Saturday with Friends

The day after Christmas we spent some time with our really good friends. They were really nice to take some pictures for us. Afterwards, we went with them to dinner at Chili's. We had a great time being with them. After dinner we went to:

The Princess and the Frog. The kids had already seen it, but we had not. They told us they would love to watch it again and we had heard great things about it. We went with our friends and had a great time. I thought this for sure was one of the best Disney movies of all time. It was a classic Disney Princess tale. It had all of the greatness of a Snow White or Cinderella movie, but with a new direction all its own. It was a great story, with great animation, and great music. It seemed to be loved by all of kids and adults alike. We especially had a great time with our friends.

• This family of friends includes a little girl who is almost three years old. She loved the movie and would not necessarily get scared by scary parts, but by the loud noises (such as the THX thing at the beginning of almost every movie). She would hide in her Mom or Dad's arms. McQueen insisted on sitting by her. Every time she would get scared he would say, "don't worry, it is just fiction." By the time the movie was over, he had to have said it at least 4 times. It was so cute and so funny.
  

Christmas

We had a great Christmas and Christmastime this year. We especially loved having Ashley involved in our lives this Christmas. Ashley and I spent some time with her family on Christmas morning. We then rushed back here to greet the kids coming back from their Mom's house. We focused a lot on the real meaning of Christmas this year. We also talked about families who have to do without a lot of things, and how blessed we are. It seemed to really set in with the kids this Christmas. They seemed to be very excited about giving to others and especially helping those less fortunate. This kind of focus always makes Christmas better. We loved just spending time together and relaxing with each other as well. It was really nice to have Christmas on a Friday this year.

First we went to see what Santa had left the kids. Santa left McQueen a huge electric race track. It came with two Ferrari's and two Formula 1 type race cars. We all enjoyed competing against each other as the cars would zing around the track. Santa also left him a Lego Star Wars spaceship, and some Star Wars and Spider-man underwear.

Tinkerbell got a whole bunch of the Littlest Pet Shop toy figurines and villages. She played with them relentlessly and loves them so much. She was so excited for them. She also got a huge carrying case for all of them. One of the things that seemed to most excite her was her new Princess and the Frog panties. She liked the Hello Kitty ones as well, but not as much as The Princess and the Frog panties.

We then opened stockings to each find toothbrushes (Wolverine and Hello Kitty), little toys, candy bars, an orange, and an apple. Ashley and I gave each of the kids pajamas (Hello Kitty and Star Wars), a DVD (UP and Monsters vs. Aliens) a game (Guess Who? and The Lady Bug Game), some books, and some clothes.

We had a great Christmas playing and visiting with family. Most importantly we sought to remember our Savior and those less fortunate who we can help each day. We are grateful for the gift from both The Father and The Son who make it possible for us to be redeemed and forgiven. We are grateful for the season and the time we can spend as a family.

Zoo Lights

Tonight we went to the Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo. It was a lot of fun and actually quite a bit better then I imagined it was going to be. Most of the animals were asleep and/or away for the night, but the tigers (including all three babies) were still out. The lights were really pretty spectacular all over the zoo. We all had a great time. They even sold hot chocolate there (at, of course, outrageous prices). I bought one of their "souvenir cups" complete with free refills all night. We shared and I knew the kids would down more then a couple of cups. I feel very confident that we got our money's worth out of the deal. It was a lot of fun. Seeing the lights is kind of expensive, but we would still recommend it. I will have to post pictures when I get them all downloaded from the camera.

Fat Cats

My Brother's family came into town for Thanksgiving weekend, and so they could be here for the BYU v. Utah game. We had a lot of fun with them while they were here. All the kids could not seem to let the Wii ever turn off. They kept challenging each other to game after game. I thought the console was for sure going to start smoking. On Friday night, my parents took everyone to Fat Cats for pizza and bowling. It was a lot of fun with all of the kids. They also gave all of the kids some tokens to play the games. McQueen definitely loves this Speed Boat game, he can't get enough of it no matter where it is. He is actually quite good. Tinkerbell just loves any game that she thinks is going to give her lots and lots of tickets. Despite our bowling scores, we all had a lot of fun as a family.

