Memorial Day 2012

 With lack of time and money for a big memorial day vacation we opted to load up the four wheeler and take the kids rappelling for their first time out to our favorite Gunlock spot.  Years ago when Gunlock was flooding our favorite spot was unaccessible and the swing we loved was no longer on the tree.  Luckily someone has replaced the swing with an even better tire swing and it just so happens to be a great learning spot to rapell.  We've never taken the kids before because we've been too cheap to buy youth harnesses and after we did the math of how old Mat's ropes were I realized youth harnesses were the least of our worries.  They say replace your ropes every five years...ours are seventeen years old...Well, they worked. Go figure.

 Honestly these are my favorite outings we take.  Spur of the moment and always a blast.  The kids get along great and seem to really like their red neck get aways.  

 Bonus, that they LOVED rappelling!

 Memorial Day was bittersweet as we read about a plane crash at the new airport. The news hadn't released names but said that a 172 had been found just off the runway early that morning and that the four passengers in the plane had not survived.  The fact that the plane was a 172 caught my eye as the plane Mat had logged a lot of his hours for his license on was a 172 but that plane belongs to Mat's uncle who had since sold it so I thought nothing more of it.  My dad came over and asked if we knew who was on the plane and I said no that I had no idea.  Then we got a very sad phone call.  The plane was in fact the same plane Mat logged many hours on and although it no longer belonged to Mat's uncle it was indeed piloted by one of Mat's dearest cousins.  His buddy (and Easton's namesake) Tanner and his friends were the four passengers.  One of the passengers was our sweet neighbor's only son and the other two were also Santa Clara boys. All very young with so much of life ahead of them.  We feel very fortunate to have known a kid like Tanner.  He was someone always surrounded by smiles and will be greatly missed.