Happy Birthday Wes and Mia & Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone

Well Wes and Mia turned another year older on Noverber 27th. Since their birthday fell on the day before Thanksgiving, we decided that having a big birthday party was just not gonna work out this year. So, I took the day off of work and Chris worked a half day and we decided to just spend the day together doing something fun. The kids did not have school, so we layed around and watched cartoons and ate pancakes in the morning. Then we went down to the local cupcake shop and picked out some sweet treats for later to sing Happy Birthday with. Then we met Chris downtown at the Aquarium. We had lunch, saw all of the cool fish and pet the stingrays. Then the kids wanted to get home and eat cupcakes and open presents. We had planned on trying to fit in a movie, but they were too excited about their new toys and wanted to hang at home and give them a test run. Then we went to our favorite pizza place for dinner. It was a really great day!

We spent Thanksgiving this year at one of our neighbors houses. It was quite a fun day and also quite an impressive spread of food. Thanks Daniels Family for having us over, we had a great time.

We spent this weekend putting out all of our Christmas decorations. Wes and Mia were very eager to help out this year. Now if only the tree looked good with ornaments on only the bottom 2 feet of the tree! They also helped me make some new decorations for the tree this year....you guessed it, more snowmen! Our tree is packed from top to bottom with lots of snowmen ornaments....they are just so darn cute!!

Here are some pics of the last few days:

Disney

Well we survived our week at Disney. I'm not sure what I expected, but I left feeling not so magical. I will start with this...the kids had a great time. They got to meet lots of characters, ate dessert at every meal and seemed to just take the whole experience in. As an adult however, it was a very different story. The first 2 parks we went to on Sunday and Monday were very crowded and it took an hour to do anything. We also realized quickly that going back and forth to the resort was completely out of the question. It also took about an hour to travel from resort to park because of all the stopping to pick people up thing....very frustrating. It was one of the main reasons we paid a premium price to stay at the resorts in Disney to have the flexibility to go back and forth. Thank goodness we scheduled Tuesday as an off day to just hang out at the pool and relax. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party was also kind of a flop. It was really crowded and the kids were tired. We did however get to go on some rides in the hour transition between regular park hours and the Halloween Party hours which was cool. The kids did get to trick or treat and came home with 4 bags of candy....yes, 4 bags....I have no idea what we are going to do with all of it. The last 3 days were pretty enjoyable. The parks were way less crowded and we were able to do some rides and get around pretty quickly. Another big frustration was Disney's fast pass. We got these wrist bands to try out for Disney...lots of people had them. Essentially, Disney trying to go paperless. These bands have a chip in them and you link all of you park tickets, dinner reservations and fast passes to the band. You wave the band in front of a little reader and poof your info comes up. Really cool if it worked like it is supposed to. Now I realize it is still in the trail phase, but we had LOTS of problems scheduling fast passes on these things. Anyone who has been to Disney knows the cool rides can have up to a 2 hour wait to get on. With a fast pass you go into the ride through a special line and generally either get right on or wait maybe 5-10 minutes. It's essential to secure fast passes if you expect to be able to get through the entire park in a day, otherwise you'd be standing in line all day and see nothing. So, I think had I known how frustrating the whole bus system was from the resorts I would have just saved the money and stayed off site. It is also possible that we are not spend a week at a theme park kind of people. Or maybe it would be different traveling with older kids that have more stamina. I don't know. I'm glad we did it. We got some great photos using the Disney Photo Pass. I think the kids will remember parts of it as they get older. I will add a few photos to the blog, but they are not the best as we had Disney people take most of the good ones and I am still going through and getting my order together. I will have to post some of the good ones once I get the disc.