Black Friday

I have never before participated in the whole Black Friday thing. A little while ago my laptop seriously melted down (I will never buy a computer with an AMD processor as long as I live). I have been borrowing an old laptop from my parents to get by, but since it is going on seven years, it is having issues as well. I went to all the websites for the sneak peaks at their leaked Black Friday advertisements. I went between three stores in the last week, down to two in the last day, and then finally found what I think was the very best deal. The doors were to open at Office Depot at 6AM, but tickets for items (so as to avoid people being trampled, etc.) could be handed out as early as 5AM. Ashley wanted to come with me to participate in the big event. I was more then happy to have her come along. We left the house at 3:50 and got to Office Depot just before 4AM. We were the 13th people in line. There were only 10 of the particular laptop guaranteed per store. I started asking what everyone was getting. People were really hesitant to tell me, as if I was going to start shooting people who wanted the same thing. Finally people started sharing and I knew I was safe. So we braved the VERY cold morning. Office Depot employees arrived at work, handed out the tickets in an orderly way, and took care of every customer need (not want). By the time the doors actually opened, there were easily 100 people gathered outside. I am now the proud owner of an amazing laptop found at an amazing deal. My only hope is that it lasts for many many years to come. We also made trips to Gymboree and Old Navy afterwards and found some pretty good deals there as well.

Even at 4 in the morning with no sleep to speak of, she is as beautiful as ever.

The Reward

I felt the kids needed a reward for doing a good job on the Primary Program. I want those things to be something special and neat, not something where they feel like Dad is always on their case. So, for their reward (emphasizing the good things they did), we went to the Kangaroo Zoo. We actually went to the Kangaroo Zoo that we have never been to before. This one is a little bit bigger and offers some different inflatables. The kids had a great time as did Ashley. Since she weighs less then 150 lbs. she gets to go on all of them. Some of us weigh SLIGHTLY more then that on the most physically fit day of our lives. We had a lot of fun, hung out, had pizza, etc. I think it definitely scores near the top on the kids list of places to go.

It was obviously really noisy in "the zoo," so Ashley and I went in the Parent's lounge for a few minutes where we could still see the kids. Tinkerbell must have thought it was so cool, because she would keep coming in and out of it, and closing the door way too loudly (on accident) each time. We couldn't resist snapping the above picture.
The kids playing together

WOOOOOOO

HOOOOOOOO!!

• McQueen commented that this was the fourth best day of his life and proceeded to tell us the three better days. Surprisingly enough, the day he was born only landed at #3, therefore making the other two less meaningful in my mind.
• Tinkerbell then told us this was the third best day of her life. When she told us the two best days of her life, they were merely things that had ALSO happened that day.

Marshmallow Guns

While I was fixing a trunk latch on Ashley's car, the kids wanted to show her their marshmallow guns. It didn't take long to fix and we had a great time with them for a few minutes before our hands got cold.

We then went to the store. Tinkerbell's boots were too small, so we went in search of new ones. She seems to really love the new ones. McQueen got to pick out a Christmas present for Tinkerbell on the other side of the store with Ashley (something Tinkerbell already has done for McQueen).

Babies, Babies, Everywhere

Today we went to the zoo. I have to tell you that we have fun at the zoo, but our zoo is not a spectacular zoo by any means. They are trying to fix that by really updating it, but right now it is not that much different then it was twenty or more years ago. But, this trip to the zoo was probably the most eventful one I have EVER had!

