Happy Birthday, Robert

Robert had his birthday last Friday.  We celebrated with dinner and cake.  The boys get so excited for birthdays.  We gave him the new blu-ray Star Wars saga DVD set.

Give Me Kiss

Gavin has started giving kisses.  In these photos he kept running into the bathroom while Matt took a bath in order to give him kisses.



Spaghetti Boy

"Is my face red?"

Brotherly Love--Matthew & Gavin

Dig, Dig, Dig...

About a week ago we replaced our sewer line.  What an ordeal!  Initially, the plumbers thought it would go in a straight line from the house to the alley.  They soon learned that wasn't the case.  Rather, it ran diagonally across our yard and then another 10 feet further down the alley.  Here's the 'before' picture. 

Let the digging begin!  They had to take down our fence to get the backhoe into the yard.  Soon after the digging started, they hit un unmarked gas line.  The fire department and gas company had to come out to check the gas levels in the house.  Then the digging resumed.

...And went on!  That is a tree root to the left of the trampoline.   So many roots were dug up, we think our tree is dying.  At least half of the leaves have turned yellow this week. 

...And on!  The trench was 10 feet deep.  This photo gives some perspective to the depth.  See the man in the trench and the gate above him. 

Here's a picture of the part of the pipe that replaced the old one.  The plumbers and excavators worked for 12 straight hours, in order to get the pipe in and to let us turn our water back on. 

The next day they returned to fill the trench back in.  It took two backhoes about four hours.  In the mean time, all of our grass is GONE. 

We now just have dirt.  Lots of dirt. 

Trip to Colorado---Denver

We had a four-day weekend over Labor Day.  We decided to head to Colorado--specifically Denver and Colorado Springs.  When we travel, especially to somewhere we haven't or the boys haven't been to, we try to see and do as much as possible. 

 Here's Gavin happily playing with his train.  He survived the five hour drive quite well.

 Adam and Matt playing their Nintendo DSs.

 We arrived during the afternoon.  After a quick stop at Toys-R-Us, we took the boys to Chuck E. Cheese.  Later that evening all of the boys went swimming and I went shopping---by myself.  What a treat!   

Saturday we spent the day at the Nature & History Museum.  Oh, my--what a place.  They had dinosaurs, animals, space exploration, geology, health/body, and a discovery zone for young children. 

We then took the boys' to their first IMAX movie.  We saw one called "Under the Sea".  It was about the coral reefs around Papau New Guinea and Indonesia.  It was in 3D and very cool.  Gavin started to fuss, and he and I were "politely" asked to leave and kicked out.  At least they reimbursed our ticket.  



Trip to Colorado--Colorado Springs

Sunday morning we left Denver at 9am and drove south an hour to Colorado Springs.  We spent the morning exploring the 'Garden of the Gods' park.  The boys LOVED it!  They climbed all over the rocks.  In fact, we could have spent a couple of days there, hiking all the trails.

 

 Even Gavin wanted to climb on the rocks. 

 We then drove up to Manitou Springs to take the cog train up Pikes Peak.  It was a three-hour train ride, round trip.  It was the boys' first experience on a train, and the highest mountain any of us had been on. 

 Check out the altitude---14,110 feet. 

 Monday morning we drove over to Seven Falls.  It is a series of seven waterfalls.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but there are two steep staircases along the falls we climbed to reach the top. 

 That afternoon we headed over the the U.S. Olympic Training Center.  Way cool!  We saw all sorts of facilities where the athletes train.

Future olympic bobsledders?