The Music Man

Grayson found the bag of instruments again this week, and made a foray into becoming a musical maestro.  It was pretty fun to watch him, for the first minute or so, but the song just kept going!  He was super happy, but part of me feels like I need to go find that Grinch "noise, noise, noise" video again. 

Monica took Grayson down to the new Cedar Park library.  I don't remember any stories in particular from the trip, but I'm sure they had a great time because they're planning to go again this next week.  If anything interesting happened Monica can drop it in here.  Grayson does really love the park at the library, because it's shaped like a giant bird.

Jelly has been longing to go outside again recently, and we're finally having some harness problems.  The harness we got for her has always been too big, but now the velcro isn't really holding so it opens up wide and, well, she starts slipping through.  I've got a new one ordered, so hopefully she won't escape.

I'm not sure the story here, but I do like those little shells.  Also, this better be from our garden, or else why did I even put it in here...

On Saturday I finally got to my Christmas present from two years ago (2023).  I got a backup camera kit for my car, and I finally tried to install it.  Here's the camera in the back.  I had to pull open a bunch of stuff in the trunk to run wires, etc. and had to cut my brake light to splice in new wires.  It was a bit involved, but everything still works back there, so it was a success.

 

Once I finished in the trunk, I had to run a wire all the way up to the front.  I pulled out a bunch of wire to run it along with other wires, like the trunk release cable.  Eventually I got it up to the front and pulled out the old stereo.  The camera kit also came with a new radio that is a little android tablet that runs android auto, so not only did I get a camera, but I also got a technological upgrade!  This picture is in the middle of all the swip-swappery, and you can see the baby monitor on the passenger seat.  Monica ran some errands with Brooke while I was working on it, and Winry and Grayson were playing in Grayson's room so Monica brought the monitor to me so I could watch them while I kept working on things.  I think if I did it again it would go a lot faster, but it took around 4-5 hours to fumble through figuring it all out for my first time.  It all works now though, and it doesn't seem like I broke anything on my car!

Speaking of those errands, one of them was taking Brooke to Walmart to get this stingray stuffed animal.  They had these out when we went to get Winry's bike, and Brooke really wanted to get one with her own money, and Monica told her she should wait a seek and see if she was still really wanting it and make sure it wasn't just a quick impulse thing.  She still really wanted it.

That's everything for now.  We've got a holiday weekend, and potential of snow on Tuesday, so we're looking forward to an excellent next week.

Happy Birthday Winry!!!

Happy Birthday Winry!  What a 7 year old!  Winry is amazing.  She's always full of good energy, loves to be silly, and loves to make noise!  Sometimes Grinch irking levels of noise...  but we love her!  For her birthday she wanted to go to Jeramiah's for a treat instead of cake, and I'd have to say it was a pretty good choice.  The only issue is that we forgot to bring a candle!!!  Happy birthday cutie!

I don't remember if I mentioned it, but my phone broke... The inner, folding screen to be specific.  I didn't do anything crazy, I just opened it up and the middle went black.  It wasn't this bad at first, but I kept using the phone and opening and closing it made it worse.  I was really just using the external display, but I'd open it sometimes to take a picture or something, or out of habit, and eventually it got this bad.  I think I probably got sand in it when we went to the beach in Rhode Island back in June-ish, and I'm guessing that's why it broke in under a year of having the phone.  I replaced it with a non-folding phone as I need to make sure the next one lasts a little longer...

I took a picture of this picture on the wall that I pass every day on my way into work.  I really like it, and finally decided to get one.

Here's Grayson at preschool.  Looks like they're working on some nice penguins.  I really appreciate his hat.

While I was at work I went out on the roof for a little break, and saw some people taking a picture of their "cool" car.  don't know if they're selling it, or just think it's really cool.

On Friday, we went to have lunch with Winry for her birthday.  She was very happy to see us, and we had a great time together.