Ashley and Tinkerbell on the carousel
My two favorite girls

A Mommy snow-leopard with her new baby. They were sort of hiding in the brush, so I had to reach clear out and take this picture blindly. (baby #1)

Two of three new baby tigers

All three new baby tigers. One off to the left and two wrestling. There was one cute baby tiger who loved to antagonize the others and playfully wrestle with them (including the Mommy tiger). If McQueen were ever magically turned into a tiger, it would be that one. (babies # 2, 3, &4)

Baby giraffe resting comfortably while Mom and Dad stand near the garage doors (baby #5)

Zuri, the baby elephant (the baby we actually came to see, and the only one we could see that had a name). (baby #6)

I am not normally a sap. I like to think of myself as a sort of macho, yet sensitive, male. I rarely find a use for the word cute. Having said all of that, this baby elephant is about as cute as it gets. It was so fun watching this thing. It seriously is something you would love to take home as a puppy, but never keep into adulthood (squashed house anyone?)

It was "career day" at the zoo. This girl apparently is one of the caretakers for the giraffes (among other things). After seeing what she was holding, I started to wonder how much effort she really puts in at her job. I hope this is not one of the giraffes she cared for. It is an actual skull from a giraffe. I was really quite amazed by it. I think it would be even more impressive though if she was carrying around a giraffe neck the next time we go.

So, the baby tally that we saw was 6 new babies. Here the zoo is only advertising the baby elephant and they have a ton of other new babies. I thought watching the baby tigers interact was by far the most entertaining thing. We heard rumors that there were ten species of animals that had given birth since July. While we didn't find all of them (and I am sure some of them are some special species of butterfly or something), but it had to be the best visit to the zoo I have probably ever had. I never remember ONE baby being born at this zoo when I was a kid. Now they have at least six? I recommend checking it out if you have the time before these babies grow up or move away to another zoo.

Halloween Weekend

Saturday morning, I practically cried as I realized that we really needed to get the boat winterized. Summer seems to go too fast and I never seem to get as much boating in as I would like. Tinkerbell was complaining of an upset stomach since they came back, so she mostly just laid on the boat seats. McQueen loved helping me. Here he is pumping all the old oil out of the engine, so that we can put new oil in for winter. The kids always seem amazed that I can start the boat's engine without it even being in water (with a water hose connected of course).
Getting ready to go trick-or-treating. McQueen was Luke Skywalker and Tinkerbell was Alice in Wonderland.

We even brought Ashley's dog, Buster, with us trick-or-treating. He dressed as a pirate dog this year. We mostly trick-or-treated around her neighborhood this year because we happened to be in the neighborhood.

Ashley had the great idea of having soda and dry ice, to make a witches brew for the kids. We also made homemade pizza. Later in the night, both of the kids were complaining of upset stomachs. McQueen threw up and Tinkerbell had problems on the other end. Most anyone would probably think I gave them too much candy, right? WRONG! Tinkerbell had one piece of candy and McQueen had none. They came back feeling sick. They were both sick through the weekend, which forced us to stay home from church as well. Poor kids. By the way, no, they didn't have the miss piggy flu. They must have just caught one of the bugs that is going around. Despite their bad weekend, they told me they were all better when I talked to them Tuesday.

Pumpkin Carving

McQueen chose to carve out a bat
Tinkerbell loves this little kitty face

Scraping out those pumpkins

Right after dinner on Sunday, we hurried to carve pumpkins before having to take the kids back to their Mom's house. Luckily for the kids, Ashley helped them a lot, or I am not so sure their pumpkins would look as nice as they do.

• While having dinner with Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday, we mentioned that Grandma was 65. McQueen then in an astonished voice said, "OH MY GOODNESS, THAT IS SO CRAZY!!!........." then lowered his voice back to a normal tone to say, "I can't even believe that Grandpa is two years older."
• There is a new little girl in the kids Primary class. Their family sat behind us during Sacrament meeting last week. This little girl was coloring all of these pictures for McQueen all through Sacrament meeting. She colored anything he wanted, but loved to color him pictures of them holding hands. She would then draw hearts all around the two of them. I was laughing, because he seemed to be oblivious to the fact that this girl was very infatuated with him. He would even ask the girl to alter pictures that she would draw, so that he could give them to Tinkerbell. At dinner, I said, "so do you like __________in your Primary class?" He said, "yeah, she is nice." I said, "do you think she likes you?" He VERY nonchalantly said, "oh yeah, she loves me." I said, "why would you say that she loves you?" He said, "because she kept drawing me all of those pictures of us with all of those hearts." Okay, so maybe he is not as oblivious as I thought. I am suddenly much more concerned............

