Party 'till ya drop. . . . . . . . literally

Seeing as it was the last Saturday before Halloween, our day was filled with Halloween festivities. We started the partying at the Roberts' with chili and a pumpkin carving party. Yum!

Oliver didn't get too into the pumpkin carving, but he did find the 'guts' rather facinating. His new thing is to hide things from us and then look at us and shrug his shoulders as if he has no idea what just happened. He found his new game to be particularly effective with the pumpkins. He kept throwing different utensils into the pumpkin and shrugging his shoulders the whole time I was trying to get the seeds out.

After the pumkin carving party it was off to the ward Halloween party. Oliver got to be a dragon for Halloween this year and we have been practicing wearing his costume around the house. Sam and I each took turns wearing it and roaring and trying to convince Ollie that it was super fun. All our brainwashing seemed to have paid off becuase he kept it on the whole time without complaint.

Oliver loved the carnival games. Especially the ones that involved candy.

We even made a cake for the cake walk.

And decorated our car for the Trunk-or-Treat.

Unfortunately Oliver was done at this point. He has been PTS-ing (peevish teething syndrome) pretty bad this week and so we didn't even make it to our last party at Parker and Emily's house. Sorry guys. All-in-all it was a good day though and we are all practiced up for some good ole' trick-or-treating this coming weekend.

From fittest to fattest

Sam has officially accepted a summer internship with Marathon Oil in Houston, Texas. This means that for three months this summer we will be relocating from the fittest area in the country to the fattest. Sam thinks we ought to purchase a deep fat fryer so that we will fit in better in Houston!!

All joking aside, this really is a great opportunity for our family. Marathon is the fourth largest integrated oil company in the country and they pay their interns extremely well. Of course, moving for just three months isn't very appealing, but the company offered to pay all our moving expenses so we decided that we just couldn't turn it down.

So, it is hot and humid Houston for us this coming summer!

Our very first visitors!!

And the winner is . . . . . Grandma and Grandpa Peay!! That's right, Sam's dad and step-mom were the first to endure the eight-hour drive from Salt Lake to Golden to come and pay us a visit. It made us feel so loved that they would give up so much just to spend a couple of days with us. Not to mention that Sam was absolutely giddy with the opportunity to show off our new town and his new school. Their whirlwind trip included a walking tour of downtown Golden and the School of Mines campus. A wild game night in which Leslie taught us a really great dice game and then stomped on all of us (I am thinking maybe she held back some secret strategy to winning when whe was explaining the rules.) A trip to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. A visit with some of Leslie's family, who sent us away with a couple bottles of homemade peach jam so I guess that makes them our family too. And of course, lots of play time with Ollie. It was really a fun weekend and we are so glad they came. We wish more people would follow suit (hint, hint).

Here we are on a hike inside Rocky Mountain national park. Aside from the incredible views and scenery we also saw loads of Elk. There was even a herd right in the middle of town. Sam was quite the trooper on the hike considering his recent biking injuries.
Grandpa and Ollie explored the waterfall together.
Oliver has a complete aversion to remaining on the path, he would much rather wander off to collect sticks and rocks on the mountain side. He did okay holding Grandma's hand though.

To dream the impossible dream...

Why is it so hard to get a decent family picture? It seems as if the stars never seem to come into complete alignment where photos are concerned. If by chance you do manage to get everyone into clean, ironed, matching outfits; find a good location; and get good weather and good lighting, you are almost sure never to get a good smile out of everyone at the same time. Thus was our fate.

This year we decided to take the economical route, i.e. we had my mom take our picture with our digital camera. Despite all of my efforts and my mom's good photo snapping, we ended up with a lot more bloopers than keepers. Case in point:



Too bad I am not better with photoshop!!

Road Rash

Sam had his first bad crash on his road bike this week. It has been well over a year since his last accident, so he was about due. This time it was a head-on collision with the road after his tire turned and got caught in the railroad tracks sending him over the handlebars. He walked away, but with significantly less skin on his lower body. The poor guy has some pretty bad road rash and is in a lot of pain. By the way, this picture is not of Sam's road rash. His injury covers areas that would make this an R-rated post. But, his bum and thigh look pretty much just like this, so you get the idea. Ouch!!

Home again...

This past week Sam had Fall Break at school, which gave him a five-day weekend. We decided to take advantage of the time off and drive back to Utah. We had a fun-filled week with family that included a trip to the zoo, the pumpkin patch and Gardner Village. Of course, the best part was just hanging out with all the people we love most. While we were there Oliver picked up quite a few new words (which he seems to be doing on a daily basis now). Among the newest additions to his syntax were Grandpa and Caci (my little brother's fiance). I think that the rest of the family was a little jealous that Caci was first, she claims that it was because her name is so easy but we all know that Ollie has a crush on Caci and has been trying to steal her away from Donald for a while now.

