Drilling Article

Utah State University wrote an article about our geothermal drilling project. Check out the story here: http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=48194

Research Project Started

Well, my graduate school research project has finally started! This is what I have been waiting for. I am very excited to see what we discover. This is site number one out of three. All three sites are located on the Snake River Plain of Idaho. This site is near Burley.

For more information and updates regarding the Geothermal Exploration Project formally named HOTSPOT see the official blog at http://www.icdp-online.org/front_content.php?client=29&lang=28&idart=2939.

This is the entire drill site with pretty much everything we need and/or have on site. Yes, it is as small as it looks. It has lots of amenities relative to many other drill sites, namely electricity that is not provided from a generator and a water well.

Here is a picture of the drill rig and the box where the drillers will spend the bulk of their time. The pipe in the foreground is the pipe that will eventually be fed into the ground to retrieve our rock core samples up to several thousand feet under the surface. 

Another shot of the drill rig as the boom is raised into position. 

A Visit to Fawn's House....

Sebastian started his interest in horses when we went to the Rigby Rodeo (which we had free tickets to). As he watched all the cowboys and cowgirls he decided he really want to ride a horse too and tried asking us. Of course the answer was no, but he didn't understand why. When we moved to Logan that weekend we found that in our backyard, pretty much, we have a public equestrian park. So he started hearing them and seeing them more often, and again, asking to ride them. Then I had a bright idea, my mom's good friend, Fawn, has always offered for me to come over with the kids and come ride horses or go in the pool etc. So I told Sebastian that next time we go to see Grandma Dickson we can try to go to Fawn's house and ride some horses. We ended up going to Washington just a week or two later for Brady's son's blessing so we had our opportunity. It was great. Fawn was thrilled to have us and it was so much fun! Hopefully she is up for us doing it every time we visit. Because I know Sebastian will ask!=)

So serious. I had to wake Sebastian up to come see the horses. It took him a while before he got on one. But I knew he would be so sad if he didn't...so finally, he was ready....and then he didn't want to get off.

he loved it, even with all his seriousness

Madison was so sweet and helpful

This is the most expression I think I was able to get out of Sebastian. He was so serious about the whole thing...but he loved it. And he has not stopped talking about "going to Fawn's house"

No one was really a fan of riding with Paige....didn't help that Paige was kind of wiggly and not sure about riding horses anyway

Sebastian definitely was not up for sharing his horse

Cora was actually the best fit for Paige...Cora loved the horses. She didn't care which one she rode on, as long as she was on one

Me and Paige. Fawn gave me the reigns and I steered Sparkles where I wanted her to go. It was actually pretty cool...and Paige liked it much better just being with me.

Goodbye Griffey

It was announced yesterday that Ken Griffey Jr. is retiring immediately. His career was legendary; 21 seasons, 13 all-star appearances, 10 gold gloves, 1 AL MVP, 630 home runs (fifth highest of all time), and one of the smoothest swings of all time. His career started and ended in Seattle. Griffey, you will be missed my me as well as millions of others. Farewell and enjoy the hall of fame.

You Know There is Love in the Home When....

Last night Sebastian wanted to go to sleep in our room. Chris went ahead and made him a bed on our floor and we told him that we would move him later (when we went to bed). He wasn't so into that idea, so we just said goodnight so he wouldn't worry about it. When we were ready for bed I went ahead and moved Sebastian. He stirred a little and opened his eyes a few times. As I was checking on Paige I heard Sebastian stirring and saying: "mom...mom..." so I asked "What Sebastian." His sweet reply was: "Mom, I love you." Then he closed his eyes, rolled over, and went to sleep. Later we checked on him again and he mumbled "I love you" again as he was 3/4 asleep. We use the word love a lot in our home and I think it must really be sticking. Sebastian tells us all of the time that he loves and that we are the cutest or coolest, or the best ever. He really is such a good sweet boy. Such a joy in our lives. And I am so glad that he can feel our love in the home.

Pigmentary Glaucoma

For the past few years when I finished a high energy physical activity such as running, swimming or basketball I would come home and cool down and sometimes the pupil in my right eye would dilate until it was very large. It would be accompanied by a severe headache most often. As I started regularly playing basketball this spring the dilation started happening more often and was becoming a concern because I could not do much while my eye was acting up.
Elizabeth, "The Wise One" as I now call her, convinced me to go to the doctor and get examined. Our family practice doctor did not know what was causing the pupil dilation so he referred me to an opthalmologist (an eye specialist). I saw him and he determined that I have a rare case of glaucoma called Pigmentary Glaucoma. The diagram is included for the following explanation of what my condition is.