McQueen's Bedtime Story

McQueen wanted to tell us a bed time story (that he made up as he went) on Saturday night. I took out the computer and started typing as fast as my little fingers would go. Now, I am able to share this story, filled with plot twists and turns, adventure, Halloween, and excitement. I hope you enjoy his first published story, here it is below:

"Once upon a time there was an ugly witch. Then she made a potion that turned skeletons into witch wands. Then a big Milky (if you don't know who that is, you can search the blog archives) came and sat on the witch and pooped on her. Then a skeleton lifted up Milky to save his friend the witch. The witch then invited them over for dinner. A ghost came and knocked on the door and the "hided" because the ghost was mean. He almost found the witch, but the witch "hided" really well and waved her wand and said, "alacazam, alacazam" and waved her wand and turned everyone into a frog to hide. And then the witch used her wand to turn them back into what they were. Then she set a trap for the ghost. She put a big hammer right at the top of it and if there was an x on the floor and you were standing on it, you would die. Then a cow was right next to them in the next house and the next house was full of witches. Then the witch came and found one vampire in it. She waved her wand and said "alacazam" and turned that vampire into a duck. Then it changed into a duck and he was a duck alright, and he said quack quack all the way to his house and said, "I hate stupid witches." Then someone named Tinkerbell came who was a witch and she turned the vampire back into a vampire. And the vampires name was McQueen. Then somebody named Milky who was a black cat came and said to Tinkerbell, "hey where is that vampire going?" Tinkerbell said, "I have no idea." Then she made a potion and it had a grab nabber in the potion and she made an x with chalk and whoever got on the x would get picked up with the grab nabber and they would get dropped into a pile of garbage. Then one of McQueen’s friends caught him before he landed in the garbage. Then someone named Daddo came who was the ghost. He was the one who caught McQueen before he landed in the garbage. Then the wife came and her name was Ashley and she was a girl ghost. So, vampire McQueen then climbed up a wall and jumped off the wall and landed on his feet. Then Daddy the ghost came and caught him before he landed, but then McQueen got on his dirt bike and his dirt bike had some teeth and it could grab out. If it grabbed your car, your car would explode. Then they all went on their dirt bikes on a hill that was so deep with the dirt that they made it up just in time and they did a pop-a-wheely as they were falling off the mountain. It was a good thing they had parachutes on their dirt bikes or they would have landed dead! Then they went together to have a snack and they had Hello Kitty fruit snacks,strawberries, and blueberries. Then they ran and they had rocket shoes, that’s cool, but then their rocket shoes bring them all the way up to a palace. Then it brought them to the leaning tower of Egis. Then the leaning tower of Egis, ('McQueen do you mean Egypt? Oh, yeah, right. There really is a place on the earth called that Tinkerbell!') they found instruments and played them until the cops came. Then McQueen, the vampire "bited" the good cop and then good thing they didn’t end up in jail or else they would have to talk to the judge and do everything. Then, Luke Skywalker came and he was really the real McQueen. He opened his light-saber and killed evil fake vampire McQueen. THE END!"

Monsters of Every Kind

FRANKENSTEIN

Our project this week at Lowe's was a Frankenstein trick. If you pull a string on one side of the Frankenstein it is red. Pull it through the other side and it miraculously turns green. We always have a ton of fun with these projects, and this one was no exception.