I really can't believe how quickly he has started to pick things up. It is as if all of the sudden his little mind has opened up and he retains and understands things amazingly well. For example, I have been pretty lackidaisical about teaching him sign language but this week I decided to teach him the sign for "more." I used it once on Thursday and on Friday he used it to ask for more orange (without any prompting). By Friday night he gave up on the sign and just said "mo". I had heard that a child's development between 12 to 18 months is astounding, and now I believe it!

Great Garden; No Weeding

Oliver and I went yesterday with some friends to Miller Farms. It is a family farm that lets you go and pick your own produce. You pay $15.00 to get in (kids are free) and they have tons of fun kid activities like a petting zoo, playground, corn maze, tractor racing, etc., after all that you hitch a hay ride to the different fields and harvest your own veggies. Each person is allowed to pick 10 huge bags of produce to take home with them. It is an enormous amount of food. We came home with bags full of fresh corn, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers and carrots. And, we had a lot of fun in the process.

Here is Oliver and Reese Koyle posing for a picture. These guys are best friends (unless they have to share something :)

Here we are picking carrots, don't worry, I managed to knock most of the dirt off that carrot before Oliver stuffed it into his mouth. He sampled absolutely everything from the onions to the corn. He nibbled almost as fast as I could pick!

Here we are in the back of the hay wagon.

Oliver's favorite would definitely have to be the tomatoes. He discovered, much to his delight, that he could squeeze them and make a fountain of juice and seeds squirt out the top. I left him alone for just a second and this is what I came back to. Happy, but messy.

The produce we picked was not at all wimpy. This onion is roughly the size of my head!

Confessions of a Christmas Junkie

Last night, in order to entertain ourselves while Sam was attending Priesthood Session, Oliver and I decided to peruse the local Kohls. While there I noticed that they already had all of their Christmas stuff out. I was shocked, I mean we are barely into October. However, while I must admit that I was disappointed with Kohls, today I made Sam turn on the Christmas music. Just for a second though; I don't plan to keep listening to it non-stop until December 25th. It is just that we spent our last Christmas in Hawaii and while it was lots of fun, I am really looking forward to a traditional Christmas this year. So, if you are like me and just love Christmas time, go ahead and listen to a couple of tunes. You won't regret it!!

On another General Conference note, below is a picture of Sam and Oliver posed in typical Conference fashion. That is: Sam sleeping and Ollie crawling all over him. A friend of ours joined us for conference today because they don't have the internet, her husband is out of town, and she didn't wan't to wrestle with her two kids at the Stake Center. With two toddlers and a three-month-old, Conference time was slightly less than peaceful at our place and we all found President Monson's talk about "Enjoying the Journey" to be both insightful and very timely!!

It has been awhile now since we have posted anything new. It is not that there is nothing new to post, I have just been somewhat lackadaisical when it comes to taking any new pictures and I didn't think that anyone (other than my own mother) would enjoy reading my ramblings if not accompanied by some photos. The past couple of weeks have found us somewhat busy. Oliver got his first of what will I'm sure be many black eyes when he came off worst in an encounter with a brick. He also set a new personal record yesterday when I pulled ten rocks out of his mouth at once. Ollie is a big fan of slides, his desire for adrenaline however is not accompanied by any amount of intelligence. When he approaches the slide he either keeps on walking until he falls and slides down or he dives down face first on his tummy. There have been some rather disastrous results when I am not able to reach him in time.

Sam is staying really busy with his classes. He did have some down time last week and put in a few hours at a construction sight, working for a guy in our ward. Ever since we moved here he has been going through B&K Construction withdrawals and was absolutely giddy when he got to put his working boots and Carhartts back on. Sam is currently occupied with interviewing for summer internships. He has one really good offer so far that might send us to Houston for the summer.

I am loving Colorado and all of the new friends that I have made here. Oliver and I keep really busy with classes, play groups and new adventures. We purchased a bike trailer last week and I have loved riding my bike into town and to the park. I also received a new calling as the 14 year old Sunday School teacher, scary!!! I finished unpacking a long time ago, but I am just now getting the house the way that I like it and that makes me happy.


Oliver insists on being my kitchen helper. Because he no longer nurses and won't drink milk I have been trying to find other means of feeding him enough calcium. A friend told me that molasses is a good source and gave me some good recipes. This is Ollie helping me to make some molasses filled muffins, yum.

Ollie and I go to an aerobics class twice a week at our stake center. Rather than play in the corner with all of the rest of the kids Oliver insists on standing in the middle of all the ladies and performing all of the moves as best he can. He is really good at marching, clapping, push-ups and sit-ups. It is so cute!!

A friend gave us this hand-me-down swing and we hung it up in Oliver's bedroom (don't tell the landlord). He thinks he is pretty hot stuff when he gets to swing in it.