General glaucoma refers to high pressure in the eye. There is fluid in the eye to keep it inflated. The eye is always creating and circulating this fluid. So when the eye creates fluid faster than it can drain the fluid the pressure builds from the inside out and pressure builds causing what we know as glaucoma. This condition can be dangerous because the pressure inside the eye can cause damage to the optic nerve ultimately creating vision damage or loss. 

Pigmentary Glaucoma is a certain type of glaucoma that is present only in young near sighted males, which fits my description exactly. This type of glaucoma is caused by the lens bumping or colliding with the back side of the iris and chipping of pigment cells. The cells float around in the eye fluid until finally they try to go out the drainage system, and much like dirt or hair in a drain, it starts to clog and slow the drainage. Thus, the slow drainage causes a build in pressure. Pressure in the eye is measures in mmHg (millimeters of Mercury). The standard or normal atmospheric pressure is 760 mmHg at sea level. Eye pressure is measured as mmHg above standard. A normal pressure in the eye is 15 to 20 mmHg above standard. My right eye is double the normal pressure at almost 40 mmHg above the standard 760 mmHg. Luckily we became aware of the situation before any vision damage has occurred. Sometimes this type of glaucoma fixes itself over time, sometimes not.

There are several things to do to regulate the pressure in my eye. The most common is daily eye drops. There is also a laser surgery that can open the drainage a little bigger to allow for more drainage. For now, I am going to use eye drops to help regulate the pressure. There is a good chance that I will have this condition for the rest of my life. 

Yes, you are remembering correctly, it is my right eye and my right ear that have had problems. So, it seems that the right side of my head is aging much faster than normal. I wonder what is next...

Boise Half-Marathon

A few weekends ago Elizabeth, all her sisters, Eric, and Twyla met in Boise to run the Boise marathon. Elizabeth was planning on running the full marathon but injured her foot a few months earlier which impacted her training so that she was not fully ready for the full 26.2 miles. Elizabeth and Twyla ended up running the half-marathon while everyone else, ran the full marathon. Elizabeth ran the half in 2:25:45, which is about a 10:30 per mile, not including bathroom stops; amazing, I know. While the girls were having fun together in Boise I was at home with the kids. Now I have a lot more appreciation for how much mothers do on a daily basis. My wife truly is Superwoman!
Here are some pictures of the event:

All smiles before the race

Elizabeth and Twyla at the finish

All the finishers plus mom

Moving to Logan

Earlier today we got word that we are approved for the townhome that we are interested in moving into located in Logan, Utah. It is a great townhome because it is directly across the street from some of our best friends, Jacob and Melinda, and because our backyard is a city park. The townhome is older with baseboard heaters and has around 1800 sq. ft. of space, just what we need for our growing family. It is also very fitting for a geology student; it has rocks glued to the siding. The decorative rocks are not super attractive, but they are real, not plaster. I know I am a geologist, but this was not a big selling point. It is more something that I can laugh at. We are very excited to move into our new place. We are scheduled to move in June 12, 2010.

Bath Time

Just a moment ago our children were in the bathtub together. We heard splashing and then Sebastian squealing and then he yelled "Paige, don't sit on me! I am not a toilet!" Then a few moments later we heard Paige coughing. Elizabeth investigated to find our daughter voluntarily gnawing on a bar of soap. Oh, the joys of bath time.

Iceland Volcano

Since we have been in Washington visiting family there has been extensive news coverage about the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull (Nope, I dont know how to pronounce it). All I have heard until this morning is about disgruntled customers due to cancelled flights. I wanted to hear the geologic news about it, but there was none to be found on TV here. Although, this morning my mother was checking the astronomy picture of the day, one of her favorite websites. She showed me this picture from the astronomy website of the Icelandic volcanic eruption:

I then continued to science babble about volcanic lightning, and my dear kind mother listened the entire time. This picture made my day!

