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.

The Conferences Formerly Known as Parent-Teacher

Today I went down to the kids' school for what they now call "Student Education Planning Conferences." In my day, it would have been called Parent-Teacher conferences. I actually like this type of a conference much better (other then they held them in the middle of the day, rather then at night). The new conferences include the teacher, the parents, AND the child meeting together. They discuss the needs of the child and how to best help them learn. We all set goals and sign a paper agreeing to do our part. We then measure how we have done and how the kids are doing at the next conference. One of the conferences was scheduled for 1PM. The other conference was scheduled for 3:45PM. The only problem with that is, their school is an hour away (one way) from where I live/work. I had to just hang out down there and find some stuff to do. I was just going to go for a drive up a canyon, but then my brakes started making the noise they make when they are completely worn out and scraping metal against metal. Coming down a canyon in that condition suddenly didn't seem like the safest thing. I instead shopped at Wal-Mart and AutoZone and then took a tiny nap. Overall, things went great. The teachers said really positive things about the kids. They have separate Kindergarten teachers, so we met with each of them individually.

Tinkerbell's teacher was very impressed with how much she loves to do school work. She wants to be involved in everything and is constantly loving every minute of school. She expressed that she was very smart and committed to school. She seems to want to help others to learn and is constantly looking for new challenges. She has learned a lot so far this year. Her teacher is great and the perfect fit for her.

McQueen's teacher is also great. She told us what a great helper he is and how smart he is as well. She told us that he will always be right there to help her do something. If the kids go out to play, he will help her push in the chairs others have left out. Both teachers commented on what a sweet brother he is to his sister. He really looks after her in a way that would make many girls jealous. He is smart and is learning a lot and is such a sweet little boy.

It was great to be involved in their very first SEP Conference and I look forward to many more. It is amazing to watch my tiny little kids learn and grow and quickly become not so tiny.

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.

The State Fair

Friday night, we all went to the State Fair. By "all," I mean that there were seven of us and only two of us were over the age of ten. Ashley was nice enough to babysit her friend's four children while they went away for the weekend. They have two boys, age 10 and 7, and two girls, age 5 and 3mos. McQueen and Tinkerbell were there too of course. They were all good kids and were a lot of fun. The only drawback? Helping all the kids, including a new baby, all through the fair meant that Ashley and I felt like we had said two words to each other the whole night. We still had a great time and I know the kids did as well. By the end of the night though I took this picture. Seeing this sight at the beginning of the evening while the sun was still out brought feelings of fun and excitement to my mind. By the time I took this picture in the night, I only felt tired and the picture seemed to depict pure and unbridled chaos.
Four new baby piglets. We all thought they were pretty cool. The only thing the kids thought was even more awesome was watching one of the pigs urinate, followed by the pig defecating.

Here is Tinkerbell with their 7 year old boy and their five year old girl.

We all had a great time wandering around the different areas. We heard rumors (much to our surprise) that there would not be many more State Fairs in our State. According to the source, someone decided that they were not worth doing anymore and not very profitable. According to me, I don't know whether to believe that or not. I cannot imagine how they are not profitable. Has anyone checked the prices of food, drinks, and rides at the fair lately? They all cost the same or more then an adult ticket at the gates does. Luckily tickets for kids under six are free!

Happy Anniversary????!!!!!