My double vision has been doing really well, as in I haven't been having much lately.  However, sometimes my eyes still get really tired and hurt, and it'll give me headaches.  I tried taking 15 or 20 minutes with my eyes closed to see if it would help, and it did!  Did I look funny?  Who cares!

Saturday was Winry's birthday.  We opened presents in the morning and she was very excited.  She really loved this paint your own animals craft kit she got from Brooke.  We also took her to Walmart to pick out a new bike since she's outgrowing her old one.  Turns out we didn't take any pictures of her on her new bike, so I gotta fix that this next week.

It was getting to time that everyone could use a haircut.  I think Brooke is the only one who didn't get her hair cut.  Just to be clear, this is Grayson's hair mid haircut.  The top was snipped down shortly after this picture was taken.

Saturday night, Monica and I were talking and Jelly came and laid on my back, and had no interest in getting up.  I eventually tried to crawl to bed, and that was too much for her and she hopped down.

Sunday afternoon the kids and I went out back to play some kickball.  It's been a while, but we all had so much fun.  We played all afternoon, or, you know, from the end of my church meetings to my family call.  Anyway, lots of kickball, and everyone was having fun the whole time.

That's it for now.  Have a great week ahead.  Also, happy birthday Winry!!
 

New Year in CO

Hello from chillier Colorado!  We made sure to bring our snow clothes with us so we could have some fun outside.  Here's a picture of us out playing in the best snow we could find.  There was a full hillside of it, but it was pretty hard from melting and refreezing.  Nonetheless we all still had a great time!

On Monday we went to the zoo.  Kids were even free for the month of December, so that was pretty awesome!  We met Katie, Nolan and Connor there too.  I'm really glad they could come and join us.  It was pretty windy on Monday, but we were able to stay warm.  Here's me, Grayson and Winry posing with our new wings!  Oh, zoo lights were set up while we were there, though being daytime, we couldn't really see them lit up.  Still fun to see all the decorations.

Apparently the tahi isn't everyone else's most favorite animal at the Denver zoo, but I still stopped by to say hi.  These are the only wild horse in the world, and they only live in Mongolia!  When my parents came to pick me up from my mission we went to a preserve for them and got to see a bunch in the wild.  I've always really liked them since.

Here are all the kids being driven around the zoo by... GRAYSON!?!  Everybody get out of the way, this kid doesn't know how to drive!

When we were coming by the hospital I ran in to check, and something was actually happening!  I don't know that I've ever see anything before.  There was a Guinea pig in there.  They were drawing some blood and taking a CT scan to looking into some issues they'd observed.  If you look at it's face you can see it's got the amnesia/air hose hooked up and everything.  Pretty cool to watch for a while, and nice that it wasn't anything gruesome. 

After the zoo we headed to Tyson and Tina's house for dinner.  We got to check out their new addition and had lots of fun playing with cousins.  Seriously, the kids had such a good time, and we probably stayed longer than we should have and kept the kids up way too late, but they were just having so much fun it was hard to leave!

Our original plan for Tuesday was to drive up to Breckenridge and spend a night with our old next door neighbors who moved up there.  However, it snowed Monday evening/Tuesday morning, with more predicted for Wednesday and we decided not to brave the roads.  Hannah had a performance that she and Joe were going to, and so we stuck around and watched their kids so their parents didn't have to watch them.  Alice and I had a great time playing.

Since we didn't make it to the mountains, we went to find snow.  As I mentioned, it was pretty hard, but we all tried to make snow angels.  There was also a little cement channel meant to guide water through, and it had filled as the snow melted and then frozen to ice.  It was fun to play on the ice as well, and some places stayed strong, and others crunched when I stepped on them.

We forgot to bring a sled, but no worries, we brought our bellies!  It worked alright.  When Eleanor tried it her zipper kept catching on the snow and she'd slide for a little and then her coat would suddenly pop open!

