Halloween and Texas

Gavin survived his first Halloween.  It's likely because his terribly mean parents only let him have a few pieces of licorice.  He was a pretty dang cute cowboy though, and although he didn't quite get the candy thing at first (he kept putting it back), once he realized he could keep it and just pick up more he was pretty excited!

He's thinking he could get used to this whole thing...

Gavin in full costume, including his faithful old steed...unfortunately the boots got cut out of the picture.

So...we decided a month or so ago that maybe we should just take a trip to Texas.  Maybe it was because we had some friends move there recently, or maybe it was the allure of those Geico commercials, but either way, we decided it was a good idea.  Everyone we talked to responded something like, "Why are you going to Texas? What's there to do in Texas?"  We had no response.  Now we do.  Here's what to do in Texas:

1) Visit the Battleship Texas. An old battleship turned into a museum.  The only thing missing was a bunch of smelly sailors. 

 We made sure to explore ALL of the ship, even the sub sub levels.  This battleship was in service from 1914 to the end of World War 2, what a life!

 The Waddoups and Gardner clans ready for duty... or at least to watch the kids swab the deck.

2) Visit the beach along the Gulf Coast.  I've heard there are some absolutely amazing beaches along the gulf coast.  My definition of an amazing beach is one with water, sand, and above 80 degree temperatures.  Check.

Gavin loves digging in the sand.  Oh yeah, and throwing it all over anyone that my be in close proximity.

A storm rolled in while we were there, but we still had fun.

3)  Visit a bayou and search for crocodiles

Can you find the crocodile?  We counted 12 crocodiles of various sizes during our short hike, but I'm pretty sure there were probably hundreds within viewing distance.

4) NASA - Johnson Space Center

This is the Saturn V rocket, intended for use during later Apollo missions before they were cancelled.

 Gavin isn't terribly interested in being an astronaut, apparently the gear isn't that comfortable.

5)  They have museums there.  Pretty good ones too.

Museum of Natural Science.  Lots of crazy prehistoric animals running around here.  Security was keeping a very close eye on us since Gavin felt the need to try and crawl under every rope around the exhibits.  There was also a large exhibit on oil production that was quite interesting.

Health Museum.  He couldn't quite reach the pedals from the seat, but that wasn't about to stop him from trying the machine.

 The scream room.  It wasn't as sound proof as they led you to believe.  Curiously I won the screaming competition, it must not take the shrill piercing into account.

See, look at all of the things you can do in Texas.  I'm sure there are even more, maybe even 2 or 3 more things.  Really we didn't need anything to entertain us though, we had a great time hanging out with friends, sleeping in, and learning about fire ants.

Pictures of the tree

 

Brent took some great photos of the tree so I'm posting them here.

 

The picture on the right shows the spilt down the tree trunk from the lightening

We decided to stay up for the rest of the trip and we were treated to a beautiful rainbow that evening.

 

Remember that time we got struck by lightning?

Yeah, it was pretty shocking...pun intended.

As is tradition, we decided to go camping over labor day.  As is tradition, the weather did something a little crazy.  Last year it got quite a bit colder than usual and frosted everything.  Mother nature knew she had to keep the streak going but decided to really go all out this time.  Luckily for the bulk of the family that decided to come they stayed in a different campground Friday night that Chad (my brother) had reserved.

I don't know exactly when the storm really got going, but in the wee hours of the morning (I'm guessing around 2:00) the lightning and thunder really took off in a frenzy and so did the rain.  Luckily we stayed pretty dry in our tent, but we would occasionally wake up to the loudest booms of thunder before drifting off again.  Well, at about 5:30 we woke up to a feeling of being jolted off the ground, the tent completely illuminated, crackling, the feeling of singed limbs, and the smell of burning.  Yep, imagine all of those sights, smells, and feelings in about a half a second. Immediately after instinctively trying to karate chop whatever force had done this to me, I realized that we had been struck by lightning and my powers were useless against it.  All of the trees within about 30 feet of us were burned (didn't go up in flames or anything but had a lot of burned spots) and several of them were split open.  The direct strike was obviously one of those trees or maybe all of them at once. We also found after the sun came up that there were shards of wood scattered all over our campsite, a few of them fairly sizable.  Dirt and rock were also blown out from around some of their roots and sprayed our fireplace and canopy.  The lightning also didn't seem to like that our axe and hatchet were buried in a stump at the bottom of one of the trees and blew them a foot or two away.  Luckily I don't think Gavin was shocked since he was in a plastic pack and play that shielded him a little more from the ground.  I know, I know, you have just one question you are dying to know, but so far our new super powers haven't manifested themselves, so we don't know what they are.

