Firestation

Gideon is so different from Tate in that he is so into "boy" stuff like Tate never was.  They both share the same love/addiction to trains but Gideon also loves trucks, cars, swords, hitting, diving, farts, etc  He is all boy.  So, when we got invited to visit the fire station with some friends I knew Gideon would be in boy heaven.  And boy was he ever.  When we got out to the garage to look at the firetrucks he just stared.  And when they turned the lights and sirens on he jumped up and down in sheer excitement.  Too bad I don't have any pictures to show his enjoyment.  Just these crappy ones I attempted to take with my phone at the end of the tour.

Busted

Little Harper the Pilgram

Harper's preschool teacher is seriously amazing.  I am always excited to pick Harper up from preschool to see what they have been learning about for the day.  This day was one of my favorites.

Spy Girls

The kids watched the original "spy kids" movie this weekend and really enjoyed it.

They liked it so much that they had to test out their own spy kids abilities, and this is what they dressed as the next day.

Snowbird 2011

If you get to know Megan at all, you're sure to hear about Snowbird. Her family used to go up there every year and they made a lot of memories. These are some of Megan's most cherished memories.

So, when her parents got a timeshare up there, Megan was pretty excited. We went up over the 4th of July.

Here are the highlights from the trip;

1. Riding the Tram:
One of the "must-do" activities was riding the tram.

Megan even did a Daddy-daughter look-a-like shot from when she rode it with her dad.

2. Megan riding the mechanical bull:

I'm not sure how JBJ talked her into this, but it worked. Megan rode it for quite a while (the attendant was going easy on her).

3. Swimming:

Just like when Megan was little, we spent most of our time swimming.  Like Mommy, like daughter.

4. Gideon on the chair lift:

Megan was completely freaked out about Gideon riding the chairlift. She kept an iron grip on him the whole time.

5. Making T-shirts:

One of the sisters brought up stuff to create t-shirt designs. It was a big hit with the kids. My favorite was Harper's shirt. She'd not been feeling well earlier in the day, so she requested we write "Harper is sick" on her shirt (what are you going to do?)

6. Snow in July:

The resort actually opened for skiing this year because of the unprecedented snow pack.  It was crazy having a snowball fight in the middle of July.

Getting Work Done?

I'm often asked if I get anything done at my work.  This question usually follows me sharing about what I did at work that day.

I already talked about Halloween costumes in a previous post (Halloween is crazy).

So, in my defense, we work hard at XANGO, but we play hard too.  Here are a few "activities" we've done over the last year at my employment:

running around the office in a pink bunny outfit.

Turning someone's cubicle into a chicken coop.

Here is the development team modifying their nerf guns so they will shoot faster.

This is Cinco de Mustache (a "craziest mustache" contest we do on Cinco de Mayo).

Paintballing (while wearing the bunny outfit, of course).

Tate's Costumes

I've been meaning to talk about Tate's Halloween costumes.  The last 5 years, Tate has been the following costumes;

• Minecraft Creeper

• Star craft Marine

• Charmeleon from Pokemon 

• Picachu from Pokemon

• Ang from Avatar

 

First of all, you'll notice Tate's choices in custom is greatly affected by whatever movie or video game he's into at the time.

Secondly, you'll notice that most of these costumes are fairly obscure (Pikachu isn't too bad and Avatar is more known now - but it wasn't at the time). Not only does hardly anyone know what you are (the most common guesses this year were, "Are you a robot?" and "Are you a building?"), but it's really difficult to find a custom - typically resulting in me making one from scratch.

I've quickly noticed is that there is probably a reason there aren't any of these costumes out there; they are not very practical.

This year's was really bad. Tate's mask was cool but hard to look around in.  Once it got dark he had to lift it up and look out the bottom in order to see where he was going.

The worst was the cardboard appendages in front and in back of his legs. It was very difficult for him to walk (his legs kept banging into the cardboard).  He couldn't even walk up stairs. After only a few houses we decided to rip off the legs of the costumes, which made is outfit even more unclear. 

A little later, I ripped open the corners of his body box for flexibility.  By the time, we got home, Tate's costume was a pile of scrap cardboard.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Tommy was "Crazy Dave" from the Plants vs. Zombies game.

Traveling Gnome

Rapunzel

Glenda, the Good Witch

Creeper, from Minecraft (more about this coming)

Kid's Lunch Bento

After the trick or treating, both our older kids started sorting their candy into piles/categories. Megan did the exact same thing when she was little.  She got a kick out that.

Jack O'Lanterns

Obligatory Pumpkin Carving Shot.  Tate's is a minecraft creeper, Hudson is the vomiting pumpkin, and Harper goes with standard fun shapes.

Dora's a Sham

Our cousin Alanis recently had her third birthday. At the party, "Dora" (Alanis' aunt) showed up and was giving our presents. All the kids were gathered around mobbing Dora.

Then I noticed Harper with a very worried look standing a ways from the group.  She came up to me and said in a very concerned voice, "Dad, That's not Dora.  That's a fake Dora".  I asked her why she thought that and she replied, "I can see hair underneath her head". 

I think part of Harper's childhood ended that day.

After about an hour, Harper decided she was okay with approaching the fake Dora and got a picture with her.

The best part is when I showed Harper this picture, she pointed to Dora arm and said "She's not real, I can see her brown arm underneath".  LOL.

Gross

This is disgusting, but I have to share them.  Used the "fatbooth" app to make fat versions of ourselves (and Hudson).  Enjoy.