Lil' Dean Family

Trick or Treating

2009-11-11T15:08:00.005-07:00

I wanted to take the boys around trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood. They were pretty excited to dress up and go get a bunch of candy. I was excited for it also. So Evan dressed up as Batman. He loves this costume. It is a little bit big on him but that almost makes it even cuter. I never put the mask down over his face because he likes the cape and doesn't mind the hat affect but doesn't like it over his eyes.

Ryan dressed up as Spider Man. The costume doesn't look great with clothes on underneath but even with the unseasonably warm weather, he needed more that that flimsy little cloth to keep him warm after dark. He didn't mind the bulges anyway and was stoked to go trick-or-treating with Evan and me.

Bat Man and Spider Man getting hyped to go trick-or-treating with Mommy.

My Clown costume. I wasn't totally in to dressing up this year but needed to for work and this was the costume that worked for that occasion. So, I wore it again on actual Halloween night. Ryan really wanted me to dress up so I didn't disappoint.

Getting ready to go out trick-or-treating. We left when it was still light out so that we could be back before it got too dark and cold. Unfortunately, those people who live in our neighborhood with small children did not do the same. Either they didn't go at all or they went out much later than we did. We were pretty much the only ones out trick-or-treating. We also found several doors unoccupied. This neighborhood can be so lame! I really wish that we had some friends go with us but we had fun all by ourselves.

All ready to go!

So we were out for about an hour and a half. I wasn't exactly sure of what route to take. I would have done it differently if I could do it again. Maybe gone a different direction. We live in the middle of suburbia and there are TONS of houses and lots of streets. I could pretty much go right, left, up, down, or straight and take a totally different route. Anyway, the kids were tired and cold so we came home.

We only had about 10 kids come to our door so between what we bought thinking that we'd have tons of trick-or-treaters, and what the boys got on our own adventure, there was enough candy to make us sick for the entire week!

The boys had a great time and enjoyed the candy, the dressing up, and the walking around very much. I'm glad they were able to enjoy their Holiday and I wonder if this will be the first one that Ryan really remembers well.

So much candy, so little time!

The costumes they didn't wear

2009-11-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

This cute little costume/ flower shop near us was going out of business in the spring. She was selling all of her costumes for a really low price. So, I had some extra cash and I thought I'd go check out what they had. I was really looking for super-hero costumes for dress-up. They didn't have much but they did have a whole bunch of Scooby Doo costumes. So, I got one for each of us thinking that we'd all match. The only thing was, they didn't have one in Evan's size. As many of you may have experienced, shopping with children is less than easy sometimes. Ryan was throwing a fit and Evan wouldn't stay by my side. I was very frazzled and wanting to hurry up and get outta there. So, I quickly grabbed what I thought were some really great costumes. I got a Daphne for me, a Shaggy for Colin, and a Freddy for Ryan. I also got Ryan a Batman for play and I got Evan a cute little Frankenstein.

I get home that night and try on the Daphne. I discover that the 8-10 is actually a child's 8-10 and there is no way it is made for a woman my size. CRAP! And, the Shaggy I bought for Colin is a Medium. Not exactly going to fit his 6'3" 215 frame. CRAP! The Batman is just right for Ryan and he dresses up with it all the time. The Frankenstein is way too big for Evan but may fit come Halloween.

Fast forward several months to Halloween. The Frankenstein is still way too big for Evan. However, they did have a Scooby Doo at the "Only Store I'm allowed to Shop at" so I did pick it up for him. They also had a Spiderman for our Spidey obsessed four-year-old at said store.
And, although Colin and I can't go along with the Scooby theme, Ryan and Evan could if they wanted to. They did not. But they did love their Super-Hero costumes. We dressed up in these on Halloween day when I refused to let them get their costumes dirty one more time.
So here is Ryan as Freddy and Evan as Scooby Doo. Pretty darn cute if you ask me.

Another reason E didn't wear the Scooby was that he couldn't stand the hat for more than 5 minutes at a time .

Halloween at Colin's work

2009-11-09T15:07:00.009-07:00

The kids and I really enjoy the annual trick-or-treating tradition up at Goldman Sachs. I look forward to marching the kids around the office while looking at all of the other kiddies and their cute little costumes. This year the employees were quite into it as well which made it all the more fun. Ryan, I mean Spider Man, heading into the building.

