Halloween

I went to Old Navy on Friday because all the Halloween stuff was on sale for $2. This was one of two customs left, when I went to pay the lady told me it was only 50 cents because the pants had a little hole in them. So this is what caeven went trick or treating in.

We had a Halloween party Friday night Chris and Caeven went as Dr. Evil and Minni me I was just a chick from the 60's. I think it is so cute how Caeven was doing the finger thing that Chris was doing.

So for our ward Halloween Party Caeven was Handy Manny because Chris was going to get there late and Minnie me needs Dr. Evil.

Thermometer

Ceaven was really sick a few weeks ago with a really high temp. The only thermometer that we have is one that goes in the bum. Caeven hates this which i don't blame him. Anyway I was at my parents house and Caeven found a thermometer he takes it to my dad and says " BUTT NO WAY NO WAY! " We about fell over laughing. We do have a new thermometer now that goes on his forehead.

What Caeven thought of the ride home

Caeven was so slap happy on the way home, all the sugar must have been starting to wear off, because he was all giggles for about 10 minutes straight!

I would have posted another video of earlier in the day as we were headed up Old Stage rd but Brittney recorded it on her mom's camera so it will have to wait but it was crazy, the boy fell asleep on the way up the rough wash board filled road despite his little noggin' bouncing all over the place...well not too much, Nana was back there to hold it in place with a make shift blanket neckbrace.

Brittney reminded me that I have my mom's card reader so here's the video

The Sunday Drive home

These are some panorama pics of Colorado Springs (but backwards this is the South end of town)

(this is the central part of town)

(and this is the north end)

We (I especially) had a lot of fun being out and getting to play in the bronco!

This is actually trail 370I that is really just a knarly shortcut (by no means faster) off the main road. It was full of moguls and as we were nearing the end of the road I had to stop and get some flexed shots of the bronco...for my brothers, I totally miss the days when we all lived close and could go camping and wheelin' in Kev's Scout, Ken's Jeep, and Carson's Comanche. Another reason why this hunt is going to be soo much fun playin' with the boyz!

Billy 2 is performing great, just wish there was more time and gas money to get out and see the 100's of other beautiful and fun places here in Colorado!

Sunday Drive

We decided to go on a Sunday drive to see the leaves changing colors up Old Stage rd and up part way on trail 379 where we stopped to have hotdogs and smores...except we forgot the hotdogs so we had chips and smores, YUMMY!!!!!






Getting warmed up...sort of, this was quite a nice fire pit that was already set up when we got there. The trail, I think, is supposed to summit Almagre Mtn? at around 12k + feet.





Caeven had no trouble diggin' in to the chips, this boy loves to eat and can pretty much get away with eating whatever with a face like that! He is too darn cute!

This was alos Caeven's first experience around a camp fire and he loved it...wasn't that warm of a fire because we made it pretty small since we weren't going to need it for hot dogs.

Red Lobster & Napkins

After we had taken our quick drive on Thursday we headed over to meet Mom, Carson & Lana at Red Lobster for dinner (another reason aside from the rain that the drive ended quickley) and while we waited nearly an hour for our food after we were seated Caeven was quite the entertainer and decided he'd try out a few different looks with his napkin.

Playing with Carson and the Bronco's

This is so deceiving because the other sideof the wall is like 3 feet or os down.

Sorry about the quality of the pics they were taken on my cell phone.

Ever since I finished my Bronco I've been bugging Carson to fix his little Bronco so we can play. Honestly we could probably start a Bronco II club since I have a Bronco II, Carson has one, Timmy B has one, and Adam WANTS ONE...I hope he can get one soon. But any way I had Rhonda bring up the 30" tires I had originally before I did all the swaps so Carson could put those on his '86 since he finally got a new battery to get it running again. Needless to say it was like a kid with a shiny new toy when we went for a drive and ended up playing at the old Liberty Toyota lot.

Quick Drive

Brittney, Caeven and I were going to take a drive this past thursday on my day off after I had fixed my bent radius arm problem...and it started to rain as we got closer to Garden of the Gods and even more as we started up Rampart Range rd, sooooo we only went up a little ways and I spotted this rock to try some test flexing. I still need to get back somewhere I can actually do some decent wheelin'. I have a feeling Billy 2 will be thoroughly "broken in" on our hunting trip in late Oct. (hopefully not just broken)

I had pulled up on the rock farther but in order for me to jump out and take pics I had to shut off the truck and set the e-brake...and the truck rolled back a tad. I'd say this rock was about 20"-24" tall (enough to be scary if your the one on the down side of the truck...like Brittney was in this pic and the other angle above)

I still think I could get a little more flex out of the front but I think the truck isn't heavy enough since the James Duff coils are for a V-8 powered vehicle and I lack the extra weight in the front. Still a lot of fun to run a round in though. I've had a few people get upset and throw their hands around because they think I'm too close or something when it's just my headlights shine right into their rearview (and also the fact that OBJECTS IN MIRROR MAY BE LARGER/CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR) ;-)

Ceaven grabbed the paper one morning after he was done eating. He then grabbed a pen and while circled the things he wanted he said yum yum mommy. It was so cute.

Great Grandpa

My Grandpa loves Caeven and Caeven feels the same way about him. We were over at his house one day just talking when out of the blue my 86 year old Grandpa was on the floor crawling after Caeven. Caeven thought this was so funny, i don't think I have ever seen my Grandpa do that.

Having fun

When Kelli was here we went down town to the fountains the kids had a great time. Caeven was not to sure about the water hitting him in the face so he spent most of his time playing in the buckets.

First bike ride

We got this bike seat for free from someone Chris works with ans Caeven loves it.