Utah State University

My wife and I decided this weekend that we will be attending Utah State University for graduate school. I will be working with Dr. John Shervais, an igneous petrologist/geochemist. Or, in other words, he studies geology by examining trace elements in volcanic rocks. My project, as far as I know now, we be involving geochemical analysis of basalt from the Snake River Plain, Idaho to more accurately determine the origin (or petrogenesis) of the Snake River Plain. We want to find out whether the Snake River Plain was mainly formed by rare subduction processes underneath western North America or by the more accepted mantle plume (hot spot) theory. I am very excited to work on this project. It is very similar to my senior undergraduate research project that I worked on at BYU-Idaho. We were trying to examine virtually the same thing.
We are very excited to move to Logan. We never thought we would see the day that we would be excited to move to Utah. We have some very good friends of ours in Logan that we became familiar with here in Rexburg. It is a possibility that we could live on the same street as them. That would be fun for all of us because we get along very well and our kids are almost the exact same age. Also, there will be two of my geology friends at BYU-Idaho attending Utah State for graduate school. That is fun for me to keep up that friendship with each of them. Another reason I am excited is that I will be able to go to real basketball games! BYU-Idaho, as many of you know, replaced their competitive intercollegiate sports program for an intra-collegiate sports program. This is a great blessing to many of the students on campus because they get to participate in all sorts of sports with many other fellow students. I had a good time playing in the campus-wide sports programs. Although, since Seattle no longer has a basketball team, I am very excited to go cheer, root for, and participate in a large setting competitive basketball program. It is also a bonus that their team happens to be pretty good. Though, it will be hard to decide who to root for when they play BYU. Either way, I am very excited to watch good basketball.
We are debating whether to rent or buy a home. We need your opinions, advice, and overall input. Please leave comments on your thoughts. We will be there at least two years, possibly more. But, our ultimate goal is to end up in Washington again, near our family that we love so dearly.

Hair...Ball

So, this entry will have to do with two things; the evolution of my current hair style and the ward Valentine's Sweetheart Ball.
The weekend after Valentine's day our ward had a ward dance/activity. This activity was a costume dance with the theme of Famous Couples Throughout History. First of all, there was no backing out for me. Elizabeth tries all the time to get me to go and dance with her. I am very reluctant to dance cause "these feet have got no rhythm" as George Michael would say. We put our Google thinking caps on and started searching for famous couples. We found some that would be easily recognizable but would have quite complex costumes. We eventually decided on Gomez and Morticia Addams from the Addams family. Elizabeth has a long black wig and a black dress that works perfect for the part. The only trouble was me dressing up as Gomez; namely, I have blonde hair and the inability to grow a mustache. So we started searching for spray on temporary hair dye. Couldn't find any. We were searching the dollar store for cheap props and add-ons to our costumes and Elizabeth came across some permanent black hair dye and jokingly said you can just dye it black then cut it off. Immediately I thought this was brilliant, it was her idea. I am always trying to get her to let me cut all my hair off again. I approved the idea. She gave a funny face as if to say "darn, it was a joke, only a joke."
I died my hair black just before the party. We arrived and it took a bit for people to recognize us. That tells me that we had good costumes. You be the judge.

Gomez and Morticia Addams

We had a great time at the dance. I felt like I could actually dance because I was in disguise. It was a good dance experience. Since the dance my hair style has changed very rapidly. I was not a fan of the black hair so I decided to cut it off. Before I cut it all the way off I wanted to shave it into a mohawk because it has always been one of my secret goals. So with the help of Elizabeth and Brad I cut it into a killer mohawk!

My wild side

Paige liked it

24 hours after the mohawk I shaved my entire head with my Mach 3 razor. I achieved my second secret goal,  shave it as close as it would get. I failed to realize that it was still winter and that the slightest breeze would make me feel extremely cold. So for 2 days I was even wearing a beanie inside. it was a weird feeling, my head felt very rubbery for the first few hours. Now, a few weeks after the shave my hair is returning at a rapid rate. I have about 1/4 inch of hair now, enough to insulate my head. I grew to like the no hair feeling, and it's a good thing cause all my grandparents are bald so I better get used to the feeling. Other people seemed to like the hairless Chris as well. For the time being though, I will be growing out my hair for my wife and my brother Jeremy's wedding this summer.

Sebastian Art

Here is a sample of Sebastian's art on the cardboard house that he got from Santa recently. 

Sebastian coloring on his house. As you can see he has been hard at work.

One of the first people he ever drew. We did not teach him how to draw a person, he did it all himself. This picture is rotated. Most of the time he draws his people upside down.

Another person, it reminds me of one of the characters from the cartoon Rugrats.

Yep, he is a lefty.

