Happy Halloween!

We had a good Halloween this year. Here's Brian helping the kids carve their pumpkins on Halloween morning.

Lucas enjoyed his little Jack O' Lantern. His motto is "smaller is better" on almost everything. He insisted on a small pumpkin.
Here's Travis imitating his Jack O' Lantern with his tongue sticking out.

The boys originally had decided that Travis would be a fireman and Lucas a policeman. However after Lucas saw Travis' costume he wanted to be a fireman too. On our way to a Halloween activity we stopped at a fire hydrant to get their photo.

Later on, Angela's Grandma Graff came over as a witch and said a poem to our boys. Brian had to block their escape so they would stick around to listen (Lucas was a bit scared). Apparently Grandma's witch routine has been tradition for many years. This year we caught it on video tape as well (we'll post it if we get our video camera hooked up to our new computer). Angela's sister Heather also came up to visit this weekend from Vegas. Below is Heather, Grandma Graff, and Angela (L to R).

Here's Mom and baby. We originally wanted to dress Marcus up as a dalmation dog and then Brian would dress up as a fire hydrant. But Brian was gone to San Antonio all week on business and got back the day before and therefore ran out of time. Marcus was still cute anyway. Angela's wearing an apron that Brian's sister Stacy had given her when Angela visited for Time Out a couple weeks back.

Another shot of Mom and baby out with the Jack O' Lanterns. From L to R, the pumpkins belong to Angela, Lucas, Travis and Brian.

Here's the firemen after they finished trick or treating. They had a good time. They decided that they were too cold to keep going any longer. Lucas did well for the first 1/3rd of the time. Then after getting a candy at a door, he'd say "Dad, I'm too tired." So Brian would pick him up and carry him. Halfway up the next driveway he'd say "Dad, I'm not tired for this one!" This was repeated many times the rest the way.

And finally, here's out Jack O' Lantern's out at night. Marci's pumpkin is also pictured.

It's always fun when Grandpa comes...

We were lucky to have Brian's parents come to Utah to stay for a week. They mainly came up to help get some work done on Marci's house that they own (where we lived when first married). Here's a fun shot of Grandma trying on some goofy glasses.

Grandpa was great to get down on the floor and play rough with the boys, exactly what they love to do! Looks like he had the upper hand on both of them.
We then decided to have Marcus try on the goofy glasses. He seemed to like it at first, but later on... not so much, after a few photos.

Angela took the boys and Grandma Anderson to a local pumpkin patch. The boys had lots of fun. Here's Lucas enjoying some larger than life pumpkins.

They also had bounce houses, a favorite for our boys. Here's Travis coming down head first and Lucas right behind him.

They also did a corn maze that took a while. Angela said they went down each and every path in the maze and then finally came across the finish. Here's a cute moment when Travis gave his Grandma a love.

Not quite sure what the boys were doing here. Perhaps with their arms stretched out they're pretending to be scarecrows?

And finally they made it through the maze. Although Lucas apparently didn't walk the whole way and Marcus had a free ride.

Marcus did seem to enjoy himself there too.

On the way home, Travis had to make sure his pumpkin made it home safely.

Then a week ago was BYU's Homecoming Saturday. We all went to the parade. BYU lost the game but that's what they get for picking the game against the best team in the conference for their homecoming game.

Time Out for Women

Angela and Marcus flew down to Arizona to go to the LDS Time Out for Women event down there a few weeks ago. They flew down with Marci (Brian's sister) and met up with Brian's older sisters Stacy and Lisa and Brian's mom as well. It was Marcus' first plane ride and apparently he did rather well, though in the photo you wouldn't guess that.

Marcus also got to meet his cousin Britton (Lisa's baby).

And here's a photo of Grandma Anderson with the two boys that, for the first time, gave her an equal number of grandsons and granddaughters (it was always girl slanted until Britton was born to tie the score), and then the balance shifted to more grandsons with the birth of Marcus.

Angela had a good time. Brian stayed home from work really only one day with Lucas (Travis had school), so he didn't have to miss much work.

Enjoying the cabin

Our family has been visiting the cabin often the past few weekends. About a month ago, the leaves were still green as seen below in this shot of Lucas and Travis.

Here's one of the kids favorite things to do, hike down to the pond and throw rocks in. Lucas is in the foreground.
Brian started to fulfill a life long dream of building a tree house for his kids up at the cabin. He found a grouping of 8-10 trees and started framing the tree house floor.

Occasionally we see cool wildlife up there, like this family of wild turkeys.

A few weeks later we went back up and all the leaves had been turning red and orange. Here's Travis enjoying the swing set at the cabin.

Here's a shot of the cabin with it's relatively new roof and Lucas running out to the swing set.

Here's the tree house from a distance. We had to clear a pathway to get to the tree house. Brian put in many more floor boards and then put in some wooden panels to make it easy to walk on. Then he covered it up with a tarp to prepare for winter (the blue is the tarp, since this photo he's put more tarps down). He also built a ladder.

Here's a shot of the floor of the tree house from below.

Here's a shot of the nice views of the trees in the area.

A large tree had fallen down on the drive way, so Brian and the boys cleared it. It was hard work for sure! Here's the majority of the branches they cleared. There were actually two trunks about 10-12 inches in diameter that came down.

Here's Lucas climbing up into the tree house. Brian took the photo from up in the tree house, so obviously it can hold an adult.

