know how much property they take up? Why do we have so much parking? Why do we put it up front on our property making sidewalks and pedestrian paths useless?
These are just a few of the problems that are caused by our current city planning and zoning techniques. I am not saying they are all bad but the way in which we have segregated land use and ruined our cities public realm is sickening. A good portion of the problems we face in our country can be directly related to urban sprawl. There will come a day when we financially as a country cannot support all of the infrastructure we are building and maintaining. We are already paying for it with borrowed money. If we used the principles of New Urbanism which are not new to the world but new to our generation we would cut infrastructure costs in half, we would use less gasoline, we wouldn't destroy all of our natural environments, we would have better schools, we would have stronger communities and extremely lower property taxes. This isn't a Republican thing or Democrat thing this is a wrong turn that municipalities have made over the arrival of the automobile. Cars are great... But we should design our cities for People first Cars second. Start a list of all the problems we face in the United States I bet most of them relate to all of the problems that have been caused by the way we have designed our cities since WWII.
Now trying to list all the things that make us would be impossible. In fact I am sure this would be a good exercise for those that are in need of a good laugh. Now if the Belnap Boys started making a list of the things that make us laugh it would be scary. Crew laughs about almost anything these days. Mostly he laughs when he sees my face. I don't know if that is a good thing or bad.
This post is about Crew discovering how fun Post it Notes are! As you can see from the photo yesterday Crew had a little too much fun with Grandma Nelson's Post-It notes! Sorry Grandma! The weather down here in St. George is still extremely hot. However the swimming pool is still treating us great.
This Photo was taken by my co-worker Adrian. He took this photo last night during a big thunderstorm. I thought you guys would like to see this incredible photo first hand. Also last night we were without power until late into the night. The blackout started around 4:30PM and it lasted until 9:00 PM. Once the power came back on the house was already so 80 degrees inside. That is why the pictures of Crew in the Crib he is a little sweaty.
All right. Crew is growing up way too fast. For those of you that haven't seen him you better hurry before he is walking. Just in the last two days he started waving, sitting up from his tummy, and standing when you only hold one of his hands. Also the hair on the back of his head started standing up. Make sure you zoom in on the pictures when Crew is standing up in his crib so he can see a great example of a white knuckle grip. It is incredible how fast he learns and how much he loves to play. Rachel and I love him so much.
All right my fellow Bloggers. Check out the new blog feature of online voting. Its awesome. I will try my best to keep you entertained by coming up with good questions to vote on. "Would you rather" is a game and what makes it a game is that you have no alternative decision besides the choices that are provided. Hence "would you rather." Now just saying the words "Would you Rather" makes me think of my "Forever 21" Aunts Becca and Berta. That should be a indication how "would you rather" crept into my Blog. Now "Forever 21" isn't a label that I used to harm but it is the exact phrase I would use to describe my aunts Becca, Berta, Amy, Liz, Barbra, and especially my Mama-in-law Belinda.
Saturday Rachel, Crew and I took off on a two hour car ride to see the famous Grand Canyon. It was just like the pictures. Sadly after a few hikes we weren't that impressed and ended up leaving early than we planned. We would have to say that Zion National Park was our favorite Park visit of the Summer so far. The views are incredible but you can only stand and stare so long if you know what I mean. I think the problem is with the North Rim the lodge and visitor center are located in such a good spot that you can experience the North Rim of the Grand Canyon from one spot. Unlike Zion's where you have to get out and move up and down the Valley to see the entire park.
Also we weren't prepared to hike for days into the Canyon itself. I guess the South Rim of the Canyon is were you want to go for that anyways.
Also Rachel surprised me with a hair cut when see came back from SLC on Friday. I love it!
Book of the Month
Suburban Nation: The rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.