Pics From Last 2 Months

Summer Catch Up

Well, as usual, the summer has flown by. We spent most of the summer having various friends and family out to visit. At the beginning of July, Chris' college buddies Skip and Beth came out for a visit. Chris and Skip played a lot of golf and Beth and I did a lot of shopping. One day we took the kids to the Museum of Nature and Science, and on their last day Beth and I did a really pretty hike over by the Red Rocks outdoor amphitheater. Then 2 weeks later my buddy Deni came out to see us. Chris was on kiddo watching duty so I could maximize my time with Deni. We took some really nice little walks in the morning and then hit some fun stores during the day. The time went way too fast! Then, the second week of August, Uncle Brian and his 3 boys came out for a nice little trip. Wes and Mia had soooo much fun spending time with their cousins. While they were out for their visit Wes FINALLY lost his first tooth. That thing had been hanging on by some tiny little thread. The tooth didn't even bleed when it fell out. Mia is about to loose her 3rd tooth any day now. And as with Wes' tooth, we're not sure what's even holding it in her mouth.

The recent big news is Wes and Mia started kindergarten last week. The first week was just a half week as they started on Wed. This will be our first full week and there is much to adjust to. I've been trying over the summer to break them of taking a nap, but they can hardly help themselves. They really like to sleep. So every day after school last week they looked like a couple of zombies. Hopefully in a few weeks they will get used to the new schedule and look a little perkier after school. We did our first round of kindergarten homework today and they did very well. It's a very exciting year ahead.

We did manage to finally get our patio finished and it looks pretty good. We had a stamped concrete overlay put on top of our existing concrete slab and also had a seperate pad poured for Chris' smoker and grill. Our next big excitement will be in October. We planned a big week long trip to Disney in Florida. Our buddies the Nuetzels are joining us. We will be at Disney for Halloween and even bough special tickets to go to Mickey's Halloween Party. Wes and Mia want to go as Mickey and Minnie Mouse for the party. Should be a great vacation!!

Here are a few pics for the last 2 months:

For Guinness

It is with an extremely heavy heart that I write this post. My sweet Guinness had to be put down yesterday. It was a real shock to our family. Other than his arthritis, he was a very healthy dog. He seemed completely fine when we all left the house yesterday morning. I stopped by home after work to drop off some groceries before I picked up Wes and Mia and thought it was strange that Guinness did not come downstairs to greet me. So, I went looking for him and knew the second I saw him that something had happened. The poor guy must have had a stroke or something....he was unable to walk. Fortunately, my friend and neighbor Melisa was able to leave work and come home to help me move Guinness to my car so I could get him to the vet. There was really no choice but to have him put down as he was in a pretty bad way.

A little bit about Guinness.....

I got Guinness from the pound in the spring of 1999. He was 3 months old and quickly we became very attached to each other. He was a very easy puppy to train. It took very little to entertain him, he simply enjoyed being by my side or on my lap if I would let him. He grew into a pretty good size dog, in the 80-85 pound range. I affectionately referred to him as my 80 pound lap dog....I don't think he ever realized how big he was....a chihuahua in a large dog's body. His favorite thing to do was play tug. He could do that for hours. And, he also had quite a talent for digging holes. I often thought he needed a colar that said "born to dig". Guinness was one of the sweetest dogs I have ever known. Gentle, loyal, and very loving.

It was a strange day today. I have spent the past 14 1/2 years rushing home after work to take care of Guinness.....it was weird walking in the door today and him not being there to lick my hand.....no fur  for me to ruffle and say "hey G-man, how was your day?". Guinness will always hold a special place in my heart. I miss him so much.

Summer Fun

The Tepen's have been trying to get outside recently and enjoy some summer activities. We recently went to Parker Days, which is a town festival that has rides, music, food, games, etc. The kids had a great time doing a few rides.

Then, on Father's Day we took the kids down to the park to try and get a little better at riding the bikes. Both Wes and Mia had a great time looping around the park. I think if we go a few more times they will be ready to go on a bike ride with us.

We also had a family game night a few days ago. We played a game called Qwirkle. Everyone had a good time and a few laughs playing. Wes got the most points and won the game.