Here's Lucas at the bottom of the ladder.

Angela then took the older boys for a walk and snapped some nice photos. Here's Lucas...

and Travis...

and then both of them...

then Lucas again.

And then just so we could prove he was there with us, here's Marcus just before loading the car up to go home.

On the way down, we saw three deer who watched us drive by.

Labor Day Graff Reunion

Every year on Labor Day weekend (we're late posting this I know), the Pippin family gets together at the Pippin family cabin and also that weekend there's always a Graff family reunion (Angela's, mom's side of the family). They hold it at an elementary school in Orem. Here's a popular activity for the kids, it's a candy cannon. They fire off candy up in the air and the kids collect it when it falls to the ground.

Here's the scramble for the candy.
Another favorite, especially for Travis, is the rocket launcher. They launch paper rockets with foam tips at least 100 feet up in the air (perhaps 200 feet?). This year two could launch at the same time. Look at the photo to see the two lifting off (this was a very hard photo to time just right).

Here's a great photo of Grandma Graff holding baby Marcus with Angela.

Another tradition is the trailer ride behind a 4 wheeler. Travis likes this one as well. You can see Travis on the right waving.

Marcus' Baby Blessing

On Sunday Sep. 6th, Brian blessed baby Marcus in our home. It was convienent to have much of Angela's family there that weekend for the Cabin reunion. Brian's sister Marci also came. Here's Grandma and Grandpa Pippin and baby Marcus waving hi.

Here's Mom, Dad, and Marcus.
We had 4 generations there for the blessing, Angela grandmother Helen (Pippin), Jack Pippin, Angela, and Marcus. Below is Helen and Jack with Marcus.
The boys are excited to have a little baby brother. Here's a couple photos of the three future wrestler opponents/trouble makers.

You can tell that Lucas really likes his little brother (it remains to be seen if the feeling is mutual).

The 3rd Annual Pippin Family Labor Day Get Together at the Cabin

Every year on Labor Day weekend, the Pippin family gets together at the Pippin family cabin. On of the seemingly favorite yearly activities of the grandkids is the BB gun shooting. We line up pop cans on tree stumps and shoot them off. The kids take turns and, under careful supervision, try to shoot off the cans (they're getting better each year). Here's Travis taking aim. In the photo from L to R, is Eric, Abby, Christopher, Ryan, Travis, and Carson.

Angela got into the action and shot a pop can that had been shaken up, ready to explode when a BB hit it. If you click on the photo, you can see the can exploding. Even Lucas couldn't distract his sharp shooter mom.
It's also tradition that the Graff family (Angela's mother's parents and on down) gets together for a reunion at a park. A tradition there is the rocket launcher. Travis would play this all day if he could. This year the laucher fired off two at a time. The photo below shows two firing upward. The rockets are made of strong construction paper and foam tips, perfect for the kids to try and catch on their decent from about 100 feet up in the air.

Here's Angela and her Graff grandparents. Grandma Graff is holding Marcus.

Back at the cabin, here's Travis and Lucas posing while we were out hiking around on the cabin property. The boys spent a lot of time outdoors that weekend.

Brian got to start fulfilling a lifelong dream of his, to build a tree house for his kids. Brian selected a grouping of 6-8 oak trees and started framing the floor of the tree house (see photo below). Then this past weekend, Brian brought up more wood and spent another 6 hours building it. The floor is nearly completed now and spans about 5 by 8 rectangular feet. The next big step is building a roof to protect the floor. Brian was able to stand up on the new floor so hopefully it will last a few years. The kids were excited to spend the day out in the tree house with their dad. Brian bought some simple pulleys and rope for the kids to raise and lower things from the tree house floor to the groud. He plans to build a rope bridge to the tree house at some point.

The Elusive Marcus Smile

Marcus is starting to smile somewhat frequently these days. The only problem is that we have not been able to capture that perfect photo of him with his best smiles. Here are a few valiant attempts (they're quite cute if you click on them to see them at a bigger size).

Happy Birthday Brian

We celebrated Brian's birthday on August 27th. The boys remembered Mom's birthday activity and insisted that we do that again. Brian was happy to oblige, so we got out the slip and slide. Brian then got out a rope and tied a loop at one end and Travis put the loop around his body and Brian would pull him down the slide.

Later the boys were excited, and I mean excited, to have Dad open their birthday presents for him, Airheads and Skor bars (Dad's favorites). The kids quickly claimed an airhead each for their own eating.
Brian's sister Marci then joined us as we went out to Sub Zero for ice cream. Sub Zero makes the ice cream after you order it. You select the type of dairy (premium, lowfat, or nonfat, etc.), then any combo of flavors, and then one mix in (like candy, etc.). They then take the mixture over to a tank of liquid nitrogen (LN) and pour some in. The LN instantly freezes the ice cream mixture and they then mix it up. It was pretty good ice cream but the best part was watching them making it and seeing the nitrogen gas overflowing as it evaporated. It looked like a Halloween pot of stew. It also appealed to Brian as 1. he loves ice cream, and 2. LN ice cream is a Physics geek traditional favorite (this idea is not new to many physics majors)!

Sunday Afternoon Project

A couple Sundays ago our older two boys, and Brian, decided to make a very long line of cars. Afterwards, the boys walked along it as if it were train tracks for them. Can you say "Too many hotwheels?"