Fall Visits
We had some friends and family visit us in October. The
first to arrive were Mike and Marisa with their children
Allison and Courtney. The boys were all too eager to
show off their new tricks. Here Zachary is showing Marisa
how he can ride Jackson's bike.
Zachary has a thing for older women. He spent most of the
Hacker-Chancellor visit trying to get Courtney to play with
him. Here they are sharing a chair on the front driveway.
Diana took some time off from her career in venture capital
acquisition to see how boring folks live in Arizona. True to
form, it's Saturday night and the whole family are in their
underwear watching TV (Lisa and Grant not shown). Diana and
the boys are watching a video, probably Pokemon or Toy Story 2.
Some Typical Morning Stuff
When Zachary is in the mood, he can really pack in the food.
In this picture he is sitting down to a breakfast of macaroni
and cheese, waffle, orange slices, and milk.
After a hearty breakfast, it's time to get down to some art.
Zachary enjoys all different types of media. Here he is using
washable markers on paper. His favorite media is indelible ink
on kitchen counter.
This picture is a bit hard to see, but it's "Big Hair" day
at Jackson's daycare and he is doing it up right. He won
best in show for this effort. I was able to re-use his hair
for a Howard Stern costume at Halloween.
Halloween 2000
Have you heard of a dog eating someone's homework? What
about a dog eating your pumpkin? We bought two pumpkins
for Halloween.
Jackson and I carved the one on the right and put it on the
patio table when we were finished. Lisa and Jackson carved
the one on the left, put it on the ground when they were
done, and went inside. Bailey who was left outside proceeded
to eat the face off the pumpkin. Bailey, who we thought was
mental before this, has apparently gone completely over the
edge.
Here the boys are just about to head out trick-or-treating.
The theme was Pokemon this year (big surprise). For those
who don't know, Zachary is Jigglypuff and Jackson is Pikachu.
The pickings were very good this year. They were still eating
their Halloween candy at Christmas time.
Sports, America, and Turkey
Jackson took his first foray into organized sports this
fall, and I became a soccer parent. I had always scorned
those parents who seemingly have no life of their own. But
let me tell you, when the game starts and the juices start
flowing you can get sucked into it. The games are all
supposed to be for fun, but you can tell every parent there
wants their child to score a goal. I wanted Jackson to
score a goal. He never did. He almost did once. If that
other kid had only passed it to Jackson when he was wide open.
Stupid kid.
Jackson and the other Kindergarten kids at Jacobsen Elementary
put on a Veteran's Day Performance. It was 45 minutes of
patriotic songs and recitations. Arizona is a God-fearing,
flag waving kind of place. There were parents and teachers
with tears streaming down their face while the kids were
singing. Jackson got to hold up the "88" sign which is
how old the city of Chandler is.
Grandad Ken and Grandma Barbara came down for Thanksgiving.
Lisa whipped a fabulous meal in two hours using only a mixing
bowl and a wooden spoon. I, true to form, did nothing but
eat like a big, fat pig. We dared to let the boys sit on
the nice chairs at the formal dining table. They took their
rightful place at the head of the table.
Roadtrip with Zachary
When Jackson was two, I took him on a roadtrip to the Sierra
Nevada mountains. Now that Zachary was two, it was his turn
to go on a roadtrip. We were headed for Show Low which is
in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. This is Zachary
standing in front of the Painted Canyon, a smaller but still
pretty version of the Grand Canyon.
We drove for over three hours to do what? Throw little rocks
into a lake of course. This was a very new state park outside
of Show Low that had a man-made lake and lots of mosquitos.
After dinner at a local restaurant, what better to do than to
jump on the bed back at our hotel room. Zachary was a very
good boy in that he didn't hurt himself doing this and went
to sleep in his bed so I could sleep in mine.
The next morning we had breakfast at a little diner in a
town called Pinetop. Zachary is wearing the same shirt that
Jackson wore when he went on his roadtrip. We asked someone
in the parking lot to take our picture.
The second day of our roadtrip we rode up to the nearby ski area.
They were letting mountain bikers ride up the ski lift to the
top and amazingly allowed a two year old to ride up as well. Here
is Zachary sitting atop Mt. Sunrise (elevation 10,000 ft). He
refused to ride down the ski lift, so I had to carry him down a
three mile path to the bottom. And he got bit by a fly. And
it started raining.
Lisa in Europe
Lisa took another fabulous vacation this year to see her
friend Laura. This time it was to Geneva. Here she is being
a regular Swiss Miss standing in front of a field full of
cows.
There's nothing better when coming home after a long trip
than to have a child run into your arms. Here Jackson is
saying "Welcome home Mommy".
My Mum
My mom came down in October and took Bailey on a six mile walk
around the golf course. Apparently he was gangbusters for the
first mile or two then he would just plop down every so often
and rest for a spell.
Jackson at Disneyland
The most anticipated trip for FY 2000 was taking Jackson to
Disneyland in October. We were doing it first class, staying in
the Disneyland hotel and everything. One of the advantages of
doing this is on Saturday we got to go into the park early. Here
we are standing in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.
Jackson was better than I expected on the rides. He thought
Space Mountain was scary but liked Splash Mountain, Pirates
of the Caribbean, the Haunted House, and some of the smaller rides.
What he really liked doing was climbing up and down Tarzan's
Treehouse and exploring the caves on Tom Sawyer's Island. Here
Jackson and Lisa are resting outside of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Jackson didn't want to interact much with the Disney characters
walking around. We finally got him into Mickey's House in Toontown
where we got a picture with Mickey.
Magic Kingdome, Schmagic Kingdom. What Jackson really wanted
to do at Disneyland was to swim in the Disneyland Hotel pool. We did
that both afternoons. There was a hot tub and some little water
slides and all kinds of fun.
More From the Boo
What is Zachary doing here? The answer is he is walking around
with duck feet.
My mornings are pretty hectic. Zachary and I walk Jackson to school.
Then, I take Zachary to daycare. He never wants me to leave once
we get there. The kids in his class are very competitive about
opening doors. I've figured out the way to get him to let me
leave is to ask him if he will get the door for me. He leaps into
action before any of the other kids can do it.
This is Zachary and his little sweetie, Megan. When he won't put
on his shoes and socks in the morning, I tell him that if he does
we will go to school and see Megan. That sometimes works. Every
day when I ask him what he did in school, he answers "I played with
Megan and Sean". I'm not even sure who Sean is, but this is Megan.