 Well, once again it has been quite a while since we
last wrote one of these letters, and since time wont quit for us, we are going to have to keep up and try to post one or two when ever we can get an opportunity. Since today is Sunday, and Terre is gone at one of her meetings, I find myself with a quite house and time to see if I can't put a few words to paper and convey the happenings of our last week (or three). I spent a Saturday out changing the oil on all three cars, and had the help of Ethen and Kyle. Luckily, Kyle doesn't know how to open up the bottles of oil or the white car wouldn't be getting all of that great gas milage that I have been enjoying. In addition to trying to help pouring the oil in for me, they also like to give the bottles of oil a walk around the neighbor hood, and I think that I may have actually lost a bottle or two in the time that it took for me to change the oil on all three cars. |
 This last Saturday was Terre's Birthday. For her birthday she wanted to take a trip up to the "mountain" and take a look at the leaves on the trees that were changing colors and falling to the ground. Since the leaves were changing around town, she wanted to go and see the aspens changing colors. So off we went to just south of Vernon. There we found a nice little spot to let the kids run around to their hearts content. We made a fire and roasted some hot dogs and brauts. Everything was nice except for the timing. You see when the leaves start to change colors in Taylor (elevation 5500 feet) then the leaves have long since fallen in the forest (elevation 8000 feet). All of the aspens that Terre wanted to view were bald. The funny think is that when we were sitting watching the kids try to fall into the fire pit, Terre remembered trying to do this very same adventure on the same day (plus or minus a weeks time) in Tucson by heading up Mt. Lemon and yielding the same results. I guess that if you can't learn from your experience, or the experience of others, then you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. |
 But all in all it was a fun trip. The only thing that I had forgotten to bring was a rifle. While I was sitting there waiting for the fire to die down and out (because I also didn't bring a shovel or any water) I was noticing how nice it would have been to have a .22 to do some plinking across the field where we were set up at. Also while we were there, Ethen found the fun of cooking marsh mellows. He also found the fun of giving them to someone else to consume. You see, cooking them is fun and games, but when it comes to eating them (weather covered in dirt, raw or charred) he really didn't care for them all that much. Now Kyle on the other hand would eat them just as fast as Ethen could cook them. |
 Terre I think had a good Birthday. She didn't get to see her leaves, but was able to spend the day doing the things that she enjoys (spending time with her family). On the trip I had remembered how we used to do these sort of things when we were growing up and would like to start the tradition again. Only next time, we are going to make foil dinners and take them to cook, instead of taking one of the racks out of the oven, waiting for the fire to die down to coals, getting impatient and putting the grill over the flames, cooking hot dogs on an uneven cooking surface, burning the hair off of my knuckles, dropping hot dogs into the fire (that rolled through the cracks in the grill), and finally eating cold, charred hot dogs. I now see the wisdom in the foil dinners that we would eat when we did these trips when we were young. I guess that having a hot dog cooking spear would also work, but seeing how we have lost ours in our last move, we thought that we would give it a try. |
The night before Terre's Birthday (Friday) we took  kids over to Terre's parents and dropped them off and then went out to eat a Thai place in Pinetop. Terre really likes Thai food, and ever since the Dara Thai experience in Flagstaff, she has been wanting to give it a try again. So off to Mountain Thai we went for some coconut flavored curry. She managed to find something on the menu that she really liked, and enjoyed the dinner. Me on the other hand, managed to find something that had more peas in it than anything else, and smelled bad (of course with that many peas, what do you expect). She was pleased with the food, and I can't for the life of me figure out why we didn't try to find a good place in Tucson where there was actually a choice of decent places. Oh well. When we returned to her parents house, they had made her a cake. She was happy with it and so were the boys. They like to stick their fingers in the frosting and eat as much of it as they can get away with. |
 You know, I think this letter is going backwards not forwards, oh well. Ethen and Kyle dressed up as Ninja Turtles for Halloween. Ethen was Lenardo and Kyle was Rafael. They had a good time with the dress up, but really enjoyed eating the candy. It just so happened that our ward had a ward party on Halloween night, accompanied with a trunk or treat deal, and they both made out like bandits. As part of the party we were supposed to bring some chili. I like deals where we get to bring chili, because I like to make hot chili, and these are the only times that I can make hot chili, because Terre doesn't have to eat any of it - so I did. When we went through the line, I was the only one of our family that partook of our chili. I liked it. Terre found some chili that wasn't hot and got some for herself as well as the kids. After the trunk or treating was finished I made the trek up to pick up the remainder of my chili with hopes of taking the leftovers to work for lunch (thinking that it was to hot for people to really enjoy and I would get to eat it again and again), but I was disappointed with what I found. I guess that someone else (who likes peas, carrots, and other non chili items in their chili) dumped a wimpy chili in my pan and mixed it up with mine to mild it down a bit. What a let down. With 20+ bowls of chili, they had to go and defile mine. No, they couldn't just scoop some out of another pan, that would be to hard. Since mine was located on the edge of the table and not the center it fell victim to the defiling. Bummer. |
 On Monday of last week, we managed to carve some pumpkins. Terre wanted to go to the local pumpkin patch and have the boys pick out their own pumpkins. That was a good idea, but when we finally made it there, they were heavily picked over, and the ones that we ended up with were a little soft. Not that that is a bad thing, but it greatly limited the life of the pumpkins, and on Tuesday morning, they were already wilty to the point where their faces were not very discernable. This photo is on the first night, moments after the carving took place. They actually turned out pretty well. I guess that isn't the whole point to carving the pumpkins - it is that the kids get to have fun. You know come to think of it, is there any real point to carving pumpkins? |
 Here is the actual process of doing the carving. Don't let that last picture of this one for that matter fool you. There was more black on these pumpkins than there was orange. You see Ethen and Kyle were responsible for the drawing of the faces on them, while Terre and I were responsible for the wielding of the knives to cut our the faces. The only problem with that is that after the faces were drawn (with help) and we went to cutting them out, Ethen and Kyle continued to draw on the pumpkins, such that if it wasn't dark, the pumpkins were hard to discern. Another part of the carving process that I was looking forward to was making Ethen reach his arm down into the depths of the Jack-o'-lantern and pull out all of the slimy seeds and strings. Ethen of course was to grossed out by the process and would only stick a spoon down in there to scoop them out. This would have worked, except for the fact that he cannot generate enough force in his hand to scrape the seeds and strings loose from the interior of the pumpkin. |
 Sure he can make a mess of things (which he excels at) but when it came to the submerging on ones hands in to the pumpkin Terre and I had to do all of the work. Ethen wouldn't even grab any of the stringy strings when they were hanging out of the top or of the eyes or of where ever. Now explain that to me, he can walk outside and cover himself with mud from head to toe, but when it comes to an over grown gord, he curls up and plays chicken. Maybe he takes after his mother... About a week ago, we decided to make some cinnamon rolls. This was a fun process, but anyone who has tried to make a bread derivative with Ethen and Kyle around knows that even the simple and enjoyable acts can quickly turn into frustrating and aggravating experiences.When there was only one kid, you could keep both of their hands out of the dough (you had two hands and so did they) while at the same time trying like the devil to complete your creation. But now, there is two of them, and that means there is 4 hands against 2 hands and the 2 are trying to make something. What does that mean, the 2 loose - but the cinnamon rolls ended up tasting pretty good. |
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In other news, this Sunday (as in today) I was called as one of 2 of the Gospel Doctrine Teachers for our ward - good grief.
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