Batman follows closely behind.

Colin's teaching Batman how the whole trick-or-treating thing works. He's really excited about the candy but doesn't quite understand the reason for the bag.

The technology department turned their section of the office into the Chocolate Factory. They all dressed up like umpa-loompas and had a little "factory" assembly line going for chocolate covered marshmallows.

Amazing how much effort they went to in decorating their office.

Colin decided it was best to enjoy this treat while sitting down, and I took advantage of the photo-op.

Some dead guys at Goldman.

Ryan and Evan getting the hang of the trick-or-treating.

Evan enjoying a sucker.

Drool down to his belly button. Sticky- sticky mess

one shoe!

Love this shot of Ryan. He wore his mask the entire car ride from Riverton to SLC. (about 45 minutes). By the time we were half-way into the trick-or-treating, he'd had enough of it.

Looking for a good piece of candy.

Ah! This one will work! Kit Kat

my little super-heroes

I think they were a bit tired by the time we were done- no naps unfortunately!

Halloween at Work

2009-11-08T15:06:00.007-07:00

This is my class on Halloween.

This is my class with me- on Halloween.

Two bugs, a rocker, and a blind referee

The view down the hallway

This is my class lined up to see the parade. They are so happy to be out of class!

Another view of my class- Dead bride "in character" in every photo

Mrs. McDonald and her class all lined up for the parade- she is so funny and has brought a whole new element of fun to school/ work

And here we have Dorothy. The living and the dead.

The sixth graders.

These two fifth graders dressed up like Slash and Axel Rose from Guns n' Roses. The kids all thought Slash was Michael Jackson. He was getting pretty annoyed about it. However, when we walked into the gym and all the parents went nuts, he was really stoked.

My little Rock Stars. (and a grumpy Prom Queen)

So the theme this year was the circus. The principal dressed up like a ring leader and the assistant principal dressed up like a strong man.

These are the secretaries and one grand baby.

Mr. Emett, Mrs. Wilbur and one of her grand babies. Cutest little frog ever.

This sixth grader is so funny. He saw a "subordinate" and started yelling orders at him. I just had to take his picture.

A third grader dressed up like a Christmas gift.

Mrs. Broderick

Fourth graders

Mrs. Stuart She had this hilarious costume on but I couldn't quite get a picture of the whole thing.

funniest shark costume ever

I love it when people dress up like objects. This mom dressed up like Pepper.

Second graders

Second grade teachers

cute kids and a little boy dressed up like Mario- there were a whole bunch of those and Luigi's.

I thought it was really cool how much makeup this first grader was wearing.

A little ninja turtle

The Christmas Halloween costumes are kinda funny- a cute little Christmas tree

A totally homemade costume. So cute and really creative.

And one of my absolute favorites; a Geiko caveman

Pumpkin Carving '09

2009-11-07T15:05:00.005-07:00

Colin getting started

scooping out the guts

Evan saying "cheese"

Boys with the tops

My cute boys

boys helping put the tops back on

all done carving

his pumpkin

my pumpkin

KA

2009-10-25T16:11:00.003-06:00

This is the last post from Vegas, I promise!

Our favorite thing was KA. We saw the Cirque du Sole show KA at the theater in the MGM grand. It was truly an amazing show that is almost beyond our description. There were so many times during the show that I was just staring in amazement at what I was watching afraid that my jaw had dropped and people were staring at me. I guarantee you none of them were though, because the sight was so amazing that everyone was watching.
I'll try to describe some of our favorite parts and the story as I go along, but just know that whatever I type isn't good enough to compare to the actual show. Truly. Amazing!

Here's Colin and I before the show started. You aren't' allowed to take pictures so I borrowed them from the website.

So the story goes that there are these twins, one boy and one girl. At the beginning of the story they're having a pageant and everything is really happy. Then there is an invasion of archers and a storm and they get separated. The rest of the show they learn that they can use the "Ka" to make good or evil. It's like an energy or something. Then they get reunited and the show ends as it begins. I'll just show some pictures from my favorite scenes and tell why I liked them.

