Spring 2001

Jackson's Birthday

Jackson had his sixth birthday in March. Lisa always comes up with creative ideas for the kids' parties. No Peter Piper Pizza for our children. Jackson's party was held at the Phoenix Zoo.

This picture is a bit hard to see because our camera isn't very good with contrasts, but the party goers are getting ready to have lunch.

The party was fine, but what the kids couldn't wait to do was go over to the petting zoo/farm exhibit next to the party location. In this picture, Jackson and Nolan are climbing aboard one of the tractors.

Zachary loved the tractor and cried when it was time to go home. He is a boy who wants more power.

The great thing about being a kid with a birthday when you have relatives living nearby is that you sometimes get two birthday parties. Here, Jackson is about to blow out the candles of his second birthday cake at Grandma's house.

Roadtrip to the Petrified Forest

The thing about working from home is that every so often I need a little adventure. Apparently, my idea of an adventure is to take both of my young children on a roadtrip. I decided to go to the Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona. In this picture, the boys are loaded in the car ready to go. They look thrilled, don't they?

It was a largely uneventful trip up highway 87 and some other small state highways. No one threw up in the car, No one asked me "Are we there yet", and the boys didn't fight too much. Here we are at the entrance to the Petrified Forest

Here the three of us are standing on a petrified stump outside the visitor center. Some people are disappointed that the trees aren't still standing up, but I thought the Petrified Forest was really cool. These are trees that were covered by volcanic ash 200 million years ago. In some cases you can clearly see the bark. Tree bark hasn't changed much in 200 million years.

This is what the park looks like once you are inside. We did a lot of walking, which meant Jackson and I walked and I carried Zachary. I put Zachary down long enough to take this picture. He is standing in the center with a blue shirt.

This was a man's trip which meant we did manly things, like eat dinner at a steakhouse. This one claimed to have the best steaks on Route 66. It was pretty good. It had a dance floor. After dinner, the boys and I "danced" while singing to ourselves. The other people looked at us like we were wierdos.

On the way from Chandler to the Petrified Forest, we drove through a mountain range. It was April, but at the top of the pass we spied little patches of snow. We turned off the highway and decided to try to find a bigger patch of snow. This is it. We made a little snowman and had snowball fights. I had to keep telling the boys not to aim for the head. Zachary kept running right up next to me with his snowball before throwing it.

Easter 2001

Jackson and Zachary like Easter for four reasons; eating candy, decorating eggs, hunting eggs, and eating candy. First we had to decorate some eggs. Unlike last year, Lisa marked the hard boiled eggs so we didn't decorate the raw ones. We used this wierd oil-based coloring that made everything real sticky.

It addition to the egg hunts we had at home, we also went to the one put on by the Ocotillo Golf Course. Of course no one follows the rules ("wait until the attendant says 'go'", "no running", etc.) Jackson was now in the 6-8 year old group, so I tried to give him some pointers like running out a ways before trying to pick up eggs. He wound up with quite a few. There was a boy next to him that didn't have any. Jackson gave him two of his.

The fun part of Easter is eating the candy. We still had candy left over from Halloween, but this was fresh candy. Lisa actually ate the hard-boiled sticky eggs

Zachary's Third Birthday

Lisa came up with another creative idea for Zachary's birthday party in May. She hired a mobile petting zoo and pony ride that came to our house. The animals were all babys and there were goats, chickens, rabbits, ducks, and a little baby pig. Zachary took a while to warm up to things. Here he is petting a goat.

Jackson loved the baby animals. He spent most of the time carrying a baby chicken around until we told him to put it down. Here he is feeding a carrot to a rabbit.

The pig was cute but really hard to catch. It seemed to know when you were sneaking up on it. John-Christian was good at catching it.

The highlight of the party was the pony ride. It was a nice gentle horse. Jackson and Zachary rode it over and over. In this picture both boys are in the saddle.