Tonight for our date night, I took Ashley out to a play at the Desert Star Theater. We saw a hilarious play entitled "Snooty and the Beast" (we highly recommend it). It is obviously a parody on Beauty and the Beast, yet has SO much more stuff thrown in. At the end of our show, they also threw in a smaller performance of their own version of "Monster Mash," it too was hilarious. Judging by their titles, all their shows must be this way. This theater is such a fun place. You sit at a table and enjoy dinner as you watch the show. They had the most amazing California Veggie pizza. We definitely stuffed ourselves on it and couldn't believe how great it was. The show was hysterical and we were laughing almost non-stop. Towards the end of the show, and before "Monster Mash" was to start, they started recognizing people who were celebrating their birthday there this evening. As a group, we even sang to all of the birthday people. Next, they wanted to know who was visiting from out of town, or the farthest away. They then (jokingly) wanted to know who had come to the play for their Family Home Evening and what spiritual message they took away from it. All of this was done with a very fun atmosphere. They then asked who was celebrating an anniversary. No one in the audience raised their hand or yelled out. They were so shocked, so they wanted to know who was at least on a date there. Since we were on a date, we yelled out. Suddenly, the guy said, "oh, we do have a couple celebrating their anniversary!!" I looked around, wondering who he was talking about, when the spotlight hit us. I knew it was no use trying to explain his misunderstanding. They asked us to stand and slow dance while they played "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," followed by us having to kiss in front of everyone. We knew that trying to stay seated in a setting such as this would not only be futile, but make us look like cowards as well. The audience urged us on in what they thought was our responsibility. We stood and danced to the music, looking at each other and laughing the whole time and me knowing then and there that I would be creating a special blog post for this occasion. At the end of the song, I dipped her back and planted one on her. We then returned to our seats laughing at how on earth the guy messed that one up so badly. They then wanted to know what anniversary it was for us. We looked at each other and I finally held up my index finger to signify it was anniversary one (in my head, I was thinking that it was anniversary NEGATIVE ONE, but who needs to be so technical). I wondered what the audience must have thought as they may have seen our hands lacking any sort of wedding bands. After the play had ended, we worked our way back to the car. A young couple congratulated us and complimented us on our dancing skills. It was at this point that we made the conscious decision to celebrate our anniversary like any other, normal married couple would...............yes, that's right we drove around and talked and then I dropped her off at her house by 10:15PM so she wouldn't be tired for work. I should be offended that no one remembered our anniversary, especially our first one at that! The only people that seemed to care were a bunch of strangers in a theater. If I hadn't have had such a good time, it would be harder for me to forgive, but this time I am letting everyone off the hook. We also laughed about how funny it would have been if anyone in either of our wards or in our circle of friends would have been there for our "celebration." Alas, I still feel that it is special that I could share this most memorable anniversary with all of you.

Saturday was a Special Day

Saturday morning, we started off with a fun project. Lowe's and The Home Depot will have these free little workshops about every two weeks in their stores. Parents can bring their kids and make something with them (it is a different, preset item every time). I have been wanting to do this with the kids forever! It always seemed that we would have something going on, or I would forget about it all together. This weekend I was bound and determined that we were going to go. The project was to build a drum at Lowe's. We had so much fun doing it. They passed out the kits and away we went on our way to building the drums. The kids even got aprons that they get to keep as well. We had a ton of fun doing this, and it was so fun to make something with the kids. In two weeks we are headed back and we are going to make a fire engine!

Here the kids are showing off their brand-new drums. They must feel a real sense of accomplishment. I especially love McQueen's face in this picture.

Not only can they build stuff, they have musical talent as well! Just check out this video of them playing the drums.

A few hours after our project, we went to the baptism and confirmation of a friend of ours. It was a great baptism and he was so excited. We are so happy for him and proud of him for making such a great choice.


In the evening, we went on a hike to Donut Falls. It is a place where the water comes pouring off of some rock cliffs. Over time the rock has eroded away. The water now passes through what looks like a donut on its way down the river. Here the kids are as we are coming back from our hike. I have been telling them for a while how bright the stars are up in the mountains at night. Unfortunately this was the first clear night we have been in the mountains. They stared in awe for quite some time. I especially thought it would be a great picture of their noses.
What cute kids!

This was McQueen's favorite rock.......at least on part of the trail! :)

This was Tinkerbell's favorite rock.

If it wasn't so dark, you would be able to see Donut Falls right behind them. Unfortunately, you can't make it out in this light. If I had a Facebook account, these three would be in my three top friends list. However, I don't really care for Facebook, so you will have to figure this one out the hard way.

• Over this weekend, Tinkerbell's nail polish oddly came off on only ONE finger. Anyone want to guess which finger it was? Yes, my sweet little innocent girl was going around to everyone at church and giving them the bird (WITHOUT ITS FOUR FRIENDS). She would say, "look at my finger." As everyone would gasp for breath, they would say "oh, what are you showing me?" she would then bring up the other four "feathers" and say that the polish came off of only one of her fingers. I didn't realize what she was doing until I saw people laughing as she would walk away. The funny thing is she was completely innocent. She had no idea that she was giving everyone the Hawaiian good luck sign all day long. Good thing she isn't old enough to drive!