This was our favorite scene. It starts out with the men seen in the picture "the archers" attacking the people and the stage is on a pretty large slant. Then the stage starts rotating, and when the archers shoot their arrows, these pegs come out and they all do these cool acrobatics with them like swinging around them with their legs and such. Every so often those involved in the battle fall off the stage into the great abyss. Then the pegs start coming out and some of the guys fall off. Then there is one guy left and he's hanging on one peg way at the top. You can guess what happens next but he does fall all the way down the stage (30 feet) and then off into the darkness. It was so cool!

This was my second-favorite scene. This is the wheel of death machine. The guys that you see standing on top of the two highest wheels are really amazing. They do all these crazy tricks while those wheels go around and around. They get inside of the wheels and crawl out. They jump around inside of them, they jump rope on top of them. It's crazy!

This is just a cool picture of the archers posing.

This was an awesome scene called the forest. There were all sorts of bugs and animals climbing up the pipes and there were lots of the forest people doing classic Cirque stuff like swinging and flying through the air doing acrobatics. This was a nice scene.

In this scene, the actors are at the top of the totally vertical stage. They are in a blizzard. It was cute.

This is a flying machine. It is made up of people. Each of the wings is a man using his body to go up and down and look like wings. It was really amazing to see them all flying around and working together to look like a giant bird. There were about 8 people on it total.

In this beach scene the stage is totally horizontal. There are these cute little crabs and other sand creatures that come out and play with the main characters. The sand is really cool and I looked it up later and found out that it is 350 cubic feet of cork!

Anyway, we loved you cirque and we can't wait to see another show some day!

2009-10-22T19:00:00.006-06:00

So these are just pictures of us playing in Vegas. I used to think that there isn't much to do in Vegas when you're a Mormon. However, I've learned that there are a lot of fun things to do. We did to a little gambling but kept it to a nice budget. :) We really had a great time. The highlight of our trip was seeing the show KA. I'll be posting that soon!
Colin and I walking the strip during the daytime.

Colin trying his luck at the slot machines.

Me being silly at breakfast.

Colin being goofy at breakfast.

Me, our first night on the strip.

Colin, our first night on the strip.

Margarita ville parrots.

Colin looking toward the Bellagio hotel.

Me, posing in front of the fountain outside of the Paris.

There were some cool street performers too but my camera was in the hotel when we ventured out on the first day.

We did go to M&M world as well but honestly, I was quite disappointed. I thought it was more like a factory or museum but it was just a 4 level store. We bought a pound of coconut m&m's at an outrageous price.

Shopping in Las Vegas

2009-10-20T21:52:00.006-06:00

I was of course looking forward to the shopping in Vegas. I love the forum shops even though I can afford like three of the stores! I found myself a new pair of AF1's that I love (teal!). I got a few bracelets and bought my mom a gift too. We got the boys some toys at FAO Schwartz although I was fairly unimpressed with the store this visit. I think maybe they were getting ready for Christmas. Either that or the "ECONOMY" has hit them hard too.

Colin decided he'd rather bet on a certain Football game than buy himself something new, so he didn't buy a new pair of shoes... or anything else for himself.
The center of the forum shops in Cesar's Palace.

The Trojan horse entrance to F.A.O. Schwartz.

Colin buying toys for the boys.

Nike town. Such a cool store. They had some super cute exercise clothes that I was in love with.

But I REALLY fell in love with these babies and had to buy them.

Las Vegas, food edition

2009-10-20T21:33:00.004-06:00

Our first morning in Vegas we had breakfast at the Paris buffet. The food was really yummy.

We ate a lot of great food in Vegas. On the night we saw KA we ate at Mon Ami Gabi with Brandon and Tashina. The atmosphere was awesome, the view was amazing, and the food was delicious! Tashina and I ordered the lemon chicken and Colin and Brandon had the fillet. We added a few sides and enjoyed the view of the Bellagio fountains as we dined. It was a great time.

This is me trying to show the view of the fountains from our dining table.

The fillet.

The chicken.

The first night in Vegas we went out to eat later than planned and had a hard time finding a seat. We were hoping to go to Mon Ami Gabi but there was an hour and 45 minute wait for a table. We walked over to the Cesar's and tried to get a table at Mesa grill. No such luck. There was a three-hour wait. We headed over to the forum shops to try a restaurant there. We walked by Wolfgang Puck's Spago and thought, hey, let's eat there! So, we did. They walked us straight into the dining room, no wait!

