Halloween 2010

Better late than never right? Here are some shots from Halloween. Thing 1 being Captain Thing 1. He wanted to be a ship's captain, but I didn't get that until it was too late, so I had sewed a cape and put an "A" on his shirt before I understood what he was talking about. That's okay though, he loves his cape and still wears it around the house running to make it fun.

I had to show off what I made, I was pretty proud of it. He even picked out the colors. Oh, and the pumpkin on the right, Daddy carved. Most little boys will recognize the character as...Thomas the Tank Engine! He's carved on the outside of the pumpkin and glowed very well with a candle at night. As it aged the white lines got whiter it was great. Thanks to our friends Christine and Sam for bringing us pumpkins from their garden.

 Thing 2 was a cute little pumpkin as well. He was all bundled and warm in his costume.


The night before Halloween my sister and I took our boys to Boo at the Zoo. We had other plans, but they fell through, so we headed over to the zoo. Considering it was Halloween and we were in light jackets we were really surprised. It was very comfortable and unusual weather for Southeast Idaho at that time of year.








You can see Things 1 and 2 on the left. Cousin Red on the right was Yoda (although he was mistaken a few times for Shrek, which Sis and I thought was hilarious). And the little guy in the stroller was a Sushi roll. I got a kick out of that. Sis even borrowed a whale to make the tail stick out at the bottom. We had a lot of fun, but there were tons of people there. If I do it again, it will be with Daddy.

 Thing 1 has been to this zoo twice before so was very "knowledgeable" about where to go and just kept pushing on. I loved how his cape stood out. It was kind of a time lapse/flash shot when I took this and loved what it did. Not at all intentional, but still neat. 

Mommy dancing with Red to some fun music that was playing at the costume contest for little ones.


Daddy and I took the boys trick or treating the next night and delivered pumpkin bars to those we visited. That's a tradition in my family. It's a lot easier to take the bars and then get the treats. Besides, some people are expecting the bars and we can't disappoint them. One year we went on Saturday as Halloween was on Sunday (we don't trick or treat on Sunday), and we had a neighbor who was a huge fan of the pumpkin bars. She was really worried she wouldn't get her Forester pumpkin bars, so she was ecstatic when we showed up at her door.

Be patient, the rest of 2010 is coming.

Last one, I promise! (for this season at least...)

So, I am SOOOO proud of Thing 1, he has been fantastic this year at our favorite family winter sport. Yup you guessed it, we went skiing. Again. This was the first time that he was able to go during the day. He had his goggles on most of the day so when he took them off for a picture, he said, "Wow, it's blue!" After replacing the goggles, surprisingly yelled, "It's pink now!" It was so funny to see him shocked by the color changes his goggles made. It was a beautiful day being warm and sunny, and the snow wasn't too bad either. Daddy, Thing 1, and I all have sunburns from our cheekbones down. Daddy and Thing 1 also have some sunburn on their foreheads as well. You can see the red cheeks in this picture.

Thing 1 also hit a major milestone yesterday. He went down his first BLACK DIAMOND! There are different levels to skiing, Green Circles which are the easiest and Double Black Diamonds being the hardest. There are varying levels and degrees, but these are the basics, or at least what I was taught. Here are the levels

Green Circle
Blue Square
Black Diamond
Double Black Diamond




Does that tell you what he went down? I'm so flipping excited! He had a little help, but didn't fall or anything, and did great!

And by the way, he skis WITHOUT a harness! He's gone without!

He also wanted to go off of some jumps that are taller than him. I, being overprotective Mommy that I get to be, said maybe next year. He really wanted to go on the boxes that are on the jumps course, so we took him over, and let him attempt two of them. Although he didn't land them he still wanted to keep trying.

Aunt Shelby went with us and she was a lot of fun too. Thanks for bringing the camera, we forgot ours.











Daddy's getting better too.

We're sad that it's the end of the ski season, but will be back and rearing for more next season, more confident and daredevilish. Especially if Thing 1 has anything to say about it!

Thing 2

Okay, I am very proud right now of Daddy, he's posted three times within two months! I know I'm not doing so great, so hopefully this will help. Thing 2 is also lacking in appearances and braggings on our family blog, so this post is all about him. Disclaimer: Whether or not it involves other is at my discretion :) These images start back in September, so if Thing 2 looks so infant, it's because he was.

This is one of Daddy's favorite things, cuddling with his boys and knowing that Thing 1 wants to join him.

You're probably wondering why this picture is so far away from Thing 2? Notice a pair of feet underneath the chair where Thing 2 is sitting? Thing 1 used to like hiding from us under there. He was pretty good at it too because the blanket hid him.

Believe it or not Thing 1 took this shot of Thing 2, and he's only getting better.  He's even started grabbing my big camera, not just the point and shoot I have on hand.

Thing 1 took this shot as well. Scary huh?

 

My cute little pumpkin for Halloween. He had Millia (baby acne) for the longest time, thankfully it wasn't painful, and it went away I think in November. He has the smoothest face now.

I love seeing images of him crying. Weird I know, primarily because I know it's a genuine image, I know it's not posed or set up or anything.

 

The first time I was able to finally capture his adorable little smile on camera. He was a toughy to catch because we always liked making him smile, we just never got the camera out in time to capture it.

Before Christmas, Thing 1 decided that Thing 2's sleeping with his arm out made a great tree branch. First it was the candy cane....

Later it was the largest ornament on the tree. Or should I say Thing 2's hand? It was fun.

More posts to come on Thing 2. As well as a bunch of catching up. I'll do better, I promise.

My side of the Slope.....

So this time we were bad parents and left the budding new skier with grandma. We enjoyed a wonderful time at Grand Targhee as adults hitting some more "challenging" runs. (At the end of the day my thighs were ready to spontaneously ignite.) We snapped a few pictures that we thought you might all enjoy.

There was not a cloud in the sky and it held to the high 30's to mid 40's throughout the day. Needless to say, beautiful. The view of the Teton's was clear and pristine. And by the end of the day the sky was the most perfect blue. We really enjoyed ourselves.

So those of you that knew me growing up and are wondering how in the world did Travis get his mind changed about skiing. Well last year my in-laws drug me up to Kelly Canyon for night skiing. After the evening of fun and instruction by both a sister-in-law and a mother-in-law I started to have (here comes the scary word) "fun". For the rest of the 2009-2010 and 2010 - 2011 ski season I was tutored and sometimes what feels like beat over the head with a Louisville Slugger and learned how to ski. (Somewhat.....)

My ski instructor is also a good friend from work who has had the patience with me to teach a 27 year old what my 3 year old is learning this year. Richard has helped me learn and enjoy what can be a truly fun and beautiful sport. So thanks Richard for all your tutelage, guidance, and patience with me over the last two seasons. Tasha and I are deeply grateful. (More Tasha :) )