Go Broncos.

That's the name of Ryan's flag football team. Otherwise, I don't think I would ever utter those words.

Here are some shots of the season so far. You can see that he is anxious to put a smackdown on somebody.



He and his buddy here are just toying with the other team. Underneath their calm exteriors they are super aggressive...



And in this run here, he's just teasing the other team now. "Look at me! I have the ball! Look, I'll carry it out in front of me and you still can't get it!" This has got to stop. We have to teach him to be a good sport.



OK, seriously - he's really loving football and it's so fun to watch. Last game is this week.

Subliminal slacking.

For any number of reasons (excuses), I have been slow (lazy) to post pictures lately (6 weeks). There are so many to choose from it's difficult to decide what to post (they are all from camping in the woods). I'll give a short sampling of favorites over the years (far too many to be interesting) here and beg forgiveness later (not at all).

;)

Here's us in Vegas out to dinner with my family, about a month or two after we were married. We had just come from Wayne Newton's house where we helped inseminate one of his arabian horses. NO LIE. True story.



Still in Vegas - and yes, Paul looks like he's 14. I could have been arrested.



Ry has always had a great laugh. I took video of this but it didn't capture the sound. Grandma was making him laugh hysterically.



He's 2!


Playing dead.


Trip to Beaver Creek, CO.


Trip to Ocean Shores, WA with da cousins.


Learning to ski at Sundance.


Prom Fabulous!


Max Dragon Chewbacca Hoffmann joins the family.



Extreme ropes course. When I see him doing stuff like this, I can't believe how quickly the time has gone!

Canyon fun.

I know that I may never permanently get the smell of campfire smoke out of my hair, clothing, chairs, the car, and even the dog - but I love being up there. There is nothing like hanging by the fire, camp food, family and marshmallows. We wind up there just about every weekend this time of year.

Here are some shots from the past couple weeks. Here's Ry sort of trying to stay out of the water.


Paul's homemade dutch oven chimney. (this was necessary for the rockin' dutch oven dessert!)


Max insists on coming too.


Love these kids.


Our fancy dancy hot dog sticks.


The weekend is here again. All my belongings will smell like smoke again. We'll be headed into the mountains again!

Missing the Lake

I love Lake George. It's a beauty of a lake - 32 miles long, crystal clear, and so much fun. Here's a link for the tourists: http://www.visitlakegeorge.com/

Here are some shots from our time in Bolton this summer.




The Lake House



Ry and a hazy view up the narrows.


ryan and sylvie


shea, kris, and reilly


me and kimmy


avery, kimmy, and sylvie


shea, paul, and ryan


As Bebop used to say, "When you come up to the lake again, drop in!"

Lake toys.

Ry and the kids have taken up kayaking this year. They're getting pretty good at it!


Baseball on the side lawn has been fun. Ry and Reilly keep hitting it over the fence and over the house!



"That guy Aunt Laura's gonna marry" had the coolest app for his iphone. As you move it, it makes light sabre noises. This was a serious battle.



Chad got a new toy this summer: a SUP - a stand up paddle board. It takes a bit of balance and some calmer water but it's way fun.





The kids do the hawaii-5-O thing on it...


Kimmy coming in from a cruise...


And Paul headed out...


Thanks to Merf, Ryan got to try stilts too. I also did it but wound up aerating Pop's lawn.


Gotta go - we still have some tubing to do...

Warming up.

So this post is quite late since I've been busy with work. The last week of school is basically a fun fest for the kids and this day was no different. The first graders dance the Twist.

Ry, as usual, doesn't love the attention. In preschool, he ran sobbing from the Halloween concert in front of parents. In kindergarten, he cried about participating in the chicken dance. He eventually joined his class but the dancing never happened.

Here's our little first grader Jedi at the Halloween parade. Not a fan of showing his face.



Still not wanting to show his face (people might be looking at him), here is how he started the dance festival a couple weeks ago.


He eventually started to warm up this time! Flanked by his buddies Roberto and Daxon, I think he actually started to like it!


Can't wait to see what second grade brings :)

Speaking of teeth...

So after mother's day dinner, Ryan comes flying up the stairs yelling and excited. Here's a shot of the gory details...



He had lost the two middle bottom teeth last year but this was the first top tooth. It's been hanging there for a couple weeks. Finally, the fairy was able to visit him again.

ewwwww.

Can you name this item?




Yes, yes - you are all too smart. It's one of the odd things that go along with having a puppy. The cute thing is, when Ryan found this one, he put it in a baggie and then left it under his pillow for the Dog Tooth Fairy. She didn't come.

shots from 2008

Where the deer and the...buffalo play.

So while my parents were here, we took a trip out to the Great Salt Lake to Antelope Island. It is a state park and is home to pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, deer, birds, coyotes, and American Bison. The island is 15 miles long. Here is a shot of it from space. You drive over the causeway (north end) to get there.


It was a fun afternoon and a cheap thing to do in the middle of winter. In one way, it reminded me of our trip to Yellowstone. Oh look! buffalo! Oh wow! There a bunch of them way over there! Wow! And oh! look how close that one is! Take a picture! What? Another buffalo? Great. Oh look, more buffalo.
See for yourself.






We also spotted a few coyotes. A small pack were out on the ice (this lake freezes in places - go figure) and we saw this guy hunting some dinner...

And the sunset was pretty nice too...