The restaurant has a real modern feel to it and so did the menu. Colin had a blue-cheese topped fillet and he hasn't stopped talking about it since. We ordered some amazing deserts. The chocolate brownie came on the cutest little plate ever. It was more of a tart shell with a chocolate fudge thing inside- To. Die. For! We also got a banana crepe drizzled in chocolate.

My chicken, mushrooms, and mashed potatoes. Sorry the pics didn't turn out too well. I was using the little camera so as not to attract too much attention.

Colin's steak.

Paris Hotel, Las Vegas

2009-10-20T21:21:00.004-06:00

This weekend Colin and I had the wonderful opportunity- took the wonderful opportunity- gave ourselves the wonderful opportunity, of escaping to Las Vegas for a few days. We had an amazing time and pretty much enjoyed every second of it! We stayed at the Paris Hotel.

The inside of the hotel. It has cobble-stone walkways, a ceiling painted like a cloudy-blue sky, and signage written in French. It's all very cute.

This is the valet entrance to the hotel.

This was the view from our room during the day.

This is the view from our room at night. My camera was totally out of batteries and I forgot to take a picture once it was charged-up, so this is the best I got.

Grandpa's Patch

2009-10-17T15:33:00.001-06:00

This year we got to pick our pumpkins from Grandpa's patch. Unfortunately, it was totally raining when we all went out to get our pumpkins. I'd love to have taken a million pictures of the boys carefully choosing their pumpkins. However, it was more like everyone run out and grab a pumpkin before you get too wet. It was fun anyway and the pumpkins are great. Ryan was looking for the smallest one he could find and Evan was totally unsure of what was going on at all so I picked one up for him.

Wee Witches Weekend

2009-10-15T14:49:00.001-06:00

Gardner Village was having their Wee Witches Weekend over the UEA break. The boys decided to skip their naps and I was stupid enough to take them there anyway. I invited Jess and Emry along with us and they were able to come. We had fun hauling the kids around the village.
Ryan got to take a pony ride. Evan was too afraid so we just took pictures of Ryan.

His horse was cute and he pretty much loved every second of his turn.

Evan was pretty good while he was in his stroller. He's pretty much a good sport when it comes to riding in his stroller. Ryan was never a fan of the stroller.

They were blasting Halloween music through the speakers and Ryan just took off dancing. It was so spontaneous. Jess took video of the crazy kid dancing all over the place.

Evan and Ryan posing for me on a bale of hay. They are too cute! Maybe that's why I put up with them being so naughty. This day was a display of naughty behavior. I was exhausted by the end and they obviously were too (having skipped nap time). They both conked out in the car on the way home but I was safe and drove without being paparazzi because UEA traffic was insane around the valley!

I let them get candy from the $.10 and $.20 bins. They loved it!

Emry is too cute posing with all of these pumpkins. She was pretty happy until that pumpkin under her right elbow poked her.

Ryan cheesing for the camera. I took him for a hair cut the very next day. Man, it was getting out of control.

Ryan did the bean bag toss. I think Evan might have had better luck! :)

Emry and Jess posing in front of a witch.

Do you see the naughtiness oozing from their cute little faces! They WOULD NOT pose decently for aunt Jess.

The boys and I checking out the ducks. I would not let go of Evan. Had I, he would not have hesitated to jump in that cute little pond.

A nice shot of us watching the cute ducks from afar.

Peeking over the edge to watch the fish swim under the bridge.

Jess and Emry posing for me.

Evan

Ryan

Evan

Ryan

They were pretty fascinated by the big water mill wheel.

I'm glad I took my kids over to the Gardner Village for our annual fall trip. It is such a cute place. They had all sorts of fun things for the kids to do. Remember to bring your cash though because everything cost money. Next time I'd take them a little earlier and try to relax a little more and just enjoy it. I was stressed about them running away and keeping them occupied. I would have enjoyed it more if I had just chilled out a little. They had fun.

Rain Coats

2009-10-13T14:47:00.000-06:00

Nana gave the boys these super-cute rain coats. They were so excited that it was actually raining and they got to use them. It really was raining hard so they wanted boots too. They put on their cowboy boots and were just too cute to not take a picture of!

