Happy Halloween from CO

We hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Ours was a little stressful at first, but once we let go, and just went with it, it turned out OK.
So my next door neighbor has 3 boys, and so she let me borrow three Halloween costumes for Evan. We were really excited because she had a Woody costume that fit Brady, and a Buzz Lightyear costume that fit Evan.
Evan was not down with being Buzz. But we also had Spiderman and Mickey Mouse. Not gonna happen.So I pulled out our costume box, and Evan didn't want to have anything to do with anything in the box. But Brady was a little more playful.

So what did Evan end up being for Halloween? All we could get him to do was put on his bike helmet. So he just wore the shirt and sweat pants he was wearing all day, and he had a bike helmet on. And that was what Evan wore for Halloween.

Halloween was gorgeous, it was 77 degrees, and the sky was just amazing. Here's Brady dressed as Woody. It was too hectic to get more pictures. We actually invited two other families to go trick-or-treating with us. Which furthered the embarrassing meltdown Evan had when he wouldn't wear any of his costumes, and just ran around in his bike helmet. Oh well, he sure enjoyed himself, and that's all that matters.

Where we have been....

Way way way way waaayyyy back in August Lysle and I were able to leave our girls with my mom and we took of for Europe for 17 days. Thanks to Rice University this was all paid for and we had a great time. We started off by flying into Amsterdam, jumping into a car and driving around to see some architecture buildings in Germany and Switzerland. The pictures below are of Vals, Switzerland. Switzerland was one place Lysle and I would go back to. It was expensive but this day spa was AWESOME! To get there you had to take a small road through the mountains and there are some major drop offs...it was a little scary. But the spa was designed by Peter Zumthor. Seriously, if you have the time go to this place it is so great. It's a place to just relax and enjoy the scenery and fresh air. They have the spa open to guests only from 8pm - 10pm and then 7am-11am. Then it is open to the public. This spa had different water temp rooms and places just to sit and sleep or read with the mountains in view....it's crazy awesome. Vals, is just a little Swiss town-very typical and green and just cute.

















We then flew to Barcelona and stayed there for about 5 days and we saw ALL the Gaudi stuff. That guy was amazing. I loved all his stuff. We met up with some of Lysle's cousins, Karen and Gin...they were so fun. They both are managers at restaurants and totally hooked us up with food. We had every type of "tapa" you could think of. They also took us to this Thai place and it was amazing. They order fresh flowers from Taiwan every week and use them in all the their drinks and flower arrangements. We totally gained some weight. We were in Barcelona for 5 days and I think we could have stayed another couple of days because we didn't see everything and we were on the run the whole time.


















We then got in the car and drove along the coast...we hit Valencia, Murcia, Granada and then up to Toledo and Madrid. GPS was our lifesaver and it was really nice to drive and actually "see" all of Spain. We stayed in some pretty nice hotels and saw ALL kinds of buildings and did some major shopping at ZARA. It's expensive here in the states but it was so cheap there. Lysle came home with some serious gear for $200. I found some skirts and shirts but nothing compared to what Lysle found. We hit the end of season clearance sale so he scored on dress shirts for 5 bucks. So I guess that was the highlight of the trip. Nah.....I loved the Alhambra in Granada that was a beautiful place. Lysle bought me one of those big cameras, Nikon D60, for my birthday so him and I would go to a place split up and start taking pictures of whatever. So we have a TON of pictures...which is one reason why it has taken so long to post anything because I'm too lazy to go through all of them.




















Anyway...it was good to be home. I was so tired of not being able to understand what was being said and not knowing what was on the menu. It was just crazy and annoying. So as soon as we got home we went to our favorite Mexican restaraunt and it was sooo sooo good. Oh and just about a week ago we received a certified letter in the mail...we got a speeding ticket, we were going 5 mph over the speed limit. Apparently they have radar cameras in tunnels and on signs and everywhere. $130 bucks! Yeah!

My Handsome Boys

Here are just some recent pictures of my handsome boys.

Look at how fat Brady's legs are!
These were taken today after church.

I can't believe how handsome Evan is getting.

Brady's pretty cute too.




Even with a confused look on his face.

And of course, Evan's classic smile...
with drool.

Boys in Hats

The boys really weren't that excited about taking pictures with these hats on, but I thought they were cute anyway.

Look at how beautiful Evan's eyes are. They're two different colors.

Brady's all pumped for the OSU/USC game. GO BUCKS!

Evan Cooking

Here is Chef Evan. Brett lets him help stir the pancake batter for breakfast. Evan's really cute right now, because he's really into "helping"
He even gets to flip the pancakes...
...with his daddy's help, of course.

So I decided to be adventurous and try baking. I don't know how Ate got to be so good at baking, because it is just not happening for me. Evan was more than eager to help though. He helped stir the batter, eat chocolate chips, and drop the cookies onto the cookie sheet.

Of course a lot of the cookie batter ended up in his mouth... and mine too.
And while all this baking fun was happening, Brady was just kickin' it in the "babysitter" as Kamiko calls it. He's so cute!

Anyway, so the cookies didn't turn out so good. They taste OK, but they're flat and well, I have no baking skills as seen in the photos below.

hmmm....

4th of July in WT Arvada

OK, so this is more catch-up on what I missed out on posting this summer on the family blog. We had just gotten the offer accepted on our house when we went to the Arvada fireworks. It was close enough that we just walked there from the apartment.

It was somewhat discouraging, looking around and being surrounded by WT. They even had some junky car show. I kept asking Brett if he was sure Arvada was a good choice. I still have my doubts...

But Evan just wanted to play on the playground till it was dark enough for the fireworks.

And then I saw this guy. Yes, he his thinning, but a mullet was still a good idea. And apparently so was a black tank top and fanny pack. Oh the sights you'll see in Arvada.

Here's Evan and Brady waiting for the fireworks.

And look at my handsome Brett. Brett doesn't feel very handsome lately, especially since he got his drivers license yesterday. OH MY GOODNESS, talk about the worst DL picture anyone could ever take! I can't even stop laughing just thinking about it. Anyway, so next time you see him, ask him to show it to you.