Odds and Ends

Zachary has the body and posture of a 37 year-old computer programmer. His pear-shaped belly is postively Dilbertian. This picture must have been taken on Tuesday, because every Tuesday I get lazy and bring Happy Meals home for the kids.

This picture pretty much sums up the social hierarchy that exists between the boys, Zachary riding Jackson. Zachary is somewhat less violent than he used to be. He thinks of Jackson as his friend. When he gets mad though, his first response is still usually to pummel his friend.

Lisa is trying to teach Jackson some basics about cooking, so he can do things like make his own breakfast. I tell Jackson the surest way to score with a date is to invite her over to your house and cook her dinner. Jackson asks me what "to score" means. Lisa gives me a dirty look.

Desert Breeze Park

There is a park not too far from our house that has a water play zone with fountains and stuff. There are always a lot of kids there. It's a good place to take the boys on a hot day. Zachary is always a bit timid at first.

Zachary usually waits for an open seal and jumps on. The seals shoot water out of their mouths. Zachary doesn't like being sprayed by the other seals.

Of course when Jackson sees that Zachary has a seal, he figures there is room enough for two and jumps right on. This triggers the "You can't have anything I have" sibling response. I will tell Zachary he can share the seal. Sometimes he will accept this suggestion. Other times he runs off in a huff.

Seeing the Wildflowers

There is a brief period in Arizona in the spring when desert wildflowers bloom. You've got to take advantage of it because pretty soon its 110 degrees outside and the flower bushes shrivel up. We took the boys to a place called Pichacho Peak to look at the flowers. It was actually cold and cloudy that day. Jackson brought his binoculars for a up close view.

Here our budding naturalists are examining the flowers. I think Jackson is looking at a bug instead. You might notice that they are wearing different clothing in this picture. We liked the flowers so much, we went to Pichacho Peak twice.

Jackson leads a life of adventure and wanted to climb Pichacho Peak. The real peak is in the background. He climbed this little rock but was quite proud of himself.

Soccer

Jackson played soccer again in the spring. This time his coach was very organized and experienced. And Jackson scored a goal in one of his games! It was a real goal too. It didn't just bounce off of his head into the goal. Jackson always kind of lagged behind the mass of children that follow the ball. Ryan, a boy on Jackson's team, kicked the ball through the mass of children and Jackson found himself all alone with the ball. He ran straight for the goal (the other team's goal, thankfully) and kicked it straight in. Naturally when this happened I tore off my shirt, ran to the middle of the field screaming at the top of my lungs, and slid down on my knees.

Luckiest Dog in the World

Bailey has long ago given up any pretense of maintaining a sense of dignity. He just wants to be comfortable. Here he is splaying on his couch. All he needs is a bowl of dog biscuits and the TV turned on to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

An Independent Little Man

Don't let this picture fool you. Zachary is mostly uninterested in using the potty except when a reward such as candy or a popsicle is involved. He has become shy lately telling us to "get out" and "don't watch me" when he sits on the toilet.

Zachary has taken to dressing himself lately which is a nice change from the not-wanting-to-wear-anything days. There was a learning curve at first, the socks don't go on the hands for instance. He also insists on choosing the clothes he will wear, and lately he also wants to pick out mine as well. Lisa figures that's all right since his selections usually match about as well as mine did.

Not Since Einstein

All parental bias aside, Jackson is the smartest child who has ever walked the face of the Earth. In this picture, he is getting ready to run his parent-teacher conference showing us samples of everything he has accomplished in Kindergarten. His writing is a little shaky, but he can read almost anything. He can sound out words he doesn't know, can add and subtract, and knows more about the planets than I do.

Visit From Grandpa

Lisa's dad came down for a visit. When we weren't putting him to work painting the boy's room, he had some time to relax while Jackson read him a story.

Lisa is proving to her Dad that not all rivers in Arizona are dry washes and there are places in Arizona that have those tall skinny green things other places refer to as "trees". Of course, they had to drive three hours north of Phoenix to the Tonto Natural Bridge Park to find them.