McQueen definitely went to the more scary side in decorating his Frankenstein trick
Tinkerbell stuck with the more sweet, funny side of Frankenstein

Quite a difference in ideas when you compare them side by side

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Last weekend the kids once again filled up their "good deed jar." I stole this idea from some friends. It is a jar in which the kids get to put beans, when they do a good deed. Once the jar is full, we do a fun activity. Saturday afternoon, we went to the movie "Where the Wild Things Are." After reading the book numerous times, we thought it would be a great show for the kids. While the kids enjoyed it, and it was a cute movie, it was NOT a kids movie. I guess some critics have said the same thing, but I don't normally read what the critics have to say. The movie was okay (I don't even think it was great), but it was way too deep. There were so many meanings and interpretations to process in what was going on. We were looking for more of a fun, light-hearted movie for the kids. For the most part, this was definitely not it. So, my review: I only rate the movie as okay for anyone; I rate it terrible for 5 year old twins (even if they did enjoy it).

TCU vs. BYU

After the movie, we went back to Ashley's and had a whole bunch of food and watched the BYU/TCU games. Despite seeing numerous monsters from Frankenstein, to the Wild Things, I found TCU to be the biggest monsters of all! I wasn't thinking we were going to win going in to it, but I thought we would have at least shown up for the game! It was a terrible loss and I was disappointed. I thought there was some bad calls by the officials, but we mostly just were outplayed and out coached that day. A terrible loss, but hopefully the last one of the season. I still stand behind the Cougars though as any true fan does. I find more and more that Ute fans are unlike BYU fans in this way: Overall, BYU fans are happy for the Utes as long as they are not playing each other. They find that the Utes winning only helps the conference and it is a good thing. On the other hand, Ute fans typically HATE BYU and want them to die! To the Ute fans rubbing their win in the faces of the BYU fans loss, I say this: Utah didn't deserve a win anymore then BYU did. They lost the game on pretty much every level, except for score. So, congratulations glory hounds, you guys just had the crappiest win of the season! :)

Parties and Pumpkins

Every year my Dad grows pumpkins for their grand kids in his garden. The grand kids then get together on a specified date and time to take turns picking out their pumpkin. It has been a tradition as long as McQueen and Tinkerbell have been alive and is so neat and special of Grandpa.

Tinkerbell and Grandpa with her pumpkin
McQueen and Grandpa with his pumpkin

Grandpa, pumpkins, and all of the grand kids that could make it out this year. Nine of the grand kids live out of state and one is just too new to come out to play right now. Therefore, 10 of their 19 grand kids couldn't make it.

Shortly after pumpkin picking, we went to a Halloween party. Ashley's boss invited us over to their house where they had all kinds of neat activities and great food. The kids especially loved the miniature hay ride. It was a small wagon (trailer) being pulled around by a four-wheeler. They had a Winnie the Pooh Halloween movie projected on the side of their house, fog machines, the works. We had a lot of fun. McQueen is Luke Skywalker this year (I have had a great time saying "Luke I am your Father" every time he has dressed up) and Tinkerbell is actually going to be Alice in Wonderland despite wearing a Snow White costume for this party.

On Friday night, we also got to go to an adults only Costume party (don't let that sound naughty because it wasn't) with the ward Elder's Quorum. It was a lot of fun to see all the great costumes, eat, and play games. We left just in time to greet the kids coming back from their Mom's house. Ashley made the best white chili with chicken. It was a lot of fun.

Dancing Ghouls, Ghosts, and Witches

Tonight we went to Wheeler Farm. Ashley found out about this show that is going on every Friday night through October. It is a bunch of High School, or maybe even Junior High kids, dressed like scary Halloween figures. They dance to music, try to scare kids in the crowd and generally make it a fun night for kids and families as they perform. It is a short performance, and then afterwards there are refreshments. They also had hay rides (that we took full advantage of) with Halloween lights all throughout the farm. We then spent a little bit of time exploring the little areas of the farm. We went back home just in time to watch the last part of "Monsters and Aliens" (which may now be on my top 10 list of great kid movies-it is hilarious). My brother had brought his kids over for dinner and a movie because one of their older siblings was at home having a birthday party. We finished up the movie and then rushed the kids off to bed.