Fall in the Canyon

2009-10-11T14:40:00.005-06:00

I really love to drive up the canyon in the fall to check out the changing leaf colors. This year I think we went a week early. Not only that, we went the week that Snowbird was having their Oktoberfest. It was really crowded and we ended up not being able to park ANYWHERE. So we just got out and took a few pictures but didn't really get to walk around and enjoy the leaves at all. Next year I'll plan better!

Ryan's Prayer tonight

2009-10-04T19:52:00.002-06:00

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this day. Thank you for all of our blessings.
Please bless that we can sleep all the night through.
And that we can wake up if we have any questions.
And bless that there will be no monsters or aliens come to get us.
At the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Precious Moments

2009-09-20T15:06:00.002-06:00

Colin and I don't get a whole lot of time with our boys. During the week we see them for a few hours each night before they have to go off to bed. Colin and the boys love to play this game where they get on his back and he screams "aaaarrrr" like he's some kind of monster. They just love it, and all of the other games he plays with them. It's pretty rough play so I'm usually just watching and laughing. I caution them a lot but we haven't had any stitches or broken bones yet (knock on wood) so I guess they're okay.

The boys each have a set of "super hero" jammies. They are the first ones they wear each week. They just can't wait to put them on. Ryan loves to play super heroes and usually chooses Iron Man, Super Man, or Spider Man. Evan usually has to be a bad guy. Daddy likes to be Wolverine and I'm either Poison Ivy, Nice Poison Ivy, or Cat Woman. He is so funny!

Ryan got an awesome tool set from his girlfriend Rylee for his birthday. He loves to watch Bob the Builder. Here he is one night dressed up in his gear watching TV. Such a funny little guy. Colin says these pictures will be nice blackmail someday. :)

classroom

2009-09-16T19:48:00.000-06:00

Walks-With-One-Shoe

2009-09-14T19:39:00.003-06:00

Evan is in to the strangest little phase. He prefers ONE shoe on. He likes having his shoes on, I think because he knows that means we're going somewhere. However, I'll put both shoes on him and before you know it, he's got one shoe off. I took some pictures to prove it to you. Each one was taken on a different day and I think a different pair of shoes even. What a funny little guy. He's 18 months old today!
This is Evan right before nap-time (can you see it on his face?) wearing his Thomas the train tennis shoes.

This is Evan wearing his cute little Converse on our way to the Hobble Creek campground.
Notice he's holding the other shoe in his hand.

This is Evan wearing his Nerf sandals. I think these might be his favorite shoes but it's hard to say. He does love them all. Aren't his chubby little legs so cute?

This is Evan on Sunday. Pretty sure this was right before church because of course he won't keep them on long enough for us to get out the door!

I just realized this, but he's wearing the right shoe in each picture.

What funny little quarks do your children have?

Hobble Creek

2009-09-12T18:52:00.005-06:00

Last weekend we took one last Summer fling and went camping at Hobble Creek. I took the boys and went with my parents. We had an okay time but I got sick on Monday and we had to bust outta there and run to the doctor's office. I think the boys had a fun time and my parents seemed to enjoy themselves as well.
Camping Gear + Kid's Gear

+ Two Car seats = I need an SUV. But I'm willing to wait until I have a mortgage.

Evan jumps in the stroller because he knows it's time for a walk.

Grandpa teaching Ryan how to build a wood tee pee for making fires.

Grandpa supervising the boys around the campfire. Evan only fell into the fire pit once. Luckily the fire wasn't actually going and I did catch him before he was down in there too far.

Ryan chillin by the campfire.

Evan chillin at the campsite. Ryan says "camp-set".

This is our little tent. I like the big one a lot more and so does Ryan, he informed me, but it worked well with just the three of us. It was a little bit cold and the nights were an adventure getting both boys to sleep. Evan had a hard time and cried a lot but Ryan did fine. The tent doesn't keep much noise out. The other campers kept me up quite a bit.

They added this sweet playground but I didn't take any pictures of the boys playing on it. Here they are swinging. Evan does surprisingly well on the "big" swing.

I let my dad play around with my camera and he showed me how to do a few things. I've always wondered how to take pictures like this of water. It took us some trouble-shooting but he eventually got this shot!

Grandpa and Evan.

Evan

My boys on our little camp-out.

