King's Peak

So this is a back post. I keep forgetting to post about this because I didn't go on this trip. Jon and his Dad and Brother, Dave, went backpacking to King's Peak in August. It was a hard hike. They got on a wrong path that increased the hike by 3 miles. Michael had back pain the whole way. But they all hung in there. They ate dehydrated food and enjoyed the views.

Their camping spot


From the Summit


Jon at the summit

Jon and his Dad (There is a picture almost exactly like this with Jon and Jason, his brother, that was taken about 12 yrs ago, the last time they went. . . but I can't find it! :( Maybe I will find it later.)

(Look, there's a UFO!)

Dave and Michael

G.I. Joe

A few years ago, Jon read Ghandi's Bio, Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is within You, and something else. He really picked up their sentiment of anti-violence.

So far, we haven't had any toy guns. Which we know, seems not so effective because little boys will make guns out of anything even if we think they don't know what a gun is :)

It was very funny to me that Jon, after hearing that Zac plays with Barbie's at his girl-friend's house, wanted to go right out and get a gun carrying G.I. Joe! Ha ha ha, I still think its funny!


We found some old G.I. Joe cartoons online, so he would know what G.I. Joe is all about.


Max got into it too!

Funny!

Reading the Comics with Dad

I ordered the paper to attempt to "coupon"- so far its going pretty well. Reading the comics with Dad is quickly becoming a custom. Zac has picked up on saying, "get it?" at the end and then laughing-which is pretty funny in itself. Even though Jon tried to explain the pictures and reads the bubbles, Zac has no idea why its funny.



I just look at this and laugh! Max is total smothering Jon, but that doesn't stop them.


Half way through a comic Zac starts to get this concerned look on his face. I haven't figured out why yet . . .perhaps he is getting ready for the punchline :)

Miscellaneous

This is Zac illustrating and asking me, "why does a fly do this with his arms?" (why do they rub their arms together?)


Any answers?? I told him that's how they taste things to see if they are sweet. Is that right? Does anyone know why flies do that?

____________

Papa came into town one night to drive his car home to WI. It was a lot of fun to see him! Since it was his birthday that week and he'd be driving during it, we did a little birthday celebration. We're glad he got home safe and sound, especially making it through the first and huge snow storm in the Denver area.


__________

Max wanted to wear these

Halloween Night

Halloween was on a Saturday, so it was a little tricky to know when to start trick-or-treating. When was too early? The first people to our door came at 6p. I would have liked to gone at 3 or 4...but is that acceptable??

We had Dan, Amy and Jack over for Halloween. It was fun to see them again, without several months passing first ;) We ate pizza and got ready to hit the streets. . . or street (singular).


Max had fallen asleep in the car at 4:45p. I was able to transfer him to his crib where he slept for another hour or so. When I woke him to eat dinner he was grumpy but still ate-a miracle. He was still grumpy when getting his costume on. But when he realized he was going to get candy his mood slowly changed.


The finished product: Marvel's Batman and Robin



I love how the cape came out


This was Max's first year to understand trick-or-treating. He was in a great mood once we went to a few houses and got some candy. It was pretty cute. He has been doing so good with his speech lately-picking more approximations (which are words/sounds he says that mean an actual word), and pronouncing things better. He tried to say trick or treat. I love that he tried it at each house-it was so cute. And as long as the person at the door held the bowl out Max kept taking a treat.

The little superheros


We checked out the loot and unloaded, our bowl of candy, got the kids ready for bed, then we watched "Cloverfield". It was a fun, low-key night-that how I like em'.

Halloween Fun

My parents were awesome and took the boys during our Halloween party. The boys got to spend the night and do fun Halloween activities. It was perfect. There was no way we were going to fit these in with the costume mayhem.

Festive sugar cookies with lots of sprinkles!



In the spring the boys got to go over and help plant pumpkin seeds in Nani and Papi's garden. Then they got to pick a pumpkin when they got big.

They also got to carve them.

This is Max's "Blue's clue's". So cute! I didn't even know they had patterns like this!



And of course Zac's Batman!



Thanks Mom and Dad the boys had so much fun!! And it was such a nice break for us!

Halloween Prep

This year I did too much for costumes. I thought that I had given myself enough time . . . well I did have enough-everything got done. But it was so annoying that it felt never ending!

We had a cool Batman mask (Lori, we still need to get that back to you), and Batman cape that my little brother Jacob had when he was a kid. I have been wanting to make another superhero cape just like it for Max. So all these came together to implement Zac and Max being Batman and Robin for Halloween. Zac was soooo excited!

I wanted to find plain pj's that were gray and bright green-no luck. So I decided to make them. This is the first time using a pattern with out my mom assisting or me assisting her. I didn't realize that patterns were sooo much bigger that what you would want. I resewed the seam where the pins are, and cut off all the rest!

I did the same on the shirt too. The neck was still big, but I wasn't going to redo it. Overall I think it worked out fine.

I couldn't find a pattern for a Robin mask that was the right era, so I just free handed this one. It looks less cat like when its on.



Zac's school had a Halloween party so he got to dress up!


We went to a ward Halloween party too. But Zac's costume wasn't complete and Max's wasn't even close. He was a Monkey for that party. I'll get a picture later.

Then Jon and I were going to a Halloween party and wanted to do costumes. It took a while to decide what we wanted to be, and then it took a few days to figure out how in the world we were going to make it happen. Luckily, the internet is a great resource.

Jon:


Me:


How'd we do?