• As we were leaving the barn we were walking past a lot of the performers who had tried to scare us. When one walked right past McQueen, he couldn't resist. He jumped in front of their path and yelled out "BOO!!!" followed by him laughing his sinister little laugh.
• McQueen and Tinkerbell were having a snack at the kitchen table. They were talking and Tinkerbell chose apples for her snack. As I listened to them talk, McQueen all of the sudden said, "Tinkerbell, there really are poisonous apples for real, they are not just pretend like in Snow White."
• I love to quietly listen to the kids when they talk to each other as we drive. When we were running an errand, the conversation went something like this: McQueen: "Tinkerbell Jesus has a rocking chair in his house where he lives in heaven." Tinkerbell: "How do you even know that, are you sure?" McQueen: "Yes, I promise, Dad will even tell you....Hey Dad, is there rocking chairs in Jesus' house?" Me: "Yeah, buddy, I would imagine that there probably is." McQueen: "See, I told you Tinkerbell, and Santa has a rocking chair in his workshop too." Tinkerbell: "okay, I just didn't know all of that."
• McQueen said something really funny the other day. We told him that he is so funny. He responded with, "I know." I said, "how do you know that?" He happily, but seriously replied, "because I have clowns living in my head."

Ball Toss and Neighborhood Phantoms

This morning, our project at Lowe's was a ball toss. It actually was a pretty fast project and the kids spent much of their time just playing the actual game. It was only hard because there was not a good angle to lay the wood as you would hammer in the nails. It even came with little hackey sack size balls to throw into it. It is hard to figure out who has the most fun building these toys, the kids or me. Either way, it is such a great time for all of us and it is neat that Lowe's does this. It got me to thinking though. Lowe's must be losing their shirts on these!

Some time this week, someone left a "Neighborhood Phantom" on our doorstep. For those of you who don't know, it works like this: Someone leaves a ghost, instructions, a treat, and a curse. In order for you to remove the curse, you must find two other people to pay this forward to within 24 hours. It was a lot of fun for us to prepare the treats and get everything ready. We also had a ton of fun door-bell ditching the people and running away to hide. We didn't get caught by anyone, although there were some close ones. It was a great experience, as this is the first year that we have been involved in this sort of thing. We had fun and we were able to make someone else excited and happy. That is always a win-win situation. To top it all off, the kids were even able to keep it a secret...........except when that one persistent family wouldn't stop asking Tinkerbell. :)

The Killers

Ashley got tickets to see "The Killers" a while back. I have to say that I am not a huge concert goer. I typically just buy the CD or the MP3 if I like the music. My MP3 player has plenty of The Killers music. This was the first concert I had been to since 2001. We had a great time and they put on a great show. We were actually really close to the stage too. The only thing that was weird was the very beginning. They came out and sang one song and the crowd was on fire. Then they had to get off of stage so that someone could fix some sort of technical difficulty. We sat there for about 25 minutes before the show resumed. While I had a great time, I am still not sure how much of a TRUE concert goer I am. I think the next time I go to a concert, I seriously am going to wear earplugs. I know that I would still be able to hear the music, so it would be fine. I just value my hearing WAY to much to put my poor ears through that much torture over and over again. After talking like I was in the heart of a tornado for about an hour, I decided that it really cannot be good for my ears. I know that I would probably be considered a dork by all around me, but being considered a dork is nothing new to me (anyone who has ever tried to entertain a child knows what I am talking about; I have tried to entertain children many times over the years). Besides, I think that wearing ear plugs for one night is a far better deal then having a hearing aid attached to my ear for many years.

Fire Engines and Brakes

This morning we got up and did what is slowly becoming our twice-a-month tradition. We headed over to Lowe's and built these really cool fire engines. This is really such a fun time for all of us to interact and to build something together. The kids really love it, feel a great sense of accomplishment, and then get to play with whatever they have built afterwards. Ashley even met us there this time and helped us to build them.

Here McQueen is with his finished fire engine
Tinkerbell proudly displays her fire engine as well

This week, there was a small safety fair involved with the project of building the fire engines. The kids got to do these cool water colors about "spot-the-tot," got a bunch of free junk, and even got rub on tattoos. It was really fun.