This book is awesome. After reading this book you wont believe how badly we are destroying our cities and available resources in the United States. As you read you will come to find out that a good majority of the problems we are encountering in our society (school violence, personal fitness, gas prices, property taxes) are directly connected to the way we have planned our cities since world war II. Essentially we design our cities first for the automobile and second for people. The issues discussed here are so fundamental and basic from width of residential roads, zoning codes, and street corner radius's. Urban Sprawl is already consuming South Eastern Idaho by one strip shopping center, and one single residential type subdivision at a time. I just hope someone steps in too correct this problem before its too late. Every Idahoan has to agree that this problem needs to be corrected before our beautiful valley turns into a situation like the Wasatch front, Las Vegas, or Denver area. Too some extent it is too late however if the correct changes are made now the problem can be minimized. The pictures show a Traditional Neighborhood Development and situation that we find now in our cities. The more pedestrian friendly environment is actually a new neighborhood that was built in the Washington D.C. area. That Land Developer is experiencing success that others can't match, unless they stop building ugly by creating one level retail boxes with plastic signs which are surrounded by excessive amounts of surface parking. I know my words are harsh, but sometimes the truth hurts. The solution is to mix our land uses instead of dividing them up geographically and economically and then connecting them with extremely expensive collecting roads. This kind of design forces every person to own their own car, and causes all kinds of local municipality budget problems like bankruptcy. Think about it America n parents are forced to buy their teenagers cars because they can't possibly take them every where they need to go and also where they need to go. That is a direct result of segregated land uses. I invite you to read this book and bring an open mind so that you can get rid of your newly acquired ideas about how cities should look (ideas that developed in the last three decades) and return to what cites you older folks grew up with "The American Dream."
I thought that I would share my feelings concerning the debate and turmoil surrounding Barry Bonds and the home run record set by Hank Aaron. Now these are just my initial thoughts about the topic without doing any research so I could very well stand corrected days, weeks, months or even years from now. I am under the impression that Hank Aaron was a victim to horrible prejudice remarks and treatment during his career as a Major league baseball player. People spit on him and threw items at him from the crowd. Hank Aaron however continued to play and eventually set a new home run record despite the awful treatment by those watching and playing with him. That was then this is now. Barry Bonds is on track to break Hank Aaron's home run record. I find their circumstances surprisingly similar (Hank's and Barry's). In most of the baseball stadiums Barry Bonds plays in people throw syringes on the field and shout and chant horrible insults directed to this ball player (similar treatment to which Hank Aaron received over skin color). Barry hasn't been proven guilty of using steroids during his career. If he is found innocent then I can't imagine a better sports icon to break the record besides Barry who has almost received the same level of hatred throughout various cities in the US without being proven guilty. This all changes if he is proven guilty. But if he remains innocent then I think Hank Aaron would like to see someone beat his record that has also been ill treated by the American public.
Side note Rachel and Crew left this morning. They are in Salt Lake City and they wont be back until Friday. I am really sad to have them gone.
I will remember the past seven days for years to come. Only because this is the first time in my life when I have only eaten what I should instead of what I want. Some of you can only imagine how fun it is to eat three big macs for lunch a large pizza for dinner and whatever snacks in between and not have any harmful side effects like love handles, or badonka butt. I have gone through life eating anything and everything on some kind of rampage. Now this careless eating and slowed down exercise schedule have contributed to me gaining all kinds of back fat and other symptoms of weight gain. Now after the past few days I have realized how hard it is to eat healthy and maintain a diet. I badly want to go down to the local seven eleven and buy a big gulp and eat drink and be happy again. However I wont. I have already had good results and found more of my clothes fitting only after one week. However I will not divulge how much weight I have lost until October 6, 2007. I don't want anyone from Rachel's side of the family to get any additional motivation to beat me in this weight loss contest I mixed myself up in.
Hey everyone. The weekend and national holiday are now over. Highlights from the week are seeing family, family, and more family. I think we saw almost all of our brothers and sisters. We also managed to see all of my grandparents and Rachel's Grandma. Good times. Crew really enjoyed family and all of the love and attention he received. Thanks for loving us. Here are pictures from the weekend. Two of the pictures are of us watching the Fire work show in Idaho Falls. The other picture was taken Sunday after church. Crew for some reason loves eating his tie. He had that tie stuffed in their as seen in the picture for over twenty minutes