Sebastian Antics

Lately Sebastian has been rather silly. His latest game invention is that he will put some object in the middle of the floor and cover it with a blanket. Then, loudly, until he gets acknowledged he will say "Dad, I have a present for you!" Then I lift up the blanket and try to be excited about what is waiting for me. He will play this game for hours or until mom and dad can take no more.
On Friday we had some visitors from Utah, my Grandma Sant along with my cousin Tambra and her family. Sebastian started bringing all his stuffed animals out to show our great guests. He brought out his Little Engine That Could and Tambra asked him what that train says. Sebastian's response was "I can, I can, I can, I can." All of us started to chuckle and Sebastian opened up into a large smile.
Sebastian is now pretty much fully potty trained...it has taken only 6 months. He dresses himself everyday and refuses help. If we have a schedule we have to start getting him dressed about a half hour before we have to leave in order to have him ready to walk out the door at the appointed time.
One of our favorite things about Sebastian is his sleep talking. Every night we either move Sebastian back to his bed when he has fallen asleep elsewhere or we go and kiss him goodnight. He is a pretty sound sleeper most of the time, but sometimes he will talk in his sleep while rolling over. When he talks in his sleep it is as clear as his speech during the day. He often mutters one or two words that are on his mind; things like "macaroni", "noodles", "Fillmore" (the hippie van from Cars). He often talks about food or his stuffed animal friends. He dreams of odd things sometimes. Rarely he will wake up screaming. Apparently the large toy dinosaur he got for his birthday bites his fingers in his dreams. Today at church he told me he was dreaming about batteries and that he was trying to find batteries for his shake-and-go car.
Sebastian is a wonderful child and we are so grateful to have him in out life. He makes us smile, laugh, and even frustrated at times. We love our 'bastian.

Monkey Business

This Sunday we stayed after church so that Elizabeth could go to choir practice. While she was singing I was in charge of the kids. Sebastian had been roaming around the chapel with some of his nursery friends that were also staying for choir. Meanwhile, Paige was fussy because she was tired and hungry. Sebastian seeing that Paige was unhappy shared his prized possession, Curious George, his stuffed monkey with Paige to cheer her up. Paige was excited by her new toy and decided to smother her face into George's shoulder and left a fairly hearty booger deposit. Sebastian came back to get his monkey and immediately noticed the new snotty residue on his monkey's right shoulder. Sebastian then said to me "need to wash monkey" to which I responded "we can wash him when we get home." Thinking this satisfied Sebastian I turned away to console my now whining daughter. Several minutes later I looked around to check on Sebastian and he was nowhere in sight. I asked Elizabeth if she could see Sebastian from the choir seats, he could not be seen. So I put Paige near the choir seats so that I could go look for my lost son. I turned my back and Paige fell off a step and whacked her head and started wailing in the chapel. I picked her up and decided to take her with me on my journey for my son. Then a mother from another ward came in the chapel and asked me "is this your son roaming the hallways?" My first thought was "oh no, what has he gotten into now?" I told her yes and she kindly responded "he was washing his monkey." Once she left I asked Sebastian where his monkey was and also noticed the baseball sized water spots on his sweater. He told me it was in the bathroom. I followed him as he directed me to which bathroom George was in. He led me straight to the women's restroom. He walked in and started to look without a thought. A different kind mother helped him look while I waited outside; no luck. We checked the men's room and, voile, George was on the counter. Then I noticed the setting of the washing. George was on the counter laying face up in a puddle. The covered diaper bin was next to the sink and as I got closer I could see water everywhere within a several foot radius. Sebastian responded to my question about the mess with "I washed monkey." George was wet from his right fingers all the way up to his neck. For a split second I wanted to me angry, but then instinct set it and the laughter roared. Sebastian immediately smiled shyly and we laughed together. I rehearsed the story to my wife and we laughed all the way home from church. I dearly love my little boy, he is one of the major high points in my life! I lovingly told Sebastian that he needs to have someone help him wash his monkey next time and that he was being such a big boy by washing his monkey all by himself. I learned two days ago that kids grow up way too fast. This will be a memory that will stay with me for a very long time.

Candy and Snow

Sebastian hard at work applying the "glue" to part of his candy train. I think he spent more time eating the candy than making his train which was expected. He really liked building his train, but he more excited to eat it in the coming weeks.

Elizabeth's creation with Paige in the background participating by eating the tracks (black licorice).

All three of our trains. Sebastian's train is the top left, Chris' train in lower left and Elizabeth's train in the upper right corner of the photo. Click to enlarge as usual.

Sledding: Sebastian dragged his hands in the snow while Paige layed down and closed her eyes and just about fell asleep if it wasn't for the lead ox getting tired of making parking lot laps.

Sebastian and Paige sitting next to "their" snowman built mostly by mom and dad. They are so bundled, it reminds me of Christmas Story.

The Many Faces of Paige

So happy she is standing; it was one of the first occasions.

We love her chubby legs and cheeks!

Beautiful eyes

We think that the lip is from the orange auto-focus assist light on the camera. No matter what it's from it is still funny.

Family

Our front yard self portrait after building our snowman.

At the ward christmas party. This is the only way we could get our Sebastian to smile.

Our first family portrait since our marraige...in 2004

Grandma and Grandpa Sant with the kids.

Grandma and Grandpa Dickson with the kids.

Uncle Jeremy with his birthday buddy, Paige. Yup, they share the same birthday. For this Jeremy had an immediate connection with her.