Oscar's Birthday

Oscar is 10. What? Pretty fun watching these guys grow up. So I wanted to have a party for his friends and I really wanted to avoid Pizza/Jump joints. I googled what to do for 10 yo birthday party. Video game party. Bingo. I know you can rent the trucks with the games inside. But Im cheap. So I borrowed. Thank you to the Webster, Buyack, Richardson, Livingstone, and Peralta families. 5 Gaming stations and 11 boys. So much fun. Sure there was the occasional glitch and they needed some tech support, but on the whole. Big success. I recommend.

We had 3 wii consoles, PS3, and an xbox360. Lots of games and licorice and lemonade and pizza. A night of Excess.

We had a family party on a different night. Planning parties gets complicated the older they get. So yes 2 parties.
I think I need to try harder on the cake for the next kid. I am just seeing how long Oscar will let me get away with Halloween deco. Birthday is Nov 1st.

Happy Birthday My Boy. Oscar is a smart, wonderful kid and we love having him in our family. Keeps us on our toes.

Chasing the Garbage Truck

YY loves the garbage truck. We missed it on our street so we hopped on the bike and took off looking for it in the neighborhood. We looked and looked and just as we were going to give up, (well I was going to give up) we found it! In the Wiser, Schlerf neighborhood. So we followed it for 3 streets. Oooos and Aahhhs from the back seat. Mitt likes it too. On the last street we ended up being down wind. Well that's it for me. Yuck. But man it was a beautiful day nice ride and YY got his garbage truck fill for today. He is a one-track-mind kind of kid.

Notice we didn't even have time for pants. Not when the garbage truck in on the move.

The 1st Halloween Party

Getting ready for the party means that all past costumes get pulled out and tried on. Emmett really wanted to be the dog. 16 months and he knows what he wants. Cute cute.

Ok so the makeup jobs are pretty awful. Getting 5 zombies ready for the party was fun but I am not good with the makeup. Oh well. Thank heaven they are supposed to look messed up. Brains for dinner. That's how you get that look.

I made all these zombie costumes. Took me about 20 minutes. Only YY and Wes ended up wearing them. They are not comfortable as you can imagine.

Emmett's 3rd costume. Little bat.

Here is the sunset at the Trunk or Treat. Wow.

The ward party was a complete success. Thanks to our primary, there was about 20 different soups and candy galore. What more can you ask for.

Beach Bums

Shields Family Reunion time. We had a beautiful vacation with the Cowley's and Shields and Nana and Bumpa. The beach was cold but that didn't stop the kids.

It was over cast most of the time. Works for me. Everyone else was hoping for more sun.

Love this one of Nana and YY.

The house on the far right is the house we rented.

This was at the Wedge. It has crazy high waves. They weren't that high the day we went or the time of day. But there were plenty of surfer/skurfers. I don't have the lens to take pictures. To do it justice.
There is a wave in this one. But it is just different being there. Look at that shoreline. Those waves are powerful.
We had a relaxing week hanging out at the beach house. We went to a swap meet though. Got some hummus and a helicopter toy. Oh and I got a new purse. I needed one bad.

à Montréal pour voir mes parents

This is my parents 3rd mission. 1st was Japan, then Kiribati (island near Fiji) and now Montreal. Serving in the Chinese Branch and helping with the missionaries. Interesting places and they are wonderful missionaries. We are so so proud of them and grateful for their faithful service and example to our young boys.

Of course I took every opportunity to take some pictures. This is the view from their balcony in Cote St. Luc. Kind of a residential area but there are some landmarks in the distance. It is on the 16th floor so it is really nice and expansive. I was able with LOTS of help from photoshop to get the 12 pictures stitched together. 180 degrees is a problem because of the angles and distortion. But I really like the results. It was a cloudy, foggy day unfortunatly.

This is us waiting for the plane. It was the first time on an Aero Plane for the boys. They loved it. Oh I love the window seat. But so did the boys. So Tyler snapped this one for me. The clouds are so amazing. I just wish there were more here in AZ

Once we got to Burlington, which was no small feat. Running through Detroit airport to make the next flight. Running is not my strong suit. But we made it.

We traveled down to Sharon Vermont, since we were so close. To Joseph Smith's birthplace. Wow. What a beautiful place to live. Here is the memorial.

This pic is funny. I took 2 different images. One with Ox sharp and one with the leaves sharp. Then I masked them together. Kind of cool.

This is the boys looking at one of the Mack houses. Seriously. It was a bunch of big rocks. I didn't get a picture because there was not much to see. A hole and big foundation stones all cattywhampus. Ok I found a pic online if you want to see what I am talking about.

I am training up the boys to be photographers. Tyler and Oscar are both doing great. I didn't even have to crop this one. Good job T.

So on we went to Montreal. It is only 2 HOURS away. We drove because I wanted to see the sites and the landscape. Really cool. And it turned out to be cheaper. AND we got to drive a little Altima. Kind of a novelty in our house.

Montreal. Super cool place. Loved all the old buildings.

Here we are out side this super duper restaurant in Montreal. It was tres Bon. OH ya, Everyone speaks French. Wow. My one semester of french in college was not up to it. But is was fun to try it out.

My Aunt Kitty and Uncle Bob (AKUB) were there at the same time and we got to hang with them. It was really fun. Love them. Got this really sweet image of them in a pretty park.

Mother and Kitty

The Olympics were held in Montreal in 1976. So we went by the campus. Is that what it is called? Olympic Park? Ya i think that is it. This was the pool area. Really cool. The building was Weird. I didn't really like the architecture. Alien Ship more like it.

Dragon Beard. Mom was really excited about this. It is spun sugar and nuts inside. Funny candy. Once you bit it off you are supposed to let it hang out of your mouth, like dad. Hence the beard reference. These pictures were taken out on the street in China town. It was dark out side. But they turned out ok.

We actually went to China Town several times. It was really cool. Great shops and restaurants. My mom actually shops regularly at the Marche Chinois (Chinese Market) all the time.

Case in point.

Awe. Tyler took this one for us. Finally one where I am not making a weird face. I am finding that I am not very photogenic.

These trees were amazing and the log art. Ha. Pretty cool place.

SUBWAYS- I love em. I know some people may think that I am weird. But I LOVE em.

Boys had a good time too.

Just in case

OH I love this one. In the Marche Jean Talon Beautiful fruit and veggies everywhere.
I have so many more pictures. Maybe I will post more. But I worry about boring you all. I will make a book for us to keep at home. Anyway. We really enjoyed our trip. Thanks mom and dad again.

Burton's Art Work and Canvas

OH Burton. What did you do? This was in the car, while I was driving. Stinker. I said "What the heck are you doing?" "He wanted me to do it mom." Ya He is practicing his hand writing any chance he gets. Window sills, paper, faces...

It all washed off easy.

YY fills up the cup and dumps it on Emmett's head as many times as he can before I get him out.
Little screamer.