Happy Halloween

There is one thing that I really love about Halloween and it is the sense of community that you get walking through your neighborhood in the evening and stopping at all of your neighbors houses.  The rest of it I don't really care for... We always get home way too late, and with way too much sugar.  Overall we had a great time though.  This year we went with 2 other neighbor boys (Jacobs best friend who he also sits next to in class), his little brother who just happens to be 4, the same as Ethan and their dad.

Darth Vaders holding Superman captive for a picture.  Yes, they both wanted to be Darth Vader and they were both okay with the other one wanting to be the same thing.

Here they are at the neighbors house right before we head out together.

Super Sammie :-)

That's Going To Hurt In The Morning

Poor guy "fell"* off a neighbors trampoline and landed face first on the patio. He spent a few hours laying pathetically on the couch, took a short nap, then got up, ate chips and salsa and ran downstairs to play video games with Jacob. The bump is actually a lot worse than you can see in that picture. He is attempting, unsuccessfully, to pull his hair back for the picture.

*I say "fell", but actually he was pushed by someone whose name will go unmentioned.

Buena Vista

We spent last weekend in Buena Vista, CO. It's very beautiful; completely surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in the world. Above is a composite of 6 pictures of one of the ranges. Mt. Princeton is the tall one on the left. The picture is more dramatic if you click on it to view a larger size.

"Mount Princeton (14,197 feet high) is one of the fourteeners of the US state of Colorado. It lies in the Collegiate Peaks, in the central part of the Sawatch Range, just west of the Arkansas River. While not one of the highest peaks of the Sawatch, it is perhaps the most dramatic, as it rises more abruptly from the Arkansas valley than the other peaks of the range."

-Wikipedia

Team Rip Your Heart Out and Shove It Down Your Throat

When we first started the season and they were assigning us to our different teams and coaches, I gave the lady Jacobs name and she said ""Ok, he is on Team Caring". "What?", I said. "Are you serious? Team Caring is the name of our team? That has to be a joke! Why not just call us Team Lame, or Team Rainbow Lambs and Flowers? You name your ball team after some kind of ferocious or noble animal like, The Lions or The Stallions, not Team Caring!!" Ok, I didn't really say that to her, but I did think it.

We never spoke of that name again. I don't even think the boys ever knew that was the name of their team. How could I reveal such shame to them. They enjoyed the season though, and as you can see they "won" medals. I don't know what they did to win the medals, seeing as everyone else received one also, but I think it has something to do with paying the $55 to play T-Ball. Now I only wonder if later when they actually accomplish something and win a medal it will mean just a little bit less because of this.

T-Ball

Jacob and Ethan started t-ball this year. They are on the same team which makes things easier for the whole family. I forgot to bring a camera to the first game so these pictures are from their second game. This week there was much improvement about not running to get the ball if it is on the other side of the field and then tackling everyone else in order to get the ball first. You can see an example of that in the bottom picture.

The games are pretty simple. We only play 2 innings. Everyone gets to bat each inning and everyone plays the field (it gets a little crowded). There are no stikes or outs and we don't keep score. I guess if we did keep score the team with the most players would win since everyone gets to run the bases.

Mr. Intense

The ball went right into his glove.

Jacob Batting

Ethan Batting

512 Ahhhhhh!!!!

Possibly the coolest license plate ever!!!

Water Fight After the Rain Tonight

"Ethan don't shoot me I have my camera!"

"Can you hold still for just 5 seconds so I can get a picture of you that isn't blurry."

Shooting the spider on the back of my car

Wishing he could run with the big boys

Cow Town Field Trip

A Flying Cow
...and you hate it when a bird poops on your windshield!

Samuel Meets Johanna

Johanna is Samuels new cousin.

Samuel Falling Asleep.

Samuel after a long hard day. He couldn't even stay awake to finish his pizza crust.

The Boys on Easter

Just catching up on some picture posts. These are hip shots (meaning that I wasn't looking through the lens so they are more candid b/c the boys weren't expecting it) taken on Easter day.

Lost and Found

Mason (our dog) slipped out of the house on Friday afternoon while my mom, sister and brother were here. He used to run away at every chance but about 2 years ago he spent a night in the dog pound and then stopped running away... until the last few weeks. He ran away twice 3 weeks ago but he had on his tag which had our address and phone number on it so people found him and brought him back. When he ran away on Friday Rachel was pretty upset but Jenny and I said someone will just bring him back like they always do. We didn't bother to go looking for him because that has never worked in the past. Later that night my stomach sank when I put the boys to bed and found his collar sitting on their dresser! No one would be bringing him back that night.

Rachel and I went looking for him for about a half hour with no luck. Then I came back and made the above missing poster and Jenny and I put about a dozen of them up along the nearest major road. All that was left was to sit around and wait.

The next day I saw him come trotting out of one of the bedrooms, where he had presumably just fallen asleep and not heard us call for him... but alas I awoke to find it only a dream.

The dog pound would open at 1:00 and we could call them then but thankfully right about 1:00 I got a phone call from someone that had found him and saw one of our posters at the same time. He was still out roaming the streets almost 24 hours later. They picked him up and brought him to our house within a minute of calling us. It was a big relief for the whole family.

Sorry it has been so long.

Here are some pictures from the zoo last Saturday.

Not sure why Rachel is not in this picture.

Frost Bite

And yet so far the roads are just wet and not icey.






This one is out of focus but I thought it just looked kind of cool.