Saturday, November 1, 2008

A Halloween to Remember

OK, it wasn't really such a different Halloween. But a fun Halloween it was. As always, the decor went up several weeks ago. This is about the extent of it! Well, except we have some fun green and orange lights that we wrap around our topiary privets out front. Sounds fancy huh? Not really, especially since the potted ones on the porch are dying. I'm sure Halloween lights did not do much to help them. Inside, every year, I dress up this little entryway chest. And every year I have to figure out what it was I did last year that I liked - so this year - here's a picture - I liked the set up - I'll never have to try and remember again. I'm a little more into the cuter side of Halloween. Claire as well. In fact, Claire doesn't really like Halloween for the gore, but I think she's starting to enjoy the thrill of a haunted house more and more - kind of.

OUR CUTE DECOR


Claire and friends went out trick or treating as "Metamorphosis" - I'm serious. Two of them were caterpillars, two were butterflies and Claire was a cocoon. I like to say a chrysalis but she says cocoon. How does a person dress like a cocoon? You cut out little colorful circles, tape them to your belly in the form of a caterpillar, then dress yourself in white kitchen garbage bags - where you can see the caterpillar "inside" - you don a cream color snow beanie on your head with a branch/twig sticking out sideways from the top. I am so sad to report that I have NO pictures! And I can not believe these girls did not take any themselves. They take pictures of themselves allllll the time - but none on Halloween? Go figure.


Evan on the other hand, though he didn't take the pictures, was around home so I could think to take a picture of him and his friends. Thank you "red eye" effect - it adds drama to the costumes.


PHANTOM, EXTRA HAND MAN, AND CREEPY SOMETHING GUY
Evan's good friends Johnathan and Brian


What does Evan look like? He reminds me of something - isn't there some South American doll that looks kind of like this get up? Last week, at the ward Halloween party, Evan went as Ryan. He wore this hoodie, it belongs to Ryan. And he wore sun glasses and a black baseball cap. He really did resemble his brother. Since he's wearing the same hoodie, maybe this character is Ryan gone zombie. But the Mickey Mouse hands kind of detract from the zombieness. Really, someone tell me - is there some sort of doll out there that looks like this? And sorry, no picture of Evan gone "Ryan" - only on the cell phone. I don't know how to send those. Can you? Besides to other cell phones?

Over a week ago, we sent Ryan a Halloween package. It included a Napoleon Dynamite wig and glasses. Ryan had asked for a costume so he could go trick or treating at the fancy shops that line Waikiki. Again, unfortunately, no picture except for a cell phone picture of Ryan in his Napoleon garb and the text "gosh!" It was quite a convincing look. But, via IM yesterday, I learned that he had decided to lend the Napoleon get up to one of his friends and he was going to go as Iron Man. Iron Man? "Where did you get an Iron Man costume?" He said he was just going to carry around an iron! We've yet to learn how all of that turned out.

Onto scary things - Claire ventured into a garage haunted house. A monster man popped out and startled her. With her lovely dainty butterfly pillowcase turned candy bag she proceeded to hit the guy. As she looked down to see all the candy that had fallen out of her bag, another monster man came up close to her while the monster she'd hit tapped her on the shoulder. At that point, she screamed and ran for her life - abandoning the precious candy on the garage floor. So - Claire doesn't have very much candy - and two ghoulish guys from the haunted garage are thinking how fun it is to freak out the girl who is so easily freaked out.

And the scariest thing of all...Candles! At least Greg thinks so.
Hope you had a happy Halloween.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Hmmmmm - let's see...

Where on earth is this? 1000 points to whoever gets it.

Now you see it...Now you don't

We have new backyard neighbors. We've met them, they're very nice. They moved in at the end of August and promptly put up a shed. Unfortunately, they put it up in a spot that turned it into a focal point in our backyard. So, we called our landscape buddies and they gave us something much more pleasant to look at.


Now you see it...
Now you don't!
The process:
Bayview, the landscape company, cleared away ground cover etc and dug holes.
The "trees" are photinia - really a shrub but they've been trained to tree form.
Getting them off the truck.
Lining them up to get an idea. Things look better already!
The holes, in a triangle pattern (you can only see two here).
And voila! The shed is gone.
Family response:
Greg hasn't seen it yet but he is going to be sooooo happy!
I think it looks great.
Evan thinks it looks like we put up three trees to hide a shed. And wonders if the neighbors will be offended.
Claire says it looks OK but her friend Megan says it looks great!
The roses were cut back. We'll see how they do. Bayview friend says the leaves are high enough that the roses should get enough sun. But if they don't, we'll try something else there to fill in the bare"ness" of the trunks. And we'll put in new ground cover as well, just another day. And *I* can do that. :-)

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Spring Leaves

The following picture of the mysterious whatevers on our door step is a picture of Leaf Springs - for the jeep. Jason Wells and Nathan Freitas - you guys know your stuff! Greg says they're to provide a smoother ride for "me" (Kathy). We'll see. And since I haven't ridden in the jeep yet, I'll not be able to compare, I'll just have to take his word for it.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

"What is that?"

Some interesting things have shown up on our door step.
We stepped outside on Monday afternoon to find these things. Any guesses?

And this is very strange - did our ceramic ducks lay eggs?

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Happy Anniversary Wally and Judy!

We had a fun filled weekend celebrating Greg's parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We spent our time in Park City Utah. It was a blast. Here's a taste of what we did.

Salt Lake Airport Car Rental

Evan started the trip by doing homework. Yay Evan! He finished it Friday night so he didn't have to worry about it the rest of the party weekend.

We stayed at the Marriott in Park City, right next to all the fun.
Don't they look like part of the sculpture? They're living statues.


A Zip Line! AHHHH!
Claire coasting by.



Emily - hair flying in the breeze.



Nice view Evan.



Kristin kickin' back.



James - Piece of cake.


Something new to us - the Coaster.
Lining up for a ride up the hill


Everyone is getting ready


Dads and sons looking forward to a fun ride

Brave moms bring up the rear


Watch out for this speedster


Stacey is ready for the fun ride


We're not sure Hayden is excited at first but Emily is


Greg is ready to go


Matthew getting the full run down


Here we go


Up, up, up...


Down

Down

Down!

The Alpine Slide
Up, up, up again -
(zoom in, it's our family on the chairs ahead)


It's a nice leisurely ride


Another leisurely ride


Look! It's Greg and Matthew coming into the finish


Wow - what a ride!

The Bungee Trampoline (?)




What we had for dinner!
We let everyone loose in a grocery store, gave them money to buy something to contribute to this memorable family dinner. Very fun! Lots and lots of food.

hmmmm, what was Evan's selection?


Cutting the cake
"Happy 50th Mom & Dad"

It was really yummy strawberry and cream filled cake

The Cutest Grand-children EVER!
"By their fruits ye shall know them"
(we're missing Blair, Eric and Ryan - in the picture and in our hearts)

The Best Grandpa and Grandma EVER!
Happy Anniversary Wally and Judy!
We love you!