Zoo

Caeven has always loved the zoo even more so now that he knows what the animals are he gets so excited when he says the names.

A day as the races

My cousin Matt races cars down in Mosca Colorado, they are fun to watch. And if any one has heard the song hick town that fits the people that are there. We went on the fourth of July and my dad and I got to sing the National Anthem, which i have not done since high school so hopefully it sounded good. Caeven had the best seat in the house. I thought that he would hate the loud noise of all the car but he loved it.

We found our way of keeping Caeven happy just give him a sucker and all is good.

Chris' Bronco Conversion

To help give some perspective on height, my father in law Randy (who helped a ton) is about 6'1" or so and I'm 5'5" on a good day.

As most of you know I bought an '84 Bronco II this past summer that was and is exactly like the original Bronco II that I had in high school and up to post mission until the tragic descent down Mt. Blanca and I tipped Billy 1 on his side. I had great plans and chopped the top and was going to do all kinds of work but then realized that it wasn't as good of an idea as I thought with a family now in the pic and limited funds. So I picked up Billy 2 for $500 from a family up off of 70 west just outside of Denver, threw in an old tranny I had stored at my brother's house and away we went. Wasn't long though and I decided that I couldn't keep Billy 2 stock and decided to swap over all of the running gear from Billy 1 (the Dana 44 solid front axle w/locker/disc brakes & the matching Ford 9" rear end with a posi trac from an Early Bronco) and make a nice, capable family 4x4 and camping rig. So I bought James Duff 3.5" progressive coils and new c-bushings along with rear spring eye bushings. It took me about a week all together to get everything swapped over (the weather didn't cooperate much while we were in Alamosa and I needed to spend time with the fam on my time off also). The truck also has the stock BII rear leaf packs with 2 explorer leafs woven in and a toyota overload leaf that are all atop a 3-4" lift block. I put on the 2nd shock set up front and it has helped tremendously with the trucks stability since I'm not running sway bars. BTW my wife is heckling me as I write the details of my work. To wrap up it is a ton of fun to drive but there are still a few kinks to work out with the radius arms not sitting level, re trimming the fenders and cutting down the '79 bronco t-style steering linkage to fit and a few other things here and there. In total it has changed front frame rail height from about 15" from the ground to 31" off the ground. I estimate it to be about 8" suspension lift and then the 35x12.50 BFG's pick up the rest. I will be posting more recent pics as well as hopefully some action shots too in the bear future!

The Summer in Review

With this and many other posts to come we hope to be able to bring everyone up to speed with what we've been up to this past summer...since today is officially the last day of Summer (and it snowed here in Colorado Springs). Our summer was pretty laid back for the most part, I worked on my bronco for the week I was off in the end of June, my sister and her kids came out to visit for a few weeks, there were a lot of trips to the zoo, Brittney and her parents went to San Fransisco to visit her sister Rochelle, and in between it all our little man has been growing up soo quick. Caeven is now 19 months old and gabbin' up a storm. It is so fun to see his little personality develop...now that he's approaching 2 yrs of age it must be time to jump on the band wagon with several of our other friends and plan for the # 2 kiddo (however, this is definitely NOT an announcement). As the summer was winding down I headed back to school at UCCS taking about 6 credit hours and am looking to increase to about 9 or 12 next semester so I can get off the 7 year program as I've been working towards a BA in Communications. The change in weather has been very nice as it has already brought some beautiful fall colors and we plan to go for a drive this Thursday to see more of the leaves changing. Hope ya'll enjoy the pics and updates!

Slackers

Hey all, we are such slackers! It has been quite some time since we've made any updates...which should be changing as we've finally stepped into the now and now have internet here at our house. More to come!

Poop

The Other day i had to run upstairs to get something, the whole time i was up there I hear Caeven yelling at me. When I come back down it smell like poop. When I step over the gate I see why. Caeven got a dirty diaper out of the trash opened it up an rubbed it down the baby gate and on the floor. The worst part about it was that he had it on his hands and he was sucking his thumb. I did not get any pictures because well i had to get it cleaned up. And i figured that no one wants to see that.

Caevens Love of brids

At the Zoo they have a placed called my big back yard and they have chickens that run around and Caeven spent 10 mins trying to touch them.

When we go in to feed the birds Caeven gets so excited he tries so hard to whistle.

Watermelon

Caeven loves watermelon he eat this so fast he had it all over him.

Chris's Dad and Jacqueline

We went down to Pueblo to see Chris's and Jacqueline. We grilled and and the kids played it was fun. And nice to see them again.

Amanda and Caeven both loved playing with Grandpa.

All Caeven wanted to do was go to the water which made me nerves because he would just jump in so Jacqueline took him down and was teaching him to throw rocks. (which now he does all the time only he throws them at everthing not just water).

This is Chris's cool trick. HE IS So STRONG!

The Guys

At the sand dunes if you stand in one place long enough the sand will move around your feet it holds you in pretty good as Chris and my Dad are showing you.

Sand dunes

We took Caeven to the sand dunes a few weeks ago. At first he was unsure but he got a little better.

Caeven is so funny he hates things getting on his hands. If he falls down and grass or sand touches his hands he gets so upset. I think it is so funny.

He got a little cold. poor thing.

Trip to the Zoo

My friends and I took our kids to the Zoo last week it was a lot of fun. We got there late though so we did not do much but the kids had fun. Caeven loved the Giraffes he was the only one who would feed them.

Nightmare

Caeven had a really bad nightmare the other night at like 11:00. Chris and I were up watching a movie that Chris and to write a paper on. It took Caeven a little while to clam down enough to go back to bed. So for about 5 min. he sat under Chris's legs and watch the movie I thought this was so cute. I just wish i could find out what it is he has nightmares about.