My parents posing for a cute little picture.

Justin brought his unicycle. Evan just cracks up every time he gets on the thing.

To turn around, Justin jumps up in the air. Pretty cool how I got him mid-jump here eh?

So anyway, that was our little camping trip. No pictures of me what-so-ever. I need to do something about that. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the doctors said it was stomach flu.

Ryan turns 4

2009-09-03T15:55:00.012-06:00

Ryan turned four this summer! He's getting so big and learning to be more independent. He loves to learn new things and has gotten in to some older types of toys and ways of playing as well.
I've never thrown Ryan a real Birthday Party so I decided that he was plenty big enough and that I'd do it this summer. It was really nice because I was able to do most of the planning and preparation before I had to back to work.
Ryan helped with the whole process. He got to choose who to invite, what kind of party it would be, where it would be at, what they would do. He even helped me with the invitations and soon he'll be helping with the Thank-you cards.
I took a lot of pictures and had a hard time leaving many of them out, so enjoy the post because there are a lot of pictures from that day.

Ryan and Evan waiting for the guests to arrive.

I got this sweet decoration box from "the-only-store-I'm-allowed-to-shop-at" and it was really nice because it had pretty much everything we needed and I didn't really have to put a whole lot of thought into it.

I loved these hanging decorations so much I left them up for a whole week after the party. Evan destroyed them of course.

Our table inside of the house. I should have put the gifts here so we had more room outside, but everything turned out okay.

I loved this Happy Birthday sign too. I left it up after I took everything else down.

This is the table outside where I put the pizza and food for everyone.

Evan with a noise maker. Luckily for me, the noise makers were actually really quiet.

Hi Evan!

Steph; Rylee's mom, our neighbor and friend, holding my niece Emry.

Kelly; my cute neighbor and friend, Sydney's mom.

Nana, chatting with the neighbors at the party.

Jess & Emry came to the party too.

Look

How

Fast my new camera can take pictures! I love it.

While we were waiting for all of the guests to arrive, we played this cute little cars game in the living room. The only real complaint I have about the day was that it was super windy. I hate eating outside when it is windy. Aren't his little girlfriends just the cutest things ever!

Maycee, Ryan, Sydney, and Rylee. Sorry Rylee you sorta got cut outta that one. oops.

The main event was the slip-n-slide. I got such a great deal on it since it was the very end of the season, but it took me four stores before I found one, and it was the very last one.

This is Curen.

This is Rylee. I think she was a bit leery of the water slide.

This is cute little Maycee taking her turn on the slip-n-slide.

curen

Sydney knows how these things work!

Ryan getting a bit adventurous with the slip-n-slide.

Charlie was a pro on the slip-n-slide.

After we ate pizza, we did the pinata. I love pinatas. I guess my second regret was that I didn't let the kids take a second whack before having them pull the strings. Anyway, they all got tons of candy and didn't complain a bit.

Here's Rylee taking a swing.

And Maycee.

Sydney

nice action shot of Curen

Look out man, that kid knows how to swing.

Oh and Evan had to take a turn too.

With the help of Grandma.

Charlie

So, I'd never seen this string thing before but basically you just let each of the kids grab a string and the bottom falls out. Supposed to be safer than hitting it with a baseball bat.

All of the kids eagerly getting their candy spoils from the pinata.

Evan's not sure what to do.

Colin was great at holding the pinata for the kids to hit.

Grandpa kept Emry in the shade. It was a nice hot summer day.

All of the kiddos at the party: Curen, Ryan, Charlie, Maycee, Rylee, and Sydney!

Oh yeah, two more! Emry and Evan on the ends.

Ryan opened his presents after the pinata. Everyone was so generous and Ryan absolutely loves all of his gifts. Even his new outfit Aunt Jessie. He really does love clothes as much as the rest of us do.

I got him a digital camera. Imagine that, your first digital camera at the age of 4! Fisher Price has a cute one. I was really wanting to get him one but didn't really decide until Stephanie told me she got Rylee one. I saw hers and my decision was made. He's really liked it too!

Funny thing was, the night before the party he was asking if he could use my new camera, and I was like, "no!". But I was thinking, "yes, I got him the right thing!"

