Halloween

This year for Halloween Kaise was a witch; Brigham had planned to be Batman until about a week before Halloween when he went to his friends pirate birthday party and decided he needed to be a pirate instead. Owen was "Captain Plunger". The kids decided that was what he should be since that was what the little boy named Owen in one of our children's books dresses up as, so we made our own version. FYI- we bought a brand new plunger for the occasion (we got quite a few wierd looks from parents).

The Zoo

A couple Saturdays ago it was a really nice day outside so we took the kids to the zoo. Owen really wanted to see a snake and Briggs wanted to see a tiger. We were a little disappointed that the lions and the polar bears are gone, but the kids really liked the new carousel.

This was a place where you could weigh yourself and see how you compare to an elephant. Kaise and Briggs and Brent together weighed as much as a baby elephant.

Boys

Owen's post-nap hair

I have to preface this by saying that for most of the summer Briggs has been terrified of our unfinished basement because he thinks "there are ghosts down there". So, it was Briggs' turn to give the article of faith in primary (his first time to do anything in primary). He was supposed to give the 1st article of faith and we got to the end and he said, "we have a holy ghost in the basement." Needless to say this led to a gospel discussion.

Friday night we were driving home from Salt Lake. Anyone who has driven down Beck Street past the refineries will appreciate why it was funny when Briggs sniffed and asked, "where's the poop?"

The kids and I were watching Curious George one afternoon while waiting for Brent to get home. Kaise asks, "what does the man in the yellow hat do?" I was wondering how to answer this when Briggs answers, "he takes care of the yellow hat." Alright then.

This morning I had been getting Briggs dressed and came downstairs to find that Owen had pushed one of the kitchen chairs all the way across the kitchen to the cupboard where the honey bear resides. The following pictures show what it looks like when a two year old uses honey as hair gel.

In other gooey messiness...Brigham has to be slathered with lotion daily because he has eczema (severely dry skin) and the other day he was really proud to show me that he had found the lotion himself and taken care of it. The problem was it was not his eczema lotion, it was desitin. Any parent can imagine what that smelled like. Here's what it looks like.

Sometime this summer the little springy part of the TP holder in the kid's bathroom went missing. I didn't think much of it. About the same time the toilet in our master bathroom quit working and the plunger did nothing to help. (can you guess where this is going?) We had company coming and decided it was best not to attempt dissecting the toilet until after the company was gone. So a few days later Brent asks, "where's the TP thingy".

Ashley -"I don't know it disappeared a few days ago."

B- "do you think maybe the kids could have flushed it?"

A- "no why would they take the TP thingy from their bathroom and take it to our bathroom to flush it? There's got to be a problem with the plumbing or something."

That night Brent took the toilet apart. I did not take a picture which is probably best, but we will be buying a new springy TP thingy.

As a post-script: this is the second time Brent has had to disassemble a toilet this year. The first time one of the boys had flushed one of the cup-like lids to an aerosol can in just such a way that every time the toilet flushed the lid would fill with water and become more and more wedged down the little gooseneck part of the toilet. -Brent is a good sport-.

Bear Lake

Saturday was Rasberry Days at Bear Lake and we thought it would be fun to go up for the day and let the kids play on the beach and maybe get a raspberry shake. Playing at the beach was fun and the weather was great, but I do not recommend going for Raspberry Days. It was crazy. It took us a half an hour to drive two blocks through town there were so many people. The beach was pretty crowded too but the kids didn't care. The had a great time playing in the sand and swimming. The water was warm and the beach was really shallow so even Owen could walk out fifty feet or so before it got up to his waist. Apparently there was a fatal plane crash on one of the beaches that day, but we didn't find out until the next day. There were alot of news helicopters flying around though. Anyway, The kids had so much fun we will probably try to go back this summer when it is a little less crowded.

Owen is Two!

Owen is two. We had a quiet party with our family and he had shark cupcakes and ice cream. He got a bus from grandma and grandpa and superman from Kaise, a wagon from Briggs and a tool bench from us. He has really begun to talk a lot the last few weeks and it is fun to see his personality coming through.

honest abe

I just found this picture in my desk. It is really old but I thought all you McLanes would appreciate it. For President's day this last year Kaise's kindergarten class was drawing pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. She came home that day and I asked her about her picture and Kaise said, "well it's not very good". (Why don't you think it's very good) "It sort of looks like Uncle Craig." : )

Pioneer Village

The day after we took Grandma and Grandpa McLane to the MTC Preston and Amy's family came with us to This is The Place Park. We had a really fun day. The kids did laundry pioneer style, printed a newspaper, stamped leather, rode in a wagon and on the train, saw great grandpa Young's house, went to school in the one-room school house, rode ponies and pet new spring lambs and goats. The adults enjoyed seeing all the historic buildings. It was a fun full day.

Island Park

The first week of June we went to Island Park with Grandma and Grandpa McLane, Todd and Caren and kids, and Chad and Mindy and their kids to spend some time together before Grandma and Grandpa went to the MTC the following week. We stayed at a cabin on Henry's Lake and the boys went fishing and the kids caught fish out of the stream with their hands (then put them back). Since the weather was a little crazy we spent a lot of time in the cabin playing games and watching movies. On the last day we all attempted a trip to Yellowstone but were totally surprised by a blizzard the first week of June. It was pretty wet and mucky out so we didn't do much sight seeing but had some good family time. The kids all had fun with their cousins and were really good sports about the tight quarters.

Dino Park

Saturday we went to the Ogden dinosaur park. There are dinosaur skeletons and life size dinos scattered through trails. The kids even got to dig for dinosaur bones.

Pirates

Saturday afternoon we were driving in downtown Ogden when we pulled up to a light and Brigham kept saying, "Daddy look pirates! I found pirates!" We couldn't figure out what he was talking about til we looked out the window and pulled up next to us was a group of guys on their motorcycles in full gear...

Castle Park

This weekend we took the kids to a fun park in Kaysville that is a big castle complete with dragon. They had a lot of fun.