Swinging!

What better way to spend a long summer evening than on a swing. It's probably a good thing that he can't go any higher than that.

2009 Summer Spectacular - Part 6: Rest Stops

Traveling with twin three year olds can be a challenge. Add an infant and you've just entered crazy territory. That's where rest stops come in. This one on the San Juan River, just south of Bluff, Utah, is a favorite. I think Bryn likes it, too. This is at the Colorado River by Moab, Utah.

2009 Summer Spectacular - Part 5: Holbrook

The rest of our time in my hometown of Holbrook, Arizona:
Climbing the old mulberry tree
Dinner with Great-Grandpa
Quality time with Grandma
Playing at the park
Sliding down the twisty slide
Ooops! Should have made sure Grandma got off first.
Examining the local fauna I'll leave critiques of the dinosaur physiology as an exercise for the reader.

2009 Summer Spectacular - Part 4: Petrified

On our first full day in my hometown of Holbrook, we took the boys to the Petrified Forest. At our first stop, the visitors center, we struck reptile gold: a collared lizard! On that trail behind the visitors center we saw several lizards and the boys were immediately entranced. Forget the huge petrified logs... Forget the dinosaur fossils... A lizard just ran under that bush! The agate bridge? Not impressive after lizards. At least they enjoyed throwing rocks off cliffs. Besides, a lizard could be hiding under one of those rocks.

2009 Summer Spectacular - Part 3: Homestead

A few more vignettes from our time at our beloved Homestead:

Swinging with Grandpa
Playing in the sandbox with cousins Speaking of cousins, here's all of them:
Bathing in the sink
Eating s'mores
Climbing the circular stairs
Trying out new hairstyles
Helping Grandpa make a new driveway
Making friends with reptiles
And, of course, the family photo

2009 Summer Spectacular - Part 2: Crawdads

Our stay at the Homestead this year was dominated by...
CRAWDADS!! There is a small lake near the cabin and this year it was chock full of crustaceans. Fortunately, there were several large ones waiting for us when we arrived. Cousin JuJu seemed particularly pleased with this one. Someone built a little dock by the lake which served as a base for many of our crawdad related activities. Catching crawdads was accomplished with a trap my brother brought, which tended to get mostly large specimens, and with a hotdog on a string, which tended to get smaller ones. Just plop that hotdog down in the water for a minute and voilà! If all else fails, just go in after them. This one was particularly small. Here's the take after a couple of hours of "fishing". And what did we do with all of these critters? Well, let's just say they don't taste like chicken.

2009 Summer Spectacular - Part 1: Dare Devils

Welcome to the first installment of our report on our summer trip. It's a little something we call

The 2009 Summer Spectacular!™

Our first night was spent in the Blanding, Utah Comfort Inn, which is where our first death defying stunts of the trip took place. It helps if you imagine the chasm between the beds filled with bubbling lava. It might also help if you imagine the boys wearing fedoras and carrying whips. In any case, they had fun and no one received any serious bonks. Bryn declined to jump but encouraged the boys from the sidelines.

The Black Blue Show

For our recent family reunion (more on that to come) we had a video night with little videos from each family. This was our entry.

Moving Right Along

Uh oh. Time for baby proofing...

What do you get ...

when you combine two boys, a dad, some creatures....
swimming in a lake....
our best buddy, Mona....
a happy baby and a content momma...
perfect weather...
an adorable baby...
a little duck family...

our best buddy, Hannah...
a relaxing hike in the woods...
with a dog...
and the perfect woods (all during the week - with no crowds)?
Well, I guess you just get lucky when a spontaneous idea falls into place, and there's an incredible state park just 20 min. from our house that Evan can drive up to after work. Thanks, Zabriskies, for taking us camping!