After we did all of that, we had quite the day of automotive repair. I had to change my front brakes and then I had to change Ashley's rear brakes. It is sort of funny that both of our cars would need brakes at the same time. The kids loved helping for a while, then they decided they would rather just play with Ashley instead. We spent more time chasing down a special tool for Ashley's car then I did actually changing the brakes (usually only about 45 minutes per car). It was a great day and we are glad that we can feel safe now as we hit the brakes now.

Loose Tooth and Pooh Sticks

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! McQueen has had a semi loose tooth for a couple of weeks now. This is his second one, and his first is already halfway grown in. It certainly has not been loose enough to worry about pulling out............until now! As we were eating Sunday dinner, McQueen asked for a new piece of corn on the cob that was not so hard. He said he bit down and it was really, really hard. I asked him if he was sure it wasn't his tooth. I looked and sure enough, it was just dangling there. I tried to pull it out with my fingers, but the stinking thing was way too slippery. I told him that I was going to grab the pliers (he has very good spacing between his teeth and this thing was barely hanging on). He freaked out for a second, then held still as I plucked the tooth the rest of the way out. He asked me three times if I had gotten it yet. I told him yes, but he didn't believe me. He said, "Dad I didn't feel anything, have you got it yet?" all the while keeping his mouth open wide. When I finally showed him the tooth, he thought it was so cool. He said, I didn't feel anything, I should have you take all my loose teeth out with those pliers. I was still amazed I had to use them at all for how loose the tooth was, but I am glad he liked them. He was so excited to show Ashley and our great home teachers who came over later that night.
There is a small canal and catwalk close to our house. Sunday evening, we went for a walk and we all played a bunch of games of Pooh Sticks. If you don't know what Pooh Sticks is, watch or read "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh." We had a lot of fun and were able to figure out quite a few more techniques to the game.

This little Monkey loves to climb our trees

Touch-A-Truck

My sister told us about this event that was going on called "Touch-a-Truck." Saturday morning, I decided to take the kids. It was a huge event that had every big industrial type truck you could imagine. There were semis, concrete mixers, tractors, a mobile police command vehicle, fire engines, utility trucks, and on and on. The kids had a lot of fun climbing all through each of the vehicles. They thought the Hummer limo was really cool and told me all about the stuff inside of it.

Towards the end of the event, we were able to get up in the utility bucket of a Rocky Mountain Power truck. The kids were so excited and I thought it was pretty cool. That thing must go 50-100 feet in the air, because we were way higher then I could ever imagine a power line being. I was also impressed that it could hold so much weight.
We all had fun.........despite McQueen puking his guts out most of the way down. Incidentally, we were the last ones to ride in the bucket. Something always happens on the last run of the day, doesn't it. Despite the throw up raining down from 40 feet and above, he still claimed it was awesome...........come to think of it, maybe that is what he was talking about. Check out Tinkerbell's grossed out face. It compliments the laughs of the bucket operator nicely.

Here is the truck as it is raising us high in the sky. Luckily some lady was taking pictures for me. She was like a tourist. I figured out that she must have taken one picture every 3-5 seconds. You would have thought we were in the Statue of Liberty or something. The only bad thing about her taking so many pictures, is a lot of them were not that great.

Tell them LARGE MARGE sent ya!

Five more feet, a flannel shirt, a big dark beard, a driver's license and a big pot belly, and he could have a promising new career on his hands.

The closest she has ever gotten to being Wendy on Bob-The Builder.

No one is going to tell this kid he isn't Bob the Builder.

While they may look like midget domestic terrorists, they are actually wearing police gear. I am amazed that Tinkerbell can even hold that on her shoulders.....since it weighs one more pound then she does. McQueen was shocked that the disabled assault rifles weighed WAYYY more then his toy guns.

McQueen was quite at home in this video. This was something he gladly repeated several times before I had to keep saying: "okay, okay, that is all you get to do, no more!" I can't really blame the kid though. I put a horn just like that one on the Toyota Tercel that I drove in High School. Let's just say the little "meep, meep!" horns they put on those things, don't convey the message when someone cuts you off.