Update: The truth about T-rex

Just to prove to Jewel that I didn't digitally add the dinosaur victim, here is the original picture. (I would have liked to have been in the Park Decoration Committee Meeting when they decided on this one!)

- C

Like the Zoo... only Scarier!

This weekend we went to Boo at the Zoo with John and Tanis and Jeremy and Crystal. I think you should expect a certain amount of tension in any park full of dangerous, caged animals, but adding Halloween to the mix only increased the excitement... I'm just glad that we didn't go after dark. Here are the characters we were with:




A witch guy (Warlock?), Bob the Builder, Jack O' Lantern, Monkey, Pirate, and an Elephant (not pictured because he was crying). Of course it is a matter of opinion, but I don't think that Ella looks very much like a pirate without her eye-patch... she could have also passed as "Aunt Jemima", "a hippy", or "Aunt Crystal as an Envorinmental Conservation student".

When we tried the hand-me-down elephant costume on Tyson at home, he threw a fit, and I was worried we would have a repeat performance when we got to the zoo; however, he really enjoyed wearing it! I think it's partly due to the fact that the other kids were wearing costumes, and partly due to the fact that as soon as we got there, he fell into a half-frozen puddle of water and soaked his other clothes. Here is a shot of him at the elephant pen, probably his favorite part of the zoo.





Interestingly, the elephant seemed to be just as impressed with Tyson as Tyson was with him. Now Tyson also drew a lot of attention at the tiger cage, but when the tiger stared at him, I got the impression that its interest wasn't motivated by a sense of kinship like the elephant's was...

It is always heartwarming to see the cousins together and my prayer is that they will always be close.





I only lamented the lack of Ella's eye-patch once, when we first got to the zoo, but Abby must have heard it because she came up to me near the end of the day and assured me that Ella really was a good pirate. She explained "uncle Chad, some pirate's don't have ipods". Well, if that's true, it sounds like a hard life indeed...

So after being in a menagerie of some of the world's most beautiful and interesting animals, how about a wildlife picture? Well, I guess I was more focused on the kids because this duck shot is the best I managed:






And this is my best dude shot of the day:





I've always felt that Halloween is a gay holiday. I mean, I have to give away my hard-earned candy to a bunch of other peoples' kids because I'm scared of getting 'tricked' if I don't. And at the same time, I'm teaching my kids to not only accept candy from strangers, but to go right up onto their front steps to do it! Christmas is my idea of a holiday, it celebrates an important event, it brings out the best in people. I mean what would be better, having the Christmas spirit in your heart all year long, or the Halloween spirit? On one hand we have the Nativity and shepherds, and angels, and tagging along, is Santa and reindeers and little elves who want to be dentists. And on the other hand what do we have? Vampires, zombies, witches, skeletons - a pretty sketchy crowd.

However, after spending some time with the cousins, I have softened a little and understand that maybe the Halloween spirit isn't only about mischief to property under the anonymity of disguise, or about pagan/satanic traditions; maybe, to this younger, daytime crowd, it's about having fun. Now, I'm actually looking forward to taking my kids up and down our street this year. All I can say is we will have to do another zoo trip at Christmas.

Until then...




don't wake the animals.


- C

So Much for a Relaxing Weekend!

The kids have all had a bit of a cold this weekend so we thought we would just relax and do nothing so they could get better faster. However, Saturday afternoon we thought that we needed to do something for just a bit to get out and get some fresh air. The verdict was to roast hotdogs. We didn't even have any in the house so I guess that should have told us that this wasn't a good idea, but I thought, oh well, I'll just run out and get some. So, Ella and I ran out, got all the stuff we needed, got home and Chad was ready to get the fire started. As he was doing that I was upstairs getting stuff ready to eat and all of a sudden Tyson was crying. It's not like he never cries, but I just knew something was really wrong. There is a grate on our fire pit that Chad had moved aside. He apparently told the kids not to touch it, but maybe Tyson only heard the touch it part because that's what he did. Poor guy. He is so tough. I guess Chad didn't even know anything happened until he saw Tyson walk in the house clutching his hand. I took him to the clinic here where finally he was bandaged up. It is so sad, but so cute too. They gave him some medicine to take away the pain and a popsicle and he is back to his normal self. In fact, he denies that he even burned his hand. No one but Tyson could do such a thing! Got to love him though!

- H

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Always at the top of our list is our wonderful family. Above is our annual family photo. This year I got a remote for the camera so I didn't have to keep running back and forth setting the timer. Because there was less work involved, I could take more attempts to get a photo in which most (never all) of us were looking at the camera. I have often suspected that Heather's eyelids were somehow connected to the camera's shutter because they seem to always close just when the picture is being taken...

It was great to see the Hardys and the Paynes and it was so nice of the Paynes to host the supper at their house. Aside from preparing a wonderful meal, Heather pointed out that Jeremy and Crystal also sacrificed their only (and hard-fought) bottle of million-dollar relish. It seemed painfully obvious that dad was missing from the dinner... everything else seemed just like it was the previous year; except Jessica was new, and the cousins were all a lot more sassy to their uncle Chad. Even though no one really said it (except Crystal might have cried a bit when she said the prayer), dad is the reason why we were there, and the reason why we are all still so close.






Kendall and Jewel came back to our house for the night and John and Tanis stayed at Jeremy and Crystal's place. John said it was because Jeremy has a Nintendo Wii and Tanis said it's because she loves everything about "everything and everyone" in the Sundance area. She even made a trip to Walmart the way that we would make a trip to the Temple if we were down visiting them. Despite the fact that Jewel kicked us out of our bed for the night, it was really nice to spend some more time with them. Tyson particularly enjoyed his time with uncle Kendall:



We are also headed down South to visit the rest of our family (my inlaws). Apparently, there is a situation there that has the whole town without any water. Added to that, there will be no million-dollar-relish, and no video games either. Sounds like it's shaping up to be a really fun trip. Just kidding, Heather is going to kill me when she reads that. I am thankful for my inlaws too... they really are the best people and it is easy to see where Heather gets her great qualities from. Aside from my own parents, I probably owe more to Garth and Barbara than any one else. I am looking forward to seeing them and there will still be pumpkin pie, a cool uncle, and lippy little cousins... not so different after all.




- C