Sam the Fork

We convinced Sam to participate in a theater program this summer, and by convinced I mean bribed with a new video game.  He wasn't too sure about it but he has several friends doing it also.  When he went to audition he was convinced that he would not be able to do this and that the video game was not worth being in the production.  Well, three and a half weeks later and he is loving it.  He even said he might consider doing it again, depending on what play they do next year.

This year it is Beauty and the Beast Jr.  Sam is a fork and a villager.  We have pictures of the fork costume because he likes this costume the best.  I went and saw the play, it was awesome.  Nicely done, especially when you consider it is 67 kids age 8-18 doing the whole thing.  The funniest thing to me is that the fight scene with Gaston and the Beast is incredibly short, ending with the Beast telling Gaston to leave and never come back, and that is just what Gaston does.  Oh and Gaston wears a muscle suit.  Sam loves playing tag during the production (how else do you get a dozen or so boys to run around on the stage in a somewhat organized way) and there is a ladder in the back that he gets to climb up and down.
 

Isn't that a great costume?  If anyone is interested in going, they are preforming every Mon, Fri, and Sat at 7:30 pm until Sept 15th.  You can contact me for more info. 

Happy Birthday Justin

When you are the Dad, you don't get to blow out your own candles or open your own presents.  You always have helpers.
 

Happy Birthday Justin! 

Happy Birthday Michelle

Last month we celebrated Michelle's birthday, and since it is almost Ben's birthday I thought I better put up pictures from her party.  We had a princess party with two of her friends.  We were going to do a more generic knights/princesses but the boy she invited couldn't come so we went all girly.  She loved it of course.  Here is a shot of the princesses being flown around with Ben along for the ride. 

We had all the girls put on princess dresses and then headed out for the obstacle course.  Jump over the barrel:
 

joust the dragon (Hannah helping here)
 

and then they threw beanbags at a tower of boxes to knock down the castle walls and rescue a pony.  Then we headed back inside to decorate wands.  These were dowels wrapped with ribbon and foam stars glued around.  They added stickers, jewels, etc.
 

We also searched for jewels.  They enjoyed this because there were a ton of jewels in there and to add to the difficulty we had them where fancy gloves.
 

Here are the princesses with their wands and bag of goodies (pony, jewels and stickers).
All in all, a good time was had by all.  We love our Michelle!  She is such a cutie.  She's a very determined little girl and very smart (sometimes, not such a good combination).  Happy Birthday Michelle!

Random Park in Colorado

We stopped at some little park somewhere along highway 40 to eat some lunch and let the kids run.  It was random that's for sure.  The play structure was cracked and way to hot for the kids to play on but there were swings and space to run.  There are also some really random sculptures:
 

 

 

 

Like I said, really weird and the spider one, that's just creepy! 

Dinosaur National Monument

I know, this happened over a month ago but at least you get to see it.  This was the start of our trip to Philmont.  We went through Vernal Utah, stopped and got a picture at the Vernal Temple (angel Moroni is on the other side, but we were on this side).


On to the Dinosaurs!  We got our Junior Ranger books and rode the shuttle up to big wall of bones.  

Here are the kids examining the wall, and filling out their booklets. 

Sam comparing his leg bone to the dinosaur leg bone.
 

Wall of bones!

We checked out all the information inside the exhibit hall, which contains the wall of bones, and then headed outside.  We decided to take the trail back, which was hot and dry and no shade and hot.  And Ben of course walked the whole way.  Along the trail we did see a couple of bones which was pretty cool.

All in all it was a nice little trip.  There is of course more to do at Dinosaur National Monument but we saw the dinosaur bones and the kids got the Junior Ranger program done and we left to continue our drive along highway 40.