After all that snowy weather it was time to warm up and watch a movie!  The kids picked to watch Encanto while staying up for the new year.  We let them stay up till around 9, and then even let them have a sleepover.

To bring in the new year, we went to play in the snow again.  On our way, we drove through our old neighborhood to see our old house, and even the S that we used to go on walks around.  We also stopped at the wolves to give a howl, and captured it all on the vlog!  At the park we followed the ice trail down to a bridge, and there was ice frozen over the rocks under the bridge and it was pretty fun to go down and check it out.

That afternoon we went ice skating at the library.  Grayson didn't want to go out on the ice, but everyone else got a chance and had a fun time.  Eleanor fell once and said her arm hurt in the middle of her elbow and wrist, so there was a little broken bone concern, but I haven't heard of a cast since, so it seems like it ended alright.  Grayson enjoyed watching everyone for a while, but eventually was ready to go to dinner!  We headed to Casa Mariachi, which was delicious as always.

Wednesday evening we switch swapped around and headed over to the Smiths house and stayed with them for the rest of the week.  The kids were very excited to see his booming PEZ collection, and he even let them pick some out to play with and make a movie!  Grayson and Winry were loving it, especially because most of them had some PEZ in them that they could sneak from time to time.

The Smiths got a pizza oven for Christmas, so we just had to make pizza.  I believe from what they said they've had pizza more nights than not since Christmas.  The pizza was so good, and even Grayson loved it.  He absolutely refused to eat his pizza at first, but later that evening he was hungry and I got him to try a bit and he devoured it!

Friday morning, Nathan and I headed to the rec center for a workout class.  Great news, our membership renewed (...oops), so I just scanned my card and headed in!  Oh boy do I miss the rec center and going to classes in the morning.  There's just nothing like this anywhere near the price around us here in Texas... sigh.  Anyway, I had a great time at the class, and have been really sore since.  Thursday and Friday I worked, and Monica and the kids took off for adventures during the day.  I don't know exactly what they did, but in the evening we headed to a park to meet with our old neighbors who were coming down from Breckenridge for something!  I'm really glad we were still able to see them.  Unfortunately, they had some delays, so we didn't get to spend too long together at the park, but I'm so glad they could make it!

We headed from the park to the Wilkes for dinner.  When we lived here, Jordan was still in med school, and they've been in Greeley for the last few years I believe, but he finished and now they're living in Castle Rock.  Dinner was great and after, the kids all had so much fun playing together, which was nice because that left us adults free to play a game!  After dinner I ran back to the Cammacks for a game night with Joe.  Good news, I was in peak form, and swept the games!

Saturday morning we got in the car to head back to Texas, and that's where we spent Saturday and Sunday.  We went to church in Lubbock, as we stayed there to split the drive again.  The drive was definitely easier/more enjoyable on the way out when everyone was well rested and excited for the trip ahead, as opposed to very tired.  But we made it back!  Yay!  Happy New Year!
 

Merry Christmas and a Happy CO Trip

Yo ho ho! It's Christmas!  Let's kick things off on Christmas Adam and our Bethlehem dinner!  It was a pretty fun dinner.  There was something there for everyone, which was great, and we all had a lot of fun and enjoyed the evening.

On Christmas Eve, the kids all worked on a gingerbread house.  They had a good time, and Grayson worked his way through a LOT of our old candy.  He didn't put a roof on his so he just started filling in his house with whatever he could get his hands on.

We went to some parks in the afternoon and had a good time.  We ended up at one that I think is called Devine Lake Park which was pretty big and fun to explore.  They had a train that was just Grayson's size!

This tree hasn't actually fallen over, or, I guess it has, but it wasn't completely uprooted and it's still growing.  Pretty cool to see and use as a seat!

For Christmas Eve, we had a fancy dinner with chicken cordon bleu, and Grayson couldn't keep away from his fancy drink.

After dinner, the kids all got ready for bed, and then we had a little Christmas performance with songs and some piano playing.  Grayson sang his songs from his preschool performance, and Brooke played the piano!