Grandma got him a bike. He's so excited about it. He likes to ride it but unfortunately, I haven't really gotten much of a chance to let him ride it yet since we live on this stupid hill. He freaks me out when he rides because he's not too great with the breaks yet but I know he'll learn and I can chill out more about it.

Then it was time for cake, or cupcakes rather.

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Blowing out the candles.

The kids loved the cupcakes and they were so easy and super cute. Sam's club, if you were wondering- thanks Mom!

All of the kids trying to dig in and me trying to make them be polite. :)

And there you have it folks! A successful Birthday Party.

Shooting Range

2009-09-02T15:43:00.003-06:00

Colin was excited to take his family to the shooting range this summer. He started at home by giving everyone a safety lesson.

Then he took them over to the shooting range. Apparently Bruce was a pretty good shot.

7 Peaks '09

2009-09-01T16:01:00.012-06:00

Colin and I have come to a conclusion: 7 Peaks is the world's best water park. We love it because it has everything. There are lots (7) of fun big water slides for the big kids, plus two more that were recently added, there is a great lazy river, a nice big wave pool with wonderful faux waves once or twice an hour, there's the rope swing, and there are two wonderful kiddie areas.

Our kids, well Ryan at least, aren't that in to water slides right now. It's been a tough summer for him in that respect. You see, we've assumed he'd love them so we drag him down them and he's pretty much just scared. He hated Cowabunga Bay and we were smart enough to not go back there. 7 peaks wasn't a total bust so we were glad for that. Like I mentioned, they have these two wonderful little kiddie areas. And the Lazy River, and the wave pool.
Bruce, Katie, Erin, Colin, me, Ryan and Evan all headed down to 7 peaks on the day that Ryan didn't have preschool during the week Colin took work off. We all enjoyed ourselves a lot and for us, that was probably summer's last fling.

The day started out a little rough. Colin and I decided to take Ryan on a big ride before the lines formed because we were there pretty much when the park opened. So we got all of our tubes and we headed up to the slide. Erin and Ryan decided to go down together. Their experience was less than perfect. Somehow the tube got away from them and they were without it for the rest of the ride. Because of the slip-up, the people behind them were too close. When they got to the splash-down-pool the couple on the tube behind them went right over Ryan and Erin's heads. Unfortunately for Ryan, they sort of stopped on his head. He was trapped underneath. I figured he was ruined. For the day; ruined! However, he did get calmed down and enjoyed the rest of his day.

Mostly, due to the wonderful kiddie area and the kiddie slide.

See! Like this! Much more his style.

He didn't even mind the splash down, because he can stand up.

Evan liked it too. Absolutely LOVED this. He did it about 50 times. Up and down, without taking much of a break. Colin was at the top helping him walk across the water that was a bit too deep for him and sending him down to me at the bottom to catch him and send him back up.

Then we traded places and Colin caught him at the bottom and I helped him across the top.

Here he is giving the life guard a high five before sliding down.

Oops, he went backward that time.

Me & the boys in the kiddie pool area.

Colin and Evan chillin pool side.

Ryan and Daddy playin in the water.

The other kiddie area. Usually this one is freezing but that day it was nice and warm.

Cannot believe how much he has grown since this photo was taken in the same spot two years ago.

My little Evan loving the water. He didn't complain much on the big slides. Hopefully I can say the same in two years from now.

Evan taking a break with a bottle. He was so sleepy that I thought I'd get him to take a nap in the shade but he was on to me. I was on to him when he fell asleep on Center Street.

Evan with a churro.

Taking a lunch break.

Ryan eating his lunch.

The Mommy.

Grandpa Bruce.

oops, I guess I didn't get any pictures of Erin and Katie. Maybe they'll post some on Facebook and I can steal them there. :)

Second, First day of Preschool

2009-08-31T15:40:00.005-06:00

Ryan started his second year of preschool on August 17, 2009. He is going to a preschool at an in-home facility. His teacher, Ms. LaDawn, has the coolest set-up ever. She has a nice piece of land and on it is her own school-house. It is so cute! I love the way she has it painted; inside and out. The school-house is decorated and organized so well. She's got quite the system for the kiddos too. Ryan seems to be liking his preschool class this year. He goes with his two buddies Curen and Isaac. Here they are on the first day of school.