We unfortunately aren't currently starring in any reality TV shows so no cameras were running, but I'm pretty sure this is what it looked like at that very second.

The forest service came by to check out what happened and decided they had to cut down at least one of the trees before it just fell over, you can see the burn right down the center of the tree.  They were going to come back after we left to cut down more of them.  We saved part of the one that was cut down in remembrance of the event.

It all started so peaceful...  Yup, just a moose, a truck, and a mountain bike.  Alas, only two of the three were left standing.  It zapped our truck and the Accord parked next to it.  RIP ECU, ABS actuator, and fuel pump.  The insurance has told us they will cover it, so hopefully we'll have the Tacoma back in the next month.

 Remember, when this truck would run?  Oh yeah, the kids were much happier about it then...  but on a happier note:  Go Aggies!!!

Grandma, you can't feed Gavin ALL of the fritos!  Okay, you're Grandma, you can do whatever you want. 

Gavin's new Ibert seat.  We got a lot of good use out of it.  Bikes were a much faster form of locomotion than having to push the truck by hand.  Oh yeah, he tried to fall asleep every time we put him in it.

Well, it turns out we were very blessed.  Even though our cars got fried, we are all okay, or as okay as we have ever been. Any effects we felt seem to have faded out by the end of the day on Saturday. Some or all of you must have included us in your prayers before you went to bed that night.  Thank you!!

A little here and a little there

 5k/10k run for the 4th of July.  We decided to get back into the 4th of July tradition of running a race.

We've been trying to teach Gavin to like water and so far it seems to have been fairly successfull.  Vegetables and homework are next.

Bear Lake - As you can tell, Gavin was starved for attention the entire time.  We were able to go up a bit early to the family reunion and hang our with Corey, Melissa, and family.

Gavin even got a free boat ride, too bad he fell asleep about 30 seconds in...

But he did spend a LOT of time playing in the water and the sand.  So far no gills seem to have sprouted.

The debut of the tie and vest.  Lindsey and I think he looks pretty handsome.  He didn't even try and rip it off, probably 'cuz he knows how good looking he is.

Favorite toy for nearly a week, toothpaste tube.  Makes it a bit difficult when it comes time for Lindsey and I to find it to brush our teeth.

Lake Cleveland - The lake was small, but fun, entourage was about the same. :)

We generally don't want Gavin to spend much time in front of the TV, but when you have the Tour de France, followed by the Olympics, it would be sinfull not to spend your evenings in this vegetative state.  Luckily for Gavin when it gets hot he can run around the house in his diaper, Lindsey told me I'm not allowed to do the same.

Preview for the Tour of Utah.  There were a lot of big names and teams there this year and Gavin had a heyday clapping, cheering, and yelling for all of them.  It was so fun to watch him get so excited when everyone started cheering.  Lindsey took him over to the signing and had him give high five's to all the racers as they signed our placard.

Short stop at the Davis county fair, obviously the goat is better at posing for pictures than Gavin.  He didn't care to get too close which is probably good, goats are known to eat just about anything they can reach...fingers, shirts, hats...

Looks like he had a great time, hardest part was keeping him away from the stalls full of manure!

You might want to sit down...

...'cuz this is gonna be a long one.

I know everyone is dying to know every detail of our lives since our blog has been blacked out since the end of April.  I would never want everyone to be so utterly disappointed, therefore, I blog.

If you want the good stuff, just look at the pictures, but if you want my usual dry commentary, feel free to read the quick snippets in between.  Consider yourself warned.