The next morning was Christmas itself! Boy was there a lot of excitement in the house!  I did need to spotlight one item that I think would go unnoticed in other pictures, which is that Grayson got antlers for his hex bugs!!

Everyone was very excited and had a fun time opening their presents.  All the kids did well taking turns opening gifts, and while Grayson did get distracted a time or two and wanted to play with things, for the most part we were able to keep things going, and everyone was happy and excited all the way through.  Some highlights would be Winry's double stroller for her baby dolls, everyone got Legos, including Brooke getting a big Eevee, and Grayson got a penguin slide!

There was a 5th grade trade fair or something at the school last week I think, and since then, Winry really likes to play it as a game.  After putting the kids to bed on Christmas night, I paused for a moment to appreciate her sign and all her wares on display for sale.  Don't forget your tickets!

I don't think I specifically called this out before, but Gram and Pop came to join us for Christmas this year.  It was great to have them here, and the kids loved getting the extra attention.  And sometimes it's cold here, and so we had our chance to enjoy hot chocolate together, just like Grayson wanted.

We'd been planning for a while to potentially go to Colorado for New Years, but the plan was to drive, so we didn't want to tell the kids in case it snowed and we couldn't go.  So Friday morning it was time to let them know!

Taking off meant we needed to do a little Christmas clean up before we left, such as cleaning up the Christmas tree.  All the kids gave it a proper goodbye before the decorations came off.

And then I took it over to the tree drop off at the park.  We had to get the tree out before we left because Jelly eats the pine needles and then throws up....

Here are all the gingerbread houses before we said goodbye.  It had only been a few days since we made them, but if you look close, Brooke's roof is starting to bend in and the graham crackers were all soft to the touch.

We started our drive as soon as I finished work for the day.  It's about 6 hours to Lubbock where we were spending the night, and being winter, much of it was in the dark.  It was funny because it really wasn't that late, but having been dark for a while, and being out in rural areas where there aren't a lot of buildings it felt VERY late!  While we were out, there were hundreds of flashing red lights in the distance, and most of them were in sync as well.  It was interesting enough it kicked off a vlog, of which part 1 and part 2 are all about those mysterious lights (spoiler: they're wind turbines).

We finished up the drive on Saturday, and made a stop at Garden of the Gods.  I'm so glad we did.  We were there for a couple hours and hiked a few miles and climbed on the rocks a little.  It was nice to have a break from the car, and the break was long enough that when we got back in for the final hour of the drive it didn't feel bad at all.  Getting close was exciting enough for another part to the vlog!...?

The kids had fun finding places to climb.

Or cracks to wiggle into!  It was fun, but by the time we were done, Grayson was tired and I had to carry him most of the way back to the car.  It was crazy busy there, so we just parked at the farther lot which meant it was about a mile walk carrying him.  Turns out, he gets HEAVY!

We rolled in to the Cammacks house about 5:30 and ate some dinner we picked up along the way.  We had Spice Kitchen, which we all really love.  That night, Grayson found a really cool game to play.  They have Uno Attack and he loves just pushing the button until cards shoot out.  Eventually he realized it'd be fun to shoot them on me.

Monica found us mid-game and captured a different angle of the events.  Also, once we got to the couch the goal was to hit me in the face, which was lovely.

On Sunday we went to church and it was good to see all the familiar faces, at least of the people who were there.  It seems like a lot of people were gone for the holidays.  That afternoon, we headed over to Cottonwood park for some play, including hanging out on the monkey bars.

Grayson worked on figuring out how to climb up this arch, and wanted to show everyone how he could do it once he figured it out!  Good job buddy.  From here, we headed to the bridge and played pooh sticks before crossing over to the other playground for a while.  Eventually sunset came and we all started to get cold, so it was time to head back home.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and we're looking forward to a fun week with friends out here in Colorado!