Not your daddy's Prius...

Back in the summer of 2004, I purchased my prized Toyota Prius. It was the first year of the second generation Prius hybrid, and I payed a bit of a premium to get the newest rage from the local dealer. I have managed since then to put over 60,000 miles on my fuel sipper. It is receiving its first significant visit to a mechanic this weekend (the check engine light came on over the weekend). Since purchasing my Prius I have followed closely the developments in the hybrid marketplace, as each year has brought progressively more hybrid options in the car marketplace. About one year from now, the third generation Toyota Prius will hit the marketplace. This new incarnation from Toyota comes with a great deal of speculation regarding what significant modifications may or may not take place.

When the 2004 model was originally released the EPA rated the Pius with an impressive 60 mpg in the city and 51 mpg in the highway. Many have complained about these numbers being exaggerated, and in 2007 the EPA revised the way fuel economy numbers were calculated, resulting in more accurate real-world fuel economy figures. This resulted in revised figures for the Prius of 48 mpg city, 45 mpg highway. My personal experience in my vehicle has varied from 35 mpg to 50 mpg depending on conditions, but overall I have been pretty satisfied with how it performed at the pump.

The original rumors that had been swirling stated that Toyota would switch from nickel metal hydride batteries to lithium ion batteries - pushing the fuel economy to over 100 mpg. Pretty impressive, huh! Well concerns over the safety of lithium ion batteries (fire risk) may push that back, and the corresponding improved fuel economy. Toyota is playing it all really tight-lipped at the moment...so we will just have to wait and see.

Below are several renditions of how the appearance of the third generation vehicle might be different.

The Hybrid X prototype

Another view of Hybrid X prototype

The 2009 Prius

We figured it would happen one of these days......

I know this won't come as a shocker to most of you, but Mason has recently spent some time in the slammer. I guess technically it was for a good cause, but it makes a better story if you leave that part out! It was actually a fundraiser for March of Dimes called "Jail and Bail". They “arrest” people in the community and then the prisoner has to get people to donate money to “bail” them out. Mason of course isn’t allowed to solicit money from his coworkers (would you say no to the judge you have to appear in front of?!?) so he made the donation himself, but it was all for a good cause. I think he actually is quite proud of his jail time!

Our funny kid...always a character

Miley has really been showing a love of the outdoors. She loves to load up in our red wagon and take our dog "Mr. Rambo" for a walk. She also loves to help mom water the flowers in front of the house. We have had a swing sitting around, and we finally decided to hang it up in our front yard. Miley loves to swing and swing and swing. She usually throws a fit only when it is time to go inside.

Here she is having a ball!

Here is one of those "being a character" moments...

And here she is being sweet to her sister "Barley"...as she says.

All hail to "Archie"

Well as some of you may, or may not, be aware I am an avid viewer of "American Idol." This season my two favorite performers were David Archuleta and Brooke White. It was nice to see a young man that exudes honesty and sincerity make it to the final two. I, of course, was a bit disappointed when he didn't walk away with the crown. All is not lost, as he will almost certainly have a prime recording contract coming his way. So we haven't seen the last of Archie just yet. Below are some links to some of my favorite performances from the show.

Miley the Ghost

One of Miley's favorite activities recently has been pretending to be a ghost. She places a blanket or shirt over her head and runs around and tries to be scary. Again, we are not quite sure where this practice came from, but our best guess is that it is from watching "Scooby Doo." For all you "Scooby Doo" connoisseurs, you are probably aware of the fact that ghosts are quite the staple of this popular children's cartoon. Miley is certainly cute when she does it, and we get a kick out of it.

Here she is dressed up like a ghost...scary...boo!

How did she get so tricky????

About a month ago we went out and bought all the supplies to begin our potty training adventure. Miley picked out a pink potty, Dora the Explorer stickers, and suckers. Every time she sits on her potty she get s a sucker for the attempt. If she actually goes potty (this has only happened twice) then she gets a sucker, a sticker on her chart, and the opportunity to see her mom go completely berserk! Recently however, she apparently decided that actually going into the bathroom and making the effort to sit on her potty was wasting valuable time, so she came up with a new scheme to get her sucker. While we were playing with her doll house, she kept putting her little people on the play toilet, and then saying “Sucker mommy! I sucker!”. Nice try tricky girl.

Cousins, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents too!

Well over the last few days we have gone out of town twice - once to Salt Lake City on Monday, April 28, 2008 through Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - and again this weekend, Friday, May 2, 2008 through Sunday, May 4, 2008 to Twin Falls and Rupert, Idaho. We went to Salt Lake to take care of a work commitment, and we went to Idaho just for fun.

One of the benefits of going out of town was that it allowed the kids to meet and play with their cousins and other relatives.

On our way over to Salt Lake we took a pit-stop in West Wendover, NV. We had a few minute of fun running around the little park in the center of town.


On our trip to Salt Lake City we stayed overnight at the home of my cousin, Scott, and his wife, Diana, in Eagle Mountain, Utah. We had to deliver some of the buffalo meat from our recent Buffalo hunt in Nevada. Miley had a fun time playing with her little cousin Sage.


During the day on Tuesday, Miley and Marley spent some time at the home of Don and Kristi, and their two boys, Kabe and Evan (Kristi is Mandy's 1st cousin). Kristi watched the kids while we ran around doing some shopping in SLC. The kids had a lot of fun playing together. In the picture below, Kabe is attempting to attack Miley with his toy saw, and Miley is about to give him a karate chop to the head.


Here is a picture of Evan being very attentive to little Marley.


We took off on Friday afternoon to drive to Twin Falls. It took us about 2hrs 15min to get there and we met Heidi and Monte, and their kids, Macey and Riley (Heidi is Mandy's sister), and Darrell and Faye (Mandy's parents) at a restaurant in Twin Falls called Johnny Carinos. It is a country Italian restaurant and has always been one of our favorites. As you might imagine, Miley, Macey and Riley had a fun time running around in the restaurant being goofy. In the picture below, Macey is giving Miley a big hug while Miley is keeping herself entertained with Monte's cell phone.


The picture below shows Miley attempting to trap Riley under the table with one of the chairs.


Back at Mandy's parents house, we met up later with Mandy's other sister Monica and her husband, James. We also got to know Carl Lee (Faye's brother) who has been staying with Faye and Darrell for the past month or so.




We also had the opportunity to go by and spend some time with great-grandma Edna. Edna is Faye's mother who lives nearby in the home of Faye's sister, Joyce. Below is the 4 generation picture.


The trip also including other bits of adventure, including: Miley's 1st experience with an ice cream truck, 1st wheel-barrow ride, and lots of games of marbles (aka Aggravation).




Here is Miley with her cousin, Lance. He was on his way to prom. Lance is a talented musician and has his own band called "Sidelined." Lance has written the songs for the band and plays the guitar and does the lead vocals. They are in the process of cutting a CD. You can download some of his songs on their website.