We will start with our trip to Hurricane Wash/Coyote Gulch/general Esclante area/Bryce Canyon National Park.  Brent and Ashley went to Coyote Gluch last year around this time and decided it was worth a return trip with reinforcements.  I won't lie (not to imply that I do normally), when we started hiking down the middle of a dry wash in 90 degree weather with nothing but sagebrush to beckon us forward, I was questioning the sanity of backpacking through such a place with my toddler in tow.  Ashley and Brent have never let us down, but as anyone in the financial industry knows, past performance cannot guarantee future results.  However, after about 6(?) or so miles we actually dropped into Coyote Gulch, and it was all worth it.

When I saw this sign I thought maybe this was really a disguised trip to Lake Powell to lounge on a house boat.  No go.

Gavin's quarters.  We brought one backpacking tent for Gavin (and Lindsey) to sleep in and the rest of us slept under the stars.  It was very interesting to discover his bedtime routine.  In this case it involved crawling all over the tent, including up and over Lindsey multiple times, until he found a corner to stick his head into and then promptly falling asleep head in corner, knees under him, hindquarters in the air.  Thank goodness for that tent. 

No sagebrush here!

Stylin' new shades...or the only ones we could find with a strap so he couldn't just rip them off immediately.  He hates them.

Up and out of the gulch.  It was quite a climb for the first few hundred yards.  Lindsey looked terrified, but that could have been becuase of the Nalgene hurtling down the precipice at break-neck speed towards her head.  Don't worry, the Nalgene was a little scraped, but held up like a champ.

Even Superman has kryptonite.

The passing of the child.  He didn't like having to be passed through the slots any more than Lindsey liked the slots.  Especially after some inconsiderate fool sparked her anxiety by declaring if we didn't move faster the flash flood was going to get us.

Apparently I need to go on a diet.

Yeah, we're cute.  Okay, Lindsey and Gavin are cute.

After Coyote Gulch and the slots we headed to Bryce Canyon for a quick tour.

Okay...Lindsey has the child, what's everyone else's excuse???



Next trip: Ledgefork Campground by Smith and Morehouse reservoir in the Uintah's. 

It was REALLY cold.  I told Brent to be a man and just jump in.  Someday maybe he'll be a man.

Gavin showed his first signs of loving to push the stroller.  He pushed, and pushed, and pushed.  It kept him very entertained.

Gavin would have jumped in.  He was surprisingly okay with the frigid water, as long as it went no higher than his ankles.  Lindsey felt about the same.

Our camp activities including target practice with the slingshot, hatchet throwing (don't let Brent fool you, he is very experienced with a hatchet), and mexican golf.

 Moving ahead a week or two...and we find ourselves in McCall with all of Lindsey's family.

First order of business: hike to Boulder Lake.  Second order of business, avoid the water, it actually still has floating ice chunks.

This picture is in the wrong spot, but I'm too lazy to move it.  Campfire antics a Ledgefork, or Bryce Canyon.

Yeah, he's handsome.

Back to Payette Lake in McCall, which is a bit warmer.  If you love water, and you love pushing a stroller, what could be better than pushing a stroller IN the water!?!?

First ever swing ride for Gavin.  I think he gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Who knew that little boys liked destroying sand castles more than building them?  He only made Brent and I cry once or twice.  In his defense Gavin was very good at cleaning off the monster truck right after he used it to destroy a castle.  Everybody has their priorities.

The boys playing in the sand with Grandpa Lovell. 

Spontaneous kayaking that broke out.  The culprit has never been found.

 Then just a few odds and ends from the last week.

Thanksgiving Point petting zoo.  Gavin and Paul enjoyed watching the assorted fowl strut their stuff.  Sadly this is as close as we came to getting a group shot.  Thanks for inviting us guys.

Gavin likes to climb on top of things and stand up.  This causes Lindsey and I great anxiety when we think about the future.  We got him a balance bike (he's a bit small yet) and he decided he would rather just stand on top of the box

Congratulations!  You finished!  Hopefully you don't regret your time spent blog stalking.

P.S. - Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors, sometimes I'm not smart enough to think and type at the same time, and I refuse to proofread a blog posting.