Ryan's Cars backpack. He still loves Lightening McQueen and just HAD to have this backpack when he saw it this summer. What can I say, I gave in.

Colin had the week off when Ryan started preschool so he got to pose with his little guy on his first day of preschool.

Mommy & Ryan posing on the first day of school.

Ms. LaDawn's school house.

She had some puzzles all set out for the kids to play with when they arrived at school.

Curen also got right to work.

Ryan and Curen playing while waiting for their classmates to arrive.

Ms. LaDawn.

Ryan, Curen, and Isaac after class on the first day of school. She mad them these cute little bags with their names on them! Looking forward to a great school-year.

Utah Olympic Park

2009-08-30T15:44:00.002-06:00

While everyone was out here this summer, I decided to put those awesome vouchers I got on a field trip to the Utah Olympic Park to good use. We had a voucher good for three rides on the zip line at the Oly park. It is one of the world's steepest zip lines and is over 1400 feet long! I was dying to try it out because it seems like I was pregnant the last two times I got the voucher. Each ride is $20 so it was a $60 value! And, it was one of my favorite field trips.
Colin and I love to shop in Park City too. So, Colin, the boys, Bruce, Katie, Erin and I all headed up to Park City for the day.
We did the Outlet malls and got a few things for back-to-school. Then after that we headed over to the Oly park. We headed over to the zip line and had a total blast. I did at least. I was so excited to finally ride the zip line. I was really nervous too because after I fell in the Dominican Republic, I became a little afraid of heights. Colin, Erin, Katie and I were all able to ride the zip line at the same time. You ride a ski lift up to the top of the mountain and then they strap you into a five-point harness seat. You sit there up against the metal door and then when everything is ready they push a green button, the door swings open, and you go flying down the zip line. It was so much fun.
I guess because of the way the pulley system works, one rider always goes a little slower than the others. Erin happened to be the one that went slow so she was a little bit disappointed but I think we all had fun anyway.
We went back inside of the museum for a little tour and after that we headed down back into the valley. You know my boys fell asleep the second we got into the car. It was a great and really fun day!

Erin, skiing down the slopes.

Ryan walking down to the zip line. He didn't get to ride. You have to weigh at least 50 pounds. He is far from that.

Katie walking down the hill toward the zip line ski lift.

Erin, Evan, Bruce.

This is the landing spot for the two large ski jumps. When I take the classes up on field trip days they get to stand at the very top of the jump from where the skiers launch. It is very high! The zip line runs somewhat parallel to the ski jump that's why you can see it in most of the pictures. The zip line starts a little farther down the mountain.

Colin, Katie, Erin and Jen getting ready to head up the mountain and ride the zip line.

Just a picture of the welcome sign.

This is Colin and I at the top of the zip line course. I think you can tell I'm nervous.

Me, in the seat getting ready to fly down the zip line.

Erin getting into her seat.

You can see all four of us in this picture. Me, kind of behind Katie, Colin in the middle, and Erin. I realize that it is hard to see us in these pictures so maybe I'll zoom in and post them again so they're easier to see.

Me & Katie.

Colin

Erin, Ryan, Katie, Bruce, Jen, Evan, Colin in front of the long-jump course.

Erin helping Evan and Ryan try out the bob-sled inside of the museum.

Erin holding the Olympic torch.

Evan and Ryan looking out at some of the animals. I think they're so cute in this picture.

Katie, hold Ryan, Erin, hold Evan, lets pose for a picture. Yeah, great idea Jen!

Evan running through the museum. He knew it was time to leave so he was running around trying to hide from me.

Me, posing in front of the pin display. There were hundreds of pins in this cute display. This was a big deal when the Olympics were here in 2002. People were trading pins like crazy!

Kirtland's Wedding

2009-08-29T15:38:00.006-06:00

My cousin Kirtland got married this summer. He had a beautiful reception in Syracuse that we were able to attend. It was really great to see my cousins Kirtland, Sarah, and Emily and my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Gregg.

Sarah's little girl Cameron.

Gregg's little boy.

Ryan

Evan

Emry

Jess

The cake. Such a cute idea to put a fountain in the bottom of it. I couldn't figure out how the cake was supporting the weight of the glass and water, but it sure looked neat.

Emily, Sarah, Evan, Me, Jess, Emry

Kirtland and his new wife