Grandma

My 95, yes I said 95 year old Grandma came from Colorado for a visit. We had a huge picnic in the park with a bunch of my cousins and other family. When I say huge, I mean huge. My Grandma gave birth to and raised 11 kids! Many of them had big families as well. I have 50+ first cousins on that side alone. Needless to say she is a remarkable woman. Eleven kids would have killed me off by age 50, easy! She also is an amazing poet. She has written at least 500 poems in her lifetime. My Mom is currently working on the time/expense of having a book professionally published. It won't be available to the general public or anything, but all of us will have that keepsake. These are amazing poems too, not the dribble that one would read on my blog!
Grandma also has an amazing sense of humor. I always remember her laughing about something or another. I am sure it has contributed greatly to the length of time she has been on the earth. She has hundreds of these funny glasses. Usually she has a shoebox or so that she brings with her to any gathering. Whenever you get a picture with Grandma, you always have to get another one with the funny glasses. We wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, many of us have talked about how fitting it would be for each of her descendants to wear a pair of her funny glasses to her funeral. I don't think she would have it any other way, and she probably even has enough glasses for all of her descendants to wear a pair. Unfortunately the kids couldn't come because they were with their Mom that day. They did get a chance to talk to her on the phone though, and they were pretty excited about that.

It's What Fun Is!

Ashley got us some discount tickets, so we all went to Lagoon! We had a really fun time. This picture was taken as we were at the very top of the "Skyscraper" Ferris wheel. I have to say that I am not at all scared of heights. I love to fly on airplanes, I like tall buildings, and I like to stand tall. What I am not quite comfortable with is sitting my large self in some tin basket that is secured by only a couple of bolts and then ROCKING back and forth time and time again high above the ground.
Here we are awaiting our turn on the "Log Flume" (Tinkerbell picked out her own clothing if you can't tell). The kids' "favorite" ride seemed to change as soon as we got off of a ride, but I think this one had to be near the top. I was amazed at all the rides that they have added since I was last there. I was even more surprised how many "adult" rides the kids were tall enough to ride. I think that the "Bat" roller coaster was also one of their favorites. It was definitely a "big person" roller coaster. McQueen also loved the "Dinosaur Drop," while Tinkerbell preferred the "Ladybug Bop." The kids really liked to look at all the homes and things in Pioneer Village as well. We rode as many rides as possibly could and we had a great time.

We happened to come at a time when they had a classic car show of some sort going on. McQueen loves Corvettes old and new (I may have had some slight influence on that), so we made sure to take his picture by this classic Corvette Sting Ray. Just before this, McQueen found $20 laying on the ground. He was so excited and couldn't wait to spend some of it. We talked to him about what was right and that we should see if we could find who it belongs to first. We rushed around until we found a girl that the money clearly belonged to. He was excited that he had helped her and that he chose the right thing. He couldn't wait to tell his Primary class about it the next day. We even got him the toy he talked about buying as a reward for being so good.

Tinkerbell wanted her picture by this old Chevy. She thought it was a really neat old car.

One of my favorite things about our trip to Lagoon was how sweet the kids were. Sure, you would expect their behavior to be good when they are having so much fun. I still expected tired fits, whining, etc. They were so sweet, especially to each other. McQueen wanted to make sure that Tinkerbell was involved in everything he did. He looked after her and held her hands and kept his arm around her. He even kissed her on the cheek several times that day. He really can be the best big brother a girl could ever wish for. Tinkerbell loved being by his side and clearly loved being with her best friend. Whenever I asked McQueen if we should let the ladies go first, he would say, "Oh Sure!"

• Tinkerbell got used to McQueen and I letting the ladies go first. At one point she said, "ladies first.................AND I AM a lady!"

Hello Jerry, Hello Newman!

Ashley and I went out on our normal date night (Monday). We walked around downtown and did some stuff here and there. Afterwards, we wanted to just get some good dessert somewhere. Late on a Monday night there doesn't seem to be a million places open. There was one, however. We went to the Salt Lake Roasting Co. We had heard they have great desserts, and we were not disappointed. Just to clarify, no I still have never had so much as a sip of coffee, and I still hate the smell of it. Therefore, it is NOT a temptation. I got the fruit flan and Ashley got some great concoction of a cake. We sat outside (so I wouldn't have to smell the coffee) and talked and even people watched. Suddenly, I turned to Ashley and asked that she remove the camera from her purse. She obliged. I instantly started snapping away at a man inside the cafe. Now, you all know why I did.................

Yes, that's right. It is indeed "Newman" from Seinfeld. Okay, so it might not have been THE "Newman," but I would love to see anyone find someone who looks more like Newman than this guy. As he talked, he even seemed to have a lot of his mannerisms. I wonder if this guy just happens to deliver mail for a living. HMMMM.......... As I was saying, thank goodness there are only a select number of places to go, late on a Monday night........

P.S. THERE ARE MANY NEW POSTS BELOW. I HAVE GIVEN MY BLOG ITS BI-MONTHLY UPDATE. JUST THINK, IT WAS NOT LONG AGO THAT PEOPLE WERE COMMENTING ON ME BLOGGING MORE THAN ANYONE THEY KNOW.